26 January 1957 “Sex Sells”

Well, here in 1957 Madison Avenue is well on its way to the axiom: “Sex Sells”. This ad for shoe polish, of all things, has many suggestions including the obvious pictorial one.
It is also interesting to note that a similar ‘sex advertising’ is also aimed at ladies. Though, this is often in a different guise, that of husband/boyfriend choosing. The idea of the woman wanting to settle down and the man wanting to wander seems to be pretty now set in stone. Certainly not a new idea, by any stretch of the imagination, but certainly more so now.
  Another element we ladies are concerned with also is beginning to appear in advertising, our weight. Though the lady and girl of 1950 had much less emphasis on this as we do in the 21st century, we are also really beginning to see this phenomena arising, that of the ‘chubby kid’. Post war American has not only an abundance of food, but endless packaged and increasingly sugared products. As I always find, much of our modern world really has its seeds germinated in the 1950’s.
This 1940 Marie Claire cover illustrates the point of selling fashion and chic to women. There is concern here for what the woman is thinking of herself, her fashion sense. Her desire to emulate a well dressed woman. You will also notice the absence of ‘tag lines’. Today’s version has a desperation to it. The longing to look ‘sexy’. The promise to ‘really lose those last 5 pounds!”. The endless words and messages we, as modern people, are used to. The clutter and constant noise, our lives and homes are cluttered as are our minds, something will stick, thinks the advertising and then we have them.
I love this image of the mother and son in the kitchen. I am not sure what the modern version of “Mother”  Marie Claire is suppose to be telling us. I am not sure I am ready to really dissect that one just yet.
  I do know which of these Vogue covers I feel is the stronger woman and the one I would most like to emulate. Poise, structure and concern more for my personal strength. Even the model seems to be more into her own thoughts while the modern version, the model is begging the viewer, “Please, look at me, I am sexy and skinny! I am happy…right?”
And maybe I have just been here in the 1950’s too long, but I have to say, I prefer this idea of the homemaker and housework To this:

