Pogo Primers Issued by US Government

 

 1  “…idiotic…”

WHEN issued by the Children’s Bureau of the US Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, the 24-page Pogo Primer For Parents (TV Division) — a 1961 booklet written and drawn by Walt Kelly — drew a sour notice from Rep. H.R. Gross (R-Iowa). Reverend Gross dismissed Kelly’s primer as “…idiotic. If that’s all HEW’s Children’s Bureau has to do it’s time for a house-cleaning…”

 2  ‘A possum puts tv bugbear into perspective,’ a review in Broadcasting, August 28, 1961.

 3   Pogo Primer Por Parents (TV Division), page 5.

 4   Jimmy Breslin with Walt Kelly in a commercial for Piels Beer, August 1964.

 5   The front cover of another primer by Walt Kelly from 1965, titled Pogo: Welcome to the Beginning — Work Training, issued by the US Department of Labor. “I am happy to present you with your Neighborhood Youth Corps ID Card. You have now joined a nationwide program which will help you become more employable…”

See the complete Pogo Primer For Parents (TV Division), Headliner Series, Number 2, HERE.

More about Pogo: Welcome to the Beginning HERE.
And The Man From Pogo in Yesterday’s Papers HERE.

 6   Ebony Magazine self-portrait, Nov 1966.
   
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