LIFE.com is paying homage to MAD magazine, in this look back at the publication's glory days on Madison Avenue. The magazine (which recently launched its first blog), had its first issue in 1952, though the photos you'll see are from "the magazine's happily chaotic years" on Madison Avenue (or as they wrote: MADison Avenue), when founder Bill Gaines was still around.
Following Gaines's death, the magazine has become more ingrained within the Time Warner corporate structure, and in the mid-1990s it moved into DC Comics' offices at 1700 Broadway. But if you click through you'll be transported back to the glory days—which include Gaines getting stuck inside the Statue of Liberty.
