The romance of BOB PEAK

Since I did the brief post on Bob Peak I found this postcard that was sent to me by my best friend in 1968. As I said in the previous post, Peak did movie posters which may be familiar to many of you. This one was for the movie Camelot.

I get a big kick out of what my friend wrote so long ago:

I thought you would groove on this picture. I picked up a few at the movie. I LOVE IT (the movie & the card). It will make another addition to your ever growing (oh dear) postcard collection.

And she still finds cards to send me. She has been the ongoing lifeblood of my collection.

Click on image to see it larger.

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.

BOB PEAK

In '73 I was getting ready for my first trip to Europe. I was also about to graduate from art college. TWA put out these brochures which I quickly grabbed because they were illustrated by Bob Peak. Bob Peak was one of the inspirational illustrators whose work I collected and I just recently found these brochure covers hidden away in an old folder. I loved his style which often had a collage look, bits and pieces neatly sewn together to make a whole. Back then his work was in every Illustrator's Annual, TV Guide covers, movie posters, magazine illustrations. I wish I'd saved more. 

He was born Robert "Bob" M. Peak on May 30, 1927 and died August 1, 1992. To read more about Bob Peak check out this site which is affiliated with a show opening today at the Gallery Nucleus in Los Angeles. You'll see work you recognize. He set a style that illustrators followed for decades. For another perspective click here.

Click on either image to see it larger.

When bluebirds fly over 4 leaf clover YOU'LL FIND A PIANO SALESMAN

This card was purchased at an estate sale. Inconsequential in appearance. Definitely tattered and lost. It's also odd. I'm not sure what the illustration is supposed to mean. Obviously it's a woman thinking about writing a note to a friend, "Thinking of you" or perhaps "Why haven't you written?" But then we get the bluebirds of happiness flying against her window and the big four leaf clover balls hovering in the air. HUH?

Click on image to see it larger.

So you turn the card over and it gets weirder. It was an ad for a piano salesman! And apparently at some point a child got hold of the card and wrote a little message to "Edna" that is almost unreadable. I will not attempt to translate because there are a few words there that...well...I'd just rather not take a guess lest I offend someone.

Click on image to see it larger.

I cannot find anything specifically about Michael & St. John Pianos but perhaps Mr. St. John was related to Joseph H. St. John mentioned on this page.

As to Krakauer Pianos I found the following:

Manufacturers of Krakauer Bros. grand, upright, console and spinet pianos. In the course of their long and successful career Krakauer Bros. have been a family concern and never allied with combinations outside the organization. This house was founded in 1869 by Simon Krakauer, an excellent musician, who came to America in 1853 with his son David.

The manufacture of Krakauer pianos is entirely confined to one high grade quality-the Krakauer piano-which is available in a wide variety of attractive designs in Grand and Vertical models. For many years the Krakauer is noted for exceptionally artistic and uniquely attractive case designs, durable constru~tion, and an exceptionally rich tonal quality. They have successfully pioneered the patented closed back construction which permits the piano to be placed anywhere in the room like a grand piano and without the necessity of placing it with its back to the wall. One of the most successful models in this design is the Krakauer "Serenade" which because it can be faced out in a room like a grand piano has a "grand like" free flowing quality of tone. Most of their spinet pianos also contain the exclusive Acoustic Tone Chambers which strikingly re-enforce and enhance the tone.

The Krakauer line is definitely a "Decorator" line of styling. Every model is authentic in its derivation and is not just a conglomeration of senseless frills. All this is based upon the close attention of the "one family" element in the organization, with an honest and intimate interest in every piano made. Krakauer Bros have no mass-production. A unique, exclusive feature of all Krakauer pianos is the new Bridge Braced Back construction, claimed by Krakauer engineers to be the strongest and most durable in the world. Krakauer Bros. have supplied their pianos to a large number of great musicians of today and the past who have, without solicitation, given eloquent testimony and endorsement to the worth and quality of the Krakauer piano. There are over 1,000 Krakauer pianos in the Public Schools of New York City alone. The factory was a modern, light five story corner building located at 115 East 138th Street, New York City (SOURCE: http://www.bluebookofpianos.com/agesk.htm)

Now perhaps I should do a search for "giant four leaf clover floating balls postcard" to see what shows up. Nah. Better to get back to work.

Gonna take a SENTIMENTAL JOURNEY

Luxury liners and cruising the high seas, on the whole, simply isn't like it once was. Of course, nothing is. But once upon a time cruise ships were glorious to look at instead of the behemoth top heavy monstrosities that they are today. 

The following three Cunard Lines menus all date from 1954 and I found all three, along with several others, in a trash can following an elderly woman's death. Her family loaded up the can with all of the ephemera from her trip to Europe and I was just as quickly there to retrieve it. 

Of the three, my favorite is the Queen Mary because I have photos of my Scottish grandmother on board in the mid-50s and a few decades later I was able to walk around the ship in Long Beach, California. Last year my friend's husband filmed an episode of a tv show aboard the old beauty

Click on any image to see it larger.

R.M.S. Queen Mary - June 21, 1954 - Farewell Dinner - artist: C. E. Turner

R.M.S. Queen Mary...sailed the North Atlantic Ocean from 1936 to 1967 for the Cunard Line (then Cunard White Star Line). Built by John Brown and Company, Clydebank, Scotland, she was designed to be the first of Cunard's planned two-ship weekly express service from Southampton to Cherbourg to New York, in answer to the mainland European superliners of the late 1920s and early 1930s. After their release from World War II troop transport duties, Queen Mary and her running mate RMS Queen Elizabeth commenced this two-ship service and continued it for two decades until Queen Mary's retirement in 1967. The ship is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and is permanently berthed in Long Beach, California serving as a museum ship and hotel. (SOURCE: Wikipedia)

R.M.S. Ascania - April 17, 1954 - Farewell Dinner - artist: unknown

Ascania was the fifth of Cunard's six "A" liners. Although she was launched late in 1923, her completion was delayed and she did not make her maiden voyage, from London to Montreal, until 22 May 1925.

She remained on that route until 1939 when, like all the "A" liners, she was requisitioned as an armed merchant cruiser. She was later converted into an infantry landing ship and took part in the invasion of Sicily and the landing at Anzio in 1943. The only "A" liner to return to Cunard service after the war, she ran on an austerity service from Liverpool to Halifax from 1947 to 1949, and after a 1950 refitting was placed on Cunard's Liverpool-Montreal service. Ascania again saw service as a troop carrier during the 1956 Suez crisis before being broken up in 1957. (SOURCE: Haws' Merchant Fleets; Bonsor's North Atlantic Seaway.)

Britannia - June 18, 1954 - Luncheon - artist: C. E. Turner

The 'Britannia', a wooden paddle steamer of 1150 tons, was the first of four ships with which Samuel Cunard began the first regular Atlantic steamship line. In this spirited impression by the noted British marine artist, C. E. Turner she is leaving Liverpool on her maiden voyage, July 45h 1840." (SOURCE: back of menu)

To read about the founder of the Cunard Lines, Samuel Cunard, click here.