There are a bunch of famous "Judys" scattered across our pop culture zeitgeist (Gosh, I've always wanted to use "zeitgeist" in a sentence - and now I have! Yay for me!).
Judy Jetson...
Judy Robinson from Lost in Space...
Judith Grimes from The Walking Dead...
Judy Garland...
Judy ("Sock-It-To-Me") Carne from Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In...
Judge Judy...
And, of course, "Judy, Judy, Judy" herself, Rita Hayworth - as (not exactly) spoken by Cary Grant!
I'm certain you can name more. But, to paraphrase a popular Christmas song... "But, do you ree-calll... the most INFAMOUS Judy of allll"?
...It's the inflatable "Judy" doll! "Made of soft, smooth, pliable vinyl. Judy looks and feels amazingly lifelike. INFLATABLE - Just add air and instantly you have a Life Size Beauty.
Judy comes with a money-back guarantee... "GUARANTEE: This is the ULTRA deluxe model, there is no other inflatable doll as LIFE-LIKE as Judy. You must be delighted or your money refunded." [..."Delighted", heh!] As the little white rectangle above says: "Just Add Air Life Like in Every Detail" ["Every", heh, again!]
Judy speaks to us, via the ad copy: "I'm Judy, the Life-Size inflatable London doll made with startling detail. ["Startling", heh x 3!] I'm formed from [WORD OBSCURED BY ILLUSTRATION] smooth vinyl, with a human-like softness and feel that will amaze you and your friends." ["Amaze", heh x 4!]
"INFLATABLE - Just add air and instantly I become a 5'4'' beauty who wears size 8 clothes. You can dress me up for any occasion. ["Occasion", heh x 5!] Take me riding [NO! Even *I* won't go there! no "heh" this time!], or to a party, boating or swimming (I FLOAT). [I would HOPE SO! If not, I'd want my money back!] Around the house, I'll be the ideal burglar deterrent; prowlers will see that someone is home - me."
Judy now gets to the heart of the matter: "Just let your imagination go and you will see that I can be the most exciting thing ever invented ["Exciting", heh x 6!] for party gags Your [sic] bound to find hundreds of exciting and unusual uses for me." [NOPE! NOPE! Not touchin' THAT either - in ANY sense you can come up with!]
Judy starts to walk-back her more outrageous claims: "Give your daughter a Judy Doll and she'll be the talk of the neighborhood [NO DOUBT!] with the largest doll in town."
Aw, but Judy just can't let it go completely: "I'm the most unusual gift that you can give to yourself (or to a friend if you can bear to part with me)."
Judy tosses it back to the ad-copy writer: "COMPLETE PACKAGE... For the ultimate enjoyment of your London Doll order Judy complete with pajamas, bikini and wig in blonde or brunette." [At THIS POINT, I'm simply going to censor myself and move on!]
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I'm at something of a loss as to what to say about this, so maybe the best thing to do is throw it over to the book's lead character - Snuffy Smith himself!
If Snuffy were to read this copy of his comic (assuming Snuffy can read ANYTHING AT ALL), he'd probably say it was "bodacious"! Then, he'd probably forget it and take a nap under some tree.
As for me, even at the time, I had enough of an inkling of what Judy was trying to tell us through her "inflated" double-talk to wonder why such an ad would appear in a comic like this...
...Oh, no... wait... I've got it... It's CHARLTON!
"Nuff said!" ...Or, in this case "Snuff said!"
6 comments:
What are the odds? Just before I read this post, I was thinking of Judy... Judge Judy, that is!
As for our inflatable life-size beauty, I suspect daughters weren't the *only* market for her, heh-heh!
"I float."
Don't say that in Salem, Mass, Judy!
Charlton, weird as always. Maybe it has something to do with being founded by an ex-con.
As an aside, it just occurred to me that my home state of Connecticut has quite an impressive history with comics, which not many people know about. Charlton was based in Connecticut, and many of the greatest comic strip artists of the 20th century lived here, including Bob Weber ("Moose and Molly"), Mort Walker ("Beetle Bailey"), Bud Sagendorf ("Popeye"), Hal Foster ("Prince Valiant"), Dik Browne ("Hägar the Horrible"), and John Cullen Murphy ("Ben Big Bolt").
Sergio:
You write: “What are the odds? Just before I read this post, I was thinking of Judy... Judge Judy, that is!”
I’d venture to guess the odds of that are literally incalculable! Yeow!
Hmmm… If “Judy” were to float in old Salem, she’d be guilty of witchery and then burned at the stake. Being inflatable, she’d probably melt much quicker than one born of flesh and blood – and the hissing sound of escaping air would be far less gruesome than the more commonplace searing death screams! …Also, I must add that you got an out-loud-laugh from yours truly with THAT observation! Well done!
As I recall the legend, the two founders of Charlton met while they were *IN* jail! That could explain so very, very much…
That’s a GREAT lineup of cartoonists that CT boasts! I didn’t know about Bob Weber! I *loved* "Moose and Molly", back in the later ‘60s when it was known as just “Moose” or, later on, “Moose Miller”. At junior high age, I used to write and draw my own strips of “Moose” and certain other strips I followed. …Who among us didn’t? I still have the (one and only?) paperback strip collection "Meet Moose the All-American Loafer" (1978 from Tempo Books). Don't know whatever happened to my own strips, alas.
The common thread among the greats you mention would be that they all worked for King Features Syndicate, which was headquartered in New York. That would also explain why the POPEYE and BEETLE BAILEY Dell and Gold Key Comics were produced and edited in New York, rather than California. …And why it was likely an “easy move” to transition the King Features titles (including SNUFFY SMITH) to Charlton – where they would eventually “meet Judy”!
To your list of Judys I have a few more I would add: Dame Judy Dench, Dame Judith Anderson, Judy Davis (who starred in a Judy Garland biopic "Me and My Shadows"), and Jane Powell in the classic 1948 comedy "A Date with Judy."
As for the Judy doll, I wonder what it would have looked like "in real life" had someone actually ordered one. For that matter, are there any around today, or any eager purchasers with stories to tell? But, maybe it's one of those things just as well not to know too much about. In fact, forget I asked!
What it really puts me in mind of is a running gag of the aforementioned Judy Carne in "Laugh In" when she would say. "Hello, I am your Judy doll. Wind me up, and I hit you!" She would always knock someone for a loop with that line. Right along with "Sock it to me!"
Scarecrow:
I think that Judy Carne’s “Judy doll” should hit ME for leaving out all those important Judys!
We’ll probably never know (perhaps, thankfully) what the Judy doll looked like “in real life”, but I’m betting it looked nothing like the picture! I’ll also concede that the “purchasers’ stories” might very well be… um, “interesting”, but nothing I could publish at this humble Blog.
I don’t know if there were HOV (or “Diamond”) lanes for multi-passenger vehicles in California in 1970 (I first became aware of the concept on a 1987 visit to CA – New York didn’t have them until much later), but that WOULD be a “use” for the Judy doll that I could mention in this space.
To risk sounding like a Peanuts punchline: There are some things that we are better off not knowing.
Couldn't agree more, Deb!
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