PORK AND BEANS...in a can...think about it

If you watch Mad Men and saw this season you'll remember Peggy had to work up ads for baked beans. Yeah, one of the reasons I didn't go into advertising. I'm sorry, but having to think about beans and pork in a can day after day would have me hitting my head against a steel beam.

So what was the pitch like for this ad? A kid fishing next to a waterfall and baked beans almost seems identical to the fictitious ads. The idea that baked beans are a part of everyone's childhood and should be cherished. Memories of mom opening the can, updumping it into a pan (you can almost hear that initial sucking sound as the weight of the contents glump into the pan), and then serving it on a plate next to a naked hot dog. I do believe I have that memory. But pork, beans, and waterfalls? Not getting it.


(SOURCE: Sunset, November 1967)

And no, the coupon won't work. It's passed its shelf life.

But I do really like the can...without the waterfall.

Be wary of WOMEN WEARING BLINDFOLDS!

Once upon a time there was a tv show called “What’s My Line?” A panel of New Yorkers, from generally showbusiness, publishing, and high society, would sit behind a desk and ask questions of a contestant they didn’t know while the host tried to control the situation and also had the job of flipping over cards with money amounts on them. When the contestant was someone famous the panel would wear blindfolds.

Click on image to see it larger.

(SOURCE: Sunset, November 1967)

Somehow this poor woman got lost backstage. She was meant to be a panelist on the show, but ended up at a shoot for Zenith televisions. Poor thing. Nobody would tell her of her mistake and she simply wandered around for hours saying things like, “Have you ever jumped out of a plane?” and “Are you known for your meatloaf?” 

This shot was taken just as she said, “Oh, you must be a man because you have a very large button.”

As to the copy of the ad, well...the copywriters could have never imagined that in the future we'd do everything with remotes which contain enough buttons to launch an Apollo mission...AND do it without ever looking at the remote. I guess this is progress, though someday doctors specializing in repetitive motion injuries for thumbs will really clean up.

THE PILL and advertising in the 1960s

Ask yourself, "Would this ad have run before birth control was easily available?"

Click on image to see it larger.

(SOURCE: Sunset, November 1967)

Okay, now ask yourself this, "Will an ad like this run in the coming years if certain politicians make women's reproductive choices a thing of the past?"

Just something to ponder.

The company behind Morgan-Jones, so to speak, was Spring Mills, Inc.

The company started in April 1887, when a group of 14 men and two women organized Fort Mill Manufacturing Company to produce cotton cloth. At that time, the Northeast and Midwest were booming, and cotton manufacturing was seen as a way to industrialize and revive the depressed South. Samuel Elliott White, a local planter and Civil War veteran, was elected the company's first president. Among the investors was Leroy Springs, a merchant who would become White's son-in-law and a key force in the company's development. The company produced its first yard of cotton cloth in February 1888. Its first annual report, in May 1888, stated that the plant had 200 looms and was producing 8,000 yards of cloth daily.

In 1892 many of the same investors started a second plant in Fort Mill. In 1895 Leroy Springs and others established another company, Lancaster Cotton Mills, of Lancaster, South Carolina. Toward the end of the century, with the Lancaster mills flourishing, Springs acquired control of the Fort Mill plants, which were experiencing difficulties, and other troubled cotton mills in Chester, South Carolina. The Lancaster operation expanded in 1901 and again in 1913 and 1914, when it was said to be the largest cotton mill in the world under one roof. In 1914 Leroy Springs led the establishment of Kershaw Cotton Mills in Kershaw, South Carolina.

Leroy's son, Elliott White Springs, joined the company in 1919 after distinguished service as an aviator in World War I. According to the younger Springs's biographer, Burke Davis, Leroy Springs ordered Elliott to learn the business without pay. It took Elliott Springs a while to settle into the business; several times he quit and came back. In these early years, Elliott Springs was more interested in both writing--his best-known work is War Birds, Diary of an Unknown Aviator--and social life than in textile manufacturing.

Leroy Springs seemed to lose interest in the business himself during the 1920s. He ran up debt and let the equipment run down; he also speculated in the stock market. In 1928 a disgruntled cotton buyer shot Leroy Springs in the head on a street in Charlotte, North Carolina. Springs recovered physically, but became emotionally withdrawn. Shortly before Leroy Springs's death in 1931, Elliott Springs took over management of the company.

