Modern Woman Mondays: Arm Yourself Against Those Pesky Little Moths!

Article by Louise Price Bell, from a vintage issue of Modern Woman (circa 1945; I didn't put the scan in a proper folder, so I don't remember which issue).

Happy Valentine's Day, From 1961

From page 2 in the February, 1961 issue of Magic Circle:

A Happy Valentine's Day is the wish for all from Florence Cloud, for whom hearts (what else?) are trumps. Florence's greetings come from sun-soaked Cypress Gardens.

A Real Mickey Mouse Wedding

Sew, A Needle Pulling Thread

With all this detail work, it's more like, "Sew, 'til you wish you were dead."

I Want To See Evelyn Green Dolls

In that amazing, amusing and much loved vintage issue of Profitable Hobbies magazine, a brief article on dolls by Evelyn Green, who, in 1951, had already made nearly 200 dolls.

Her collection, one of the most valuable in the nation, includes fur-clad cave-dwellers, Gay Nineties models, and modern bobby-sox types, depicting the fashions of mankind from 18,000 B.C. to the present. Mrs. Green requires a week or two to make a small doll and two or three months to complete a large, elaborate model. She has spent fourteen years on her hobby.

There's scant information about Evelyn Green dolls online; even though the doll maker was featured in Doll Collector Magazine in what appears to be 2005 (presumably prompted by the Evelyn Green portrait dolls which were de-accessioned, via Theriaults, from the collections of the Strong Museum in 2004). I found no clearly labled photos of the dolls themselves. Pooh.

Evelyn Green dolls now appaer to sell for between $200 and $400 each.

17 "Don'ts" For Men (1890's Style)

From Old Stuff, May/June, 1975, a publication which proudly boasted "All paper in this copy of OLD STUFF is 100% recycled." Something which was almost equally true of the content printed on the paper, for all the stuff is indeed old articles etc. from antique publications -- save for the obligatory letters to the editor (called "Correspondence") and classified ad section (called "Collectors Market").

Today's selection from Old Stuff was previously published in an untitled 1899 newspaper. It's advice from an unnamed male "men's fashion consultant" who was concerned with customers "preserving the finer points of sartorial elegance."

I Get The Raggedy Ann Wig, But...

What's up with those foam shoes?



Found at Flickr, Woman's Day magazine, July 1969.

The Trouble With Trimbles...

Is that they cannot agree on how to spend their money:

The Trimbles, mother and son... His dreams are of a red convertible, hers of a new typewriter.

Photo of Mrs. Pearl Carter Trimble and her son Carter Trimble from an article on the "mother & son writer-photographer team" inside the march 1951 issue of Profitable Hobbies magazine, which we assume stopped making a profit decades ago.

Yes, I know there are unfortunate holes in the vintage paper; let's just be glad we can see what we can.

Baby Got Back-Fat

A back cover illustration from The Philistine: A Periodical of Protest, published by Elbert Hubbard, titled (or captioned) "Removing his Pocket-book."



I'm too amused & enthralled to really research this one, kids... Besides, isn't it time you told me something?

The illustration dates to 1909; Vol. 30, December, No. 1, of The Philistine.

Answers For Those Questions You Asked Your Erudite Friends

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

Kilgallen's Boo-Boo

Inside Quick magazine (November 12, 1949), in the fashion pages (page 45), this lovely bit about one of my favorite personalities of yesteryear, Dorothy Kilgallen:

In New York: Dorothy Kilgallen (columnist-radio star) complained on the air that she had to wear a white Band-Aid on her cut finger to a party... said it looked awful. Next day Johnson & Johnson send an assortment of Band-Aids in shocking pink, cassia, leaf green, lavender. Will she start a trend?

Answer: Apparently not. Unless Quick failed to report Band-Aids with SpongeBob SquarePants -- or I guess at that time it would have been The Shadow? (Only he knows.)

This issue of the vintage magazine has Esther Williams on the cover, and featured on pages 48 - 51. I sent scans of the article to Here's Looking Like You, Kid. 'Cuz I'm nice like that.

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.

Dauntless Dale Isn't Sheep-ish

From Quick magazine, October 31, 1949: "Karen Hutchinson, 2, of Ontario, Cal., simultaneously enjoys a free ride and shows off the prize-winning form of 'Dauntless Dale,' a 1 1/2-year-old Hampshire ram which took Junior Division honors at last year's Los Angeles County Fair. Rams, especially prize winners, don't usual pose so willingly."

Because We've All Heard The Nova Joke

We've all heard that Chevy's Nova didn't go over so well in Spanish speaking countries because Nova means "No go", even though it's not true, so why not leave it parked and let it be a camper? This retro ad features the Nova 6 Hatchback with the "tent-like Hutch", an "available feature" I'm not so sure people took Chevrolet up on.


Nova ad found in the July, 1974, issue of Psychology Today -- that issue's been passed around quite a bit, at least in scanned form. I shared an article on political activism from the issue here, sent scans of pages on nuclear families to Shawnee, and posted an ad with doggies here.

