Today in motorcycle history, August 18, 1955

  





  

  Editor, illustrator, animator and comic strip cartoonist Harry Palmer dies when he's struck by a patrolman's motorcycle in Miami, Florida.

  Harry Palmer was a world renowned and world-class illustrator, comic strip cartoonist and animator. Best known for his strip, "Babbling Bess" which ran in the New York Evening World from November 11, 1909 until April 6, 1912. He directed early animation shorts for Gaumont Studio's of the comic "Keeping up with the Joneses" by Arthur "Pops" Momand. 

  Harry would be credited for work on 76 animation shorts from 1915-1917.

  Palmer illustrated news dispatches of the Spanish-American War for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. During the Boxer Rebellion he went to China to sketch the fighting going on over there. 

  Returning to the States, he drew for the Fort Wayne News-Sentinal (Indiana), the Cleveland Leader, the Memphis Commercial Appeal, the Pittsburgh Commercial Gazette, the Denver Republican, the Denver Post and the New York Evening World. He would sketch international affairs for the Evening World for 25 years.

  The Miami Patrolman that hit Harry Palmer was riding a 1951 Harley-Davidson FL Hydra-Glide. Panheads rule!

  Today in motorcycle history proudly supports the National Association for Bikers with a Disability (NABD). www.nabd.org.uk