Word: humorously
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...course Wells met Wells. The British were eager to see in Main Street support for the comforting conviction that Americans, though rich, were a pretty uncouth lot. So Lewis was warmly received, but not all appreciated his japeries. When he met some prominent Irishmen, his notion of humor was to sing a funny song about Christ walking on the water. Lewis insisted on doing imitations at dinner, and they went on too long. He even fancied he resembled Bernard Shaw and bought a wig at Clarkson's", the theatrical wigmaker, to improve his Shaw impersonation (the older clown...
...quiet of his own home. He can hardly make a move without provoking tantrums in some political sector, where worry springs eternal that something he does will cost votes. Nevertheless, he has earned a reputation for disarming his most vehement critics with quiet logic, unfailing good humor. His formula: "When I get involved in a controversy, I don't care whether the people on the other side are s.o.b.s. What mat ters is what they stand...
Attack! (United Artists) pictures a blood-and-mud Bill Mauldin war without the saving grace of Mauldin's humor. A beat-up infantry company attached to a National Guard division is fighting its way across Belgium and taking heavy losses because of the cowardice of its captain (Eddie Albert). After one disastrous assault, Lieuts. Jack Palance and William Smithers turn mutinous, but are pacified when Battalion Commander Lee Marvin (who is protecting Eddie Albert to advance his own postwar political career back in the States) assures them that the company is being withdrawn from the front...
...look and listen in advertising recognizes that the U.S. consumer in 1956 is bettereducated, better-traveled and better-paid than ever. Says a Cleveland merchandising manager: "There are no more yokels." Instead of bludgeoning the customer with razzle-dazzle headlines and ranting copy, admen are buttonholing him with quiet humor, soft talk and attractive art. On the heels of the hard sell spieler comes the shaggy dog who converses with Friend Joe on the merits of rum, and the shaggy Schweppesman who will drink anything plus tonic. Kangaroos sell airline tickets; giraffes promote Ethyl; Mr. Magoo plugs beer. Banks...
...other hand, understated advertising has successfully sold many items, from dogfood to diapers, in mass-market fields where there is little discernible difference between competing products. Instead of lecturing readers on engine-ping, Standard Oil Co. (Ohio) diverts them with spaceship cartoons. George Gobel's fey, sophisticated humor has helped to build Dial soap into one of the three top-selling U.S. brands...