Chez Paree Postcard

Someone with a sense of humor assigned the names of U.S. Navy officers to characters in this cartoon, originally a postcard from the Chez Paree restaurant in Chicago. The names represent officers who served on board the aircraft carrier Intrepid during World War II. Most of the men were part of the ship’s first crew. The name Tom Sprague, the ship’s first commanding officer, is written near a man wearing a party hat and sitting at the bar. The names of other high-ranking officers, including the executive officer, a chaplain and a squadron commander, appear near other characters in the cartoon.

The back of the postcard evokes the traditional “Crossing the Line” initiation ceremony. The “shellbacks,” sailors who had already crossed the equator, tested the mettle of the “pollywogs,” the uninitiated. Intrepid first crossed the equator in January 1944. The postcard is addressed to Captain Sprague and is signed by a pollywog, who is looking to obtain a black-market shellback certificate—presumably to avoid the hazing that was part of the ceremony.