"What? Me Worry?"

[Sam Clements]

I've owned that post card and it dates from the administration of FDR.
Don't ask me how I know that, but I can find out if it's inportant.  It, the
postcard, only says "Me worry" not "what, me worry."

Here a link that says the image was on postcards as far back as 1890.  I'm
not vouching for the dates, but it all helps.

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/ideas/articles/2005/07/10/this_boys_life/?rss_id=Boston%20Globe%20--%20Ideas%20Section


Sam Clements
----- Original Message -----
From: "Jonathan Lighter" <wuxxmupp2000 at YAHOO.COM>
To: <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Sent: Monday, September 26, 2005 7:49 AM
Subject: Re: "What? Me Worry?"


> The truth is out there - somewhere.  Many years ago (mid ' 80s?) I saw a
> full-color display of such Neumanesque images in some book.  There were
> several of them prior to _Mad_.
>
> JL
>
> Benjamin Zimmer <bgzimmer at RCI.RUTGERS.EDU> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail
> header -----------------------
> Sender: American Dialect Society
> Poster: Benjamin Zimmer
> Subject: Re: "What? Me Worry?"
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> On Sun, 25 Sep 2005 20:47:39 -0400, Fred Shapiro
> wrote:
>
>>"What? Me worry?" is said to have been adapted for Mad Magazine from an
>>early-twentieth-century advertising slogan. Is anyone able to supply any
>>information as to what was the product advertised by the earlier slogan,
>>and/or any information as to who on Mad Magazine adapted it?
>
> The most common explanation is that _Mad_ creator Harvey Kurtzman took
> both the image of Alfred E. Neuman and the "What, me worry?" catchphrase
> from an old ad for a "painless dentist" in Kansas (or perhaps a postcard
> featuring such an ad).
>
> -----
> Washington Post, Apr 13, 1978, p. B9/1
> In issue No. 30, 1956, Mad unveiled its patron saint, Alfred E. Neuman,
> that familiar freckle-faced cretin with red hair and a missing tooth.
> Although he's now a registered trademark, Neuman actually comes from a
> 1907 newspaper ad for a Kansas City dentist named Painless Romine. There
> was a bandage tied around his head, as if his infamous missing tooth had
> just been yanked, and those immortal words were spelled out for all to
> see: "What, me worry?" Below that was another line now thoughtfully
> excised: "It didn't hurt a bit."
> -----
> Houston Chronicle, June 24, 2002, p. 1
> The face of Alfred E. Neuman, the mascot and soul of Mad magazine, has
> been around since at least the mid-1880s - and, astonishingly, with the
> "What, Me Worry?" slogan. Drawings of the boy were in ads for a dentist
> named Painless Romine in Topeka, Kan., and a Dr. Phillips, who practiced
> at 614 Penn St. in Reading, Pa. The boy was not named.
> -----
> http://www.cjonline.com/stories/022904/ses_alfred.shtml
> Topeka Capital-Journal, Feb. 29, 2004
> Topeka also can lay claim to the poster boy for Mad magazine -- Alfred
> "What -- me worry?" E. Neuman.
> A picture of a dentist's advertisement appeared in American Heritage
> magazine with an article on lantern slides, and the editor of Mad later
> admitted that his cover boy originated with that ad, which dated back to
> 1910.
> "Actually, there was no Painless Romine. Rather, he was a trademark used
> by itinerant dentists on renting a dental parlor first located at 704 and
> later 734 Kansas Ave., upstairs. Silver fillings, 50 cents; dentures,
> $4.50. All work guaranteed for 20 years," states "A Century of Healing
> Arts," Bulletin No. 57 of the Shawnee County Historical Society.
> -----
>
> The last article has images for "Painless Romine" ads from the Shawnee
> County Historical Society:
>
> http://cjonline.com/photo_pages/022904/15596.shtml
>
> Those ads say "It didn't hurt a bit", but not "What me worry".
> (Newspaperarchive has ads in the Oshkosh, Wisc. _Daily Northwestern_ for
> Painless Romine in July 1910, featuring the gap-toothed kid but no
> catchphrase.) More on "Painless Rom(a)ine" here:
>
> http://www.kshs.org/portraits/romaine_painless.htm
>
> FWIW, the Wikipedia article on _Mad_ links to an image of a "rare
> uncopyrighted image" of a Neumanesque figure on a postcard "from the late
> 50's to around 1960", with the caption "Me Worry?":
>
> http://community.webshots.com/photo/304039856/304041768aZxySa
>
> Since the postcard probably postdates Neuman's first appearance in 1956,
> this doesn't really help establish if the catchphrase was associated with
> the gap-toothed boy in the pre-_Mad_ era.
>
>
> --Ben Zimmer
>
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