Longtime MAD Writer Frank Jacobs belts it out on PBS
I hope everybody caught the inimitable Frank Jacobs last week on the PBS multi-part series on the history of American Comedy, “Make’em Laugh.” They allotted him a minute or so of air-time, squeezed in between Tom Lehrer and Allan Sherman. He gave Sinatra a run for his money, crooning some of his own parody lyrics from “Sing Along with MAD” (1961). Pretty good singing…for a MAD Writer.
As a kid in the 1960s, Frank was my favorite MAD writer. I bought every MAD paperback they put out, but I distinctly remember Frank’s book “For Better or Verse” as something extra special. And I still think it is.
I first met Frank around 1986, while living in Southern California, at my first of the periodic West Coast MAD get-togethers for the freelancers who lived out there (Frank, Sergio, Dave Berg, Arnie Kogen, Tom Koch, Dennis Snee, me).
(It was at this dinner I found out that, for the previous 5 years, I’d been unwittingly living less than 3 miles from Frank – which, in L.A. is like being next-door neighbors!)
Frank and I had lunch or dinner every so often (until a few years later, when I moved out of California), either at my favorite restaurant in the hills above Burbank (which burned down in the 90s); or Frank’s regular joint across from Warner Bros. Studios (which was torn down about the same time, to make way for – more Warner Bros. movie-poster displays!). In spite of the bad luck we seem to have passed on to those particular eateries, these long chats with Frank are some of the fondest memories of my life. (I don’t know how Frank feels about my end of the conversation, but…)
It was Frank who got me perhaps the strangest writing credit on my resume: “Lawrence Welk Entertainment Group.” No, it wasn’t writing one-liners for the Lennon Sisters or snappy put-downs for accordionist Myron Floren — it was a game-show pilot that never made it on the air (But I’ll always have that “Lawrence Welk” check stub!)
The best Frank story I can tell concerns the 1989 MAD Trip, and serves more to illustrate the relationship between Bill Gaines and the “original” Usual Gang of Idiots, like Frank. See, we were among the few smokers left, and this particular trip Frank (a light sleeper) had the misfortune to be assigned to room with me (a heavy snorer)…with predictable, and not-so-zany, results. (I’ve long since stopped even trying to deny the awfulness of my snoring — from the time I was camping in Northern Arizona, and woke MYSELF up, thinking I was the sound of a bear growling outside my tent!)
Anyway, the next morning, a more-bleary-eyed-than-usual Frank explained to Bill, and asked if he couldn’t switch roommates (“No offense, Mike, but…Geez!!!“). When Bill couldn’t work out anything, roommate-switching-wise, he promised Frank that he or his wife Annie (the Logistics Wizard, for MAD Trips, and everything else!) would “arrange something” before nightfall. And they did: despite there being “No Occupancy” signs all over this German tourist town, they somehow booked both of us into a huge 2-bedroom condo/apartment down the street from the hotel — at considerable extra expense, I’m sure, not to mention added time & trouble to find it. That’s what being a Friend of Bill meant!
There’s never been much of a connection between the show and the magazine besides the name and few trademark characters (such as Spy vs. Spy and Alfred’s face); and the few MAD Magazine writers who ever wrote on the show (Arnie Kogen being the only one that comes to my mind). Oh, and then there’s the matter of the “chunk of change” MAD gets from the show’s production company for using the MAD name & stuff on every episode. I’ve heard conflicting stories about how much money that actually is – ranging from “eye-popping” to “eh, not much” – but whatever the amount, it can’t be good to be losing ANY revenue stream at a time when you’ve just been forced to sell off the last of your original cover art (that you swore you’d never sell, “no matter how high the offer!”)