Dear MMD:  One of the things I like to collect is Mad Magazine.  Back
in the early days of the magazine (1956) they accepted real advert-
ising. I was re-reading one of my ancient issues (#29, Sept. '56) and
listening to some A-roll blues performed on a Seeburg E when I spied
the following real advertisement on the back page:

  "Mad Records For Mad Readers!

  If Bach, Beethoven or Brubeck don't work as background for reading
  MAD here's a suggestion.  Send for one of the following LP's.

  Toe Tapping Nickelodeon Music        1. Razz-Ma-Tazz In Hi-Fi
  Very sour German village band music  2. Oom-Pah-Pah In Hi-Fi
  The Gayest 90's music ever           3. Your Father's Moustache
  Nostalgic Edison Cylinders           4. Edison in Hi-Fi?

  All albums 12" 33-1/3  Order by number   $4.98 per record
  San Francisco Records  562 Kearny St.   San Francisco, Calif"

Coincidence?  Hardly.  It was Mad Magazine issue #47, 'way back in
1959, that got me started on the trail of collecting the unusual.
The article was "How to be a 'Mad Non-conformist'", and it dealt with,
among other things, conformists who attend current movies, buy the
newest stereo equipment or listen the latest sounds, as opposed to Mad
Non-conformists who listened to scratchy '78s, watched Tom Mix movies,
and enjoyed cranking Mutoscopes.

Needless to say, to a then boy of eight, I knew who I identified with!
After that day, I was never the same.

As for the LP "Razz-Ma-Tazz In Hi-Fi", has anyone ever heard of it?
I'm sure someone out there even owns one.  I'd like to hear it someday
myself.  Maybe while reading an old Mad.

Mark Forer