Ain't It a Shame About Mame

Date made: 1941

Artist: Miller, Harold 'Dusty'

Description: Satirical cartoon drawn for Isle of Man Times newspaper. Shows Manx woman walking out with wartime margarine. This cartoon appeared on 8 March 1941.

It takes its title from the name of a song which featured in the 1940 Hollywood film Rhythm on the River, starring Bing Crosby and Mary Martin. The song is about a woman who has married into the aristocracy and now has to keep to high standards of appearance and behaviour, indeed has taken on airs and graces.

In Dusty’s cartoon, the Manx housewife is walking out with wartime margarine (represented as a serviceman in uniform), and shuns ‘Mame Butter’, who is arm in arm with a top hatted aristocrat, Sir Reginald Plenty. Margarine was not rationed, whereas butter was subject to rationing. Manx housewives were encouraged by the authorities to use the former wherever possible and shun the latter.

Materials: ink, paper

Object name: cartoon

Collection: Art Collection

ID number: 2005-0069/95

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