Book by Matty Simmons
If You Don't Buy This Book, We'll Kill This Dog: Life, Laughs, Love and Death at National Lampoon
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Author
| Matty Simmons
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Language
| English
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Genre
| Nonfiction
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Publisher
| Barricade Books
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Publication date
| 1994
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Publication place
| United States
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Media type
| Print
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Pages
| 335
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ISBN
| 978-1569800027
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OCLC
| 29637682
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If You Don't Buy This Book, We'll Kill This Dog: Life, Laughs, Love, and Death at National Lampoon
is an American book that was published in 1994. It is a history based on the author
Matty Simmons
' involvement with
National Lampoon
magazine and its various spin-offs, including the film
Animal House
. (The title of the book is a reference to an infamous 1973
National Lampoon
cover featuring a dog looking worriedly at the muzzle of a revolver pressed to its head, with the caption: "If You Don't Buy This Magazine, We'll Kill This Dog".)
[1]
Dating back to
National Lampoon
's debut in 1970, Simmons was the chairman of Twenty First Century Communications, Inc., of which the original National Lampoon, Inc. was created as a subsidiary company. From 1976 to 1977, Simmons was the publisher of the magazine, and from 1978 for a period of time, he was the publishing director.
[2]
Simmons's film credits included being the producer of
National Lampoon's Animal House
and the
National Lampoon's Vacation
film series.
[3]
The book "covers
National Lampoon
's turbulent editorial periods of fluctuating staff and private vendettas, its haphazard film projects..., its recurrent controversy ? from libel suits by Walt Disney and
Liza Minnelli
to advertising and newsstand boycotts spurred by guardians of public morality ? and finally its disastrous takeover in the late '80s by a group led by one of the actors from
Animal House
."
[4]
In a contemporaneous review,
Publishers Weekly
referred to the book as a "chatty, anecdotal account," writing:
[It] also serves as a reminder that, even in its most freewheeling, iconoclastic forms, the entertainment business is just that ? a business.... Simmons has worked with many of the great humorists of our time, and his colorful stories about
P. J. O'Rourke
and
John Belushi
? to name only two ? make amusing reading. But money remains one of the chief concerns of Simmons's memoir. While he is proud of the magazine's funniest moments, the talents it nursed, and the successful projects it spawned ... he also makes it plain that success in the publishing and film industries is dependent partly on the ability to wheel and deal. Bad or unlucky financial planning brought the company repeatedly to the brink of bankruptcy, and the latter part of Simmons's book is mired in accounts of endless power struggles, takeover bids, and financial concerns. But as a cautionary tale on surviving the vicissitudes of the entertainment biz, the book is instructive.
[5]
Kirkus Reviews
wrote of the book:
Matty Simmons, the ousted chairman and founding father-figure of
National Lampoon
, has the corner office in his personal history of its first two twisted decades of reinventing American humor. The
National Lampoon
is the closest thing the
Baby Boom
has to an institution for its sense of humor, having produced, under Simmons, some of the most tasteless and hilarious writing, theater revues, radio shows, and movies. Its multitalented, multimedia alumni continue to make jokes ? the book's cast of characters reads like
Michael Ovitz
's
Rolodex
. Simmons's "first professional relationship with the joke," however, was writing gags for
Walter Winchell
... But Simmons's chronicle relies too often on oddly mundane showbiz anecdotes and
shaggy dog stories
, as if there were a
generation gap
in his sense of humor. Simmons does not rise to the numerous occasions for satire and sick jokes, though the
Lampoon
's history is as warped and blackly comic as any of its creations.
[4]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
"National Lampoon Issue #34 ? Death"
. January 1973. Archived from
the original
on July 20, 2008
. Retrieved
July 24,
2008
.
- ^
"Staff & Contributors"
.
Mark's Very Large National Lampoon Site
. Archived from
the original
on 2011-12-09
. Retrieved
2011-11-19
.
- ^
Genzlinger, Neil (May 1, 2020).
"Matty Simmons, a Force Behind 'Animal House,' Is Dead at 93"
.
The New York Times
. Retrieved
May 1,
2020
.
- ^
a
b
"IF YOU DON'T BUY THIS BOOK WE'LL KILL THIS DOG: LIFE, LAUGHS, LOVE AND DEATH AT NATIONAL LAMPOON"
.
Kirkus Reviews
. April 29, 1994.
- ^
"If You Don't Buy This Book, We'll Kill This Dog!: Life, Laughs, Love, and Death at the National Lampoon"
.
Publishers Weekly
. Apr 4, 1994.
External links
[
edit
]
National Lampoon
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