Alfred E.Neuman

'''Alfred E. Neuman '''

The Real Alfred E.

Sunday, March 10, 2013

The Real Alfred E.

{{short description|The mascot for Mad magazine}}
{{Other uses|Alfred Neumann (disambiguation)|Alfred Newman (disambiguation)}}
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[[File:Mad30.jpg|thumb|Neuman on ''Mad'' 30]]
'''Alfred E. Neuman ''' is the fictitious [[mascot]] and cover boy of the American humor magazine ''[[Mad (magazine)|Mad]]''. The character's distinct face, with his parted red hair, gap-tooth smile, freckles, protruding nose, and scrawny body, had actually first emerged in U.S. [[Iconography#iconography and popular culture|iconography]] decades prior to his association with the magazine, appearing in early twentieth-century advertisements for painless dentistry—the origin of his "What, me worry?" motto—and, in the early 1930s, on a presidential campaign postcard with the caption, "Sure I'm for Roosevelt". The magazine's editor [[Harvey Kurtzman]] claimed the character in 1954, and he was named "Alfred E. Neuman" by Mad's second editor, [[Al Feldstein]], in 1956. Since his debut in ''Mad'', Neuman's likeness has appeared on the cover of all but a handful of the magazine's over 550 issues. Rarely seen in profile, Neuman has almost always been portrayed in front view, silhouette, or directly from behind.Maria Reidelbach. Completely Mad: A History of the Comic Book and Magazine (New York: Little Brown & Company, 1992).
==History==
[[Harvey Kurtzman]] first spotted the image on a postcard pinned to the office bulletin board of [[Ballantine Books]] editor [[Bernard Shir-Cliff]]. "It was a face that didn't have a care in the world, except mischief", recalled Kurtzman. Shir-Cliff was later a contributor to various magazines created by Kurtzman.Shir-Cliff, Bernard. "The Karate Lesson". ''Help!'', October 1964.
In November 1954, Neuman made his ''Mad'' debut on the front cover of Ballantine's ''The Mad Reader'', a paperback collection of reprints from the first two years of ''Mad''. The character's first appearance in the comic book was on the cover of ''Mad'' #21 (March 1955), in a tiny image as part of a mock advertisement. A rubber mask bearing his likeness with "idiot" written underneath was offered for $1.29.
[[File:MAD Magazine (no. 21, front cover).jpg|thumb|First cover appearance of Neuman, on ''Mad'' #21 (third from viewer's left of the six faces approx. 40% down the viewer's-right side)]]
''Mad'' switched to a magazine format starting with issue #24, and Neuman's face appeared in the top, central position of the illustrated border used on the covers, with his now-familiar signature phrase "What, me worry?" written underneath. Initially, the phrase was rendered "What? Me worry?" These borders were used for five more issues, through ''Mad'' #30 (December 1956).
The character was also shown on page 7 of Mad #24 as "Melvin Coznowski" and on page 63 as "Melvin Sturdley". In later issues he appeared as "Melvin Cowsnofsky" or "Mel Haney". In ''Mad'' #25, the face and name were shown together on separate pages as both Neuman and Mel Haney. The crowded cover shot on ''Mad'' #27 marked Neuman's first color appearance.
When [[Al Feldstein]] took over as ''Mad''{{-'}}s editor in 1956, he seized upon the face:
{{bquote|I decided that I wanted to have this visual logo as the image of ''Mad'', the same way that corporations had the [[Jolly Green Giant]] and the [[Nipper|dog]] barking {{sic}} at the gramophone for [[RCA]]. This kid was the perfect example of what I wanted. So I put an ad in ''[[The New York Times]]'' that said, "National magazine wants portrait artist for special project". In walked this little old guy in his sixties named [[Norman Mingo]], and he said, "What national magazine is this?" I said "Mad," and he said, "Goodbye." I told him to wait, and I dragged out all these examples and postcards of this idiot kid, and I said, "I want a definitive portrait of this kid. I don't want him to look like an idiot—I want him to be loveable and have an intelligence behind his eyes. But I want him to have this devil-may-care attitude, someone who can maintain a sense of humor while the world is collapsing around him." I adapted and used that portrait, and that was the beginning.}}
Mingo's defining portrait was used on the cover of ''Mad'' #30 in late 1956 as a supposed write-in candidate for the Presidency, and fixed his identity and appearance into the version that has been used ever since.Sam Sweet, "A Boy with No Birthday Turns Sixty," 'The Paris Review,' March 3, 2016 https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2016/03/03/a-boy-with-no-birthday-turns-sixty/> In November 2008, Mingo's original cover art featuring this first official portrait of Neuman sold at auction for $203,150. Mingo painted seven more Neuman covers through 1957, and later returned to become the magazine's signature cover artist throughout the 1960s and 1970s.  Mingo produced 97 ''Mad'' covers in total, and also illustrated dozens of additional cover images for ''Mad'''s many reprint Specials and its line of paperbacks.{{cite web|url=http://www.madcoversite.com/allthumbs2.html|website=Doug Gilford's Mad Cover Site |title=All Special Thumbs}}{{cite web|url=http://www.madcoversite.com/pbthumbs.html|title=Paperback Thumbs|website=Doug Gilford's Mad Cover Site}}
During Mingo's absence, [[Frank Kelly Freas]] rendered Neuman for ''Mad'' from 1958 to 1962.  Mingo's total surpassed Freas' in 1965, and his leading status endured until 2016, when current contributor [[Mark Fredrickson]] became the most prolific ''Mad'' cover artist with his 98th cover.
Neuman has appeared in one form or another on the cover of nearly every issue of ''Mad'' and its spinoffs since that issue and continuing to the present day, with a small handful of exceptions. Two such departures were ''Mad'' #233 (September 1982) which replaced Neuman's image with that of [[Pac-Man]], and ''Mad'' #195 (December 1977) which instead featured the message "Pssst! Keep This Issue Out of the Hands of Your Parents! (Make 'Em Buy Their Own Copy!)". Even when Neuman is not part of the cover gag, or when the cover is entirely text-based, his disembodied head generally appears in miniature form. The most notorious Neuman-free cover was #166 (April 1974), which featured a human hand giving the profane "middle [[finger (gesture)|finger]]" gesture while declaring ''Mad'' to be "The Number One Ecch Magazine".[http://www.madcoversite.com/mad166id.jpg Cover image to ''Mad'' #166 at madcoversite.com] Some newsstands that normally carried ''Mad'' chose not to display or sell this issue.Michelle Nati, "12 More Of The Most Controversial Magazine Covers," 'Oddee' website, May 21, 2014
Conversely, the two covers that featured Neuman the most times were #502 (January 2010), and #400 (December 2000).  #502 featured a human hand giving the "[[thumbs down]]" signal, while wearing a silver-spangled glove in the style of singer [[Michael Jackson]].  Each individual spangle, more than 300 in all, was a tiny Alfred E. Neuman face.[http://www.madcoversite.com/mad502id.jpg Cover image to ''Mad'' #502 at madcoversite.com]  The cover of issue #400 was a [[photomosaic]] of Neuman's face, composed of more than 2,700 images of previous ''Mad'' covers.[http://www.madcoversite.com/mad400id.jpg Cover image to ''Mad'' #400 at madcoversite.com]
Neuman's ubiquity as a grinning cover boy grew as the magazine's circulation quadrupled, but the single highest-selling issue of ''Mad'' depicted only his feet. The cover image of issue #161,[http://www.madcoversite.com/mad161id.jpg Cover image to ''Mad'' #161 at madcoversite.com] spoofing the 1972 film ''[[The Poseidon Adventure (1972 film)|The Poseidon Adventure]]'', showed Neuman floating upside-down inside a life preserver.  The original art for this cover was purchased at auction in 1992 for $2,200 by Annie Gaines, the widow of ''Mad'' founder and publisher [[William Gaines]], and subsequently given on permanent loan to ''Mad'' writer [[Dick DeBartolo]].DeBartolo, Dick. ''Good Days and Mad: A Hysterical Tour Behind the Scenes at Mad Magazine''. New York: Thunder's Mouth Press, 1994. The image was copied in 1998 for issue #369 spoofing the hit film ''[[Titanic (1997 film)|Titanic]]''.
A female version of Neuman, named "Moxie Cowznofski", appeared briefly during the late 1950s, occasionally described in editorial text as Neuman's "girlfriend". Neuman and Moxie were sometimes depicted side-by-side, defeating any speculation that Moxie was possibly Neuman in female guise. Her name was inspired by [[Moxie]], a soft drink manufactured in [[Portland, Maine]], which was sold nationwide in the 1950s and whose logo appeared as a running visual gag in many early issues of ''Mad''.
In late 1959, ''Mad'' released a [[single (music)|45 rpm single]] entitled "What—Me Worry?" ([[ABC-Paramount]] 10013), by "Alfred E. Neuman and His Furshlugginer Five", featuring an uncredited voice actor singing as Neuman. (The B-side of the single, "[[Potrzebie]]", is an instrumental.){{cite web
  |url = https://www.discogs.com/Alfred-E-Neuman-And-His-Furshlugginer-Five-What-Me-Worry-Potrzebie/release/1977279
  |title =  Alfred E. Neuman And His Furshlugginer Five – What - Me Worry? / Potrzebie
  |accessdate = 2018-12-03
  |date =
