Last week in this space, we considered a couple of the cartoon side effects of marriage: fighting about money and carrying groceries. In checking my inventory of fascinating but somehow not yet sold postcards, I find another popular cliché about the married man, especially, the married man of business: the suspicion that his work at the office came with certain benefits not mentioned to wifey at home.
Cartoonists assumed for decades that executives take far too much of a hands-on approach at the office. Of course, every good cliché is based on a LITTLE truth. The story was told where I worked that the CEO’s office was designed with a back door from which a bygone executive could walk into the area where his underlings worked, but which was really there so that if his wife showed up without warning, certain young ladies would have an escape route.
Exaggeration, however, is at the base of much comedy. Cartoonists knew readers would nod and smile at the suggestion that applicants for a secretarial post simply assumed there were duties not mentioned in the job description.
Or that the interview would involve a test of their dedication to the work at hand. (Somebody just snickered; I heard you. I wasn’t going to say “at hand”, but make of it what you will. Once we start down that path, though, no words are safe.)
Is this joke confused, or is the cartoonist playing on our confusion? The executive here has the desk, but his secretary is the one holding it down. (Stop snickering; you’ll wake the other readers.)
And who’s crazy about their position here? Our businessman seems more pleased at how well chair and secretary seem to be made for his satisfaction. (More snickering. Okay. Have you heard the one about a scholarly speaker explaining how 1930s businessmen in Chiago took advantage of their authority? The speaker noted that the president of a major museum “naturally created a position for his mistress.” When the audience laughed, he spluttered a bit and said, “Oh, you know what I mean: he found a place for her on his staff.”)
Anyway, THIS cartoonist makes it clear who is entertained and who is entertaining.
A big part of this cliché, though you have observed it is not universal, is that the businessman taking advantage of that private office is a good deal older than the secretary involved. Neither this, nor the basic premise, are limited to mid-century jokers. These were established at least as early as 1908, when this joke was mailed.
This is one of a very few such gags where the secretary is a little bit older herself. There are other interesting points here as well: the typewriter, the arrangement of the office, her expression, and, most worthy of a whole nother blog, that this is one of several postcards on our theme which refer to “my busy day”. I may have to look that one up and find out if it was a song or a comedy catch phrase in 1909 or thereabouts. (I heard that murmur about “getting busy”; if you thought you could make me snicker, you’re late on the job and your check will be docked.)
And here we look into a deeper, darker secret. All those young men who were taught that hard work and ambition would bring them fame and fortune were actually inspired by another perk of work: if they kept at it, one day THEY would have that private office for their own hanky panky, with or without a back door they could use. (Yeah. Just giving up. You’re not you without snickers.)
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