A Look Back at Life, September 5, 1955

By now readers of Room With No View know that I love all things retro and I get a bit nostalgic from time to time.  You also know I have a stack of old magazines from my wife's uncle and I love to peek through them for advertisements that give us an idea of what was really going on during those years.  The articles are nice, sure, but advertisers have their fingers on the pulse of the readers far better than those writing the articles.

And so we dip yet again into the ad-world of Life magazine for September 5, 1955.  And remember, the things you'll learn here are completely true.  I don't make any of this up.  Honest!

We start with this eye catcher from the inside cover.  I have no idea who Forstmann is, but they make a snazzy business suit for glamorous women on the go!  However, that's not quite true.  The small print tells us that Forstmann is a woolen company.  They make the finest woolens in the world.  And this wool, "oriola" in cornflower blue, is a lovely, soft wool that can be found in stores near you.

You can also purchase this fabric by the yard.  It doesn't tell us which yard you can buy it by.  I suppose it should read "you can buy it by a yard near you."  Which always leads us to the question: how do they know where you are?

Forstmann Woolen Company was founded in Passaic, New Jersey in 1904.  They were in business until the 1990's, when they were eventually bought out by Victor Woolen Products after a financially troubled decade.  Does anyone out there remember this company?

Here's an ad that will make your mouth water.  Who didn't love these tasty metallic treats?  Here you get turkey and gravy, peas, carrots (or is that sweet potatos?) along with a surprise helping of stuffing.  Everything you want in a turkey dinner.  But wait!  There's more!  In this great magazine offer, Swanson is offering to reimburse you for a package of fruit pies.  That's right, go ahead and buy your family fruit pies to top off that dinner with a tasty dessert.  When Swanson sends you 35 cents, you'll be more than reimbursed.  You'll have your money back, your husband and kids will have already enjoyed their flaky, fruity treat, and you'll be happy knowing that you were able to feed them all from metal plates.  That's really cool.  After all, in 1955, everyone knew that the future was heading towards a society that would be based on metal, plastic, and synthetics.

I'm not so impressed that the 35 cents more than covers the cost of the pies.  I'm impressed that it was worth sending 35 cents through the mail back then.  Currently, that is 11 cents less than what one stamp costs today.  Enjoy your pie!

You know I'm gonna try to find a great car ad to show you.  And although there were no car ads in this magazine (what was up with that?) I did find this wonderful Sky Chief layout.  And what a beauty it is!  Here you learn that Sky Chief  gasoline gives your car three types of power.  Count them, go ahead...1,2,3!

Of course the first one is Petrox.  You knew that, right?  I mean, this stuff is awesome.  It actually protects as it powers.  Essentially, since it cannot leave harmful deposits (that's right, it is some sort of law, it can leave no harmful deposits--go ahead, read it right there in the ad) it will make your engine last longer and you'll get more, money-saving miles from every gallon.  Petrox.  You gotta love this stuff.

After pouring 75 million dollars into an octane increasing project, Texaco wants you to know that this gas, which is now the highest octane Sky Chief gasoline ever available, will enable you to "enjoy a brand new power-feel every mile you drive!"  (The exclamation point is theirs, so don't think I am terribly impressed by their expensive project.)

And don't forget number 3:  This gasoline is 100% climate-controlled.  Seriously, I had no idea gas could be air-conditioned.  And the great thing is, that in all 48 states, you are assured top performance from Sky Chief which means...oh yeah, you wouldn't have guessed it...faster getaways!  (Now that exclamation point was added by yours truly, because I'm impressed that Texaco would be marketing their gasoline to bank robbers.  That's just unique, in my humble opinion.)

Now hear is an ad I can really get excited about.  RCA Victor wants us all to see that their 5 new Orthophonic "Victrola" phonographs bring you a new concept in High Fidelity performance.  Incredibly, the price spread here is from $129.95 all the way up to $1600.  That's a pretty big spread.  And really, it starts at a pretty steep price.  I mean, if you can buy a package of pies for 35 cents, shouldn't you be able to buy a stereo for about $60?  Well, I guess that's the price you pay for quality.  And RCA Victor is nothing if it is not quality.  Just consider the following:

The "Mark VI" table model has a 3-speed phonograph.  You get two choices for the finish--Mahogany or Light Oak.  And if you'd rather put your table model on the floor, you could add legs for it.  (An extra charge will be added for the optional legs.)