You Could Be "Shirt Changed"

Unless you read "Good Blousekeeping" -- so warns the March 1954 issue of Silhouette magazine, a promotional booklet for Hollands Dry Cleaners.

Retro Turquoise Smoking & Magazine Stand

This is too cool for words:

It has a hanging magazine holder, a center stamped template for glasses, cigarettes, matches and a multi colored glass lined area. The turquoise painted portions are wood while the pole is a brass colored metal. It is 18 1/2" tall, 15 1/2" wide and 12 1/2" deep.

She Can't Believe She's In Reader's Digest Either

Ad from a 1968 Reader's Digest magazine; via Flickr.

How To Talk To The Soda Jerk

From Calling All Girls, December, 1945.

Modern Woman Monday: A Margaret Sanger Rhyme

Found in the February 22, 1941 issue of Liberty, a bemusing note sent in from a reader regarding Margaret Sanger:

Christmas Dey Curls

As in Christmas curls worn by Susan Dey.

Women's Magazine History

Ladies, women's magazines say you are incomplete. Well, are you?



(Yup, that's another one of my blogs -- Pink Populace Paparazzi Parade Exposé is group blog.)

Pixies: Guardians Of PJs

A cute elf sits on the cover of the first issue of Good Housekeeping Needlecraft magazine (Fall-Winter, 1968-1969).





Turns out he is not an elf, but rather both a pixie and a pajama bag. Click the images to get the patterns & instructions (I tired to color correct the pattern page, but that's the best I could get it). If you make any pixie pj bags, I'd love to see 'em!




I put the skirt instructions for crocheting the long red hostess here -- I'd love to see those if you make them too.

The Queen Of The Senile Girls

In the pages of Women's Circle, May, 1978, comes this feature on one Bonie Merrill.




Bonie (pronounced "Bone-Knee", entertained at hospitals, convalescent homes, social & service clubs, private parties and charity functions for 35 years. Her acts were patterned after some of the Phyllis Diller routines, but Bonie wrote her own jokes & song parodies.

Two years prior to this article (so that's be 1976-ish), Bonie decided she needed a gimmick for one of her song parodies and designed a crazy hat. Eventually she ended up with some 200 hats used in her acts -- hence the article's "Hat Comedy Show" titular use & the photographs.

Deciding that some history would be nice to throw into the shows, she made a trip to the library to study the history of hats -- but "You wouldn't believe how dull the history of hats is, so I invented some history of my own." Here's one of Bonie's jokes, on the origin of ladies' wide-brimmed hats, which audiences supposedly believed:

"Way back in history in some European country, the ladies of the court were always passing gossip by whispering in each other's ears," Bonie explains. "Now the king was jealous because he couldn't hear the gossip and decreed that the ladies would have to wear wide brimmed hats so they'd have to talk louder because they couldn't get their heads close together."

But my favorite quote is this:

"Of course, we have to clean up the act a little, when we are performing for a church group or something like that," Bonie said. "Some of our jokes, songs and routines might be considered a little risque."

While the article doesn't explain it, the teasing, tantalizing comment makes me wonder just what sort of dirty hat jokes &/or song parodies Bonie had.


If you know anything about Bonie, or Barbara Ludwig (piano accompanist) and Frances Harvey (Boni's "favorite stage 'stooge'"), please let me know.

Don't Mess With The Gene Autry Fans

They know how to pen a scathing letter to the editor.



I wonder how they felt about Autry being being misspelled.

Liberty magazine, February 22, 1941.

Out Of Macaroni?

Paint & glue odd metal bits instead.



From McCall's Needlework & Crafts, Spring/Summer 1971.

Where Did The National Enquirer Go In 1978?

Sure, I've been mocking the 1979 National Enquirer bits, but have I ever really considered just how far the National Enquirer has gone? No, I don't mean the depths of hell, the limits of decency -- I mean on the map.



All for me!

Oh, the quality reporting! Logging 1,183,338 miles, they went to London to cover the world's first test tube baby and even went to Guyana twice in '78 to cover the Jamestown suicides.

And don't you go thinking they just sent 'reporters' to Alaska to gather information about "secret Soviet psychic research" -- they went to Moscow too.

Once, I Could've Learned To Care For Him

But that was ten years ago.


More from Calling All Girls, December, 1945.

Mommas, Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up To Be Linda Blair

An article in the February 13, 1979 National Enquirer by Donald McLachlan warns, "Cocaine Sniffing by Celebrities Blamed For Soaring Use of Drugs by Youngsters."

"The kids see photographs of them wearing coke spoons as decorations around their necks. They read of stars like Louise Lasser and Linda Blair getting into trouble over coke... Kieth Richard of The Rolling Stones being arrested in Canada... comedian George Kirby going to jail for dealing it."

And where would the kids of 1979 see such photos and read such stories? Oh yeah, the National Enquirer.

Then again, who believes anything in the National Enquirer?

But if McLachlan and the National Enquirer really believed that peer pressure or the cool-kid factor were so strong, why didn't they stop publishing the stories -- or advise that parents keep the rag away from their kids.

