DON'T FORGET the Napkins!

Apparently Santa is pretty picky about his napkins. I'm mentioning this so you can rush out to get the right napkins for the milk and cookies, or chablis and cheese, or ze pigs in ze blanket, or Svedish meatballs. Remember, presentation is everything. And ummmm...if that's a bowl of eggnog you might want to leave out a cup for the old guy. The idea of him having to pick that up and chug-a-lug is just unpleasant. Now, if that's not eggnog...whatever it is, don't put it out!

(SOURCE: Sunset, December 1968)

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.

What NOT TO DO WITH CHEESE

Household Tip of the Day...

When caulking windows or bathroom tiles consider using spray cheese in a can instead of hardware store caulking material. This way when you're done with your DIY project you won't be left with a tube of caulking sitting in your garage hardening. Instead you'll have a tasty topper for outdoor grilling!


(SOURCE: Sunset, September 1969)

SEYMOUR CHWAST does Schweppes in 1969

There were many designers that held sway over those of us studying graphic design and illustration in the late ‘60s, probably none more so than Milton Glaser and Seymour Chwast. We longingly wished to do what they did, but knew we probably never would. They were on the top floor and the rest of us just hoped we’d be good enough to stay out of the basement.

Here are two ads created by Chwast for Schweppes back in 1969.

Click on either image to see it larger.

(SOURCE: Sunset, July 1969)

(SOURCE: Sunset, September 1969)

To read about Seymour Chwast click here.

To visit his online site click here.

Click here to see a variety of work at Google images. You're bound to recognize something.

BANKERS...men of integrity...???

I hate to say it, but at one time you could sort of trust your banker. I admit that growing up with parents who lived through the depression I was never fond of banks. I had images of the banker driving up to a dust bowl farm and evicting the family. So my distaste of bankers was not fully formed. It might have been a little irrational...back then. Now?

Try to imagine a bank running an ad like this today. Let's get the folks at Chase sitting around a table trying to convince us they're doing right by their customers and not just lining their Armani pockets.


SOURCE: Sunset, July 1969

Example...your bankers at work today.