Let's BUY A NEW CAR!

Would you like to put a Mercury in your driveway? If so, it'll have to be a used car. So if we're talking used how about a 1954 Mercury?

I would certainly love to drive one of these in order to experience their new suspension technology. The big old boats were cushy and comfortable. Steering sucked, but the better brands took bumps nicely.

So with the "same ball-joint principle used in your shoulder" were there ever any rotator cuff problems? I know, I know…bad one.


Click on image to see it larger.

Mercury was an automobile marque of the Ford Motor Company launched in 1938 by Edsel Ford, son of Henry Ford, to market entry-level luxury cars slotted between Ford-branded regular models and Lincoln-branded luxury vehicles, similar to General Motors' Buick (and former Oldsmobile) brand, and Chrysler Motors' Chrysler division. From 1945 to 2011, it was the Mercury half of the Lincoln - Mercury division of Ford (the Edsel brand was included in that division for the 1958-1960 model years). Using badge engineering, the majority of Mercury models were based on Ford platforms.

On June 2, 2010, Ford announced the closure of the Mercury line by the end of the year. In terms of sales, Mercury represented only 1 percent of North America's automobile market compared to the 16 percent share of Ford. Ford Motor Company has stated that additional Lincoln models will be introduced to help replace any shortfall from the discontinued Mercury brand. At the time of the announcement of Mercury's closure, Mercury was selling fewer than 95,000 units a year, which is less than both Plymouth and Oldsmobile right before they were phased out. The Mercury Mountaineer was discontinued in the 2010 model year, with the remaining Mercurys following suit after an abbreviated 2011 model year. Mercury's U.S. sales in 2010, its final full year, were 93,195. After the Mercury brand was discontinued in 2011, Ford stripped all Mercury branding from its Lincoln-Mercury dealers. (SOURCE: Wikipedia)

More BRECK GIRLS

Okay, now that I'm looking at more of these they are sort of odd. They all start to look like performers on the Lawrence Welk Show. I'm imagining them in chiffon dresses, standing in a line, singing Proud Mary. Just not workin' for me.

Lovely drawings, but something a little off.


(SOURCE: TEEN, March 1965) Click on image to see it larger.


(SOURCE: TEEN, September 1967) Click on image to see it larger.

BRECK GIRL, September 1964

If you're of a certain age (old) you'll remember the Breck Girl. Women's magazines, teen girl magazines, ran full page ads showing a lovely girl with beautiful hair. The images were constantly changing. Blonds, brunettes, redheads...they ran the gamut. By the time I became aware of the ads the illustrator was Ralph William Williams. The illustration below was done by him.


(SOURCE: TEEN, September 1964) Click on image to see it larger.

I have not found any biographical information about the artist other than what is in this Wikipedia post about Breck Girls.

Breck Shampoo is an American brand of shampoo that is also known for its Breck Girls advertising campaign.

In 1930 Dr. John H. Breck, Sr. (June 5, 1877 – February 1965) of Springfield, Massachusetts, founded Breck Shampoo. In 1936, son Edward J. Breck (1907 - 1993) assumed management of Breck Shampoo and hired commercial artist Charles Gates Sheldon (1889 – 1961) to draw women for their advertisements. Sheldon's early portraits for Breck were done in pastels, with a soft focus and halos of light and color surrounding them. He created romantic images of feminine beauty and purity. He preferred to draw "real women" as opposed to professional models.

In 1957 Ralph William Williams succeeded Sheldon as the Breck artist. Unlike Sheldon, he often used professional women. Breck advertisements ran regularly in magazines such as Ladies Home Journal, Woman's Home Companion, Seventeen, Vogue, Glamour, and Harper's Bazaar. They were most often on the back cover of the magazine. During these years, Breck Girls were identified through the company's sponsorship of America's Junior Miss contests. After Williams' death in 1976, the advertising tradition stopped.

In 1963, Breck was sold to Shulton Division of American Cyanamid, a chemical company based in New Jersey.

In 1990, Breck was sold to the Dial Corporation.

