Figure:Maggie

Though presented in a humorous manner, George McManus's early 20th-century comic strip "Bringing Up Father," also known as Maggie and Jiggs, dealt with themes of immigration, ethnicity, and class at a time when many Americans struggled with the same issues. "Bringing Up Father" tells the tale of an immigrant Irishman Jiggs who, though he won a million dollars in a sweepstakes, longs to revert to his former working-class habits and lifestyle. Jiggs's inclinations frustrate his wife Maggie to no end, and she aims to assimilate her husband into mainstream American culture. McManus strove to prove that immigrants could simultaneously find acceptance in American society and maintain their cultural identity. The comic strip ran for 87 years and inspired a number of adaptations, from vaudeville acts to feature-length films. In the 1910s and 1920s, Philadelphia-based toy maker A. Schoenhut & Company also capitalized on the comic strip's popularity, creating wooden figures modeled after the title characters.