1. Martin Branner was a twin and one of nine children of Bernard Brenner, a Jewish immigrant lacemaker.
15 Facts About Martin Branner
1. 2.
In 1905, Martin Branner was an assistant to two men who booked vaudeville acts.
3.
Martin Branner was a dancer who met Edith Fabbrini when he was 18 and she was 15.
4.
Martin Branner served his World War I military duty with the Chemical Warfare Service of the US Army.
5.
Martin Branner followed with a Sunday page, Pete and Pinto, which ran for 20 weeks in the New York Herald and The Sun.
6.
Martin Branner launched Winnie Winkle the Breadwinner as a daily strip in September 1920, followed by a Sunday page in 1923.
7.
Edith Martin Branner served as the model for the character of Winnie Winkle.
8.
Martin Branner was a noted wit and drew on his vaudeville background for some gags appearing in his cartoons.
9.
Martin Branner converted to Roman Catholicism shortly after leaving the stage.
10.
Martin and Edith Branner lived at 27 Riverside Drive in Waterford, Connecticut, and they were the designers of Waterford's town seal.
11.
In 1957, Martin Branner was a guest challenger on the television panel show To Tell the Truth.
12.
Martin Branner died at age 81 on May 19,1970, at the Nutmeg Pavilion Convalescent Home in New London, Connecticut.
13.
Martin Branner was interred at Maple Grove Cemetery in Queens, New York.
14.
Martin Branner wrote and drew Winnie Winkle from 1920 to 1962, receiving the National Cartoonists Society Humor Comic Strip Award in 1958.
15.
Winnie Winkle and the Diamond Heirlooms by Martin Branner and Helen Berke was a 248-page hardcover novel published by Whitman in 1946.