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.
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.
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.
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)
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.
A long time ago, in what seems like a different universe, if you wanted reprints of a photo to which you did not have a negative…and you got magazines…and you looked at the tiny ads in the back…
(SOURCE: ‘TEEN, October 1963)
Explain to me how these “companies” made money if within a few pages, and often on the same page, there were 14 ads for photo processing? How was a girl to choose?
I did have one friend who sent in a photo of herself and got back a packet of prints. They were fine. She handed them out to everybody. I think I might still have it, but as usual have no idea of where it might be.
A journey via vintage snapshots through the world of dolls and their owners from the early part of the 20th century to the 1960s. This is volume 7 in the Tattered and Lost Vernacular Photography series.
BUCKAROOS AND BUCKARETTES
Tattered and Lost: Buckaroos and Buckarettes is a collection of vintage snapshots for those who remember riding the range when they were kids. These adventures usually consisted of sitting in front of a black and white television or running around the neighborhood with our shiny six-guns strapped to our sides. Our imaginations created entire worlds that never existed. We sang along with our heroes, convinced that with a song in our heart and a six-gun on our hip we could vanquish evil. This book is dedicated to all the other buckaroos and buckarettes who rode their imaginations into the sunset while humming Happy Trails.
CAKES, PICNICS, AND WATERMELON
Collecting vintage photographs starts out innocent enough with a few snapshots here and there, but at some point it becomes a bit more obsessive and you find yourself longing for the next image that makes you laugh or ponder the irrefutable confusion of being human. This book, Tattered and Lost: Cakes, Picnics, and Watermelon, the fourth in a series, shows the quirky world of sharing food from the 1890s to the 1970s in the United States. Sit back and enjoy watching people cut cakes (some people do it with such style!), go on picnics without your relatives, and watch people eat watermelon. Yes, eat watermelon. An odd category for sure, but one sure to make you smile.
Vernacular Photographs
Tattered and Lost: Vernacular Photographs, is volume 1 in my self-published books showing photos from my collection. Photographs play off each other on facing pages asking the viewer to come to their own conclusion as to what they are looking at. Included is a photo of the Pennsylvania Railroad S1 steam locomotive, designed by Raymond Loewy, on display at the 1939 New York World’s Fair. And one of the few known copies of a photo taken by Rudolph D’Heureuse in 1863 proving there were indeed camels used by the U. S. Cavalry is included. So take a step back in time and visit with some folks who long ago smiled and said “cheese” never knowing how long those smiles would last.
TELLING STORIES
In need of writing prompts? Looking for a gift for a friend who loves vintage photographs? Tattered and Lost: Telling Stories is now available from CreateSpace and Amazon. Click on the image to find out more!
CHILDHOOD
A new and expanded edition of Tattered and Lost: Childhood. Available at CreateSpace and Amazon. Better price, more pages, larger trim size. Click on the image to read more about it.
BOOKS FOR THOSE WHO LOVE EPHEMERA AND VERNACULAR PHOTOGRAPHY
WHAT IS TATTERED AND LOST EPHEMERA?
Tattered and Lost EPHEMERA is about some of the items in my collection including: letters, postcards, valentines, menus, recipe books, children's books, magazines, greeting cards, paper dolls, vernacular / found photos, and whatever odd things I find stuck in the nooks and crannies of this house.
This site is affiliated with Tattered and Lost PHOTOGRAPHS.
Photographs of the ordinary by the ordinary.
All photos are from my private collection. They may NOT be used in any manner without my permission. I retain all copyrights for everything published on this site unless specified as belonging to someone else.
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