21 April 1951 “Movie for a Sunday: Young Wive's Tale”

Well, here we are again another Sunday. I hope you enjoy today’s film. It features a very small roll for a future star Audrey Hepburn.

The film is about the post-war housing crisis and in this scenario it leaves a shy woman to have to share a house with two couples.It touches on many of the early 1950’s issues of the housing needs of a returning army of soldiers and the vast increase in population due to the Baby Boom.

I hope you enjoy and have a lovely Sunday. And don’t forget to send me any guest posts you would like to share with our growing family here.

Happy Homemaking.

19 April 1950 “Guest Post: Frugal Foodies Will Favor This Frosty Cake”

Frugal Foodies Will Favor This Frosty Cake

This weekend I had a chance to try out a cake I’d wanted to try for a long time. A Frosty Snowberry Cake, from a 1950s-era Pillsbury Bake-Off book. The “snowberries” are actually cubes of jellied cranberry sauce that are folded into the batter. The ingredients were the most basic of staples: flour, sugar, egg whites, shortening, and baking powder. By a happy coincidence, I even had the ingredients that I don’t have every day: light corn syrup and cream of tartar for the boiled frosting. Vintage kitchen implements that have gone unused in the time we’ve been here were finally pressed into service. A glass double boiler. Cake pans with metal slider releases.

Photo from the 1953 Pillsbury Bake-Off Cookbook.

Cakes seemed healthier in the 1950s than they are today. No pudding in the mix. No preservatives to give the cake the longevity of Twinkies. My son Wyatt said the cake was “chewy.” I think he meant “bready.” The cake didn’t quite look like the picture shown here, as cakes that come out of our $99 oven tend to look like the Metrodome after it collapsed. However, it scored major points for satisfaction. The cranberry sauce gave the cake the taste and texture of a jelly roll. I didn’t have food coloring to tint the frosting pink, so I added a pinch of raspberry Jell-O instead. It did the job just fine.

Here’s the recipe for Frosty Snow-berry Cake, which was the Senior Winner in the 1953 Pillsbury Bake-Off. Mrs. Marguerite Marks of Camden, New Jersey did herself proud!

This great guest post was brought to you by Susan at Poultry & Prose.

Happy Homemaking.

18 April 1950 “A Question, Shall We Share?”

I have been so busy of late. I have a big project for my printmaking course coming due. We are doing some major changes in our yard and as it is Spring am trying to get my planting in as I can. We are also preparing our home to be a Summer Rental this year so have been very busy. With that business has come some guilt. I felt bad leaving all of you out of it and then I thought, What if they share with me and others?

So, I propose this: If there are very many of you left out there, my followers, how would any of you feel about guest blogs. I have done a few in the past, but as I get many letters from readers saying they like to come to my site to just spend some time, why not make it a place we can all share. You could post a blog here and of course link back to your own site. But, in a way, make more of a community link or hub here. This way I could still do various things like building up pins or adding new fun links in my boxes on the page to great vintage free books etc. Does this seem of interest to any of you?

Let me know, because I would simply get your email submission, look it over and post it. Then the pages could be themed that day to what you are writing about.. Of course I will still write as well, but being so busy it takes time for me to get all my research and thoughts into a somewhat readable format.

I have already received a guest blog submission and will post that tomorrow. I think this shall be quite fun.

Now, you can go HERE to submit. I will also put a submit button on main page or you can simply email directly to apronguestblog@gmail.com

Happy Homemaking and Happy writing. Let’s get some great articles from you, the readers!

-50sgal

7 April 1950 “Movie for a Sunday with Mickey Rooney: “He’s a Cockeyed Wonder”

Today’s Movie for a Sunday is a small often forgot comedy starring MIckey Rooney and Terry Moore, “He’s a Cockeye Wonder”

“Freddie Frisby is informed by Bob Sears that he can't marry Bob's daughter, Judy, as he is only a fumbling failure as an orange picker, and Judy can do better. Freddie's prospects brighten up when he learns his uncle has left him his entire estate, but he learns that the estate consists entirely of a magician's paraphernalia. He decides to become a magician with Judy as his assistant, but while they are rehearsing, they are kidnapped by a band of payroll robbers.”

I hope you enjoy a good comic romp on this Sunday afternoon. I am a little late in posting only because I was out Thrifting and Antiquing with a friend today. I will share my finds on my next post.

Enjoy your Sunday and as always, Happy Homemaking.

4 April 1957 “ Nifty Fifties Bathrooms: Colors Galore and Great Color Guide to Redoing or Recreating a Vintage Bath”

  When bathrooms began to become the norm for the middle class most fixtures were available only in white. There are some lovely examples of hand-painted china type but would have most likely been in a more well to do home.
These lovely delicate blue and white pieces would have most likely adorned new bathrooms in an English Country house of the upper classes or the more well to do suburbs of the upper middle class.
For the most part an early bathroom would have had only white porcelain options.

