The Harvard Lampoon Mademoiselle Connection - 1961-1963

https://madcoversite.com/modern_magazine_parodies.html

In the early 1960s, the editors of Mademoiselle decided to take summer vacations and allowed the editors of Harvard Lampoon to take charge of editorial and entertainment content for three consecutive July issues.  What were they thinking?

Mademoiselle (Betsy Talbot Blackwell and Jack M. Winter) - Mademoiselle/Harvard Lampoon - July 1961 - 102 pages

The Harvard Lampoon touch is most evident in the selection of themes and locations for the fashion shoots.  The first is the cover photo by George Barkentin of the beautiful model ("big head" with hat) and a large housefly on the tip of her nose.  Summer job fashion places the models in trendy outfits while working as an asphalt road line-painter, a soda jerk, an urban penguin-hunter, a jackhammeress, a stevedore, and a derrick-operator. The knit suit models are all collectors: telephone receivers, dead mice, Scotch tape etc.  The photo spread for "metallic knits" places various models in locations and "Clothes To Be Caught Dead In ..." including the railroad tracks, on an archery range, hanging from a cliff, and diving from the edge of a tall building.  The Vogue Patterns for flared skirts are shot from the waist down featuring a manhole, the bowling-ball-and-chain attached to ankle, the pig-walker and the very strange fireman in toy wagon.  The Effigy College campus sweater display has models acting out various puns as "being stood up", "hitting the books", "taking notes", "getting pinned", "being rushed" and of course, "hanging the coach in Effigy".  Although the clothing was perfectly worn in each situation, the lampooners accurately conveyed their opinion of the silliness of theme-based fashion shoots.  In addition to the fashion humor and other frivolity, HL used this forum to present some classic advertisement parodies: "Maidenfirm" ("I dreamed I was arrested for indecent exposure ..."), "Hairgreaux" ("too bad she's bald"), "Arctic Midnight" ("the essence of walrus"), "Diziza" ("Bardot eye make-up") and "Reduce-a-Leg" (the two-page demonstration of the "miracle cream" that converts fat legs to skinny legs in just a few days).  This was certainly a job done well by the Harvard gang, and a test for the good-sport capacity of Ms. Blackwell and the fashionistas.  [JAM 10/20/2015]

Front Cover - Model with housefly on nose by George Barkentin
3  Contents
8  In the Swim: The Bleatnik Look; Catch up with (reviews)
13 Let's Travel to Keppelberg (Bosnia- Herzegovina)
16 Maidenfirm (ad parody)
20 Mlle's Vogue Patterns
26 Hairgreaux (ad parody)
27 Wool in Sheep's Clothing
28 Don't Give up the Sheep
29 Arctic Midnight (ad parody)
30 Memo from the editors
32 Mlle Passports
35 Mlle's Next Word on This Parody Issue by Betsy Talbot Blackwell
36 Your Summer Job: Knits to Wear for It
42 The Collecting Rage: Fun with Knits
46 The Collecting Rage: Shoes
47 Something to Talk About by Leo Lemon
50 Clothes to Be Caught Dead In: Metallic Knits
54 The Poetry of Tooth Paste by John Berendt
58 What to Do About Those Knees?
62 What Now, O Will o' the Wisp? a Short Story by Wilhelmina Horstvogel
63 Art by Agatha H.
64 Mlle's Vogue Patterns: New Flared Skirts
68 On the Fringes
70 A Tender, Thrilling and Altogether Heart-Warming American Success Story
72 Versatile and Swinging by Selma Gundy
74 The Tartini Look (drawings by Frith)
76 Campus Scoops: The Sweater is Back!!
82 Room-Emptying: The New Campus Craze by Patty de Foie Gras
84 Artists of Today by Strikis
86 I Fell in Love with Vibrant, Swinging Bosnia-Herzegovina by Helen Highwater
90 The Basic Dress
92 A Word About Beauty
94 Conflict, a Short Story by Rhoda Rhee
95 Diziza (ad parody)
96 Reduce-A-Leg (ad parody)
98 Shop Here
100 Schools
101 Lamda Phi
102 Sheepshape
Back Cover - Cutex (real ad)

Mademoiselle (Betsy Talbot Blackwell and  Michael K. Frith) - Mademoiselle/Harvard Lampoon - July 1962 - 110 pages

The second parody of Mademoiselle was more of the same except that the HL writers inserted two very creative short-story fillers for their parody fans.  The first is "Forever Andrea" by "Amanda B. Reccondwyth".  It is the story of a woman with amnesia who visits a doctor's office.  This is an example of the ultimate "deja vu" style of writing as the story repeats and sends the reader from page 67 to page 99 to page 31 to page 101 to page 107 and back to page 31 again.  In fact, the story never ends.  The second excellent adventure in creative writing is "Death's Twilight Kingdon" by "Juan Formababi".  This very short story is written entirely in the future progressive tense.  "... an ensuing silence will be being the result of the effort on the part of both of them that will be being expended in order for an idea to be come up with by them so that the time would be being able to be being passed ..." (etc., etc. ...).  Albeit ambitious, the story is basically unreadable.  This may have been being the first and only time this device has been being tried.  HL President/Editor Frith may be excused if he was somewhat distracted while producing this magazine parody.  At the same time, his lampoon was writing the 77-page Ian Fleming parody (Alligator).  [JAM 10/24/2015]

