Sugar Shock

Sweet news for citizens of New York City!

The sugar Calvary has been called  in to save New Yorkers with a sweet tooth. A last-minute reprieve from a judge has rescued  the Big Gulp from going down the Big Apple drain.

 Starting Tuesday march 12, NYC  was  to have a lot less fizz as it prepared to bid a fond farewell to those super size sugary drinks

 As the rest of the U.S. remained submerged in a syrupy sea of over-sized, sugary soft drinks, New Yorker’s were to  have been be saved, pulled out of the drink by their health conscious Mayor.

 The first city in the nation to ban the sale of sugared beverages larger than 16 ounces, Mayor Michael Bloomberg was very close to getting his wish. In his on going campaign to cure obesity, any restaurant or shop was to have been fined $200 if it sold a sugary beverage larger than 16 ounces.

Super-sized Americans

 The American Dream may have been downsized, but American’s ever expanding waistlines have clearly not been. Blame in no small part can go to our penchant for the super-sizing of our soft drinks.

 The “good cheer” of Coke has come under blistering attack for its empty calories contributing to the obesity epidemic, high rates of diabetes and other health issues.

Size Matters

Americans drink more soda than anyone else in the world.

 According to the National Soft Drink Association, consumption of soft drinks is now over 600 12 ounce servings per person per year.

But it’s the size that matters.

Coke has increased the size of their drinks from 6 1/2 ounces in the 1950s to the 20 ounce bottle of today.

McDonald’s and Burger King offer 20 ounce drinks with free refills. At movie theaters and convenience stores the most popular size is the 64 ounce Double Gulp.

Pause for  Refreshment

Vintage Coca Cola Ads (L) !937 (R) 1948

Long before Americans began drinking 13.5 billion gallons of carbonated drinks every year, soda was once something enjoyed as an occasional treat in the confines of the local soda fountain shop. “Lots of good ideas start at the soda fountain,”  according to Coca Cola, “where friendly folks talk things over.”

Vintage illustration from 1946 Coca Cola Ad

“There’s always a welcome mat at your favorite soda fountain. This congenial club is as warm and American as an old-fashioned barbeque. Here  young people gather over a Coca Cola for happy recreation.”

You paused for your refreshment.

Have a Coke and a Smile

Vintage Coca Cola Ads (L) 1949 (R) 1949

By the late 1940s many soda fountains began offering an added convenience.

They stocked the handy 6 bottle carton of Coca Cola “so welcome by all the family. Enjoy a refreshing pause with a frosty Coke and prepare for 6 more like it at home.”

Vintage Coca Cola Ads (L) Graduation 1946 (R) Happy Birthday 1945

Whether a graduation, holiday, or family get together a cooling cola would enliven the occasion.

Reward yourself with a Coke…the great day calls for the friendly pause “Graduation day is a big moment in any families life. Lets celebrate is the order of the day. So out comes frosty bottles of Coca Cola and the friendly pause begins.”

Any time is a Good Time

But the sugary stuff once marketed for special occasions soon became an every day experience.

Helped along by the new type of refrigerators with their freezing compartments which enabled you to have ice cubes always ready for beverages, the sale of home soft drinks rose, and everyone wanted to be part of the Pepsi Generation.

Vintage Pepsi Cola Ads 1951

Vintage Dr Pepper Ads (L) 1946 (R) 1945

Any time was a good time to break out a frosty bottle of ice-cold soda

Especially for those who think young.

It’s Good For You

Unlike today when many nutritionists are saying soda poses risks to children’s health, in mid-century America soda was marketed as a wholesome refreshment for kids of all ages.

“Let the children have all they want,” advised one ad from Canada Dry Ginger Ale. “It’s wholesome and crystal pure.”

“Its gingervating,” the copy continued. “A sparkling glass of ginger ale cools you off to help pep you up…it’s a drink with a reason.” Morning ,noon or night was the right time for a carbonated beverage.

Of course it failed to mention that a 12 ounce serving of wholesome ginger ale has 31.84 gams of sugar which is equal t 8 teaspoons.

You Like It…It Likes You

Before it was wet and wild, 7-up was the family drink so wholesome you could share it with the kiddies.

One 7-up ad proclaimed “so pure so good so wholesome for everyone including the tiniest of tots.”

Keep Em’ Smiling -Vintage Soda Ads 7-up (L) 1948 (R) 1945

Vintage 7-Up ad (L) 1953 (R) 1951

It was never too early to get your toddler hooked on the sweet stuff.

Sugar Rush

And why not… sugary soda was considered energizing goodness.

“You burn up  lot of energy in today’s fast pace…make sure you get it back…with sugar. A drink of sugar is like recharging your batteries.

Yup, there was no better way to get going than with good old dextrose

Like other food products, beverages were made better enriched with Dextrose sugar according to a series of ads run by the Corn Products Refining Company.

In the 1940’s a great deal of money in advertising was spent by the Corn Products Refining Company promoting the virtues of corn syrup, an inexpensive form of dextrose much favored by manufacturers.

 Just as today the Corn Refiners are trying to re-brand High Fructose Corn Syrup as “corn sugar,” so 70 years ago the Corn Products Refining Company was fighting a similar battle to have sugar derived from corn accepted as a wholesome, nutritious ingredient, superior to old fashioned cane or beet sugar.

 And they succeeded

Vintage Ad for Dextrose in Soda – Corn Products Refining Company (L)1946 (R) 1948

Dextrose became the new wonder nutrient touted for its energy giving properties. It was not just an ingredient or sweetener, it enriched food with the energy of the sun.

“The fizzing flavor and fragrance of pure “soft drinks have captured Americas thirst to the tune of 40 million bottles a day-13 billion bottles a year”, the  copy to the 1946 Dextrose ad explained.

The key to its success?

Gratify

“Such popularity must be explained. Water merely satisfies-soft drinks gratify the thirst; provide refreshment, natural stimulation positive nutrition.”

“Dextrose adds real quick acting food energy the kind that makes “refreshment” a fact-not a catch phrase. Many fine beverages are today enriched with Dextrose enjoy their true energizing goodness!”

Another  Dextrose ad from 1948 boasts:

“The key to energy! There’s nothing soft about soft drinks! Vigor abounds in every bottle! Deep down energy that sparkles with tempting wholesome goodness.

Americans of all ages enjoy soft drinks bountifully… to the tune of 50 million bottles a day!”

67  years later the average Americans now drinks 45 gallons of sugary drinks a year.

That’s progress

Copyright (©) 2013 Sally Edelstein All Rights Reserved

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Millions will turn-on and tune-in when Mad Men returns for its 6^th season.

AMC is hoping you won’t drop out.

The Beat Goes On

We last left Don Draper and the gang at Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce in April of 1967 .

The fissures forming in Don and his wife Megan’s relationship echo the fractures and divisions that have grown deeper throughout society during the summer and fall of that tumultuous year.

The ethereal summer  of love co existed with the violent summer of heated race riots and angry anti-war demonstrations that were erupting across the country

American Dreams have begun unraveling as basic institutions come under attack. The rules of habit, tradition and authority are eroded.. The turbulence of youth has caused a punch drunk unsteadiness of the balancing older generation.

Madison Avenue itself comes under attack by the hippies condoning consumer culture.Disgust with mass culture was settling over the country with their battle cry: “Arise ye prisoners of Affluence, ye processed of the earth.”

Perfect for the uptight businessman who would be supremely cool in this wrinkle free Dacron Suit by Eagle Clothes in this ad (L) from 1967. But he might be a bit overdressed for the steamy summer of Love that erupted that summer (R) Illustration by Sokol Playboy Magazine

Where the Money Is

Everyone wanted to be where the action was.

Like most Mad Men,  Sterling Cooper will have to figure out how to stake a claim in the shining orbit of the young and hip. Counter culture has begins to make inroads into mainstream and Madison Avenue tries to cash in.

Even the staid Establishment Wall Street Journal picked up on the super-present world of hippies and the youthquake  which is seen as the link to the future. “Call It Psychedelic and it Will Sell Fast, Some Merchants Say” splashed the headline of their front page story.

Not only had the kids stopped looking up to their parents for guidance, but parents were instead looking towards them to emulate. Adults seized on the new lingo as fast as they came out.

Where the action is in advertising (L) 1967 Ad Montag Stationery (R) Ad for Clark Gum 1967

Whats a Happening Baby

Hoping to cash in on the youthquake was Clarks Teaberry Gum who introduced the “Teaberry Shuffle” hoping to create a dance craze.  The company ran a series of commercials using Herb Albert and the Tijuana Brass who performed the dance song “The Teaberry Shuffle.”

In each commercial a bored looking person would unwrap a stick of Clarks Teaberry Gum and start chewing it. The chewer would abruptly break into a rapid swinging, energetic dance with distinctive shuffling steps for several seconds then just as abruptly return to his original activity.

In this Clarks Gum ad (above  right) that ran in the fall of 1967, you could send away for your very own Shuffle Shift Kit.

“A Happening is you and Clark’s Gum Shuffle Shift Party Kit. You’re wearing our kicky Shuffle Shift” begins the ad copy.

“You’re listening to a 2-sided stereo LP record of the famous Clark Gum Shuffle. And you’re doing that groovy TV dance! The kit includes illustrated instructions. Send for a Clark shuffle shift Party Kit. Its packed in a turned on fashion carry-all bag and consists of the disposable shuffle shift in your size, the stereo LP with 12 minutes of swinging shuffle tunes, and a super stick of Clark Fruit Punch gum.”

Disconnect

Even as Madison Avenue goes with the trend, there is a disconnect between the advertisements we see in the magazines and the turmoil seen in the nightly news.

A Break With The Past (L) Ad -You Live Better Electrically 1967 (R) Playboy Cartoon by Phil Interlandi

Come on Baby Light My Fire

In 1967 a series of ads run by Edison Electric Institute boasted that “You Love Better Electrically.” Featuring  a wholesome American family comfortable in their suburban home the ads touted that “total electricity is a clean break with the past.”

A clean break with the past was already underway.

The counter-culture was blossoming. Never were the divisions so clear as between the Establishment and the hippies that hung out at the intersection of Height and Ashbury in San Francisco, the epicenter for the hippie shocks that have been felt through the world.

Dismissing the Protestant ethic of their parents- hard work, competition and material success, middle class kids scorned their middle class status and values. They didn’t want to be part of a society that was corrupt, repressive, materialistic, joyless and uptight.

In a world gone peculiar with paisley spirals and whorls these acid tripping peace and love spouting hippies  challenged the establishment. The cartoon on the right depicting the counter-culture flourishing was by Phil Interlandi that appeared in Playboy Magazine.

Campus Capers 1967 (L) Smith Corona Portable Electric Typewriter ad (R) Don Madden illustrated the Playboy cartoon

Swinging College

Forget all the student revolts, and unrest that were spreading across college campuses that fall. Never mind the Be-In’s.

A Type-In was where the action was. Write On!

Students revolts were serious matters with political implications meaning to change our ways about race, Vietnam, society, and work but Smith Corona invited the college student to a “Type-In” in an ad for their electric portable typewriter.

“If you want to swing college, come to the type-in. It’s a happening right nw in front of the worlds first portable electric typewriter. It’s the natural choice of the campus bound crowd.”

(L) Vintage cigarette Ad Tareyton 1967 (R) Anti-War Protests

Protests

Tarrytown Cigarettes continued its ad campaign declaring defiantly “Us Tareyton smokers would rather fight than switch.”

Anti-war demonstrations across the nation vowed not to fight period.

As the war grew in ferocity and monthly draft calls were rising, large demonstrations were held against Vietnam in NYC and San Francisco and tens of thousands of Vietnam war protesters marched  in Washington DC in October. U.S. troop levels in Vietnam had passed 475,000 exceeding the total troop strength in Korea while the  U.S. total bombing tonnage exceeds that of WWII.

By late November, U.S. General William Westmoreland  told US news reporters “I am absolutely certain that whereas in 1965 the enemy was winning, today he is certainly losing.”

Despite that, Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara announced his resignation to become president of The World Bank. This action was due to LBJ’s  rejection of his November recommendation to freeze troop levels, stop bombing North Vietnam and hand over ground fighting to South

Burn Baby Burn

Advertising was still moving glacially in in portraying diversity (L) Vintage ad 1967 Kool Cigarettes (R) Cover Life Magazine 8/4/67 Negro Revolt- The Flames Spread reporting the racial riots that had spread though the country that summer as well as the growing Black Power movement

It was a summer of smoke and fire as Blacks revolted across the nation. The idyllic springtime freshness of Kool cigarette contrasted sharply with the blazing riots that spread from Detroit, to Newark to Washington DC.

With the exploding heat and violence crackling across the nation African-Americans made great inroads that summer as  Thurgood Marshall is confirmed as first African-American Justice of US Supreme Court and The Supreme Court rules unconstitutional state laws against interracial marriage.

Pink is Still For Girls

(L) Vintage Ad 1967 Lustre Creme Shampoo “Pink is For Girls (R) Vintage Photo Female protester 1960s

Sexism is still alive and well, despite the growing  presence of women active in  political movements.

