Mad Men Tie-ins

The success of the TV series Mad Men has prompted a lot of publishers to look at their catalogs for books that would appeal to regular viewers of the series or that perhaps were an inspiration for the series itself and reprint them to cash in on the show's success. Looking at the covers of the three books above, From Those Wonderful Folks Who Gave You Pearl Harbor by Jerry Della Femina (1969), The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit by Sloan Wilson (1955) and David Ogilvy's Confessions of an Advertising Man (1963), you can see they're visually keying to the promotional artwork of the series with the red, white and black color as well as the characteristic Mad Man silhouette and smoldering cigarette.

Despite the flagrant exploitation, it happens that these books did actually influence the creators of the series and would be of interest to its viewers. In fact there are certain themes and scenes in these books that obviously were the inspiration for Mad Men story lines. The whole idea of having done things in wartime that would come back to haunt a man's civilian life in later years comes from the The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit.

The scene in the series where one of the partners, Roger Sterling, refuses to pitch for the Honda account because he doesn't want to forget the atrocities committed by the Japanese some twenties years earlier was obviously inspired from Jerry Della Femina's memoir From Those Wonderful Folks That Gave You Pearl Harbor. The title of the book comes from a line blurted out by a creative director in a scene where an agency is trying to pitch a new advertising campaign to Panasonic.

You can find a lot more examples of Mad Men themed books with similar artwork on Amazon by just typing Mad Men into their search engine. You'll be amazed. Here are some more:

Jerry Lewis Singing Mamãe Eu Quero

Here's a scene from the Martin & Lewis movie Scared Stiff. Dean & Jerry's characters are in a show with Carmen Miranda who hasn't shown up in time to go on, so Jerry dresses up in her costume and lip syncs to one of her records played on an old Victrola that Dean is trying to keep cranked up. It's quite funny.

Mamãe Eu Quero, Mamãe Eu Quero
mamãe Eu Quero Mamar!
dá A Chupeta, Dá A Chupeta, Ai, Dá A Chupeta
dá A Chupeta Pro Bebê Não Chorar!

There's not much more to it.

Here's Carmen Miranda herself singing her hit in Down Argentina Way:

The Authentic Original

Okay, it's time to get back to basics this summer. Way back. All the way back to 1935 with the birth of the "authentic original" Sperry Topsiders. That was the year that yachtsman Paul Sperry noticed that his cocker spaniel didn't slip as he ran across the ice on a winter's day in Connecticut. Upon closer inspection of the dog's paws he noticed small slits that obviously gave him traction in slippery conditions.

Sperry had been experimenting with different kinds of soles for shoes that he could wear on the slippery-when-wet, painted deck of his newly-acquired yacht. After watching his dog on the ice he was inspired. He made small razor cuts in rubber soles and experimented with cuts in various directions before deciding on herringbone pattern that can be found to this day on Sperry brand boat shoes.

Although they have long been a staple of the preppie wardrobe, like button-down collar shirts and madras shorts, they seem to wax and wane in popularity with the rest of the general population, but this summer they seem to be back in style. I don't usually notice other people wearing them since I've have had them in my wardrobe since the 60s. But then I was still wearing button-down collar shirts in the late 60s and early 70s when they were impossible to find outside of, maybe, thrift stores. Fortunately Sperry Topsiders have never really gone out of fashion and they don't look out of place whether on the feet of preppies, yuppies, hipsters or boaters.

You can read the original story about Paul Sperry and his dog in PDF format here: paul_sperry_story.pdf

Shake Him Till He Rattles/It's Cold Out There by Malcolm Braly

Shake Him Till He Rattles/It's Cold Out There by Malcolm Braly
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Stark House continues to republish Gold Medal paperbacks in two-in-one volumes. With Malcolm Braly's Shake Him Till He Rattles and It's Cold Out There they've picked two of the best titles from the mid-1960s.

Shake Him Till He Rattles (1963) is a quintessentially beat novel which owes a lot to a previous Gold Medal PBO, North Beach Girl (1960) by John Trinian (Zekial Marko). It uses as a backdrop the coffee house and jazz club scene of North Beach and includes a lot of the same themes, particularly lesbian relationships. But Shake Him turns out to be a whole lot more than just an etching of the whole milieu, it questions the whole beat existence and suggests that it might be as much as a dead-end treadmill as its counterpoint "square" existence.

It's Cold Out There (1966) follows the first few months of character J.D. Bing's freedom following a long incarceration. He begins to realize that in the free world a lot of people live in prisons of their own making.

If you are a fan of Gold Medal PBOs from the 50s and 60s, this volume is a must. You might also want to check out some of the other volumes available from Stark House Press.

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The Ultra-Lounge Series Continues . . . on MP3

If you weren't paying attention, and most of us aren't--that's why we read blogs such as this one, Capitol has continued its Ultra-Lounge series as MP3 downloads with nine new albums priced at less than $10 each. The titles are Jet Set Swingers, Divas Las Vegas, Hey Bartender, Wild Cool & Swingin' 3, Ciao Bella!, Nursrey Rhythms, Big Apple Martini!, Mucho Gusto, Vegas Baby Too!

If you're interested in purchasing any or all of these, clicking on the album art will take you to Amazon. Capitol has also made previous CD releases in the series available for digital download as well.

Complete Pop Instrumental Hits of the Sixties

Complete 60s, A new label from the UK has undertaken the huge task of releasing on CD every instrumental to ever hit the US pop charts during the decade of the 60s. They're promising a release every year for the next ten years of what would have to be multiple disk sets.

Volume 1, which covers 1960, will have a whopping 81 tracks, 16 of which have never appeared on CD before. There will also be a 28 page booklet of liner notes with detailed information about the 53 artists represented in the first set.

The only down side, if there really is one, is that, since the series will be releasing instrumentals that hit the US charts, a lot of great instrumentals from British groups such as The Shadows won't be in the series nor great British TV themes such as The Avengers or the beautiful Albatross by Fleetwood Mac. Release date: 6/21/11.

The Daddy-o Manifest-o

If you believe the golden days of the space-age bachelor lifestyle peaked sometime in the early sixties, you, my friend, have found a haven on the net in Dig-it, Daddy-o. This blog is about the pop culture of the 1950s and 60s and the styles they inspire today. Although we will focus on that time period we could wander further back in time or write about subjects as late as the late 70s.

Although we will be writing on subjects more of interest to the American male, we don't want to dissuade distaff and alien readers, but we are here for readers that understand the social context of the period we survey and appreciate it despite the fact that it wasn't always politically correct by today's standards.

To wit, here's a quick laundry list of our favorite subjects in no particular order: hardboiled crime fiction, cool jazz, exotica, tropicalia, bossa nova, Gold Medal Paperbacks, Frank, Sammy, Dean, cigars, vintage motorcycles, James Bond, guns, pin-ups, black velvet paintings, pop-art, op-art, Tretchikoff, Hitchcock, Carson, Hefner, Playboy, Julie London, Tormé, Mancini, Waylon, Willie, New York City, Vegas, beatniks, bullfighting, Kerouac, Capote, martinis, rye whisky, Paris, country music, Hawaiian shirts, guayaberas, Bardot, French new wave, Roger Corman, James Dean, Rio de Janeiro, Goldwater, Mad Men, the cold war and the space race. You get the idea.

You won't find music downloads here. Just reviews of the latest re-releases of music and of books about and from the 50s and 60s. Although we will occasionally have links to pulp fiction that can be downloaded and read on your ebook reader.

Our official launch date is July 1, 2011