Duder

Hello - I'm new to this group forum and have enjoyed reading the Southwestern Bell Yellowpages thread. I have some first hand information on Dallas artist Karl Hoefle which was obtained from his mother "May Hoefle" my friend and neighbor in the 1980's. Additionally, I'm the proud owner of these original scratchboard plates that I've enjoyed since 1983. The art has a way of pulling you in to search for what I've often called moments of humor. Houston 1957, Houston Harbor 1958, Dallas 1963, Chief Quanta Parker *in the spirit, Graham Texas Forest Scene 1963, *Janet Hoefle had painted a forest scene and Karl then created the scratchboard. May Hoefle was in her mid to late 80's during the time of our friendship and some of this information was written down during our conversations or I happened across it later during research. If anyone has information that is different from what I'm sharing I hope you will post it here. "May" did her best to describe the process in which her son would use to create what she called "scratchboard lithography". She told me he would cover the large, thick, white scratchboard with india black ink and then a very thin clay or puddy. He would then start to create the negative by scratching the puddy away. The india ink would come up with the puddy. The art was created by a negative process. May use to tell me all the time, "He didn't draw the line.... he scratched the excess ink away from the line." His mother often said, "Karl didn't invent this process but he was a pioneer that perfected it." The first humor was 15 hours of time on the Houston clock. A radio station in Houston first started the annual contests where people would call in to say how many funny things they had found. The radio contests spread to Dallas and elsewhere every year. The cats were named; "Pitens the Cat", "Enee", "Mene", "Mine" but there was no "Mo". First phone book cover was either 1955 or 1956. Karl Hoefle was awarded the "Texas Southwestern Bell Yellowpages" contract between 1957 - 1974. Artist Barry Moore continued the tradition for a few years after Karl's death. Original poster art (from the scratchboard plates) was sold for around $500.00. There are at least 2 that hang in Dallas City Hall. Karl Hoefle's phone book work is fun, detailed and one of the most incredible regional historical documentations of pop culture I've ever experienced. I would be happy to loan the works I have if a museum or organization was doing a show. The Graham Texas Forest Scene 1963 is an amazing detailed work that the world should have a chance to see! It was obviously a work of love from husband back to wife.