Number 2269: Love is a circus

“Savage Sweetheart” is a three-ring circus of love and hate. Marcia loves Leroy and hates David; David loves Marcia and hates Leroy. Leroy loves gambling and he owes $3000 to some crooks. He pretends to love Marcia. The crooks love that they can manipulate Leroy into having Marcia, who is now owner of the circus after the death of her dad, include some crooked gambling into the circus. Despite beautiful Marcia throwing herself at him, Leroy just pretends to love her so he can carry out his felonious plan.

This torrid tale of the tanbark is drawn by Emil Gershwin, and art-spotter Jim Vadeboncoeur Jr puts a question mark beside the name Celardo as inker. According to some biographical information I read online, Gershwin, who usually didn’t sign his name, was a top illustrator, with rave reviews from Alex Toth. Further reading finds that Gershwin assisted Dan Barry on the Tarzan newspaper comic strip, and later John Celardo took over the feature. Some Tarzan-styled stuff is included in the drama, when David fights a lion. I wondered if Emil Gershwin was related to the famous Gershwin brothers, George and Ira. Emil’s daughter, Nancy, says the famous composers were Emil’s first cousins.

The story appeared in ACG’s Romantic Adventures #7 (1950).

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