Question about Batman's foe, the Penguin

[MikeBSG]

My son and daughter are going through a Batman phase now and have been reading about the Sixties TV show and the Forties comic books, etc.

I have a question for anyone who is an expert on Batman comics in the 1940s.

Is The Penguin an anti-FDR caricature?

Basically, I just know DeVito's monstrous Penguin from "Batman Returns" and Burgess Meredith's Penguin from the TV show. But the Penguin's upper class roots and his cigarette holder make me wonder if he wasn't some guy's way of sticking it to FDR. (Of course, books now always present the comic books as being made by socially progressive artists, but I just wonder.)

[Shemp]

But the Penguin's upper class roots and his cigarette holder make me wonder if he wasn't some guy's way of sticking it to FDR.

Bat-artist Jerry Robinson cocreated the Penguin with Bob Kane, and adapted his look from Kool Cigarettes' penguin logo (http://www.yodaslair.com/dumboozle/kool/kooldex.html).

[MikeBSG]

Thanks for the info.