The Pocket Telephone – in 1919

I discovered this gem about eight years ago while browsing through an old newspaper. “The Pocket Telephone” was drawn by a British bloke, W. K. Haselden, in 1919. It’s as amusing as it was prescient.

“The latest modern horror in the way of inventions is supposed to be the pocket telephone. We can imagine the moments this instrument will choose for action!”

The prescient fellow was named William Kerridge Haselden – call him W.K. – the first staff cartoonist for The Daily Mirror, one of Britain’s most popular papers at the time. He started his employ in 1903 and worked there for about 40 years. He became a national figure during the Great War, churning out a series called “Big and Little Willie” that lampooned Kaiser Wilhelm and his son. After the war the Kaiser, in exile in Holland, admitted they had caused him irreparable damage.

Haselden produced hundreds of cartoons for The Daily Mirror, many of which share this same satirical tone and focus on modernity’s absurdities. I’ll post others in this vein when I find them.

-30-