Ad-Biz and Decorating with Books

With the sudden and unexpected success of the television series "Mad Men," a saga of life in an advertising agency, circa 1960 ("Mad," in this case, being an abbreviation of "Madison Avenue," the best known turf of NYC ad-people) I began thinking of (a) my own time in the trenches of ad warfare, and (b) Frederic Wakeman's "The Hucksters," the novel that first found glamor in the advertising business.  (Herman Wouk's first novel also was about advertising.  The agency in Wouk's "Aurora Dawn" was named Grovel & Leach.)

But that, as Jack Wasserman used to say, is not the item.  Here it comes:  I was toiling in an agency in Edmonton and lunched one day at a cafe with a name like La Creperie, if French had been allowed in Alberta.  It was a period when restaurants were decorating walls with books. Interior designers would go into used book stores and buy books by the yard.  It didn't matter what they were.  You might find Freud's "Analysis of Dreams" next to "The Dummy's Guide to Septic Tank Installation."

The lunch was pleasant enough, but the great moment came when I spied, in a row of books on the wall beside me, a copy of  "The Hucksters."  When the server asked if I wished for anything more, I said, "Yes.  That book."

She paled, said, "I'll have to go get Dwayne, the assistant manager," and fled.  Presently Dwayne appeared at my table, looking very stern.  "I understand you made an improper suggestion to the waitress," he said.  "I just want to buy the book," I said.  "Whatever price you care to put on it.  Within reason." 

"We do not," he said, "sell the furnishings.  Good day."

Back in Vancouver, I related this story to my colleagues.  A few weeks later, one of the account executives, who had been in Edmonton on assignment, returned, and produced the very copy of "The Hucksters" I had coveted.

"How did you persuade them to let you buy it?" I asked.

"What do you mean, buy it?  I just grabbed it and stuck it under my coat."

I still have this purloined copy of "The Hucksters."  I just hope Dwayne and the Vigilantes aren't reading this  blog.