Reader Bill Sinkins writes…
Thanks for sharing the e-mail from Dick DeBartolo. It reminded me of the 60 Minutes feature on MAD that aired many years ago. At that time, the parent company that owned MAD (I forget who it was) had a policy that required all senior management to get an annual physical. Supposedly, Gaines hated going to the doctor, so he sent a much younger staffer as a body double. They also related the story of Gaines flying to some remote place (Guam, perhaps?) along with several senior staff members to personally entreat their one subscriber there to renew his subscription. I haven't picked up MAD in years, maybe I should, for old time's sake…
It wasn't Guam. It was Haiti. And Gaines didn't fly there to get the one subscriber to renew. He'd decided to take the entire staff on a vacation — it was the first of the legendary MAD trips — and out of curiosity, he had someone look and see if MAD had any subscribers there. When it turned out they had one and his subscription had just expired, Gaines decided to pay the guy a visit. He loaded his entourage in five jeeps, drove over to the address and presented the fellow with a renewal card.
The funniest part of the story is probably that in spite of that, the reader didn't want to renew. But he agreed to accept a free subscription.
Gaines was a colorful guy. I think though that MAD has actually survived the loss of him. In my opinion as a MAD completist, the magazine is now better than it's been in a long time. It's gone up and down over the years but I think it's clearly on an "up" and you oughta pick up a copy, not for old time's sake — you won't recognize a lot of the credits — but because it's a pretty funny publication.