There was a time when Prince George Citizen readers could count on Sunshine Sally to brighten up an otherwise dull day.
That is until a moose named Sadrack took over her turf on the front page.
The homegrown cartoon was the brainchild of former Citizen sportswriter Ray Masson, who introduced Sadrack to Citizen readers as a replacement for Sally the cartoon weather girl.
The Citizen starting running the scantily-clad Sunshine Sally on Feb. 17, 1975 to draw attention to the front-page weather forecast. On hot days, the buxom Sally would be shown basking under the sun in her bikini and she would brave even the coldest winter days in a parka cut thigh-high.
But as the 1980s approached, the feminist movement was moving into its third decade and a growing number of people objected to seeing women depicted as sex objects. Sensing a change in the mood of the public, Citizen editors asked Masson, a talented high-school aged artist working in the newsroom on the sports desk, to come up with a character to reflect Prince George.
"Apparently they were getting complaints here and the numbers were growing as people were getting more sensitive to that and for me it was a no-brainer, it had to be a moose," said Masson.
Sadrack arrived on the scene on Aug. 18, 1980 to replace Sally, who had strutted her stuff more than 1,400 times. Masson had a moose for every weather occasion and also drew Sadrack celebrating special holidays like Christmas or used him to illustrate ads for hunting supplies.
The Citizen sponsored a contest to come up with the name Sadrack. It was derived from the Sad Sack comic book, which featured a Second World War private who was always getting into trouble with his superiors in the U.S. Army chain of command.
"It was pretty popular," said Masson. "Everybody I knew was making comments about it and really loved it and there were lots of people who cut them out of the paper and collected them like trading cards."
Sally returned to the pages of the Citizen on May 10, 1982 when the paper's format was redesigned and Sadrack went into hiding. But the backlash was immediate and Sally's second reign lasted just two months. Droves of readers objected to what they considered a chauvinistic decision and wrote letters to the editor demanding Sally be replaced.
Some readers simply missed seeing Sadrack, like eight-year-old Wendy Richards, whose letter was printed in a front-page Citizen article.
"Dear Citizen. Can you please take the silly girl that tells the weather out of the newspaper and put Sadrack back because I really like him. I think he's neat and I am collecting Sadrack. And plus moose are my fafverit (sic) wild animal. PLEASE PUT HIM BACK IN."
So the Citizen left it up to readers to decide -- Sally or Sadrack -- and put it to a vote decided by mail-in ballots. It was no contest. Sadrack won by a landslide, gathering 550 of the 655 votes.
With the moose on the loose again, Masson drew up a cartoon showing Sadrack booting out Sally the weather girl with a swift kick to the backside, leaving a prominent hoof mark on her keester.
"I wasn't sure how far to take that one and that's about as far as I wanted to go," laughed Masson. "I thought it might be a bit much, but I wanted it to reflect that Sunshine Sally was a bit on the racy side."
Masson, 63, was born in Vancouver but spent most of his youth in Ashcroft. He moved with his family to Prince George in 1966 when his electrician father came to help build the pulp mills. He started playing hockey and lacrosse as a goalie in both sports and continues to play both competitively. He also still dabbles in cartooning and designed the cartoon bunny he and his Cowboy Ranch Stylers senior lacrosse team now sport on their jerseys.
Masson started his newspaper career in the days before computers, rolling strips of teletype to distribute to Citizen reporters who used the information on those strips to retype wire stories. He worked several summers covering sports and was at the paper for one year full-time before he left the Citizen in 1982 to earn his teaching degree at UBC.
He went on to a 33-year career as a phys-ed teacher at John McInnis junior secondary and College Heights senior secondary schools, where he was of the city's most prominent volleyball coaches.
Masson retired from teaching in 2010.
