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Three Ring Mad
A Signet Book
Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1964
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
June 15, 2019
To be honest, this book as a whole is not worth four stars, but it reprints one of my favorite MAD Magazine features, "My Fair Ad-Man," a parody of the musical play My Fair Lady. (I erroneously recalled the title as "You're a Pig, Mallion," which is mentioned only once as the book on which "Ad-Man" is based. That book, by the way, is attributed to the great author, George Bernard Schwartz [combining the name of George Bernard Shaw, the author of the play Pygmalion, on which the musical My Fair Lady was based, and Bernard Schwartz, birth name of actor Tony Curtis].)
"Ad-Man" is the story of two men who work in advertising, Henry Higgenbottom and Charles Pickerwick. Higgenbottom maintains that "anyone can write advertising copy." Pickerwick disagrees. They are interrupted by a lost, confused beatnik writer, Irving Mallion. Higgenbottom agrees to use Mallion to prove his point. Higgenbottom bets that within three weeks, he can pass Mallion off as an ad-man at "the monthly account exec and copywriters' brain-storming session." He bribes Mallion to participate by offering to either let Mallion work at the ad agency at the end of the bet or, if Mallion prefers, he will have Mallion's manuscript, Son of On the Road, published.
Like all of MAD's movie/television/theater parodies, this is presented in what was then considered comic book fashion and would now be called a graphic story. (How many of the parodies were, as this one is, of plays? I doubt if there were many.) The names of most of the characters in "Ad-Man" are close to those of the similar characters in the play My Fair Lady; "Henry Higgins" becomes "Henry Higgenbottom," "Colonel Hugh Pickering" becomes "Charles Pickerwick," and "Freddy Eynsford-Hill" becomes "Officer Einsfoot." "Eliza Doolittle" suffers a more drastic change, and emerges as "Irving Mallion." (The name "Pickerwick" is obviously a combination of "Pickering" and Charles Dickens's character "Pickwick.") The characters are represented by caricatures of well-known actors: Higgenbottom is Cary Grant, Pickerwick is Charles Laughton, Mallion is Frank Sinatra, and Einsfoot is Dean Martin. (No mention is made of the "actors" in the story; it obviously was assumed that they were sufficiently famous that readers would recognize them.)
A lot of what makes this work is the very clever song parodies. There are parodies of "On the Street Where You Live," "Why Can't the English," "Wouldn't It Be Loverly?," "Get Me to the Church on Time," "With a Little Bit of Luck," "The Rain in Spain," "I Could Have Danced All Night," and "I've Grown Accustomed to Her Face." I will quote Officer Einsfoot singing the first two verses of his version of "On the Street Where You Live" on Madison Avenue:
I have often walked
Down this street before;
Taking graft could be like any other beat before;
Ah, but nowadays,
Only soft sell pays
When your beat's on the street with the ads.
People stop and stare
At the colored signs
Telling them to buy their beer from Schlitz and beans from Heinz;
That is how I make
My share of the take;
Writing schmaltz for the street of the ads.
But there is more than words to a graphic tale. As Einsfoot sings, characters from popular ad campaigns of the time stroll down Madison Avenue. Many - most, actually - are forgotten now; I don't remember a couple of them. Included are Bert and Harry Piels [Piels Beer]; Elsie the Cow [Borden's Milk]; Tony the Tiger [Kellogg's Frosted Flakes]; Johnny the Bellboy [Phillip Morris cigarettes]; Peter Pain [Ben-Gay]; Pegasus [Mobil Gasoline]; one of the Campbell's Kids [Campbell's Soup]; the dancing pack of Old Gold [Old Gold cigarettes]; Mr. Clean [Mr. Clean]; Mr. Boston [Old Mr. Boston distillery]; Speedy Alka-Seltzer [Alka-Seltzer]; and a greyhound [Greyhound Bus]. (Who is the seal with the ball on his nose?)
The drawing also includes other surprises. After several pages of panels that appear to be taking place on the street, suddenly all the action turns out to be on stage, with an audience watching. In the last panel, Rex Harrison, who played Henry Higgins on Broadway, makes a brief cameo appearance. (So does a guy in a space helmet, for some reason.)
Yes, I know...none of this makes much sense if the reader was not around in the 1960s. In fact, quite a lot of the book will make little sense - or, I suspect, seem funny - to people who were not around at the time this was all written. And "My Fair Ad-Man" is just one of the eighteen items in the book (and, mercifully, it is the only one I will describe in detail). There are two other parodies, one of the television series The Rifleman, the other a rather more easily understood parody of the films of Alfred Hitchcock, here referred to as "Alfred Hatchplot." (This is pre-Psycho Hitchcock, so not especially bloody.)
There are two of Dave Berg's "Berg's-Eye View" features, three items by Don Martin (which still seem funny to me), and a bunch of other stuff.
Oddly, MAD removed the credits from all of these. The Hitchcock parody and "The MAD Madison Avenue Primer" are recognizably drawn by Wallace Wood. "My Fair Ad-Man" was drawn by Mort Drucker, still alive at the age of 90 as I write this in 2019. It was written by Nick Megliola, who later changed his last name to Meglin; he died in 2018.
I bought this solely so that I could revisit the "My Fair Ad-Man" feature. I did enjoy it, and I'm not sorry that I purchased it. I hope other readers will also enjoy this book.
"Ad-Man" is the story of two men who work in advertising, Henry Higgenbottom and Charles Pickerwick. Higgenbottom maintains that "anyone can write advertising copy." Pickerwick disagrees. They are interrupted by a lost, confused beatnik writer, Irving Mallion. Higgenbottom agrees to use Mallion to prove his point. Higgenbottom bets that within three weeks, he can pass Mallion off as an ad-man at "the monthly account exec and copywriters' brain-storming session." He bribes Mallion to participate by offering to either let Mallion work at the ad agency at the end of the bet or, if Mallion prefers, he will have Mallion's manuscript, Son of On the Road, published.