10 January 1957 “Gay Little Dots, Spritz Cookies, and The Art of the Book Continues”

I thought I would start today with this lovely ad from my 1956 Better Homes and Gardens. It is for an Armstrong floor. First of all, to some it might see a bit ‘icky’ perhaps like something someone grew up with and loathed. To me it has a very Doris Day movie set feel.
There are two things I love about this ad: First I really adore that floor! A lovely 50’s Grey (not the bland darkened sad sea gray we see so often today. I believe Pam at Retrorenovation.com calls it Graige-which it is!) I am sure this is that grey I often see if fabrics, lampshades, upholstery on vintage items, somewhere between a fine men’s flannel suiting (think The Man in the Grey Flannel Suit) and a soft bunny. Now add to this good background pink and blue and white dots and you are in heaven. Well, at least I would be in Heaven. I was thinking how lovely this would be with robins egg blue (as pictured) but still punctuated with Reds and Butter yellows. It could be a dream. And those swirly brackets might seem rather Three’s company (decade’s away) I think they are rather fun. If we decorate with things that might not seem ‘in’ but are joyous to us, then we never have to change them or feel we aren’t quite ‘keeping up’. There is much to be said about consistency and constancy. Particularly in today’s rapid changing world where even our phones are not expected to live out the year!
Now, the second think I love about this ad is the word ‘gay’. I have tried, here and there, to incorporate more 50’s words into daily usage. My favorite is the word, “fine”. If you pay attention to speech in movies from the 30’s to the 50’s you will often hear things such as:“Well, fine, just fine” for something being good, or alright or ‘cool’.
Therefore, the use of the word ‘Gay’ to mean fun, happy, darling I am trying to bring back. When I was young the term “Gay” meant two things, one being a person with that life choice OR mostly to young kids, dumb or stupid. Such as, “Those pink legwarmers are so Gay, you should get the neon green” or some such. You get the idea.
Now when I read in my books, magazines or see on my TV (which is no tv at all but simply old shows sometimes played or old commercials) the word “gay” it means the polar opposite. It is fun, wonderful.
“What a lovely gay print that fabric is, won’t it make darling curtains?” And so on.
So, to all you vintage lovers out there, why not try to re-introduce the word for its original meaning and see how many people join you after awhile.
These don’t look that amazing, but they were rather good. Yesterday I used one of my Christmas gifts, my cookie press, and made some spritz cookies. I love these cookies and always have. My own mother used to make these in every concievable shape and style and had them dipped in chocolate or coated in bright sugars. They were the perfect tea cookie for bridge parties, teas and holidays. I recall getting to help turn the dial on the press when I was young. Of course, I never learned to make the cookies, as I never learned any Homemaking skills. I believe my mother just thought it was a different time (the 80’s) and I didn’t need to know. So, I never bothered.
I am glad to say they are rather easy to make and a joy to create. My head is spinning with the ideas of ways to make these cookies. There is a thin and ridged disc that makes long thin cookies great for dipping or for halves to sandwich cream frosting in between. I imagine gay little pistachio flavored green cookies (ah ha, see ‘gay’ meaning darling, I told you…)and robins egg blue half dipped in dark chocolate. Oh, the cookies I shall make.
Here is the Recipe I used from my Betty Crocker's Picture Cook Book.
Now, as you may or may not know, a big part of this year for me is Art & Craft. This month and next I have set myself the task to create, write, and illustrate a children’s book. I showed a few sketches before. This is a sample page. It is not done, by any means, but you can see the various layers. The little girl, Imogen, needs more layers as does the background. This scene will have flowers, fence, building and of course, the Hen, Buttons. I was excited to find the font I would like to use, as you can see here in the sample text, as it is a very classic children’s book text.
I cannot help but be influenced by the art and children’s illustrations of the 1950’s. In fact, I want to be, my only fear is that I am so immersed into it, it will only seem derivative of that time rather than original work. We shall see what we shall see. But, I really enjoy the process and style and I love working with colors. So, all round for me, it is fun but VERY challenging. There is much that goes into a book such as this, but since I have made sure that some part of each day goes to it, I hope to follow through with this first big Art & Craft task.
Again, let me know what you think. This is not a finished page by any means. It needs many more layers but I know some of you have wanted to see the process of build up of how I work, so there you go.
I hope all are having a lovely day and Happy Homemaking.

5 January 1957 “1957 Fashion and Hair and The REAL MAD MEN.”

I thought we’d take a quick peek at some fashion and hair for 1957.
A darling sheath dress with the collar that is becoming increasingly vogue. This collar will continue into the early 60’s and actually get a bit taller. I love the little empire waist pleat in the back.
These great prints in the full skirt, dolman sleeve and no defined shoulder is still going strong. These are from a 1957 Spiegel catalog.
A Peter Jones dress for this year. Sweetheart neckline and the length is getting a bit shorter.
I love the conical straw hat.
Speaking of hats, the raised crown is appearing as is the brim. This will reach its peak in the mid 60’s with mod hats that look like 20’s cloche but worn very high. This style is becoming more apparent in high fashion. Click the image to get to see more hats from 57 at Cotureallure.com. Though the closer fitting smaller hat is still the dominant look here in 1957. This darling cloth number would be rather easy to make, I would think.
This Clairol ad from 1957 also shows how hair is beginning to lift off the forehead. After the 1940’s hair began to be shorter and tighter to the head. Though this is still a shorter style you can see how it is being lifted which will eventually become the bouffant by the mid 60’s. Here we see another Clairol ad from this year. Again, the hair is softer and less rigid than the decade’s beginning. Softer fuller waves, not unlike the 1940’s in some aspects.An interesting point about the Clairol ads, is I found out that their 1949 ad campaign, “It lets me be me” was dreamed up by a woman.
  A few years back, when Mad Men first came out, there was an exhibit at the New York Public Library highlighting ads and the Mad Men of the 50-70’s.
What is interesting to what we are shown on the show, is much as I have come to discover with my own project: what we are told about that time and women’s oppression is often over-exaggerated.
A quote from one of the influential women in advertising, Phyllis Robinson,(the woman who came up with the 1949 Clairol ad) was interesting:

“It seemed very simple and straightforward and not pretentious,”(the ad) Robinson, 86, said in a telephone interview from her Manhattan home. Robinson said no one held her back because she was a woman.
“Not in the least,” she said. “I slid right in and did my stuff.”

