Typographers, as a general rule, do not enjoy a reputation for being wags and wiseacres, but in Hollywood most everything takes on the protective coloration peculiar to the clime, and even printers' devils manage to live up to their label literally.
The Magoffin Company, typographers located near legended Vine Street, in a bid for the attention of advertising execs, took out a series of full-page display ads in the trade journal MAC (Media Agencies Clients). Each display ad displayed an eye-walloping chick in a state close to total undress. She was accompanied by the question is this your type? and by a brief description of the typeface she represented. The typeface known as Venus Extra Bold Extended was interpreted by a bare blonde Venus with an extra bold look in her eye, extended on a couch; the P. T. Barnum face featured a sideshow belly dancer; Hellenic type was illustrated by a shot of a classically proportioned young lady in an abbreviated version of Grecian attire; News Gothic was presented in the form of a female newspaper reader whose clothing consisted solely of the newspaper she held in her hands; and so on, ad nudeam. The ads were avidly received and Magoffin's business boomed.
But when the Magoffin boys turned to Railroad Gothic and enlisted the services of sumptuous ex-Playboy Playmate Marguerite Empey to impersonate a maiden-in-distress tied to a (toy) railroad track, they ran into trouble. MAC deemed the photograph just a trifle "too nude" for the publication. Too late to substitute another photo, Magoffin decided to publish a femme-free ad in MAC. In place of the expected beauty they printed a cartoon of a blindfolded adman, with the caption, "The publisher of MAC thought our ad scheduled for today was 'too nude for advertising men.' We will be happy to send proofs to those wishing to decide for themselves . . ."
Within a week, Magoffin had received more than 700 requests for the promised proofs – over 10% of MAC's circulation – and MAC printed a good-natured editorial comment in the form of a picture of their offices being picketed by half-clad Magoffin models carrying "Unfair!" signs.
News Gothic
Venus extra bold extended
Models picket the offices of MAC, the ad journal which called the Railroad Gothic picture "too nude." The publisher broadly registers dismay.
Hellenic
Railroad Gothic
