Who the heck is Don Guttenplan (which I think is German for “shopping list”)?
These days, he is a really big time writer and reporter, now Editor of The Nation magazine. His most interesting book, The Holocaust On Trial, is a fascinating look into a lawsuit concerning holocaust denial and the resulting trial. Believe me, that non-summation is a skipping stone in regards to this book.
Here:
ISBN-10: 0393020444
ISBN-13: 978-0393020441
This was also turned into a visually fascinating PBS documentary—highly recommended.
Don also wrote a very well received – and at his level of nose-up high-falutin’ receiving, that’s something – biography of an extraordinarily brave thinker in last-mid-century politics (anti McCarthyism in the 1950s to mention a facet). Not for everyone who might grace these gentle pages but I highly recommend you start with the “Introduction” and you’ll be hooked. It’s one thing to gather all this info together, it’s another to write it well and engagingly.
Here:
ISBN-10: 0810128314
ISBN-13: 978-0810128316
[These two ISBNs are provided for your convenience to find these books. They refer to the hardcover and paperbook editions. Good hunting! I’m not making such a fuss over (so far) Don’s middle book: The Next Republic (ISBN-10: 1609809696– ISBN-13: 978-1609809690) because this is not so much an appreciation of Don as a]
Don is now a renowned reporter, writer, producer and editor… but back when I first met him, he was a worn gumshoe student reporter looking for the next big story. “What’s the first rule of being a reporter?” He never asked me, “Footwork!” he never answered for me.
My oldest childhood friend, James (quite the author, architect and Emmy Award-winning documentarian himself [see my blog entry on The Gotham City Map]) was attending Columbia University, way uptown (but not as far as my own dear almost-alma-mater, City College). During several gatherings up at James’ student hovel, I met Don.
Eminently likable and chummy, we got along rather well. Hanging out at chow time, yakking into the wee hours—good buddy stuff. When it came time for Don to seek a photographer to complete the revelation of a shocking discovery of his, who else would he turn to but me? The story? Subliminal images of death heads placed in images of beautiful models featured in cigarette advertising! The purpose? To arouse suicidal thoughts in the minds of smokers! Death where is thy sting? I may not have blurted out at the sight of this death head!
No kidding! There it is.
Now anyone out there “super”-liminally influenced, remember, there’s always a way out—nothing is hopeless. Except when you violate Virginia’s Deadlines…
But back to Don. Here’s where the details get a little vague. I believe we must have gone up to the 79th Street Subway stop – at 11PM – on one night and then gone to Marvel on another. We were young, we were foolish, but we still needed some sleep!
Here’s a nice shot of me, taken by Don, which shows the ad poster in the station.
Here’s Don looking as night-owley as James Dean himself!
I may have mentioned in previous blogs that I had a modest but complete darkroom secreted away in my Supply Closet at Marvel. I would process film and make prints right there. So at some point in time, I returned to the office, well after hours, and processed the film. The result was some fairly incriminating images of a death head on the sultry lower lip of that fabulous model!
After that, Don met me at the office and we made the hand-off. But not before some shenanigans!
A meeting of minds. If only we’d held on to that Hulk coin bank and sold it, both of us could make a house payment today! This fun reminder of times gone by was shot in the Marvel Black & White Department—around late-1979.
Oops! Caught by that relentless investigative photo-journalist, Don David “Blood Hound” Guttenplan! The article he wrote blew the lid off of subliminal advertising and we now know it was a concerted effort to get kids to smoke cigarettes. Don got his degree. In something. But it was good.
Now here’s a shameless plug for Don’s new gig, Editor in Chief of The Nation. Go straight to:
And find out just how inexpensive it can be to stay well-informed and with thoughtful comment in these kooky, crazy times! Yes, there’s a digital version.
Just in case: I only sound like I’m taking suicide lightly. I am not. I don’t quite believe the connection between “death oriented” imagery and the taking of one’s life. I do believe photo retouchers having some fun in the dreary hours of their long work days…
National Suicide Prevention Lifeline
1-800-273-8255