Norman Vincent Peale - Cultural References

Cultural References

• Peale is referred to in the song "The John Birch Society" by the Chad Mitchell Trio ("Norman Vincent Peale may think he's kidding us along...he keeps on preaching brotherhood, but we know what he means ...")
• Peale is sarcastically referred to as a "deep philosopher" in the Tom Lehrer song "It Makes a Fellow Proud to Be a Soldier" (on the album An Evening Wasted With Tom Lehrer, 1959).
• In the "Treehouse of Horror VI" episode of The Simpsons, a building with the sign "Birthplace of Norman Vincent Peale" is destroyed.
• In POWER OF THE PLUS FACTOR (p. 39) Peale states that one of the most remarkable men he ever met was a native of Lebanon of Palestinian origin, Musa Alami.
• A clip of Peale's radio program is heard briefly in the film Grey Gardens (1975), and Peale himself appears as a character in the musical based on the film (2006).
• A widely reprinted editorial in the Los Angeles Times says that the 2006 book and DVD The Secret both borrow some of Peale's ideas, and that The Secret suffers from some of the same weaknesses as Peale's works.LAtimes.com, accessdate 2007-01-13
• M*A*S*H episode 135 (The Smell of Music) contains a grossly injured soldier (guest star Jordan Clarke) who rejects counsel from Col. Potter (Harry Morgan), stating, "Doc, if there's one thing I don't need right now it's a Norman Vincent Peale sermon ..."
• In the fourth episode ("The Bracelet") of the HBO show "Curb Your Enthusiasm", Larry David calls Richard Lewis "Norman Vincent Lewis" after he says, "Every day is a great day for me."
• In the American film The Assassination of Richard Nixon (2004, directed by Niels Mueller), Manager Jack Jones (Jack Thompson) tries to convince his employee Samuel J. Bicke (Sean Penn), a disillusioned salesman with a history of short-lived jobs, to believe truly in the products he’s selling and to follow the concept of positive thinking. Then he asks his son Martin to hand over a couple of books to Bicke, one of them is Norman Vincent Peale's “The Power of Positive Thinking”.
• In the musical Li'l Abner, General Bullmoose is reminded to take his "Norman Vincent Peale pill," and declares he's "not taking those Peale pills anymore. They make me think too positive."