Supermac (cartoon)
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''"Super-Mac"'' was a 1958 cartoon image of Harold Macmillan, which became an enduring nickname for him. With its rather dismissive caption, "How to Try to Continue to be Top Without Actually Having Been There", the cartoon image, by "Vicky" ( Victor Weisz)See J. M. & M. J. Cohen (1995 edition) ''The Penguin Dictionary of Twentieth-Century Quotations'' first appeared in the ''
Evening Standard The ''Evening Standard'', formerly ''The Standard'' (1827–1904), also known as the ''London Evening Standard'', is a local free daily newspaper in London, England, published Monday to Friday in tabloid format. In October 2009, after be ...
'' on 6 November 1958. It depicted a caricature of Harold Macmillan, the British Prime Minister at the time, in the guise of the
comic-book A comic book, also called comicbook, comic magazine or (in the United Kingdom and Ireland) simply comic, is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panels that represent individual scenes. Panels are of ...
hero Superman.


Image

The cartoon was signed "Vicky – with apologies to Stephen Potter", an acknowledgement of the full title of Potter's book of 1958, ''Supermanship, or, How to Continue to Stay Top without Actually Falling Apart''. The figure quickly became a staple of Vicky’s output and "Supermac" (mostly spelt without a hyphen) was widely and enduringly applied as a nickname for Macmillan. Though initially an
ironic Irony (), in its broadest sense, is the juxtaposition of what on the surface appears to be the case and what is actually the case or to be expected; it is an important rhetorical device and literary technique. Irony can be categorized into ...
coinage, it soon rebounded to Macmillan’s advantage, becoming an integral part of his image. D. R. Thorpe's biography of Macmillan (2010) was entitled ''Supermac: The Life of Harold Macmillan''. In a subsequent cartoon, a cinema named the "Torytz" (after "
Tory A Tory () is a person who holds a political philosophy known as Toryism, based on a British version of traditionalism and conservatism, which upholds the supremacy of social order as it has evolved in the English culture throughout history. The ...
") was portrayed with posters proclaiming "Supermac - He's terrific - He's stupendous ... A super-colossal-top-production in true-blue colour". The Conservative Party Chairman, Quintin Hogg,
Viscount Hailsham Viscount Hailsham, of Hailsham in the County of Sussex, is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1929 for the lawyer and Conservative politician Douglas Hogg, 1st Baron Hailsham, who twice served as Lord High Chancello ...
, was dressed as a
commissionaire In mainland Europe, a commissionaire is an attendant, messenger or subordinate employed in hotels, whose chief duty is to attend at railway stations, secure customers, take charge of their luggage, carry out the necessary formalities with respect t ...
presiding over a "house full", while astonished members of the public, queuing for seats at the outrageous price of 12 shillings and sixpence, marvelled at the image of Supermac.


Heyday: late 1950s

The creation of ''Supermac'' reflected an age in which, following the austerity of the post-
Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...
period and the débâcle of the Suez Crisis of 1956, Britain was enjoying increasing prosperity and a general upturn in the national mood. This feeling was widely regarded as having been typified by Macmillan’s assertion in July 1957 that "most of our people have never had it so good" (often cited as "you’ve never had it so good"), though some, particularly in retrospect, saw it as a complacent and materialistic observation, maybe unaware that Macmillan had added the warning that "what is beginning to worry some of us is … 'Is it too good to last?'".


Unflappability

Other examples of Macmillan’s apparent air of confidence and "unflappability" (a characteristic frequently attributed to him during this period, despite his apparent nervousness on big Parliamentary occasions) included his reference in 1958 to the resignation of Chancellor of the Exchequer
Peter Thorneycroft George Edward Peter Thorneycroft, Baron Thorneycroft, (26 July 1909 – 4 June 1994) was a British Conservative Party politician. He served as Chancellor of the Exchequer between 1957 and 1958. Early life Born in Dunston, Staffordshire, Thorn ...
and two other Treasury Ministers, Nigel Birch and
Enoch Powell John Enoch Powell, (16 June 1912 – 8 February 1998) was a British politician, classical scholar, author, linguist, soldier, philologist, and poet. He served as a Conservative Member of Parliament (1950–1974) and was Minister of Health (1 ...
, as "little local difficulties", and his mocking promise during the 1959 general election campaign - "I challenge Mr Gaitskell abour opposition leaderto meet this one" - that it would rain on polling day. (It did not, in fact, rain on 9 October, but Macmillan won the election with a majority in the
House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. T ...
of 100 seats.)