  |publisher = Discogs
}}
''Mad'' routinely portrays Neuman in the guise of another character or inanimate object for its cover images.
Since his initial unsuccessful run in 1956, Neuman has periodically been re-offered as a candidate for [[President of the United States|President]] with the slogan, "You could do worse... and always have!"
[[File:Alfred E. Neumann.jpg|left|thumb|Early image of the "Me Worry?" kid, from the early 1950s]]
Along with his face, ''Mad'' also includes a short humorous quotation credited to Neuman with every issue's table of contents. (Example: ''"It takes one to know one... and vice versa!"'')  Some of these quotations were collected in the 1997 book ''Mad: The Half-Wit and Wisdom of Alfred E. Neuman'', which was illustrated by [[Sergio Aragonés]].
Neuman is now used exclusively as a mascot and iconic symbol of the magazine, but before this status was codified, he was referenced in several early articles. In one, Neuman answered a letter from a suicidal reader by giving "expert advice" on the best technique for tying a hangman's knot.  Other articles featured the school newspaper of "Neuman High School", and a bulletin from "Alfred E. Neuman University". An article entitled "Alfred E. Neuman's Family Tree" depicted historical versions of Neuman from various eras. Since then, Neuman has appeared only occasionally inside the magazine's articles. A recurring article titled "Alfred's Poor Almanac" (a parody of [[Poor Richard's Almanac]]) showed his face atop the page, but otherwise the character had no role in the text. In a 1968 article, Neuman's face was assembled, feature by feature, from parts of photographs of well-known politicos, including then-[[President of the United States|President]] [[Lyndon B. Johnson]] (left ear), [[Richard Nixon]] (nose), [[Oregon]] [[Governor of Oregon|Governor]] [[Mark Hatfield]] (eyes), and [[Ronald Reagan]] (hair). The gap in his teeth (which was otherwise the grin of [[Dwight D. Eisenhower]]) came from "The '[[Credibility Gap]]' Created by Practically All Politicians".
Neuman's famous [[motto]] is the intellectually incurious "What, me worry?" This was changed for one issue to "Yes, me worry!" after the [[Three Mile Island accident]] in 1979. On the cover of current printings of the paperback ''The Ides of Mad'', as rendered by long-time cover artist Norman Mingo, Neuman is portrayed as a [[Ancient Rome|Roman]] bust with his catch phrase engraved on the base, translated into [[Dog Latin]]—''Quid, Me Anxius Sum?''
Neuman's surname is often misspelled as "Newman".{{cite web|url=http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=%22alfred+e.+newman%22&btnG=Google+Search&aq=f&oq=|title=Google search for "Alfred E. Newman"|publisher=}}
Neuman's most prominent physical feature is his gap-toothed grin, with a few notable exceptions. On the cover of issue #236 (January 1983), Neuman was featured with [[E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial]]. The cover showed E.T. using his famous "healing finger" to touch Neuman's mouth and cause the missing tooth to appear. The cover of issue #411 (November 2001), the first to be produced following the [[9/11 attacks]] in the United States, showed a close-up of Neuman's face, but his gap was now filled with an [[American flag]]. A text gag on the cover of issue #263 (June 1986) claimed that the [[Universal Product Code|UPC]] was really a "Close-up Photograph of Neuman's Missing Tooth".
Neuman also appeared as himself in a political cartoon{{vague|date=December 2018}}, after ''[[Newsweek]]'' had been criticized for using computer graphics to retouch the teeth of [[McCaughey septuplets|Bobbi McCaughey]]. The cartoon was rendered in the form of a split-screen comparison, in which Neuman was featured on the cover of ''Mad'' with his usual gap-toothed grin, then also featured on the cover of ''Newsweek'', but with a perfect smile.
Despite the primacy of Neuman's incomplete smile, his other facial features have occasionally attracted notice.  Artist [[Andy Warhol]] said that seeing Neuman taught him to love people with big ears.{{cite news| url=http://topics.nytimes.com/topics/reference/timestopics/organizations/m/mad_magazine/index.html |title=MAD Magazine News |work=The New York Times |first=David |last=Hajdu}}
In 1958, ''Mad'' published letters from several readers noting the resemblance between Neuman and England's [[Charles, Prince of Wales|Prince Charles]], then nine years old."Letters Dept". ''Mad'' 38 (March 1958). Shortly thereafter, an angry letter under a [[Buckingham Palace]] letterhead arrived at the ''Mad'' offices: "Dear Sirs No it isn't a bit—not the least little bit like me. So jolly well stow it! See! Charles. P." The letter was authenticated as having been written on triple-cream laid royal stationery bearing an official copper-engraved crest. The postmark indicated it had been mailed from a post office within a short walking distance of [[Buckingham Palace]]. Unfortunately, the original disappeared years ago while on loan to another magazine and has never been recovered.Reidelbach, Maria. ''Completely Mad'', New York: Little Brown, 1991. {{ISBN|0-316-73890-5}}
For many years, ''Mad'' sold prints of the official portrait of Neuman through a small house ad on the letters page of the magazine. In the early years, the price was one for 25 cents; three for 50 cents; nine for a dollar; or 27 for two dollars. The ad stated that the prints could also be used for wrapping fish.
A live-action version of Neuman—an uncredited actor wearing a mask—appears briefly in the 1980 film ''[[Up the Academy]]'' which was originally released to theaters as ''Mad Magazine Presents Up the Academy''. ''Mad'' later pulled its support from the film, and all footage of the Neuman character was excised from North American home video and television releases, although it was reinstated for the 2006 DVD release.
Neuman appeared occasionally in the early seasons of ''[[MADtv]]'' during sketches and interstitials, and briefly appeared in the animated TV series ''[[Mad (TV series)|Mad]]''.
==Genesis==
[[File:The New Boy - Los Angeles Herald.jpg|thumb|The New Boy—1894]]
[[File:YellowKid.jpeg|thumb|[[The Yellow Kid]], 1897]]
[[File:Antikamnia neuman.jpg|thumb|1908 [[Antikamnia]] Tablet Calendar]]
Neuman's precise origin is shrouded in mystery and may never be fully known.  A collection of early Neumanesque images can be found in [[Maria Reidelbach]]'s comprehensive work, ''Completely Mad: A History of the Comic Book and Magazine'' (Little, Brown, 1991). ''Mad'' publisher [[Bill Gaines]] gave Reidelbach total access to the magazine's own files, including the collection of Neuman-related images that had been assembled for a 1965 copyright infringement lawsuit.{{cite web|url=http://law.justia.com/cases/federal/appellate-courts/F2/342/143/248360|title=Helen Pratt Stuff, Plaintiff-appellant, v. E. C. Publications, Inc., William M. Gaines, Independent News Co., Crown Publishers, Inc., Ballantine Books, Inc., Defendants-appellees, 342 F.2d 143 (2d Cir. 1965)|publisher=}}
The earliest image cited in Reidelbach's book is from an advertisement for Atmore's Mince Meat, Genuine English Plum Pudding.  She wrote that, "[d]ating from 1895, this is the oldest verified image of the boy....  The kid's features are fully developed and unmistakable, and the image was very likely taken from an older archetype..." After the publication of the book, an older "archetype" was discovered in an advertisement for the comical stage play, ''The New Boy'', which debuted on Broadway in 1894.  The image is nearly identical to what later appears in the Atmore's ads.Peter Jensen Brown, ''The Real Alfred E'', http://therealalfrede.blogspot.com/2013/03/the-real-alfred-e.html>
A description of the stage play's advertisement was published in the December 2, 1894, ''[[Los Angeles Herald]]''. Using words that could easily be describing the character of Alfred E. Neuman, the paper reported that the "comic red-headed urchin with a joyous grin all over his freckled face, whose phiz [face] is the trademark of the comedy, is so expressive of the rollicking and ridiculous that the New York Herald and the Evening Telegram have applied it to political cartoon purposes."  Elements of the plot of the play explain why the character has adult and childlike features, why the character is dressed as he is, and how he may have lost his teeth. The original ''New Boy'' image was published with a two-part phrase that is similar in tone to Neuman's, "What? Me Worry?" catch phrase: "What's the good of anything?—Nothing!"
The ''New Boy'' advertising image was copied widely in advertising for "painless" dentistry and other products.  It is also possible that the image influenced the look of [[The Yellow Kid]], the 1890s character from [[Richard F. Outcault]]'s strip ''Hogan's Alley''.  The image was used for a variety of purposes nearly continuously until it was adopted by ''Mad''.
[[File:Me worry? No, I buy auto parts from James Evans Parts Co., 337 West Tyler St., Longview, Texas.jpg|thumb|left|Postcard from 1930 to 1945 with a similar boy and slogan to ''Mad''{{'}}s Neuman]]
