From an Oblique Angle
  • Blog
  • THINK TO NEW WORLDS
  • Bigfoot: The Life and Times of a Legend
  • The Fire Ant Wars
  • Articles

The (M)Ad Man: David Bascom

3/20/2011

15 Comments

 
Picture
It’s not clear that David Bascom was a Fortean, in that he was devoted to the ideas of Charles Fort.  But, there is no doubt that Bascom had read his Fort.  And he certainly had a sense of humor that Fort would have appreciated.

David Bascom was born in Pennsylvania in 1912 to Franklin Bascom and Mabel (Rathbun) Bascom.  His place of birth is given as Oil City, Pennsylvania; the previous census had given Franklin’s job as stenographer.  By 1918, Franklin was in Arizona; by 1920, Franklin and Mabel divorced, with Franklin still in Arizona, where he was a forest ranger, and Mabel in Pennsylvania working as a stenographer: she was forty and supporting a 7 year old son, which could not have been easy, although her parents were nearby.


In the next census, 1930, David was living in Erie Pennsylvania.  He was 18, and a lodger.  Someone who appears to be his mother—listed as Mabel Peck—was also lodged in the same place, still working as a stenographer.  David was working as a “show card writer” for a “sign shop.”  Show card writing was the creation of advertising posters for the windows of stores.

By 1938, Bascom had relocated to Oakland, California, according to voter registration records.  (He was a democrat.)  He was working as a commercial artist.  There is reason to believe that Bascom had come West earlier than this—perhaps driven by the Depression.  A 1965 article about Bascom in Sports Illustrated gives a brief biography, stating that he studied art in San Francisco and worked in the circulation department of the San Francisco Chronicle, only later moving into advertising.  His given profession suggests, according to this timeline, that he had already studied art and worked for the newspaper.

An Oakland Tribune article from 1940 puts Bascom in the advertising game, working for Awful Fresh MacFarlane and a member of the Oakland Advertising Club.  Awful Fresh MacFarlane was a candy and nut store.  An article from the same paper the following year also gives a glimpse of Bascom’s fondness for invention.  He had apparently created something called a “steetoscope” that, using fluoroscopy, followed candy through the digestive system.

In 1942, according to the same Sports Illustrated article, he went to work as a copy writer for Garfield & Guild.  He had moved by this point, and apparently married, Mary Charlene (Smith).  He was also living with his mother.  David was still a democrat; his wife and mother were republicans.  David called himself an advertising manager, his wife a stenographer.  At some point, the Bascoms had a son, and it may have been in the early 1940s, since Peck lists herself as a housewife.  As her parents seemed to do for her, she may have been helping her son raise his child.

Billboard magazine noted that Garfield & Guild broke up in either late 1948 or early 1949.  Guild joined Bascom to create Guild Bascom & Bonfigli.  Over the next decade, the agency became a powerhouse in advertising.  In 1957, Bascom was awarded “outstanding achievement in advertising” by the Association of Advertising Men and Women—the first time an advertising man in the West had been so honored.  Two years later, the New York Times noted that GB&B was the talk of San Francisco, doing $12 million in billing—all with national accounts.  And in 1960, the agency did the advertising for John F. Kennedy’s presidential bid, pulling in over $2 million.  In 1967, after being courted by many suitors over a long time, GB&B merged with New York’s Dancer, Fitzgerald, Sample.

Through all of this, Bascom indulged his tinkering and sense of humor.  The same New York Times article has it that his office was filled with phones—something on the order of eight—although most did not work; they were a gag.  And behind him on the wall were pictures of his ulcers.  According to Bascom, it was his ulcers—and Guild—who turned him on to the Zen art of fly-fishing.  After reading through some of the literature and taking some trips, Bascom felt confident to try making his own fly.  He added feathers, tin, ribbon, Christmas ornaments, yarn.  A wretched mess, he called it, and—using his advertising skills—made up a flyer advertising its sale, which he sent to 150 people; he even started selling the fly in a Montana fishing store.  This was about the time of his mother's death, in 1961.

The advertisement took off, and soon became a parody magazine—the last bastion of Yellow Journalism, Bascom trumpeted.  Articles included such searching inquiries, as “Is Smokey the Bear a Communist Spy?”  In the manner of San Francisco collagists, he illustrated the rag with simple line drawings he did himself as well as pictures he cut from magazines and prints—although they were not always relevant to the text.

Bascom was also inspired by another of Guild’s passions, golfing, and invented and patented a golfishing clubrod.  It allowed the user to hit the ball with a driver, carrying fishing line so that the cast would go out farther than if thrown; alternatively, if a golfer hit a ball into a water hazard, he (or she) could reel it back onto dry land.

Bascom retired from the agency in the late 1960s or early 1970s, and continued what Tide—an advertising journal—had called his puckish ways.  He continued to work on A Wretched Mess, although now under the name Milford Poltroon, and even expanded to sending out calendars.  In 1971, under his alter ego, he published How to Fish Good, a parody of fishing books.  A sequel appeared in 1977, The Happy Fish Hooker.  Under the same name, he published The Phony Phone Book, apparently a collection of humorous ways to answer the phone.

Bascom died in 1985.

Who knows when Bascom had his first run in with Fort or Fortean phenomena?  What is known, is that he was involved by 1947.  In July of that year, the Oakland Tribune did a large spread on the nation’s fascination with flying saucers, first reported that year in the state of Washington.  The stories started on page 1 and continued on page 3.  They were no serious—and Bascom was part of the joking.  He said he had seen lights in the sky, but they did not look like flying saucers, or plates.  Rather, they resembled . . . gravy boats!

