In 1944 John Frith was approached by Irvine Douglass, News Editor of The Sydney Morning Herald, with an offer to become the first daily cartoonist for the paper. Frith found the environment a “pressure-cooking atmosphere”.
“My mind was in turmoil, would it be wise to exchange the leisurely life on The Bulletin for the pressure-cooking atmosphere of a daily newspaper? He dangled a good salary and prestige as bait and in no time at all I swallowed the hook.”
John Frith, c.1975.
Reflecting upon his decision shortly afterwards in 1945, Frith mused:
“The changeover from the pleasantries and informalities of The Bulletin to the humourless and rigid standards of the SMH dampened my enthusiasm for the new job. A good belly laugh was never heard and a wry grin could be interpreted as an attack of dyspepsia. The gloom emanated from the man at the top, Mr Warwick Fairfax, millionaire proprietor of the whole caboodle. His muscles for smiling must have atrophied very early in life.”
John Frith, c.1975.
Nevertheless Frith remained with The Sydney Morning Herald until 1950. The shift from the weekly Bulletin to a daily paper allowed a deeper focus on Australian politics and its characters.
