CSotD: Learning from an Elder

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1. Anne Morse Hambrock

   Thank you for sharing this! That very same harbound copy of “MAD For Keeps” was one of the first books I encountered in childhood as well. That and my father’s hard bound collections of Charles Addams cartoons “Drawn And Quartered”, “Black Maria”, “Addams And Evil”, and many more including an Addams collection of Mother Goose rhymes suitably “Addams-ized”.
   I can’t begin to imagine what sort of person I would be without that early exposure to classic satire.
   I now own all those books, including the MAD and last year, prepare to be jealous, my husband John took it with him to the Reuben’s and got all the current MAD greats to sign it. While Elder and Wood have left us (I’d like to think they are in heaven enjoying a nice cold glass of beer while the “dry”s are sweating it out in that other place, learning just what intolerance and a lack of a sense of humor gets you), my copy of MAD For Keeps now is graced by the signatures and doodles of Al Jaffee and Jack Davis.
   (I let my father take a peek at it now and then :-). )

2. phred

   Not to mention Tom Lehrer. I think I’d memorized the Irish Ballad by the time I was nine.

3. Woodrowfan

   FYI, that ad was making fun of a real campaign that ran from 1945-1956. Organized by the US Brewers Foundation, it showed adults of various ages in setting with family and friends enjoyed a glass of beer (in moderation, natch): 1944 was just over a decade after Prohibition had ended and the WCTU was still actively lobbying Congress and some remaining dry congressmen repeatedly introduced bills to end legal advertising for alcoholic beverages on radio (later TV as well) and in print. While there was no chance of a full return to Prohibition the brewers were worried about the drys being able to cripple their business through laws such as an advertising ban. So this campaign was designed to remind voters that beer was now largely consumed at home, rather than in a saloon, and was part of normal family life.
   I could go on about how the ads fit in the increasing surbanization of the US after 1945 but will refrain. 😎

4. Mike Peterson

   I knew there was a reason you and I get along so well, Anne — we began our mis-spent youths nice and early.
   Somehow, Tom Lehrer passed over a household otherwise full of wisecrackers-on-vinyl — besides Stanley Holloway, we had lots of Stan Freburg, The Smothers Brothers, Newhart and Berman, Vaughn Meader and “Welcome to the LBJ Ranch.” We also watched Olson and Johnson on Canadian TV and TWTWTW which I think was on American TV, and soaked up lots of other stuff, but not him. *shrug*
   And the note on the origin of the satire just makes so much of that ad click into place. I kinda knew it was a satire of something, but, given the background, the specifics add a great laugh to it.

5. vppeterson

   I do remember seeing Tom Lehrer perform in Boston – someplace on Commonwealth Ave. – maybe even at the Kenmore Hotel – nice room somewhere – but I think it was a little late in our time there and it didn’t quite “take.” I guess we never bought any records – hm-m-m But even your siblings were familiar with the MTA. That’s pretty late, of course.