Home
Search transcripts:    Advanced Search
Notable New     Yorkers
Select     Notable New Yorker

Bennett CerfBennett Cerf
Photo Gallery
Transcript

Session:         Page of 1029

Q:

You didn't make any real money off her.

Cerf:

No, this was pleasure; this was great fun.

Q:

Wasn't she very manly? I mean she wasn't very feminine.

Cerf:

Oh, good lord! She and Miss Toklas! What a pair! When Forever Amber came out, Macmillan ran a picture of Kathleen Windsor who was a beautiful girl. So the next week we ran Gertrude's picture in the same media. It said, “Random House has glamor girls, too.” Gertrude laughed with everybody else. I've never met a better sport.

I'll tell you about a couple of other Publishers‘Weekly ads we ran. One time we did a book on Ireland, and we had a whole page ad in Publishers‘Weekly saying, “This is what the Jerusalem Post says about this book.” The whole page was in Hebrew--for an Irish book.

Another time we ran an ad of a girl sitting in a bathtub with a lot of Modern Library books floating on the top and we write: “99 3/4% pure--they float.” It was a take-off on a familiar fairy soap ad of the period.

Q:

Did you have a very good advertising man or did you think these up?

Cerf:

No, I did these. In those days the Publishers‘Weekly only cost about $100 a page, so you could afford those diversions. You can't afford them anymore.





© 2006 Columbia University Libraries | Oral History Research Office | Rights and Permissions | Help