The Cartoonists Club celebrate their 50th anniversary at Butlins

On Friday 15th October until Monday 18th October 2010 the CCGB held a Convention and AGM at Butlins holiday camp Skegness, as part of their 50th anniversary celebrations.

The following cartoons are examples taken from the large boards drawn by the members attending the conventions at Butlins holiday camps. The ritual of presenting these boards to the managers of the camp at which they stayed persisted throughout the twenty seven years history of
Butlins Cartoonists' Club Conventions.

   

Butlins and the Cartoonists' Club Boards

During the first Cartoonists’ Club of Great Britain convention at the Butlins camp at Bognor Regis, someone had the idea of showing the clubs gratitude to the host by drawing cartoons on a large board, about twelve feet by eight feet in size and decorating it throughout the week with cartoons drawn by the members attending in memory of that convention. The ritual of presenting these boards to the managers of the camp at which they stayed persisted throughout the twenty seven years history of Butlins Cartoonists’ Club Conventions.

The cartoons shown below are more examples taken from some these boards.

The Club and Butlins

Ian Scott was the first elected Chairman of the Cartoonist Club of Great Britain and the Duke of Bedford was the first President.The clubs first event was held at his home at Woburn Abbey. The second was a dinner held at the Café Royal on November 7th 1960 in honour of David Low, (Political cartoonist, caricaturist and illustrator) who later the next year was knighted.

In 1961 the Christmas party for the club was held at the Presscala Club. Guest of honour was Billy Butlin. During the course of the evening he promised Ian Scott that he would host an annual conference for the club, starting the following May in 1962 at his brand new camp at Bognor Regis. He stuck to his word and offered the facilities for one week free of charge to club members and a discount for family members accompanying them. Sir Billy Butlin, carried on this tradition for the club to hold their yearly conventions at a variety of his camps for over a twenty seven period.

Billy Butlin was born in Cape Town, South Africa but later emigrated to Canada. Whilst visiting a summer camp in Canada it gave him his first taste of a real holiday, indeed a taste of what was to become a very big part of his life.
Butlin's Holiday Camps, were founded by Billy Butlin to provide economical holidays in the United Kingdom and Ireland. For some time Butlin had nurtured the idea of a holiday camp to provide holiday accommodation that encouraged holiday-makers to stay on the premises and even provide entertainment for them between meals.

The golden age of the holiday camp was in the 'fifties and 'sixties. After the War there was a great rush to the coast. Many people had not had a holiday for years and could not wait to get away. The holiday camp provided what they were looking for. Prices were reasonable, food was plentiful - for the time - and there was plenty to do, even when it was raining.

He opened his first Butlins camp at Skegness in1936 . The camp was a huge success and soon other Butlins were constructed at Clacton (1938) and Filey (1945), Pwllheli and Ayr (both in 1947), and still more at Mosney (1948), Bognor Regis (1960), Minehead (1962) and Barry Island (1966). The growth of his business was spurred by World War II when a number of camps were requisitioned for use as military training camps, generating revenues for a post-war boom. Butlins is noted for the famous "Redcoats" who provide entertainment and organisation at every level. Three resorts remain in use by the Butlins company today in Bognor Regis, Minehead and Skegness. The sites are now owned by Bourne Leisure which operates other leisure brands in the UK including Warner and Haven.
Billy Butlin was knighted in 1964 and died on 12th June, 1980.

There was a huge turnout for the first ever Cartoonist club convention. It seemed to those who organised the event that every cartoonist who’d ever had a cartoon published turned up with his wife, all his kids, his in-laws and in some cases, his next-door neighbours.

