Blondie (comic strip) was adapted into a long-running series of 28 low-budget theatrical B-features, produced by Columbia Pictures. Beginning with "Blondie" in 1938, the series lasted 12 years, through "Beware of Blondie" (1950). The two major roles were Penny Singleton as Blondie and Arthur Lake (whose first starring role was another comic strip character, Harold Teen) as Dagwood. Faithfulness to the comic strip was a major concern of the creators of the series. Little touches were added that were iconic to the strip, like the appearance of Dagwood's famous sandwiches—and the running gag of Dagwood colliding with the mailman amid a flurry of
Henry A. Bumstead Henry A. Bumstead Henry Andrews Bumstead (March 12, 1870 – December 31, 1920) was an American physicist who taught at Yale from 1897 to 1920. In 1918 he was scientific attache to the United States embassy in London. In 1920 he was Chairman of the National Research Council. Henry was a high school student in Decatur, Illinois. In 1887 he went to Johns Hopkins University, initially as a student in a pre-medical program. He studied mathematics with Fabian Franklin and took up an interest in that subject. He studied physics with Henry Augustus Rowland and found his calling there. In