Similar faces turned up in advertising for "painless" dentistry. According to Gaines, 'Alfie' has his origin in Topeka with the Painless Romine Topeka Dental College, actually a dental group at 704 Kansas Avenue, at the office of Dr. William Romine—often misspelled as Romaine—a dentist who resided and practiced in Wichita.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pG6tPem4-zc&t=528shttps://www.kshs.org/index.php?url=kansapedia/painless-romine/12186 A face virtually identical to Neuman's appears in the 1923 issue of the [[University of Minnesota]] humor magazine ''The Guffer'' above the caption "Medic After Passing Con Exam in [[Physical chemistry|P. Chem.]]" Another identical face shows up in the logo for Happy Jack Beverages, a soda drink produced by the A. B. Cook company in 1939. An almost-identical image appeared as "[[nose art]]" on an [[United States|American]] [[World War II]] [[bomber]], over the motto "Me Worry?" (this painted face was sometimes referred to as "The Jolly Boy").{{cite web|url=http://www.nose-art.net/315th-III/315th-3.htm |title=315th III |publisher=Nose-art.net |date= |accessdate=2010-07-10| archiveurl= https://web.archive.org/web/20100621051706/http://www.nose-art.net/315th-III/315th-3.htm| archivedate= 21 June 2010 | deadurl= no}}
Neuman's image was also used negatively, as a "supporter" of rival political candidates, with the idea that only an idiot would vote for them.  In 1940, those opposing [[Franklin Delano Roosevelt]]'s third-term reelection bid distributed postcards with a similar caricature bearing the caption, "Sure I'm for Roosevelt".  In some instances, there was also the implication that the "idiot" was in fact a [[Jew]]ish caricature. [[Carl Djerassi]]'s autobiography claims that in [[Vienna]] after the [[Anschluss]], he saw posters with a similar face and the caption ''Tod den Juden'' ("Kill the Jews").Some sorts say the images was also lifted from a picture of some kid,in a vintage photograph.
The [[EC Comics|EC]] editors grew up listening to radio, and this was frequently reflected in their stories, names and references. The name "Alfred E. Neuman" derived from comedian [[Henry Morgan (comedian)|Henry Morgan]]'s "Here's Morgan" radio series on Mutual, ABC and NBC. One character on his show had a name that was a reference to composer [[Alfred Newman (composer)|Alfred Newman]], who scored many films and also composed the [[20th Century Fox#Logo and fanfare|familiar fanfare]] that accompanies [[20th Century Fox]]'s opening film logo.{{cite web|url=http://potrzebie.blogspot.com/2008/03/in-early-1950s-bill-gaines-and-harvey.html|title=Kurtzman, Harvey. "That Face on ''Mad'''', February 6, 1975.|publisher=}} The possible inspiration for Henry Morgan was that [[Laird Cregar]] portrayed Sir [[Henry Morgan]] in ''[[The Black Swan (film)|The Black Swan]]'' (1942) with [[Tyrone Power]], and the Oscar-nominated score for that film was by Newman. Listening to the sarcastic Morgan's brash broadcasts, the ''Mad'' staff took note and reworked the name into Neuman, as later recalled by Kurtzman:
{{bquote|The name Alfred E. Neuman was picked up from [[Alfred Newman (composer)|Alfred Newman]], the music arranger from back in the 1940s and 1950s,mixed with the Mayor Alfred E.Smith ,better known as [[Al Smith]]. Actually, we borrowed the name indirectly through ''The Henry Morgan Show''. He was using the name Newman for an innocuous character that you'd forget in five minutes. So we started using the name Alfred Neuman. The readers insisted on putting the name and the face together, and they would call the "What, Me Worry?" face Alfred Neuman.}} Morgan later became a ''Mad'' contributor, with "The Truth about Cowboys" in issue #33.
When ''Mad'' was sued for copyright infringement by a woman claiming to hold the rights to the image, the magazine argued that it had copied the picture from various materials dating back to 1911 (which pre-dated the plaintiff's own claim). The lawsuit was unsuccessful, and the boy's face is now permanently associated with ''Mad''—so much so, in fact, that according to ''Mad'' writer [[Frank Jacobs]], the [[US Post Office]] once delivered a letter to the ''Mad'' offices bearing only a picture of Neuman, without any other address or identifying features.
In 2008, [[Eastern Michigan University]] held an exhibit and symposium on the evolution of Neuman images, dating back to 1877.{{cite web|url=http://www.madmumblings.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3592|title=Mad Mumblings :: View topic – Alfred E. Neuman History Show at EMU in Ypsilanti, Michigan|publisher=|access-date=2008-01-05|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090122043629/http://www.madmumblings.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3592|archive-date=2009-01-22|dead-url=yes|df=}}Kimberly Buchholz, [http://www.emich.edu/focus_emu/010808/winterart.html "Winter Art Series starts off 'Mad'"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120217104023/http://www.emich.edu/focus_emu/010808/winterart.html |date=2012-02-17 }}, ''Focus EMU Online'', Jan. 8, 2008, Eastern Michigan University
Several pre–''New Boy'' images that bear some resemblance to Neuman have also been identified.  A number may be seen on John Adcock's ''Mysteries of Melvin'' blog-posting{{cite web|first=John |last=Adcock |title=Mysteries of Melvin|url= http://john-adcock.blogspot.com/2010/02/mysteries-of-melvin_17.html}}> and another at leconcombre.com.{{cite web|url=http://www.leconcombre.com/concpost/us/postcard4/alfred_e_neuman_documents.html|title=What Me Worry ? – The Idiot Kid|publisher=leconcombre.com}}  The earlier images, however, do not share the missing teeth/tooth or the head-and-shoulders framing and head-on pose.
In 2012, longtime editor [[Nick Meglin]] offered a streamlined, exasperated version of Neuman's origins:
{{bquote|Oh, don't ask me about Alfred E. Neuman.  That story is so old and so meaningless.  Does the average ''[[Playboy]]'' reader care about where the rabbit came from?  It's just a symbol that lets you know what's on the inside.  It's just a name we made up.  We had 20, and that's the one we settled on.{{Cite web |url=http://www.menafn.com/menafn/05067360-756a-4cd7-b74e-ab3922d3da42/Durham-resident-Meglin-to-speak-about-his-MAD-life?src=main |title=Durham resident Meglin to speak about his MAD life |access-date=2012-12-03 |archive-url=https://archive.is/20130128124056/http://www.menafn.com/menafn/05067360-756a-4cd7-b74e-ab3922d3da42/Durham-resident-Meglin-to-speak-about-his-MAD-life?src=main |archive-date=2013-01-28 |dead-url=yes |df= }}}}
==Cultural impact==
[[File:Crazy44.jpg|thumb|Alfred E. Neuman has become so closely associated with ''[[Mad (magazine)|Mad]]'' that the image has even been used to parody the long-running satire magazine itself.]]Over the decades, Neuman has frequently been referenced in outside media, and his face has often appeared in political cartoons as a shorthand for unquestioning stupidity.
Freas painted the August 1971 cover of ''[[National Lampoon (magazine)|National Lampoon]]'' which merged Neuman's features with those of the court-martialed [[Vietnam War]] murderer [[William Calley]], complete with the phrase, 'What, [[My Lai]]?"{{cite web|url=http://www.marksverylarge.com/issue-index/1971-08/|title=''National Lampoon'' Issue #17 – Bummer|publisher=}} However, Neuman's motto has also been referenced in a non-pejorative fashion, as at the [[Woodstock]] Music Festival in 1969. [[Jimi Hendrix]] spoke to the audience about the various changes of personnel in his band, and their lack of rehearsal time, while saying "What, me worry?"  The tenth ''[[American Idol]]'' winner, [[Scotty McCreery]], has a striking resemblance to Neuman.  When judge [[Steven Tyler]] pointed this out on the show, McCreery replied, "What, me worry?"
In an extended sequence of the comic strip ''[[Peanuts]]'' from 1973 (later recreated in the 1983 TV special ''It's An Adventure, Charlie Brown''), [[Charlie Brown]] becomes so obsessed with baseball that everything round starts looking like a baseball to him. Soon his own round head develops a rash that makes the back of his skull look like a baseball, and he starts wearing a paper bag on his head to hide it. Ironically, while hidden from view, his popularity and respect increase. He is referred to by the other campers as "Mr. Sack" or "Sack", but is also voted camp president and is widely admired. The rash eventually fades from his head, but Charlie Brown still fears that the next round thing he expects to see—a sunrise—may continue to look like a baseball. When the sun does rise, it instead looks like Neuman, with a halo reading: "What! Me Worry?"! {{cite web|url=http://www.peanuts.com/comicstrips/3261561/|title=Peanuts, July 5, 1973}}{{cite web|url=http://www.animationnation.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=8;t=001436;p=|title=Animation Nation|publisher=}}
Neuman also appeared as a sight gag in the March 27, 1967, installment of the comic strip ''[[Beetle Bailey]]'', as an inspector general.Walker, Mort. ''I Don't Want to be Out Here Any More Than You Do, Beetle Bailey''. New York: Tempo books, 1970. {{ISBN|0-448-12256-1}} He can also be spotted in ''[[The Amazing Spider-Man]]'' #300, helping [[Spider-Man|Peter Parker]] and [[Mary Jane Watson|Mary Jane]] move into their new house, while saying, "Darn! I'm missing the [[New Jersey Nets|Nets]] game! That makes me Mad!" Similarly, when, in 1959's ''[[Superman (comic book)|Superman]]'' #126, [[Superman]] decides to test [[Lois Lane]] by removing a rubber Superman mask in order to reveal his "real" identity, his identity is none other than Neuman. [[DC Comics]]' "[[Joker (comics)|Emperor Joker]]" storyline includes a cult that worships a deity named Alfred E.; the high priest of this cult wears a mask identical to Neuman's face.