To add an FM-AM radio console, you'll have to move up two models to the "Mark III", which is gonna bite you for $325.  Ouch.  But then again, you get all that free music on the airwaves, along with great radio dramas, something we don't get anymore, unless you count the news.  I'd tell you all about the "Mark I" twin-console, which includes not just a radio but a tape recorder (I know, you must think I'm making up this magical technology) but why tell you about it?  Even if you could get back to 1955, there is no way you are gonna be able to afford $1600 for a Hi-Fi.  Who did you think you would be, Frank Sinatra?  Be serious.

Oh, here's one that is near and dear to my arteries...uh, I mean heart.  My grandma Alice used to keep Meadow Gold ice cream in her freezer, which was on the bottom of her refrigerator--remember those?  Meadow Gold ice cream was the best ice cream I've ever eaten.  I still believe that.  After all these years.  And it was simply vanilla that she kept there.  Not even this enticing Butter Brickle flavor you see in the ad.  What I don't recall is ever seeing a playful cartoon on the box.  The box always just bore the Meadow Gold standard, which was all we needed to know that yummy goodness was waiting inside the end flap.  (My kids don't know what I mean by "end flap", but you older folks like me know.  Are there any ice creams that still come in square boxes?)

So let's get to the good stuff...the fine print.  First off, we're promised that there is a wonderful candy surprise in the ice cream.  That's the butter brickle, of course.  But then we are given a recipe for making a delicious mocha topping.  What I found interesting here was that the instructions tells us to melt chocolate in our double boiler.  Anybody out there still have a double boiler?  To be honest, I'm not sure what a double boiler is.  Would this be something that is steam-powered?  It sounds terribly dangerous.    

And as an extra, you get a coupon to buy a doll.  That's right, the lovable Little Meadow Gold Girl, who has saucy pigtails.  (That would be mocha saucy pigtails, I'd guess.)  She's lightweight, soft and unbreakable.  I would bet you that if you put her in a double boiler, she would not be as unbreakable.  Sorry, it was just a thought.  Anyway, this great $12 value can be had for $3.50.  Sorry to all my friends outside of the United States, the coupon is only good in our fine country.  

Our extra ad today is one readers of this blog should recognize.  That's right, a second Veedol ad.  I'd been intrigued by Veedol, since I'd never heard of it until I found it in another issue.  I've been assured by my father that Veedol was indeed commonplace back in the day, though he does not remember it being particularly well liked.  For those of you who didn't know, Veedol comes from the Tide Water Associated Oil company.  If I didn't have to rush off to work, I'd tell you all about them.  Maybe another time.

A Look back at Life, August 21, 1950

The best way to get a feel for what people were like in times gone by is to look at the advertisers of that given period.  We love to protest that ad-men are slimy, unethical leeches who write copy for a public they know nothing about.  But the fact is, they know a lot about the public--their target audience.  They study people, study their habits, study their desires, and study their insecurities.  In truth, they know us better than we know ourselves.  So when I look through old magazines, I don't really read the articles much.  Not if I want to get an idea of what sort of people were around at the time it was printed.  I go right for the ads.

  And so as I perused a copy of Life from 1950, I made note of a few ads that caught my attention.  Let's have a look:

Okay, you know I'm a vintage car ad guy.  So I had to start with this great shot.  We know that the space frenzy would hit the United States in the late Fifties.  NASA, after all, was formed in 1958.  However, back in 1950, these Oldsmobile 88s had rocket engines, and the amazing Hydra-Matic!  You might think that at this point the public still thought of Wernher Von Braun's rockets, as well as those seen in the old Flash Gordon serials.  But in 1950, movie screens were already filled with rocket ships zipping across theaters in such exciting movies as Destination Moon and Rocketship X-M, both of which were released before August of that year.  

  I'm presently in the market for a new car.  And if someone out there made a car this beautiful, I would grab it.  Go ahead, take a moment to just gaze at it.  I'll wait.

Okay, this one has me scratching my head.  Let's think about this fine looking ad.  At first blush, it seems to be an ad for a kid's drink.  Certainly it is at least a kid's cough medicine.  However, it clearly says--

   Million of bottles are bought by men who like that clear clean taste.

  Okay, that leaves the kids out of it.  And judging by the jaunty looking waiters in the bottom corner, it would appear to be a liquor ad.  But surely now, since the main image here is a child-like giraffe.  Let's take a look at the fine print.  It reads:   

   Even if Joe Giraffe can't talk, his actions speak louder than words.  And if you'll notice that delighted sparkle in his eyes at the clear, clean taste of his jungle lunch, you'll understand what we mean by PM's clear, clean taste.  Drink PM this p.m. and see why so many millions of men keep on ordering it.

  So Joe Giraffe is ordering an evening drink for his jungle lunch.  And if you look at the really small print, you'll see this blended whiskey is 86 proof, and a whopping 67 and 1/2% Grain Neutral Spirits. Yeah, I guess that does explain that sparkle in the little nipper's eye.

I love New Orleans more than most people, and our family enjoys a good gumbo now and then.  And as you can see, Campbell's soup made Gumbo famous, not New Orleans.  Fair enough.  I'll buy that, since it takes a national ad campaign to really get an unusual regional food nationally recognized.  We'll give them good marks for this bold assertion.

  They even get the main ingredients right: green okra, tomatoes, rice, and not least, those tender pieces of chicken.  (Okay, the tomato thing doesn't make sense.  I've eaten a lot of gumbo, and never really seen chunks of tomatoes or anything, but we'll let this go.  They're confused about the roux base, I guess.)  I even think they get points for adding a bit of poetry:

    I dance the night/In gay cotillions,/Then serve this soup/That pleases million!

  Not too bad.

  But let us look at the always troublesome fine print.  See it there, next to the picture of the lady in the kitchen?  No need to squint.  I'll type it out for you:

   Typical New Orleans courtyard kitchen

  Now, I'm willing to concede that in 1950, some older kitchens were still around, but I doubt the typical New Orleans kitchen looked like a scene from Mount Vernon circa 1788.  But I've always been a bit on the cynical side, so perhaps I'm not to be trusted.

  Okay, let's finish with a curiosity.  This one requires audience participation.  So get your fingers ready to offer suggestions.  Let's see what we have:

  First of all, let's momentarily ignore the lady in the bath water.  (Come on, guys, play along.)  At the top we see this is a Listerine ad.  In fact, it is a Listerine tooth paste ad.  Okay, that's cool.  I would never have thought of brushing my teeth with Listerine, since I associate it with the worst form of childhood torture my parents ever inflicted on me.  (And yes, it beat out holding a bar of soap in my mouth as the worst torture, even though it was supposed to actually help us and it wasn't a form of punishment like the soap in our mouths.)  Now, here's hoping the tooth paste here does not taste like the original Listerine flavor, which, I think is essentially the flavor it had when they first mixed the gasoline, turpentine, and peroxide to create their wonderful product.  (I don't really know what is in that awful stuff, but my guess seems highly likely, wouldn't you agree?)

  Now at the bottom we also see that this tooth paste cuts tooth decay way down!  (This is obviously the conclusion after a great deal of scientific study.  I mean, just consider how authoritative that sounds: tooth decay cut way down!  Swell!)

  And since we all know how important saving money is, I can get excited about their assertion that...Every time you buy a "Thrift-Pak" (two regular 45¢ tubes for 59¢!) you save yourself 30¢.  Within a year the average family's bound to save as much as $3.00 or more.

  And they even put the word "bound" in italics, as if they realize it's a little silly to be so wishy-washy with their ad-copy.  But still, I like that they're pointing out how a family will save money.

  But now let's go back to the girl in the bathtub.  Can anyone tell me what this lovely creature is doing with a bar of soap in her hand as the caption boldly states "Treat yourself to your Favorite Bath Salts!"?  Please don't tell me she's putting Listerine in her bath water.  Though that might explain why she's trying to wipe the suds and water from the corner of her eye.  Or maybe they're just tears.  I know I cried many tears when mom forced me to gargle with Listerine.  

Bonus Question

Anyone ever heard of Veedol?  I could just look it up on the web, but I'd rather see if any of you...more experienced guys (or even gals!) remember this fine looking motor oil.  I have to say, I love the elegant yet simple design of the ad.  So if you remember your dad buying Veedol, or you bought it once and it totally ruined your engine, or you fell in love with the girl you first saw standing by a stack of Veedol cans at the gas station, jump in and let me know.  I'd love to hear from you!