Della Femina

I can't remember when it was (summer?), but some time before Mad Men season 2 kicked off, the Times magazine did their obligatory Mad Men issue. Therein there were quotes from one Jerry Della Femina, a legend of the Madison Ave of the MM period, contemporary of George Lois, etc. He also had written a book called From Those Wonderful Folks Who Gave You Pearl Harbor, about his misadventures in the ad trade.

Well, I came across a copy of this tome last weekend and, having read about eight pages (have to finish a couple of other things first), I reckon it's excellent. Although the "edited by" credit sort of blows the whistle on the fact that Della Femina likely just let fly with a bunch of ad tales over a packet of Viceroys and some Vat 69 and a book was then cobbled together.

The first anecdote, anyway, is stellar: he tells of a biz cohort who was a pilot at 17 in WWII, had run off to join the Canadian Air Force, ended up in the Battle of Britain (and lived!), then enlisted with the US, was a hero...but now (book came out in 1968), in his 40's, was a man full of ulcers and fear, indeed stooped over with fear. One day someone asks him how this can be so, given his vibrant and heroic youth, and the guy says "Well, the Germans weren't trying to take away my accounts..."