Neuman and ''Mad'' have been referenced several times on the animated series ''[[The Simpsons]]''. In the episode "[[Marge in Chains]]", [[Marge Simpson|Marge]] is arrested and in prison she meets an inmate called Tattoo Annie who has a [[Mad fold-in|fold-in]] tattoo that reveals Neuman with the text: "What me Worry?". The original phrase was "What kind of slime would I marry?". In the episode "[[The City of New York vs. Homer Simpson]]", [[Bart Simpson|Bart]] comes into contact with Neuman during a visit to the ''Mad'' offices. Neuman demands to see "Kaputnik and Fonebone" (which are references to deceased long-time ''Mad'' artists [[Dave Berg (cartoonist)|Dave Berg]] and [[Don Martin (cartoonist)|Don Martin]], respectively) for their work on ''New Kids on the Blecch'' (which would later become the title of another episode), and requests some "furshlugginer [[pastrami]] sandwiches". An awestruck Bart announces that he will "never wash these eyes again". In the episode "[[New Kids on the Blecch]]", Bart's boy band is booked to play a gig on an aircraft carrier, but their band manager plots to use the craft's weaponry to destroy the ''Mad'' offices when he discovers the magazine plans to publish a defamatory article about the band. ''Mad'''s New York headquarters were depicted as a skyscraper similar to the [[Chrysler Building]] with a giant three-dimensional replica of Neuman's head mounted on the roof.  In the episode "[[Father Knows Worst]]", Homer and Bart visit a hobby shop that includes an [[Aurora Plastics Corporation|Aurora model]]-style kit of Neuman holding several protest signs.
In a segment of his 1958 television special, [[Fred Astaire]] danced while wearing a rubber Neuman mask.Reidelbach, Maria, ''Completely Mad'', pg. 203, Little Brown & Co., 1991. ''[[Mystery Science Theater 3000]]'' made multiple references to Neuman, including episode #602 featuring ''[[Invasion U.S.A. (1952 film)|Invasion U.S.A.]]'' Upon seeing director [[Alfred E. Green]]'s name in the film's opening credits, [[Crow T. Robot]], in a slightly idiotic tone, riffs "What? Me direct?" An animated 1996 sketch on ''[[MADtv]]'' combining ''[[Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer]]'' with ''[[The Godfather]]'' was credited to "[[Mario Puzo|Alfred E. Puzo]]" and "[[Francis Ford Coppola|Francis E. Neuman]]".
Another homage to the name was "Al Freddy Newham", as used on the cover of the April 1967 issue of the amateur radio enthusiast's ''[[73 (magazine)|73 Magazine]]'', preparing to ineptly solder the frayed cord of a soldering gun with the same damaged gun.{{cite web|url=http://www.radiolabworks.com/73mag/73_6.html|title=73 Magazine – Mad Parody Cover|publisher=}}  Neuman appears briefly, in clay animated form, in Jimmy Picker's 1983 stop motion animated film, ''Sundae in New York''.  He also makes a cameo in the 1988 [[Daffy Duck]] cartoon ''[[The Night of the Living Duck]]''. A [[doodle]] of Neuman appears on a soldier's helmet in [[Oliver Stone]]'s 1986 Vietnam film ''[[Platoon (film)|Platoon]]''.  Lyrically, Neuman is invoked by the [[Beastie Boys]] on their song "[[Shadrach (Beastie Boys song)|Shadrach]]".{{cite web|url=http://www.sklar.com/page/article/shadrach |title=A Postmodern Analysis of Beastie Boys' "Shadrach" |publisher=sklar.com |date= |accessdate=2010-07-10}} A 1980 ''[[Password Plus]]'' episode featured Neuman's name as an answer, using the clues "Freckles", "Mad", "Magazine", "Cover", and "Kid". ([[Elaine Joyce]] solved the puzzle after "Cover"). He can be glimpsed holding a fish on the cover of the album ''[[Slow Motion (Man album)|Slow Motion]]'' by [[Man (band)|Man]].
A statue of Neuman can be found at the [[Dort Mall]] in [[Flint, Michigan]].{{cite web|url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/the_mel/9363398782/in/photolist-fgpSf3-DwZzT |title=Statue of Neuman at the Dort Mall in Flint, Michigan |publisher=flickr.com |date= |accessdate=2018-09-20}}
===Politics===
During the [[Presidency of George W. Bush|administration]] of [[United States]] President George W. Bush, Neuman's features were frequently merged with those of Bush by editorial cartoonists such as [[Mike Luckovich]] and [[Tom Tomorrow]]. The image has also appeared on magazine covers, notably ''[[The Nation]]''.{{cite web|url=http://www.thenation.com/issue/november-13-2000|title=''The Nation'' November 13 2000|date=13 November 2000|publisher=}} A large Bush/Neuman poster was part of the Washington protests that accompanied Bush's 2001 inauguration. The alleged resemblance between the two has been noted more than once by [[Hillary Clinton]]. On July 10, 2005, speaking at the Aspen Institute's Ideas Festival, she said, "I sometimes feel that Alfred E. Neuman is in charge in Washington," referring to Bush's purported "What, me worry?" attitude.[http://www.nydailynews.com/archives/news/2005/07/12/2005-07-12_gop_big_mad_over_hil_zinger.html Joe Mahoney. "GOP BIG MAD OVER HIL ZINGER"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100404152023/http://www.nydailynews.com/archives/news/2005/07/12/2005-07-12_gop_big_mad_over_hil_zinger.html |date=2010-04-04 }} ''[[New York Daily News]]'' July 12, 2005 At the October 2008 [[Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner]], then-Presidential candidate [[Barack Obama]] joked, "It's often been said that I share the politics of [[Alfred E. Smith]] and the ears of Neuman."{{cite news| url=https://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/17/us/politics/17smith.html | work=The New York Times | title=At Dinner, McCain and Obama Share Some Laughs. No Joke | first1=Michael | last1=Cooper | first2=Jeff | last2=Zeleny | date=October 17, 2008}}
During an interview on May 10, 2019, President [[Donald Trump]] said "Alfred E. Neuman cannot become president of the United States", in reference to presidential candidate [[Pete Buttigieg]].{{cite web|url=https://www.politico.com/story/2019/05/10/trump-pete-buttigieg-nickname-1317460|title=Trump’s new nickname for Pete Buttigieg: ‘Alfred E. Neuman’|author=Daniel Lippman, Andrew Restuccia and Eliana Johnson|publisher=Politico |date=2019-05-10 |accessdate=2019-05-11}} [[Mad (magazine)|''Mad'' magazine]] also referenced Pete Buttigieg on social media.{{Cite web|url=https://politi.co/2PVk2vh|title=Mad magazine trolls Buttigieg on Trump nickname response|last=Forgey|first=Quint|website=POLITICO|language=en|access-date=2019-05-13}}
Neuman's features have also been compared to others in the public eye, including [[Prince Charles]], [[Rick Astley]], [[MC Pedrinho]], [[Ted Koppel]], [[Oliver North]], [[Pete Buttigieg]] and [[David Letterman]].{{cite web|title=The Long, Tangled History of Alfred E. Neuman|url=https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2016/03/03/a-boy-with-no-birthday-turns-sixty/|accessdate=8 April 2019}} German weekly [[Der Spiegel]] merged Neuman's likeness with that of then candidate for [[Conservative Party (UK)|British Conservative Party]] leadership [[Boris Johnson]] for their July 20, 2019 issue.{{cite web|url=https://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/what-a-prime-minister-boris-johnson-could-mean-for-europe-a-1278073.html|title= Mad in Britain: How Boris Johnson Turned the British against Europe |last=Schindler|first=Jörg|website=Spiegel Online|language=en|access-date=2019-07-23}}
==References==
{{reflist|30em}}
==External links==
{{Commons category|Alfred E. Neuman}}
* [http://www.toonopedia.com/alfred_e.htm Alfred E. Neuman] at [[Don Markstein's Toonopedia]]. [https://www.webcitation.org/6bCR6GWaM?url=http%3A%2F%2Ftoonopedia.com%2Falfred_e.htm Archived] from the original on August 31, 2015.
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20100324051541/http://www.madtrash.com/simpsons/ Alfred E. Neuman in ''The Simpsons'']
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20090905001320/http://www.nydailynews.com/archives/news/2005/04/12/2005-04-12_party_gotta_fight_back__sez_.html ''New York Daily News'': Senator Hillary Clinton compares George W. Bush with Alfred E. Neuman]
* [http://wfmuichiban.blogspot.com/2012/03/its-gas.html 1962 advertisement for a $4.95 Alfred E. Neuman mask]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20090122043629/http://www.madmumblings.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3592 19th-century Neuman images]
* [http://www.toledoblade.com/Art/2008/01/20/Mad-for-Alfred-A-new-exhibit-shows-Mad-magazine-s-poster-boy-has-a-shadowy-past.html Article showing early Alfred images]
* [http://madtrash.com/the-origin-of-neuman-dept/ The Origins of Neuman - The Bizarre History of a 125-Year-Old Fool]
{{Mad magazine}}
{{Authority control}}
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[[Category:American comics characters]]
[[Category:American mascots]]
[[Category:Comedy characters]]
[[Category:Mad (magazine)]]
[[Category:Magazine mascots]]
[[Category:Male characters in comics]]