Copyright (©) 2013 Sally Edelstein All Rights Reserved

Vintage ad Heinz Ketchup 1934

Mad Men’s Don Draper was not the first man to be tempted by the beckoning allure of Heinz Ketchup.

During the dark days of the Depression, Babs Johnson learned how to keep her hubby happy and add some spice to her sagging marriage.

Ketchup.

No mystery here.  “Masculine hearts skip a beat when a lucky lady serves Heinz ketchup, the racy and rosy condiment!”

Life might not have been a bowl of cherries in Depression era America, but with a bottle of ketchup everything would seem like they were coming up roses. At least according to the ads Heinz ran in the 1930s.

“Heinz ketchup beckons a man!” one ad copy proclaimed.” It cultivates the habit of coming home to eat.” What man could possibly stray when that pert and perky condiment, that come hither Heinz ketchup bottle beckoned?

You’ll understand why if you listen to this mouth-watering story:

Marriage Woes

Poor Babs learned the hard way.

Like the country’s economy her marriage to Dan was in the slumps. Romance had taken a holiday in her year old marriage. The honeymoon was barely over when Dan started burying his nose in the newspapers, barely touching his dinner, taking his meals at the local lunch counter.

It was a particularly nasty row over dinner one evening that sent this newlywed into tears.

Babs: “It’s the same hash you raved about at Ann’s Sunday night supper. You were so keen on it I made her give me the recipe,”

Dan: “Then one of us is crazy. Why I wouldn’t eat this for love or money”

 “I’ll get a bite downtown,” Dan fumed storming out leaving Babs bothered and bewildered.

She had yet to learn that no gal can trust a plain meal to satisfy a man. This new bride was in need of a menu check up.

What That Man Of Yours Really Wants

Man pleasin’ meals (L) Vintage Ad Heinz 1940 (R) Vintage ad Heinz Ketchup 1940

It took the wise counsel of her more experienced gal-pals to set this young bride on the path to matrimonial happiness.

Pointing to a Heinz ketchup advertisement in the latest issue of Woman’s Home Companion, Babs eyes lit up: “Looking for something to make a husband sit up and take notice at the table?” she read with great interest. “Something he’ll give you a kiss and a compliment for? Then make sure you serve a bottle of ketchup with every meal.”

“The man isn’t born who doesn’t love ketchup”said her pal Madge getting right to the point. “Still the shortest route to your man’s heart! That extra little dash makes the meal. A juicy steak and Heinz rich tomato ketchup are a winning combination all men go for!”

Between sips of her Chase and Sanborn coffee, her neighbor Doris offered this tip “He loves corned beef hash doesn’t he? Well, here’s a quick simple table trick, straight from Heinz themselves, that gives this favorite dish an extra appeal. Put Heinz Ketchup on the table- handily where he can reach it and pour it readily….And that goes for his omelette, his steaks- all his pet dishes! “

Goes Over Big

“Keep a bottle of the worlds largest selling ketchup on the table-the way good restaurants do- another in the kitchen, and one near the stove, suggested Heinz in their ad “ See how easily and economically you can give your meals those intriguing little touches your family loves! give – your cooking the worlds favorite flavor. Remember Heinz ketchup is no bugbear to budgeteers for its so rich a little goes a long way.”

“And every cook knows it transforms leftovers into snappy culinary triumphs! chirped in Helen. “Men have a yen for this sauce. He’ll be smacking his lips!”

Happy Days Are Here Again

Babs couldn’t wait to try it out.

 “Come on home for supper, Darling! Corned Beef Hash, poached eggs and a new bottle of Heinz ketchup” Babs cooed provocatively into the phone.

 Dan could barely contain his excitement “Coming soon, angel! That bright fresh ketchup flavor has my mouth-watering already?”

No more wandering eye at lunch counters

No more whispers that Bab’s marriage was on the rocks. No more lonesome unhappy hours. For now, her husbands rushing home after work, Lucky Babs learned the secret to keeping a man satisfied.

“This dumb bunny’s never fooled again,” Babs said firmly.

She’d learned the first principle of culinary witchery- keep a bottle of that lusty condiment Heinz Tomato Ketchup handy in the kitchen!

Something Megan Draper might want to keep in mind, to keep her hubby Don from straying.

Copyright (©) 2013 Sally Edelstein All Rights Reserved

Want a more youthful vibrant expression?

Chew on this!

Forget expensive cosmetic wrinkle fillers and injectables like Botox. For a true non surgical age reversing technique-good ol’ American chewing gum not only doubles your pleasure, but makes you doubly delightful to look at too!

And this advise comes straight from one of retro Hollywood’s loveliest stars Miss Claudette Colbert!

That is according to Wrigleys, in this 1938 advertisement for Double Mint Gum

“Masculine hearts skip a beat when a lovely woman flashes an enchanting smile,” exclaims Wrigleys in their ad. “And refreshing Double Mint gum does wonders for your smile. Women of discrimination choose this popular double-lasting, delicious-tasting gum.”

Beauty On A Budget

Now here’s the science behind the beauty enhancing wonders of Wrigleys

“The daily chewing helps beautify by waking up sleepy face muscles, stimulating beneficial circulation in your gums and brightening your teeth natures way. So your face and smile gain a lovely new radiance everyone admires.”

Looking renewed and refreshed, admiring friends will wonder whether it was a new hair-do or a relaxing cruise that contributed to your radiant countenance. Who would ever guess it was a mere stick of gum.

Double Your Pleasure, Double Your Fun

The ad doubles the sales pitch as well by hawking Claudette Colbert’s next big movie and a Hollywood fashion designer.

“What you wear and how you wear it also enters the picture as exemplified by Hollywood’s beautiful and fascinating star Claudette Colbert and proven again in her next big Paramount screen success “Midnight.”

“The becoming suit dress Miss Colbert models so smartly for you,” the reader is informed, “ is by Hollywood’s great fashion creator Travis Banton- designed by Double Mint gum’s request since smart clothes as well as an attractive face means charm. Mr Banton’s fashions are noted for curves concealed just enough and for that expensive slim hipped look always associated with Claudette Colbert.” And since healthful delicious double mint gum is a satisfying non fattening sweet, it keeps you slim hipped too

“You yourself can make this flattering suit dress in any color or material most becoming to you by purchasing Simplicity pattern 2902 at nearly all good department, dry goods or variety stores.”

“All women want smart clothes and know they set off smile and loveliness of face. Millions already know delicious Double Mint gum helps bring extra attractiveness to your smile, making your whole face doubly lovely. Begin today.”

My sweet Grandmother had a sweet tooth.

Whether Bartons, Barricini, or Lofts, chocolate was the common currency of celebration.

But Mothers Day meant only one thing- a Whitman’s Sampler.

Through the years, that gift of chocolate has become more closely associated with America’s Mothers Day than any other.

Remembering  Whitman’s

Every year at the precise moment the azaleas burst open in a blaze of color, my extended family gathered in our suburban backyard to celebrate Mothers Day. Along with a corsage, my grandmother, Nana Sadie, always received a Whitman’s Sampler in honor of the holiday.

Between bites of rich chocolate nougat, Nana Sadie delighted in rhapsodizing about her life long love of chocolate in general and Whitman’s Sampler in particular. It was the same story year after year, relishing the telling as much as the chocolate.

In 1912 when Nana was 12 years old,  Whitman’s launched its famous Sampler.  Nana would explain how she would eye the pretty yellow box in the window display of Gussmans Pharmacy the fanciest Drug Store on Bedford Avenue in Williamsburg. The yellow cross stitched designed box had an aged yet timeless look, as though it had been around for decades.  Imagining the luscious treats that lay hidden in the box, had made her mouth water.

Two year would pass, Nana would continue, when one day in May of 1914 President Wilson declared the first Mothers Day as a day for American citizens to show the flag in honor of those mothers whose sons had died in war. “Sadly,” Nana would shake her head commenting, “in just a few years who knew how many thousands of mothers would lose their own sons to The Great War.”

A Woman Never Forgets The Man Who Remembers

It wasn’t long before a marriage of merchandising and holiday heaven was born.

The following May 1915, Nana’s up-to-date father came home with a genuine Whitman’s Sampler box  tucked under his arm and proudly gave it to Sadie’s mother. Squinting at the unfamiliar box, my Great Grandmother’s search for the familiar seal of approval was futile. No union of Rabbis had sanctioned these chocolate nuggets as kosher, so my very observant Jewish Great Grandmother, rolled her eyes and politely offered the box and its  scrumptious contents to her welcoming children. Contrary to Whitman’s popular slogan, in future years my embarrassed  Great Grandfather would remember to forget Whitman’s for his wife.

Sitting on the front steps of their wrap around porch Nana and her 7 brothers and sisters eyed the candy box in wonder.

Such a selection! Piped chocolate whorls, flakes of coconut, round shapes filled with mysterious  somethings,  rectangles shapes hiding everything from nuts to pralines to assorted fillings.

A 15-year-old Sadie was in chocolate heaven. Her mother might  forget the candy but Nana would long remember.

Life is Like a A Box of Chocolates

Decades  later, the sharing of Mothers Day melt-in-your-mouth chocolates became a family ritual as my grandmother would offer sweets to her eager grandchildren gathered around her.

Part of the ritual was the opening of the box itself.

Getting to the goodies themselves was a treasure hunt, leaving us salivating with anticipation until the first perfect square was lifted from the brimming box. Nana would carefully remove the outer cellophane wrapper- the first cellophane ever used in candy packaging she would remind us.

Opening the lid revealed what is known as the “Pillow Puff” liner made out of embossed paper protecting  the chocolates below.

Treasure Hunt

On the bottom of the lid was the  “treasure map” of the contents of the box, that would direct you to your chocolate dream.  Donning her reading glasses, Nana would read aloud to us from the placement chart that would lead you through the maze of 14 varieties of perfect pleasure with names such as toffee chip, cashew cluster, almond nougat, pecan cluster, coconut, chocolate truffle, and cherry cordial

Nana’s first choice was always the Molasses Chew, the most distinctive piece in the box and worthy of the guest of honor. Covered in smooth dark chocolate with fancy white zigzag stripes, it was filled with nougat.

 While cousins fought over chewy caramel squares and the chocolate covered nuts shining with confectioners glaze got scooped up by my brother, I zeroed in on the cherry cordial, its plump maraschino cherry swimming in sugary syrup, encased in milk chocolate.

An incurable pack rat, Nana Sadie loved Whitman’s as much for the iconic yellow box as for the chocolate goodies inside. The candies long gone, the empty box would be saved for all kinds of flotsam and jetsam, objects evocative and sentimental,  mementos never mentioned in a will or bequest, that eventually found their way to her grandchildren.

Among the treasures were the bundles of saved Mothers Day Cards she had saved over decades and never had the heart to throw out.A most appropriate resting place.

Yes there was Brooklyn’s own Bartons for Passover but Mothers Day meant Whitman’s.

A Sampling of Whitman’s Ads

In 1939 Whitman’s launched Samplers most famous advertising campaign “A Woman Never Forgets The Man Who Remembers” the campaign remained popular for 2 decades.

“There’s no hurt like forgetting and no joy like being remembered”. Vintage Mothers Day Whitman’s Candy advertisement 1940

Between 1942 and 1945 Whitman’s sent 6 million pounds of chocolates to overseas servicemen in Land, Sea and Air tins. Women on Whitman’s production lines slipped  notes into boxes to comfort fighting men. Many of these letters resulted in long-term friendships and even some post-war marriages, resulting in future Mother day celebrations.

“Her Day, Her Family, Her Chocolates” Vintage Whitman’s Advertisement  for Mothers Day 1946

“Remember Mothers Day With Whitman’s” Vintage Whitman’s advertisement 1951

Vintage Whitman’s Ad 1947

Copyright (©) 2013 Sally Edelstein All Rights Reserved

Vintage WWII Coca Cola Ad 1942

During WWII the boys overseas were fighting for Mom, apple pie and a frosty bottle of Coke.

Coca Cola, as much a part of the American Dream as a white picket fence and a home run, has long symbolized the American way of life, no more so than during WWII when Coke created blatantly patriotic themed advertisements. 

WWII Advertising -A Global Blitzkrieg

With the precision used to plan a bombing mission in the South Pacific, Coca Cola calculated their advertising campaign during the War to make sure Coke was seen as vital to wartime morale and essential to Americans and their fighting men.

While the Coca Cola Company was busy boosting the morale of the fighting men, they were simultaneously laying the groundwork for becoming an international symbol of refreshment and solidarity.

War Goes Better With Coke

Vintage Coca Cola Ad 1945 Admiralty Isles

“Our fighting men meet up with Coca Cola where its bottled on the spot, Coke boasted in its ads. “Our Coke has been a globe-trotter since way back when”

Coca Cola went to remarkable lengths to make sure their soft drink was never far from the front lines. “Anywhere for a nickel,” Coca Cola promised. “From the jungles of Admiral Islands to the officer clubs on the Riviera.

