Classic images of POSSIBLE GLUTTONY

Yup, we're heading into the season. The season of eating. American's do it very well. We eat and we eat a lot. Images of food are everywhere now. Images of American's getting bigger only to complain about it in January. Which brings me to a little something that actually has very little to do with this, but it's been driving me nuts for a few years. Can you guess? I doubt it. Nobody is going to see this one coming.

Jane Seymour. Jane Seymour jewelry designer. Now I have nothing against the woman. Saw her in person a very long time ago and she was lovely, but her jewelry.... Each time there is some sort of jewelry buying holiday around the corner Kay's Jeweler hauls out Jane's necklace. She calls it the "open heart collection." Okay, not so sure. Seriously take a look at it next time it's on. Don't just DVR past it. Pause on that necklace and tell me if that isn't the backside silhouette of a naked big bottomed woman? Small top, large bottom. That's all I'm sayin'. If you want to give your significant other a necklace that looks like you're saying "Hey, love your big bottom" okie dokie by me. But don't tell me it's open hearts. It's a rorschach test and I see a big bottomed woman. Which brings me back to where I started...food. 

For your viewing pleasure I give you food. Food in vintage postcards, early 20th century. Yeah, I know, two of them are wild turkeys, but that is still food during the next month. The rest of the year I don't need to worry about my lovely flock outside roaming through the orchard. But for the next month every single time I hear a gunshot I worry they took one of my babes. 

So enjoy Thanksgiving to all who are celebrating. I'll be away with family. Eat slow, chew well, swallow, and repeat. Then find a big chair and fall asleep. It's a holiday. That's what we do.

Catch you on the flipside. And keep your hands off my wild turkey!

Oh, and if you start seeing a turkey staring back at you in your spoon you know you've eaten too much or someone forgot to bake the thing at the right temperature. And now, according to "A Christmas Story" you're going to get worms.

GIVE THANKS for Corn Flakes

This is one of my favorite vintage ads in my collection of ephemera. It dates to the September 1910 issue of The Delineator magazine. I think it's stunning. Unfortunately no information is given about the illustrator. I like the small shadow of people out of view that appears on the left. That little shadow adds extra life to the image. And to think Kellogg had only been in business for 4 years and was turning out advertisements like this. It's now a little over 100 years old. Okay, I'll admit that the box of corn flakes looks absurd, but that's okay. I like the idea of it. Who knew they had Costco's back then?

Click on image to see it larger.

ELVES GONE WILD!

As we all get ready to start partying for the next month and a half until the final tolling of the bell on New Years Eve, I think it's time we take a few moments and silently reflect on elves. Yes, ELVES! What do we know about them? Really, nothing. They're the straight men to Santa's one man show. They're the ones left behind Christmas Eve at the melting North Pole. And what exactly do they do that evening? Okay, so probably they're still working that night in case Santa has any screw-ups along the way. But when the jolly one pulls the sleigh into the barn and says "No, really, no more cookies. I'd like a nice California Chablis, a bag of Cheetos, and my slippers" what do the elves do? I'm thinking...they get plastered! Elves Gone Wild! I give you Beech the dancing party fool, and Ham the mixer of all things lethal. Imagine the YouTube videos of the mayhem. I'm guessing the partying goes on for a couple days before Santa tells them all to chill out and get started on next years haul of consumer items. 

Okay, so maybe it's just my imagination run wild, but I often like to think of what elves do in their time off. Maybe it's just me.

As often is the case there's more to this story. These little fellows are actually advertising promotional paper dolls from the late 19th century offered by the Beecham's Pill company. Want to know why they look like this? I think they might have used the product. Do you know what happens when you take a pill made out of soap? Well...you get Elves Gone Wild! but not in the way they'd hoped for.

Beecham's Pills were a laxative first marketed around 1842 in St Helens, Lancashire. They were invented by Thomas Beecham (1820–1907), grandfather of Thomas Beecham (1879-1961).

The pills themselves were a combination of aloe, ginger, and soap, with some other more minor ingredients. They were initially advertised like other patent medicine as a cure-all, but they actually did have a positive effect on the digestive process. This effectiveness made them stand out from other remedies for sale in the mid-nineteenth century.

