Donald Trump values loyalty above all else – even it seems integrity.

When it comes to his supporters, no one has more loyal supporters than Trump. Believe me.

And that’s not fake news.

It’s difficult to explain the sheer strength of staunch loyalty these Americans show for the President, no matter how feckless or reckless he may be.

Join the Un-Switchables

His multiple failings seem to be ignored or forgotten particularly by people of faith who are abnormally faithful to him.

The Religious Right, the once-upon-a-time very definition of “family values”  have clearly chosen to overlook his personal failings and salacious, scandalous history in return for his backing on key social issues. Despite the daily foibles, mishaps and embarrassments, these Donald Devotees have dug in their heels. Hush money to a porn star? Pshaw… that storm will pass.

In fact it seems, they’d rather fight than switch.

Tareyton Cigarettes- Aggressive Loyalty

Their  stubborn and slavish loyalty reminds me of the very successful vintage ad campaign for Tareyton cigarettes that had a successful run in the 1960’s through the 1970’s. The target of the long running print and TV ad campaign was to create loyalty among smokers of Tareyton.

Like Trump, Tareyton – a brand of cigarettes produced by the American Tobacco Company –  was   a dark  horse in the tobacco industry  race hoping to challenge industry giants Phillip Morris’ Marlboro and R.J. Reynold’s Winston for the brass ring of more devoted customers.

Thanks to the catchy phrase, “ Us Tareyton smokers would rather fight than switch” and the distinctive ads featuring close ups of smiling models all sporting a black eye, Tareyton developed a fierce loyalty. And the memorable tag line became part of popular culture.

The slogan was so popular it even entered politics briefly with another Republican conservative when it was adopted by supporters of Barry Goldwater during the  1964 Presidential campaign for presidency. Perky  Goldwater girls went to Goldwater’s opponents events wearing bandages and sporting signs saying “We’d rather fight than switch.”

Don’t Be a Dummy

Like Tareyton cigarettes, Trump inspires aggressive loyalty.

But loyalty has its price.

Most Trump loyalists who have left the administration  have done so sporting their own black eye, their reputations and careers tarnished, by association with the Trump White House.

And like the blissfully unaware smoker loyal to something that would ultimately be dangerous to their health, so the blind Trump supporter acts against  their own self interest. You don’t need a surgeon general’s warning to see the impending danger of Trump.

Sadly, his supporters will watch their American Dream go up in smoke.

© Sally Edelstein and Envisioning The American Dream, 2018.

While thousands of new products and technologies will be shown off at the annual Consumer Electronics Show 2020 getting underway this week, I take a look back at the future technological wonders we dreamed about for the post-war years.

As a forward-looking people, Americans have fervently welcomed technology and invention into every aspect of our lives.

Especially during the deprivations and sacrifices of WWII, the glittering promises of a post-war world filled with unheard of conveniences and an abundance of tantalizing technological advances as presented by Madison Avenue gave hope to a war-weary public.

To learn about the future of the past, I take a look at a series of ads run by Seagram’s Canadian Whiskey entitled Men Who Plan Beyond Tomorrow. that ran during the early post-war years.

Tomorrows Automatic Sleep Comfort

Vintage ad 1945 Seagram’s Whiskey – Men Who Plan Beyond Tomorrow

Long before the smart thermostat The Nest, the futuristic home heating and cooling device that anticipates your temperature needs, the men of tomorrow envisioned automatic sleep comfort in your own home.

Twist the dials, and one control Panel will do all this: (1) Regulate window to admit filtered cool air at night…automatically close when you awake. (2) turn on your pin-point bed light and direct its rays to wherever you want them. (3) Slide closet door out of the wall and swing-out clothes, for your selection. (4) Raise mattress for ease in making the bed. (5) Turn on your favorite radio program. This built-in, automatic comfort is already planned for tomorrow’s homes!

The American in the post-war was going to live in a house built of glass, plastic and maybe a slab or two of steel or aluminum which was bought in a department store, delivered in a van and erected in a few hours.

It was radiant heated, this house; it stayed warm in subzero winter with the windows wide open, and in the summer, by a switch of a button it would be cooled with equal effectiveness. It was a fluorescent lighted domicile that was soundproof, dust-proof, termite-proof. And germ proofed ( by ultraviolet lamps).

And if it grew a little smudgy with use, its plastic-coated interior could be thoroughly cleaned with a damp cloth. It had a bathroom with a built-in sunlamp, a kitchen with automatic dishwasher, automatic laundry and ultra short wave diathermic cooking controls that did the dinner to a perfect turn while the little lady of the house took in a movie at the local theatre. ( assuming movie houses were able to exist in competition with home television.)

Commuting of Tomorrow

Vintage ad 1945 Seagrams

This 120 passenger car, lighted by cold cathode, will be air-conditioned and cleansed of dust, smoke and odors by static electricity.

The load-bearing inside walls will be plastic impregnated wood with an outside skin of aluminum. Announcer system tells passenger names of stations, brings news and music.

The Office of Tomorrow

Vintage Ad 1945 Seagram’s Whiskey- Men Who Plan Beyond Tomorrow

In a world before Skype and computers, the work world envisioned by the copywriters in this 1945 advertisement came pretty close.

Electronic controls will let the executive of tomorrow revolve the center section of his office to take full advantage of sunlight streaming through the glass walls. Face to face conferences through television will be held cost-to-coast, and intricate calculations of quotas or sales by territories will be turned out at the touch of an assistant’s finger. Records will appear as if by magic from files automatically operated in the electronic age ahead.

The man of the house was to commute to his office in a modest helicopter that any fool could fly and that cost him no more than what he paid for his pre-war medium-priced car. But if he had to drive his car into town, it really wasn’t such a bad deal. It was a featherweight job made of plastic and light metals, with a transparent plastic nose and a plastic sky view top that admitted the health-giving ultraviolet rays, shut out the bothersome infrared rays and thus permitted passengers to take on a rich coat of tan without the discomfort of sunburn.

Communications of Tomorrow

Vintage Ad 1946 Seagram’s Whisky -Men Who Plan Beyond Tomorrow

In 1946 who would have imagined a world of Bluetooth, smartphones, fax’s, and e-mail?  The Men of Tomorrow did…sort of.

“New wonders of speech and writing devices

A personal radio-telephone to connect you with almost anyone as you walk or drive. A dictating machine to type your letters as you talk into it. Coin-drop, change making facsimile machines on street corners to “accept” your handwritten telegram, and send it as is. All these by men who plan beyond tomorrow.

Tomorrows Private Walkie Talkie

Vintage Ad 1944 Seagram’s Whiskey Men Who Plan Beyond Tomorrow

When you’ve caught your creeful of trout in a stream miles from anywhere, you can reach your wife by your personal, portable radio-telephone…ask her to invite the neighbors for dinner….”

“Then driving home in your car, you can tell her just what time to expect you!…Fantastic? The portable radio telephone is already in use by our Armed Forces. Today’s weapon, tomorrow’s convenience!

Motorola had provided the army with Walkie Talkies so it was a natural assumption that they would catch on with the post-war civilian. It would be several decades before the ubiquitous cell phone entered our daily lives.

Now texting, tweets await the men who planned beyond tomorrow.

 Enjoy Top News and Sports Events as You Dine

Vintage Ad 1946 Seagram’s Whisky- Men Who Plan Beyond Tomorrow

Tomorrow’s box seats for the things you don’t want to miss can be your favorite restaurant, where, on full screens, the game is covered in sight  and modulated sound, play by play. Full-color television will bring you highlight news…the pageantry of parades…the performances of great stars. All on screens so placed that you can enjoy every scene without shifting your position.

And now in the comfort of our faux leather booth while dining at  Applebees we never have to miss an episode of Keeping Up With the Kardashians!

 Fresh Food Anywhere…Anytime

Vintage Ad 1946 Seagram’s Whisky- Men Who Plan Beyond Tomorrow

“Aerial freight trains of Tomorrow, a string of gliders towed by an air cargo plane, will fly fresh fruits, vegetables and regional delicacies from the south and far West, direct to winter-bound states. Each glider carries 2 tons, the mother ship 6, and safe landings will be assured through ground radio control.”

The Men who planned beyond tomorrow obviously weren’t locavores nor concerned about their carbon footprint.

Copyright (©) 2020 Sally Edelstein All Rights Reserved

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Prediction

Snarkily calling a rival a “meanie” and sulking about the condition of your hair are the whining of an insecure moody middle-school girl, not the president of the United States.  But a pouting tween Trump is what we are stuck with.

After complaining that he can’t wash his “beautiful hair” properly due to the drip drip drip shower heads, his administration has hair brain scheme to try and roll back showerhead regulations set in place by George HW Bush in 1992.

Does this follically challenged narcissist secretly aspire to be a Breck girl,  that retro advertising icon gal with the glowing golden locks who never had a bad hair day?

A Bad Hair Day

Since the pandemic began is there anyone who has not had a bad hair day since mid-March?