At this time, the family's textile operations consisted of six plants with 5,000 employees. Elliott Springs--until then considered a playboy and a dilettante--led a dramatic revitalization of the business, which was suffering from the Great Depression as well as from Leroy Springs's neglect. He negotiated with creditors to save the mills from foreclosure, went without salary for a period, and bought used but useful machinery at bargain prices to upgrade operations. In the fall of 1933, he bought a former J.P. Stevens plant in Chester, South Carolina. Also in 1933, Springs consolidated the various mill properties into a single company, Springs Cotton Mills.

In 1934 the United Textile Workers of America attempted to organize workers at the Springs mills. Elliott Springs allowed the union to address the workers at a company-owned baseball field in Chester. After the organizers had spoken, Springs mounted the platform and told the workers that if they went on strike, he would close the plants and take his family to Europe. The workers later voted unanimously against union representation.

During the 1930s the Springs facilities had been expanded and modernized, despite the Depression. With the arrival of World War II, Elliott Springs turned over the company's entire production capacity to the military. Early in 1942 the company began manufacturing fabrics for a variety of military uses, including uniforms, tents, gas masks, and gun covers. All the Springs plants won awards from the U.S. Army and Navy for superior production.

The mills ran overtime, sometimes seven days a week, to keep up with wartime production. Elliott Springs feared this schedule would wear out the mills' machinery, so he instructed one of his plant managers to buy and store every replacement part available--an effort that paid off when the mills resumed normal operations in 1945. At the close of the war, Springs began construction of a bleaching plant and moved the company into the production of finished fabrics and consumer products, such as sheets and pillowcases. Also in 1945, the company established Springs Mills, Inc. in New York as the sales organization for its products. (SOURCE: International Directory of Company Histories, Vol. 19. St. James Press, 1998.)

To read more about the history of this company visit this website. Since the information at the site dates back to 1998 there's no indication about how much of this companies work is now being done in third world countries, but one can guess. Another sad bit of information about where we are in this country today.

Now, what gives with the weird owl, almost life size? Do owls normally fit into your bedside decor?

"BIG" AMERICAN CARS in 1967: '68 Dodge Dart

What do you do when the hood of the car is the same size as the trunk? Where’s the sex appeal? Well of course, put a babe on the hood and no one notices this “flaw.” It was an American car being downsized. This was considered a compact car. My how times have changed.

Click on image to see it larger.

(SOURCE: Sunset, November 1967)

The Dodge Dart is an automobile built by the Dodge division of the Chrysler Corporation from 1960 to 1976 in North America, with production extended to later years in various other markets. The Dart was introduced as a lower-priced, shorter wheelbase, full-size Dodge in 1960 and 1961, became a mid-size car for 1962, and finally was a compact from 1963 to 1976. Chrysler had previously applied the "Dart" name to a Ghia-built show car in 1956.

The project planners proposed the name Dart, only to have executives demand an expensive research program which produced the name Zipp. This was promptly rejected in favor of Dart.

Over its 13-year production run, the Dart earned a reputation as a sturdy, dependable car. "The Dart was one of the most successful compact cars ever introduced in the American automobile marketplace," according to R.D. McLaughlin, then vice president of Chrysler's Automotive sales division, "It enjoys a strong owner loyalty and is a car that has established a reputation for reliability and value...these are [some] reasons why we will continue to market the Dart while introducing the new compact Aspen." Ultimately, the A-body Dart was replaced by the F-body Dodge Aspen beginning in late spring of 1976—a replacement Chrysler President Lee Iacocca would later lament due to the Aspen's many early quality problems.