In 1954, Mad Magazine artist Harvey Kurtzman plucked a postcard from a bulletin board in a colleague’s office that featured a boy (or was it a man) with a goofy, gap-toothed grin and uttering the two-part, fatalistic, rhetorical question, “What? Me Worry?” The image itself was not new; Kurtzman was familiar with the image as one associated with “funny picture postcards in Times Square penny arcades and tourist traps.” After several minor appearances in the magazine, Norman Mingo’s full-color re-imagining of the postcard image appeared on the cover of Mad Magazine #30 in December, 1956, replete with the “What, Me Worry” catch phrase, assuming his rightful position as trademark and cover-boy for Mad magazine.



[(You can read the hidden history of another red-headed pop-culture icon here: Bozo)]

But where did that image originate? For years, legions of books, websites, and online forums have debated and analyzed the origins of the image. The upshot of all the discussion was, basically, that Alfred E. Neuman is a copy of a copy of a copy of an image that bounced around for decades in various guises - political buttons, silly postcards, ads for painless dentistry, and Nazi anti-semitic propaganda posters. No one could identify the image that started it all, although some people suggested that the image evolved from a tradition of cartoonish and racist depictions of Irish immigrants from the mid- to late-19^th Century America.








Until now, the the earliest known, fully Neuman-esque image has been “The Kid,” a member of “A Pie Family,” who appeared in a print advertisement for Atmore’s Mince Meat and Genuine English Plum Pudding. The advertisement appeared in the New York edition of the Illustrated London News and McClures magazine in 1895. Although some earlier, pre-1895 cartoon images seemed to bear some resemblance to Alfred E. Neuman, those images are not presented in the head-and-shoulders, frontal view and do not show a missing tooth.


John E. Hett, writing in The Journal of Madness (#14, 2002), noted that, “[t]his image was the first to standardize the clothing and contained the now famous missing tooth.” He also suggested that The Kid may have been one of the most widely distributed Neuman-like images of the 1890s, and as such may have been one of the most influential in the evolution of Alfred E. Neuman. In her book, Completely Mad, Maria Reidelbach wrote that, “[d]ating from 1895, this is the oldest verified image of the boy. . . . The kid’s features are fully developed and unmistakable, and the image was very likely taken from an older archetype that has yet to be found.”










I have found the missing “archetype.” It is not an advertisement for dental services or pies and is not an anti-Irish cartoon. Before he advertised pies and long before he became Alfred E. Neuman, the trademark face of Mad Magazine, he was the face of the comic farce stage play, the blockbuster hit of 1894, The New Boy. The Los Angeles Herald (November 7, 1894) reported, in words that may just as well have been intended for Alfred E. Neuman, that the, “comic red-headed urchin with a joyous grin all over his freckled face, whose phiz [(face)] is the trademark of the comedy, is so expressive of the rollicking and ridiculous that the New York Herald and the Evening Telegram have applied it to political cartoon purposes.”






Alfred E. Neuman did not only inherit his good looks from this image; he also inherited his devil-may-care attitude and his penchant for political satire and pop culture parody. From its first days, The New Boy captured and expressed all of the familiar visual and comedic qualities of Alfred E. Neuman. That The New Boy would mature into a NeuMan was fate, kismet, destiny.


The New Boy image depicts the play’s title character, Archibald Rennick, who is enrolled as the ‘new boy’ in school. The image displays all of the familiar visual characteristics of Alfred E. Neuman, a head-and-shoulders frontal view, a boyish face, an incongruous Adam’s apple, a wide grin with missing teeth, lazy eyes, tousled hair, big ears and a coat and tie. The only real difference is that the New Boy wears an Eton jacket over a shirt with an Eton collar that is folded over and lies outside of the jacket collar. Alfred wears a more conventional collar tucked inside of the jacket.


Like Alfred E. Neuman, The New Boy image is paired with a slogan that conveys the mood expressed by his facial expression. The New Boy’s two-part, fatalistic, rhetorical question, “What’s the good of anything? – Nothing!”, similar in tone and format to Neuman’s What? Me Worry? catch phrase. Although Neuman’s slogan is now generally not hyphenated, it was hyphenated when it first appeared alongside a full-sized Alfred E. Neuman on the cover of Mad Magazine in December 1956. The postcard from which Mad borrowed the image also used a hyphen in the phrase.


It must have been a perfect storm of artistic achievement by the producer, the actor, the wardrobe designer, the playwright and the poster artist that captured an image that has resonated with the public for more than a century.



(Watch a two-minute (or less) summary of the History of Alfred E. Neuman - click here.)


The New Boy


The New Boy was a farce comedy about Archibald Rennick, a small, young-looking, thirty-year-old man who is married to an older, matronly widow with a fourteen-year-old son. They are down on their luck, Archibald having lost his nest egg in a bad investment in ‘dry champagne’ company. As the play opens, he and his wife are on their way to visit the headmaster of a school on the hopes that he will offer her a job as matron of the school.


The headmaster, one of Mrs. Rennick’s former suitors (and her first cousin, once removed), does not know that she has remarried and mistakes Archibald for her son. He also demonstrates his devotion to his former paramour by promising to will his estate to her on the condition that she never remarries. In order to save her job prospects and her potential inheritance, they maintain the fiction and enroll him in the school. Archibald, the ‘new boy’ in school, is hazed by his classmates and romanced by the young daughter of one of his teachers. Hilarity ensues.


When it opened, The New Boy was considered a progressive form of farce comedy, in the vein of the more well-known Charley’s Aunt that had just opened the previous year. Charley’s Aunt also takes place at a school (a university), involves a widow (Charley’s aunt), mistaken identity (she’s not really Charley’s aunt) and champagne (real champagne). The aunt is actually Charley’s college chum in drag, posing as Charley’s rich, widowed aunt. The ‘aunt’ is supposed to distract Charley’s and his roommate’s sweethearts’ chaperone while so that they can get some quality time with the visiting girls. Charley’s Aunt enjoyed long-term international success, including a film version with Jack Benny in the title role. It is still performed regularly. The New Boy, on the other hand, has not aged as well; almost all traces of it have completely disappeared. Only its iconic advertising image survives in the guise of Alfred E. Neuman.


The New Boy was an immediate success when it opened in London on February 28, 1894, where it ran for fourteen months. The play inspired Mad-Magazine-like satirical jabs at authority figures even before the show came to America. The New Boy was still a big hit in June of 1894 when His Highness Prince Edward of York (the future King Edward VIII of England) was born; the English press reportedly referred to him jokingly as The New Boy. The joke would return to haunt his grand-nephew over sixty years later.


In 1958, King Edward VIII’s grand-nephew, Prince Charles, was mistaken for The New Boy’s great-grandson Alfred E. Neuman in 1958. According to Totally Mad: 60 Years of Humor, Satire, Stupidity and Stupidity, a photograph of Prince Charles that year prompted a number of readers to write letters to Mad Magazine pointing out the resemblance and Mad Magazine published several of those reader letters. Shortly thereafter, Mad Magazine received a handwritten note, signed “Charles P.,” printed on apparently authentic royal stationery, and bearing an appropriate postmark from a post office near Buckingham palace. The note read, “No it isn’t a bit – not the least little bit like me. So jolly well stow it! See!”






Charles Frohman purchased the American rights to the play in March 1894. Charles Frohman and his brothers Daniel and Gustave were some of the most powerful and successful producers in America. Charles Frohman even produced the original production of Peter Pan in London in 1904. In a twist of fate sadly reminiscent of Mad Magazine’s September, 1973 cover art lampooning the Poseidon Adventure, Charles Frohman died in the sinking of the Lusitania in 1915. Charles Frohman produced the original Broadway run and ‘original cast’ tour of The New Boy. Gustave Frohman produced a national tour that began during the original Broadway run and lasted for more than a year.

[See a Full-Color poster for Gustave Frohmann's original New York Production here: The Original Real Alfred E.]


The New Boy opened at the Standard Theatre on Broadway (Sixth Ave. and 33^rd St.) on September 17, 1894 with the Englishman Willis Searle in the lead role. Searle had previously starred in a South African production of Charley’s Aunt. The opening was marred by terrible reviews blamed largely on Searle’s poor performance. In his autobiography, Twinkle Little Star, Sparkling Memories of Seventy Years, James T. Powers recounts that Charles Frohman offered him the role on the day after opening night, promising to give him a “big spread in the newspapers and advertise [him] as ‘The New, New Boy.’” When Powers assumed the role on October 9, 1894, The New Boy was “greatly improved” (The World, October 20, 1894) and “a big hit, the first semblance of great success” that would “go like wildfire now” (The New York Times, October 10, 1894).


Searle then spent some time touring with one of Frohman’s minor touring companies of Charley’s Aunt, but was back in England by the following July. The Evening World, somewhat cattily (perhaps a lot cattily), reported that Searle was back in England “flaunting before managers eloquent tributes of his success, as set forth by the critics of Memphis, Indianapolis, Dallas, Chattanooga and other eminently literary centres.” That was the last report on Willis Searle that I was able to find.


James T. Powers performed the role through the end of its Broadway run in Early December, 1894 and continue performing the role on the ‘original cast’ tour through April, 1895. Bert Coote played the role in the first national tour that started in mid-November, 1894 and continued for more than a year, ending in early 1896. Bert Coote later purchased the rights to produce the play himself. His independent production toured the country through 1899.











The play itself was apparently not the only thing that was funny about The New Boy. The poster and advertising image struck a chord with the public. The Los Angeles Herald (November 7, 1894), in an article about the New York theater scene, remarked that the,



. . . comic red-headed urchin with a joyous grin all over his freckled face, whose phiz [(face)] is the trademark of the comedy, is so expressive of the rollicking and ridiculous that the New York Herald and the Evening Telegram have applied it to political cartoon purposes.








