'Ella Cinders' (14 February 1930).
Hardie Gramatky was born in Dallas, Texas, and spent most of his youth in South San Gabriel, California. He began his career ghosting the strip 'Captain Kidd Jr.' for the LA Times. Later on, he also ghosted on Charles Plumb's 'Ella Cinders'. He attended Stanford University as well as Chouinard Art School. While still at school, he worked with Walt Disney. He became an animator with the Studios in 1930, a collaboration that lasted until 1936. He also briefly worked as an inker on the 'Mickey Mouse' newspaper strip by Floyd Gottfredson and Jack King in the early 1930s.
In the years that followed, Gramatky was a pictorial reporter for Fortune Magazine and an illustrator for magazines and advertising agencies. He took on writing children's books, starting with 'Little Toot' in 1939. He served in the Air Force during World War II, and he was commissioned as an AF war artist during the Vietnam War. He eventually established himself as one of California's major watercolorists. Gramatky died in Westport, CT on 29 April 1979.