The more things change the more THEY REMAIN THE SAME

Before there was Big Pharma was there a little guy in an apartment somewhere with a sure fire cure for warts-aches-pains-lumbago-diabetes-rheumatism-moles-hair loss-asthma, etcetera, etcetera, ecetera? Looking through these ads from the 1931 issue of Comfort you'd think so. All you had to do was write them and they'd send you information about their miracle cure. Now we have big 4 color ads in magazines and nonstop tv commercials. Will any of today's ads be kept as ephemera? Will any of them be lumped in with old fashioned snake oil sales? I can think of quite a few. 

Here, for your viewing pleasure, a variety of the tiny ads that were grouped throughout the back of this issue of Comfort. How many sick people were taken for a ride by these companies? How many people spent part of their meager income hoping for relief? Today instead of writing for information we're repeatedly told "Ask your doctor!" So start scrolling and scrolling and scrolling and then ASK YOUR DOCTOR!

My favorite line is "If you're feeling sour and sunk and the world looks punk..."

But I guess my favorite is just an old home remedy sent in by a reader, a cure for corns. It doesn't say what you do with the vinegar soaked bread after using. Perhaps bury it under a board then turn around three times and scream like a chicken?

YOU'LL MAKE A MILLION KID redux

On May 3rd I did a post called You'll Make a Million Kid about the ads that used to run in comic books for kids to sell stationary or salve. Sell enough and they could get cash or "prizes." One of the companies was Wilson Chemical Company located in Tyrone, Pennsylvania. They manufactured a salve called White Cloverine. Wellllllllllll...my best friend sent me what she called a "Summer Fun Box" that arrived yesterday. No, it wasn't a case of salve. Much better. It's a box full of ephemera. Old photos, TV Guides, clippings, and a periodical called Comfort published in Augusta, Maine in November 1931. Ohhhhhhh, heart be still...it's a treasure trove and over time I'll feature a lot of the ads within. But first I give you the Wilson Chemical Company redux.

Click on image to see it larger.

Now remember, this is during the Depression so kids and adults were looking for anyway possible to make money. This wasn't some snot nosed kid in a stripped t-shirt in the 50s or 60s with time on their hands wanting a Roy Rogers Flash Camera or thinking if they knocked on enough doors they'd get a free pony. This was far more serious business. 

Click on image to see it larger.

You know, someone must have been able to get these prizes or this company couldn't have stayed in business for so long pushing the same idea to kids. I still keep hoping someday someone out there in the net world will find this post and give us a story about what it was like to actually collect on this.

UPDATE: Reader Dave Williams has provided the following interesting link with more information about the Wilson Chemical Companies sales practices, especially during the Depression:

http://www.appalachianhistory.net/2012/05/kids-get-rich-selling-cloverline-salve.html

Thanks Dave!