2 February 1955 "TV, Coke, Nutrition, and Interiors"

2 February 1955: First Presidential news conference on network TV - Dwight Eisenhower on ABC.

Until 1955, Coca-Cola was available only as a soda fountain drink and in 6 1/2-ounce glass contour bottles.
1955 saw the debut of the King Size (10- and 12-ounce) and Family Size (26-ounce) glass contour bottles in the U.S., marking an important step in giving people more options to meet their needs.

I just bought the 8 oz. glass bottle 6 packs they have at our local grocery store. Unfortunately there is not diet soda until TAB in 1962, but with only 8 oz. of soda (1 cup) not too many calories. I love the feel and weight of the small bottle. It seems appropriate to my year, however the 8 oz. is even bigger than the original bottle.

Here is a real swell video showing the evolution of the coke can from 1955 to present: http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=1062118640244&oid=8605796091

I had decided to include some of the dietary information in one of the main cookbooks I use, then someone had commented on my last blog that they would like to see this, so here it is. This is only a small portion of the info, but I will include more in the future.

I really find it interesting that the daily amount of calories seems quite high and yet I don't think we had the obesity problem we have today in this country. Of course, after rationing in WWII I guess we were heading towards the eventual outcome as we began to stuff ourselves on the overabundance of food.

In post-WWII USA, the diet industry took off like a rocket. Diet books muliplied and monopolized the bestseller list. Metracal and other good substitute products were introduced very successfully as were national weight-reducing chains. Women were the primary targets of these marketing strategies.
Here we even see advertising giving various options for the low-calorie lifestyle.

With this new concern over calories and eating properly comes exercise. And, if you are a housewife in middle america that can only mean one thing. Jack Lalanne. Here he is talking about a diet plan: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VuW3RfWJ1H0

Here is a great site that has most of his shows. This is the site I am using to start my 1950's exercise program: http://jacklalanne.com/tv.html

"Between 1951 and 1985, LaLanne presented fitness and exercise advice on television. "The Jack LaLanne Show" was the longest running television exercise program. It began as a local program on San Francisco's ABC television station, KGO-TV, and was eventually carried on the ABC network nationwide. Critics said the show would last less than six weeks, but it ended up lasting 34 years. In 1959, LaLanne recorded Glamour Stretcher Time, a workout album which provided phonograph-based instruction for exercising with an elastic cord called the Glamour Stretcher."

Here he is in 1954. In 1955 (age 41): Jack swam from Alcatraz Island to Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco while handcuffed. He is still alive today at 94.
I have been a good girl this week, and here is this mornings breakfast: black coffee and dry toast. It is hard to cook bacon, eggs, and pancakes, as I did this morning for hubby, and not want to snack. I am determined, however, as the fashions of 1955 have really inspired me to finally drop those pounds I have been chasing around for the past few years.

Now, speaking of food, I am still cooking using recipes in my book, no modern meals of bulger wheat etc. Last night I made a really good Vegetable au gratin dish. My cookbook tells you how to make vegetables au gratin and then it is up to you WHAT vegetables. I did green beans, potatos, and peas. They were SO yummy.
Here is what it looked like before I dished it up. The bread crumbs were quite tasty mixed into it.

Today was a Gussie day. As it is washday, I did (am still doing) the laundry. In the America's Housekeeping Book under the Household Employees chapter it suggests: "Experienced homemakers will tell you that if the employee does the washing and ironing, the homemaker must assume a major share of the other housekeeping jobs on laundry days." I, in fact, did the reverse. I did the laundry while 'Gussie' cleaned, shopped for the meal, prepared it and cleaned up afterwards. I have to say I am getting used to having the help. I am hoping that the interest 'Gussie' has in the project will last the year out.

With no dishes to do and a wonderful warm meal to be served up, I even had time to 'dress for dinner'.

Having had the freedom to go out shopping, I did.

I found this wonderful vintage metal step stool at one of my antique haunts. It is so perfect for the kitchen redo. Obviously I have to repaint the seat, but I am hoping I can find a matching red to this color as I believe it is the original paint. I want splashes of red to go along with my robins egg blue and touches of yellow. I can't wait until this and the 'new ice box' get to dwell in the kitchen. Do any of you have vintage kitchens?



I also stopped at our local Sherwin Williams paint store. I love it as it seems very 1950's to go to a store dedicated to paint and wallpaper instead of HomeDepot. They have a nice line of vintage paint colors. So, I nabbed these two great brouchures fot the 1950's. I think the cover artwork is so nice.

This scan is not completely true to one of the palletes in the brouchere, but you can get the general idea. I am thinking of this pink as the main color of my new sewing/laundry room. I think a very girly pink confectionary room would be fun in a smaller space and one in which I will only use sometimes. What do any of you think?
I also bought five of these boxes. I know they are not vitage, but I think they definitely have a vintage feel. I can see them on a shelf to hold patterns and ribbon and zippors etc. They have great little metal tag holders on the front. Don't you love the image on the top of the box? I hope it isn't too modern. I have some wonderful vintage wallpaper I found today that is too delicate to actually cover walls, but I think I will use it for hat boxes for my closet as well as some for my sewing room and some in the kitchen redo maybe on some tins or maybe to line the back of a cabinet. The color in the scan is not very true to the real color, but you get the idea.

I also found a wonderfrul vintage repro new plaid wallpaper in taupe and soft blues and greens that I might use in the living room which is going to become the library. There will be pics when I get to that. I really want to do wallpaper. It is making a comeback today and would be quite normal to use in the 1950s.

Well, I need to post this as I have to get back to my laundry. I think I have done far too much galavanting about today. I won't take the time to edit, so you will excuse me I hope. Have a great day.