Wherever the American Army went so did Coca Cola, establishing make-shift bottling plants near the front lines. Thanks to heavy lobbying in Congress, Coke was treated as a wartime necessity and was thus allotted considerably larger sugar rations for their front line military bottling plants than allowed for civilian consumption.

Have a Coke Soldier in Camp 1944 Ad

“From southern camps with their moss hung cypresses to camps near the north woods there one place soldiers can relax- the Post Exchange. There they settle down to shoot the breeze together. Have a Coke they say. Coca Cola is a refreshing reminder of what they left behind.”

 That Extra Something 1943 Ad

 ”When war correspondents say that Coca Cola is the drink of our fighting men you know there is a reason for it”

“One tells how a ranger returned from Dieppe asked for a Coca Cola in preference for anything. Another cables that the main event of the week for the doughboys at a desolate South Pacific outpost was 12 bottles of Coke. We read such things in the paper regularly.”

Have a Coke on a Battleship- 1944 Ad

“Wherever a US  battleship may be, the American way of life goes along…in sports humor, customs and refreshments. So naturally Coca Cola is there too, met with frequently at the ships soda fountain. Have a Coke is a phrase as common abroad a battle wagon as it is ashore.”

How Americans Spread the Holiday Spirit Overseas 1943 Ad

“Your American fighting man loves his lighter moments. Quick to smile, quick to enter the fun, he takes his home ways with him where he goes…makes friends easily. Have a Coke he says to stranger or friend and he spreads the spirit of good will throughout the year.”

The Global High Sign… I’d like to Buy the World a Coke

Have a Coca Cola= Come be blessed and be happy…or how to break the ice in Iceland 1943

Coke was our secret weapon for world peace

Rather than show war-weary soldiers enjoying their product, Coca Cola focused on Cokes ability to bring people and nations together. The ads carried the catchphrases “The global high sign” and introduced American readers to a few foreign phrases.

Set in exotic locals such as Hawaii, , Russia, Newfoundland, and New Zealand ,the ads portrayed grinning  GI’s mixing it up and laughing over Cokes with British, Polish, Soviet and other Allies always with  a caption along the lines “Have a Coke- a way of saying we’re with you.”

The ad men continually touted the drinks status as an American icon “Yes around the globe, Coca Cola stands for the pause that refreshes- it has become a symbol of our way of living.”

But it wasn’t just GI’s for whom Coke was a symbol of the American way. It was a symbol for the native population well. The presence of Coke did more than lift the morale of the troops . It gave the local people in the different countries their first taste of Coca Cola and paved the way for unprecedented worldwide growth after the war.

Sealing Friendships in New Zealand 1944 Ad

“Kia Ora, says the New Zealander when he wants to give you his best wishes. It’s a down under way of telling you that you’re a pal and that your welfare is a matter of mutual interest. The American soldier says it another way Have a Coke, says he, and in three words he has made a friend.”

“It’s a custom that has followed the flag from the tropics to the polar regions. It’s a phrase that says “Welcome, neighbor” from Auckland to Albuquerque from New Zealand to New Mexico.’Round the globe , Coca Cola stands for the pause that refreshes- has become the high sign between friendly minded people.”

How Friends Are Made in the RAF 1944 Ad

“Have a Coke  is a friendly greeting among RAF flyers back at early dawn from a night mission. It’s a salute among comrades in arms that seals the bonds of friendship in Plymouth England or Plymouth Mass. It’s an offer as welcome on an English airfield as it is in your own living room

How To Get Along in Alaska 1943 Ad

“The American soldier in Alaska meets up with many things that remind him of home. One of them is Coca Cola.”have a Coke says he to a stranger and in one simple gesture he has made a friend. In 3 words he has said “You and I understand each other.” The pause that refreshes works as well in the Yukon as it does in Youngstown.”

“Coke has become the high sign between kindly minded strangers the symbol of a friendly way of being.”

Have a Coke in Newfoundland 1944 Ad

“There is an American way to make new friends in Newfoundland. It’s the cheery invitation Have a Coke an old Us custom that is reaching ‘round the world. It says lets be friends reminds Yanks of home.”

“In many lands around the globe Coke has become the symbol of our friendly home ways.”

Allies Enjoying a Friendly Pause 1944 Ad

“There’s a friendly phrase that speaks the allied language Its “Have a Coke” Friendliness enters the picture when ice-cold Coke appears. Over tinkling glasses of ice-cold Coke minds meet and hearts are closer together.”

“Coke has become an everyday high sign of friendliness among people of good will.”

Eia ke ola (Heres health)…Have a Coke in Wailuku 1945 Ad

“Here’s health is the happy expression of Hawaiian hospitality. Just as friendly is the have a Coke of the army flyer. In these words he says we’re pals

Liberators

GI’s liberating towns throughout Europe or working side by side with locals in the Philippines felt pride in sharing their favorite drink with their new found friends.”

La Moda Americana ( The American Way)…Have a Coke in Italy 1945 Ad

“One of the interesting things that impresses people overseas about the American fighting man is his friendliness among his fellows. Everywhere they see Americans bringing with them their customs and home-ways-their own brand of open heartedness. Have a Coke, foreigners hear the GI’s say when he wants to be friendly, and they begin to understand what America means. For in this simple gesture is some of the essence of Main Street and the family fireside.”

“Yes, the custom of the pause that refreshes with ice-cold Coca Cola helps show the world the friendliness of American Ways.”

Yank Friendliness Comes back to Leyte Philippines 45

“Naturally Filipinos thrilled when their Yankee comrades-in-arms came back to the Philippines. Freedom came back with them. Fair play took the place of fear. But also they brought back the old sense of friendliness that America stands for. You find it quickly expressed in the simple phrase have a Coke. There’s no easier or warmer way to say Relax and be yourself. Everywhere the pause that refreshes with ice-cold Coca Cola has become a symbol of good will – an everyday example of how Yankee friendliness follows the flag around the globe.”

 

Winning minds in Nazi Germany

Drinking Coke was synonymous with fighting the enemies of freedom and democracy.

Yet, despite  patriotic all American Coca Cola’s claim that it was the high sign between like-minded strangers the symbol of friendly way of being no mention was ever made to the fact that Coca Co la was doing business in Nazi Germany. In the midst of their global advertising blitzkrieg, patriotic Coca Cola appeared at Hitler youth rallies as “Coca Cola trucks accompanied the marchers hoping to capture the next generation of Coke customers.

Mach Doch mal Pauss (Come on Take A Break) ….Have a Coke or or winning minds in Nazi Germany was one ad that we would never see.

CocaColinization Post War

Vintage Coca Cola Ad 1945 Returning WWII Vets

WWII did more than perpetuate an image it also led to Cokes dominance abroad. They created an enormous consumer base throughout the world that would not have been possible without General Eisenhower and the Coca Cola Company’s cooperation working towards bettering the morale of the American fighting man.

After gulping down more than a billion servings of Coke, 11 million veterans returned with a lifelong attachment to the soft drink. But it wasn’t only Americans who got hooked on the sweet elixir.

Many of the bottling plants established overseas during the war continued to operate as non military factories after the war. When the war ended, the coca cola company had 63 overseas bottling plants in operation in venues as far flung as Egypt, Iceland, Iran, West Africa and New Guinea.

If Coca Colas mission was to offer Coke to “whoever you are, whatever you do, wherever you may be,  when you think of refreshment think of an ice-cold Coca Cola”, then  “mission accomplished

Copyright (©) 2013 Sally Edelstein All Rights Reserved

Related articles

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Vintage Illustrations (L) Saturday Evening Post Cover 1955 illustration: Dick Sargent (R) Vintage Ad 1955 Beer Belongs Home life in America Series “Showing Off The New Power Mower” illustration by Fred Siebel

The silent spring morning of my suburban childhood were broken by the sounds not of birds chirping but of a symphony of puttering gas lawn mowers synchronized all over the neighborhood.

The air would permeate of fresh-cut grass, gasoline and a heavy dose of testosterone

While ladies might putter in the garden, the lawn was strictly male turf.

But there was one fearless housewife in our neighborhood who broke the grass ceiling, venturing boldly and brazenly into that vast male prerogative known  as mowing the front lawn.

Better Homes and Garden

Most afternoons the Kaffee Klatch of new young mothers from our suburban development would congregate in one another’s brand new fully loaded kitchens that had once been land where Farmer Gutsky planted Long Island potatoes.

The girls would gather to play cards or more often than not just to schmooze.

They exchanged hints on such vital information as which was the best diaper service, the most reliable milkman, which Jackson Perkins roses were the best to plant in the rocky Long Island soil and how to keep hubby off the links and onto their front lawns with their power mowers.

One neighbor who regularly was absent from the Kaffee Klatch was Martha Mc Guinness.

As much as my mom raced about like a whirling dervish, she was no match for Martha who more often than not missed out on the Kaffee Klatches for some do it yourself project like installing some new asbestos Kentile floor covering in the baby’s room.

Be Modern…go Lawn Boy! Not just for boys anymore. Vintage Lawn Boy ad 1955

 All the girls marveled at Martha. The only Gentile on the block, she was a real do-it-yourselfer.

 A freckled face 22-year-old mother of three, with a bun in the oven, she didn’t let pregnancy or a household of toddlers get in her way. After all, there’s so much to do to get ready for that little bundle of joy.

 Martha was a real force of nature.

 If she wasn’t busy chemically stripping and painting an heirloom crib in it-never-flakes-lead paint, she’s off gardening making sure to spray plenty of insecticides to get rid of those pesky old flies, grateful for the new insecticide bomb that contained both DDT and Pyrethrum!

 She was also the only gal in the neighborhood who could be found every Saturday morning marching up and down the lawn with her Lawn Boy, leaving in its wake a lawn as smooth as velvet.

 While advertisements for power motors often showed scantily clad young women in short shorts and dresses to attract the attention of the male reader, Martha chose sensible peddle pushers, foregoing the pumps for a pair of good ol’ Keds.

 Male Turf

(L) The Household Magazine 1940 cover illustration John Holmgren (R) Vintage ad Lucky Strike Cigarettes 1951

Of course like all homeowners, the gals were concerned about the appearance of a perfect lawn, the very symbol of the American Dream and suburban success.

Women’s magazines were chock full of  “Advise to the Ladies” articles on achieving the exemplary deep green  lawn. But they did not assume women did the work themselves.

No sir.

Smart cookies, women should manipulate their husbands to achieve a beautifully landscaped home, guiding their husbands, for example, into buying proper lawn food or fertilizer.

 Women who wanted model lawns got men to work on them.

One Power Mower ad promised: “Easier mowing makes husbands easier to get along with!”

Some ads acknowledged that in the modern marriage, wives were often part of the decision-making process for the purchase of power equipment even though men were actually the ones to use the mowers.

The Goodall Manufacturing Corp addressed the ladies directly: “Mowing is a mans job…but here’s a tip for wives whose husbands are about to buy a mower. Unless your lawn is the kind that obligingly stops growing when hubby ‘just cant find the time to  mow it’…you’d better slip your arm through his and join him when he goes lawn mower shopping. If you’re going to end up chauffeuring a power-driven grass cutter- make sure its one you can handle!”

Look Lady we designed this big mower just for you!.

Vintage ads (L) Hoover Floor Polisher 1958 (R) Moto Mower 1953

 As the suburbs continued booming, clever ad men began to see the opportunity to include women in an expanding lawn care market. Advertisements for power mowers began appealing to women by making it sound as easy as housework.

Splendor  in the Grass

Vintage illustrations (L) “The Happy Family” Little Golden Books 1955 (R) Lawnmower ad 1958

In 1952 House and Gardens published “The Intelligent Woman’s Guide to Power Mowers”. The article assuring m’lady that : “You don’t have to be mechanically minded in order to operate a power lawn mower. It’s no more difficult than running your vacuum cleaner or learning to drive the family car.”

Other lawn mowers  promised that the mower “pushes easy as a baby buggy.

Mother loves its streamlined beauty! Vintage ads (L) Bruce Floor Products 1948 (R) Mowa -Matic Lawn Mower 1953

Lawn mowing could be downright fun “Everybody loves to use the Worchester Lawn Mower. Kids and grown ups- male and female- they all get a thrill out of the Worchester power mower.

The Eclipse Lawn Mower targeted the lady of the house in one ad : “Mrs. Home Owner will appreciate the easy handling, free rolling and distinctive styling of your new Eclipse as much as the man in the family goes for it s its exclusive mechanical features and trouble-free maintenance.”

Despite the best efforts of ad men, men dug their heels into their turf and  lawn mowing remained a male domain, then as now.

Copyright (©) 2013 Sally Edelstein All Rights Reserved

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 Cheerios is serving up some good old-fashioned controversy in it’s all American breakfast cereal, bringing to light some rather racist comments.

 Its use of an interracial family has some on both sides of the spectrum up in arms posting racist remarks so ugly Cheerios had to shut down the comments  on the You Tube video.

In a supposed post-racial America that has a mixed race president why such controversy?

This retro racist backlash is so 1952.

 White Wash

The longtime held belief of one kind of American family is as dated and quaint as this vintage ad for John Hancock Life Insurance.

