Tillie the Toiler

In a previous blog I wrote this week, I mentioned that I found some paper dolls that my mother had drawn. I called Mom to tell her that I had found her Tillie Toiler paper doll and she corrected me by saying it is Tillie the Toiler. Our conversation then went on to other things and she didn't explain anything further about Tillie the Toiler. I started thinking about this paper doll and I wanted more information about it. This morning, being a huge Google fan, I Googled "Tillie the Toiler" and found out that it began as a comic strip in 1921 and ran until 1959. It was created by a cartoonist Russ Westover. This is what Wikipedia said about the comic strip:

Tillie (last name Jones) toiled for a fashionable women's wear company run by clothing mogul J. Simpkins. Or usually did, anyway—she'd occasionally quit or be fired, as the plotline, which ran at breakneck pace and didn't always make perfect sense, required. During World War II, in fact, she even joined the U.S. Army. But she always came back to Simpkins. Mostly, she worked in his office, but she also did a little modeling. Whatever she did and wherever she went, however, she was impeccably dressed in the very latest styles. (Except when she was in the army, of course.) This helped her in the pursuit of charming and often wealthy young men, who came and went at an alarming rate, providing grist for the story mill. She did, however, have one steady male associate, Clarence "Mac" MacDougall, a short, bulb-nosed co-worker who loved her persistently even though she returned little of the feeling.

Tillie the Toiler also appeared in comic books as a cut out paper doll and her fashionable clothes.

The comic strip inspired two films of the same name.