cartoonist, was a small thin ex-Digger working as a shipping clerk on £4 per week in 1919 when he sent an unsolicited cartoon to Smith’s Weekly . It lampooned the ship-owners in the fight they were having with workers on the waterfront and was published by editor-in-chief Claude McKay in October. The day it was published Charlie Hallett arrived at Smith’s office, having been sacked because of it. Taken on to do a cartoon a week for £5, he mainly drew conventional society subjects like maids and mistresses, e.g. 5 May 1928, 9, or sexy women dominating men, e.g. scantily clad and naked women as jockeys riding men in evening dress around a pillar with a caveman pulling a woman by the hair above it, captioned 'Then-and Now: Cave Man to Slave Man’ 30 March 1929, 3.
Other Smith’s cartoons include: 'Missus [in dressing gown to mild-looking man on steps]: “An’ don’t you get callin’ for th’ rent so often – th’ neighbours are all beginnin’ to talk!”’ 1935 (ill. Lindesay 1979, 214: also 1935 car joke, 235); 'HOSTESS: “When do you have to go home, darling?” TOMMY: “As soon as the table’s cleared!”’ 4 January 1936, 11; 'LADY: “How did you manage to get my husband to give up drinking after I had tried and failed?” MAID: “I threatened to give him up”’ 28 December 1935, 5. Caban (p.43) includes a Hallett cartoon on skimpy clothing of the day (1920s?). He also drew political cartoons for Smith’s , e.g. 'This Week. By Charles Hallett’ 7 January 1922, 3; 'Billy’s North Shore Bridge’ (made up of the word 'Promises’) 4 November 1922, 14; mock cricket match about politicians and their constituencies 31 March 1923, 1; series on 'Industries of the Future – The Making of a Politician’ February 1922, etc.
Flapper gags were probably Hallett’s most distinctive contribution to Smith’s . A Flapper’s Idea of Heaven , published19 October 1929, 17, shows her smoking on a cloud in her underwear with female angels bringing her frocks and hats and male angels in evening dress in attendance with flowers. A similar theme in his later, more sophisticated drawing style is: (woman in evening dress on sofa) 'Young Thing: “The cad! He’s broken my heart and wrecked my life – in fact, he’s just about messed up my entire evening!”’ 20 March 1937. A very elaborately drawn cartoon is: 'EVE (with first costume): “Adam, dear, are you sure it doesn’t make me appear overdressed?”’ 20 August 1929, 8. 'The Girl Who Took the Wrong Turning/ and got into the Spinsters’ Club in mistake’, 11 August 1928, 9, is a graphically striking cartoon showing a flapper encountering shocked old ladies wearing long black dresses.
Hallett also drew cartoons for the Sydney Guardian . His signature “Hallett” is often quite illegible, ending in a “Z” form with a very thick base line (see Andrew Baker). Stylistically, his drawings are extremely varied, from conventional hard linear outlines to elaborate even fussy fantasy curlicues. 'Maisie, I insist you take this! Remember what happened last time you went for a car ride!” n.d., an original drawing done for Smith’s in ML (PXD 840), was donated in 1999 by a woman whose husband was working as a reporter on Smith’s when it closed after the final issue of 28 October 1950 (a copy of the issue signed by all the cartoonists is also in ML).
- Writers:
- Kerr, Joan
- Date written:
- 1996
- Last updated:
- 2007
