A Very Marvel Christmas – 1979! Part 3

Meanwhile, back at midtown Manhattan’s shrine to humor, The Friars Club, The Marvel Comics’ official Christmas Party and all the office dwellers are in full swing, baby!

ZZzzzzzz… Zzzz snort. To the left is Larry Hama, who at that point in time – and taking over Crazy Magazine — was still new to the offices. We were getting used to this scary, extra handsome long-haired man-with-no-eyes look and he was getting used to us. Lynne can be seen in the background, apparently getting proposed to by Larry from the mailroom. The three coma victims on the couch are Ralph Macchio, Mark Gruenwald and Creator Writer Steven Grant. Believe it or not, Ralph is giving us the “Stan Aaron Glasses Gesture.” Dear Stan, Marvel’s typositor, had some fairly funny habits and gestures, this one involved him pointing at someone with his glasses while speaking to them.

[Yet another whiney note about the photography. I know; what the hell am I talking about? Well I am presenting these pictures, as unsuccessful as they may be because they are an interesting photographic record of this event. I was so enthusiastic about this party, that I seemed to have brought extra film. One can buy film for your camera with different levels of sensitivity. Here, I brought my normal outdoor “in broad daylight” type of film indoors, especially to this moody, dim and poorly lit space. So I had to hold extra still and struggle to see through the camera in order to focus. Ahem, with mixed results.]

These guys must have moved under a chandelier. Even jumping jack Editor Jim Salicrup, in the background, is holding still. This triumvirate of Marvel History-Makers are: Director of Personnel Dorothy Marcus, Master of Projects, Special and/or The British Department Sol Brodsky, Mistress of the Proof Rolls Nancy Murphy. These three are interesting because they reach back into the deepest depths of Marvel’s Silver Age history.

Sol seemed to be my boss. I say ‘seemed’ because even though my stat camera was “his” everyone came to me for stats. Except Paty, who also worked for Sol and would shoo me away so she could make her own stats. The biggest shocker to me was learning that Sol had been so good a designer and inker to have inked the first logo for the Fantastic Four (World’s Greatest Comic)! Even inked over Jack Kirby in the early FF! Sol did something fairly strange. He left Marvel in order to start his own comic company and, with Stan’s brother, Larry Lieber, opened shop! (Personal note: I screwed up the temerity to walk into those offices—not long after that year’s interlude when I worked at Marvel roughly 1974-5 and offered up samples of whatever– ? to Editor in Chief, Larry. Who was appropriately dismissive and quick to show me the door back to the elevators. Well, folks, I tried.) The doing of that was not, in and of itself, so strange. Sol was an elite comic veteran at that time and wanted to step up and step out. When Skywald Comics bit the dust, he was able to get back in at Marvel—thanks to Stan’s interceding on his behalf. Which is about when I showed up, Sol’s personal “bad penny.”

Nancy Murphy was one of those gentle souls, really a nice person. But don’t mess with her proof rolls! Then the brass knuckles would come as such a surprise… According to the office scuttlebutt, it was Nancy who thought it important to keep the proofs of every comic. That early crazy idea bore fruit when the idea of reprinting old comics came about. When I handled those proof rolls, I did so with that sweetly smiling face firmly in my mind and those brass knuckles firmly in my ribs!

Dorothy Marcus was as well known for her steadfast indifference to any of us underlings’ complaints as she was for smoking. Actually, she was quite good at her job and even when it came time to usher me out of the place (many years hence this story line) she was rather warm and concerned. I guess she had a soft spot for dumb animals.

Anyway, this is the best picture I’ve got of all of them. In Sol’s case, one of the few times I’ve ever seen him smile. He probably forgot who I was.

Barbara Maier, unknown, Susan Ehrenreich and Stu Schwartzberg. No idea of who was on the right. Barbara, unknown and Suze were some of the “upstairs” people I may have mentioned all along. Barb was in charge of Marketing stuff, a major part of which was seeing to the costumes (and the people in them) for “in-store” appearances. Unknown did unknowable things but I’ll bet they were important. Sue was in Accounting, payroll and other mystical arts. Stu—well Stu was ancient master of ancient stat cameras—been there since Stan first yelled “Excelsior!” (Okay, maybe a couple of years later—but only a couple.)