1968Changes for 1968 were relatively subtle. The park/turn lights in the grille were moved slightly inboard and made round. Side marker lights lights were added to the front fenders and rear quarter panels, to comply with newly introduced Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard 108. Other changes to comply with new federal safety laws included collapsible steering columns, additional padding on the dashboard and sunvisors, shoulder harnesses (separate, this year and until 1973, from the lap belts) and non-glare matte finish on the windshield wiper arms. Chrysler's "Clean Air Package" emission control system became standard equipment on cars sold in all 50 states. The steering linkage was revised again, as were the windshield and rear window gaskets and trim-lock strips, leaving the 1967 pieces as one-year-only items. The standard rear axle ratio was dropped from 2.93 to 2.76 with all standard-performance engines and automatic transmission. Part-throttle downshift functionality was added as a refinement to the TorqueFlite automatic transmission in 6-cylinder cars, to retain acceptable city performance with the taller rear axle ratio.

Fifty specially-equipped "Hemi Dart" models were built under subcontract by Hurst for NHRA SS/B and SS/BA drag racing classes, today these cars (with their sister Plymouth Hemi'Cudas) remain the quickest production cars ever mass produced, with elapsed times in the low 8-second range (1/4-mile) and trap speeds approaching 160 MPH. (SOURCE: Wikipedia) 

BIG AMERICAN CARS in 1967: Cadillac '68

Yes, Cadillac was known as a luxury car. It was a status symbol before the country was overrun by foreign luxury cars. But there’s a little secret so many people don’t know. The engines cost extra. Yes, it’s true, a lot of the Caddies you saw sitting in people’s driveways had been towed there by the dealer and placed strategically to make it look like the owners had wealth. They simply couldn’t afford the engine which was an extra, like power steering.

They were statues of status.

Click on image to see it larger.

(SOURCE: Sunset, November 1967)

BIG AMERICAN CARS IN 1967: Chrysler '68

They were American cars and they were in your face. Parking them was akin to trying to bring the Queen Mary into dock. But oh my were they comfy. There was plenty of room to do all sorts of things in these cars. And advertisers wanted to make sure you understood that what was under the hood was sexy. BIG and SEXY!

Click on image to see it larger.

(SOURCE: Sunset, November 1967)

American car makers scoffed at the Volkswagen. “Ha! You pathetic little ahead of your time gas saving no room lousy shocks tiny pinhead of a car! Ha! Eat our dust! We’ll drive by you on the freeway leaving you scurrying around trying to stay in your own lane just from the wake we leave behind.”

Yes, American cars were big, no…HUGE, and we loved them.

My folks sponsored a fellow from England in 1975. The first thing he wanted was a big American convertible. I loaned him $500 and we went out shopping. He found a huge white Ford convertible. He was in seventh heaven. I thought he was crazy, but it was a dream come true for him. He was in California and driving a convertible. It just didn’t get any better.

PINTEREST, the dark shadow in the room

Ever feel like there’s someone lurking, planning on taking your stuff? Welcome to the world which now includes Pinterest.

Yes, Pinterest is full of lovely images, pretty pictures collected like scrapbooks. The problem is that even if they provide the link to the owner of the images you still have to wonder if they actually have permission. It's all a bit lazy. Find some bright shiny object that fascinates you and like a kleptomaniac it suddenly appears in your purse...board (page).

I can understand why some people are attracted to it, but I find it merely annoying. Grab something from someone else, pin it on your page, and move on to the next scrap to appropriate, the next shiny object you see to put your name on. Heck, just appropriate someone else's name that you like. Don't worry about the fact that this might end up causing all involved problems with this "appropriation."

Now here’s where I have a HUGE problem. I have discovered there are two women using the phrase “~Ephemera~Tattered And Lost~ as the titles for the ephemera they post. One, Diana Harris-Day, is even blatantly using many of my items with credit given, but then turns around and labels all of her ephemera post Tattered and Lost. Really? The name of my blog appears beneath the images she’s posted and then she turns around and also uses my name for the name of her page? I have contacted both of them and hope they figure out what they’re doing really isn’t very nice. But these days feeling shameful is practically prehistoric. I just want people aware that I am not this woman. She is using my identity, not the other way around.

I have also contacted a few people who are using photos from my photography blog. I draw the line there. It specifically states on the page that the images belong to me and may not be used in any manner without my permission, thus the reason I watermark them. I have requested the pin-ners unpin them.

This all may seem a bit much, but heed it as a warning. If you own something which is an original you will need to take precautions that others are not profiting off your personal collection that you have spent money, time, and research finding. There is also talk that once an item is posted on Pinterest they "own" it. Have not yet verified this.

And at least Pinterest is supplying a brief line of code to ad to your blog that is meant to discourage people if they choose to pinch something. You can find it here.

I understand that for a lot of people, mostly women, this is a fun site. That's great, knock yourself out, but think before you pin or name your stuff using someone else's name because you might be causing the owner of the item a problem.

"LOOK SPOCK, LOOK!" said Captain Kirk

"Look Spock, look!" said Captain Kirk excitedly. "We're in a box! We're on your chest! Run Spock, run!"

Click on image to see it larger.

(SOURCE: Sunset, November 1967)

REMODLING your bathroom

Thinking of doing some remodeling in order to add value to your home? Can't quite come up with the right interior design? Do you like Formica...A LOT? Are you color blind? Have no sense of direction? Have bad taste in clothes?

Have I got a room for you! And remember, I'm giving you this design for free. You can run with it as far as you want...preferably as far from here as possible.

Go ahead, click on it to see it larger. I dare you.


(SOURCE: Sunset, July 1969)

KNOW YOUR MARKET!

Marketing. Focus groups. And then there's this. Raise your hand if you'd have liked to have been there for the pitch. Exactly who was their market?

• Women wearing sweats?
• Women reading diet books?
• Women eating chocolates?
• Women overcome with the fumes from Scotchgard?
• Women too cheap to pay for a real yoga class?

Oh damn, I'm the market!

Click on image to see it larger.

(SOURCE: Sunset, September 1969)

Okay, I actually do own the book she's holding. It had belonged to my mother.

More TINY ADS from 'TEEN

I always feel that visiting the tiny ads in the back of old magazines is akin to a circus sideshow. There's just often something a little perverse going on. The companies have a tiny space in which to grab your attention. Think of all those photo reprint companies I featured. How were they to scream out their message of "Look! Look here! Our prices are cheaper! We have a better looking photo in our ad! You get 5 more prints from us than the other guys!" It's almost like a silent scream and they just hope you "hear" it.

I'm guessing you should probably buy this "Good Luck Ring" (though I almost expect them to say "Good Luck Ling" considering the typeface they used) before you go knocking on the doors to sell Christmas cards. You might have 20 friends now, but after your hard sell with hopes of lining your pockets on your friends and relatives paychecks...good luck with that.



And if you felt socially inept before because of pimples or bad nails...just hand out insulting cards! Oh wait, then you won't have the 20 people to sell the Christmas cards to. Yeah, I think you need to get organized first, get a plan.



So let's get started by first buying some Briefolios! Okay, I'll admit that when I read their copy I almost long for the first week of a new school year.

"Use a different one for each course"

I did so like my new binder with tabbed dividers each year and Pee Chee folders. There was something nice about everything being new. Oh, and you got to wear your new clothes that had been hanging in your closet for at least a month. First day of school for girls was a fashion show. I don't know what the boys were doing because they came back from the previous year looking just about the same, though cleaner. They wore striped t-shirts, jeans, and hightop Converse black tennis shoes. It was a pretty big deal when they upgraded to chinos and Clark boots.


(SOURCE: 'TEEN, 1963 & 1964)

So, I think we can safely say, from these ads, we’ve learned:

1. Get rid of your zits! or at least hide them.
2. Paint on long nails. Through the use of good lighting your fingers will go from Frankenstein to Helena Rubenstein.
3. Once you’ve got those nice hands slap on an authentic Chinese good luck ring.
4. Now, with some Briefolios under your arm you can set out to annoy friends and relatives with cheap greeting cards.
5. And if all of that fails…send out gag and insulting cards from Idiot Supply.

What could possibly go wrong?

Smells like SCHOOL SPIRIT in a time warp

Did you enjoy high school? Were you enthused with school spirit? Not me. I never liked high school and I couldn’t wait to get out of there and never look back.

We were actually known as the most apathetic class to ever graduate from the place. The school was long ago shut down. I don’t even think it was open for 20 years. It’s been over 30 years since I drove by it.

What I’m saying is I would have never worn anything in school colors or carried around a football doll. Perhaps if I’d gone to high school in a different decade I might have felt differently about the whole rah rah stuff. We didn’t cruise Main Street, we went to Berkeley to walk along Telegraph. High school was just a place you were stuck; the world beckoned.

