... in the March 14, 1931 issue of The New Yorker... which I'm reading because I did the new New Yorker crossword puzzle and it made me want to read the bad review given to "The House on Pooh Corner" by (spoiler alert) Dorothy Parker.
Oh, those old boss-and-secretary cartoons! And who remembers Murad cigarettes?
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58 comments:
L.S.M.F.T.
Those jokes still exist, but only in an ironic sense.
Doctor, will I be able to dance after you remove the lung cancer?
I dont see why not.
Great, I've always wanted to dance!
I think there was a point in the 60s where Turkish tobacco fell out of favor with American smokers.
I was never a smoker, but my father was. I seem to remember a conversation along this line with him from my wasted youth.
Please feel free to tell me how wrong I am if this isn't the case.
The cigarette for when you have a boner for the other sharp-dressed guy and not the chicks you're dancing with.
In my age Murad was zit lotion.
"Camels" were marketed as Turkish also.
Did an image search, and realize I forgot the slash...
L.S./M.F.T.
Everywhere -
Why?
Why?
Lots of boss/secretary gags in the old Humorama mags. The cartoons were often by really good pinup artists while the gags were written in-house and often sounded like they were translated from another language.
Another common situation: Unmarried couple tries to check into a hotel (or man carries woman in suitcase or whatever). Try explaining the problem to a millenial.
That's nothing. You should see how he tried to cure his secretary's endometriosis.
According to Google: Murad (Arabic: مراد) or variants Murat, Mourad, Morad and Mrad is an Arabic, Armenian, Azerbaijani, Turkish, Kurdish, Persian and Pakistani male given name and is commonly used throughout the Muslim and Arabic worlds.
If they wanted to be less urbane they could have called the brand ED, or TOM, or even CLEM after the name of the man who grew the tobacco.
Apparently the Anargyros brothers had a lot of Turkish leafed brands all with Egyptian imagery and marketing material.
Anargyros is Greek, with an ancient meaning for physicians that cured patients without payment.
Smoking Murad gets you well! You won't even have to pay the Doctor! Just Murad....
That's not funny, that's Orientalist stereotyping and attack on the Sufis and dervishes.
The worst thing about that Boss and Secretary cartoon is the outraged wife. She's wearing a full-length ermine coat and shows not a smidgen of appreciation.
Lucky Strike was American Tobacco's (Duke) big brand, but it's now marketed by R J Reynolds in the US.
(The!) Turkish tobacco sounds like Egyptian cotton: coals to Newcastle given cachet as exotic.
But the soil could make it slightly different.
The first ad would be more effective if the secretary wore the fur and the wife, simple cloth, as in Moonstruck.
Fatima Cigarettes (pronounced Fuh-TEE-muh) were major advertisers on OTR shows like Dragnet in the '50s. Supposedly Turkish and perhaps what killed Jack Webb.
they could have called the brand ED
Heavy long term smoking is a, if not the, major cause of impotence. Smoking beforehand can make it difficult to orgasm for men.
Definitely targeting men with those ads. Did Murad have a brand for the ladies?
What is surprising is that they didn't change up their advertising when the Turkish Empire was our enemy--and Britain's.
As a kid I got Fatima Cigarettes mixed up with Our Lady of Fatima. Thought there was some sort of tie-in.
Illustration by New Yorker artist Rea Irvin, creator of the Eustace Tilly character, as well as the magazine's display typeface - both of which are used to this day.
"Call for Phillip Morris! Call for Phillip Morris!"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BAqFGop9gs8
The Murine name for eye drops always gave me the creeps: It sounds like muriatic, as in muriatic acid, which was a chemical we had on hand for the pool. It is also known as Hydrochloric acid, which I would not want in my eyes.
The CNN announcers now all have the same look as the guy caught by his wife rubbing his secretary. Everyone of them really needed a cigarette. That was a stunned look of hopelessness.
Dorothy Parker was the answer on Final Jeopardy in January and I missed it, as did 2 contestants.
SORT OF SPOILER ALERT The Clue: One of her circle described her as “a lacy sleeve with a bottle of vitriol concealed in its folds”
dpb, the piss-in-your-eye part didn't bother you?
The MURAD typeface must have been strikingly modern in the Teens. Unluckily for us, it's now old hat and everywhere. Pooh!
That's one erotic ad. Four people about to get laid.