The popularity of the pills produced a wide range of testimonials that were used in advertising. The poet William Topaz McGonagall wrote a poem advertising the pills, giving his recommendation in verse. Two slogans used in Beecham's advertising were "Worth a guinea a box," and "Beecham's pills make all the difference."

The pills, and their marketing, were the basis for Beecham's Patent Pills, which became Beecham Estates and Pills in 1924, eight years after the death of Sir Joseph Beecham, the son of Thomas Beecham. The pills continued to be made by a succession of Beecham Pills Limited, Beecham Pharmaceuticals Limited, Beecham Health Care, and SmithKline Beecham. The manufacture of the pills was discontinued in 1998. (SOURCE: Wikipedia)

And so it goes...so to speak.

LOOKING FOR A WAY TO MAKE EXTRA CASH? At home businesses!

Tough times. Really tough times. I know of what I speak. Over the years I've watched more and more of my work being outsourced to foreign countries. Irritating. But, what can you do? It's the way it is. 

The last time I had an in-house job was 1975. I've been a freelancer since October of '75. I'm not really office material. I work better when I'm on my own. I need to be able to get up and walk around a lot so I can think. Couldn't do that in a cubicle. I'd look like a yo-yo bouncing up and down over the little cubicle walls. And the screaming at my computer...well, that just wouldn't sit well in an office environment. 

So, are you thinking of starting your own business? Thinking of the joys of working from home in your pajamas? Here are a few possibilities courtesy of the September 1931 Comfort. Do you think this is how Krispy Kream started?

Seriously, read the copy for a good laugh. In the first ad I like the line that states: 

"Write quick for amazing, big outfit FREE."

What if you were petite? Did you still have to wear the "big outfit" in order to make sales? Did your neighbors look at you like you were nuts as you told them the allure of Paris fashions all the while grabbing at your dress falling off your shoulders?

Or how about Donuto:

"Simply add water and fry."

Was there fine print warning the users to not get the water near the hot oil? You know, sort of like "close cover before striking?" Or did people have enough sense back then to not need fine print? I don't know. 

Or "New Soles" which states:

"No nails or tools necessary. Just an old knife."

Wouldn't knife be considered a tool? Am I getting too picky? Is this why we now need fine print? I don't know. It could be people like me that caused the invention of the fine print. I'm willing to bear that burden.




Okay, I just read the fine print. Donuto...

"Ford Tudor sedan offered FREE to producers as extra bonus."

Seriously, sell some donuts, get a car. Who can beat that offer? Maybe GM should think of working out something with Donuto.

Gotta love ephemera!

Married or unmarried...WHO SHOULD GET THE JOB?

A woman's place is in the home. Them's be fightin' words if you read this column from the September 1931 issue of Comfort. Yes, Comfort, the same magazine that gave us "A Lonesome Mountaineer". The following is from a monthly column entitled "The Comfort Sister's Corner" which was "Conducted by Mrs. Wheeler Wilkinson." I'm not kidding. 

Apparently in an earlier issue a woman from Nebraska wrote a letter stating that married women shouldn't work outside the home. This got the bees a buzzin' across the country. Enjoy! Talk amongst yourselves about our topic for today.

The reason I posted this is because of the photo I posted at my vernacular photography site. Soon as I saw that photo I remembered this column. Geez, the stuff I store in my brain.

There's a TINY THREAD THAT RUNS THROUGH THE POSTS

Okay, stick with me here because todays post actually relates back to several past posts. 

These illustrations, done by Frederic Mizen, are from the good ol' Saturday Evening Post from 1934 that I've been using for source material the past several days. Right off the bat the first thread to be pulled is the man in the chair who reminds me of the man in the chair in yesterday's Log Cabin Syrup post. 

These illustrations are for a story entitled "These Geniuses!" by A. H. Z. Carr. I haven't read it. It has lines like:

 "How are you, Caldecott?" drawled Lord Anthony.

or

"Anthony, will you do something for me?"

"Rather!"

"Father plans to announce our engagement at dinner."

"Yes. Certainly."

"I want him to wait until later--until midnight."

"But, Marion, my dear; it's not done. Really."

"Isn't it? I'd like it so much better that way, Anthony. Be a pie and arrange it for me."

Click on image to see it larger.

Okay, not my kind of story, but hold on...I still have more threads.

The illustrator, Frederic Mizen, was born in Chicago in 1888 and died in Los Angeles in 1964. The following can be found at robertlivernois.com:

...Frederic Mizen became a noted western genre and landscape painter as well as illustrator, portraitist, and art teacher. From childhood, he had heard stories of the West from his father who was secretary to three generals active on the frontier. In Chicago, he attended the J. Francis Smith Academy of Art, studied there with Walter Ufer, and then enrolled in the Art Institute of Chicago. He also studied at the Academy Julian in Paris. At age 20, he began an illustration assignment with Joseph P. Berren Studios for a Sears catalogue and continued commercial art, doing the first billboard ad for Coca Cola as well as numerous magazine covers including "Saturday Evening Post," the "American," and "Collier's." He also was successful financially with his advertising work for automobile manufacturers to promote travel, and created illustrations for Oldsmobile, Cadillac, Packard and others. During the summers, he painted in the West, joining Walter Ufer in Taos, New Mexico, which was becoming an established art colony. After Mizen established his own art school in Chicago, he regularly took students to Taos in the summers. In 1931, on illustration assignment from Coca Cola, he depicted a Coca-Cola drinking group of people in a painting titled "Old Faithful Inn at Old Faithful Geiser" in Yellowstone National Park. In 1936, he founded the Frederic Mizen Academy of Art in Chicago and did Indian studies and Southwest landscapes for the Santa Fe Railroad. He also received numerous portrait commissions. For eight years, 1952 to 1960, he Chaired the Department of Art of Baylor University, and he was a member of the Art Institute of Chicago.

See, more threads. Yellowstone, National Park, and Coca-Cola, and the Santa-Fe Railroad. Okay, I know...pretty thin thread, but hey, it was interesting to me and you can just suffer through it.

To see the Coca-Cola illustration at Old Faithful click on this link to the Gene Autry Museum (which if you're ever in L. A. make a point of seeing this museum if you love the myths and realities of the West.).

And it turns out Mr. Mizen painted the very first Santa for Coca-Cola:

My wife's uncle, Fred Mizen, was said to have had some involvement in creating the Coke Santa. Do you have any info regarding his contributions to the Coke artwork?

Posted by: boho | July 22, 2008 at 10:41 AM

boho - Frederic Mizen did create an image of Santa for Coca-Cola in 1930. That image showed a department store Santa taking a break from his duties (drinking a Coke, of course). The next year, we introduced the Coca-Cola Santa by Haddon Sundblom. The Santa by Mizen is different from the Santa by Sundblom because Sundblom captured the man who is Santa -- making Santa human. The artwork by Mizen showed a man dressed as Santa (the department store Santa). I also thought you might be interested that Mizen created other artwork for Coca-Cola, including the image used on our first billboard in 1925. Thanks -- Phil

Posted by: Phil Mooney | July 22, 2008 at 01:51 PM

To see a few other paintings by Mizen click here and here. And for one more thread...a print of a Navajo woman that was owned by the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad and used for advertising purposes click here. Hmmmmm...could a thread to Fred Harvey be here? I  don't know.

I'll admit my thread is stretched to the breaking point, but it's always fun to see where a piece of ephemera may lead.

There's a SLEEPING AID IN YOUR CUPBOARD!

The pharmaceutical companies have it all wrong! Well there's a bulletin you didn't see coming. But seriously, and that's what this piece is all about, Serious Situations. The serious situation of insomnia. It's a multi-billion dollar business and who knew we had the very cure hiding in the kitchen. Don't spend your money on Ambien® or Lunesta®. Don't go wandering around an herbal shop trying to figure out if the claims they make are true and where the heck some of that stuff in the big glass jars came from. NO! NO, I say! The answer, the oh so simple answer, has been available since at least 1934. Are you ready? It's so simple you're going to be numb for a moment when it hits you. Okay...Log Cabin Maple Syrup. Would I lie to you? Would I have evidence to show as proof? Yes to both answers.

This ad from the April 14, 1934 Saturday Evening Post is all the proof you need. And General Foods makes the claim so it's not like I'm just makin' this stuff up. It apparently worked for this gentleman, Mr. Dillingham. Was it Mrs. Van der Van's intention all along to get the geezer in the waistcoat passed out in her living room? What were  her motives. We'll never know.

So I'm thinkin' perhaps it would work on kids. I doubt there are any instructions on the side of the can saying "Use on adults only." So it's bedtime, the kids are wired...I think you know where I'm goin'. Give them a couple of doses of Log Cabin Syrup and in no time they'll be sleeping little angels. Has to work. It worked on Mr. Dillingham and he looks to be a person of considerable girth. I imagine a quarter of the dose given him would work on a kid. And just think how wonderful bedtime will be from now on. No more fighting the little dears. You just get out that can of syrup and their eyes light up. Okay, their eyes bug out and stay that way as they hang off the curtains screaming like monkeys from this point on. But seriously (there's that word again denoting I couldn't possibly be lying) I don't think there will be any problems. All children should have a concentrated dose of sugar at bedtime.

There is some truth in this piece and here it comes so stay still for a moment or you'll miss it. Gluyas Williams. That's it. That's the truth. It's right there in front of you. Gluyas was famous and he did very nice work. Want to read more about Gluyas, see examples of his comic strips, book illustrations? Click on gluyaswilliams.com, a site devoted to his work.

Well, that's all the medical advice I'll be dispensing today. Drink a Coke and have a tablespoon of Log Cabin Syrup and call your doctor in the morning...for that glucose test you've been putting off.

Pick me up and LETS GRAB ONE AT THE HOSPITAL

Feelin' tired, feelin' low?

Feelin' blue, feelin' slow?

Drink two Coca-Colas and call Dr. John S. Pemberton in the morning.

What? You say Dr. Pemberton is not listed in your physician's group? Who cares. He's as close as the nearest drug store, right next to the chips and dips aisle.

Does anyone remember taking coke syrup for a boo-hoo belly when they were a kid? Dreadful tasting stuff. My mother used to say absurdly, "It's just like Coca-Cola." Uh, no mom...it's not. But my family doctor did prescribe it. Over the counter bottle of brown stuff to sooth the wretching flu stomach. I guess it worked. I'm still here.

This ad is from the back cover of the April 14, 1934 Saturday Evening Post. It's tattered. Notice the tattering? I love it. All along the bottom it appears to mirror the ice cubes or perhaps an old tattered piece of lace. The black mold stain in the upper right corner? Not going there. Black mold. A friend's house is suddenly besieged by it. Long story. Nightmare. State Farm...of limited help. Perhaps soaking the house in coke syrup would help. I doubt it or State Farm might have mentioned it instead of trying to run as fast as they could in the opposite direction. Perhaps it's because though she lives in a state she doesn't live on a farm. Ahh...the fine print.. Gets ya every single time. Anyway...

Click on image to see mold larger.

Dr. John S. Pemberton is the inventor of Coca-Cola, originally called Pemberton's French Wine Coca and was pretty darn popular in Atlanta back in the 1880s. Dr. Pemberton himself was no fly-by-night tonic salesman.

"He studied medicine and pharmacy at the Reform Medical College of Georgia in Macon, and in 1850, at the age of nineteen, he was licensed to practice on Thomsonian or botanic principles (such practitioners relied heavily on herbal remedies and on purifying the body of toxins, and they were viewed with suspicion by the general public). He practiced medicine and surgery first in Rome and its environs and then in Columbus, where in 1855 he established a wholesale-retail drug business specializing in materia medica (substances used in the composition of medical remedies) . Some time before the Civil War (1861-65), he acquired a graduate degree in pharmacy, but the exact date and place are unknown." (SOURCE: Georgia Encyclopedia )

Pemberton's French Wine Coca was, according to Pemberton:

...composed of an extract from the leaf of Peruvian Coca, the purest wine, and the Kola nut. It is the most excellent of all tonics, assisting digestion, imparting energy to the organs of respiration, and strengthening the muscular and nervous systems." He explained that South American Indians considered the coca plant a sacred herb and praised its beneficial effects on the mind and body. With the aid of the coca plant, the Indians had performed "astonishing" feats, he said, "without fatigue." Pemberton then admitted that his coca and kola beverage was based on Vin Mariani, a French formula perfected by Mariani and Company of Paris, which since 1863 had been the world's only standard preparation of erythroxylon coca. (SOURCE:Georgia Encyclopedia )

In 1886 Atlanta introduced prohibition which forbid the sale of wine thus taking some of the ummmm...spirit out of Dr. Pemberton. Not to worry. He reformulated, dropped the word "wine" from the title, substituted sugar for the wine, and voila...Coca-Cola was born and the rest is history. Coca-Cola was once a product developed by a pharmacist, "served in leading hospitals" and is now simply another reason Americans look like inflated floatation devices. I'm just sayin'.

I'd sure like to find one of those old wooden boxes the fella is carrying. Lot's of little pukas to fill with what-nots. And I sure have a lot of what-nots around here and most of my pukas are full.

To read a bit more about Dr. Pemberton go to Television Advertising.

And no, there's no logic as to why I've posted so many Coke ads the past two months. They're just sort of there, staring back at me. Think I'm kidding? I've got an old National Geographic with a Navy Wave holding a glass of Coke smiling up at me right now from the floor. She's freakin' me out.

Back from where TREES ARE BIG AND MEN ARE LITTLE

I've been on vacation and I wish I hadn't come home. Things were better on the road. I return to have my dog become partially paralyzed. Yes, things were better just a few days ago, but....

It was a short vacation, but peaceful. I'm always happiest when a vacation is amongst nature. Not a fan of cities no matter how much culture they offer. I'd still rather be impressed by that which humans cannot make.

Days in the redwoods followed by days at a lake in the Trinity Alps. One day of rain, the rest perfect mixes of fog and sunshine. It wouldn't be the redwoods without some fog. They thrive in the fog, coastal fog. The majority of my life I have been little more than 1/2 hour away from the Pacific Ocean. Ocean, trees, and mountains are a perfect mix for me. And redwoods my favorite.

One of the things you see when traveling through redwood country are eventually photos of people standing next to or on the stumps of the trees. People love to pose next to these giants. I recently took a photo of a man taking a photo of a group of people posing next to a fair sized tree in a nearby park. The group were giddy to be near a tree so large, but I kept thinking "Boy, you ain't seen nothin' if you think this is big." But they were happy and had a photo to take home of themselves next to a redwood that made them look small. The boys in this old postcard were experiencing this same giddy joy. I've had this card for several years. It was not purchased during my vacation.

Click on image to see it larger.

This is the Boy Scout Tree located in the Jedediah Smith State Park. A stunning place. On the back of this card it says "The 'Boy Scout Tree' near Crescent City contains over 147,000 feet of lumber and is 31 feet in diameter at the base." I love when people see lumber when they see these trees. I see natures cathedrals. Others see track homes. 

Which brings me to the photos you also see of people standing on or next to fallen trees or stumps. The most bizarre one I saw on this trip was taken at a great distance from a tree being cut down. The thing was huge, thousands of years old, and the lumberjacks had put in a large notch and were now standing on what would become the stump, in the notch, tree above them. HUGE tree above them. They would have been squashed like ants if that gentle giant had come down. The tree below with the un-squashed fellow is tiny compared to the really large trees unless he was the height of Paul Bunyan. Still, on the back of this vintage postcard it states "Millions of feet of lumber are made from the Redwoods annually." There they go again, seeing dollar signs. It's like someone picking up a rock and thinking it won't have any value until it has been polished. The natural form is not sufficient for its use.

Click on image to see it larger.

If you've never been in a redwood forest where the ground is covered with ferns you might enjoy this interactive panorama by G. Donald Bain which allows you to stand in the middle of the trail to the Boy Scout Tree and turn a full 360 degrees. Make sure to place your cursor over the photo and then spin to your hearts content in the ancient forest.

And to read and see more about the redwoods go to the National Geographic link to their October issue.