Gerald R. Fordzie
Merging disparate symbols into a single image, this 1976 poster linked the Depression-era 1932 campaign song of Franklin Roosevelt (1882–1945) and the 1950s-era Happy Days sitcom character “Fonzie”—a juvenile delinquent more endearing than threatening—to President Gerald Ford (1913–2006), then campaigning for a second term. The poster used camp to suggest that Ford brought “Happy Days” back to America after Watergate and Vietnam, during a time when nostalgia for more innocent times helped make the sitcom television’s top-rated show.
Merging disparate symbols into a single image, this 1976 poster linked the Depression-era 1932 campaign song of Franklin Roosevelt (1882–1945) and the 1950s-era <em>Happy Days</em> sitcom character “Fonzie”—a juvenile delinquent more endearing than threatening—to President Gerald Ford (1913–2006), then campaigning for a second term. The poster used camp to suggest that Ford brought “Happy Days” back to America after Watergate and Vietnam, during a time when nostalgia for more innocent times helped make the sitcom television’s top-rated show.