“No two families are alike” announces the headline to the advertisement. Yes, there is great diversity in America… that is as long as you are white, middle class and Protestant. Whether in  advertising, children’s schoolbooks or television, mid-century America was a very black and white world.

Vintage Illustration Dick Jane and Sally Vintage children’s School Book 1950s

Today there are lots of multiracial families. Mixed race couples make up 14% of co habituating couples….just not in advertising. Ad agencies and the company’s that hire them continue to cover their eyes to the diversity of American families.

Happy Families come in all colors.

So what’s new?

Copyright (©) 2013 Sally Edelstein All Rights Reserved

Related articles

• Interracial-family Cheerios ad draws racist trolls (sfgate.com)
• Adorable Cheerios Commercial Gets Racist Backlash Online (huffingtonpost.com)
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For decades women have been in pursuit of that holy grail- the perfect bra.

Not only one that fit properly, coaxing uncooperative curves into line, but showcasing m’ladys charms as well.

For just as long, foundation manufacturers have dangled the promise not only of a comfortable fit and youthful beauty,  but  the guarantee that their scientifically designed brassieres  would magically transform a ho-hum figure into one of allure.

It was as EZ as A-B-C!

Uplifting News

Now it seems as if bra sizes may become as dated and quaint as these vintage lingerie advertising illustrations.

At least if Jockey has a say in it.

The company has spent 8 years developing a new measurement system that would replace the standard old fashioned number and letter system .  Their new patented Volumetric Fit measures the volume of a woman’s breasts devising 55 new sizes.

Is this truly uplifting news for women or are our hopes going to be deflated once again?

Promises of a perfect bra is nothing new.

Vintage Lingerie Ad Formfit Bras 1948

Not Satisfied With Your Figure

What mid-century miss didn’t covet glamorous curves to fill out those cashmere sweater sets? Luckily there was no shortage of bra and girdle companies to help her.

Along with Bestform, Permalift and Lovable, Formfit, a Chicago based women’s foundation company whose popular “Life ” ad campaign ran for over a decade promising to help m’lady transform her figure instantly into a sweetheart of a figure.

Accompanied by gorgeous illustrations worthy of a pin-up artist, the advertising copy aimed straight at a woman’s insecurities.

For a Sweetheart of a Figure

Vintage Lingerie Ad Formfit Life Bras 1949

“Have you despaired of ever seeing your figure as beautiful as hers?” one Formfit ad asked the envious reader in 1949.

“Don’t give up yet,” it encouraged. “Her figure may be no more perfect than yours. But she has discovered what millions of other lovely women already know- that the look of figure perfection is now possible. Life Bra and Life Girdle by Formfit working together correct your entire figure faultlessly…no matter what your figure faults!”

“The secret is ours!”

Vintage ad Permalift Life Bra 1950

Like other Bra Manufacturers, Formfit promised an exact fit  because only their designers worked from live models of every figure type to ensure that exact fit. One imagines the design studios must have been pretty crowded with each and every  figure type.

One ad from 1950 promised luscious curves could be “yours for sure with Formfit. It happens instantly with Life Bra and Girdle,” they promised. “The ordinary figure is transformed into a sweetheart of a figure, achieving those 3 essential features for a successful bra-” keeping your bust high, young and separated”

Breasts For Success

Vintage Lingerie Ad Formfit Life Bras 1940

This long running advertising campaign began in 1940 when they presented to the world their first “Life” Brassiere for your Lifeline.

But ladies, this was no ordinary brassiere.

With the simple purchase of their bra, they promised that “the joy of being attractive, the secret of charm, the thrill of being admired would all be within your reach.”

“What makes a woman fascinating,” the ad began innocently enough. “A pretty face? No, for many beautiful faces have as  little power to attract as chiseled stone. Study the heroines of yesterday and the sought after women of today. You will be immediately conscious of an animation…a vitality that seems to emanate from the body-its postures and movements.”

So what is the key to womanly magnetism?

Vintage Lingerie Ad Formfit Life Bras 1948

Figure It  Out

“Thus the lifeline of womanly magnetism is the figure line which finds its apex in a bustline that is firm, proud and pronounced.”

“And just such beauty of animation is within the easy reach of practically every woman of every age. Formfit designers have long studied the delicate subtleties of the attractive bustline and in presenting their master creation for molding the perfect bust have appropriately named it Life!”

“So in presenting Life we do not offer you just another brassiere. We put within your reach the joy of being attractive, the secret of charm, the thrill of being admired and the poise that comes with comfort.”

And if your favorite corset department didn’t carry Life yet, you were urged to write to Formfit directly so they could send you to the nearest outlet to get this true “miracle bra.”

Thus the promises of that perfect bra began being dangled.

First Line of Defense

Vintage Lingerie Ad Formfit Life Bras 1943

During WWII nearly every item Americans ate, wore, used or lived in, was rationed or otherwise regulated.

Even if foundations were considered part of a woman’s “first line of defense,” foundation manufacturers converted to war-time production and women were advised to take good care of the bras and girdles they already owned for the duration.

Post War Pride

Once the war was over and undergarment manufacturers returned to peace time production, it was every gals patriotic duty to keep her figure looking beautiful.

Every day, everyone was watching

“The line of your figure is your lifeline, target of all eyes,” one 1946 Formfit ad  warned. “A wrong line above waist or below can spoil the precious first impression you make….impairs the way you feel and work.”

Two For one

Vintage Lingerie Ad Formfit Bras and girdles (L) 1946 (R) 1947

But now it wasn’t enough to merely have a high, young, separated bustline; a whittled wasp waist was part of the Lifeline to glamour.The Cold War culture of containment was being applied to the waist as well.

The twin magic of the Life Bra and Girdle all-in-one piece promised to “lift, mold, correct, and hold, giving your hip line that alluring sculptured look.”

The one piece guaranteed to instantly transform even a so so figure into a sweetheart of a figure, inviting the reader “to discover what a thrilling difference it can make.”

Figure Faults- Go Figure

Vintage Lingerie Ad Formfit Bras 1949

Not satisfied with your figure- transform it instantly -no fuss no muss! One need not be born perfect to have that perfect figure. Why with Formfit’s  bra the ordinary housewife could rival Lana Turner.

Vintage Lingerie Ad Formfit Life Bras 1949

“And before you read another word dear lady,” this 1949 ad assured the figure challenged female, ” please remember this- you need not have a perfect figure to have this look of figure perfection. Even the figure you envy may be no more perfect than yours!”

“No matter your figure faults, formfit corrects them effortlessly.”

Vintage Ad Formfit Bra 1948

Now Life could be glamorous “…discover not only a flair for fashion but a new high in healthful freedom with glamorous Life.”

Vintage Ad Formfit Bra 1948

“That new glamor look gives your bustline that firmly rounded look so necessary for heightened glamor and allure.”

Vintage Ad Formfit Bra 1949

“Find that new glamour look…with Life Acquire all the lure of that exciting new look,the healthful comfortable way. It happens instantly with Life Bra and Life Girdle. The ordinary figure is transformed into a sweetheart of a figure.”

The 1950s Figure

Vintage Lingerie Ad Formfit Life Bras 1950

As the 1950s began, the demands for a perfect bustline became more exacting.

Vintage Ad Permalift Bra 1951

Vintage Lingerie Ad Formfit Life Bras 1951

Vintage Ad Formfit Bra 1953

Vintage Ad Formfit Bra 1953

Vintage Lingerie Ad Formfit Bras 1953

The exacting new outer look as Formfit explained in this 1953 ad was ” a slim fluid line with rounded bust blending into a controlled middle and ending in longer, smoother hips.” The story of this new outer Look begins as always with the bustline, high, rounded and… frankly feminine.”

To give you the correct “Under Look” for this new line…and your freedom and comfort, naturally you could count on Formfits Bra and Girdle. Sheer bliss when you feel so sure.

Working together they coaxed those Cold War  curves into line and heavenly freedom, in the great American Way.

Related articles

• Are you attached to your bra size? (today.com)
• New Jockey Bra Worth $60? (abcnews.go.com)

Oh Johnnie, Oh! Vintage Johnnie Walker Ad 1951

How’s your mid-century gaydar?

Fans are buzzing about the Mad Men moment when mystery man Bob Benson slyly touched his knee against sourpuss Petes, setting tongues wagging about Bob’s possible homosexuality.

Whether or not Bob’s 1968 unrefined gaydar was accurate is another question. But it’s about time someone came out of their Madison Avenue closet.

Unintentionally Gay Ads

Wilson Wear no-belt pajamas WWII ad 1944 “Stays up without pressure….or hands”

The real Mad Men of mid-century Madison Avenue produced some pretty homoerotic ads, albeit in a mid-century repressed manner.

Take these unintentionally gay ads that ran in major magazines from the 1940s through the late 1950s , featuring men frolicking in underwear in their bedrooms, cruising locker rooms, or ogling one another by the pool.

Cruising the locker room at the beach. Vintage Celanese Fabrics Ad 1946

Cruising the locker room. Vintage ad Jayson Sportswear

Boxers, bedrooms and pajamas were a natural setting for a romp among “roomates

Roomates? Vintage Ad -Wilson Wear pajamas and shorts 1944

Who doesn’t discuss travel plans in pjs with your best bud? Vintage Ad Reliance Pajamas 1943

Good natures hi jinxs in boxers. Vintage Reliance boxer shorts 1946

Oh, you Dick! Vintage ad A&P Eight O’clock Coffee 1940

lllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll

Jack comes out to the gang. Vintage Ad A&P Eight O’Clock Coffee

I Was Bi-Curious

One of the most famous homo-erotic advertising campaign was put out by the beer that made Milwaukee famous Schlitz Beer with their series “I Was curious.”

Whether the theme was lake side picnic, ski lodge or a visit among friends, by the third panel in all these ads there is nary a woman to be found.

Vintage Ad Schlitz Beer 1946 I was Curious

Vintage Ad Schlitz Beer 1948 “I Was Curious”

No one was safe..even in the suburbs

Vintage Ad Schlitz Beer 1948 “I Was Curious”

I was curious …ho.. ho… ho! Vintage Ad Schlitz Beer 1949 “I was Curious”

Ski Lodges were a favorite meeting place

Vintage Ad Schlitz Beer 1949 “I was Curious”

Vintage Ad Schlitz Beer 1950 “I was Curious”

Does your gaydar go off viewing these ads?

Copyright (©) 2013 Sally Edelstein All Rights Reserved

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Mad Men’s Peggy Olson Big Time Career Girl (R) Vintage DC Comics
“This is the big chance I’ve been waiting for! I mustn’t fail this time! Not love or anything else is going to keep me from success!”

We have watched with pride as Mad Men’s Peggy Olson has risen from the ranks of treading water in the secretarial pool to swimming with the big fishes on Madison Avenue. As the Mad Men at Sterling Cooper & Partners implode all around her, Peggy’s star is rising.  Last seen sitting behind Don Draper’s vacant desk, one wonders, who’s wearing the polyester pant suit now?

You’ve come a long way, Peggy Olson, from Miss Deaver’s Secretarial School to  head copywriter at  SP & Partners.

You’ve Come A Long Way Baby?

In season 5 when Peggy became the new chief copywriter at a rival Madison Avenue agency after leaving Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce in the dust, she was handed Phillip Morris’s latest offering to the world of smoking -a cigarette especially for  m’lady.

It was a top, secret as yet unnamed women’s cigarette which of course we all know would be  the Virginia Slims Cigarette account. These new cigarettes were slimmer than the fat cigarettes men smoke, and were tailored slim to fit a lady’s hand, her lips, and her purse.

This Nov 1968 ad for Virginia Slims with its picture of a turn of the century woman sneaking a smoke, presents the following scenario; “In 1915, Mrs. Cynthia Robinson was caught smoking in the cellar behind the preserves. Although she was 34, her husband sent her straight to her room.”

This was the beginning of Madison Avenue attempt to pander to the “New Woman.”

Mirroring the burgeoning women’s liberation movement , the early campaign themes of feminism and women’s lib carried the slogan “You’ve come a long way baby.”

This September 1968 vintage advertisement for Virginia Slims explains just what this extra long cigarette for women is. The text for the vintage photo of early 20th century women is as follows: “1. Mrs Violet Anderson claims to have smoked her first cigarette on May 19, 1910…in the attic of her grandfathers farmhouse. 2.Cynthia Irene Bell smoked her first cigarette behind the old barn out back on Jan. 4, 1912. It was cold. 3. Myrna F. Phillips confesses she smoked March 4 or 5, 1911 out in the country where only a squirrel and a bird could see her. The others offered ‘no comment.’ You’ve come a long way.”

The formulaic ads followed the same theme-bold images of a glamorous, fashionably dressed liberated woman contrasting with pictures of early 20^th century women being reprimanded for being caught smoking by their husband or some other men.

Since it was marketed for the young professional gal, who better to manage this up and coming account than up and comer young professional Peggy Olson, who being single would be willing to work weekends, evenings and holidays.

Vixen by Night

Peggy’s In the Drivers Seat! (R) Vintage ad Body Bu Fisher 1968

But it wasn’t all work for single career girls like Peggy.

Making the scene in groovy go-togethers, her eyes smudged as if with crayolas in iridescent jewel tones of turquoise and sea green, her Yardley slickered lips wet and wild, we got a glimpse this season of Peggy Olson as Vixen by Night. It was clear she was ready to get uninhibited, get liberated and go –go completely Mad!

Coming Attractions 1969

“My place, or yours? Or right here?”
Playboy Magazine Cartoon by John Dempsy

Fast forward to the final season of Mad Men. It will be 1969 and the sexual revolution was about to get into full swing. Romance and motherhood would become so so passé. You’ve come a long way baby…and babies were definitely not in the picture.

Wake up sister, there was a whole new world out there.

Suddenly it was a liberated world of New Freedom and Peggy would be ready to dive right in to the swinging world of singles. Busting out of her cocoon, and swinging in a butterfly sleeved-A lined mini skirt, Peggy would have her pick from the plethora of dimly lit, Tiffany lamped, singles bars that lined Second and First Avenue on the Upper East side of NY,  foregoing the watering holes of the  wild, wild west of her own Upper West Side neighborhood.

You’ve come a long way from Bay Ridge Brooklyn, Peggy.

Liberated Ladies

Vintage DC Romance Comics

These new liberated ladies were shedding their inhibitions as quickly as they shed their polyester clothes.

There was no place for  squares- virginal Sleeping Beauties were a thing of the past. Gone was the bad girl the one who went all the way and wrecked her whole life. Suddenly it seemed it was a Cold War world of Cosmo girls ready to shake your world, a strange new world of pills and panaceas, of living together, of vibrations and of sexual openness.

(L) Cover Cosmopolitan Magazine model Samantha Jones shot by Francesco Scavullo Dec. 1968 (R) Book- The Sensuous New Yorker by Bernhardt Hurwood Award Books

Uninhibited, stepping out in a leggy little Mary Quant slick and shiny vinyl miniskirts these chicks were girdle-free-garter-free-free-to be you-and-me: they were part of the new freedom generation, a beltless, pinless, fussless generation.

Puffing on her pretty as a picture New Eve cigarettes ( like Virginia Slims, cancer made especially for the ladies) the liberated lady lit her own cigarettes and opened her own doors.

On the go, these sensuous women had no time for pregnancy and no time for cramps. With their birth control pills in one hand, their Midol in the other, these grooving chicks in eye-catching EZ care Quiana polyester in get-him-and-keep-him colors were ready for anything in their quest looking for Mr Goodbar in any of the dozens of crowded single bars that sprouted up in cities everywhere

 Women’s New Freedom

Women’s Liberation (L) Cover Newsweek Magazine March 1970 “Women in Revolt”
(R) Vintage ad for Massengil Feminine Deodorant Spray “Freedom Now! The ad claimed their product was the better way to be free to enjoy being a woman.” You like freedom don’t you?” they asked.

It didn’t take long before companies began creating products and marketing strategies that exploited the idea of the liberated “new woman.”

A seasoned copywriter and smart cookie like Peggy would likely snag onto the hottest new products being marketed to the liberated lady in 1969.  Feminine Hygiene Products. The newly liberated Cosmo Girl could come on strong.

Sexual freedom came at a price.

The drug and cosmetic industry expanded from the underarm deodorant to a more private part of the body. The most “girl part” as they described it. The problem that had no name only 5 years earlier now had a slew on products to help a liberated gal feel confident and feminine.

Feminism and Femininity

(L) Vintage ad for FDS 1969 “This new product will be as essential to you as your toothbrush” (R) DC Romance Comics

By 1969 being confidently close was never nicer. “It’s a freer, more natural, more out in the open world and we’re on you’re side,” the makers of new Feminine Hygiene sprays assured women.

In the body to body environment of the singles scene, competition was fierce.”We know it’s a rough race. And we want you to win!” promised another Feminine spray ad. “Lets face up to the problem like it is. The days of hush-hush are over. Today single and married women have been liberated-in their attire…in their attitudes…in their relationships”

(L) New answer for the intimate embarrassing problems married women face- Vintage 1966 ad for Norforms tiny germicidal suppositories to keep the Mrs. fresh as a daisy

The age-old problem of “intimate embarrassing odor problems” once faced only by married women whose husbands wanted their wife to be feminine…in every sense of the word, was now the sexually active liberated ladies dilemma too.

This was the dawning of the age of FDS.

A welcome new addition to the world of feminine freshness, was this personal deodorant for the ultimate social security. It was, manufacturers were hoping, to become as essential to the new woman’s daily life as a bath and shower.

“Today’s young woman…committed to total femininity is entitled to total confidence,” the ads stated boldly. “With the creation of FDS a whole new era of feminine confidence begins”

Why take a chance Make this your passport to popularity…and to your peace of mind about being a girl. An attractive, nice-to- be- with girl.”

(L) Vintage Ad 1969 Feminique Feminine Hygiene Spray (R) Vintage ad White Horse 1968

Making the scene with FDS was Feminique. Their full-page ad announced provocatively: “ Five years ago most women would have been too embarrassed to read this page”.

“This is a page that will tell you about an external vaginal deodorant spray. A product that would have made your grandmother faint and your mother blush. All it should do to you is make you happy. Very happy.”

“Because now that ‘The Pill’ has freed you from worry, The Spray will help make all that freedom worthwhile.”

“The spray is called Feminique. The name is feminine which is precisely what this product will make you. Feminine in every sense of the word.”

Woman’s New Freedom-Pristeen Is Part Of It

Vintage Pristeen Ads 1969

No one marketed Feminine Hygiene Sprays more aggressively than Pristeen made by Warner Lambert pharmaceuticals.

In 1969 they ran a series of bold ads for the little lady with the headline “Unfortunately the trickiest problem a girl has isn’t under her pretty little arms”.

The text continues: “That was solved a long time ago. The real problem, as you may very well know, is how to keep the most girl part of you- the vaginal area- fresh and free of any worry-making odors.”

“Now finally there is a way. It’s called Pristeen. A brand new vaginal spray deodorant that’s been especially developed to cope with the problem. “(Or create a problem when none really existed)

Vintage Pristeen Ads 1970 Judith Crist talks about woman’s new freedom

The following year in 1970 Pristeen enlisted highly respected movie critic Judith Crist  to talk about “woman’s new freedom” and naturally Pristeen is a part of it. As Ms. Crist espouses on the portrayal of the new woman in films, the ad somehow manages to fit Pristeen into the picture with a starring role. “Now that women have the ‘courage’  to look a little different” to behave a bit more honestly”, they want products to do just that…products that didn’t exist even 5 years ago”

By 1970 there were 30 brands of feminine deodorant sprays on the market and Americans were spending well over $67 million annually in an attempt to be more “feminine”.

Copyright (©) 20013 Sally Edelstein All Rights Reserved

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What was good for General Motors was good for the army

Once upon a time when it came to cars General Motors was king of the road and the American Dream was paved with Chevys.

And when it came time for fighting for the American Dream no one contributed more to the war effort in WWII than General Motors Corp.

World Of Tomorrow

A few years before we entered the war, General Motors had whetted our appetites for the wonderful World of tomorrow with their popular futurama exhibit at the NY Worlds Fair in 1939/40.

But the world of tomorrow loomed ominously as war raged in Europe.

When Pearl Harbor happened, General Motors would take a detour on the road to the World of Tomorrow to supply our fighting men; after all when it came to tanks, wouldn’t you really rather have a Cadillac?

Vintage Ad Oldsmobile -WWII Worker 1942

As American industry rushed to create what FDR called the arsenal of democracy General Motors rose to the occasion in a big way, providing the lion share of hardware to the American military.

Victory Is Our Business

General Motors produced this patriotic motivational film in 1942 about how its workers and factories were contributing to war effort.

Taking Care of Business

Within in a year of entering the war, General Motors, had ceased the production of civilian automobiles and  was gushing out millions of units of a wide variety of planes tanks guns and other munitions . What were once busy factories were now defense plants. as Squat tanks began flowing off the assembly line instead of smart automobiles.

(L) Vintage Ad Pontiac 1944 “Every American is pledged to do his or her part towards the attainment of Victory and Peace” (R) Vintage Ad Chevrolet 1945-” Chevrolet is making its mark everywhere today…volume for victory-tomorrow volume for value”

Although they had no new cars to sell, General Motors continued to publish  a profusion of full color ads to let the public know how busy they were supplying essential war materials, all while keeping their names in front of the public.

Tomorrow in GM and WWII Victory is Our Business PtII – a collection of vintage WWII GM ads

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Vintage White Rock Beverage Ad 1946

In a time of heightened sensitivity over stereotypes, years of ethnic and racial labeling have fortunately, largely been erased from advertising.

During the post-war years when it seemed the only risk of offending others was if we suffered the unforgivable shame of halitosis, a series of ads ran that would not only raise a politically correct eyebrow today, its offensive nature could very well spark angry, violent protestations.

The Risk Of Offending

(L) Vintage 1951 Listerine Ad. For many years Listerine ran a popular ad campaign of advertisements creating scenarios where romance or a good paying job could be yours for the asking, but for bad breath. The ads came with a strict warning: “Never risk offending others needlessly.” (R) The cartoon from a Vintage White Rock Ad 1951 certainly didn’t worry about the risk of offending: “This friendly chief gave me a wife/ If I said no, he’d end my life/ So I got going on my Safari/ To White Rock Land, by gosh, begorri!”

Victorious after WWII America saw itself as the model for the world, and American dreams were to become global ones.

With our sparkling minty fresh smiles and anti bacterial clean handshakes we would help underdeveloped countries improve their lives and know the real joy of good living by exporting American consumer goods.

With the conviction of a car salesmen selling a wouldn’t you really rather have a Cadillac we were convinced that America was the standard by which the worlds other countries were to be judged.

Among Friends

illustration Vintage White Rock Beverage Ad 1946

Naturally we would never risk offending others needlessly with unpleasant breath, since every American knew halitosis was the one unpardonable social fault.

But offending others through racial and ethnic stereotypes…no problem.

White Rock carbonated beverages, innocently ran a series of ads that were of questionable taste. In one ad, we are offered a portrayal of an Arab named Prince Ali who is being tempted by the American way.

The Arab Sheik, who is being interviewed by the American press, turns his head as his   eyes bulge out leeringly at the sight of shapely scantily clad Psyche, White Rocks trademark.

“By the beard of the Prophet,” he asks, “who’s SHE?”

illustration Vintage White Rock Beverage Ad 1946

The dialogue continues”

“Prince Ali: Ah, a wonderful country! Never did I imagine the American girls like this!”

The snappy newsman retorts:

“Reporter: Keep your nightshirt on, Prince-I’ll introduce you to Psyche! But first I want a statement on the international situation…..

Ali: Not now, brother of a donkey! This lovely lady, this Psyche who is she?”

As the reporter explains how this luscious creature is the symbol of White Rock sparkling water, Psyche provides the headline for the newsman’s story “Prince Ali discovers White Rock Americas finest mixer.”

illustration Vintage White Rock Beverage Ad 1946

The next morning ( wink, wink ) we catch the Prince and Psyche sharing a ride on a double decker bus going down Fifth Avenue

“Ali( the next morning) You spoke truly! We are how you say “riding high” after our gala evening, yes? Tell me, moon of delight will you share my throne?”

Psyche demurely declines this generous offer “You are too kind, Prince Ali! But until every American discovers White Rock , my place is on the White Rock label!”

With Friends Like These…

Vintage White Rock Beverage Ad 1951

Another ad entitled How to tell if you’re Among Friends, seems to offend every third world country from the Middle East to Africa with its simplistic, stereotypic caricatures.

Illustration from Vintage White Rock Ad 1951
Copy reads:” These son’s o’ Prophets welcome me/ Urged me to stop indefinitely/ But with no White Rock Ginger Ale/ The desert was a thirsty trail”

Loss Of Innocence

In today’s  politically charged climate  when a novel, a newspaper cartoon or last years 14 minute   offensive video, “The Innocence of Muslims”, a film denigrating the Prophet Mohammad posted on You Tube,  sparked angry protests in the Muslim world, these vintage ads were clearly not on the radar of  innocent mid-century Americans except to provide a good chuckle.

Sensitivity training would be decades to come.

© Sally Edelstein and Envisioning The American Dream, 2013. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Sally Edelstein and Envisioning The American Dream with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

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Unintentionally  Gay Ads

Vintage Chevrolet Advertisement 1934

Step on the Gas

Nervous Dot the Democrat  is sure glad that Bette’s husband  Dick drives a Chevrolet. Men can be real speed demons on the road but with Republican Dick every ride is big and steady!

Many attribute Coke Company as having a major influence in the commercialization of Santa. Today greeting cards, figures toys and Xmas decorations all depict Santa the same way- jolly, white beards, red suit.
Vintage Coke Ad Santa Claus 1952

Santa Claus has become as standardized as a Big Mac.

Which makes perfect sense since it was Coca Cola who helped sell that singular iconic image.

For decades Coca Cola has not only  perpetuated the American Dream with its color drenched images of wholesome small town American life, it singlehandedly solidified our image of Santa Claus in its lushly illustrated Christmas ads.

1947 Vintage Coca Cola Ad Santa Claus illustration by Haddon Sundblom

Just as Coke became the most ubiquitous soda sold at every grocery store, luncheonette and stadium across the country, so its portrayal of a  red suited, eternally jolly, eternally white  Santa became the quintessential St Nick, bonding forever the syrupy soda to the image of Santa Claus.

1959 Vintage Coca Cola Ad Santa Claus illustration by Haddon Sundblom

Despite urban legends, Coke did not invent our modern-day Santa, as the  red suited, white bearded, jolly man had already existed.

Coca Cola was not even the first soft drink company to use the modern image of Santa in advertising.

White Rock beverages had that distinction, having already used a red and white Santa to sell mineral water in 1915 and then in its ginger ale ads in 1923. But  it was the lushly painted illustrations of Haddon Sundblom for Coca Cola more than anyone else whose iconic images of the mythical Santa would implant themselves into our culture.

Life is Just a Bowl Of Cherry Cokes

1940 Vintage Coca Cola Ad Santa Claus illustration by Haddon Sundblom

It was during the dark days of the Depression that Coca Cola’s iconic Santa was born.

1931, the year of the  first Sundblom Santa advertisement, was a bleak year in America.

Unemployment neared 16%; 2 out of 3 workers in Detroit were unemployed; the national income was down 33%  and a dark blot in the history of racism occurred when the Scottsboro boys, 9 Black teenagers, were falsely charged with raping a white woman on a train and wrongly sentenced to death.

A nation could use some good cheer.

Depression era advertising presented Coke as a pleasant inexpensive time out from an increasingly difficult reality. Everyone could find a nickel to “bounce back to normal.”

Holiday Cheer

A few years earlier Coca Cola had been trying to convince consumers that Coke could be enjoyed during winter months as well as the summer months. The soft drink  wanted to be associated with the holidays by advertising Coke for Christmas.

Who better to help pitch their product than Santa Claus.

As the Depression settled in Coca Cola enlisted Santa Claus to their cause.

Though the best known Santa was the creation of Sundblom, he was not the first artist to create an image of Santa Claus for Coca Cola. In the 1930 ad, artist Fred Mizen had depicted an ordinary man as a department store Santa dressed in  costume pausing to refresh himself with a Coke amid the crush of  shoppers.

1951 Vintage Coca Cola Ad Santa Claus illustration by Haddon Sundblom

Enter Haddon Sundblom.

The following year, the illustrator who would help shape the way we would forever think of Santa did his first Coca Cola Santa ad.

A well-known illustrator, he was already famous for inventing Aunt Jemima and the Quaker Oats man, and would go on to  helping define the American dream in many ad campaigns.

1949 Vintage Coca Cola Ad Santa Claus illustration by Haddon Sundblom

Sundblom’s Santa was the perfect Coca Cola pitch man.

Bigger than life,  jolly and rotund,  he glowed with a luminous warmth and loved to drink Coca Cola “a luxury you can afford” whether  delivering presents from the North Pole, cobbling toys in his workshop or going down the chimney to make deliveries.

When his first model a retired salesman named Lou Prentiss died, Sundblom used himself as reference
1942 Vintage Coca Cola Ad Santa Claus illustration by Haddon Sundblom

Sundblom also created Cokes mascot “Sprite Boy” who appeared in print ads in the 1940′s and 1950′s The character resembled a “sprite” or elf ( the company’s soft drink sprite was introduced in the 1960′s)
1948 Vintage Coca Cola Ad Santa Claus illustration by Haddon Sundblom

As inspiration, Sundbom used Clement Clark Moore’s 1822 poem “Twas the Night Before Xmas.” In the poem, St Nick is described as being chubby plump jolly old elf with a “tiny round belly” that “shook when he laughed liker a bowlful of jelly”

1956 Vintage Coca Cola Ad Santa Claus illustration by Haddon Sundblom

Every Xmas Sundblom delivered another eagerly awaited Coca Cola that captivated generations.

After the soft drink ads, Santa Claus would forever more be a huge, happy, white man with a broad belt and black hip boots dressed in Coca Cola red.

Like Coke, their Santa was “the real thing!”

© Sally Edelstein and Envisioning The American Dream, 2013.

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With his overweight girth, penchant for candy, coffee and cigarettes, it’s a Christmas miracle that twinkly-eyed Santa is still around to make his Christmas deliveries. One only hopes there’s a Cardiac Care unit in the North Pole.

To believe the mid-century advertisements,  Santa’s prodigious sweet tooth was only surpassed by his capacity to chain smoke endless cigarettes and down copious cups of caffeine.

A Smokin’ Santa

With all those billions of presents to deliver on time across the globe, poor Santa’s nerves were sorely tested.

Reading all those billions of lists, checking then twice could fray on anyone’s nerves. Jolly Santa could get quite testy,

As any elf could tell you, nothing could calm those holiday jitters better than a cigarette. Medically approved to help your disposition, cigarettes were regularly suggested by doctors in all branches of medicine to ease tensions in our fast paced world.

Vintage Xmas cigarette ad Camels & Prince Albert Tobacco 1949

“It’s a psychological fact: pleasure helps your disposition.” Camels cigarettes claimed in their ads.”Ever yip like a terrier when things go wrong? That’s only natural. But it’s a psychological fact that pleasure helps your disposition! That’s why everyday pleasure-like smoking for instance- means so much. So if you’re a smoker its important to smoke the most pleasure-giving cigarette camel.”

And not just a hurry up puff, but smoke after smoke of soothing comfort.

If Santa stole a puff or two now and then, who could blame him?

Living under the constant cold war conditions of possible nuclear attack, mid-century Americans relied on the calming comfort of cigarettes.

A carton of cigarettes was number one on Americans wish list for Christmas. What better way to say Happy Holidays, Here’s to your Health! than as carton or two of smokes. Cigarettes, the gift you can give with confidence.

Vintage Xmas ad Old Gold Cigarettes 1952

Vintage Xmas Ad Camels & Prince Albert Tobacco 1943

Vintage Ad Ronson Lighter Santa Lights Up 1948

Vintage Xmas Ad Camels Cigarettes 1951

Candy is Dandy

Vintage Xmas Ad Whitman’s Chocolates 1949

It wouldn’t be Xmas with out candy.

Not only was it a Christmas tradition to give a hefty 3 pound box of chocolate pleasure to those at the top of our list, Santa made sure he kept plenty of brimming bowls of hard candies and chocolates around the home and  the workshop .

Vintage Xmas Candy Ad Brach’s 1952

North Pole Productions

The huge production operation at Santa’s North Pole workshop rivaled the defense plant at Willow Run during WWII in its stupendous output. Santa and his industrious elves were working 24/7. Engineers, designers, and production experts at the North Pole were hard at work secretly designing the newest and biggest toys.

There could be no let up till the job was done. And back of it all, Santa guided, coordinated, and applied pressure where needed.

Since overseeing the toy making in his workshop was  an all day- all night operation, fatigue could set in mighty early.

The secret to their success….sugar, natures healthy fuel.

That’s why Santa made sure he and all his elves had all the sugary sweets they needed while they worked.

Call it pick up or call it pep-up. Or call it plain energy. “The Crave for candy is a call for energy,”  the Council on Candy of the National Confectioners Association  explained to the public in a series of post-war advertising.

When you have that crave for candy whether you’re shopping or making toys your body is saying “I need fuel, I’m running short on power ”

Vintage Candy ads The Council on Candy of the National Confectioners Association 1940s

Smart Santa took the advice offered by the Council on Candy in this 1946 ad:

“Wholesome Candy is a great top off to the workers lunch because it’s a great energy provider.”

“And in between working hours is a good time to take on the energy for the job ahead. Yes- candy cheerful as it is in the eating, is a serious food. It provides fuel quick – quick energy…can do. You like candy for what it is; your body appreciates candy for what it offers.”

“We’ve learned a lot new about nutrition during the past few years. Candy’s  important place in feeding our men during the past war is one indication of that modern knowledge. And aren’t we glad that something so useful to our bodies is so pleasant to our tastes “

Of course the important nutrition in candy was healthful, wholesome sugar, packed full of goodness.

(L)Vintage Xmas Coca Cola Ad 1949 (R) Vintage Xmas 7 Up ad 1949

Santa also stocked up on plenty of sweet sugary drinks to give that sugar rush a boost.

As one ad for Coca Cola explained it: “Supposing you were old Santa Claus. What a job you’d have. Chimneys waiting everywhere…youngsters gifts to be checked. The job certainly calls for that extra something. You’d get tired and thirsty too. You’d want that extra something. You’d find refreshment going quickly into energy. You’d be ready to shout “Ho Prancer, Ho Vixen….”

A Cup of Christmas Joe

Hmmm! Nothing smells as good as coffee.  Happy interruption. Keeps your mind sharp, alert. The smell of fragrant fresh brewed coffee carried through Santa’s workshop. No wonder the elves come -a running. Who can resist coffee’s cheery aroma, so tempting so full of promise.

That’s why Mrs Claus always kept a pot brewing up at the North pole.

She knew Santa needed to be on his toes….there were an awful lot of people to remember who was naughty or nice. Coffee kept Santa on the ball.

Without the helping hand of Fed Ex, Santa needed some help making those all night global  deliveries. Just like a jet pilot needed to be alert, so Santa needed the jolt he could count on from caffeine to get him through the long night.

When you’re on the open road , whether car or sleigh, Santa was wise to remember the safety slogan “Give yourself a coffee stop, for cup after cup of energy.”

The Pan American Coffee Producers ran a series of ads extolling the virtues of coffee as a beverage to drink any time of day or night and Santa was a perfect spokesman.

“Santa was  right to break the fatigue and monotony of his long cold route with  a second and third cup of hot coffee”, they reassured us.” For science says coffee relieves fatigue, actually rests you when tired and makes your mind alert and clear.”

Vintage Xmas Coffee Ad 1940 Pan American Coffee Producers . Illustration by JC Leyendecker

Merry Xmas to All and to all a Good Night

In this 1940 advertisement   published by the Pan American Coffee Producers for the benefit of the American Public, Santa needn’t worry about falling asleep on the job.

“Most people know there is good cheer in a cup of coffee.”

“For sound scientific reasons, it brightens conversation, makes mind and muscles more alert-lifts up the spirits  when you’re tired.”

“Industry recognizes the fact in factories the country over, by having “time out for coffee” in mid-morning and afternoon-finding a definite improvement in efficiency through it.”

“But what many people do not know is that they can enjoy coffee in the evening, and also enjoy  a good nights sleep. The reason is, if you’re like 97 out of 100 other folks the lift you get from coffee lasts only 2 hours. You can drink a fragrant cup of coffee whenever you want it- morning, noon and night- without worry over sleeping.”

“So when you feel the urge for a cup of coffee it isn’t only to give rich satisfaction to your taste-“the gentle lift” you get is good for you.”

“That’s why cheering, heart warming coffee chimes in with Santa, and says-“to all a good night.”

Vintage Xmas Coffee Ad Pan American Coffee Producers 1952

“Think Better! At the North Pole Santa Claus and Mrs. Santa plan the biggest Xmas list in the world…and give themselves a coffee break!” So begins this 1953  Pan American  Coffee Bureau ad.

“Work better…Santa’s elves load up the sleigh…and take a coffee break.”

“Whenever you have a problem…have a cup of fragrant coffee! The pleasant lift helps keep your mind alert. When you want an aid to clear thinking better take a coffee break.”

“Coffee’s gentle stimulation helps you do a better job have more fun when you take a coffee break.”

© Sally Edelstein and Envisioning The American Dream, 2013. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Sally Edelstein and Envisioning The American Dream with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

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RJ Reynolds Tobacco Company ran a long series of ads (R) in which they claimed that according to a nationwide survey “More doctors smoke camels than any other cigarette.” Clearly if doctors are smoking this brand it must be safe (L) Vintage Philip Morris ad touts how gentle their cigarettes are

In mid-century America more doctors may have smoked camels, but pregnant women preferred Philip Morris.

At least as far as my own baby-bound mother was concerned.

In 1954  it would be a good tens years before the Surgeon General’s landmark report concluded that there was a link between lung cancer and cigarette smoking, so until then my mother blissfully puffed away while pregnant with me.

Panicky Pregnancy

Besides which, my second time Mom had first hand knowledge on pregnancy. She knew frequent cigarette breaks came in mighty handy to quiet pregnancy jitters.

Two years earlier in 1952 while pregnant with my older brother, my first time mother Betty was a bundle of nerves.

Like many moms-to-be, she had a good case of the impending-mother jitters. Not only could she feel overwhelmed at the thought of being a mother, her head was filled with stories of everything that could go wrong for her and her unborn baby.

But lucky for Betty her obstetrician was there to gently help dispel all her concerns.

In her second trimester, Mom had gone for her usual monthly set of maternal x-rays at the obstetrician office. Before she even had a chance to share her anxieties with the doctor, he  noticed she had a mild cough.