At each of the conventions the club had a guest speaker. The first convention speaker was Alfred Brockman who at that time was editor of the Parade and Men Only. His speech was short and sweet and simply told the gathering that he was putting up a prize of £25.00 to be awarded to the cartoonist who designed what was, in his opinion, the best logo for the club. Everyone did their best but it was Chic Jacob’s (cartoonist, illustrator and radio and television comedy scriptwriter) jester’s head holding a paintbrush in his mouth that appealed to Mr. Brockman. It has remained the club logo ever since.
The yearly Conventions at the Butlins’s camps provided cartoonists’ and their families the opportunity to get to know each other and enjoy themselves. For one week a year they lived as next door neighbours in chalets at either, Pwllheli, Minehead, Clacton, Bognor Regis, Skegness or Ayre.
At one stage the Cartoonists club was homeless and the club had to find a new home. They eventually found a pub in Shoe Lane. The pub was under the new Press Club building off Fleet Street. The brewers agreed to call the pub ‘The Cartoonist’. This is still the H.Q. of the club today and the walls are decorated with original cartoons of well known cartoonists.
In 1973 the club instituted a competition where members submitted designs for a new inn sign to be hung over the entrance to the cartoonist pub. (It was the only pub in the country where the sign changed every year). Today it is just called The Cartoonist and the competition for a new sign each year stopped.
This is a pub sign was designed by Lew Phillips and a picture of ‘The Cartoonist’ pub



The Inn sign competition was run in conjunction with the Golden Joker award (a gold tie pin with a jokers head). This award was for the personality who had provided cartoonists with the most inspiration during the year. These awards became a real highlight in the club’s calendar. Members who submitted an ‘Inn sign’ design were invited to the event. The pub would be packed, not only with cartoonists but press reporters, photographers, TV and radio crews all eager to welcome the chosen golden Joker. After the speeches from the Chairman and the Brewery officials the joker would give a short acceptance speech, the tie pin would be presented and then the judging of the Inn sign cartoons, displayed around the bar would take place. The winners 1st, 2nd, 3rd, would receive cheques and then the party would continue. The winning entry would be made up into a full Inn sign and later displayed for the following twelve months outside the pub. Many of the Inn signs can still be seen displayed around the pubs exterior.
The first recipient of the golden Joker award was Enoch Powell (Politician) and the Inn sign winner cartoonist Brain Reading.
Other recipients of the award included Margaret Thatcher, Freddie Laker, Tony Benn, Ken Livingstone, Ken Dodd , Frank Bruno and many more.
The principal founder and first chairman of the club Ian Scott died in January this year but the club still continues today and is celebrating its 50th Anniversary this year. On Monday 18th October 2010 as part of their anniversary celebrations the Cartoonists Club will be having a convention at Butlins Skegness. I am sure that Billy Butlin would be delighted that the club is holding a convention again at one of his camps. The club continues to organise many local, nationwide and international cartoon events, from exhibitions and competitions to charitable fund raising events or demonstrating the art of the Cartooning to young people at road shows and public exhibitions.

Early Days of the Cartoonists' Club

Cartoonists are solitary performers. They invent jokes in solitude and then their cartoons are seen by millions of readers. When a comedian tells a joke he hears the response from the audience but a cartoonist will never hear it.

In 1960 only a few cartoonists were under contract to papers and magazines and worked in Fleet Street and were known to each other. There was also a small army of freelancers who lived and worked the length and breadth of the country but no one knew one another who craved for some sort of club where they could meet.

In 1960 the Club was formed by the art agent Ian Scott with the help of Les Lilly (script-writer and cartoonist) and others, to create the first society for professional cartoonists , ‘The Cartoonists' Club of Great Britain’. From that day on instituting annual award ceremonies, a monthly news letter called The Jester and the annual cut-price holidays at the Butlins holiday camps.

Ian Scott arranged for a meeting to be held in The Feathers pub, Tudor Street, London. (Now called The Witness Box) Word spread and curious cartoonists answered the call and duly arrived for the inaugural meeting.
Ian made a short speech and asked the 250 or so cartoonists in the bar if they would like to go ahead with the formation of a cartoonist club. The motion was passed unanimously and The Feathers pub was booked for the next meeting.

When Ian attempted to get a committee together he found that no one wanted to serve on it. Everyone was afraid that the Fleet Street paper editors might think that the club was some sort of cartoonists’ union. It was therefore decided that a constitution should be written in legal terms that would categorise the club as a social club only and contain sufficient constitutional obstacles to prevent it ever being turned into a militant organization.