Ralph L,
I din't think like that when I was a kid growing up with a pool. I did resolve to never own a pool though--keeping bugs, leaves and pine needles out of the water was a never-ending task for myself and siblings.
Murad is a line of skin care products owned by Unilever.
https://www.murad.com/
Funny that people today think of men dressed like that as gay. Yeah, they were acting “gay” as the term used to be used.
Call them joints, smoke them, and sue the lawyers and activists for lost tobacco revenue.
“gay” as the term used to be used
Happy and carefree... before the trans-schism.
Evocative ad for long-ago Product Placement.
"Forms leaned together in the taxis as they waited, and voices sang, and there was laughter from unheard jokes, and lighted Murads outlined unintelligible gestures inside."'
"He literally glowed; without a word or a gesture of exultation a lit Murad radiated from him and filled the little room."
"The door that I pushed open, on the advice of an elevator boy, was marked 'The Murad Holding Company,' and at first there didn’t seem to be any one inside."
"I’ll be the man smoking two Murads”
"For Daisy was young and her artificial world was redolent of Murads and pleasant, cheerful snobbery..."
"He went out of the room calling 'Murad!' and returned in a few minutes accompanied by an embarrassed, slightly worn young man, with shell-rimmed glasses and scanty blond hair."
"A tray of cocktails floated at us through the twilight, and we sat down at a table with the two girls in yellow and three men, each one smoking a Murad."
I am Laslo.
I prefer Mucha.
A guy could make his whole year nut on just one illustration like that back in the day
This post makes me wonder: could "Mad Men" be made today?
James Lileks said, "Illustration by New Yorker artist Rea Irvin, creator of the Eustace Tilly character, as well as the magazine's display typeface - both of which are used to this day."
Thanks. (And nice to see you here.)
The resemblance to the Eustace Tilly image is easy to see once you know to look. I think it's well drawn, and I don't blame Irvin for the idiotic idea.
@Laslo Thanks for the reference back to the good old Gatsby project.
Jerry Murad's Harmonicats play "Peg O' My Heart.
My dad could play the chord harmonica lead some years ago...tricky because in some cases he had to play half of one chord and half of the one next to it in order to carry the melody. He still has the long chord harmonica, but he has given me his shorter three-decker instrument. Great memories of when he, his dad and his brothers got together on special occasions to play.
Blogger stevew said...
This post makes me wonder: could "Mad Men" be made today?
No. It belongs in that long-ago age of 2009-2015.
The style of that ad reminds me of Maxfield Parrish. Love it.
Do you guys not love Cardi B? She’s so the real thang. Love her.
Do you guys not love Cardi B?
No.
Any more questions?
Fatima was Muhammad's daughter
put that in your hooka and smoke it (unless u think it's haram)
" Forget cigarettes-- can we do "Things To Do With Cigars?"--BJ Clinton
I am into janelle monae too. She is bi.
Yeah, I intended to evoke Bill Clinton.
Let's take a closer look at those cigarettes.
Somehow it all reminds me of the gag in Tex Avery's Red Hot Riding Hood
smokin' ode to the maypole
I'm just seeing that murine isn't just a brand name. It's an English language adjective, and it means "Of, pertaining to, or characteristic of, the mouse, rat or (more generally) any mammal of the family Muridae."
Everything is beginning to fit together!
@Ann
sorry-- we didnt mean to sully the intention of your post.
The boss-and-secretary hijinx coupled with tobacco products just seemed to fit
I won a Scrabble game once by using the word "murine".
I was challenged, the dictionary was consulted, and my detractors were abashed, although they tried to laugh it off. Ha! Victory is sweet.
Also handy: bovine, equine, porcine, piscine. No doubt many others.
Don’t apologize. I was agreeing with you.
No colorful cartoons about COPD, emphysema, black lung, lung cancer, brutal lingering death? Fuck cigarettes and whoever worships them.
A Case For Cigarettes
Hushed absolution hangs in cramped hands of spring
Like scent of orange blossoms, corridored pears.
We sit in twilight silence, trying to match
Smoke rings. Cool air spilling from a mountain spring
Mellows our game with the smell of spunked grapes. Pairs
Of border-vines entwine your soft arms, but match
Of vines and arms so overextends the spring-
Loaded casing of my soul that it pares
Down thinking: Love and Death, cigarette and match.
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