Front Cover - Model's (Joyce Brothers?) head is floating above her index finger.
10 Jetsam Birthday Suits (ad parody)
12 Beauty Spot
15 Swinging in the Rain
26 The Camels Are Coming
30 Merrimold (ad parody)
32 Let's Travel (Eskimo beauty contest)
38 Memo from the Editors
40 Mlle Passports: Contributors to this Issue
43 Mlle's Next Word on our Second Parody Issue by Betsy Talbot Blackwell (drawings by Frith)
44 The Caroline Kennedy Look
48 Disturber of the Peace by Homer Jenkins
50 Summer Scoops: Top-Drawer Job Togs
54 Suburban Exotica: Rice-Paper Prints
58 Off-Season Merit Awards
60 Young Tycoon on the Way Down
66 Forever Andrea by Amanda B. Reccondwyth
68 All-Day Stretching: The Whole Crew Was There
72 Mlle's Vogue Patterns: The Spanking New '62 Models
76 The Zingy New Mlleesthenics
78 Most Likely to Succeed by Leo Lemon
82 Bewigged, Bothered and Bewildered
84 Sun and Games: Poolside Suitables
86 The Snuggly Americans
91 Death's Twilight Kingdom, a Short Story by Juan Formababi
92 C.-C.J.C.W.: The College That Asks the Question, "Who?" by Anna Viola
98 Clothe Your Eyes: Beauty on the Blink
100 Faerie Queen cheesecloth and cotton batting (ad parody)
101 Perma-gleaux nail polish - "dtrong as steel - fast as a speeding bullet" (ad parody)
104 Shop Here (musical telephone, cuff links, toilet doilies, self-hypnosis recording, Lithuanian language course and ant farm)
108 Schools
110 Shirting the Issue
Back Cover - Cutex (real ad)

Esquire (Betsy Talbot Blackwell and Woodward A.Wickham, Jr.) - Mademoiselle/Harvard Lampoon - July 1963 - 108 pages

Having apparently exhausted their supply of fashion photo-shoot jokes, Harvard Lampoon turned to the second most popular men's magazine (Esquire) as the target of their third and final parody partnership with Mademoiselle.  HL was limited to pages 37-98 as a special feature in the "Features and Fiction" section.  Although the Esquire parody could have stood alone as an HL publication, the pages included some background fashion models with "The Real Dope about the Fashions in this Issue" on pages 100-101 to explain the outfits in the feature. 

The main articles in the parody are "Breadboxing!", the sport that involves using various breads instead of boxing gloves; and the photo feature of "Choo Choo Collins in her 4 Greatest Roles!" (Wonder Woman, Daisy Duck, Nancy & Little Orphan Annie.  Other articles take thinly-disguised jabs at Norman Mailer, Hugh Hefner, Allen Funt, Philip Roth and the cartoonists & contributors of 1960s Esquire.  The issue is also littered with some marvelous advertisement parodies as only the Harvard boys could do them.  [JAM 10/25/2015]

Front Cover - Mademoiselle editor is reading Esquire (midget brass band is keeping wedding couple awake)
35 Mlle's Next Word: All's fair in love and parody by Betsy Talbot Blackwell (drawing by Lawrence M. Butler '64 Ibis)
36 Harvard Lampoon editorial staff (including Michael Frith, Christopher Cerf, George W.S. Trow and C.H. Shircliff)
38 Vat 68 (ad parody)
39 Contents
40 Sound and Fury (letters); Electro-Dent (ad parody); E. Simms Campbell cartoon parody
41 Tourmail (ad parody)
42 Backstage with Esquire; The Cerebrations (ad parody)
43 Canadian Glut (ad parody)
44 Subscription ad & ad for Alligator
45 Films by "Dw*ght M*cD*n*ld; Cello-Suit (ad parody)
46 Dining In/Out with Esquire (drawing by Henry Hurrican); Society Socks (ad parody)
47 L&N cigarettes (ad parody)
48 Travel Notes by R*ch*rd J*s*ph; American Cattle Institute (ad parody)
49 Mort Haffner & Sharx (ad parody)
50 The Chick Manhattan Bank (ad parody)
51 Who Will Stop Louie Tulip? by Collier Bluffe
52 Genius by Wire by Luke Warmleigh
54 Dedini cartoon parody (drawing by Butler)
55 Disastrous Wedding Nights
60 Rowland B. Wilson cartoon parody (drawing by Butler)
61 Breadboxing
68 Norman Mailer parody - The Big Bite
69 Foxhunt cartoon parody by "mkf after th*lw*ll" (drawing by Frith)
70 The Elegant Man: V - The Tweed Swimsuiting
72 Several Deadly Sins
76 Philip Roth parody - Don't Forget to Write, Amerigo: the last chapter
77 Presenting the Amazing Versatile Choo Choo Collins in her 4 Greatest Roles!
82 Man and Supermarket: Ingredients for the New Realism? by R. Willard Throneberry
84 Cartoon parody by "Yrt*h" (drawing by Butler)
85 The Perfect Bartender's Perfect Drink
86 Rabbit Ears Resplendent by "G**rg* Fr*z**r"
88 For Gentlemen Only: Gifts for the Fourth
90 Remember the Scooters Granddad Pushed? (drawings by Butler)
92 The Filler Girl
93 "H*ff" cartoon parody (drawing by Butler)
94 Cool, Calm & Collected
97 Hugh M. Hefner by Hugh M. Hefner
98 Allen Funt by Allen Funt
Back Cover - Clairol (real ad)