In response to a series of letters published in the same paper on the topic of the moon, Bascom was moved to write a letter that was published on 22 May 1948.  He expressed mock amazement at the “misinformed writers” who had clearly been exposed to the “completely erroneous information” in science and astronomy texts.  Such books, he said, obviously could not be taken seriously: they had it that tomatoes were poisonous, flying machines and submarines were impossible, and kangaroos avoided migraines by eating fresh salmon.

Yeah, those are definitely odd claims.

Rather, Bascom went on, the moon was made of green cheese.  In support of this—admittedly scoffed at—contention, Bascom cited Dr. Throckmorton’s work in “Behind the Beyond.”  This reference is mysterious.  There is a book called Behind the Beyond by Stephen Leacock, which is a nonsense novel, but there is no reference in it to Throckmorton.  Maybe that was part of the joke.

At any rate, the other source cited for this claim was—Charles Fort!

Tongue firmly in cheek, Bascom goes on to say that the moon’s craters are made by the nibbling of rats and the air composed of Cheddaroxide, which can be converted into gasses breathable by humans with “a common cheese-gas converter” added to any gas mask.  He ends with what had become a common plea—“I say by all means let us establish bases on the moon before some other nation or planet gets the jump on us.”

While a bit broader than Fort’s, the humor was clearly Fortean, using the style of science to arrive at ridiculous conclusions that undermined science’s authority—and its sanctimony, as well as the pretensions of those who took it too seriously. 





















15 Comments
Jim Stranzl
5/13/2012 02:52:30 am

I have a funky congratulatory sketch from Dave Bascom from late 1952 or 1953. It comes from the estate of Clark Pettit. Clark worked for several companies - but his greatest achievement was at Crown Zellerbach where he came up through the ranks to become Director fo Advertising & Creative Service for the comsumer products div. There is no doubt he had some type of relationship w/Dave Bacom

Reply
J.P. ODLE link
7/3/2015 10:25:27 am

WHEN I WAS IN MY 20'S I HAD AN OFFICE RIGHT NEXT TO MR. BASCOMS. I REMEMBER MANY THINGS ABOUT HIM THAT MIGHT BE OF INTEREST TO WHO EVER WROTE THIS ARTICLE. J.P.

Reply
Jann Bascom James
4/9/2019 07:13:50 pm

I just received this blog again today, 4/9/19, which is puzzling. If you still have in formation about my stepfather, I am interested, as I am writing my 4th book - this time a memoir - and naturally he appears in it. jann

Reply
Len Kneale
5/9/2023 06:41:22 pm

I had Berkeley Publishing in the 60's. We did the production for Dave on the Wretched Mess News. Enjoyed chatting with Dave (Milfred Poltroon) and Lydia Shelterdove his office slave and wonderful person. We worked together for about 4 years. I remember climbing the stairs to his office in Montclair with his Jackalope in his office.

Jann (Bascom) James
10/19/2017 10:44:48 pm

I was the adopted daughter of Dave Bascom. When I married against my parents' wishes at age 19, they disinherited and legally disowned me.

Reply
Joshua B Buhs
10/20/2017 12:49:42 pm

Jann,

I am sorry to hear that. I imagine that it must have been very difficult for you.

Reply
jann (Bascom) James
10/20/2017 01:31:05 pm

Well, at first I didn't really believe it, but as time passed it sunk in, of course. I'll have a new book out next year which describes what it was like growing up a Bascom. David had a most unusual, creative sense of humor which was often cruel.

Reply
jim edenbaum
7/27/2018 04:32:01 pm

I loved the Wretched Mess calendar. I somehow (have no recollection now how I ever came across it) was able to get it for several years. I probably still one or two somewhere...

Reply
Joshua Buhs
7/29/2018 11:04:15 am

That is awesome!

Reply
A.A. Luckey
4/9/2019 05:25:52 pm

My late grandmother, Nan Hurd, (1920-2007) was Dave Bascom's Personal Secretary. My late Father, William "Bud" Luckey, was an Art Director for Guild, Bascom & Bonfigli and, after their acquisition, Dancer-Fitzgerald-Sample -- c.a. 1960-'71.

Reply
jann bascom jaes
4/9/2019 07:18:09 pm

Do you know whatever became of the first art director, Dan Bonfigli?

Reply
Jann Bascom James
4/9/2019 07:22:16 pm

I'm always interested in everything I can learn about my stepfather's life and past There are some minor changes I would make to the article.

Reply
Ken Myers
8/28/2024 03:21:10 pm

Hello Miss Bascom, I'm a private researcher in WA. State following up leads about a mystery/legend I've been working on for many years. It happens to also involve your grandfather Frank Sutherland Bascom, who lived in Dunsmuir, CA. I only have one question to ask if you could please get back to me I would greatly appreciate it. Thank you.

Reply
Patricia Rain link
7/26/2019 05:35:17 pm

My father, Ernest "Buzz" Hodges, was the Senior Vice President of GB&B. I found this blog while looking for information on the agency.

They were a very creative, edgy group, hard drinking and very successful. And, there was an underside as well. Jann Bascom James, I wish I could help you get more information on your father. I probably met him once or twice though I don't remember, as I would periodically go to the agency to have lunch with my dad when I was in my teens.

Buzz took a job with the Organization of American States in 1963 - 1965 in Guatemala. When he returned to the US he took a job with Marschalk McCann, first in Cleveland, then New York, and then D.C. where he represented the American Forest Institute. Afterwards, he left advertising/marketing entirely. The "Mad" Men were an incredibly smart, creative and daring group at a time when the sky was the limit and the economy was flourishing. A very different time from now.

Reply
Kathy Kirchner
11/8/2020 05:41:25 pm

I'm so glad to find this. I had a subscription to the "Wretched Mess News." How I looked forward to receiving each issue. So much fun!

Reply



Leave a Reply.

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.
Photo from Marcin Wichary