Cartoonist Harold Gray, creator of Little Orphan Annie, has little trouble getting his character into direly complicated situations. Last week the Chicago Tribune-New York News Syndicate, which features Annie, was in an awkward spot itself. Annie had just been saved by benevolent Arunah Blade from unscrupulous Brittlewit who had previously adopted Annie, insured her for $100,000, and then shoved her in the river. Benefactor Blade, explaining how Brittlewit had been able to take out the huge policy, said last week: "OF COURSE, THERE HAD TO BE A FAVORABLE RETAIL CREDIT REPORT—BUT THAT WAS EASY." Cartoonist Gray is evidently not as jealous of the good name of the great Retail Credit Co., which reports on commercial solvency of individuals and institutions from coast-to-coast, as were Retail Credit officials who were tipped off to the slip when the Greensboro, N. C. News ran the Orphan Annie strip a week in advance of its scheduled appearance.
Annie's syndicate wired all papers to cut out "RETAIL CREDIT REPORT," but the New York News had already started printing its Sunday comics. Last week under a Beg Pardon headline, the News performed the rare journalistic trick of apologizing for a statement in the same issue of the paper: "At the request of the Retail Credit Company, the News and the Chicago Tribune-New York News syndicate wish to make it plain that they did not intend to refer to any company or to the quality of the credit investigations of any company."