Raiding movies for ideas...

(Click to enlarge)

What can be the concept behind a Coupon Bonanza supplement?  As we've proven more than once, anything darn thing we want!  And in the summer of 1981, what else could be at the top of Jeff's mind?  As co-conspirator of this cover concept, I probably wrote (and set) the copy, including the big typo in our our Coupon Crusader's name.

Art Wars

Traditionalists that we were, it just never sat well with us when Daily editorial changed the name of the Friday Arts & Entertainment section from A&E to the fancy-schmancy-sounding d'Art.  (Even John, the most cerebral of us, seemed to be less than thrilled; when he had to write a radio commercial trumpeting the change, he just had the announcer say he was being challenged to say the name as times as possible in sixty seconds.*)

Anyway, what with the all-pervasive influence "Star Wars" had on Jeff V. and me at the time, how could we not make this connection, which required only a slight alteration of the angular d'art logo logo.

Oddly, it looks more appropriate for Lord Vader than it ever did for the arts section.

(*The funniest moment occurred near the end of the spot, when, having run out of things to say, the announcer just started spouting non-sensical phrases like, "darting between parked cars...")

The Dawn of Man...

Or "Men" as the five of us crawled from the primordial soup and slowly migrated to the second floor office on Washington Avenue in Stadium Village. Here is the first known piece of art done, circa 2 B.C. (Before Craig) but carbon dating has shown the piece to even predate Jeff Jones, John Jarvis and Bruce Hannum's arrival at the Daily. Note the crude use of zip-a-tone, the yellowed tape on the edges and the heavy handed use of border tape. Archaeologists have deduced that the message of the piece either suggests that the newspaper is the result of inspired ideas, is thought inspiring... or that it's written by a bunch of apes.

A pin-up an elephant would never forget

(Click to read caption)

Summer or winter, Julie Sta-whatsitz always wore a down vest in the office which lead one to wonder if the Advertising department's thermostat was set too low or if the thing was actually bullet proof (her protetction against her hot-head boyfriend/co-worker Josh Blah-de-blah). Somehow or other Craig had a photo of Julie and, adding a caption ala a movie still. credited her with being in the 1981 Lynch film THE ELEPHANT MAN, a movie of which neither Craig nor i could get enough. The caption/joke wasn't so funny but Craig hung it above his desk nevertheless. Guess he liked the look of that vest.

CRAIG ADDS: Jeff's right in that the caption falls flat; two and a half decades later, the funniest thing about it is why I would ever bother to link a photo of Julie S. with "The Elephant Man." (It's not like she looked like Anne Bancroft or anything.)

Wing ding wisenheimer

The Minnesota Daily Advertising department had many things but it boasted of only one team of siblings -- Jim and John Gross. Both sales reps, Jim (bearing a resemblance to Letterman's flame-haired announcer Alan Coulter) was a nice enough guy but it was his younger brother John that proved memorable. Though he had the same red hair, John wore it in bangs complimented by a catapillar moustache to boot. He was the first guy (I knew) to have a Sony Walkman and he boogied around the offices grooving to music only he could hear (the concept!) and at one time or another John labeled each of us in Creative as a "wing ding wisenheimer" -- a term not of malice but good humored inredulity.. This picure reflects John pretty well and it also shows the feeble seven foot tall partitions that separated our "offices". Why he's being carried away by a giant fly, I have no idea.


CRAIG ADDS: I'm thinking that Jeff has mixed up Jim and John; can anyone provide the definitive answer? My best Jim (?) Gross memory: Jim walks into our office and invites Jeff V. and I over to his house for a party, promising "a good time, a few drinks, a little grass..." After he left, Jeff confessed to the same confusion I had: "I thought he was talking about having a nice lawn..." (We're so cool...)

TO WHICH JEFF REBUTTS: John was the younger brother. Absolutely. In rereading the above paragraph how is that not clear? (And as I recall, Gross the Younger was an avid gardener and his lawn was the envy of many a putting green). Oh, Jesus... as I write this I'm starting to think Craig is right -- that the Alan Coulter Gross was John and the wing-ding etc. Gross was Jim. And to think I've been sending Christmas cards to the wrong guys all these years...

BRUCE ADDS: John the older. Jim the younger (and more impetuous).

5 Guys Outings (Wait, that's not what you're thinking...)

It started with Beth.  In summer 1990, she asked, "How come you guys don't have a summer get-together?"  

"We do have an annual summer picnic," I answered.  "It's just that, this summer is the first one."  And so out went the flyer:

Click to read all the funny little jokes.)

I made it the 16th annual Summer Picnic to give it a sense of history and longevity, but alas, I think it was indeed our one and only picnic.  However, it did give rise to a couple of camping trips in the next year or two, like this one over by Hastings:

A letter from camp...

During the summer of '81, John bugged out to northern Minnesota as a counselor at Many Point boy scout camp, leaving Jeff V. and I staff to the Creative Department. He didn't forget about us though:

(Click to read John's deepest inner thoughts.)

Before we jump the second page, please take special note of the opening of the letter, and John's revelation that he hasn't "given one thought to advertising...no withdrawal, no nothin'!"  In fact, when John returned in August, the three of us went out for beers and burgers at the Big Ten, and John tried to convince me to give up advertising, maybe get a job bar tending and enjoy life.  Of course, as we know, the New John didn't end up lasting any longer than New Coke did.  
Of course, since he's referenced the famous "John Jarvis the Hockey Player" photo, here it is, as cleverly tricked up by Jeff crudely but convincingly:

Our World Headquarters

This came today via email from Jeff J.:

"First a web page and now an office. If I could only remember the address..."