Padding over to his tall steel medical cabinet Dr Orenstein pulled out a pack of Philip Morris cigarettes. Along with tinctures, ointments, and penicillin, the painted cabinet was well stocked with dozens of cigarette cartons, tokens of appreciation  received at medical conventions over the years courtesy of Philip Morris and RJ Reynolds.

Handing her the familiar gold pack, he assured her, “You can kiss your cough goodbye Betty. You’ll soon feel better because you’ll be smoking the cigarette recommended by eminent nose and throat specialists to patients who smoke.”

“You’ll feel better,”  continued the doctor, pausing to light up a Camel for himself, “because in case after case coughs due to smoking disappear, parched throats clear up…that stale smoked out feeling vanishes. Tests showed 3 out of every case of smokers cough cleared on changing to Phillip Morris.”

“And,” he added smiling broadly,  “it was the same brand comedienne Lucille Ball smoked…and a pregnant Lucy at that!”

Mom loved Lucy.

An unprecedented pairing of fictional pregnancy with real life pregnancy occurred on I Love Lucy episode Lucy Goes to the hospital By pure coincidence and good luck the episode dealing with the birth of fictional Little Ricky was scheduled for Jan 19, 1953 which proved to be the day when the actress gave birth to her real son. Desi Arnaz Jr
When the episode premiered 72% of all American homes with TV sets tuned in receiving the higher ratings than the inauguration of President Eisenhower
The news made headlines. By the end of the second season it was Desi Arnaz Jr who graced the cover of the first issue of TV Guide. On Feb 18, 1953 a month after the birth of little Ricky the Arnazes signed a new 2 1/2 year 8 million dollar contract with Philip Morris

Everyone knew the popular Monday night show I Love Lucy was sponsored by cigarette giant Phillip Morris.

The animated titles that opened the show even featured stick figures of Lucy and Desi climbing a giant pack of Philip Morris Cigarettes interacting with Johnny Roventini the diminutive bellboy who for nearly 2 decades had been belting out the Philip Morris slogan “Cal-l-l for Phil-lip Mor-ray-sss!”

Medical Authorities

Although Mom had been a loyal  Lucky Strike smoker for years, everyone was familiar with the Philip Morris ads that ran for years.

Featuring the four-foot  bellhop who happily made health claims stating that “medical authorities  recognize that  Philip Morris proved less irritating to the smokers nose and throat.”

Promising research conducted by physicians , the ads assured the reader that after prescribing Phillip Morris brand cigarettes to patients with irritated throats “every case of irritation cleared completely or definitely improved”

Naturally other cigarettes made similar health claims always supported by scientific  research and glowing doctors endorsements.

Chesterfield for example boldly announced the results of a ten month scientific study in one ad: “Nose throat and accessory organs not adversely affected by smoking Chesterfield,” while Camels could claim that “noted throat specialists concluded that not one case of throat irritation was due to smoking Camels.” No mention was made on its effect on the subjects  lungs!

Chesterfield proudly announced the results of their 10 months scientific study- the ” First such report ever published about any cigarette,” they boasted. “A responsible consulting organization has reported the results of a continuing study by a competent medical specialist and his staff on the effects of smoking Chesterfield’s. After 6 months the medical specialist after a thorough examination of the test group stated: “It is my opinion that the ears, nose throat and accessory organs of all participating subjects were not adversely affected in the 6 month period by smoking Chesterfields.”

Smoke Screen

Opening up the current issue of Journal of the American Medical Association  Dr Orenstein pointed out an advertisement to Mom which  showed a physician writing on a prescription pad: “For your patients with sore throats and cough, Phillip Morris cigarettes.”

Of course buried deep in those same pages of the medical journal, tucked between ads for cigarettes were early reports suggesting a plausible relationship between smoking and lung cancer.

In fact, in May 27 1950 JAMA published the first major study linking smoking to lung cancer and after 1953 the medical journal  would no longer accept adverting from tobacco companies.

Many doctors still doubted there was a wide spread connection between smoking and disease. Instead it was believed that only certain individuals health was affected by smoking so it was a case by case situation.

Let Up and Light Up!

Besides the benefits to her throat , her doctor stressed out how beneficial cigarettes were for rattled  nerves.

“Don’t be such a brooder Betty,” he smiled at my mother offering a light for her cigarette.  She drew deeply of the fragrant smoke,  the cool mildness of the tobacco tars  a treat to her throat.

“Relax!” the doctor advised.  Modern pregnancy he assured her was a modern miracle. No Fuss no muss.

Gently patting my mother’s hand he tried to calm my fretting mother. “Nowadays pregnancy is a breeze.”

To help her achieve piece of mind, he assured her she’d be on her way  to a calm and collected  motherhood if she’d  relax and prepare. “Just as a healthy dose of arsenate of lead mixed in the soil before planting would produce a fine healthy lawn, you’ll have a fine healthy baby if you relax and prepare.” Nothing was more important than steady nerves.

And nothing would help you relax like a soothing  cigarette.

“Cigarettes contain not just one but a combination of medically proven active ingredients to sooth frayed nerves,” explained the doctor.  He promised it would “restore her flow of healthful energy , …a quick and delightful energizing effect!”

“Quit being a worry wort, Betty, ‘laughter,” he said referencing the famous Readers Digest section “was the best medicine’ and smoking was like a doctor’s prescription for relaxation.”

Mom tossed the pack into her purse, and with a new lilt in her walk, happily anticipated the birth of her new baby, and a great tasting new cigarette.

“Let up and light up and laugh,” he advised Mom shooing her out of the office.

The Last Laugh

Just what the doctor ordered…It feels so good to relax!

 In May, Mom had delivered a whopping 4 pound premature baby boy, and now and now she had her hands full.

This mothering business was tuckering poor Mom out and  she could be dog tired in the evening .That was just one of the many, many times during the day when she wanted to “Let up and light up.”

By December her diaper decorated world kept her too busy for words.

She barely had spare time to flip through a magazine, open a newspaper or even keep up with the news! With so  many new things to learn and discover about one tiny bit of humanity, she said sighing, that there doesn’t seem to be time to catch up with the rest.

But Monday nights at 9pm were  set aside as her half hour of  relaxation all week, when along with 40 million other viewer she looked forward to watching “I Love Lucy.”

With the dinner dishes washed, laundry folded, and baby bottles sterilizing in the electric sterilizer, patiently awaiting refill of tomorrow’s formula, all was finally quiet. Mom could sit back and give my brother his evening feeding. Shaking the baby bottle the milk felt pleasantly warm on Mom’s writs as she settled in with a soothing cigarette, in one hand, baby bottle in the other.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_1rpAUhbARY

While she waited for Lucy to begin she flipped through the current issue of Reader Digest turning to her favorite features first.  After chuckling at the heartwarming humor of “Life in These United States” and giggling over the gags provided by  “Laughter is the Best Medicine,” a more serious   article caught her attention.

It was anything but laughable.

Nestled between “The real meaning of Xmas’ and “We’re selling America Short” was an article entitled “ Cancer by the Carton.” Ominously linking smoking and lung cancer, it was the first widely read article that brought attention to the public about the dangers of smoking.

Brushing the magazine aside, she looked up at the TV screen just as the familiar stick figures of Lucy and Desi made their weekly climb up  the giant pack of Philip Morris Cigarettes.

Though the widely read Readers Digest article would eventually provoke a  lot of talk, in 1952 my mother  could never imagine a time when  “Life in These United States” would be smoke free.

As if squirreling the article’s information away for a rainy day, Mom let up, lit up and laughed.

It was just what the doctor ordered!

© Sally Edelstein and Envisioning The American Dream, 2014. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Sally Edelstein and Envisioning The American Dream with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

Tomorrow:

Smoking and Pregnant- Just What the Doctor Ordered Pt II The tobacco industry goes on the offensive

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“Hospitality-So Easy and Welcome with Coke” vintage Coca Cola Ad 1948
Recently, some very inhospitable reactions have bubbled up over Coca Colas multilingual rendition of America the Beautiful

Real America is causing a controversy for some real Americans.

Coca Cola’s multilingual Superbowl commercial celebrating American diversity has stirred up xenophobic rage across social media.

In the great cultural cauldron of 21st century America there still seems to be one basic ingredient to being a real American…. English-speaking, heterosexual, and Caucasian.

Vintage Coke ad 1946

Once upon a time no one reinforced this more than that all American beverage Coca Cola.

Their sentimental mid-century ads  portraying an America that  existed primarily  in our Norman Rockwell fueled fantasies, were as syrupy sweet as the elixir they sold. Like all advertising at the time, their heartwarming illustrations  of small town America were a color and ethnic free zone.

Well apparently that old-fashioned recipe for prejudice is still being used by some real Americans who are outraged at a Coca Cola commercial showing real America. The spot  features people from diverse backgrounds singing “America the Beautiful” in different languages.

Vintage Coca Cola ad 1950

#SpeakAmerican

The internet  was abuzz with angry comments after the ad appeared, creating a deluge of pseudo patriotic  hashtags  to break out on twitter. The outrage at “America the Beautiful” being sung in anything but English  resulted in some  calling  for a boycott of  Coke, that most American of products.

Coke is as American as apple pie and baseball
Vintage Coca Cola ad

Face the Facts

The fact is, some conservative pundits are uncomfortable with the look of America and its diversity.

The fact is, the America Coke displayed, is the Real Thing!

That a broadcast commercial might reflect this actual diversity of thought like the multicultural and sexually diverse fabric of modern America is as refreshing as a frosty bottle of Coke!

While All-American Coca Cola has now  beautifully embraced American diversity, the cranky critics of the Coke commercial crying “un American” seem  stuck in a time warp .

This isn’t “their” America – that is the Mad Men mid-century America where  the “other” was best kept in the shadows. Perhaps they long for a simpler time like the ones served up with extra sugar by Coke in their vintage advertisements.

Their notion of what constitutes an American is as dated as the portrayal of real America that Coca Cola once pictured in their ads

The Right to Happiness and a Bottle of Coke

“There’s always a welcome – at your favorite soda fountain.This congenial club is as warm and American as an old-fashioned barbecue or band concert right in the village square.” vintage Coca Cola ad 1946

Coke has long been associated with the American way.

“The soda fountain” that  dispensed Coca Cola  was, they explained in a 1946 ad,  “as American as Independence Day …the  very expression of Democracy!”

These slice of life images showing Americans enjoying a refreshing pause in their American dream life often took place in that  neighborhood soda fountain- “the friendliest place in town”- that is, as long as you weren’t Asian, Hispanic or African-American.

The “friendliest place in town” was also the whitest place in town.

 Americas Friendliest Neighborhood Club

Vintage Coca Cola ad 1946

“Not far from you right now is a neighborhood branch of Americas friendliest club-the soda fountain,” begins this folksy Coke ad from 1946.

“Here folks get to know each other better. There’s always something going on in the friendly exchange at the soda fountain.”

Now instead of a “friendly soda fountain the place where everybody can good-naturedly air their opinions, parade their pet peeves and add your 2 bits worth to world opinions,”  we have the internet where friendly folk can rage to their heart’s content

The Worlds Friendliest Club…Admission 5 cents

“Friendliness and Coca Cola,” the ad tells us, “go together, like bread and butter ” assuming it’s “white” bread
Vintage Coca Cola ad 1946

“At the soda fountain our young folks gather in the wholesome atmosphere of friendly refreshment., this 1946 ad begins,  “There every day new friendships are made and old friendships renewed.”

“Membership to this ‘congenial club’ cost only a nickel. ” Though Jews, Gays and Mexicans probably need not apply)

A Pause For The American Dream

When a person of color did make a rare appearance in advertising it was usually as a maid, butler or porter, such as this 1948 Coke ad portraying happy travelers being served by their Pullman Porter.

“Travel refreshed,” Coke urges the reader of the ad. “Many new services nowadays add to travelers contentment.”

Of course if you were Black in 1948 and traveling down south you’d still be sitting in the colored section of the train or in the back of the bus…services hadn’t changed for African-Americans.

Vintage Coca Cola ad 1936

Graduation- A Red-Letter Day

“Graduation day is a red-letter day in any family life,” the reader is assured in this Coca Cola ad from 1937. “Everybody’s happy and lets celebrate is the order of the day.”

Proud parents watch their recent college graduates receiving a diploma, that simple piece of paper insuring a great future- their ticket to the American Dream.

“That great day calls for the friendly pause.”

Now its the American Dream that’s on pause since that red-letter day takes on new meaning. Besides the dismal job market, the debt the graduate will struggle to pay off will keep him in the red for a lifetime.

Here’s to the Day- Gay Occasions

Vintage Coca Cola ad 1947

Coke was made for gay occasions, according to this  ad that ran in 1947.

“A surprise shower for the bride-to-be. A time just made for friends, for fun, laughter and the good feelings all around. It’s one of those gay occasions that wouldn’t be quite the same without the sparkling refreshment of Coke. Take time to pause.”

Gay Americans would have to pause 66 years before they could toast each other at a wedding shower!

Here’s to the Day- Marriage Equality!

