Past partout

Apparently, women in the ‘50s got all glammed up, went to appliance showrooms that were fitted out like swank nightclubs, and swooned against refrigerators.  She looks like she’s hoping the fridge will ask her to dance.  Maybe its dad is a Texas oil baron.  

Magazine advert for Wonder Man, 1945.  (S. Zed Sakall was great in this, wasn’t he?)

There was a whole bunch of boring copy that some poor hack probably had to shill out before calling it a day and spending the rest of the afternoon sozzling back martinis and lamenting his wasted B.A. in English Lit.  But, quite frankly, I couldn’t be arsed into including it here.  It’s all about the image: elegantly greying Mum & Dad are getting rather long in the tooth, but they’re still young and with it enough to be referred to as ‘party-flinging,’ and to serve up Florida citrus juices to the youngsters.  No faster way to kickstart a swingin’ soiree for the sockhopper set.  

The week this image appeared (mid-July 1968), one of my favo(u)rite human beings was born. 

July 12, 1947 New Yorker.  

I’ve been away for ever so long.  Because... of lots and things and reasons. Oh, hey, new followers.  Thanks, and welcome.  I’ll try to give you some fun and interesting things to look at from time to time. 

Gloria Swanson, 1938.

Jane Wyman and Ronald Reagan, 1943.  In ‘43, Reagan was a first lieutenant in the Army Air Force.  From Photoplay fan magazine.

Wartime romance.  From LIFE, 1943.

Illustration for the "California Winter Sun Festival," 1940.

Illustration by Amos Sewell for Plymouth, 1948. 

1941 advertising illustration. American Gas Association.

From LIFE, 1940.

"Only if you're lucky, darling."  From an ad for Spencer corsets, 1939.