It’s not every day that a writer is compared to Aesop, the author of Greek morality tales, and to Mark Twain, the famed humorist and writer. Such was the reputation of Indiana native George Ade, a newspaper columnist, humorist, and playwright who achieved huge commercial success in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Like Twain, George Ade (1866–1944) saw humor in the human condition. He possessed a natural talent for communicating human foibles in a genial and lighthearted voice, as if he was sharing a wink and good-natured chuckle with his reader. He not only wrote about the average working man in a friendly way, but he also “talked their talk” by seasoning his work with the vernacular and slang of the common man.
Endowed with the same ethics and principles as many Midwesterners, Ade began including morals in his humorous stories. They only increased his work’s popularity. This quickly gained him fame, wealth, and national exposure as a compelling storyteller and humorist.
Early Life
Ade was born in Kentland, Indiana in 1866 to John and Adaline Ade. John Ade was a banker, farmer and Newton County’s first County Recorder. The second youngest of seven children, Ade loved reading as a youngster but disliked manual labor in general and showed no interest in farming.
In 1883 he enrolled on scholarship at Purdue University, where he excelled in literature and composition. Ade joined the Sigma Chi fraternity, where he met John T. McCutcheon, who became a lifelong friend and the future illustrator for his newspaper columns. Curiously, Ade never worked on the college newspaper though newspapers later launched his literary career.
While a student at Purdue, Ade discovered a love of theater. He frequently attended the Grand Opera House in Lafayette to watch Shakespearian plays, Gilbert and Sullivan operettas, and assorted melodramas. He especially enjoyed the absurdity of melodramas’ “foolish solemnities and unintended humor.” Much of what he and his friends scoffed at in those melodramas inspired his own work as a playwright and writer of fables.
After graduating in 1887, Ade worked for a short time as a reporter and telegraph editor for the Lafayette Morning News and later Lafayette Call until it ceased publication. Desperate, Ade briefly took a job with a patent medicine company where he named a candy-coated laxative “Cascarets” and coined the slogan, “They Work While You Sleep.”
When that job disappeared, his college buddy McCutcheon, who was working at the Chicago Daily News as an illustrator, suggested Ade move to Chicago. McCutcheon convinced an editor there to give Ade an opportunity. Ade never lacked for work again.
Country Boy Meets City Folks
Ade was first tasked with writing a daily weather report that quickly became a popular feature. A born reporter, the former country boy found the big city a treasure trove of colorful characters and animated storylines waiting to be told. And tell them he did, in a distinctive style that left readers wanting more.
Within a year he was one of the best reporters in Chicago, reporting on sensational news like the explosion of the steamer ship Tioga on the Chicago River and the 1892 heavyweight boxing bout in New Orleans between John L. Sullivan and James J. Corbett. His reporting led to a sharp increase in circulation of the newspaper. His colorful reporting was the talk of Chicago.
Ade’s popularity earned him the privilege of doing a series of columns on the Chicago World’s Fair in 1893. One of the most popular was titled “All Roads Lead to the Fair.” In those columns, he described in colorful detail exotic exhibits from around the world, new mechanical wonders like the Ferris wheel and clothing zippers, and the astonishing electric lights illuminating the grand scene. He didn’t just report on what he saw. He wove stories that helped readers unable to attend be eyewitnesses to the amazing spectacle.
After the World’s Fair left town, Ade convinced City Editor Charles Dennis to allow him to write a similar column titled “Stories of the Streets and the Town.” It debuted Nov. 20, 1893. Ade relied on the ethnic melting pot that was Chicago, with its politicians, peddlers, policemen, and others from different vocations, to write human interest stories with a satirical bent. His buddy McCutcheon usually tagged along and developed the accompanying illustrations.
