Time And A Half For Overtime (James Munves) - Sir Brown - May 4, 1942 - 24 pages

In the middle of World War II, the apparent message from this Brown University parody of Time is: smoke as many cigarettes as you can.  It's good for the country.  The person on the cover is Mr. Manny Motta, the guy who has been selling candy and cigarettes in Faunce House since 1924.  They like him.  There are also full-cover, full-page real cigarette ads from Joe ("I've smoked Camels for 8 years and they have the mildness that counts with me.") DiMaggio (1914-1999) and Joan ("Make your next pack Chesterfields ... regardless of price there is no better cigarette made today.") Bennett (1910-1990).  Throughout the magazine, the importance of cigarette smoking to Brown students is emphasized.

The magazine has the look of Time but the stories are focused on the Brown U. experience rather than a parody of the events of the day.  The feature article ("Brown At War") is an odd, seven-page account of the attempted occupation and capture of the campus by 14-year-old Stinky Gunshy and company.  The story is weak and not funny but there are ten black-and-white photos of the college.  Other over-long articles are about working in the library ("Books"); how to make better movies ("Cinema"); "People" (Manny Motta); editing photographs with scissors ("Art"); and the blondness of Stan Kenton ("Music").  The strangest article is the final "Story" about the sad life of a department store Santa (in May in a humor magazine?).

There was really no mention of what was happening in the European and Asian theatres of war, but there is a full-page ad for the USO ("We've Got A War To Win").  I do not envy the task of the editors of a humor magazine whose readers are primarily draft-age young men in 1942.  At one point, the editor states: "We decided that you ought to fill this page up.  WRITE, PLEASE PRINT, something funny here.  Ha, Ha.  We can't think of anything funny, it's Monday 2 A.M. and this thing goes to press in about twenty four hours."  I agree with the editor.

Front cover – Manny Motta, Brown University Faunce House vendor

Inside front cover – “Joe DiMaggio’s Mighty Swing” (real Camel ad)

1 – Letters; Rage (drawing by “Ink”)

2 – Sir Brown masthead

3 – Five-part cartoon of a newspaper reader with some jokes.

4 – Jokes and cartoons

5 – Brown at War

6 – Scene of Hostilities (Aerial View of Brown University)

7 – Brown Battlefronts

12 – Books

14 – Art (drawings by “Ennis”)

15 – People (Manny Motta)

16 – Cinema

17 – Music

18 – Theatre (drawings by DAS)

19 – Education (drawing by “Hackett”)

20 – Story

21 – We’ve Got a War to Win! (real ad for USO)

22 – Jokes and cartoons

Back cover – “His Cigarette and Mine” (Joan Bennett, American Women’s Voluntary Services real ad for Chesterfield)