Like all of MAD's movie/television/theater parodies, this is presented in what was then considered comic book fashion and would now be called a graphic story. (How many of the parodies were, as this one is, of plays? I doubt if there were many.) The names of most of the characters in "Ad-Man" are close to those of the similar characters in the play My Fair Lady; "Henry Higgins" becomes "Henry Higgenbottom," "Colonel Hugh Pickering" becomes "Charles Pickerwick," and "Freddy Eynsford-Hill" becomes "Officer Einsfoot." "Eliza Doolittle" suffers a more drastic change, and emerges as "Irving Mallion." (The name "Pickerwick" is obviously a combination of "Pickering" and Charles Dickens's character "Pickwick.") The characters are represented by caricatures of well-known actors: Higgenbottom is Cary Grant, Pickerwick is Charles Laughton, Mallion is Frank Sinatra, and Einsfoot is Dean Martin. (No mention is made of the "actors" in the story; it obviously was assumed that they were sufficiently famous that readers would recognize them.)
A lot of what makes this work is the very clever song parodies. There are parodies of "On the Street Where You Live," "Why Can't the English," "Wouldn't It Be Loverly?," "Get Me to the Church on Time," "With a Little Bit of Luck," "The Rain in Spain," "I Could Have Danced All Night," and "I've Grown Accustomed to Her Face." I will quote Officer Einsfoot singing the first two verses of his version of "On the Street Where You Live" on Madison Avenue:
I have often walked
Down this street before;
Taking graft could be like any other beat before;
Ah, but nowadays,
Only soft sell pays
When your beat's on the street with the ads.
People stop and stare
At the colored signs
Telling them to buy their beer from Schlitz and beans from Heinz;
That is how I make
My share of the take;
Writing schmaltz for the street of the ads.
But there is more than words to a graphic tale. As Einsfoot sings, characters from popular ad campaigns of the time stroll down Madison Avenue. Many - most, actually - are forgotten now; I don't remember a couple of them. Included are Bert and Harry Piels [Piels Beer]; Elsie the Cow [Borden's Milk]; Tony the Tiger [Kellogg's Frosted Flakes]; Johnny the Bellboy [Phillip Morris cigarettes]; Peter Pain [Ben-Gay]; Pegasus [Mobil Gasoline]; one of the Campbell's Kids [Campbell's Soup]; the dancing pack of Old Gold [Old Gold cigarettes]; Mr. Clean [Mr. Clean]; Mr. Boston [Old Mr. Boston distillery]; Speedy Alka-Seltzer [Alka-Seltzer]; and a greyhound [Greyhound Bus]. (Who is the seal with the ball on his nose?)
The drawing also includes other surprises. After several pages of panels that appear to be taking place on the street, suddenly all the action turns out to be on stage, with an audience watching. In the last panel, Rex Harrison, who played Henry Higgins on Broadway, makes a brief cameo appearance. (So does a guy in a space helmet, for some reason.)
Yes, I know...none of this makes much sense if the reader was not around in the 1960s. In fact, quite a lot of the book will make little sense - or, I suspect, seem funny - to people who were not around at the time this was all written. And "My Fair Ad-Man" is just one of the eighteen items in the book (and, mercifully, it is the only one I will describe in detail). There are two other parodies, one of the television series The Rifleman, the other a rather more easily understood parody of the films of Alfred Hitchcock, here referred to as "Alfred Hatchplot." (This is pre-Psycho Hitchcock, so not especially bloody.)
There are two of Dave Berg's "Berg's-Eye View" features, three items by Don Martin (which still seem funny to me), and a bunch of other stuff.
Oddly, MAD removed the credits from all of these. The Hitchcock parody and "The MAD Madison Avenue Primer" are recognizably drawn by Wallace Wood. "My Fair Ad-Man" was drawn by Mort Drucker, still alive at the age of 90 as I write this in 2019. It was written by Nick Megliola, who later changed his last name to Meglin; he died in 2018.
I bought this solely so that I could revisit the "My Fair Ad-Man" feature. I did enjoy it, and I'm not sorry that I purchased it. I hope other readers will also enjoy this book.
September 25, 2010
Not the funniest Mad book out there. This one just didn't seem to have the same timeless humor that Mad can give.
July 13, 2022
The material in this volume is either late 50s or early 60s. As such it can be considered classic MAD Magazine material. The book leads off with a parody of The Rifleman (which includes a reference to the TV show's star, Chuck Connors, time as a professional baseball player). And carries on from there. Both Dave Berg and Don Martin (MAD mainstays at one time) are represented in this volume. Some of MAD's other targets in this book are Madison Avenue, Alfred Hitchcock, Highway Safety, Doctors and Barber Shops. In other words a typical MAD mixed bag of material. If your taste in humour runs to parody an satire then this volume is for you. I have fond memories of reading MAD in the mid to late sixties so this book was a delight. Definitely recommended.
Addendum. I am currently indexing this volume for the Grand Comic Book Database and the material is from 1960, specifically issues 53-55.
Addendum. I am currently indexing this volume for the Grand Comic Book Database and the material is from 1960, specifically issues 53-55.
June 19, 2016
I think these were a way for MAD to republish stuff from the 50s and 60s in the 70s. So, to a young teen, a lot of the cultural references didn't (and some still don't) make sense. Still, some amusing stuff, with my favourite being the 'Hazards of Illuminated Signs' article (where non-working bulbs spell a different message). Surprised this joke is still not used today.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews