Dames & Dogs #12

You're getting another Alice White edition of Dames & Dogs because Alice White apparently really, really liked dogs -- and I really, really like Alice White photos.

A Real Mickey Mouse Wedding

Invite The Gang Over For An Old-Fashioned Automobile Party

From invitations and decorations, to party games and activities such as the recharging batteries game (in which women spoon-feed men an entire glass of water), a "Ford" stunt and Mason jar "Blow Out" game, The Social Hour section of the The Royal Neighbor (October, 1932) has you covered.

There's even menu ideas such as "Hot Gas" (hot chocolate) and "Extra Tires" (donuts) -- which surely will lead to the more popular spare tires about the midsection.

Hank Didn't Mean To Give The Waitress The Finger

He was just no good with cameras.

Modern Woman Monday: Kate Smith

Find out why I'm celebrating Kate Smith -- and asking myself, as the Memorial Day weekend nears, if this is the America people defend & fight for... Seriously.

Answers For Those Questions You Asked Your Erudite Friends

The answers to the Spring, 1930, Tatler Puzzle Page:

Clara Bow Cupid Lips 'Round A Cancer Stick

Clara Bow is smokin' in a promo photo for Hoop-La.

Dames & Dogs #3

Before Wallis Simpson lured King Edward the VIII from the throne, she loved the little doggies -- as evidenced by this front cover of The Sketch magazine from March 1935 featuring a portrait of Mrs. Ernest (Wallis) Simpson. Who can blame her? I love my little (idiotic & neurotic) Cairn Terrier too.

The Story Of Skippy

See The Story of Skippy and other vintage Big Little Books in this gallery.

You'd Have To Be Drunk To Wear 'Em

This is what I'd call a Holy Grail Kitsch Find: a vintage pair of "happy sloshed pipe cleaner men earrings". Dude, I know what we're making next Girl's Night... Because it probably helps to be tipsy to make 'em too.

Giant Thinks Jack A Killer-Diller

A 1936 Dentyne gum ad.

7 Years Of Constipation

By then I think you'd be dead.



Ad found in 1936, True Confessions.

You Still Have A Chance To Get Into The Movies

Well, Hold-Bobs did offer you the chance to get a free screen test in Universal Pictures "Search For Talent Movie Truck" back in 1936. It's not their fault if you weren't born yet. Or maybe your parents just warned you about talent searches in the back of trucks... Mine sure did.

Eyelashes Like Fork Tines

Maybe it's Maybelline.



In January 1936, True Confessions.

Back When Davenports Made The News

It's 1936 and women are being encouraged to have sleep-overs -- as long as the furniture is discreet. Why else would the newspaper be pushing sofa beds?

First it was a day bed and it was kept in the sewing room or the children's playroom where it served for guests. Then it evolved into the studio couch and it found a life of service in the one-room apartment. Now it is a sofa bed and has a definite place in the living room where it is hardly distinguishable from the ordinary sofa, davenport or love seat.

The newest versions of this two-purpose piece of furniture are offering interesting innovations both in appearance and in operation. Practically all of them are provided with backs of some sort, so that the cushions need not stand against a wall in order to maintain an upright position; and many of them have sides. Perhaps newest of them all is the love seat which opens into a four-foot bed.

Scans from The Milwaukee Journal (Sunday, August 9, 1936) sent from Silent Porn Star * (yup, adult content present at site), who wrote about the Sanity in Art movement article.

PIRATES ARE SISSIES!

...when it comes to adventure, thrills, and romance with America's greatest hobby: stamp collecting.
Ummmm...I'm not sure I get the connection. Are there postage stamps which depict pirates in frilly undergarments? Or eating bon-bons while watching their 'stories'? Is this all an insidious plot by the ninjas to discredit their sworn enemies, under the guise of philately?

I believe they're alluding to the globe-trotting habits of pirates, who visit exotic and varied locations around the world, and that a stamp collector has a far greater range than a hijacked schooner staffed by privateers. Frasek Company was a minor supplier of stamp collecting supplies in the 1930s, which is why this (quite tiny) ad appears in a 1939 issue of Radio Guide.

The Mystery Of The White Squaw

Silent Porn Star* investigates this clipping from 1935.

Vintage Dick Tracy and Junior S&P Shakers

Vintage 1920s-30s chalk S&P shakers worth their salt.

A Poor 1930s Wife

38 As a 1930s wife, I am Poor Take the test!

I'm guessing I did this well due to the number of economical questions and the number of children. It certainly had nothing to do with any of the cooking or domestic skills; and in "keeping mouth shut" & "risque jokes" I likely did even worse.

What Do The Insane Prefer On The Radio?

Here, from a 1938 Radio Guide, we have a pre-Nielsen cross-section of American listeners: the inhabitants of insane asylums.

In first place is, of course, Burns and Allen -- and I don't think you had to be crazy to find them hilarious, but it helped. In second place, H. V. Kaltenborn, the respected radiojournalist, whose commentary show apparently spoke to those who are usually only spoken to by people in their own heads. Bringing up the rear, Guy Lombardo and his orchestra, their dance-hall tunes soothing the savage breast.

I doubt, if I were a radio personality, I'd ever want a radio magazine to explain my popularity as having anything to do with insanity. Granted, at the time things like homosexuality, sexually-liberated women, and writing inflammatory pamphlets would get you tossed into the booby-hatch, so you can't count the listeners as all giant-rabbit-channelers.

A critical eye will note that each of these entries hails from the CBS studios, and the notes describing the 'winners' is rather average advertising copy. Why CBS would entertain the notion of promoting their shows in the guise of 'sanitariums love us!', I can't say -- although there's the possiblity that a competitor, when approached for such a thing, said, "hey, we'll pay you double if you put CBS shows in there."