This is from page 2 of the Camden News of Camden, Arkansas Saturday, May 15, 1937.
Since someone is going to joke that the Vilna Gaon is not wearing a yarmulke, but the Cardinal is - well, I already beat you to it.
I suppose the authors of this cartoon were aware of the Gra's comment to Orach Chaim 8:2 that אין איסור כלל בראש מגולה לעולם רק לפני הגדולים. The thing is, they knew he was a gaon but they didn't know he was also a chassid; אסור להוציא הזכרה בראש מגולה ג"כ מדת חסידות הוא. Or that he was also one of the gedolim, I guess.
(Yes, Ripley's Believe It Or Not did run something on the Gaon in the 1920s - perhaps 1929 - and yes, this cartoon is probably inspired by it. The reader who knows who he is should know that I still haven't found the original Ripley's, but I will. The text is easily available though, and went something like this:
The Mental Marvel, Elijah, the Gaon, chief Rabbi of Lithuania, possessed such a prodigal memory that he never forgot a book once he read it. Prof. Graetz, noted contemporary historian, states that the Gaon committed to memory 2500 volumes. He knew by heart the Bible, Midrash, Mekilta, Sifre, Tosefta, Seder Olam, the Talmud, the Zohar, the Code, Rashi, Rambam and many other religious texts and could quote any passage at will.I'm not 100% sure this is exactly the original text, but we'll know when we know. I also didn't try to find the source misunderstood in Graetz. My tentative guess is that the number 2500 refers to roughly the number of pages in the Tamud Bavli. I once read an interesting thing about how Ripley 's researcher - yes, he had a researcher - sat in the NYPL and read all day.)
