Today in Comics History, July 13: Happy birthday, Dave Garroway!

Dave Garroway, today's birthday boy (born 1913), would like you to talk to the hand, right here on a cover of Harvey Kurtzman's Help!


from Help! v.1 #5 (Warren, December 1960), photographer uncredited and unknown



Dave Garroway! You know 'im as the founder and host of NBC's Today, 1952-1961, as well as a host of radio shows, variety shows, science shows, and a lifelong sufferer of depressed, which belied his calm, easy going cadence and manner. But: if Dave got his picture on the cover of Help!, why didn't he ever get the same on MAD, America's "Cheap!" funny magazine. Wellllllll...


cover of MAD #39 (May 1958), painting by C. C. Beall Jr.
What? You didn't spy Dave Garroway on that cover? Well, put on your reading glasses (I use a pince-nez myself) and peruse it properly, pal! Not only is Dave on that cover but twenty-eight other famous and infamous (according to my understanding of the word "infalmabble," that means the same thing, right?) stars of stage, screen, television and magazine! I mean, I should be on that cover, but I was only four back then.


But did Dave Garroway ever get an entire MAD section all to himself? Well, you oughta know by now that I wouldn't ask that question if the answer weren't yes. So, let me look it up and see if he did...oh, he did! Hoorah! (relieved sigh)




from "The Dave Garrowunway Show" in MAD #26 (November 1955), pencils and inks by Jack Davis
So, we toast your birthday with a banana daiquiri (mine's just a banana stuffed into my chocolate milk), and salute you, the first "Dave" on NBC!