ALL ITEMS: 'Hoff--P--J-


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5229Rare Chicago manuscript cartoon weather map from 1956 by Hoff.DetailsHoff, P. J.1956
Early Television Weather Map P. J. Hoff Chicago WBBM Channel 2
Hoff, P. J.
1956
LOC:53
$770.00Hoff--P--J-Early-Television-Weather-Map-P--J--Hoff-Chicago-WBBM-Channel-2Rare manuscript cartoon television weather map for the Chicago, Illinois area from Friday, September 14, 1956. With a very unusual mechanical enhancement (string) for animating the map that foreshadows later computer-generated animation of TV weather maps. <br></br> This manuscript map was drawn during the early days of television by P. J. Hoff, one of Chicago's best known TV's personalities, at WBBM Channel 2. Hoff was known for his large weather maps drawn with a black wide-tipped marker and populated with two-dimensional cut-outs representing weather features: clouds, raindrops, umbrellas, suns, and an assortment of cartoon characters including Nanook North Wind, Susanna South Wind, and "The Vice President in Charge of Looking Out the Window." <br></br> Here the "V.P." is fashioned with two strings to permit the character to be pulled though a wringer with a bucket at the bottom labeled "H 2 0". All in fun to illustrate the forecast for rain. At right, a Chinese character promises more of the same weather in the eastern part of the weather area: "Allee Samee Okley You Sneeze." Today that stereotype would be considered politically incorrect. <br></br> With an ink MS dedication by Hoff to David Rowley. <br></br> Hoff (1896-1981) was born Piercy J. Hoffstrom in Mounds, Oklahoma. In 1963 Hoff was so well known locally that he patented and sold a "P.J. Hoff Weather Kit" with a printed blank map, cut-out characters, and other weather-related items based on his on-air maps as his prototype. In 1968, after a career as a columnist, cartoonist, and radio/TV personality Hoff retired to Saint Simons Island, Georgia. <br></br> WBBM-TV began as WXBK in 1940, but in 1953 was sold to CBS in a complex swap whereby CBS took over WBBM-TV. <br></br> Source </br> https://www.robertfeder.com/2014/09/10/remembering-p-j-hoff-chicagos-original-weatherman-with-character/