"Hi" = "Yep"

As mentioned in the 'Rockfish' post below, the Advertising Department had a janitor who would roll in every night around five PM. When he'd enter the Creative department one of us would say, "Hi." to which he'd reply, "Hi." When a second person offered, "Hi." The Janior would say, "Yep." ALWAYS. Without fail, that was the exchange, every day. As previously mentioned Bruce H. drew a portrait of the guy and his wife in their traditional clothing of Africa. I don't know why exactly but I also rendered this dashed-off portrait of the man.

What A Bunch Of Characters!

Here's a caricature of the five funniest guys as drawn by Jarl Olsen, based loosely on the photo posted earlier. You'll notice that these are not the current and celebrated five. Craig M. had not yet arrived on the scene and Jarl inserted himself into the group (farthest right, hat and glasses). You'll also note that Jarl decided to put Jeff V. in overalls with Jeff's name on the front (to avoid any confusion). And that Jarl also took some artistic license in the footwear he selected for everyone, especially the wing tips that John J. is sporting.

CRAIG ADDS:  I'm not threatened.  Look how easily I can turn Jarl into me:

CRAIG ALSO ADDS:  This drawing (neat style, by the way; who knew?) is all the evidence I've ever seen that Jarl ever worked at the Daily.  It might be all anyone's ever seen.  Apparently, he was there only for a couple weeks before, without explanation, he one day stopped coming in.  John's frequent joke was that he wished Jarl would come in again so he could fire him.

BRUCE ADDS: I believe Jarl was hired as an art director. And that his hat was glued to his head. I also remember that someone referred to my mustache in this drawing as radio waves.

Is that your hand up my backside, or...

The year was 1981 and Jim' Henson's popular Muppets burst onto the big screen. Audiences loved THE MUPPET MOVIE but it was Craig McNamara's keen eye that noted a canny resemblance between certain members of the creative department and stars of the film:

CRAIG adds:  Here's a little additional background as I remember it.  Deanna O. had pinned up a photo of her boyfriend ("Moosebutt," as I recall she nicknamed him) on the wall next to her drawing board.  That cued the three of us to pin our own photos alongside.  When that joke wore off, I stuck us below the Muppet photo that had run in the MN Daily Arts & Entertainment section (I think it was "The Great Muppet Caper" that had just come out) and wrote the caption.  Jeff (naturally) took it a step further, and gave us the appropriate props.

Forget the A-Team -- get a load of these guys!

John Jarvis oversaw (and wrote) a newsletter that was sent to Daily advertisers. Full of tips and tidbits, this issue (of how many, I dunno) is of note for the helluva picture it paints of the creative department. 

(Click to magically enlarge)

Not saying that Bruce H. isn't "a wizard of words" or anything...

For want of wit, a dummy was lost...

At the height of the Danny O'Day hostage crisis, the advertising department was being run by a guy named Jeff Litt. Whether he felt things in the Creative Department were getting too silly (and not enough legitimate work was being done) or that he lacked the sense of humor that could see the brilliance in a ventriloquist dummy's ongoing saga, Litt ordered an end to the whole affair... to which John Jarvis pasted together a ransom-style letter defending Danny and warning the man to watch his back. The threatening letter may exist somewhere but Jeff Litt's bio is below.

CRAIG ADDS:  Watch for the whole "Danny O'Day Held Hostage" saga in an upcoming post!

the rejected idea...

D'ARTS ANYONE?

It was no secret there was an ongoing creative feud at The Minnesota Daily -- not in the advertising Creative Dept certainly, but between our office and the guys at Editorial. There was no question who reigned supreme but while we were forced to express our myriad of abilities via awkward venues like Coupon Bonanza and Dinkytown Crazy Daze, the Editorial staff was allowed to develop a weekly arts-oriented insert, one with its own staff and budget! Entitled D'ART, the end product sucked (as we all had anticipated) and didn't last very long (ditto) but D'ART was in existence over Campus Carnival, a big field house event full of booths and exhibits. Ironically we at Advertising Creative were asked to come up with a MN Daily booth featuring the new (but doomed) arts insert. I came up with a couple of sketches -- logically the visitors wouold throw darts at a booth manned by a puppet... being worked by a Craig McNamara puppet... being worked by John Jarvis. The second idea was dismissed outright as it required two giant spring-loaded hinges and too much mopping up.

Hey. Rockfish...

While Bruce Hannum was mostly known for his expertise as a copywriter at the Daily creative dept. he was also an extraordinary artist himself. While no known copies of it exists (except maybe in Bruce's file cabinet) he was commisioned to do a portrait of our dutiful (Somali?) janitor and his wife. What did exist in my file folder was this great picture Bruce drew of James Garner as Jim Rockford. Done for yet another Crazy Days insert, Jimbo is seen here talking to a little seen character Bob from THE ROCKFORD FILES, some crazy old preacher man with an affinity for cats.

Was I ever really this appealing?*

Jeff V. features me in a 1980(?) spot drawing (that wasn't used) for a Dinkytown Gift Guide.

*And did I ever really have this much hair?

UPDATE:   Let's go to photo and find out:

Nope on both counts.