Mad #97 (Albert Feldstein) - Quadruple Parody Issue - September 1965

Four of Mad's best parody writers were performing at their peak by September 1965.  Larry Siegel ("Cheyenne Awful"), Frank Jacobs ("The Walt Cronkite Show"), Tom Koch ("Load & Crash Magazine") and Stan Hart ("The Rooks") proved in this issue that the best parody writers were working for Mad in 1965.  As usual, Mort Drucker drew two of the parodies.  He continued to do most of the celebrity caricatures as editor Feldstein searched for new talent.

The writing of Ronald Axe and Sol Weinstein sold 22 pages to Mad for issues 96-100.  Weinstein was a comedy writer for Godfrey Cambridge, Joe E. Lewis and Playboy magazine.  He also published the James Bond parody, Loxfinger in 1965.  For Mad #97, Axe & Weinstein had one hit ("What They Say ... And What It Really Means") and one miss ("Mad Interviews a John Birch Society Policeman").  The latter was a humorless indictment of the Society drawn without humor by Joe Orlando.  This one was almost as bad as the anti-Communist manifesto by Phil Hahn in Mad #71. [MADlog #13]

Pony-soldier (page 10) and director-on-wheels (page 13)

Departments:
Blue Chips off the Old Block - Being Rich Is Better Than a Warm Puppy
Don Martin - A Frightful Incident; On the Desert; In an Alley
Indian Corn - Cheyenne Awful
Canned Laughter - A Mad Look at Garbagemen
Joke and Dagger - Spy Vs. Spy; Spy Vs. Spy Vs. Spy
Headline Acts - The Walt Cronkite Show
One for the Road - Load & Crash
Double-Talk - What They Say ... And What It Really Means
Squads Right - Mad Interviews a John Birch Society Policeman
Behind the Odd-Ball - Mad's Modern Believe It or Nuts
Berg's-Eye View - The Lighter Side of Employees
Age Before Booty - The Rooks

Fold-In - Empty Frame