Monday, October 26, 2015

Charles Addams: Yes, The New Yorker

Once the [Addams F]amily appeared on television in 1964, New Yorker editor William Shawn banned them from the magazine, noting they were no longer appropriate for their sophisticated readership. The ban was lifted in 1987.

—Jen Carlsen
"Charles Addams's New Yorker"


Uncle Fester from the Addams Family promotes the New Yorker in an ad which appeared in Women's Wear Daily in 1973. Cartoonist Charles Addams has drawn Fester's head and collar six times. The Addams Family uncle becomes progressively more cheerful with each drawing, while the copy describes the magazine's prowess in attracting advertising dollars in increasingly glowing terms. The ad, part of the "Yes, The New Yorker" campaign, is meant to solicit advertising in the magazine from the fashion industry. It makes use of a popular Addams Family character at a time when he and the other Addams Family characters were banned from appearing in the magazine's cartoons.
Charles Addams, Advertisement for The New Yorker from the "Yes, The New Yorker" campaign
Women's Wear Daily,
January 8, 1973, page 72
Scans courtesy of  David from Manhattan


Note:  Thanks to dedicated reader David from Manhattan for having the foresight to hold onto this page from Women's Wear Daily for forty-two years! He has kept the page horizontally folded and has scanned the two halves of the page separately. Anyone in possession of similar examples or—dare one hope?— access to the original art should get in touch. Remember, no new information is too trivial.

Charles Addams is well-represented in the blog archives. Yes, the blog archives.

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