Alfred Frueh began his professional career as a caricaturist & cartoonist for the St. Louis Post Dispatch in 1904. It is said that he developed his unique style while attending the Pitman school of stenography. When bored, he would experiment with converting stenographic symbols into abstract & representational caricatures. His caricatures were so biting that a famous actress once refused to fulfill an appearance in St. Louis after he depicted her in the paper. His work culmnated in a series of dramatic portrays of performers entitled Stage Folk in 1922.