These ads, from 'TEEN magazine puts me in an American Graffiti time-warp. Swinging London's influence was only months away and teenagers would never be the same, at least not in my world.




(SOURCE: "TEEN, October 1963)
Click on image above to see it larger.

MORE TINY ADS from the back pages

A few more ads from the back pages of early '60s 'TEEN magazines. from the silly to the disgusting.


(SOURCE: 'TEEN, December 1963)

In those days it was cool to be smart. Having politicians be complete rubes was frowned upon. An education was important and valued. People did not grow up wanting to be reality "stars" or celebrities. So the odd little item above was part of its time.



(SOURCE: 'TEEN, April 1964)

The thought of this wallet just makes me ill.

To see the ads from yesterday click here.

THE TINY ADS on the back pages

What did it cost to run the tiny ads in the back of magazines back in 1964? Remember that for many of these companies this was the only access they had to a particular group, in this case teenage girls. Since most of the tiny ads were for photo processing these companies had to somehow get their message out when surrounded with ads yelling "25 PHOTOS FOR $1!"

Below are a few examples from the March and September 1964 'TEEN magazine. Note the John F. Kennedy charm available just a few months after his assassination. I wonder how many they sold.




(SOURCE: 'TEEN, March 1964)








(SOURCE: 'TEEN, September 1964)

A COLLEGE SCHOLARSHIP for the cost of a bra

Read the copy and then think about hitting your head against a wall as it sinks in that in 1964 you could go to college for four years for $5000. Were boys excluded from the contest? I wonder who won.

Click on image to see it larger.

(SOURCE: 'TEEN, September 1964)

Near the bottom of THE BLOND BOMBSHELL LIST

There’s really no room for your career to grow when you’re just one of the blonds in Hollywood that is at the bottom of the feeding chain: Marilyn Monroe, Jayne Mansfield, Mamie Van Doren, and, somewhere near the bottom, women like Eva Six. Whether they had talent or not made no difference; they were on screen to make the audience think of Marilyn on a low budget. They were bleached blonds stuffed in clothes too tight. They survived in B movies or worse. They don’t’ have cult followings. They never really parlayed their fame into riches unless they married it.

I have no idea what became of Eva Six, but she’d now be around 73 years old. Let’s hope her life turned out as she’d hoped even if fame was fleeting. It’s always sad to see someone age who believed momentary fame was going to be their golden ticket. I used to see far to many people with that blank Hollywood stare waiting for checks at the Hollywood post office.

The only site I found with any “significant” information about Eva is here. And I'm guessing Eva had nothing to do with the quote in the ad extolling the virtues of Wate-On. Call me crazy, but it's just a hunch.


(SOURCE: 'TEEN, June 1964)

Frankly, until I was looking at this ad, I wouldn’t have even remembered her. Actually I still don’t remember her, but I do remember going to see the movie that she appeared in, Bikini Beach. I remember going to see many of the Beach Party movies in the early ‘60s. Popcorn fun with a bunch of kids on a Saturday.

You’ll notice in the ad for Bikini Beach that “exciting new actress” Eva is not even listed in the credits. I’m guessing her moments on screen were fleeting, as was fame. And I’m guessing her appearance in this ad was her agents idea of promotion.


(SOURCE: 'TEEN, September 1964)

As to Wate-On, I haven’t a clue. I do recall ads that guaranteed you’d put on weight if you used their products. Boys would no longer be weaklings forced to eat sand; girls would fill out in all the right places, not the wrong places. You might as well just sell elixir from the back of a wagon and be done with it. Medical quackery is the same today as it was thousands of years ago. These days some of it’s wrapped in labels bearing the names of pharmaceutical corporations and strangely they still get “stars” to hawk the stuff to us. The same old tricks keep working over and over again. Someone signs a contract to allow their image to be used for false advertising and suckers line up to buy it. Folks, this is why education is so important. Never ever believe what an advertiser tells you. NEVER!

Click here to see another Wate-On ad featuring Eva. And here's an add without Eva.


(SOURCE: 'TEEN, September 1964)

Quick, find Eva in the trailer.