Strange as It Seems appeared as a syndicated cartoon feature published from 1928 to 1970,[1] and became a familiar brand to millions around the globe for its comic strips, books, radio shows and film shorts.
In Hix's words, Strange as It Seems is a library of "the curious, in nature and humankind, set adrift on the vast sea of public opinion with the hope that it will fulfill its mission to entertain and acquaint its viewers with some of the marvels of the world in which we live."
Other similar strips at the time included Ralph Graczak's Our Own Oddities and It Happened in Canada by Gordon Johnston.
The schedule was 3 nights a week - Sunday, Wednesday and Friday at 7:45 PM (6:45 during summer daylight saving time).
A 1936 booklet of the Strange as It Seems stories was sponsored by Ex-Lax and given away as a free promotion of the radio program by writing to the station.
The show began again in January 1938 as a 15-minute once a week program, airing on Sunday afternoons at 3:00 (2:00 during daylight saving time).
[2] The program had one final run in its original 15 minute format from Nov. 10, 1946 to April 13, 1947, airing at 7:30 PM on Sunday nights.
Choosing to retire rather than fire a few band members during the Red Inquisition, he built a home in Morro Bay, California to pursue his favorite hobbies, sailing and slide photography.
His father, William Armbrister, married for a second time at the age of 76 to Eugenie Bode and Cyril was born of this marriage.
He married the actress Frances Fintel and they split their time between California and the family plantation on Cat Island, Bahamas.
[3] In 1935, he received an award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the prestigious Medal for Good Diction and was named as the country's best radio announcer.
Havrilla worked at a number of New York-area radio stations as a news commentator, announcer, narrator, and host of musical programs.
Universal Studios responded by signing John Hix to a contract to create short films based on his cartoon strip Strange as It Seems.
The films were produced by Jerry Fairbanks & Manny Nathan, scripted by John Hix and narrated by Gayne Whitman.
They were also filmed in black and white and were directed by Charles E. Ford and narrated by Alois Havrilla & James Wallington.
Auspiciously performing groundbreaking ceremonies for the John Hix "Strange as It Seems" show at the New York World's Fairground on December 30, 1938, Grover Whalen, President of the Fair, used a shovel invented 61 years before – on April 16, 1878 – by G. B. DeForest, embodying construction principles still in use.
John Harmon Hix was a traveling salesman and moved his family to Greenville, South Carolina, where their third child, a daughter, Elizabeth Jane, was born in August 1918.
As the cartoon grew in popularity and distribution spread into more papers, fans began mailing John ideas for the feature.
To verify the story ideas, John would correspond with educators, scientists, civic workers and historians from around the world for photographs and documentation of authenticity.
John's brother Ernest Hix became his business manager and together they recognized the possibilities of turning the Strange as It Seems cartoons into a multi-media empire, especially after Ripley's Believe It Or Not!
In the spring of 1935, John Hix turned his cartoons into a successful 15-minute radio program on the Columbia – Don Lee network.
Beginning on Sept. 13, 1936, The John Hix Scrapbook was released as half of the syndicated Sunday Color full page cartoon.
So the exhibitors contacted Ernest and John Hix about opening their own exhibit to replace Ripley's in the 1936 season of the fair.
John Hix enjoyed people questioning the authenticity of his stories and continued to invite them to write for proof in each cartoon, a feature that became the centerpiece for many of his promotional newspaper articles.
John's health began failing in the early 1940s and Dick Kirby took over the drawing of Strange as It Seems, but Hix still reviewed all of the cartoons prior to publication.
On Monday evening, June 5, 1944, John Hix collapsed against a car, gashing his head in front of a hotel on Ivar Ave.
On June 8, 1944, the Los Angeles Times announced that there would be a private service coordinated by Forest Lawn Mortuary.
Besides continuing to write the daily syndicated cartoon, Ernest revived the radio show, as a transcribed 15 minute program in 1947.
The program ran until his death on September 18, 1948, in a private plane crash, shortly after take-off from the Newhall Airport north of Los Angeles.
Beside Ernest Hix and Eugene Joseff, there were two other persons killed in the plane crash: John M. Lacey, the pilot and Wilmer F. Pemberton, a designer.