The image inspired Mad Magazine-style political satire from its inception. A cartoon with the same look and layout of The New Boy poster, appeared on the front page of The Evening Telegram (New York) on September 22, 1894, just five days after opening night. The cartoon depicts New York Congressman Lemuel Ely Quigg as the New Boy, complete with big ears, wide grin, wide collar and missing teeth. Where the poster identifies the play as being written, “by Arthur Law,” the cartoon suggests that Quigg blundered into his post, “by A.C.Cident”. In place of the producer’s name, the cartoon suggests that Quigg is controlled by, “Management T. C. Platt,” a reference to local Republican Party boss Thomas C. Platt. The cartoon lampoons Quigg’s purported non-progressive politics with the phrase, “What’s the good of reform? Nothing.”









Thomas C. Platt was himself the frequent target of political cartoonists. A member of the United States Senate, he used his Republican Party-boss influence to sponsor the Anti-Cartoon Bill in the New York legislature in 1897, as aptly lampooned in a period political cartoon; Platt is pictured on the right. I guess he is lucky that he wasn’t around sixty years later to receive the full Mad Magazine treatment.


The New Boy poster reproduced above is from Bert Coote’s independent tour. Its resemblance to the newspaper advertisements and political cartoon from 1894, however, suggests that the poster for the original New York production would have been nearly identical.


The New Boy advertising image also inspired Mad Magazine-like pop-culture parody, complete with juvenile potty humor and mild sexual titillation. Since there were no movies, as such, and no movie stars in 1894, the targets of the parody were stage plays and the stars of the stage. The New Boy poster was featured in a surreal humor piece that appeared in the Washington Times on December 30, 1894, the day before James T. Powers and the ‘original cast’ tour opened in Washington DC.



The piece imagines what would happen if the actors or their characters as shown on advertising posters were to come to life after being pasted on a fence. The New Boy is said to be, “in hysterics; nothing but the paste upon his back sustained him from falling down in a dead faint.” When the ‘living picture’ of Venus at the Baths tries to revive him with her towel, the New Boy remarks, "What's the Good of Anything? Nothing!” When another character expresses displeasure with being posted on a fence, “Jimmie Powers” says, “you'll soon get used to it, my dear. . . . For myself, now and then, when the paste has been watered one is apt to get damp sheets. I don't like that, of course, but what's the good of anything? Nothing!" There are more jokes, more characters and actors parodied, all of which might be funnier to people who are more in touch with late 19^th Century pop culture and comedic norms, but you get the idea.



The New Boy poster and/or newspaper advertisement image would likely have been seen in every city where the show played during its three tours over a span of more than five years. The original Broadway run with Willis Searle and James T. Powers in the lead role lasted for one hundred performances. The ‘original cast,’ with James T. Powers, went on a tour of the Eastern Seaboard and several large, Midwestern cities, including Brooklyn, Williamsburg, Baltimore, Boston, Washington DC, Elmira, Schenectady, Chicago, Detroit and Kansas City. They even performed a brief return engagement at the American Theatre on 42d Street, in the same spot where, decades later, Mad Magazine’s Bill Gaines would remember having seen the “what? – me worry” postcards for sale in tourist traps and souvenir stands.



Gustave Frohman’s national tour began in mid-November, 1894 and crisscrossed the country continuously into 1896. The tour performed The New Boy in locations as far flung as Iowa, Utah, California, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Vermont, New York City (uptown in Harlem), Philadelphia, Georgia, Virginia, and Texas, that we know of, and likely many more. Bert Coote’s independent production took The New Boy “north, south, east and west” well into 1899 (The Mail and Empire (Toronto) March 20, 1899). He may have even been performed the show in the new century; the Albuquerque Daily Citizen of November 29, 1899 reported that Bert Coote was scheduled to appear in The New Boy during “the present season.” The three tours visited most, if not all, major cities, many, if not all, smaller cities, and presumably numerous other smaller towns and hamlets across the entire United States and Canada over a five year span.



In addition to the newspaper advertisements and posters, the image may also have been promoted on match box covers. The World (August 11, 1894) reported that:



Of the making of theatrical advertisements there is seemingly no end. It is certainly an ingenious thought to purchase a small match factory In Germany and use the matches for advertising a London play. This is what Mr. Perryman, the backer of "The New Boy," has done. Each match-box bears on one side a picture of Weedon Grossmith in a Juvenile sailor suit, and on the reverse an explanatory inscription.



The German matchbox connection may explain the reported appearances of the image in a 1909 calendar in Germany, as described in Totally Mad, and on Nazi propaganda posters in pre-war, German-annexed Austria, as described in Carl Djerassi’s article The Quest for Alfred E. Neuman, in which he recounts his emotions upon recognizing Alfred E. Neuman as the face from anti-Semitic posters posted by the Nazis in his native Vienna, Austria after the Anschluss.
















Charles Frohman may well have used the same match factory to make match boxes promoting The New Boy. It is also possible that Frohman’s production used the same advertising image. I have not done an exhaustive study of advertising posters for the same shows on both sides of the Atlantic, but it appears that at least one other show, The Gaiety Girls, used the same poster in London and New York during the same period. A political cartoon from the New York Evening Telegram of October 1, 1894 (presumably based on a poster for the New York production that was then playing at Daly’s Theater and with which readers would have been familiar) recreates the design and layout of a poster for the London production of The Gaiety Girls. I do not know how common this practice was or whether the American advertising image was the same as the one used in England or not. It is at least a possibility.


The New Boy Image is Original and not Derivative


OK, I know what some of you are thinking. Sure, the New Boy advertising image was funny, and it looks a lot like later images, but was it original? Or is it just one more in an even longer line of imitations or perhaps one more step in evolution of anti-Irish cartoons? The plot and production details of The New Boy suggest that the image is an original, unique image created for the play and not a stock image borrowed from earlier sources and is not an anti-Irish reference.


The fact that so many of the other, similar images cropped up soon after the play opened, and none of them before, suggest that the image originated with The New Boy. The pre-1894 cartoon images that bear some resemblance to Alfred E. Neuman may just be random look-a-likes of a funny type, in the same way that Howdie Doodie, Opie Taylor, Richie Cunningham, Ron Howard, Rick Astley and the young Prince Charles looked like Alfred E. Neuman. Let’s face it, red-headed kids with big ears are just funny, a painful lesson that my brother and I learned at a young age, as did our father, uncle and grandfather before us.



The main character’s name is Archibald Rennick. The Rennick Family History page on ancestry.com tells us that the name Rennick is most concentrated in Northern England; it is not Irish. Three of the actors known to have played Archibald Rennick, Weedon Grossmith, Willis Searle and Bert Coote, were Englishmen, not Irishmen. Although James T. Powers, whose raised the level of success of The New Boy in the United States, was a third-generation Irish-American, he did not perform in the role until weeks after the original advertising poster was parodied in the Evening Telegram. I have not been able to definitively determine whose image is represented in the advertising images that still survive. In any case, the image seems to have been inspired more by the comedic content of the play and not by any anti-Irish animus.

I am not discounting that there may have been a tradition of anti-Irish cartoon images that featured common facial characteristics, I am just not convinced that The New Boy advertising image and its progeny fall into that category.



Archibald Rennick is a thirty-year old man who is small enough and young-looking enough to be mistaken for his fourteen-year-old step-son. The age and youthful appearance of the character explain the weird conjunction of the boyish look and Adams apple that first appeared in the original advertising image and persists in Alfred E. Neuman today.



In the original advertising image, Archibald Rennick is shown with two missing, front teeth. Nearly all of the later imitators, including Alfred E. Neuman are missing at least one tooth and none of the pre-1894 cartoons are missing teeth. Although the printed version of the play, published ten years later in 1904, does not mention losing teeth or missing teeth, the prominence of the missing teeth in the advertising image suggests that the missing teeth or the loss of the teeth must have been an important element in at least the American production of The New Boy.



The story of The New Boy provides several opportunities for Archibald to lose his front teeth; he is forced to play football, hazed by his classmates, and roughed up by his roommate who is described as a pugilist in the script. A photograph of Weedon Grossmith from the London production shows the roommate, Bullock, holding Archibald with one hand and threatening him with a closed fist in his other hand, while Archibald shields his face with a forearm.



My guess, however, is that he may have lost his teeth during the football game, which seems to have been a highlight of the show, at least in the American production. At the close of the first act, Archibald is said to have tumbled onto the stage, injured, as part of a football game that has been going on off-stage and that the audience has only heard up until that moment. The football game is mentioned favorably in several reviews. The Evening Star (Washington DC, January 1, 1895) noted that the football game, “is made intensely exciting and natural by bringing on the stage the wrecks of the rush in various stages of dilapidation and disintegration,” and the Boston Daily Globe (February 10, 1895) said that Powers’ performance “scored a touchdown.”

The description of bringing the “wrecks of the rush” onstage seems different from the published version of the play, in which Archibald comes onstage alone. The American production may have included other modifications, including the missing teeth and changing the game from the original Rugby to American football.



Missing teeth were certainly a common feature of American football players in the 1890s. Nose protectors and leather head harnesses (precursors of the leather helmet) were in their infancy and were not in universal use (and perhaps not very protective in any case, when in use) and proper helmets with facemasks were still decades down the road. The following excerpt from a poem about football that was reprinted in numerous newspapers in 1895 reflects what may have been a popular impression of the game:


O, hurrah for the lad with the lusty legs


And the glad, vociferous shout;


Football he can play in the orthodox way


And kick your front teeth out.



