"No More Bullshit!" (Norman Mailer's 1969 campaign slogan)

Sat Nov 24 09:05:14 UTC 2007

NO MORE BULLSHIT--29,300 Google hits
NO MORE BULLSHIT + MAILER--350 Google hits
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The Yale Book of Quotations (2006) has six quotes from the late Norman
Mailer, but this one is not included. His three-word 1969 mayoral
slogan is probably Mailer's best-remembered quotation.
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I just added this to the political page of my website
(www.barrypopik.com). I clicked the "NYC politics" page and just saw
that there's a political ad there for John McCain, through the Google
Adsense program. I support my advertisers, but I don't necessarily
endorse them (if that makes any sense).
...
...
...
http://www.barrypopik.com/index.php/new_york_city/entry/no_more_bullshit_norman_mailer_1969_mayoral_slogan/
...
Entry from November 24, 2007
"No more bullshit!" (Norman Mailer 1969 mayoral slogan)
In 1969, novelist Norman Mailer ran for mayor of New York City and
newspaper columnist Jimmy Breslin ran for city council president.
(John Lindsay was re-elected mayor.) The Mailer-Breslin campaign
slogan was the unfit-for-the-family-newspaper "No more bullshit!"

The phrase "No more bullshit!" had appeared in books by at least the
early 1960s, and it was also used by students during the Columbia
University crisis in the spring of 1968.

Wikipedia: Norman Mailer
Norman Kingsley Mailer (January 31, 1923 – November 10, 2007) was an
American novelist, journalist, playwright, screenwriter, and film
director.

Along with Truman Capote, Joan Didion, and Tom Wolfe, Mailer is
considered an innovator of creative nonfiction, a genre sometimes
called New Journalism, but which covers the essay to the nonfiction
novel. He was awarded the Pulitzer Prize twice and the National Book
Award once. In 1955, Mailer, together with Ed Fancher and Dan Wolf,
first published The Village Voice, which began as an arts- and
politics-oriented weekly newspaper initially distributed in Greenwich
Village. In 2005, he won the Medal for Distinguished Contribution to
American Letters from The National Book Foundation.
(...)
In 1967, he was arrested for his involvement in anti-Vietnam War
demonstrations. Two years later, he ran unsuccessfully in the
Democratic Party primary for Mayor of New York City, allied with
columnist Jimmy Breslin (who ran for City Council President),
proposing New York City secession and creating a 51st state.

Google Books
Out of the Burning:
The Story of a Boy Gang Leader
by Ira Henry Freeman (Carl Joyeaux, pseud.)
New York, NY: Crown Publishers
1960
Pg. 192:
"But, please, boys, no more bullshit. I am not feeling well today; my
head is bursting."

Google Books
The Green Felt Jungle
by Ed Reid and Ovid Demaris
New York, NY: Trident Press
1963
Pg. 32:
You give the Chicago boys the wire and no more bullshit.

29 April 1969, Benton Harbor (MI) News-Palladium, "Anything Goes In
Profane NY Campaign," pg. 2, col. 1:
New York City is enjoying or suffering (depending on the point of
view) what is probably the most profane and zaniest political campaign
in U.S. history.

Dirty-word novelist Norman Mailer is running for mayor. In tandem with
him is ex-newspaper columnist Jimmy Breslin, who wants to be head of
the city council. First step is to get enough names on petitions to
put their names on the ballot for the June 17th Democratic primary.

Mailer and Breslin have messages galore, a slogan and a program.

The slogan is: "No more bull----!"

One of their message is:

"We are no good, and we can prove it."

The main theme of their campaign seems to be that New York City is
falling apart. Their answer is a program to make New York City the
51st state.

2 May 1969, New York (NY) Times, "Mailer and Breslin Enter Race" by
Richard Reeves, pg. 24:
Norman Mailer officially opened a "serious campaign" for the
Democratic nomination for Mayor yesterday with a 14-microphone news
conference featuring jokes by Jimmy Breslin—his running mate for City
Council President—a staff of solemn young writers, promises of a dozen
position papers, and a three-word slogan, one word of which will be
blipped out on television.

Google Books
Running Against the Machine:
The Mailer-Breslin Campaign
by Peter Manso
Garden City, NY: Doubleday
1969
Pg. 245:
So once more into the breach, this time armed with blank checks,
self-addressed envelopes, and the normal party package of "No More
Bullshit" buttons,

Google Books
Up Against the Ivy Wall:
A History of the Columbia Crisis
by Jerry L. Avorn
New York, NY: Atheneum Press
1969
Pg. 51:
"No more bullshit, we shall not be moved."

20 May 1970, New York (NY) Times, Books of the Times, pg. 39:
MANAGING MAILER. By Joe Flaherty. 222 pages. Illustrated. Coward-McCann. $5.95.
(...)
Among them was Norman Mailer, man of letters, a stand-up visionary of
the economy of cities, tireless stomper of the hustings. His slogans
were "Free Huey Newton to End Floridation" (or bring together left and
right) an "No More Beep-Beep" (for the benefit of TV and The New York
Times).

The Brooklyn Paper
November 17, 2007 / News
Heights resident Norman Mailer, 84
By Adam F. Hutton
The Brooklyn Paper
Norman Mailer may have been a jerk, but at least he was our jerk.

The Pulitzer-Prize–winning author was an "egomaniac," according to the
London Daily Mail, a "combative, short-fused brawler," according to
the New York Times and a "sexist, homophobic reactionary," according
the Guardian — but this week, Brooklyn Heights' own cast of characters
shared memories that used words like "gentleman," "always polite,"
"shunned attention" and "kept to himself."

Norman — we hardly knew ye!

"His death is a huge loss for Brooklyn Heights and everyone in New
York," said Greg Markman, a manager at the Heights Café, one of
Mailer's local haunts, at the corner of Montague and Hicks streets.

Mailer — born in New Jersey but raised in Crown Heights near Eastern
Parkway — kept an apartment on Columbia Heights overlooking the
Brooklyn Heights Promenade for more than 20 years until his death on
Nov. 10 at age 84.
(...)
And he ran for mayor in 1968 under the slogan, "No more Bulls—."

New York Times
Mailer's Nonfiction Legacy: His 1969 Race for Mayor
By SAM ROBERTS
Published: November 18, 2007

Mr. Mailer, who died on Nov. 10, was perhaps the greatest writer since
Winston Churchill to seek elective office. If that was not
disqualification enough, he had also been convicted of stabbing one of
his wives. He promised that, if elected, he would at least deliver the
bad news couched in "elegant language." But he also delivered
sufficient offense to fill a devil's dictionary of political
incorrectness.

Even his three-word campaign slogan — a vulgarization of "No More
Bull" — was unprintable.

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