Addams' drawings appeared regularly in The New Yorker from 1939 until he died in 1988. Ross even supplied Addams with ideas when he hit a dry spell. Ross thought Addams' cartoons were hilarious and gave him a full-time position at the magazine. This was when the editor of The New Yorker, Harold Ross, came across his cartoon 'The Downhill Skier.' This featured tracks from a skier's skis that seemed to have passed around both sides of a tree at the same time, much to the bafflement of a fellow skier going in the opposite direction. His first drawing appeared in The New Yorker on February 6, 1932, but Addams did not get his big break until 1940. This is where Addams perfected his distinctive ink wash technique.Īddams' life-long dream was to be a cartoonist for The New Yorker, and he more than fulfilled his ambitions. His first meaningful job was in the Layout Department of True Detective magazine, where he retouched photographs of blood-splattered corpses to make them a little less gruesome. Shortly thereafter, he decided that school wasn't for him and dropped out for good. Still undecided about his future, he transferred again to the Grand Central School of Art in New York City. He graduated in 1929, attended Colgate University for a year, and then transferred to the University of Pennsylvania to study the fine arts. This house, as well as the one on Elm Street, strongly resembles the house in Charles Addams' most famous works, 'The Addams Family' television series, cartoons, and movies.Īddams attended Westfield Public High School where he was the art editor of the school newspaper. On one occasion, police caught him breaking into an abandoned Victorian house in his neighborhood.

As neighbors recall, his favorite playground was the Presbyterian Cemetery.

As a child, Addams developed a love for horror. The majority of Addams' childhood was spent in his house on Elm Street, which is now a local New Jersey landmark. Charles Samuel Addams or 'Chill' as his friends called him was born on January 7, 1912, in Westfield, New Jersey.

The addams family new yorker