Of course, even if he did not lose the teeth in the football game, he lost his teeth somewhere, perhaps during his mistreatment at the hands of his classmates or his roommate. In any case, the feature of the missing tooth seems to have originated with the advertising image for The New Boy.






In The New Boy, Archibald wears his fourteen-year-old step-son’s clothing in order to appear more child-like. The script describes him as wearing a ‘boy’s sailor suit with knickerbockers’ in Act II and an ‘Eton jacket’ and trousers in Act III. An Eton collar, traditionally worn with an Eton jacket, is a large, stiff, turned-over collar that is generally worn over and outside of the collar of the jacket (a precursor to the leisure suit, perhaps?). An article on men’s fashion in the Los Angeles Herald (December 16, 1894) reports Eton collars as being in fashion for young men and mentions that sailor suits are “ever-popular” for boys as old as twelve.














Photographs of James T. Powers as the New Boy show him mugging for the camera with tousled hair, a cowlick, a silly, wide grin and wearing what appear to be sailor suits. Several photographs of Weedon Grossmith in the role show him wearing a sailor suit and knickerbockers. A photograph of Bert Coote and another photograph of Weedon Grossmith in the role show them in what appears to be the Eton jacket over a shirt with a wide Eton collar worn over the Jacket collar. The photograph of Grossmith is from the back but the photograph of Coote shows him fron the front with a vest and a tie.








I am not fashion-savvy enough to distinguish between an Eton collar and a wide sailor suit collar, but The New Boy advertising image may be consistent with either one; it shows at least a wide collar. A close look at the poster version, however, leads me to believe that it is an Eton jacket over a shirt with an Eton-collar, a vest and a tie, similar to the outfit shown in a photograph of Bert Coote in the role. The wide collar is included in many of the early imitators, including the Atmore’s advertisement of 1895, a 1907 Antikamnia calendar, Maloney’s Wedding Day advertisements and many of the ‘painless’ dentistry advertisements. Alfred E. Neuman also has a jacket and tie, but with a more modern shirt collar tucked inside of the jacket.


The plot points of the character’s age, the football game or rough treatment (and the attendant missing teeth) and the wide collars all suggest that the advertising image for The New Boy was an original creation made to promote the production and not copied from earlier sources.


The thematic elements of the play, relating to nothing being worth anything, and therefore not being worth worrying about, also suggest that The New Boy advertising image is original to the play. The phrase, “What’s the good of anything? – Nothing!” was used to advertise The New Boy in the United States from before opening night on Broadway. Although the published script of the play does not include that phrase, verbatim, it does include the lines:



“What’s the good of self-denial; what’s the good of self-sacrifice? For years I’ve humored his infernal fancies, eaten his tough mutton, praised his cheap sherry, agreed with him in everything, listened to his old stories, laughed at his stale jokes, and all for this - this!”



The lines in the published version of the play are not spoken by the Archibald Rennick, but by the man who, until the Rennicks showed up, had expected to inherit the headmaster’s wealth. He speaks the lines shortly after learning of her imminent arrival, when he realizes that his plans for his potential fortune are going up in smoke. He is worried that all of his obsequious efforts to curry favor with the headmaster over the years may not pay off in the end. Archibald Rennick’s character has similar concerns about past efforts not paying off – he is in financial straits due to his bad investment in ‘dry champagne.’ The American production may even have been revised so that he would speak the catch phrase during the play.

The theme of hard work not paying off or at least not reliable is summed up in the play’s catch phrase, “What’s the good of anything? Nothing?” If nothing is worth anything there is no need to worry about it. Ergo, as the headmaster might say, the premise supports the corollary, “What? Me worry?”




The look of the actors who portrayed Archibald Rennick in the American productions also support a finding that The New Boy advertising image is original to the show, and not borrowed from earlier, possibly anti-Irish cartoon images. The Oxford Companion to American Theatre describes James T. Powers as a “small, red‐headed, rubber‐faced comedian . . . with a face quite as grotesque as a gargoyle,” which is consistent with the description of The New Boy as a “comic red-headed urchin with a joyous grin all over his freckled face” and equally applicable to Alfred E. Neuman. James T. Powers was a cartoonish-looking, third-generation Irish-American, not an anti-Irish cartoon. Published images of Powers show a face that looks almost more like Alfred E. Neuman than the original New Boy advertising image.















Given Powers’ continued popularity and high profile, it is quite possible that the artists who created the what-me-worry images in the 1910s may have associated Powers’ face with the image and may have, consciously or sub-consciously, modified the facial features to more closely resemble Powers.

Powers was a successful actor who toured and performed across the United States almost continuously well into the 1910s. His distinctive face was well-known and often printed in newspapers, magazines, sheet music and who had appeared in the ‘original cast’ tour of The New Boy barely fifteen years earlier. In 1902, his popularity was such that he was featured as the Jack of diamonds in Croddock’s Blue Soap promotional playing cards that featured 53 of the biggest stars of the time. In 1910 he was still popular enough to be featured in the book, The American Stage of Today: Biographies and Photographs of One Hundred Leading Actors and Actresses.



Powers was also well-connected in theatrical and artistic circles. He was friendly with Thomas Nast, the well-known late nineteenth century political cartoonist who is credited (or accused), by some, of having drawing several early, racist, anti-Irish proto-Neuman cartoons. He starred in the first production of a play written J. M. Barrie (who later wrote Peter Pan). Powers’ wife, Rachel Booth, was a member of the Booth family acting dynasty and distant relative of John Wilkes Booth. He was also a close friend with the Barrymore acting clan, an acquaintance of Mark Twain, and met the Prince of Wales on more than one occasion.


Bert Coote, who starred in the national tour and his own, independent tour, came from a well-known family of actors from England. Lewis Carroll, who wrote Alice in Wonderland, was so impressed by a young Bert Coote and his sister that he wrote about them in his diary. The following excerpts are from The Life and Letters of Lewis Carroll:



"Little Bertie Coote, aged ten, was a clown – a wonderfully clever little fellow; and Carrie Coote, about eight was Columbine, a very pretty graceful little thing. In a few years’ time she will be just the child to act “Alice,” if it is ever dramatized. . . . Little Bertie Coote, singing “Hot Codlings,” was curiously like the pictures of Grimaldi."



He does not seem to have been as well known as James T. Powers, but he had a long career as a vaudeville performer in the United States and England. He wrote a popular Christmas play for children in the 1920s, The Magic Windmill. He even made a few Hollywood films in the early 1930s. His son, Robert Coote, would have a long career on Broadway and as a character actor in Hollywood films. Black-and-white photographs of Bert Coote show him to have light hair, consistent with red hair.



Willis Searle, the first man to play Archibald Rennick on Broadway, is more of an enigma. I have not been able to unearth any descriptions of him or photographs of him. Nor have I been able to learn anything about his career, other than his brief stint in The New Boy and his performances of Charley’s Aunt in South Africa and mid-America. It is ironic, perhaps, that his biggest role and longest-lasting contribution may be completely un-credited; he could well be the face in the original poster for The New Boy.



We know that the original The New Boy poster was similar to the poster for Bert Coote’s independent production because the political cartoon published five days after opening night and more than two weeks before Powers first performed the role. Although Powers was offered the role on the day after opening night – and promised a big advertising campaign, what is the likelihood that Frohman could produce a new poster and distribute a new poster in less than four days?


The newspaper advertisements, the earliest one of which I could find appeared in The Morning Call (San Francisco, November 18, 1894), appears to be a simplified sketch of the face that appears on the later, Coote production poster. The poster from Bert Coote’s production several years later has a similar layout and design as the political cartoon of September 22, 1894 and is consistent with the poster described in the humor piece that appeared in Washington Times in December 1894. It seems likely that Charles Frohman would have commissioned an advertising poster to advertise opening night and that the poster would have been based on Willis Searle, if anyone.














Weedon Grossmith does not seem to have been a red-head. Several photographs of Grossmith in character as The New Boy and a tinted or colorized print from the book, Players of the Day (1902) show him with dark hair, a long face and a hang-dog expression. None of the images of Grossmith in the role show him mugging for the camera with the wide, silly grin that was important enough to the American production to have been featured in its advertising poster and photographs of Powers in the role.



Since Powers was a red-head and Coote looks as though he might be a red-head and since the original advertising poster shows a freckled person consistent with the trademark face described in the newspaper as a “red-headed urchin” – it seems possible that Frohman envisioned a funny-looking red-head in the role, and may have hired actors who fit the desired look to fill the part. Of course, if anyone ever finds a poster for the London production we may find out that the image originated in England.



Alfred E. Neuman is the heir to the largely forgotten comic legacy of Arthur Law play, The New Boy, Charles Frohman’s genius for promotion, the actors' gifts of comedic expression, and the poster artist’s talent in capturing the mood of the play. The facial expression, the boyish man with the missing teeth, big ears and grin, and the devil-may-care catch phrase all combined to capture the popular imagination and fueled a never-ending succession of imitators – culminating in the creation of Alfred E. Neuman.



