Sugar Chestnut

Colors/letters by Jim Ludwig

   Sugar Chestnut came to acting when she took on small parts in cartoons starring her husband Henry Chestnut. She frequently played bunnies which caught the eye of Henry, and prompted an escalating series of disasters as he tried to make a good impression. Thanks to make-up, Sugar rarely looked the same from cartoon to cartoon, and once joked that during the series Henry had fallen in love with her 24 times. When Henry moved to C.B.I.P. in 1950, Sugar became one of the studio's glamor girls and was quickly assigned her own starring series. Sugar's cartoons were based more in domestic situations as she got caught up in scenarios depicting suburban life (at least three of her early shorts used the same theme of being locked out of her house while dressed only in her underwear). Although cast in her own series as single, Sugar refused to take off her wedding ring for the camera. This endeared her to fans and eventually the series was changed to depict her misadventures as a housewife. Henry, still starring in his own popular series of one-reelers, would play her on-screen husband in Sugar's cartoons (in which he was often mentioned, but seldom actually seen). Housewives are frequently depicted as being rather drab, something Sugar made a point to counter with her passionate, even sultry, persona. Sugar played her housewife character as romantic and flashy, something which won her as many female fans as it did male fans. Sugar maintains a reputation as one of the most glamorous of her peers, though her home life is fairly simple. Her greatest joy comes at the end of the day, when she and Henry return to their real suburban home. She has, on occasion, served as producer for some of the studio's feature films, thanks to her good eye for investments.