Back in the sixties, the makers of Contadina Tomato Paste claimed — in commercials created by the great Stan Freberg — that they "put eight great tomatoes in each little bitty can." This prompted MAD magazine to do a parody ad showing the hapless chef who had to do that.
But right now, we don't care about tomato paste or the ad. We care about the guy in the above photo. His goateed face should be familiar to everyone who read MAD back then because it was always turning up in photo features for the publication. As a kid reading MAD back then, I wondered who he was. Answer: He was Leonard Brenner, the Production Manager and later Art Director for MAD and someone who made an enormous contribution to it.
"The Beard" (that was his nickname) didn't write or draw articles in the same way as most MAD contributors you could name but he touched almost every page between 1958 when he joined the magazine and 1995 when he retired. Aside from publisher William M. Gaines, Lenny's name appeared on MAD's masthead more than anyone else's.
His sense of humor and painstaking attention to design and detail were often evident, especially when the staff had to replicate a piece of someone else's advertising or mimic the look and feel of another publication. He and his longtime colleague John Putnam made sure MAD always looked good and always got to press on time. He was also a delightful, funny gentleman, dearly loved by everyone else at MAD. He passed away last Saturday and those who knew him are really, really sad about that. If you ever met the man, you understand why.