Gentlemen Prefer Blondes was a popular 1925 novel by Anita Loos that inspired a 1928 silent film of the same name (and a Technicolor musical in 1953 starring Jane Russell and Marilyn Monroe). Aware of this cultural touchstone, the Penn-Maryland Corporation registered the trademark "Gentlemen Prefer Blends" in 1935 for use in its blended whiskey advertising. Cartoonist Peter Arno contributed a humorous drawing to the campaign, which appeared in The New Yorker, in The New York Times, and on a promotional matchbook cover. The matchbook bears the additional slogan, "Mellow as a Cello."
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| Penn Maryland Whiskey Peter Arno The New Yorker, February 9, 1935, page 59 |
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| The New York Times, February 20, 1935, page 13 |
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| Peter Arno Penn Maryland Blended Whiskey eBay listing accessed February 4, 2022 |
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| Peter Arno Penn Maryland Blended Whiskey eBay item description |
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| Spot drawing by unidentified artist and advertisement by Peter Arno |
April 17, 2022 Update: That phrase "Mellow as a cello" did not only appear on this matchbook. A 1935 ad for Penn Maryland Whiskey without any Arno content features the words front and center in its copy:
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| Penn Maryland Whiskey ad The Daily News, February 8, 1935 |
While the phrase may have been in general circulation, it was not common enough to appear on the Google Books Ngram Viewer. Did a competitor steal it? A later 1944 ad for Old Melody liqueurs by M. S. Walker, Inc., of Boston, makes use of the same musical rhyme:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/133154079932?nma=true...
Note: I can't make out the signature on the New Yorker spot drawing, but I would appreciate hearing from anyone who perhaps can.
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