Cartoonist. He was an American newspaper cartoonist who was known for his sports cartoons. He had at least ten siblings. He had all his fingers except his right hand's thumb amputated in a childhood accident. There are various versions of the accident, but his draft card described his hand. Drawing with his left hand was part of his physical rehabilitation, and with encouragement, he became very good. He attended the public Polytechnic High School in San Francisco. When he was 14, he joined the "San Francisco Bulletin" art staff beginning his career as a newspaper cartoonist. He created his first comic strip, "Johnny Wise," for the "San Francisco Chronicle" in 1902. Recognizing his talent, newspaper tycoon William Randolph Hearst hired him. Within a couple of years, he had moved to Great Neck, New York. By 1905 he was a sports writer and cartoonist for the "New York Journal." He became known as a walking encyclopedia for sports, especially boxing. Among the 18,020 spectators, he covered the 1910 fight James Jeffries vs. Jack Johnson, the first African American World Heavyweight Champion of Boxing. He even sparred with the "Barbados Demon" Joe Walcott, who has the boxer's viewpoint from inside the ring. His cartoons were entitled "Inside Sports" and "Outside Sports." Besides being a sports cartoonist, he published numerous other cartoons on various subjects for simple humor. Signing his work as TAD, he wrote prose in a newspaper column called "Daffodils." He wrote many cartoons about dogs. He created his own colorful vocabulary of words, which included "cheaters" for reading glasses, the "cat's meow" as slang for the highest degree of beauty, "as busy as a one-armed paperhanger" for overworked, the exclamation "For crying out loud!" and "Yes, we have no bananas," which was turned into a #1 hit song for five weeks in 1923. The roaring 20s slang "Twenty-three skiddoo" is credited to him. He dubbed ballpark concessioner Harry M. Stevens' frankfurter on a roll, or the "dachshund sandwich," to the American hot dog. He was married to a woman named Izole, but the couple had no children. While covering a sports event, he had a heart attack during a Jack Dempsey boxing match. His health declined with heart disease in his mid-40s, and he retired but continued to draw for the newspaper at home for the last eight years of his life. He continued the Sunday feature "For Better Or Worse." According to his obituary, his heart condition was impacted by bronchial pneumonia, causing him to die while napping on his sofa the week after his 52nd birthday. Hearst newspapers announced his death in front-page headlines, and some of his cartoons were reprinted for a short time. San Francisco's Mayor James Rolph Jr. ordered all of the city's flags flown at half-staff on the day of his private funeral. After his death, his wife, who had been the vice-president of the National Doll and Toy Collectors Club, began a toy furniture business. His brother Richard was also a successful cartoonist and book illustrator, and his brother John was a publicity manager for Madison Square Gardens. In 1939 the first national Hot Dog Day was declared.