Mark Rogan, Ralph with the spinning head, Wendy Miller and Davida. Wendy was Manufacturing Liaison Milt Schifman’s secretary. She had the thankless task of just sitting there in an alcove outside his office. That alcove was right out in the open, just across from the IBM Copier II machine. She got to watch all of us slouch around… just as we were watching her sit and radiate a cool indifference.

Davida and Mark are in the foreground. In center frame was ravishing Ronnie Pollack talking to John Jr. Ronnie was one of those upstairs dolls I keep yammering about. What Ronnie did was unknown then and now—but whatever it was, I can be certain she did it with elan and verve.

In the immediate foreground is Davida. Just above her is Danny Crespi—who was the head of the Marvel Bullpen. Perhaps his official title was Art Director—not sure. Danny came from a time when advertising art was a big deal in the newspaper and magazine world. I believe he got his start outside Marvel. But there’s nothing like a regular paycheck. My favorite Danny lesson is the corollary meaning of the word “freelance” which is: free to starve. The trio to the image left of Davida features Jo Duffy who is facing Bob Sharon (can’t tell if I even know the fellow behind Jo—there were a lot of freelancers who never made it into the office save for the office party or rare personal delivery of late items—best example is over at extreme image right—that ginger-haired fellow lurking behind the wall partition is Terry Austin). Bob Sharon was a colorist. Back in those horrid olden days, the coloring was done on a single copy of unforgiving stat paper. So you had to have a real direction in mind when you loaded up your brush. Fixes were a royal pain! A personage I never noticed until the power of PhotoShop made things more visible, was that above Bob’s head was Tom DeFalco. It’s not clear at all that Tom was on-staff at this point. I didn’t know him then. But since Tom knew everyone in the entire business, being an editor at another company did not prevent him from wangling an invite.

I have spared you several full images that feature one or two people of note, such as Penciler and Extraordinary Cover Designer When He Puts His Mind To It, Ed Hannigan and Barry Kaplan— Marvel’s own Comptroller (add some extra “pop” when saying that!) and who showed up exactly when I left in my “career before my career.” He came in with another fellow and was going to straighten up the Merchandising Satisfaction Dept. (my supervisor seems to have been misdirecting coupons or confusing coupons with presidential portraits; not sure which). His first act was to replace me with four people. An “efficiency” I never quite understood. Also not terribly sure how “comptrolling” fit into merchandising—but then, that’s why I am a stat man and he’s an exec.

But here’s a marginally better shot of Cindy Cavanaugh moving past Helen Katz. Mark Rogan is holding up a wall and flapping his arms for me to capture. In between Mark and Helen is a horribly blurred Nel Yomtov—I can tell the 70s have not left Mr. Yomtov’s clothes closet, just get a load of those giant shirt lapels! Of course, they are still and in focus while Nel is giving me advice on how to take a better picture. Way in the background, above and between Cindy and Helen’s heads is Jim Shooter. One can always pick out his Vlad the Impaler hair style.

Here is the rarest of pictures—one that includes me. I was always holding the camera. For such a shot I might hand the camera off to a pal but I can tell by the tack-sharp background that I had placed it on a mantle or some such and used the timer. The glass is a prop as I do not drink and Cindy is laughing because I know I have to hold still and I am leering at her. Why am I wearing a suit? Why is my tie so far above my belt? I have clearly been packing away some mid-winter stores for the cold months. In the foreground is the back of Executive Secretary Sublime, Nancy Itkowitz and the profile of Lettering Giant Jim Novak.

I include this because of one person. The bespectacled handsome gent is Jesse Rosen, he of a business I often cite in these blogs. Kalish, Quigley & Rosen were the advertising representatives of Magazine Management. Which included Marvel Comics but also terribly fun magazine titles like Men, Action For Men, Stag and on to the distaff side, Romance, Intimate Romance etc…. It’s also where my sainted mother worked and how I got to know all sorts of people over at Mag Man, most importantly, when a job came available! Who he’s talking to remains mysterious—I didn’t even know back then.