“No more bullshit!” (Norman Mailer 1969 mayoral slogan)
In 1969, novelist Norman Mailer ran for mayor of New York City and newspaper columnist Jimmy Breslin ran for city council president. (John Lindsay was re-elected mayor.) The Mailer-Breslin campaign slogan was the unfit-for-the-family-newspaper “No more bullshit!”
The phrase “No more bullshit!” had appeared in books by at least the early 1960s, and it was also used by students during the Columbia University crisis in the spring of 1968.
Another slogan of the Mailer-Breslin campaign was “Throw The Rascals In!”
Wikipedia: Norman Mailer
Norman Kingsley Mailer (January 31, 1923 – November 10, 2007) was an American novelist, journalist, playwright, screenwriter, and film director.
Along with Truman Capote, Joan Didion, and Tom Wolfe, Mailer is considered an innovator of creative nonfiction, a genre sometimes called New Journalism, but which covers the essay to the nonfiction novel. He was awarded the Pulitzer Prize twice and the National Book Award once. In 1955, Mailer, together with Ed Fancher and Dan Wolf, first published The Village Voice, which began as an arts- and politics-oriented weekly newspaper initially distributed in Greenwich Village. In 2005, he won the Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters from The National Book Foundation.
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In 1967, he was arrested for his involvement in anti-Vietnam War demonstrations. Two years later, he ran unsuccessfully in the Democratic Party primary for Mayor of New York City, allied with columnist Jimmy Breslin (who ran for City Council President), proposing New York City secession and creating a 51st state.
Google Books
Out of the Burning:
The Story of a Boy Gang Leader
by Ira Henry Freeman (Carl Joyeaux, pseud.)
New York, NY: Crown Publishers
1960
Pg. 192:
“But, please, boys, no more bullshit. I am not feeling well today; my head is bursting.”
Google Books
The Green Felt Jungle
by Ed Reid and Ovid Demaris
New York, NY: Trident Press
1963
Pg. 32:
You give the Chicago boys the wire and no more bullshit.
29 April 1969, Benton Harbor (MI) News-Palladium, “Anything Goes In Profane NY Campaign,” pg. 2, col. 1:
New York City is enjoying or suffering (depending on the point of view) what is probably the most profane and zaniest political campaign in U.S. history.
Dirty-word novelist Norman Mailer is running for mayor. In tandem with him is ex-newspaper columnist Jimmy Breslin, who wants to be head of the city council. First step is to get enough names on petitions to put their names on the ballot for the June 17th Democratic primary.
Mailer and Breslin have messages galore, a slogan and a program.
The slogan is: “No more bull——!”
One of their messages is:
“We are no good, and we can prove it.”
The main theme of their campaign seems to be that New York City is falling apart. Their answer is a program to make New York City the 51st state.
2 May 1969, New York (NY) Times, “Mailer and Breslin Enter Race” by Richard Reeves, pg. 24:
Norman Mailer officially opened a “serious campaign” for the Democratic nomination for Mayor yesterday with a 14-microphone news conference featuring jokes by Jimmy Breslin—his running mate for City Council President—a staff of solemn young writers, promises of a dozen position papers, and a three-word slogan, one word of which will be blipped out on television.
Google Books
Running Against the Machine:
The Mailer-Breslin Campaign
by Peter Manso
Garden City, NY: Doubleday
1969
Pg. 245:
So once more into the breach, this time armed with blank checks, self-addressed envelopes, and the normal party package of “No More Bullshit” buttons,
Google Books
Up Against the Ivy Wall:
A History of the Columbia Crisis
by Jerry L. Avorn
New York, NY: Atheneum Press
1969
Pg. 51:
“No more bullshit, we shall not be moved.”
20 May 1970, New York (NY) Times, Books of the Times, pg. 39:
MANAGING MAILER. By Joe Flaherty. 222 pages. Illustrated. Coward-McCann. $5.95.
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Among them was Norman Mailer, man of letters, a stand-up visionary of the economy of cities, tireless stomper of the hustings. His slogans were “Free Huey Newton to End Floridation” (or bring together left and right) an “No More Beep-Beep” (for the benefit of TV and The New York Times).
The Brooklyn Paper
November 17, 2007 / News
Heights resident Norman Mailer, 84
By Adam F. Hutton
The Brooklyn Paper
Norman Mailer may have been a jerk, but at least he was our jerk.
The Pulitzer-Prize–winning author was an “egomaniac,” according to the London Daily Mail, a “combative, short-fused brawler,” according to the New York Times and a “sexist, homophobic reactionary,” according the Guardian — but this week, Brooklyn Heights’ own cast of characters shared memories that used words like “gentleman,” “always polite,” “shunned attention” and “kept to himself.”
Norman — we hardly knew ye!
“His death is a huge loss for Brooklyn Heights and everyone in New York,” said Greg Markman, a manager at the Heights Café, one of Mailer’s local haunts, at the corner of Montague and Hicks streets.
Mailer — born in New Jersey but raised in Crown Heights near Eastern Parkway — kept an apartment on Columbia Heights overlooking the Brooklyn Heights Promenade for more than 20 years until his death on Nov. 10 at age 84.
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And he ran for mayor in 1968 under the slogan, “No more Bulls—.”
New York Times
Mailer’s Nonfiction Legacy: His 1969 Race for Mayor
By SAM ROBERTS
Published: November 18, 2007
Mr. Mailer, who died on Nov. 10, was perhaps the greatest writer since Winston Churchill to seek elective office. If that was not disqualification enough, he had also been convicted of stabbing one of his wives. He promised that, if elected, he would at least deliver the bad news couched in “elegant language.” But he also delivered sufficient offense to fill a devil’s dictionary of political incorrectness.
Even his three-word campaign slogan — a vulgarization of “No More Bull” — was unprintable.