The Aesop of Indiana
In “The America of George Ade,” author and actor Jean Shepherd (“A Christmas Story”) wrote that Ade claimed the idea to write something in the form of a fable was a sudden inspiration. What’s more, the idea was to write fables using contemporary language and clichés. The first of these was published in September 1897 and was titled “The Fable of Sister Mae Who Did As Well As Could Be Expected.” In a fable of two sisters, one plain but good hearted and the other pretty but self-centered, he wrote:
“Her Features did not seem to know the value of Team Work. Her Clothes fit her Intermittently, as it were.” Of the pretty sister he wrote, “From earliest Youth she had lacked Industry and Application. She was short on Intellect but long on Shape.” “Ade frequently used odd capitalization in his fables as a substitute for italics; he was mimicking the German-language style of noun capitalization that he studied at Purdue.
Shepherd wrote that Ade hadn’t expected to write more fables, but because the first fable was so popular he began churning them out regularly. Printed without a byline, Ade’s new column and fables were popular enough that Ade earned an invitation from Chicago publisher Herbert Stone to publish book-length compilations of his newspaper stories and fables. His first book of fables was titled “Fables in Slang” and was published in 1899.
The book was such a hit that Victor Lawson, the publisher of the Chicago Record, began national syndication of Ade. “More Fables” was published in 1900, followed by “Forty Modern Fables” in 1901. All three titles are still in print today.
Ade’s fables also appeared in periodicals, some were produced as motion picture shorts, and gag artist Art Helfant turned Ade’s fables into comic book strips.
Ade Tackles Broadway
After Ade became syndicated, he indulged his love of the theater by writing plays. His first effort flopped after 14 shows, but his second took Broadway by storm. “The Sultan of Sulu” was a comic opera parodying American efforts to assimilate Filipinos into American culture. Ade was the opera’s librettist, and his wry sense of humor tickled America’s funny bone once again. The play opened in December 1902 and ran for 200 performances before closing in June 1903. That was followed by a national tour and return engagement on Broadway in November 1903.
Subsequent hit plays included “The College Widow,” “The Sho-Gun,” and “The County Chairman.” The three plays appeared simultaneously on Broadway in 1904, collectively helping establish the musical comedy genre. “The College Widow” and “The County Chairman” were later adapted into motion pictures. Ade retired from writing Broadway plays in 1910, but continued writing one-act plays for small theater companies as well as short stories and essays.
Country Squire
Ade’s genial humor and wry wit made him a wealthy man before he turned 40. He invested his profits into 2,400 acres of Newton County farmland, including 417 acres of forested land near Brook, Indiana. A Sigma Chi fraternity brother who was a Chicago architect designed a two-story, 14-room Tudor-Revival country manor. Ade named it Hazelden, and it was finished in 1904. The country estate included landscaped grounds, a dance pavilion, swimming pool, tennis court, greenhouse, barn, and caretaker’s cottage. An adjacent golf course and country club was added in 1910.
Ade enjoyed worldwide travel and actively contributed to various charities, including his alma mater. Ade and fellow alumnus Dave Ross contributed to the building of Purdue University’s Ross-Ade football stadium, which is still used today.
Over the years at Hazelden, Ade entertained locals with barbecues, ice cream socials, and fireworks, as well as a popular annual event for children called the Children’s Picnic. One day each summer, Ade would host children under 12-years-old from Newton and surrounding counties to visit Hazelden. If a child’s family could not afford clothes and transportation to the annual event, Ade would provide a new outfit and transportation. Over the years thousands of children enjoyed this special summer activity.
He also entertained high profile celebrities on the estate, like Theodore Roosevelt, Warren Harding, Will Rogers, Douglas MacArthur, early western movie star Tom Mix, and boxer Gene Tunney. Ade was a political conservative, and in 1908 William Howard Taft announced his candidacy for president at Hazelden.
In the 1930s, Ade’s popularity and literary prominence slipped from America’s consciousness due to the Great Depression and cultural changes. He died peacefully on May 16, 1944, at the age of 78. His legacy was his talent at finding humor in everyday experiences, teaching others to laugh often and not take life too seriously.
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