"Mad" publisher Bill Gaines gave Reidelbach total access to the magazine's own files, including the collection of Neuman-related images that had been assembled for a 1965 copyright infringement lawsuit. The earliest image cited in Reidelbach's book is from an advertisement for Atmore's Mince Meat, Genuine English Plum Pudding. She wrote that, "[d]ating from 1895, this is the oldest verified image of the boy... The kid's features are fully developed and unmistakable, and the image was very likely taken from an older archetype..." After the publication of the book, an older "archetype" was discovered in an advertisement for the comical stage play, "The New Boy", which debuted on Broadway in 1894. The image is nearly identical to what later appears in the Atmore's ads. A description of the stage play's advertisement was published in the December 2, 1894, "Los Angeles Herald". Using words that could easily be describing the character of Alfred E. Neuman, the paper reported that the "comic red-headed urchin with a joyous grin all over his freckled face, whose phiz [face] is the trademark of the comedy, is so expressive of the rollicking and ridiculous that the New York Herald and the Evening Telegram have applied it to political cartoon purposes." Elements of the plot of the play explain why the character has adult and childlike features, why the character is dressed as he is, and how he may have lost his teeth. The original "New Boy" image was published with a two-part phrase that is similar in tone to Neuman's, "What? Me Worry?" catch phrase: "What's the good of anything?—Nothing!" The "New Boy" advertising image was copied widely in advertising for "painless" dentistry and other products. It is also possible that the image influenced the look of The Yellow Kid, the 1890s character from Richard F. Outcault's strip "Hogan's Alley". The image was used for a variety of purposes nearly continuously until it was adopted by "Mad". Similar faces turned up in advertising for "painless" dentistry. According to Gaines, 'Alfie' has his origin in Topeka with the Painless Romine Topeka Dental College, actually a dental group at 704 Kansas Avenue, at the office of Dr. William Romine—often misspelled as Romaine—a dentist who resided and practiced in Wichita. A face virtually identical to Neuman's appears in the 1923 issue of the University of Minnesota humor magazine "The Guffer" above the caption "Medic After Passing Con Exam in P. Chem."