Vintage Coca Cola ad 1937 Boy Scouts

 Scouting is For All Boys

“On to Washington, shouts the Boy Scouts of America for their first national Jamboree. A group of good fellowship for all boys. Naturally ice cold Coca Cola will be there”

Time for a pause

Now  scouts can be morally straight and gay, thanks to the lifting of their long time ban on gay members.

Coke is For Everybody

Vintage Coca Cola ad 1950

That a broadcast commercial might reflect this actual diversity of thought like the multicultural and sexually diverse fabric of modern America is as refreshing as a frosty bottle of Coke!

© Sally Edelstein and Envisioning The American Dream, 2014. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Sally Edelstein and Envisioning The American Dream with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

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To Canoodle or Not to Canoodle

In Post-War America, love was in the air.

Along with Valentines Day’s hearts and flowers, came big dates, big dances, and king sized expectations in high schools and colleges all around the country. But even the smoothest post war gal could use a tip or two to make the evening real dream-diary stuff.

So for all you valentines with a special date marked down on your calendars, some vintage advice from 1946 for do’s and –especially- don’t’s on hooking up.

Tonight’s the Night

Peggy was all hepped up for her big Valentines date with Hank a tall, dark, crew-cut kind of fellow. This blushing bobby-soxer was sure this would be the night he asked her to go steady. But, her pal Paula warned, going steady came with consequences.

Terror and titillation went hand in hand.

Sure, like most Junior girls in her High School, Peggy liked some hubba hubba from time to time. But every good girl knew the dangers of heavy petting!

Figuring out how to say “good night but not goodbye” and maintain her reputation, caused her headaches to beat the band.  Luckily for Peg  there was no shortage  of advise and cautionary tales  for the love struck female. Every mid-century women’s magazine were chock full of them to help set this jittery Junior straight. Consulting her favorite sub deb column in her mothers Ladies Home Journal proved  invaluable.

Caution: Romance Ahead

“It happens to every girl- that mellow moonlight and roses feeling when the man of the moment begins to look like the biggest thing in her life. If you’re a wide awake bright-eyed kind of gal who gets a kick out good books, good football games and good brisk walks in the rain, it’s inevitable,”  began a column directed to sub debs  in a 1946 issue of Ladies Home Journal.

“You’re going to get a kick out of good dates too!” Peggy read  on anxiously.

Boy, Oh Boy!

“You may have liked boys since you were an out sized character back in the pigtails-and-pinafore department and the little chaps around the neighborhood made good company for playing hide and seek.”

“Now boys are still fun, only now they are more fun, and instead of just liking them as you once did you feel a new appreciation for them.”

“And how!” thought Peggy to herself.

“Suddenly you want to date boys who are smooth dancers, know all the do’s and don’ts of about dating and are smart enough to push the button for a woody Herman disk when they slip a nickel in the juke box.”

“And then suddenly you’re content to know just one. Because it’s happened.”

“You’ve suddenly met the one boy who has almost everything you can ask for in any man! There may be a few things missing ( he isn’t as tall as you’d like nor does he drive a red convertible coupe) but with this dream stuff so close at hand- who are you to quibble.”

“You’ve found someone whom you can like and who likes  you. Someone you can really appreciate and that affection just can’t put itself into words.”

“So you’ve got to find some other way of expressing yourself- it will take-well one goodnight kiss at least!”

Eagerly, Peggy read on.

Can This be Love?

“Of course this is the old feeling you’ve heard so much about.”

“It isn’t just a hubba hubba business; it’s something much more important than that.”

“You can’t wait to get to math class each morning because he sits almost behind you; you can’t begin your homework at night till after 7:30 because that’s the time he calls and if he doesn’t call that evening you,  you can’t do your homework at all for wondering about him; and you carried a slip of paper round in your pocket for weeks worn and tattered because he scrawled “See you at 8:30”on it the first night you two had a date together.”

“It’s a wonderful feeling all right; it’s exciting. It’s stimulating, it keeps you awake at night! But just a minute, honey-chile- haven’t you felt this way before?”

“How about that super sharp fellow you knew back in the days when you were still a freshman? The one who asked you to wear his class ring one Saturday night (but the mood was off and the ring returned before the week was out)?”

“And the fellow with whom you went on a blind date when you were visiting your cousin in St. Louis, and the soda jerker down at the drugstore who went to your high school and who asked you to wait for him every night after work so he could walk you home?”

“You liked them didn’t you- and more than just a little?”

A Dime a Dozen

Vintage illustration Jon Whitcomb 1948

“And a kiss is an important thing.”

“You show your interest first just by talking to him, smiling when he looks your way; you can give him a hint that he’s the kind of boy who’s No.1 on your hit parade by saving your Friday nights for him; and then after a number of dates, lots of deep conversations and some real fun together- you may realize this isn’t just any boy.”

“This is someone special.”

“And since your kiss is based on honest affection it means something important to both of you. “

“But if you change man interests and dates every other evening, what happens to that sincerity? You may feel at the moment that tonight’s the night, but who was that boy we saw you with last night ( that was no ‘boy’ that was the fellow you thought you loved, remember?)”

A Girl Who Gets Around

“Or are you by any slim chance, one of those female characters who have been fooling themselves with the old tale that ‘a girl has to neck to get around?’ You may think that’s the true story, that the object of any fellows affection will automatically be the gal from whom he gets the most….affection.”

“But you just haven’t got as far as the punch line!”

“Many a gal gets around so much for a while that the whole whirl leaves her dizzy; she loses her sense of what’s what completely. She may think that all any boy wants is a gal with whom to hold hands, pat cheeks and rub noses at the doorstep. She goes through the same routine  with 6 out of 10 fellows, and she’s suddenly surprised when boys don’t call her anymore! “

Peggy blushed with recognition.

“That gal just forgot that anything too easy to get, is considered “cheap” and that’s just what happened to her. It doesn’t take long for fellows to catch on to a girls dating reputation- and a word to the guys is sufficient!”

Peggy’s pal Paula didn’t want to be the sort of “I told you so” kind of friend, but the look she gave Peggy said it all.

What’s Your Story

“Let’s forget what this moonlight madness does to your dating rating and your reputation and figure out what it does to you.”

“You may not spend too much time on self-analysis taking yourself apart to see what ticks. But if you did you would realize that you are made up of hundreds of complex “reactions” all of which add up to make your total personality.”

“One kiss won’t put you out of the pink-angel department with any boy, but you know that one kiss leads to another; you may have wanted to kiss a fellow goodnight because he’s considered a good date and you want to see more of him, or simply because he’s your guy and that’s just the way you feel- and before you know it, you’re necking!!!

“You can suddenly find yourself with a lot of emotions just too hot to handle! And don’t even try to fool yourself with the smug assumption, ‘I’m not that kind of girl!”

Caution: No Parking Ahead!

“So take time out occasionally to think about your date life. And take it slow and easy for a smart gal will know to keep those extra starts out of her eyes. This is one time you have to see what you’re doing!”

The lesson was clear- Valentines Day was no license to lose your reputation.

Peggy was firm: Keep the Brakes on!

Copyright (©) 2014 Sally Edelstein All Rights Reserved

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Sex Advise Before Masters and Johnson

The graduating class of 1960 was forever enshrined in the vintage illustration on the right that appeared on the cover of the Saturday Evening Post in Sept. 1960. Depicting Smith College graduation the accompanying commentary points out that marriage is likely in the future to these smart young cover misses.

June is the month-long associated with graduates and brides and it wasn’t that long ago that they were often one and the same thing.

If  author Susan Patton has her way, female graduates would do well to follow that same course.

The controversial “Princeton Mom” has returned with a new book Marry Smart: Advice for finding THE ONE a rehash of the same old fairy tale girls have been told for generations: that it s more productive to devote energy to husband hunting than focusing on their careers.

This advise is as antiquated as the notion once held that girls went to college to get their MRS degree.

Fractured Fairy Tales

Husband Hunting on the college quad

Once upon a time, most young women in the 1950’s and early 1960’s were convinced that the basic occupation of virtually every girl was choosing a man to marry, and college courses were set up to help Betty Coed in her mission to snaring a proper mate.

In the spring of 1956, my Aunt Rhonda was a college senior searching for Love and Marriage. Convinced that the basic occupation of virtually every girl was choosing a man to marry, a smart cookie had a keen sense of her market value: her looks, personality and virginity.

Which College Senior Will You Be Watching on Graduation Day?
Vintage ad Hamilton Watches 1947

Pretty and popular, Rhonda was voted the college senior with the likeliest future for matrimony. It would be 7 long years before Betty Friedan wrote about a problem that had no name, and another 10  before the founding of National Organization of Women.

So for now, Rhonda and her classmates  visualized marriage automatically at 21 along with voting and legal drinking, never doubting for a moment  that the sound of Handel’s  Wedding March would follow directly after “Pomp and Circumstance.”

Women’s Studies Retro Style

Vintage fashion ads featuring college girls offer some helpful hints.
The ad on the left with the comely co-ed wowing her profs is for Orlon Fabric “which teaches new fall fashions to keep their figure in the wash.” The ad on the right for Pacific Fabrics with the headline “Well briefed” promises an A+ in fashion for the Miss 5’4″ or less, and judging by the ogling male student she’s scored a good grade.

One of the first National Merit Scholarship winners, Rhonda knew brains were not enough and in fact could prove a booby trap without that right shade of lipstick and that perfectly turned out casserole.

On the ball, she enrolled in the newly developed Marriage Arts Dept.  of  Syracuse University, which promised  to help her with her makeover from a Brain from Main to a regular girl.

It was a far cry from today’s women’s study curriculum but they did offer clever, useful courses such as house planning and family living, providing her with useful training designed to mold an attractive coed into an ideal wife, enhancing her marital resume.

Only a few years earlier in a speech to business and professional women the Dean of Women at Syracuse University announced that feminism was outdated. Luckily, Rhonda thought with a shudder, women had passed through that stage.

Set You Chefs Cap for a Man

Illustration by Jim Newhall from the book “Date Bait -The Younger Sets Picture Cook Book” by Robert Loeb Jr, 1952

Home Economic  classes emphasized Man pleasing menus.

By the end of the course, Rhonda would learn “how to set her chefs cap for a man.”

As her teacher Miss Higgins pointed out: “Don’t you dress, make-up to please a man? Cook with the same idea in mind. You’ll discover tempting menus and tempting men.”

They were, she assured the class, “the kind of menus that would make the pampered gentlemen of the evening rise up in gratitude!”

“Knowing how to cook will give you a very agreeable sense of accomplishment”, Miss Higgins  promised. “Nowadays, it’s smart to cook. You don’t hear so many gals say they can’t boil water. And that first casserole brings a thrill!”

Courses  on making a home were most informative. “Your home,” Miss Higgins told the note-taking girls,  “is the setting for both you and your husband in the eyes of the world. It is your background. It represents your taste, your experience, and your knowledge of how things are done.”

“People who wonder what sort of person you are, see your home and know.”

In this way it was a very important factor in your husbands career.

“Men especially, are very shrewd at judging other men by the women they marry and the homes those women run,” she told the class somberly.

“A New York Financier once told me,” she explained to the class, “that his home presided over by an able gracious and clever wife, had been one of the greatest helps to him. Your home, then, with you as its mistress must provide the right kind of backing for a man.”

A  Head For Figures

There were informative courses in vital matters like decorating, shopping and clothes selection. and the all important grooming clinics taught by Madam Yvonne  trained at the Helena Institute de Beaute in Paris.

Unlike the matronly Miss Higgins, Madame Yvonne was the epitome of chic and with her swirling feminine dress 12 inches from the floor, tiny waist and pointed bosom the picture of French chic that was revolutionizing fashion.

Catching your hero with an eyeful of smooth fashion was one thing, holding him was another. Bored with your bookings? the class was asked. “A different coiffure may help snag a new stag.”

By the end of the semester, Rhonda’s brain was tuckered out with all this date-data.

The Graduate and the Good Wife

The Bell telephone ad on the right declares “This is the pretty girl you married. She’s the family chef. And the nurse. And the chauffeur and maid.And when she’s all dressed up for an evening out- doesn’t she look wonderful? How does she do it?”

As graduation neared, Rhonda was growing concerned as there was no engagement ring in sight.

She bemoaned her predicament-“I’m sick of playing solitaire…I want to wear one”. What with those pesky Russians building their arsenal of nuclear weapons and  President Eisenhower sending boys all over the globe,  there was no telling how many eligible men would be around.

The government put out a pamphlet called “You can Survive” to help with those Nuclear Bomb Jitters. Sure Rhonda thought, she could survive all right, but not as a spinster, thank you!

With her newly sheered bangs to hide her intellectual forehead, her “beau-catching” curls caught the eye of   a dreamy senior and it was not long before she was calling him her fiancé.

Her hard work had paid off handsomely, as she accepted both the diploma and her glittering ring.

That degree in Sociology would end  up tucked away safely in her Lane Cedar Hope Chest along with all her cherished keepsakes.

Her real work was about to begin.

Copyright (©) 20014 Sally Edelstein All Rights Reserved

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