After this past week of hair-ravaging humidity coupled with an electric power outage contributing to my already COVID challenged locks my normally baby-fine hair frizzed out channeling a bad 1980’s perm.  Short of wearing a large picture frame hat to hide my harried hair, I reluctantly had to zoom in on an art event resembling a cartoon character who had stuck her finger in a socket one too many times.

Yet again my own childhood hopes of emulating a Breck Shampoo girl’s perfect hair were dashed.

Hair Dos and Don’ts

Vintage Breck Advertisement 1969

Vintage Breck Ad 1968

When I was growing up in the 1960s and 70’s no amount of weekly shampooing with that golden elixir that was Brecks, had ever produced for me that longed for glorious glowing hair portrayed in the popular ads. The popular girls all seem to benefit, but it somehow eluded me.

And now looking around the zoom meeting at the well-heeled crowd mingling with hipsters as they viewed and discussed the art, their common denominator was that somehow, miraculously, they all seemed to have perfectly coiffed,  disciplined hair.

Although Brecks has been unavailable except in the occasional Dollar Store, it seemed as if once again I was surrounded by a room full of Breck girls. Old insecurities reappeared and with it, remembrances of The Breck hair girl swirled in my mind.

Vintage Breck ad 1962

For 30 years the Breck shampoo advertising campaign featured as its centerpiece a romanticized portrait of a smiling girl with shiny, silky swirls of abundant hair. It both recorded and reinforced an idealized,  often unattainable American beauty ideal.

Vintage Breck Girl 1962

It didn’t matter if her hair was a beehive or a bouffant, a pixie cut or a Farrah-do, the Breck girls wholesome, and charming All-American looks never varied through the years. Always desirable yet alays chaste they were also always white.

Promises in a Bottle 

Vintage Breck Ad hair spray 1960

All shampoo ads dangled the promise that you’d be head over heels in love with the way your hair would shine and shimmer with the use of their product The results were always hair so gleaming, so glamorous, so silky smooth that romance was sure to follow.

Sure the  Halo shampoo girl may have had that look-again-look and Prell promised to make you look radiantly alive with hair he loves to touch, but the Breck girl was the hands-down envy of every American girl from the 1940s to the 1970s.

Vintage Breck ad 1967

Vintage Breck Ad 1974

As ubiquitous as a Pepsi Cola ad and just as bubbly, the Breck girl was hard to miss. The popular advertising campaign ran in every major woman’s magazine often taking up the entire back cover with her smiling golden visage.

All in The Breck Family

Vintage Breck ad 1947

In 1936, six years after Dr. John Breck founded Breck shampoo, his son Edward hired a local Springfield Mass. commercial artist Charles Gates Sheldon to draw women for his new ad campaign.

Vintage Breck ad 1947

Best known for his romanticized paintings of Hollywood celebrities for Photoplay Magazine, Sheldon utilized the same fanciful techniques for his Brecks girls.  His soft-focus portraits of real women were done in pastels, with otherworldly halos of light surrounding the glowing girls.

Sheldon favored “ordinary” women using neighbors and employees of the ad agency as models and early Breck Girls were often really just that- real Breck family members. A Breck advertising manager described Sheldon’s illustrations as “illusions depicting the quality and beauty of true womanhood using real women as models.”

Breck Shampoo ad 1945 illustration  Charles Gates Sheldon This summertime ad appeared in American Hairdresser a trade publication encouraging beauty shop owners to introduce Breck Hair treatments to their patrons. 1945

Vintage Breck ad

Twice As Nice

Vintage Breck ad 1962

Breck Shampoo Ad 1963 illustration Ralph Williams Williams
In 1957 the illustrator with the distinctive name, Ralph Williams Williams took over as the Breck artist when Sheldon retired, and his portraits are the ones most of us grew up with.

Vintage Breck Ad 1972

He preferred using professional models rather than Susie from accounting. Many of these Breck girls were also winners of the American Jr Miss contest that the company sponsored.  The ads featured such famous models as Cheryl Tiegs, Cybil Shepard  (Junior Miss from Tennessee) in 1968, Brooke Shields in 1974, and Farrah Fawcett in 1975.

The Girl in the Picture

“In 1968  Canadian women’s editors selected Nancy Leroy Pullen as the first Canadian Breck Girl. “She’s 23 married with a challenging job as a medical secretary.”

As women gained independence and challenged historical images of girlhood and womanhood Breck got hip and introduced “the Girl in the Picture” feature giving a personality to the idealized pictures. The Breck Girls were identified through the sponsorship of Americas Jr Miss Contest

“Pat Herron of Philadelphia. Pat loves modeling, needlepoint, ballet, and acting.”

