Customer Reviews

Dando Shaft

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I read this book in the 70s and really enjoyed it. The author is very clever with his unbelievable character development and interaction. I am very sorry it is presently out of print. I had loaned it to several friends and somehow didn't get it back.

Dando Shaft is a middle-aged copy writer for the Madison Avenue ad agency Willard Jones. He was one of the best in the business. He created "Get Lockfast Zippers for Social Security!" for a line of men's pants, and was hailed as a genius for naming a cereal WOW because WOW spells WOW backwards and upside down it spells MOM.

But the best days are behind Dando. His latest pitches go from the bad ("Go Steady with Zingo!" for a laxative) to the idiotic ("Doctor Cole's Corn Plasters for People with Feet"). He's burned-out in his job, he hates his boss (the feeling is mutual), his marriage has lost its lusty sheen, he doesn't really talk to his kid, and he's prone to go off into flights of whimsy to escape it all. He's not above eyeing any scantily-clad hottie on the train, but only fantasizes about going beyond the looking stage. He's got his steaks and martini lunches, and G&Ts as soon as he comes through the door at home, but he's not a very happy guy. His wife nags at him about the leaky roof in their quaint, antique, perfectly-furnished farmhouse, and tolerates his eccentricities. He wants excitement, money, SEX.

So he decides to become a millionaire by taking out a full-page ad in the New York Daily News (for the whopping sum of $3,000) saying that he will live the millionaire's life for you, betting on peoples' love of living vicariously through someone else. All it takes is a donation. He becomes a pop culture sensation and, while not exactly hauling in a cool mil, does pull in enough to dazzle the masses and get the PTBs into a class warfare tizzy. Meanwhile, Dando gets into an affair with the luscious and manipulative Bunny Fairchild, a tramp who has a Lolita act that suckers in the 50-somethings every single time.

Will Dando realize that all that glitters ain't gold? And if so, is he a reformed boy, or an incorrigible dreamer?

Why yes, this is a satire on the 60s and the American phenom of fad celebrities - including the perverse glee over the inevitable crash-and-burn of a public darling. It's a slapstick satire, with crude and raunchy humor alongside very dry sarcasm. I loved it and was giggling throughout the whole thing.

This book is about a man that comes up with the scheme to make himself 'Everybody's Millionaire'. Some of the exploits are just hilarious, for instance, the time he climbs upon the top of a car to scare the occupants but he waits until the car is moving then pulls himself to look down through the windshield and the driver slams on the brakes and Dando goes tumbling over the hood to the pavement.

While this book is out of print and dated it had some of the funniest scenarios I have ever read in a book. One example dealt with the account supervisor who resented the owner's son position in the agency. The son had just purchased a new homburg hat and was quite proud of it. The account supervisor bought the same hat in a size smaller and one a size larger and would then periodically switch the hats. There is also an on-going tale of the account supervisor and a woman he sits next to on the train every day during his commute to work. It ends in the most hilarious scene immaginable. This is a light-hearted book that anyone who has ever had anything to do with advertising will find totally enjoyable.