Rawleigh's 1956

Rawleigh's 1956 Almanac & Good Health Guide is a 30+ page booklet showcasing great advertising and product package design from the first half of the 20th century, and below is just a small sampling of some of the many fun illustrations and photography colliding with fantastic color combinations and simple, yet bold typography. I can't speak for their vast array of soup-to-nuts products as I've never used any of them, but Rawleigh is obviously doing something right-- they're still in business today and going strong since 1889!

Find out more about Rawleigh Products by clicking HERE.

The Nearsighted Mister Magoo

I've always found the nearsighted Mister Magoo character to be quite funny. I mean, the idea of a crazy old koot who can't see straight sounds like the perfect idea for a cartoon series right? I always felt that UPA and Total Television Productions dropped the ball with the missed opportunity of pairing Magoo with Colonel McBragg for what surely would have been an awesome battle of the senile senior citizens! Anyway, Pyramid Books' 1967 paperback collection contains hundreds of Magoo's myopic misadventures, apparently "collected for the first time" though I'm not sure exactly where these originated, (I'm guessing the funny pages of syndicated newspapers.) AEET presents a small sampling of some of Magoo's finer, squinted moments, also co-starring his hilarious asian butler Charlie, and dumbshit nephew Waldo.

The Art of Barbeque

Enjoy your so called "last day" of summer folks on this lazy Labor Day of rest, but most importantly (and seriously) if you're not outside and warming up some animal flesh then you are just not doing it right! So today, as AEET marinates down the minutes and hours in preperation for our own outdoor grilling session later this afternoon, we present to you this fine "Art of Barbeque" gallery, collecting some of the tastiest illustrative moments from 50's and 60's BBQ cookbooks and pamphlets... defining our favorite food in all of its juicy, char-broiled deliciousness-- with funny pictures of course!

















(Credits: Big Boy Barbecue Book 1956, Cutco Cook Book 1956, and Weber's "The How of Covered Barbeque Cooking." Also thanks to Bettendorf-Rapp, Pet Milk Co. STL, and Western Auto.)

Corby's Party Book

We already established back in July with my Southern Comfort post that I'm not a drinker, but that still won't stop me from posting this fun 20-page booklet by Jas. Barclay & Co., Limited (published sometime in the 50's or 60's obviously) called "How to Be the Grand Host." Half of the booklet contains your typical booze recipes for whiskey sours and mint julips etc, but the real gold contained here are the wonderful illustrations accompanying the six "fascinating games" pages. I especially love how Corby's decided to skip the usual "sexy girl / rugged adventure male" youthful appeal angle of most alcohol advertisment, and instead fill it full of old bald antiquarians lounging around together and playing silly parlour games like the "Mighty Goliath" and "The Great Profile." So here ya go you crazy party peeps, now you too can become the life of your next swingin', All-Grandpa, 23-Skidoo, Super Shin-dig!

UPDATE: I've started a new job this week, so AEET posts (and at THOIA too) might be a bit sparse here and there depending upon my schedule. I do promise to continue delivering quality posts though... just a heads up, thanks for stopping by!

Little Red Riding Hood (Art by Pablo Ramirez)

In our last post we saw Peter Pan turned into a girl (and Tinker Bell turned into a man!), now with today's post we find loveable Little Red Riding Hood turned into a sinister, black-eyed alien! Not really. It's just some wonderfully surreal examples by childrens book illustrator Pablo Ramirez from 1965. His style isn't everyone's cup of tea, but personally I love the bizarre, angular visuals and dynamic choices in color and texturing (and you definitely don't want to overlook details like the otherwordly foliage, and especially in one case a clock on a wall that is just about the craziest thing you will ever see!) Pablo's approach is deceptively cute and bursting with a haunting dream realm life of its own, some of you may actually find it nightmare inducing... but for me, anything he provided art for that I was lucky enough to read as a kid I have never forgotten.