If you never experienced the comic MAD Magazine during the time it was
directed and controlled by William Gaines, the publisher and founder from 1952
till 1992, you have really missed out. This great publication was utterly
hilariously funny, in an intelligent, sarcastic and smart-ass weird kind of
way. As I was determined to learn English really fast as a boy growing up in
Denmark, I found great help reading MAD,
as well as looking at the pictures in Playboy Magazine
– MAD was a lot funnier.
I was about 11 or 12 years old when I ran into the
first copy of MAD – in English, of course. I recall that the humor was extreme,
even for a Dane. The cartoon drawings were fantastic and so funny. I was a big
fan immediately, even though there were a lot of words and phrases that I
didn’t get, as the punchlines were American and referring to people and
situations going on in – well, America. So the English dictionary was solicited
extensively – a lot.
As time rolled by and my English vocabulary grew;
the enjoyment of reading MAD reached new levels. I used the term “What – me
worry” – a lot, which was used by MAD mascot Alfred E. Newman, gap-toothed and
all. I would have liked to show a picture of him to those deprived of never
have seen Alfred, but the thought of being sued, jail-time on water and bread,
refrain me to do so. So Google him…
Years later I found that MAD was now translated into
Danish; not a good idea. MAD Magazine had agreed to distribution in several
countries, published in the respective languages, adding some local stuff ‘in
the spirit’ of the original MAD. Though I am a grand fan of Danish humor – as
Danish humor is quick, intelligent, intriguing and above all, extremely funny, the
Danish rendition of MAD Magazine was flat and utterly helpless; I was extremely
disappointed – as well as utterly embarrassed – a lot.
So I decided to send a letter to William Gaines and
the ‘usual gang of idiots’ as the magazine described its own contributors. In
the letter I stated my confusion with respect to the lack of humor in the
Danish MAD and how the so-called translators totally screwed up the American
MAD – successfully translating really funny lines into duds, totally
misunderstanding the intentions of the sarcasm, etc.; it was an angry letter (with
tongue-in-cheek).
As I had planned a trip to the USA (my first ever –
1974), I informed William Gaines that I would be in New York that summer, and
perhaps we should get together and talk about this fouled-up atrocity. The
letter got mailed and then I pretty much forgot all about it.
Many weeks went by and then a letter arrived from
America – the sender: MAD Magazine.
It was a copy of the letter I had sent to them (typewriter written – remember
them things?) All over that copy were rubber-stamping stamps, most of which
were ‘cartoon’ like. Next to my comment about stopping the Danish MAD
publications immediately, the red ink showed a drawing of a mad-looking Gaines,
long hair, beard and all, with the word NO.
By the “I’ll be in New York…” was a
happy faced Gaines and YES. “Let us
know the dates…” was handwritten.
No, unfortunately I did not keep this letter and a lot
of other letters and stuff from those years. In retrospect, and I’m good at
that, it has always been a thorn in my eye. I used to have a lot of Beatles
stuff that today would have been worth some serious money, but such is life, my
life, also. So on that happy note, I’ll take a deep breath and on with the
story.
My girlfriend at the time (Californian, who I’d met
in Copenhagen a few years earlier) and I started our USA-visit in New York. The
morning after we arrived, it was time to visit MAD Magazine. If my memory
doesn’t totally blank out, the number was 485 (not that it matters at all –
just trying to impress you…), but I know for sure that it was on MADison Avenue
– of course. We took the elevator several floors up and found ourselves in a
small enclosed entry area, no windows and only two doors, the one we entered
through and then – could it be?
I knocked a bit hesitantly – nothing. Then I knocked
somewhat harder – nothing. “Was the appointment today?” I asked Andee; she
nodded (I think). The third time the knocking no doubt startled most of
Manhattan and finally the door opened slowly. “Yes?” a female voice asked. “We
have an appointment with Mr. Gaines…” I cracked in my still heavy Danish
accent. The door closed immediately and then nothing.
The door finally opened again and I recognized the
face of Dave Berg, cartoonist of “The Lighter Side of Life”. He asked in a
really slow and loud voice: “Who are you?” “I’m Peter from Denmark”… The door
blew open and Dave smiled and showed us in. “We can never be too careful” he
said. We all shook hands and some of the other MAD artists who worked in the
office that day came by and introduced themselves. You can understand how blown
away I was – here were my heroes (dare I say: role-models?) and I got to chat
with them for the longest time.
We were offered a glass of water and Dave Berg
informed us, that it might taste a bit strange as William Gaines one morning
had filled the water-coolers with white-wine; it was gone within a day; I wish
I had been there.
Then Jerry DeFuccio who I knew as one of the editors
came out of his office. The nicest man you could ever meet. He also had the
role of ‘entertaining’ visitors, kind of a Walmart greeter – but a lot better
and more personal. After the introductions Jerry immediately started talking
about his Danish girlfriend – small world, huh?
I remember Dave Berg approaching me soon after we
arrived; he looked a bit uncomfortable, but finally said: “Can I give you a hug
as thanks for what the Danes did for the Danish Jews during the German
occupation?” I said “of course”, though I had nothing to do with it. For those
of you who do not know (and that would be most of you), when the Germans
finally decided, during the occupation of Denmark (1940-1945) to round up the
Danish Jews and put them in concentration camps, a large group of your average
Danish citizens helped hide the Danish Jews and then helped them escape to
Sweden. Only a few hundred Jews was captured (still too many, of course) out of
7-8,000. So Dave Berg wanted to hug me as thanks – he was a good hugger, as far
as I recall.
And then it was time to visit the Holy Grail, AKA: Publisher
William Gaines. We entered his office and that was an experience all by
itself. His large desk, with hundreds of rubber stamps, was to the left – and there
he was in all his might, long hair, large beard and a big smile.
On the end
wall, towards Madison Avenue, were three big floor-to-ceiling windows. Filling
out the middle window was a three dimensional face of King Kong, huge fangs and
vicious looking eyes. In the windows to the left and right were the biggest
King Kong paws gripping on, like he wanted to enter the building – really cool
and so funny.
We spent over 2 hours with ‘Bill’ in the office and
later went out to a late lunch with him, Jerry and Dave Berg. It was so
unreal – and a once in a lifetime experience, for sure. (Danish MAD was
hibernating at the time we visited New York, but later on popped up for a few
years, disappeared and popped up again, etc.) Obviously nobody followed my advice - duh...
I kept in contact with Jerry DeFuccio for many years
after that visit. When we got back from the America trip, there were about 15
boxes filled with hundreds of MAD books, 3-4 copies of each that Jerry had mailed
to us – I never figured out why – he was just such a nice person, and funny,
too.
And all this from a letter of complaint – perhaps you
should try it sometime; you never know what can happen, huh?
RIP,
please: Al
Feldstein was one of the editors that we also met. He reigned during MAD’s
most popular times in the 1960’s and 1970’s, for 29 years. Al was the driving
force of getting the ‘usual gang of
idiots’ together: Don Martin, Sergio Aragones, Dave Berg and Al Jaffee – to
me, the REAL MAD men, by far…
Al
died at the age of 88, April 29th, 2014
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