PENGUIN Redux

Needing a break from blogging for a short time to sort some things out. So I leave you with a "not-so-classic post" to enjoy or not enjoy.

It's about a penguin. I'll say no more.

250 WAY OF SERVING POTATOES

Using the book title as my title means that some poor soul will eventually find this post hoping to find potato recipes. Sorry.

On the flip side, I gathered you all weren't really hankerin' to make any of the fine cream cheese recipes I posted. Okay, then. How about potatoes as aliens?

I give you "250 Ways of Serving Potatoes." Notice the appetizing cover photo? We know what this is supposed to look like, but it somehow misses the mark. Things do get better when you get inside because somebody got the brilliant idea of printing everything in a purplish blue color instead of sticking with good old black and white. Nothing makes me hungrier than purplish blue meat and potatoes.

And, is it me or do many of these photos look like aliens? Purple People Eaters. Doesn't this look like the nursery in Alien's?

Launch pads from which they'll launch their attacks of leftover goo? Is the duck a sentry or an unwilling participant in the potatoes attempt to rule the world? We'll never know.

And honestly, I just don't want to speculate.

Finally, I give you the mother ship.

And if there are only 250 recipes in this book that means there are 115 days you're on your own. They couldn't come up with 365? I guess some of these will have to be leftovers which probably could have been a whole other series:

250 Things to Do With Potatoes That Your Neighbor Shouldn't Know About

and

A Spud by Any Other Name Never Tasted So Sweet or So Bad After Oxidation

All of this from the Culinary Arts Institute, 1941. I kid you not. Just think of the photos that were rejected.

Bon Appétit!

Recipes for People with TOO MUCH TIME ON THEIR HANDS

Be creative with pears! Isn't this what you were hoping I'd post?

Click on image to see it larger. Seriously, that's the only way you'll get the recipe.

Seriously who spent the time thinking of putting food coloring on the side of a pear to "simulate fresh fruit"? Okay, if this booklet was from World War II I'd understand the need to make-do, but there's no indication these are war time recipes. Nope, there were some very strange women somewhere rubbing red food coloring on canned fruit. A little too kinky for my taste.

You know, bigger is better so go ahead and click on the image. You know you want to.

And aren't we glad these recipes haven't survived? Imagine going to a smart dinner party and being served a pear covered in cream cheese with almond slivers sticking out like a porcupine. I know, I shouldn't say anything bad. Let people have their hobbies. I don't understand this anymore than I understand table-scaping.

Oh oh...new hobbie. Table-scaping AND doing weird things with cream cheese! Imagine the book!

Bless you home economic ladies at Kraft. Now where's that Cheez Whiz cookbook?

Headquarters of FINE CHEESE COOKERY!

I never knew that Kraft Foods was the "headquarters of fine cheese cookery." When I think of cheese and Kraft I think of those plastic slices individually wrapped in plastic or I think of Cheez Whiz, which is useful for caulking windows and bathtubs. But "fine cheese cookery?" Sorry, no. Not even close. But here we have Kraft themselves proclaiming this honor. I give you "44 Wonderful Ways to Use Philadelphia Brand Cream Cheese."

We will go from the somewhat appetizing to the ludicrous to the "surely they must be kidding?!"

The cover starts off safe enough. The pie looks edible. The color photography and reproduction isn't horrific. I have no idea when this booklet was published. No date is given, but looking at some of the recipes and how truly truly weird they are you can bet it's 1950s to '60s. I'm imagining a lot of these recipes were served at women's club meetings and smart dinner parties. I do know the tomato aspic looks familiar from a luncheon I was dragged to. Alas, you will not be subjected to the photo of the tomato aspic. It is far too pedestrian.

Do remember, you can see any of these delightful recipes larger by clicking on them.

Here, on the back cover, is where Kraft toots their own cheese horn.

Okay, now we start to get a little women's club luncheon with the tomato rose salad. The thought of putting this together makes my eyes roll into the back of my head, the thought of eating it? Well, considering some of the other recipes this one I might be able to force down, part of it.

And now we get to the "could recipes be any dumber?" When food is presented as cute or clever I want to vomit.

And now we come to the truly bizarre. I give you THE BURNING BUSH!

Imagine a bunch of drunks spotting this on the buffet table at a party or polite women at the women's club:

"Oh Marge, this is fabulous. What DO you call it?"

"The Burning Bush."

At that point every woman in the women's club was heard choking on their chipped beef cheese ball.

Ever heard of SOS? No? Served in the military on metal trays. Well, the nice way of saying it is chipped beef on toast. The other way is SOS. I'll let you find out for yourself what it means if you don't already know.

Kraft has taken SOS to a new level. Chipped beef cheese balls. Melt in your mouth, not in your hand. Oh my, and a grapefruit too. Whenever I think of grapefruit I immediately crave chipped beef and cream cheese.

THIS is the reason why I never wanted to take home economics in high school. There were women who actually got giddy over these recipes.

Playing on WOMEN'S FEARS AND CONFIDENCE

Women have always been an easy target for advertisers. They exploit a woman's confidence, convincing her she's not as good as she can be. Their product is the answer. They'll make you physically beautiful as long as you go by their limited standards of beauty. It will always be this way. We just have to teach kids not to believe any of it. To not be such happy little consumers being molded by corporations. Probably going to be hard to do when corporations control so much of our lives and are now legally considered a "person" by the Supreme Court.

The worst aspect of advertising has always played off of a woman's self-image. We're never good enough.

Look at what plastic surgery has done to some once beautiful women. They were somehow convinced that what they saw staring back in the mirror wasn't what society said was beautiful. And so they trotted off to a plastic surgeon or one of the Botox centers and became freakish images of themselves. Their faces molded by someone else. All you have to do is look at someone like Pricilla Presley who has gone from beautiful to unsightly. What she did to her face is a tragedy, no matter if the doctor she chose was a quack. She still bought into the lies.

Here are two ads from the April 1949 Photoplay magazine. Both stunningly scary.

At first glance the ads look funny, but think about the women who looked through Photoplay each month, admiring the stars who seemingly lived wonderful lives, then to come to the back pages and see ads like this. What did they see when they looked in the mirror? The Betty Grable on the cover or the drawing of the woman in the ad?

I can't help but think of the movie Sayonarra with Miyoshi Umeki playing a Japanese woman who wanted to turn her Asian eyes into Western eyes because that was perceived as more beautiful. Of course it was all lies, but that's what advertising is based on. Half-truths and blatant lies. Always has been, always will be. Create a want or a need where there is none.

1953 STUDEBAKER

Click on image to see it larger.

In my post at my vernacular photography site about the PRR S1 locomotive I posted information about the designer Raymond Loewy. In the Wikipedia article he is also credited with designing this car, the 1953 Studebaker. However, the article also says that it was actually designed by Virgil Exner. When I go to Wikipedia for information about Exner it says he was fired by Loewy in 1944 and went to work directly for Studebaker. So I'm not finding anything definitive as to who actually designed the car. Well, actually it gets more confusing because this article at the Smithsonian, says that Bob Bourke designed the car. Basically I don't know, but I'll go with Virgil Exner and let someone in the net world come along and clear this up for me.

In the meantime here's some information about Exner who most certainly did design many cars I remember from my youth.

Born in Ann Arbor, Michigan, Virgil Exner was adopted by George W. and Iva Exner as a baby. Virgil showed a strong interest in art and automobiles. He studied art at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana but, in 1928, dropped out after two years due to lack of funds. He then took a job as a helper at an art studio specializing in advertising. In 1931 he married Mildred Marie Eshleman, who also worked for the studio and, on April 17, 1933, they had their first child, Virgil Exner Jr. By that time, Exner Sr. had been promoted to drawing advertisements for Studebaker trucks. They had a second son in 1940, Brian, who died of injuries after falling from a window.

General Motors

His first work in design was for General Motors, where he was hired by GM styling czar Harley Earl. Before age 30, he was in charge of Pontiac styling.[

Loewy and Associates

In 1938, he joined Raymond Loewy's industrial design firm Loewy and Associates, where he worked on World War II military vehicles and cars, notably Studebaker's 1939-40 models, and advance plans for their revolutionary post-war cars. "But working on Studebaker designs… Exner struggled to get the attention of his boss, who had to sign off on every facet of the designs. Exner was encouraged by Roy Cole, Studebaker’s engineering vice president, to work on his own at home on backup designs in case the company’s touchy relationship with Loewy blew up".

Studebaker Corporation

In 1944, he was fired by Loewy and was hired directly by Studebaker in South Bend, Indiana. There he was involved in the design of some of the first cars to be produced after World War II (Studebaker's slogan during this period was "First by far with a post war car"). As acknowledged by Robert Bourke, Virgil was the final designer of the acclaimed 1947 Studebaker Starlight coupe, though Raymond Loewy received the public acknowledgment because his legendary name was a major advertising attraction. Exner is actually listed as sole inventor on the design patent. Rivalry and bad feeling between the two resulted in Exner having to leave Studebaker, whose engineering chief Roy Cole provided personal introductions for him to Ford and Chrysler. (SOURCE: Wikipedia)

To read more about the history of Studebaker click here or click here to go the Studebaker museum.

To read an interview with Bob Bourke click here.

To see another beautiful Studebaker click here to an early post of mine.

And to see a Studebaker that definitely was not an award winner see my old post showing a vintage Studebaker post card.

Personally I think this 1953 model is a beauty and I'd love to have one. Bright red.

This ad is from the August 7, 1953 Collier's magazine, inside front cover.

The Unofficial Official GOODBYE TO SUMMER

Labor Day signifies the end of summer. It used to be kids didn't go back to school until after Labor Day. I dreaded Labor Day because I hated school. Every year except the fourth grade. Hated the other 11 years. Always felt confined, unlike the little lady on the post card below.

One last hurrah for the summer with a post card published by the Asheville Post Cart Co. No information about the date of publication.

ROYAL GORGE RAILROAD

I'm in a mood for trains, riding the rails, hearing the far off steam engine whistle. This happens every so often and I just have to let it slide because I don't live anywhere near trains. I have to just shut my eyes and imagine it.

The reason this cropped up again is because of my post yesterday at my vernacular photography blog about the Pennsylvania Railroads steam locomotive the S1. I found a photo of it at the 1939 World's Fair within a box at an estate sale.

The train below is not as stunning as the S1, but it has a fine history.

Click on image to see it larger.

In the late 1870s miners descended on the upper Arkansas River valley of Colorado in search of carbonate ores rich in lead and silver. The feverish mining activity in what would become the Leadville district attracted the attention of the Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad and the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railway, each already having tracks in the Arkansas valley. The Santa Fe was at Pueblo and the D&RGW near Canon City, Colorado, some 35 miles west. Leadville was over 100 miles away. For two railroads to occupy a river valley ordinarily was not a problem, however, west of Canon City the Arkansas River cuts through a high plateau of igneous rocks forming a spectacular steep-walled gorge over a thousand feet deep. At its narrowest point sheer walls on both sides plunge into the river, creating an impassible barrier. Sharing is not an option along this route.

On April 19, 1878, a hastily assembled construction crew from the Santa Fe began grading for a railroad line just west of Canon City in the mouth of the gorge. The D&RGW, whose track ended only ¾ of a mile from Canon City, raced crews to the same area, but they were blocked by the Santa Fe graders in the narrow canyon. By a few hours they had lost the first round in what became a two-year struggle between the two railroads that would be known as the Royal Gorge War.

The D&RG crews tried leapfrogging the Santa Fe grading crews, but were met with court injunctions from the Santa Fe in the contest for the right-of-way. The D&RG built several stone "forts" (such as Fort DeRemer at Texas Creek) upstream in an attempt to block the Santa Fe. Grading crews were harassed by rocks rolled down on them, tools thrown in the river and other acts of sabotage. Both sides hired armed guards for their crews. The railroads went to court, each trying to establish its primacy to the right of way. After a long legal battle that ended in the U.S. Supreme Court, on April 21, 1879, the D&RG was granted the primary right to build through the gorge that in places was wide enough for only one railroad at most. (SOURCE: Wikipedia)

And here is an image of the hanging bridge the train traversed.

Click on image to see it larger.

An interesting part of the Santa Fe construction through the gorge is the hanging bridge at a point where the gorge narrows to 30 feet. Here the railroad had to be suspended over the river along the north side of the gorge as sheer rock walls go right down into the river on both sides. C. Shallor Smith, a Kansas engineer, designed a 175-ft plate girder suspended on one side by "A" frame girders spanning the river and anchored to the rock walls. The bridge cost $11,759 in 1879, a princely sum in those days. Although it has been strengthened over the years, this unique structure has served on a main rail line for over 118 years. (SOURCE: Wikipedia)

Want to ride through the Gorge on a train? You still can. Click here for the Royal Gorge Route Railroad. Looks like it would be a lot of fun.

These post cards were published by the HH Tammen Company and show the same copy on the back of each. Click here to go to a previous post where near the midway point I tell you everything I found out about Harry Heye Tammen and his rather interesting life.

A WOMAN OF INDEPENDENCE with Coca-Cola

This ad dates from the October 1954 National Geographic back cover and once again shows an independent woman. It's actually pretty stunning since most ads showed women in domestic situations, on the job as a secretary, or sitting in the passenger seat of a car. Women were never driving the cars. So I'll give Coca-Cola credit for sending a woman out on her own to see the world.

Click on image to see it larger.

I have no information about the illustrator. I do like the very nicely balanced illustration with perfect movement to the product.

Of course, they still couldn't leave off one item that they knew would be gender specific: the calories in a coke. Read the copy and you'll see that they want to make sure the woman knows it has "...as few calories as half an average, juicy grapefruit." Doubt they'd have put that in an ad showing a single man.

Wish there'd been more images like this when I was growing up. I'm not sure boys really understood the power they had and how small girls felt in relation to the world. You really weren't allowed to dream. Fortunately I had parents who told me I could do anything, even if I looked outside the door and saw the obstacles. Boys had a swagger and confidence that girls weren't allowed. Girls had to dream small.

Coca-Cola DURING THE WAR

This vintage Coca-Cola ad dates from the August 18, 1945 Saturday Evening Post back cover. Of course the war in the Pacific was over on August 15, 1945 with the signing of the Japanese surrender document occurring on September 2, 1945.

Even if I no longer like the product I still appreciate the illustrations in the old advertisements.

Click image to see it larger.

There is a lot of information about Coca-Cola during World War II, not all of it a shining example of a positive war effort. The ads were how the corporation sold its product manipulating the public for a positive corporate image. And indeed, they did do their part for the soldiers:

Coca-Cola was involved in the Second World War.

Robert Woodruff made a point of supporting US troops so metal cans were introduced to meet their needs.

In 1941, when the United States entered the war, Woodruff decided that Coca-Cola's place was near the front line.

He sent an order to:

"See that ever man in uniform gets a bottle of Coca Cola for 5 cents wherever he is and whatever the cost to the company".

In 1939 Coca Cola only had 5 overseas bottling plants. By 1945, they had 64. What made it so popular? Because the water was disgusting. The army kept it clean by adding chlorine-so the water tasted like your local swimming pool, or worse.

On the 29th June 1943 General Dwight D Eisenhower ordered three million bottles of Coca- Cola to be sent to the allies in North Africa.

Plant and machinery for down town bottling plants were also sent so another three million bottles could be sent to the troops every six months.

By the end of the hostilities five billion bottles or cans of Coca-Cola had been drunk.

Coca-Cola had not only lifted the spirits of the US Armed Forces, it had also introduced itself to new markets. When the war ended the bottling plants and a little bit of America stayed too. (SOURCE: Digger History)

So while Coca-Cola was supporting the troops they were also still manufacturing their product, or trying to, in Nazi Germany. Since I'm not finding a definitive brief article I'll just give you links:

Coca-Cola Goes to War

For God, Country and Coca-Cola: The Definitive History of the Great American Soft Drink and the Company That Makes It by Mark Pendergrast

Wikipedia

Digger History

And a page with some images of the creator of Coke and the pharmacy where he sold it can be seen on this page.

To see more vintage Coca-Cola ads from World War II click here.

OFFER A MARINE A COKE

This ad dates from the February 1953 National Geographic back cover. It looks almost like a photograph, but it is an illustration. Again, I have no information about the illustrator. And again, I find it interesting that they are marketing this with a woman in uniform, a Marine.

Women in the Marine Corps

In 1918, the Secretary of the Navy allowed women to enlist for clerical duty in the Marine Corps. Officially, Opha Mae Johnson is credited as the first woman Marine. Johnson enlisted for service on August 13, 1918; during that year some 300 women first entered the Marine Corps to take over stateside clerical duties from battle-ready Marines who were needed overseas.

World War II Service

The Marine Corps Women's Reserve was established in February 1943. The first director of the Marine Corps Women's Reserve was Mrs. Ruth Cheney Streeter from Morristown, New Jersey. By the end of World War II, 85% of the enlisted personnel assigned to Headquarters U.S. Marine Corps were women.

The first group of women officers was given direct commissions based on ability and civilian expertise. These women were given no formal indoctrination or schooling, but went on active duty immediately. Women Marines were assigned to over 200 different jobs, among them radio operator, photographer, parachute rigger, driver, aerial gunnery instructor, cook, baker, quartermaster, control tower operator, motion picture operator, auto mechanic, telegraph operator, cryptographer, laundry operator, post exchange manager, stenographer, and agriculturist.

After the war; Retention for active duty

On June 7, 1946, Commandant of the Marine Corps General Alexander A. Vandegrift approved the retention of a small number of women on active duty. They would serve as a trained nucleus for possible mobilization emergencies. The demobilization of the Marine Corps Women's Reserve, 17,640 enlisted and 820 officers, was to be completed by September 1, 1946. Of the 20,000 women who joined the Marine Corps during World War II, only 1,000 remained in the Marine Corps Women's Reserve by July 1, 1946.

June 12, 1948, the United States Congress passed the Women's Armed Services Integration Act and made women a permanent part of the regular Marine Corps.

In 1950, the Women Reserves were mobilized for the Korean War and 2,787 women were called to active duty. By the height of the Vietnam War, there were about 2,700 women Marines served both stateside and overseas. By 1975, the Corps approved the assignment of women to all occupational fields except infantry, artillery, armor and pilot/air crew. Over 1,000 women Marines were deployed in Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm in 1990-1991. (SOURCE: Wikipedia)

So if you see a member of the Navy, Marines, Army, Air Force, or Coast Guard looking a little parched, buy them something to drink. Shake their hand and tell them you appreciate what they and their family are doing. Heaven knows the paycheck they receive barely stretches as far as a handshake.

To see past posts of Coca-Cola ads click on:

Remembering COCA-COLA

Pick Me Up and LET'S GRAB ONE AT THE HOSPITAL

Beach Party with COCA-COLA

Brothers Who Drank COKE TOGETHER