HERE is an interesting article about Phyllis.
Another influential Mad Men ‘Women’ of the time, Mary Wells Lawrence, started as a copywriter in the 1950’s and founder her own agency, Wells Rich Greene, in 1966. She said:

“People are always saying, ‘Wasn’t it a male business?’ It was not a male business,” Lawrence said. “You would think that we were all cowering under the desk.”

I think it is just another example of how we get so much of our current knowledge and therefore idea of history FROM TV that we have a distorted view of it. Of course it is more drama to have such a divide between the women and to portray ALL the men as womanizing chauvinists. Yet, we seem unable, nowadays, to really separate reality from fiction. Our real history is almost being re-written by TV/movie fiction writers.
I think that is one reason I am glad I am studying a time when some of the people who lived it are still alive to set us straight. There is something almost ‘whiney’ about a modern person saying, “Well, we couldn’t do that then because it was how women were perceived”. Yet, throughout history there are women who in SPITE of what was perceived still succeeded. And today, the concept of the oppressed homemaker is also a nice crutch for people to feel no need to be accountable for their homes and lives. “I can’t be bothered to be organized or pay attention to what I and my family eat, I’m not a Stepford Wife!” A term, by the way, invented for a film that seems to hold more truth for women today about their history than the actual truth of women who did enjoy and feel proud to have chosen a career as a homemaker. Obviously, women had the option even then to go off to New York and work in offices and, yes, even become Mad Men.
I think we do , we modern people, sometimes have trouble separating TV/movie fiction from reality. In some sense it gives us such a distorted sense of what life should be like, we are often depressed or striving for things unattainable because they are not real. The sad thing is it makes the REAL things not even in our range of decision. I have come to find out by disconnecting myself from that modern machine, the joy and happiness in that actual, the truthful. Odd, then, that I had to find it while ‘playacting’ house wife in the 1950’s.
In a way, that very indulgent aspect of my ‘pretending it’s 1950’s’  much like a reality show even points out to me how much I was and am influenced by media and modern programming. It seemed normal to try such a project because ‘normal’ is skewered towards fictional in the modern world. Though, I am happy for it and in my ‘fictional’ 1950’s actually feel more happy and ‘real’ than I did before the project.
Also, as an artist, walking that line of reality and imaginary is often par for the course. So, in some ways, it was probably just easier for me to do it. But, my point ( I do have one) is that we need, we modern people, to try and appreciate TV/Movies for what they are, entertainment. Yet, realize that real life and living is often nothing like what we are told on TV. And, in that as well, our history is not anything like an AMC Drama. We can appreciate the show for what it is, a ‘dramatization’, but we should also take the time to look at the real history and understand where we came from. It helps us see where we are going and how best to get there.
Happy Homemaking.