In 2006, Breck was acquired by Dollar Tree of Chesapeake, Virginia. It continues to sell the variety of shampoos, plus moisturizing body washes and bubble baths in a variety of fragrances, such as "Lavender Lily" (2006) and "Vanilla Melon" (2007).

The Breck Girls ads are now in the advertising history records in the Smithsonian National Museum of American History. (SOURCE: Wikipedia)

I didn't even know Breck was still being made. I remember using it as a teenager in hopes I'd look like one of the beautiful Breck Girls. I didn't.

I must say that this one looks a bit like Betty Crocker...another impossible standard to live up to.

I'll have to dig through my other magazines in hope of finding more.

ONLY 121 DAYS until Christmas...

If you're a kid, it's never too early to start thinking about what you demand for Christmas. Make sure it's something hard to find, sort of like when I wanted a bag of peanuts when I was around 2 and living in the middle of the Pacific Ocean on Midway Island. Yeah, make your folks suffer.


Click on image to see it larger.
(SOURCE: Ringling Bros and Barnum and Bailey Circus Magazine and Daily Review, 1940)

The A. C. Gilbert Company was an American toy company, once one of the largest toy companies in the world. It is best known for introducing the Erector Set (a construction toy similar to Meccano in the rest of the world) to the marketplace.

Gilbert was founded in 1909 in Westville, Connecticut, originally as a company providing supplies for magic shows (Alfred Carlton Gilbert was a magician). Gilbert invented Erector in 1911, inspired by railroad girders, and the construction toy was introduced two years later.

In 1929, Gilbert bought the US company producing Meccano, which had been set up in 1913 by the British parent, and continued production as "American Meccano" until 1938.

By 1935, Gilbert was also producing microscopes.

In 1938, Gilbert purchased American Flyer, a struggling manufacturer of toy trains. Gilbert re-designed the entire product line, producing 1:64 scale trains running on O gauge track. Although these are sometimes referred to as S scale or S gauge trains, they are technically O27. At the same time, Gilbert introduced a line of HO scale trains, which were primarily marketed under the brand name Gilbert HO. Gilbert was the largest employer in New Haven from the early 1930s to the late 1950s, employing more than 5000 in three shifts at its Sound Street Manufacturing facility. In the late 1930s, the company expanded to produce home house products and small appliances including, mixers, milk shake machines, toasters, stoves and ovens, and washers.

By 1942, Gilbert was producing equipment for military aircraft for use in World War II.
Gilbert introduced S gauge model railroads in 1946, mostly in response to the shortcomings of O scale utilized by Lionel and Marx. These newer American Flyer trains were smaller and proportioned more realistically than either the pre-war American Flyer trains or its post-war competition. Although these new trains were popular, Lionel outsold American Flyer nearly 2 to 1.

From 1922, A. C. Gilbert made chemistry sets in various sizes as well as similar sets for the budding scientist, adding investigations into radioactivity in the 1950s with a kit featuring a Geiger counter. A. C. Gilbert began making microscope kits in 1934. A line of inexpensive reflector telescopes followed the Sputnik-inspired science craze in the late 1950s.

Gilbert struggled somewhat after the death of its founder in 1961. Gilbert's family sold out its shares, and the company was never profitable under its new ownership. In 1965, A. C. Gilbert produced James Bond movie tie-in figures and a slot car road race set featuring Bond's Aston Martin DB5.[1] By 1967, Gilbert was out of business. Erector was sold to Gabriel Industries and moved production from Erector Square in New Haven, Connecticut, to Lancaster, Pennsylvania. American Flyer was sold to Lionel.