1 April 1955 “Beetle Stocking Mender & Perfect Rye Bread”

I had thought of a few funny April Fool’s pranks I could play on my reader’s today, but a friend of mine shared this one with me. So, it being vintage, I felt it worth sharing with you. It is from a 1930’s April Magazine and of course was meant to fool the reader. What a rush of excitement there must have been at first look thinking, at last a way to mend my stockings, the money I shall save! Of course as light dawns on the reality of the situation you cannot help but chuckle to yourself. So, there you go, Vintage April Fools Day to you!
Now, onto some lovely vintage bread making:

31 March “Movie for an Easter Sunday”

I hope all who celebrate are having a lovely Easter Sunday, and for those who don’t I hope they have a joyous day as well.
Today I thought our Sunday Movie should be the sequel to the 1950 comedy hit “Father of the Bride” .It is the 1951 comedy film, “Father’s Little Dividend”. Directed by Vincente Minnelli and starring Spencer Tracy, Joan Bennett, and Elizabeth Taylor. This film is just fun to watch. For those of us to whom the 1950’s is a visual joy, you will like it for fashion and interiors and general attitudes. It is fun to see the interiors of the homes and how the young couple get their little suburban home to prepare for the little one on the way. It is overall just a happy fun film that makes me think of Easter and Spring for some reason. I suppose the joy of Spring, New Birth and general excitement I get from looking at vintage interiors just mingle well in this film to make it feel very Fresh and Hopeful. So, I hope you will enjoy it as well.
And as a fun little treat, I have included a short little silent 8mm short of an Easter Home movie. It is of guests arriving dressed for the holiday and the lovely table setting. It is a fun comparison to the film to see what was happening in the real world as well at the same time the film came out. They actually seem rather comparable.
First the little home movie, then our feature film. Happy Easter and Happy Homemaking.

29 March 1959 “Connie Converse, the Lost Musician of the 1950’s: How Sad & How Lovely”

  Every so often, as I sift through my ephemera of the 1950’s, I come upon little moments that feel so poignant and almost sad. This can manifest itself in so many ways. In this instance, with Connie Converse, it made me pause and think, “If only Connie had been been in this generation, her music would have been able to find an outlet, probably through self promotion on YouTube. The vast variety of musical styling's today would have found a place for her wonderful folksy, bluesy hybrid sound of music. She was an artist a bit early for her time and so went for the most part unnoticed. Her story, as well, is both romantic and tragic.

Before we go any further let’s hear a tune by this lost and unappreciated artist of the 1950’s. “The empty pocket waltz”



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28 March 1954 “How Do You Like Your Eggs? Classic Celebrities Share Their Favorite Way”

  Though I haven’t any information on Doris Day’s favorite use of eggs, I do have some other fun information from actors of old.
First off we have Jimmy Durante. He loves his eggs Raw, thank you very much. And we love him any way. Here, in 1955, he has his own show. And here is a full episode featuring the lovely Carmen Miranda.

Now, let’s look at some more famous people and their favorite way to enjoy those over abundant fruits of Easter: Eggs.

26 March 1950 “Spring Easter Fashions: Shoes and Hats and Dresses, Oh My!”

To continue are trip towards Easter this week I though I’d share a fun mix of ladies Spring/Easter fashions. What better way to shake those Winter Blahs then through dreamily imagining ourselves in petticoats, floral hats and immersed in a world of manners and comforting norms of fashion.

Just there, a gentleman holds the door for you. You bring your gloved hand up to protect your Easter bonnet as you enter, hoping he catches that bit of embroidery you did at the wrist of your gloves. Grandmother helped you with her ‘old time’ know how, of course. Now you are in and the men and boys rise to their feet. Oh, look, one offers you a glass of punch. You take it with a Thank you, and move to sit enmeshed in a sea of skirts, hats, and quiet gossip with the other ladies.

“What a darling hat” one says.

“Oh, my! whatever was she thinking in wearing that flower pot on her head?” whispers another

The local orchestra begins and the Spring Easter dance is underway. Hopefully the best the club has had to offer in years. You better get your dance card ready, it’s just pinned there to your groisgrain waistband. You spent last night, hair in curlers, laughing over coffee and snacks with  your friends, gluing little silk flowers to it. Dreaming of whose name would be writ upon it.

Now, there is dancing to be had, finger sandwiches, and later the Easter Egg hunt for the little ones on the lawn and egg races for young ladies and gentleman. Maybe Beaumont Mathews will take you out in a punt on the river and splashing you playfully, try and steal a kiss. Best look out, Mother’s watchful eye is never far away.

The day has ended and you drop lazily onto your little tufted stool before your vanity. You check yourself in the mirror, hold your dance card to your heart, then secret it away in your little ormolu dressing box that was mother’s when she was a girl. Ah, Spring, it has arrived at last…a gal can dream, can’t she?

Now, onto the Fashions...