The First 1040 Form
2003-04-15 01:05 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
archershipsI'm not sure how authoritative Mike Jittlov should be considered on this issue, but it's an amusing story nonetheless...
"...Most folks seem to believe that U.S. citizens have been paying a mandatory tithe ever since the Income Tax was written into the Constitution of the United States by its Founding Fathers in 1776. Oh to the contraire. Wrong century. Wrong document. Wrong gender.
That distinction belongs to Nina Wilcox Putnam - a writer whose craft ran the gamut from comic books to the silver screen, from romance, musical comedies and westerns to classics of gothic horror. Born in New Haven, Connecticut, on November 28, 1888, Nina Wilcox became a writer for Sunny Funny Bunny, a popular series of children's comics, and co-wrote the beautifully illustrated Winkle, Twinkle and Lollypop. She married Robert Faulkner Putnam - of G.P. Putnam's Sons Publishers - and wrote steadily for The Saturday Evening Post.
As a novelist, she penned In Search of Arcady, then the screenplay for "Democracy: The Vision Restored", followed by at least a dozen stories which became motion pictures - among them "Two Weeks With Pay", "Graft", "The Fourth Horseman", "Slaves of Beauty", and "Sitting Pretty". With John L. Balderston she co-authored the 1924 stage version of "Dracula"; and in 1932 co-wrote the story for "The Mummy", Universal's supernatural revenge chiller starring Boris Karloff.
As of this writing, there's not much more data about her, even on the Web. I only learned of Mrs. Putnam's IR$ connection through a chain of events during production of my feature film, "The Wizard of Speed and Time". My movie's poster was being painted by the legendary Frank Kelly Freas, 10-time Hugo-award-winning science-fantasy illustrator and MAD Magazine cover artist. With the possibility that this movie venture might produce a tangible income, I asked Kelly's advice on investing. The subject of taxes came up, and Kelly mentioned that he actually knew the person who had created this nation's first tax form.
"She was a heavy woman, about 300 pounds", recalled Kelly, who met Nina Wilcox Putnam through her son John Francis Putnam - a photographer, collector of classical French literature, and the first art director at MAD. Prior to her book and screen-writing career, Nina worked as an accountant. During 1912-1913 she drafted the simple, relatively benign 1040 Tax Form, and set up the whole system. Its first tier was just a 1% tax, and only on those earning over $20,000 per year - a huge sum at a time when a loaf of bread was 5 cents and apartment rent was $12 a month. It's reported that she and/or a congressman wanted to fix a ceiling of 10% on taxation, but that the measure was voted down because "if such a high limit were set, it might someday be met".
Kelly's remarkable story was corroborated by two more world-class legends - the super-prolific satirical cartoonist and linguist, Sergio Aragonés, who also worked at Mad Magazine - and author- agent- publisher- historian- mega-collector Forrest J Ackerman, creator of Famous Monsters of Filmland magazine...."
"...Most folks seem to believe that U.S. citizens have been paying a mandatory tithe ever since the Income Tax was written into the Constitution of the United States by its Founding Fathers in 1776. Oh to the contraire. Wrong century. Wrong document. Wrong gender.
That distinction belongs to Nina Wilcox Putnam - a writer whose craft ran the gamut from comic books to the silver screen, from romance, musical comedies and westerns to classics of gothic horror. Born in New Haven, Connecticut, on November 28, 1888, Nina Wilcox became a writer for Sunny Funny Bunny, a popular series of children's comics, and co-wrote the beautifully illustrated Winkle, Twinkle and Lollypop. She married Robert Faulkner Putnam - of G.P. Putnam's Sons Publishers - and wrote steadily for The Saturday Evening Post.
As a novelist, she penned In Search of Arcady, then the screenplay for "Democracy: The Vision Restored", followed by at least a dozen stories which became motion pictures - among them "Two Weeks With Pay", "Graft", "The Fourth Horseman", "Slaves of Beauty", and "Sitting Pretty". With John L. Balderston she co-authored the 1924 stage version of "Dracula"; and in 1932 co-wrote the story for "The Mummy", Universal's supernatural revenge chiller starring Boris Karloff.
As of this writing, there's not much more data about her, even on the Web. I only learned of Mrs. Putnam's IR$ connection through a chain of events during production of my feature film, "The Wizard of Speed and Time". My movie's poster was being painted by the legendary Frank Kelly Freas, 10-time Hugo-award-winning science-fantasy illustrator and MAD Magazine cover artist. With the possibility that this movie venture might produce a tangible income, I asked Kelly's advice on investing. The subject of taxes came up, and Kelly mentioned that he actually knew the person who had created this nation's first tax form.
"She was a heavy woman, about 300 pounds", recalled Kelly, who met Nina Wilcox Putnam through her son John Francis Putnam - a photographer, collector of classical French literature, and the first art director at MAD. Prior to her book and screen-writing career, Nina worked as an accountant. During 1912-1913 she drafted the simple, relatively benign 1040 Tax Form, and set up the whole system. Its first tier was just a 1% tax, and only on those earning over $20,000 per year - a huge sum at a time when a loaf of bread was 5 cents and apartment rent was $12 a month. It's reported that she and/or a congressman wanted to fix a ceiling of 10% on taxation, but that the measure was voted down because "if such a high limit were set, it might someday be met".
Kelly's remarkable story was corroborated by two more world-class legends - the super-prolific satirical cartoonist and linguist, Sergio Aragonés, who also worked at Mad Magazine - and author- agent- publisher- historian- mega-collector Forrest J Ackerman, creator of Famous Monsters of Filmland magazine...."
no subject
Date: 2003-04-14 10:23 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-04-16 09:51 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-04-15 05:00 am (UTC)Jittlov was one seriously eccentric cat. I remember he wouldn't shake hands with anyone because he didn't want to catch a cold, and his handwriting was *microscopic*. You know those people who inscribe stuff on a grain of rice for a couple of bucks? Jittlov might've written his grocery lists and research papers on rice kernels.
no subject
Date: 2003-04-16 09:53 pm (UTC)It sounds like he has a mild case of OCD--which, given his profession, seems like it might be adaptive.