3 January 1957 “First Electric Watch Unveiled Today, Washer-Dryer Combo, and Some Sketches”

  Today the Hamilton Watch Company announced the latest in modern technology, the first every battery operated electric watch. The Hamilton 500. It needs no winding either. Here the ad shows that watch battery smaller than the man’s cuff button.
Up to know watches ran on mechanisms that need to be wound, much as old clocks. The Quartz movements will not arrive until the last decade of the 1960’s. So, this is innovation. The only problem will become apparent when we find out how often the battery needs to be changed.
The Hamilton Watch Company ( Lancaster, Pennsylvania) began developing the timepiece in 1946. Here we are eleven years later and though the development is not quite complete, the pressure to beat the competition has them announcing the watch. It was popular and today these first ever electric watches command a high price. We are moving more and more towards technology as the norm. Grandfather’s old wind up pocket watch will soon retire to the bureau drawer, making way for technology.
HERE is a UK site devoted just to electric watches such as the Hamilton 500.
I am amazed that this technology exits now, here in the 1950’s. This ad comes from Better Homes and Gardens from this year, 1957.This is a great little size combo and I would love something like this for my small kitchen. I know they make these combos now, but I wonder if I could find an old 50’s version of this, if so I’d love it! Any craigslist ads out there in the MA area, let me know.
As you may or may not know, part of my journey here in the 1950’s is going to include art and craft. After spending two years here in the 1950’s learning to cook, clean, schedule, and be an all around good little wife (Still learning though, always learning) I am ready to make my art and craft a part of my routine. In fact because of the skill of routine and planning I have learned from the 1950’s, I finally feel as if I am ready to undertake such a voyage.
So, this month’s project (which might stretch into February) is to write and illustrate a children’s book. You saw a sketch on my last post. Some of you mentioned wanting to know the process, so this really put it into my head to document that more. This way I can share the process with you and you can see smudges and smears of paint and ink turn into a finished product. Hopefully it will be of interest.
I have been greatly influenced by my times. The 1950’s is a ripe and vibrant time to be an artist. There is SO much going on from packaging and illustrative work to the modern and avant garde to Grandma Moses (Anne Mary Robertson) who was born in 1860 and is very celebrated here in the 1950’s.
I thought a children’s book a good way to segway my writing and my own late obsession with the modern free form movements of figural work used in children’s books and advertising of the times.
So, for what they are worth, here are some of what I worked on today. These are simply water color washes on paper with some pastel over and water added. Then a simple pastel sketches to get some ideas. Here is a close up of one of the two figures. You can see, a very basic outline on paper. I will show more tomorrow on some of the next layers. Now, is this too much information? I wasn’t sure if you would be interested in the very rough sketchy beginning stages of what will become a finished page in a book. The features may change, the stance all of that, but this is how I have been starting out.
Here is a rough up of the mother. I have many versions of her and not sure how she will turn out. This was a rough pencil and some dry brush and marker, then scanned and some computer work. Again, this is just a sketch, please do not think these are in any way final pieces, so do be kind there.
I hope all are enjoying their new year so far and keeping up with their resolutions.
Happy Homemaking.

27 November 1956 “Christmas is Coming”

I am sorry I didn’t make a post yesterday. We had such a lovely Thanksgiving and so much fun and food. However, yesterday I had a bit of a 24 hour cold. I am feeling a bit better today and so this shall be a short post as well. I hope all enjoyed their holiday.
Seeing as yesterday was ‘Black Friday’ here in the USA (Crazy shopping day) I thought I’d share a couple Christmas ads. This first one is fun because it shows the style and graphics of what one would see in Christmas wrapping paper available from Hallmark in 1956. Fun bright colors and geometric shapes.
For the young one on the list this year, these View Master toys were probably scrawled in childish hand-writing to Santa. 
For the lady of the house, these higher end products would be a welcome surprise under the tree. $20 dollars in today's money would be $140.00 dollars. I am sure one could find an electric blanket very cheap today, but we must remember this probably lasted forever (in fact they are probably still around and working today) and were most likely manufactured in our country. Thus providing jobs and money for the holidays. I actually have that pink radio clock as it was my Mother in Laws and she let me have it. It was just stored away in the attic. She remembered having it as a teen in her room.
I hope all are avoiding the busy early Christmas shopping rush and getting into the Holiday spirit. I think we need, this coming month, to try and foster as much Christmas spirit as we can without too much emphasis on the consumer aspect. Maybe talk about and share homemade gift ideas. Home made ornaments and cookies and treats. Share stories and tales to tell around the fire in lieu of being to rushed about and stressed from spending money we haven’t got only to worry over the bills come January. Who is in with me to try and make this a less ‘Buying’ Christmas and a more Celebrating Christmas? And, when buying, local made or good reliable vintage!
Happy Homemaking.

11 November 1956 “I Want Candy”

Candy in the 1950’s, and earlier, was often a treat to a child. The level to which sugar is available to children today was only just beginning in the mid 1950’s.
After war-time rationing of sugar, candy (with many other products) had a boom. And a new market: The child themselves. While mummy and Granny may recall tootsie rolls and penny candy  amid jars of candy sticks and penny candy, it was a sometimes treat. By 1950’s this same treat was made much more appealing to its target audience.

