Alley Oop daily November 2, 1937

V.T. Hamlin was the creator of the comic strip about caveman 'Alley Oop'. Born Vincent Trout Hamlin in Perry, Iowa, he enlisted in the U.S. army at age seventeen and was sent to France during World War I as part of the American Expeditionary Forces. After returning home, he studied journalism at Drake University and had several odd-jobs, varying from sign painter to semi-professional boxer. He was a reporter for papers like the Des Moines News, Texas Grubstakers and the Fort Worth Record in the early 1920s. By now settled in Texas, he was also a photographer and cartoonist for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. He also created his first comic strip, called 'The Hired Hand', and the sports feature 'The Panther Kitten' for this paper.