"Sailors in Boots," by Alex Gard, is apparently not directly connected with the Armed Guard. It is the illustrated journal of a graduate of the Russian Naval Academy who joined the U.S. Navy as it prepared to enter World War II. It starts: "To all the men who went through the boots training, especially to Platoon 512, of 1942 Norfolk Training Station." Gard, a quartermaster 2/c in the Naval Reserve, was able to see the humorous side even of war.
Gard came home from the war and was hired by Vincent Sardi of Sardi's Restaurant in New York City to do drawings of Broadway celebrities. Sardi and Gard drew up a contract which stated that Gard would make the caricatures in exchange for one meal per day at the restaurant. The first caricature by Gard was of Ted Healy, the vaudevillian of Three Stooges fame. When Sardi's son, Vincent Sardi, Jr. (1915-2007), took over restaurant operations in 1947, he offered to change the terms of Gard's agreement. Gard refused and continued to draw the caricatures in exchange for meals until his death, ultimately creating over 700 pictures. (Gard died in 1948 at the age of 48 so perhaps he should have eaten elsewhere.)
Ron Carlson, Webmaster
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