Although A. C. Gilbert has not existed as a company for several decades, Gabriel continued to use the brand name on its Erector Set and microscope products, a practice that subsequent owners of the Erector brand have continued. Current Erector toys have the words "The construction toy from A. C. Gilbert" on their packaging. Lionel also uses the brand name on its American Flyer products, along with the old Gilbert catchphrase,

"Developed at the Gilbert Hall of Science", on its product packaging.
A collection of Gilbert trains, Erector sets and objects built from them, chemistry sets, etc. is displayed in the Eli Whitney Museum in Hamden, Connecticut. The factory building now provides space for artists and others in the Erector Square complex. Another display of vintage Gilbert toys is located at A. C. Gilbert's Discovery Village in Salem, Oregon. (SOURCE: Wikipedia)

Don't let B.O. RUIN YOUR LIFE..buoy

Just how chatty did advertisers get? Well they put a babe with B.O. in a bathtub...nekid. Seriously, I don't need to write anything for this one. It writes itself and I know all of you will enjoy the latest from the funny papers.

Click on image to see it larger. May 1934 Delineator

THE DOUBLE MINT TWINS of 1934

Sometimes ephemera just makes you sit down right where you are and say "WT...?!?" This is one of those times.

This advertisement for Double Mint Gum is from the May 1934 issue of Delineator. According to the Wrigley official website:

1939

The Doublemint Twins concept makes its advertising debut. Since then, the Doublemint twins have been part of one of the most successful and long lasting advertising campaigns ever created. In the early days of the campaign, one Wrigley-sponsored radio program featured double piano players, double violinists and double talking comedians.

So, if the twin idea hadn't come along yet exactly what were they going for in this ad? I mean, when I first saw it I figured lingerie or creams or soaps. No. Gum. Chewing gum as a beauty aid. I'm not kidding you. Read the copy. According to this "Double Mint gum immediately quickens" your circulation. Yeah, sure. The babe in the slip has nothing to do with it. How long after this ad did someone say "Wow, that was a pair. You know, we should do an ad with twins."

As to who this woman is and why she's posing like this for gum...starlet. Marguerite Churchill was born on Christmas day 1910 in Kansas City, Missouri. She had a film career that spanned from 1929 to 1952 and appeared in more than 25 films with such stars as John Wayne, Will Rogers, Spencer Tracy, and even Boris Karloff. She died January 9, 2000 at the age of 89 from natural causes in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma. You can read more about her here. I think she probably had a pretty interesting life. Click here to see her in a fun clip from Dracula's Daughter from 1936. Unfortunately they will not allow embedding of the clip. She was quite lovely. But the gum ad??? It's just plain strange.

Would you buy MUD FROM THIS MAN?

Where to begin? What to say? How soon before it all sounds offensive?

Meet George. George wants to sell you his mud. Ummmmmmm...ohhhhhhhhhhhkkkkkkkkkkay.

I found this ad in the September 1972 Ladies Home Journal. I don't remember this ad running back then. I was probably too busy with college and/or I just wasn't reading the particular magazines where George decided to do his Cool Hand Luke imitation. Was this an effective ad? I don't know. It sure got my attention now. And I started to wonder if this company was still around and if ol' George still looks like this. 

Well, he most certainly would be old George. According to the companies web site, and yes, the company is still in business even if you've never heard of them, George's sons now run the company. Here's a link to a part of their site that actually shows this ad. The company is called Arizona Natural Resources, Inc. I don't know that I've ever seen any of their products, but since they manufacture products for other companies it's possible.

And if you want to see George now take a look a this page, last entry in the right column. You just never know what you'll find when looking through old magazines and then toss in a small dose of google.

Do take a look at the ad larger. You really must read the copy. I just have to wonder about all of it. It states in the first few lines:

In an advertising agency you hear a lot of wild stories.

But when George walked into our office with some mud he found in the middle of the Arizona desert, and told us it could perform small miracles on your face, we all thought he had to be crazy.

I bet they did! Did he walk in looking like this? A little bit sweaty with an "aw shucks ma'm" attitude, carrying that dirty dirty shovel over his gleaming shoulder? I'm just askin'? I'd have said "Mud? You want to sell me mud? Okie dokie! I'll buy whatever you're sellin'!" I believe that might be me on the left side of the ad, arms raised in surrender.

Oh, I bet this issue of LHJ was well worn at the hair salon from all the ladies under the hoods. How many of the ads got torn out and stuck on walls? 

Todays lesson, and you can quote me: Sex sells...just about everything.

Click on image to see it larger.