The bright shiny plastic world of children's candy really started in this decade.
  Here are the first pez, introduced in 1955. They featured a full bodied robot or Santa.
And not only were candies more exciting and placed for children’s reach in stores, they also began to be specifically marketed to them. From 1949 –1952 Snickers was the sponsor of the Howdy Doody show. Other candy was also advertised at this time. What is interesting is how commercials once began in the late 40’s early 50’s, as part of the programming rather than a separate commercial break, is what many advertisers are now going back to. Here is Howdy and friends extolling the wonderment of the Three musketeers bar

Soon sugar, er that is, Candy began sprining up in all sorts of places. Sure, one could have a coke, but they could be expensive, but if you wanted that sugar rush in a glass, why not get mummy to buy Fizzies! These would be introduced next year, 1957. Made by the bromo company, that used to offer ‘upset stomach relief’ now they were a kids treat.

And, to be more adult, one had candy cigarettes. Even I recall these as a child in the late 70’s. I remember there were both candy and gum cigarettes. We always preferred the gum variety, as they were coated in powdered sugar under the paper wrapper, and one could blow out and it was like a puff of smoke. Of course, the gum’s flavor suffered for its sugar loss, but we didn’t care. It was fun to play ‘movie star’ and be glamorous. This, however, never made me want to smoke in real life. I have, on occasion, smoked filter less cigarettes for fun, but never more than possibly three individual cigarettes in one month, so I think I could safely say I was not addicted.
Candy even influenced our music. Candy Floss by British Terry Dene. Though somewhat lost on US audiences, as we call it “Cotton Candy”, at least we did in the 1950’s.

And the lovely Chordettes with Lollipop

Now, while searching for the Chordettes version of Lollipop, I found this modern version of a song called lollipop by Lil Wayne. I just put the link as you can decide if you want to watch it. HERE IT IS. I suggest, if you watch it, be cautious of your children in the room. It isn’t as racy as some, but what is amazing to me is the blatant objectification of women. What really burns me is how so many will go on and on about how women were ‘so oppressed’ in the 1950’s and yet feel fine that their teenage sons and daughters watch a rapper as he shows his great wealth. Why look at all he owns, many diamonds (which always surprises me when you consider the amount of young African children who literally die to mine them) big cars and, of course, tons of women, just for him. What a great message for our daughters, you value is in your looks, the amount of possessions you can get from your man. I would put Gentleman Prefer Blondes up against this any day, at least that has a cute moral ending. 
I honestly feel for the current and coming generations. I wish they could have the innocence and the beauty of the old days. Some may think having a door held for one is oppression, I think it good manners. And having a date feel the need to dress up and take you dancing, dancing where you can talk and where beautiful gowns,not bumping and grinding in a loud club that is so boring one needs overt amounts of alcohol and drugs to deal with it.
It might not seem cool now, but I know a girl would love to be treated like that. Why do you think the Disney Princess and the Vampire novels where the young man has ‘old fashioned ways’ and can’t actually do anything to you are so popular? Girls miss romance, but don’t realize it because there is no romance left in the world. They can’t really see it but somehow feel it missing. And the ‘romance’ of modern ‘chick flicks’ are often false tales of some ‘bad boy’ or someone who just happens to ‘turn himself around’. When, really, there are plenty of actual gentlemen in the world that girls could consider right off, but they may not be ‘cool’.
With good manners and consideration, women have lost their place of courteousness in men’s eyes. It is good that we can be seen to be equal in the work place, let’s not go away with that, but this subtle woman as object or something to be conquered attitude that silently permeates our society is rather scary, I think. I don’t know how I would feel if I had a teenage daughter, rather worried I would think.
I promised myself to try and stop the comparison of then and now and continue to focus on only the good of the old days, but in a way, its the good I find that makes the bad today seem so wretched. And somehow it all seems so propagated by a few simply to make money and keep us wanting more. But, I digress…
My point to mention candy today was to do a two or three part post in which I talk about candy making. Something I am now doing, to sell at a local fair with a friend. So, all of that to get to some fun candy recipes tomorrow. My mind does go off on tangents!
Well, tomorrow I will share some recipes and fun images of candy making. Get your candy thermometers out ladies and gents…
Happy Homemaking.

