In September 1973, while he was considering his situation, Representatives William L.
In 1973, Vice President Spiro Agnew, charged with accepting $100,000 in bribes while holding office as Baltimore County Executive, Governor of Maryland, and Vice President, was allowed to plead no contest to a lesser charge as long as he agreed to resign as vice president. According to his nephew Roger Garrett, Baldwin spent a long time patiently waiting for his subject, and took 40 or 50 shots to get the "Hang in There, Baby" photo. Formerly a humane officer and a lifelong lover of animals, especially cats, Baldwin assured those concerned that Sassy climbed up on the pole on her own and held onto it only briefly while playing. Concerns for the cat's welfare īaldwin did receive a few complaints from people who felt that posing a cat as depicted in the poster constituted animal cruelty. By the time the poster's initial popularity had waned, Baldwin estimated over 10 million unauthorized versions and direct copies of the poster had been made. However, he was awarded just enough to cover his legal fees. "As a matter of integrity, " Baldwin sued each infringement he could find, winning every case. Baldwin held the copyright to the original photograph since March 1, 1970, and to the poster with text since December 7, 1971. Some were bootleg copies of the original, and some were produced by major greeting card and poster publishers. For a time, dozens of versions were available, using photographs or images of different cats – including at least one " blacklight" version – all with some variation of the "hang in there, baby" text. Predictably, the poster's popularity spawned imitators. He lived for a time solely on the income from the posters, taking a break from his studio work, something he admitted he would rather be doing than selling posters. Baldwin himself said " gave solace and strength to people everywhere, in all sorts of trouble, including myself".
Baldwin received letters from people telling him the poster had helped them through difficult life events including recovery from surgery. The poster struck a chord with 1970s Americans, and it became one of the best-selling posters of the era. The Outcast Kitten, by Jeanne and Victor Baldwin, featuring "Sassy" the kitten. When his studio business began to suffer, he hired a staff to keep up with the orders. More requests came in, and soon Baldwin was fulfilling orders between one and ten posters per day. The first copy of the poster was sold to the composer of The Music Man, Meredith Willson, who asked for it to be framed. Baldwin, himself a fan of the picture, saw an increasing demand and so produced it as a poster, choosing the words "Hang in There, Baby" to accompany the image.īaldwin hung a copy of the poster in his studio window in 1972, which resulted in more interest in the image. It was also used to sell subscriptions to Cat Fancy, prompting more requests. The "chin up" image is used within the book as well as on the back cover.īefore it was published as a poster, fans of the book wrote requesting copies of the photograph. He attempts to be accepted by his adoptive siblings by performing acrobatic tricks. Sassy, who has the fictional name Wiki in the book, is a lost kitten adopted by a mother cat with two kittens of her own. In 1970, Victor and Jeanne produced the book, The Outcast Kitten, featuring the photographs Victor had made of Sassy and other cats he owned at the time. In 1963, he photographed another of his Siamese kittens, Sassy, in various acrobatic poses, including the "chin up" on the bamboo pole that would later be used for the "Hang in There, Baby" poster. In 1956, he and his then-wife Jeanne Baldwin co-authored a children's book titled Little Kitten, Big World, featuring a Siamese kitten named Simmy. His first love, however, was animal photography, and he worked both in animal portraiture and as photo editor at Cat Fancy and Dog Fancy magazines. Victor Baldwin owned a portrait studio in Beverly Hills, California, photographing famous clients including Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr., and Ronald Reagan. It has since become a popular relic of the 1970s. The original poster featured a black and white photograph of a Siamese kitten clinging to a bamboo pole and was first published in late 1971 as a poster by Los Angeles photographer Victor Baldwin.
There were several versions of the "Hang in There, Baby" poster, featuring a picture of a cat or kitten, hanging onto a stick, tree branch, pole or rope. Hang in there, Baby is a popular catchphrase and motivational poster. The original "Hang in There, Baby" poster by Victor Baldwin, 1971
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