1941.06.14 “Do something – Don’t Yell”
by Ralph Lee (1906-1947)
23 x 14 in., ink on board
Coppola Collection
Ralph Lee was an editorial cartoonist for the Portland Oregonian. He died suddenly, at 41, in January 1947. His cousin, Art Bimrose, was the editorial cartoonist for the Oregonian for more than three decades. In 1937, the Oregonian hired him part-time to work on printing plates. Following Lee’s death, Bimrose was hired as the Sunday editorial cartoonist.
There was a very specific anxiety in US foreign policy: that Latin America was vulnerable to Axis influence and not reacting fast enough. The waterfall is not an invasion, but a subversion to Nazi ideology. Uncle Sam shouts from the shore to the seemingly oblivious… ironically enough, the same criticism is weighed towards the US and its isolationism. The title, after all, is directed at Uncle Sam, not the man in the boat. The US is talking and not acting.