Changing image of the 1960s

The final years of Macmillan’s premiership were difficult ones, coinciding with the
satire Satire is a genre of the visual, literary, and performing arts, usually in the form of fiction and less frequently non-fiction, in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, often with the intent of shaming ...
boom of the early 1960s, in which the revue '' Beyond the Fringe'', the magazine '' Private Eye'' and the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
television series ''
That Was the Week That Was ''That Was the Week That Was'', informally ''TWTWTW'' or ''TW3'', is a satirical television comedy programme that aired on BBC Television in 1962 and 1963. It was devised, produced, and directed by Ned Sherrin and Jack (aka John) Duncan, and pr ...
'' all tended to portray Macmillan as an aristocratic and rather doddery figure of fun (journalist
Bernard Levin Henry Bernard Levin (19 August 1928 – 7 August 2004) was an English journalist, author and broadcaster, described by ''The Times'' as "the most famous journalist of his day". The son of a poor Jewish family in London, he won a scholarship t ...
dubbed him "the walrus" after the character in '' Alice in Wonderland''). The "Supermac" image tended to be replaced in the public mind by that of the
grouse Grouse are a group of birds from the order Galliformes, in the family Phasianidae. Grouse are presently assigned to the tribe Tetraonini (formerly the subfamily Tetraoninae and the family Tetraonidae), a classification supported by mitochondria ...
-moor: in other words, the sense of many that both Macmillan and the Conservative Party, which had been in power since 1951, were out of touch. As
Anthony Sampson Anthony Terrell Seward Sampson (3 August 1926 – 18 December 2004) was a British writer and journalist. His most notable and successful book was '' Anatomy of Britain'', which was published in 1962 and was followed by five more "Anatomies", upd ...
put it, "Macmillan in 1959 seemed to fit in with the mood of the country; Macmillan in 1962 seemed left behind by the tide. The slogan Supermac ... asnow totally inapposite". Similarly, although Macmillan told journalist
Jocelyn Stevens Sir Jocelyn Edward Greville Stevens, (14 February 1932 – 9 October 2014) was the publisher of ''Queen'' magazine and a London newspaper executive. Education and career Stevens attended Eton College and Trinity College, Cambridge, and Sandhurs ...
in 1963 that he had three shooting suits and "rather like them", the "grouse-moor" image which had, only a few years earlier, been seen as "enhancing the backdrop of the Prime Minister's unflappability", now seemed something of a liability.


"We've never had it so often"

In 1963, after the Government had withstood the
Profumo affair The Profumo affair was a major scandal in twentieth-century British politics. John Profumo, the Secretary of State for War in Harold Macmillan's Conservative government, had an extramarital affair with 19-year-old model Christine Keeler be ...
, with its succession of allegations relating mostly to sex, Macmillan resigned on grounds of ill health. Arguably the best remembered cartoon of that year (which the poet
Philip Larkin Philip Arthur Larkin (9 August 1922 – 2 December 1985) was an English poet, novelist, and librarian. His first book of poetry, ''The North Ship'', was published in 1945, followed by two novels, ''Jill'' (1946) and ''A Girl in Winter'' (1947 ...
famously identified as the one in which "sexual intercourse began") was
Trog ''Trog'' is a 1970 British science fiction horror film directed by Freddie Francis, and starring Joan Crawford in a story about the discovery of a troglodyte (or Ice Age "caveman") in twentieth-century United Kingdom. The screenplay was writte ...
's in ''Private Eye'' showing Macmillan walking away with a ladder and a tin of paint from a wall on which had been emblazoned the words, "We've Never Had It So Often". The appointment of the 14th Earl of Home as Macmillan's successor served to perpetuate the "grouse moor" image although Home responded to jibes about his background by referring to Labour Opposition leader Harold Wilson as "the fourteenth Mr Wilson". In the event, Sir Alec Douglas-Home, as he became after disclaiming his peerage, lost the 1964 general election by a very small margin.


Renaissance of the 1980s: "Earl Supermac"

Macmillan lived for another 23 years. The "Supermac" image was more fondly recalled in the years immediately before his death in 1986 as, having accepted an
earldom Earl () is a rank of the nobility in the United Kingdom. The title originates in the Old English word ''eorl'', meaning "a man of noble birth or rank". The word is cognate with the Scandinavian form ''jarl'', and meant " chieftain", particula ...
on his 90th birthday in 1984 ("Earl Supermac!" according to a headline in the '' Daily Mail''), he enjoyed something of a public renaissance as a member of the newly televised
House of Lords The House of Lords, also known as the House of Peers, is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Membership is by appointment, heredity or official function. Like the House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminste ...
. Macmillan's biographer noted that "the media which had so misprized and lampooned him back in the 1960s ... now positively slobbered over him".Alastair Horne (1989) ''Macmillan: Volume II 1957-1986''


References


External links


The original Vicky cartoon from 1958
{{Harold Macmillan 1958 prints British political satire Caricature Cultural depictions of British men Macmillan Individual printed cartoons Parodies of Superman Harold Macmillan