2 November 1956 “Happy Birthday to Me”

Today is my birthday. Though I will be celebrating tomorrow with friends and family, as that was the day my hubby could organize everyone. It is my second birthday in the 1950’s. It has, of course, made me appreciate the simplicity and rustic character of the cakes of old.
Today, with so many cooking/baking/reality shows, cakes are meant to be over the top and perfect to a fault. Fondant icing (not very tasty) for all its smooth qualities gives us cold and unfeeling perfection. I, however, want to relish in the quaint almost Folk Art quality of the cakes of yore.
I enjoy cakes that first off taste wonderful and take their ingredients and taste more into priority than how fanciful they look. With that said, some simple tricks can do wonders. And what may been seen today as gaudy or amateurish shows more live than over the top fondant cakes or quickly made grocery store cakes.
Why not match the punch, balloons and cake to the wallpaper? In fact, the rough texture often used in 50’s cakes makes it easy on the baker and yet has a wonderful look to it. Those fresh strawberries in and around that cake look scrumptious. The fun of some simple candies, swirls of the knife and a homemade ‘party favor’ out of an old toilet roll and crepe paper says someone cares and vintage fun!
As I shall be celebrating tomorrow, I won’t be posting. But, do think of me, I shall be thinking of you.
For now, enjoy this birthday themed episode of the Abbot and Costello TV show “Lou’s Birthday Party”.

This shall be added to Apron TV under Classic Tv if you want to watch it again.
Have a great day and Happy Homemaking.

1 November 1956 “Green Stamps, Where Did You Go?”

Glancing through a magazine the other day, this double page ad caught my eye.I slightly recall talk of green stamps, but personally have had no real recognition of them. They were available well into the 1980’s so there is not reason I should not recall them. Perhaps I have simply forgot. Yet, here in 1956, I would be familiar with them. Their having been in circulation since the 1930’s and really having started as early as 1896.
You would collect them up from your various retailers, grocery, gas station that sort of thing, and then place them in these booklets. There was then a place to redeem them for various items from small kitchen dishes to bikes and furniture.
It seems the original rewards were given to those who spent cash, as my advertisement says. I am not sure if this remained the incentive as the 60’s and 70’s came on or not.
S & H still exits HERE, but I don’t really understand the benefit. You may check it out and let me know, but the original use of stamps was promoting the use of cash for the small business, at least in the 1950’s. Obviously the company that owned and operated S & H made money, but it was sort of a fun system. I like the idea of collecting up the stamps and saving. It really helps to reinforce that aspect of savings that is almost completely gone in our digital/plastic money society.
If that promotion of spending cash could be brought back in some way for small business, what a boon it would be. There is much talk of ‘hurting small business’ today, but I can tell you, as a former owner of a small business, one of the most frustrating aspects was credit/debit. You have to pay a percentage of everything you sell to a customer when they use either of those cards. So, you sell something and you have to pay the company for the privilege of having their service. It is the bane and part of the destruction of the small business. Yet one rarely hears of it. We are simply told how ‘easy’ it is to use plastic. It is easy and easier to put money into already big pockets, but I digress.
The 1962 Pat Boone hit, “Speedy Gonzales” Mentions green stamps. If you listen to the song at the very end, when Speedy is talking, he mentions that they are ‘giving away green stamps with the purchase of Tequila’. Green stamps, it seems, was a part of the popular culture of the time.

In some states, however, they were seen as gambling. In these states stores who wanted to give them away would need to file for specific licensing and it was pricey. Therefore, some states simply had few places that offered them and so they would not have been a part of that states popular culture and vernacular. I wonder if many who lived in such a state but on the border of another more permissive state crossed the border to fill their Green Stamp books?
I heard that here in Massachusetts we had a plaid stamp, but not sure about that. As I said, I have no recollection of them. I don’t recall my mother having them, though she was a young wife in the 1950’s, but alas I cannot ask her what with her Alzheimer's.
So, who remembers them? What do you recall about them? Do any of you use the modern online version? I am curious to know.