Last week’s Newsweek had a feature on comedy in the Baby Boom generation. I was surprised and pleased to see how much influence MAD Magazine is credited as having.
Alfred E. Neuman, a slightly altered spelling of the name of one of Randy Newman’s uncles, is of course the MAD Magazine mascot. The image of the face and the famous catch phrase, “What, Me Worry?”, were far from new when Harvey Kurtzman, MAD’s creator and its first editor, adopted them.
Helen Pratt was one Pratt who really did go on the attack! She sued MAD Magazine for copyright infringement. Her husband, Harry Stuff, had obtained a copyright for this image and slogan, for this postcard that he produced in 1914:
Helen Pratt Stuff lost after the case went all the way to the Supreme Court. The full story was written up by Maria Reidelbach in chapter 8 of her excellent 1991 book, Completely MAD. Here are excerpts of Reidelbach’s account.
[Helen Pratt Stuff’s] claim against Mad was a strong one, and Mad stood to lose not only its beloved mascot, but millions of dollars in damages. [Mad’s lawyer] went to work. The nature of copyright law is such that if Mad could prove that the Stuffs had even once failed to protect their copyright of the boy’s image, or if Mad could prove that the image existed prior to 1914, the widow’s claim would be invalidated.
…By the time the case was heard [Mad’s lawyer] was able to prove that even though the Stuffs had won several cases, they had abandoned their copyright by not contesting every subsequent copyright of the boy’s picture, and that they also had no case based on originality, since the picture had been in prior used.
…The case eventually went to the Supreme Court; all previous copyrights remained invalidated, and Mad established its right to its adopted mascot, Alfred E. Newman.
It was a rare example of a Pratt’s defeat being for the greater good! 😉
Isn’t it funny how many middle-men there are with an idea or a product?
“The Kid” didn’t originate with a Pratt. The husband of a Pratt obtained a copyright for it, despite the fact it had existed in one form or another for at least 20 years.
Talk about yer six degrees of separation! My first boyfriend’s uncle, Emmy-winning comedy writer/producer Arnie Kogen, was a steady contributer to Mad Magazine as a writer. He was best at movie parodies.However, I had NO IDEA that Alfred E. Newman was originated by a PRATT, right down to his trademark slogan. The old drawing looks even more like Dubya, doesn’t it?
If Helen Pratt had won the case, then other Pratts could have sued her! I would have won based on the fact that, like Alfred, I have big ears and one eye higher than the other!
I don’t know any more detail than what’s in the book, and it’s unclear what copyright EC Publications has to the character. I would imagine that at a minimum illustrations done for the magazine are covered. Norman Mingo created Alfred’s exact look, and sci-fi painter Kelly Freas also did numerous cover illustrations of the character.
I looked for the case online, but the Supreme Court’s database doesn’t go back that far, yet.
uhhh, but wouldn’t we be madly rich? That would give new meaning to the term “mad money”. ;+)
So does that mean that though MAD retains the right to use Alfred, MAD doesn’t/can’t itself copyright the image due to the prior use? Somehow I’m guessing they got around that part of it….