After being featured in a humorous story about two songwriters, Codgers and Hammerhead, in the New York Herald Tribune daily comic strip Jeff Crockett, Mr. Waring invited the strip’s creator, Mel Casson, to lunch. He told Mr. Casson what a fan he was of all the leading strips of the day and that he would like to meet some of the other cartoonists. So, starting in 1948, he invited the members of the newly created National Cartoonists Society, now the world’s largest and most prestigious organization of professional cartoonists, to his golf resort, Shawnee Inn.
This first invitation to spend a day of fun and frolic at Shawnee around the time of his birthday, June 9, turned into an annual tradition. For the next 25 years, Mr. Waring entertained the members of the National Cartoonists Society and their families annually at his Shawnee Inn & Country Club.
The Cartoon Room was the name Mr. Waring affectionately gave to the lounge room of Shawnee Inn, where the cartoonists and the Pennsylvanians gathered for food, drink and entertainment. The Cartoon Room contained special tables whose tops were covered with original art. Mr. Waring had the artists create a sketch or drawing on a piece of parchment paper, which was then permanently laminated on the 30” X 30” tabletops.
The walls of the Cartoon Room and the long hallway leading to it were also covered with the cartoonist’s creations. As a result of his many years of warm hospitality and friendship with these leading cartoonists, the Fred Waring Collection owns over 600 pieces of original cartoon art, including over 50 of the unique and exceptional table tops.