Maybe the National Enquirer should use the tagline: Promoting the coke spoon & harming your kids since (at least) the 70's.

Correcting Ill-Shaped Noses At Home

And where else would you do it?



An ad in Beautiful Womanhood, Edited by Mrs. Bernarr MacFadden, November, 1923.

Hankie History To Sneeze At?

In Modern Woman Magazine (Vol 14, No 5, 1945), a little snippet on hankies:

Historians credit Marie Antoinette with the invention of the pocket handkerchief. She was so broken up at leaving her home in Austria that she cried all the way to France and wiped her eyes with bits of lace torn from her dress and lingerie. Anticipating future tears, she made it a point always to have a piece of lace tucked in a pocket of her dress. This, say the historians, was how handkerchiefs were born.

I don't know if this is true, even if it is said that Marie-Antoinette made an observation that a square handkerchief is most convenient and pleasing, and so King Louis XVI published a decree ordering the new lengths.

In any case, because of this, I do not think it's right that we sneeze, tear, snot or otherwise 'goo' onto hankies with French motifs, including but not limited to, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, the Statue of Liberty, or French language.

Like Hover Cars For Kitchens

In 1945, foot pedals were the fantasy future of kitchens.

FOOT PEDALS will operate many of the labor-saving devices which will be ours in the kitchen of tomorrow. Here the housewife prepares vegetables in the future kitchen, while her little daughter has opened a bin which tilts to throw the vegetables forward. By operating the foot pedals for water in the sink, the housewife has her hands free. The splash board back of the sink is self illuminating when raised, and lowers flush with the working bench at right to form a buffet bar.

From What's Cooking For Tomorrow's Kitchens, by Joseph Lawren, in Modern Woman, Vol 14, No 5, 1945' photograph from Libby-Owens-Ford's "Kitchen of Tomorrow".

"Don't You Know There's A Peace On?"

More lingo from the "Jabberwocky and Jive" column in Calling All Girls, December, 1945.

The Corn Is Green -- And 1945's Knee-Deep In It

In Calling All Girls (December, 1945), Nancy Pepper, Fashion Editor, has a kitschy column called "Jabberwocky and Jive". This bit is teaches the not-so-cool kids on the cool lingo the kids were using that day based on Hollywood.

Here are some of my favorites (you can click the image to read the larger scan).

B 'n B -- That's what you call them if they're Co-Starring of Going Steady, on account of they're a Bogie 'n Bacall.

HI, VAN--HOW'S JOHNSON? -- Instead of plain "Hi." There are lots of them -- like "Hi, Garson -- how's Pidgeon?"

HEAVENLY HURD -- A smooth boy. Inspired by the Man of your Screams in "Dorian Gray."

CROON ANOTHER, CROSBY -- Means "Tell me more."

THE CORN IS GREEN -- You say that when anyone tells a corny story.

They Made A Tape For That

This tip from a reader, published in The Farmer (Dakota Edition, September 3, 1960), advises the use of cellophane tape for trimming bangs.



But they made a tape for that. I remember it distinctly as "the pink tape with the zig-zag ends which looked like it was cut with a pinking shears"; which meant it was very difficult to find on the Internet. (You're welcome, surfers who are also searching by such memories.)



I think my mom used that tape to make those curls by her ears which were oh-so-fashionable in the 60's. Those curls are called "guiche" -- and apparently each type of curl had a name. So now you can identify which kind of curl it was that that little girl has in the middle of her forehead. (And pray it's not The Fishhook!)

Funny thing is, I don't remember my mom using the tape to cut our hair... And our bangs were often a crooked mess, usually running in a diagonal line along our foreheads. Ah, good times.

Dad said she put a bowl on our heads to give us a trim and that she never bothered to monitor & straighten the bowl. I don't remember that. I just cringe when I see the photos.

If you pester me, I may make the time to find & scan a few for you.

When Illustrations Collide

Jay Hyde Barnum's illustration of a sexy songbird with a lifted hem shares the page with an ad for Perfect Circle Triple-Action piston rings.



The incongruity of such juxtaposition of pinup with what I lovingly call 'racing troll babies' makes me stare long and hard at this vintage magazine page for clues... At first I thought sex appeal was being applied by Perfect Circle, but the three babies, a regular gimmick used by the company, are drawn by Pete Hawley. Why the editors decided to print the pinup facing the ad is unknown to me -- but I'm sure it helped Perfect Circle sell piston rings.

How Much Is Your Spare Time Worth?

You can earn up to $1.50 an hour, representing Curtis Publishing. Or at least you could according to this old ad.


This ad was a lot funnier pre-financial melt-down, when I found & scanned it. Now we're all just wondering if we'll be lucky enough to make a $1.50 an hour.

James Brown In National Geographic

Heh. Made you look. ...But if you read the text, it really could be him because "the Machiguenga refused to reveal their names; the men called this one Marino." So maybe James Brown traveled as Marino to avoid the crowds.