Other Theories



Big-eared kids featured prominently in several pre-1894 cartoons fuel speculation that those earlier images may have been the original spark for Alfred E. Neuman. Who knows, perhaps some of those earlier cartoon images informed popular comedic tastes and inspired the expression. Perhaps Powers’ gargoyle face had even inspired some of those earlier cartoons; he was a friend of Thomas Nast and was well-known for his rubber-faced expressions. In any case, the earlier cartoon images generally show a big-eared head on a body within an entire scene. They do not show just the head and shoulders from a frontal perspective with a missing teeth, Eton collar and catch phrase, details determined by the plot of The New Boy and first seen in the advertising image created for The New Boy.



The Imitators


The New Boy advertising image immediately went fin-de-siecle viral, or at least as viral as the technology of the day would permit. It was featured in political cartoons within days of opening night and in pop-culture parody within months. The image was copied, almost exactly, by the Atmore’s pie advertisements in 1895. It may also have inspired the look of the late-19^th Century comic character, the Yellow Kid.



The Yellow Kid














R. F. Outcault’s Yellow Kid cartoon character was pop-culture phenomenon that appeared in New York newspapers between 1895 and 1898. It was an early cross-marketing success, licensed to advertise shoes, tobacco, toys, books and magazines among other things.



The Yellow Kid, whose face bears some of the hallmarks of Alfred E. Neuman, has previously been suggested as a possible pre-cursor to Alfred E. Neuman. According the a website maintained by the Outcault Society, the first three appearances of a character that looked and dressed like the Yellow Kid appeared in Truth Magazine in June, July and September 1894, before The New Boy’s opening night. Those images, however, look nothing like Alfred E. Neuman and bear little resemblance to the Yellow Kid cartoons that fueled Yellow Kid-mania.








Those early images showed a bald child with big ears and an over-sized shirt, like the later Yellow Kid images. They did not, however, show the kid from the frontal view with the outward-extending big ears, silly grin, dimples and gap-teeth (well, there are only two teeth) that give him a bit of an Alfred E. Neuman look. Those later images did not appear in print until 1895 at the earliest. It is therefore more likely that The New Boy advertising image inspired the Yellow Kid’s make-over and propelled it to greater levels of popularity than the other way around. It seems that the Yellow Kid is one more comic empire that can thank The New Boy for its trademark look and for some of its success.




It Didn’t Hurt a Bit


The next-wave of imitators were, for the most part, advertisements for so-called painless dentistry. They first appeared around 1902, and continued in use through the 1920s. The advertisements featured the frontal view, tousled hair, big ears, wide grin and missing teeth or tooth. Most of the ads also included a wide Eton collar (or a sailor suit collar) and tie. Some of the images were nearly identical copies of The New Boy image while others were more exaggerated, stylized, cartoonish versions of the image. The original catch phrase was replaced by the slogan, “It didn’t hurt a bit!”





























The painless dentistry ads appeared on the scene less than eight years after The New Boy first toured the entire country and within about two years of the end of Bert Coote’s production of The New Boy. James T. Powers was still a big star who received regular mention in the press, frequently toured the country, and whose photograph regularly appeared in books, magazines and newspapers. It was a time when millions of people had recently seen the “New Boy” posters, and many people may still have associated the “it didn’t hurt a bit” face with the show or with it biggest stars James T. Powers. The only two color versions of show red hair, a detail that is not readily apparent from the monochromatic sketches. Clearly, the ‘painless’ dentistry ads were lifted directly from or modeled on The New Boy advertising images, and not from anti-Irish cartoon art.



One of the strangest images from this period, reproduced in Reidelbach’s Completely Mad, an image that appears to be the face from The New Boy poster “appears mysteriously as a garden faun” in a photograph, dated 1902 and printed from a glass negative found in the basement of a house in Takoma Park, Maryland. The photograph shows what looks like a family group posing on cut logs in a garden or yard with the larger-than life, ghostly head of the ‘New Boy’ peering over their shoulders from behind a hedge.

Remember The New Boy posters that were posted in Washington DC? Takoma Park, Maryland is right next door to Washington DC, so the people in that photograph would have had access to those posters just a few years before the photograph was taken. Of course, 1902 is also about the time that the image started appearing in the painless dentistry advertisements, so it is possible that they borrowed the image from a neighborhood dentist who may have used it as an advertising sign for his dental practice. In any case, the random appearance of an early Alfred E. Neuman-like face in a garden in Takoma Park, Maryland may not be as random or surprising as it seemed when the negative was found.








Another version of the image that appeared around the same time is associated with a musical comedy entitled Maloney’s Wedding Day. The Maloney’s Wedding Day image, which includes all of the familiar elements of the original (ears, teeth, hair, wide collar), appeared on sheet music, programs, and newspaper advertisements. The show appears to have started in about 1898 and played in various locations, mostly in smaller markets in the West, for several years. There may be a good reason that the show did not hit any major markets; the reviewer for the The Bemidji Daily Pioneer (June 10, 1910), suggested that Maloney’s Wedding Day was actually a renamed (and likely unlicensed) version of the earlier, better-known work, McKenna’s Flirtation. It seems fitting that a rip-off show would use a rip-off poster.


The Maloney’s Wedding image was also, fittingly, ripped off for use in dental advertising. A photograph reproduced in Reidelbach’s Completely Mad, shows the Maloney’s Wedding Day character, with sailor’s suit and distinctive striped bow tie, on an advertisement posted in front of an itinerant dentist’s wagon in California gold mining country in 1902.



What? – Me Worry?



The next wave of imitators were the “What Me? Worry?” kids, beginning in about 1910. Although the face and expression may have changed a bit, most of the original features are still intact: the coat and tie, the ears, a missing tooth, the silly grin and lazy eyes.












While it is impossible to look into the hearts of the artists and/or advertising men who created and perpetuated the what-me-worry image, it seems likely that working artists of a certain age would have seen The New Boy, its poster or its advertising images at some point in their lives. They may even have remembered the poster and its catch phrase. It strains the imagination to believe that the artists who created these images would have independently paired an image so similar in almost every detail with original The New Boy image with a slogan so strikingly similar to the original The New Boy slogan without having been aware, either consciously or sub-consciously, of the original. Although the painless dentistry ads of the early 1900s may have kept the image alive, the pairing of the image with the slogan seems too coincidental to be, well, a coincidence.

The modification of the original catch phrase to "Me - Worry?" seems to have been prompted by the "I should worry!" craze of the early 1910s, as I discuss in another posting, What? Me Worry? Isch ka Bibble and Alfred E. Neuman.



Of course, the faces of the what-me-worry kids are not identical with The New Boy’s face. Although the manner of dress, the pose, the teeth, ears and expression are similar, the face is not necessarily identical. Was the change inspired by the Alfred E. Neuman look-alike and New Boy actor James T. Powers or by the artist’s funny looking brother-in-law? I do not know. Although it may be theoretically possible that anti-Irish cartoon imagery from the 1870s and 1880s might have influenced these changes, my inclination is to disagree. It was the Atmore’s pie ad, the political cartoons and the painless dentistry advertisements that perpetuated the image; not to mention the original The New Boy poster itself and the three tours over five years that distributed the image everywhere. You be the judge.



It is also interesting that Alfred E. Neuman is a red-head like The New Boy and James T. Powers. The what-me-worry kids are not generally represented in color and are not clearly red-heads. Is it a case of great minds thinking alike? Is it that the face just looks like a funny-looking red-head? Were the artists at Mad Magazine more familiar with The New Boy or James T. Powers than they let on? We may never know.



What we do know, however, is that the pose, dress, expression, general facial characteristics and accompanying slogan were all crystallized in the advertising image for The New Boy. It does not take a physiologist or physiognomist to judge whether and how much the later images retain the distinctive characteristics of the original. The eyes, eyebrows, nose, mouth and two-part, rhetorical catch phrase all strongly suggest that Alfred E. Neuman reflects the features, pose and expression of the original The New Boy poster and perhaps of The New Boy’s biggest star, James T. Powers.


The conclusion is unavoidable; Archibald ‘New Boy’ Rennick (or perhaps James T. Powers) is Alfred E. Neuman’s grandfather if not Alfred E. Neuman himself.


Posted by Peter Jensen Brown at 7:17 PM

8 comments:

1. 
Eric GrandstaffAugust 14, 2015 at 8:41 PM
Great background. Have wondered for more than half a century what was the origin of Alfred's genealogical make-up. Great research.
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2. 
Bob KohnMay 4, 2016 at 12:52 PM
My father, who passed away last year (2015) at the age of 96, contended that Alfred E. Nueman was drawn after the face of a fictional character named Randy Mergatroyd. Don't know where he got that from.
Reply

Replies

1. 
Rollmeover InthecloveragainJune 17, 2016 at 5:37 PM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Fwpj27hlP4







2. 
Luis DiazJuly 15, 2016 at 12:32 AM
LOL!






Reply

3. 
ToaSeptember 21, 2016 at 5:01 PM
Scroll down until you see it...

http://www.nose-art.net/315th-III/315th-3.htm
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4. 
spadfaOctober 14, 2016 at 7:14 AM
Just found that I did a video with an original photo of Weedon Grossman! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WiyfQYf3WDk
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5. 
BomTrownNovember 30, 2017 at 6:40 PM
Also...neumann means new man. New man... new kid.
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6. 

Erno GoldfingerApril 14, 2019 at 11:10 PM
Could this be an earlier version? Or at least a prototype? No missing tooth and no open smile. Or is that just a typical depiction of a London street urchin?

https://filmboards.com/board/p/3249334/
Reply