We've been looking at some lovely lady art for the last few posts, so let's keep it going with some truly beautiful C.A. Birch-Field paintings from the ultra rare copy of International Night Life - The Magazine of Night Club Activities V1 #1, published in September 1937. Also known as the "Ice Frolics Edition", the real-life versions of the performing girls featured in the images below were actual stars of the International Casino Revue.
Fun little stack of 1940's war era postcards I found the other day featuring a nice variety of va-va-voom good girl art and silly jokery. The artist of the second card found a mighty lucrative career in greeting cards as I totally recognize the style and own quite a few excellent examples. Anyway, keep those home front fires a'burnin', boys-- you definitely know what's worth fightin' for!
Found this fun Pingree Company advertising shoe brochure from the late 1800's yesterday. Cute little Victorian era girls replace the toes, and then it opens up and becomes two bare feet, while, cleverly enough, still never even showing you an actual shoe. This ad in particular is stamped on the back by local STL shoe company, J. G. Brandt. Googling around for more info, it seems JGB is long gone, (though they did produce a variety of colorfully attractive Victorian era postcard adverts as well.) Meanwhile, The Pingree Company is still going strong and still making shoes in Detroit. The Hazen S. Pingree wiki entry, aka the man who started it all, is also full of fascinating information, click HERE for it.
Time for another "Battle of the Great Packaging All-Stars", and today we pit the 1950's against the 1930's! Both products are wrapped in a similarly attractive design with a particularly eye-popping point of view. But who will win? The box of vibrating, half naked babes lounging around stimulating their circulations from the USA, --or, the unopened pack of smokes wrapper (highlighted by what appears to be an illustration of silver screen starlet, Jean Harlow) from France? Let's agree that both products ease nervous tension, and even relax the muscles. But are both products effectively safe? Don't we already know the answer to this question? VOTE NOW!
Halloween sure is coming up fast, but you're the one girl on the block who likes July 4th even better! Your enthusiasm for patriotism, and love of the 'ol red, white, 'n blue overshadows all of the other girls who are into silly things like Holly Hobbie and Josie & the Pussycats! Why, you have a Statue of Liberty collection that outshines your brother's monster model kit collection by miles! What to do, what. to. do. What to be, what. to. be. Okay, you guys can see where this idiotic intro is going... I picked this up today for $15 and can't wait to stick it on a mannequin next summer and shoot bottle rockets out of her eye sockets. I'm guessing this was originally sold in 1976, and for the price of only $1.98 at Mattingly's, as well! And with that "hip, hip, hooray!" stars 'n stripes "Americana" box design, we also SEE! the past and future collide with Laura Ingalls on one side, and an astronaut on the other! Okay, pipe down now, can't ya tell that Ben Cooper totally put his name on the lid in a pentagram to remind you that this is still for All Hallow's Eve after all?! Jeez.
Found part of a midcentury Seam-Guide cardboard store display, featuring a nice pink color scheme, great lettering, and some really cute leggy illustrations. See how the line runs up the back of the stocking? It's revolutionary, --and worn by nurses and movie stars! I spent some time online trying to find an example of what the complete display looked like (and with the slots filled in), but came up empty. Notable mention: Seam-Guide was based in my old hometown of STL MO!
I meant to show you the antique perpetual desk calendar that goes with the old time clock that I found last week. This handy contraption is a bit older than the clock, and apparently produced around the early 1900's. And like any type of calendar worth its weight in gold, it contains the name of the month, day of the week, and the essential numeral date, all of which you can easily manipulate into place by simply turning the roller dials located on both sides of the main body (--as you can see below, I have already preset mine on my favorite day of the year!) It is indeed a fine piece of old fashioned craftsmanship, nearly 5 inches tall, and covered in some type of leathery embossed paper which is glued to the wood frame. It will eventually look amazing on my desk, as I continue onward with the slow re-vamping of my not-so-new, but greatly improved office space.
I found this gorgeously illustrated, unused 1930's memory scrapbook, coincidentally enough, the same week my son started back to school. These were obviously in fashion long ago, waaaay before we could psychotically document every single second of our lives on a social media platform. I have to admit, this old timey approach has much more appeal to me these days, and as you scroll below, you'll understand how everything is greatly enhanced by the shapely silhouette figures illustrated by M. Farin (?) on each and every page within. What were the snappiest scenes and sayings of the day? What was your motto? Who'd you love? Hate? Did you join any secret societies? Any big moments occur? (Keep it clean, please!) I'm actually kind of bummed this scrapbook is unused, because seeing a stranger's handwritten thoughts from nearly 100 years ago can be just as interesting as long, silhouetted legs reaching into the air. Hey, why not print these out, bind 'em up, and 23 skidoo your own memories for this 2023-24 school year!
