The Home Meal Planner...

Published in 1957 by General Foods Corporation, The Home Meal Planner was a helpful 30+ page guide for those in need of balancing and combining a perfect, daily diet that fits into your taste, talent, budget and season. In typical AEET fashion though, we are only concerned with the art elements featured in said booklet, and these are just as much a treat for the eyes as a juicy slice of watermelon is for your mouth.

Charlie McCarthy in The Haunted Hide-out

For those that missed it the first time-- and as long as we're on a ventriloquist kick this week-- I thought I'd re-share some scans I originally donated to Magic Carpet Burn (RIP) a few years back. And if you're one of those types that think ventriloquist dolls are creepy (see last post / comments) then enjoy today's classic Dell story from Four Color #196, September 1948 --because what better place to put animated dolls than inside of a spooky old house setting?

Fun with Ventriloquism

I was telling a friend over the weekend about this big ventriloquism post I've been working on. She automatically assumed when I said "ventriloquism" that it was going to be for my Horrors of it All blog. But no, it might be a little bit creepy, but it's definitely more at home here at AEET. It's funny to me how things created for children like dolls, stuffed animals, and clowns can morph into the stuff that nightmares are made of... and I'll agree, most of the art and photos featured in Fun with Ventriloquism by Alexander Van Rensselaer (Garden City Books / 1955, illustrations by John Barron) can indeed be seen as scare material to some; but let's try to venture back with an open mind, to a time when big headed, glassy-eyed puppets were intended to be just a handful of non-horrific, re-animated kiddie fun.