Vintage Breck ad

A young Kim Basinger appeared with her mother. “Ann Basinger and her daughter Kim of Athens Georgia in 1971. Ann and Kim share many interests: dress designing, cooking, modeling in local stores, and long walks on the beach.

Vintage Breck ad 1974

In 1974, Donna Alexander was the first African American to be a Breck Girl. From East Orange NJ she was “New Jerseys Junior Miss for 1974 and represented her state and awarded a scholarship for academic achievement. Donna is now studying veterinary science at the University of Penn.”

Copyright (©) 20020 Sally Edelstein All Rights Reserved

In the puritanical Post-War years before there was Playboy Magazine, red-blooded ex-GI’s could still get an eyeful of racy pin-up girls just by glancing through their favorite magazine.

No, I’m not talking about Wink, Flirt, Eyeful, or any of the dozens of girlie pulp magazines hidden in the high, rear shelves of the local drug store, but right there in the mid-century family’s  Norman Rockwell covered Saturday Evening Post.  All-business, no-nonsense Fortune Magazine offered an eyeful too!

Vintage Springmaid Fabrics Ads 1948

These and several other mass-market magazines all ran a legendary series of advertisements put out by Springmaid Fabrics filled with enough risqué wording and sexy pin-up girls to rival those of illustrators Earl Moran and Pete Driben’s girlie covers on Twitter.

These ads generated both public adoration and puritanical outrage. It wasn’t so much the illustrations that caused a ruckus but the often salacious double entendre copy written by the owner of Spring Mills himself, Elliot White Springs.

The ads proudly boasted that the fabric company was now in the “hip harness and bosom bolster business.” Cheekily, they referred to ladies’ underpants as “ham hampers” and their brassieres as “lung lifters.” A post-war public already beset with Atomic jitters was now gravely warned against contracting such dreaded conditions as “rumba aroma,” “skaters steam,” and “ballerina bouquet” which only Springmaid miracle fabrics would prevent.

And yes, if you were wondering, this is the same Springmaid whose 300 count sheets you recently purchased for your guest bedroom at Bed, Bath and Beyond.

WWII Call to Service

Vintage Spring Cotton Mills Ad WWII 1943 illustration James Montgomery Flagg. A call to service

Before they embarked on this racy campaign, Spring Cotton Mills was enlisted in another campaign, recruited by Uncle Sam as a major supplier of cloth to the armed services during WWII.

One part of their important war work was developing a special fabric for camouflage. it was to be used in the Pacific to conceal ammunition dumps and gun emplacements,  but the Japanese learned to detect it because of its lack of jungle smells.

Spring Mills came up with a novel solution.

When the fabric was dyed it was also impregnated with a permanent odor of hibiscus, hydrangea, and old rubber boots. The deception was so successful that when Tokyo fell, the victorious invaders hung a piece of this fabric on a Japanese flagpole.

Underneath it All

Triumphant from their many success during the war, Spring Mills patented that process along with several other innovations and marketed them for use in women’s foundation garments.

Under the watchful eye of Elliot White Springs, the once-staid company took a more risqué direction.

The idea for the pin-ups got their start in 1947 with an in-house beauty contest- Miss Springmaid. The winners were taken to New York where they were drawn by leading illustrators that would eventually be used in advertising.

Skating on Thin Ice

Vintage Springmaid Fabric Ads (L) 1948 (R) 1949

The new post-war ads all began explaining the company’s many war triumphs and touting the peacetime use of its war-time fabrics: “….the fabric is now available to the hip harness and bosom bolster business as Springmaid Perker. The white with gardenia, the pink with Camellia, the blush with jasmine, and the nude, dusty. ”

It concluded, “If you want to achieve the careless look and avoid ‘skaters steam’ kill two birds with one stone by getting a camouflaged callipygian camisole.

Another ad from 1949  featured “luminous fabric named ‘shiner’ for ‘rearguard business’. You don’t have to feed your baby onions,” the ad informed the reader, “to find her in the dark even at a masked ball.”

Hot Stuff

Recalling a cover illustration of Esquire Magazine featuring 3 skaters warming themselves up before a performance, Springmaid acquired the rights to the illustration to use in one of their own ads for a fire-proof fabric that they had developed during the war.

This flame-resistant fabric originally developed for airplane ground crews and carrier fire squads was now known as Springmaid Kerpyr and was “available to the false bottom business as combed broadcloth. If you expected to attend a campfire picnic, a fourth of July barbecue, or warm yourself in front of a crackling fire, be protected by the Springmaid label on the bottom of your trademark.”

A Sticky Situation

Another of their war-time products was a special cotton fabric coated with emulsified rubber, cut into strips, put into rolls, and shipped to hospitals all over the world for use as adhesive tape.

The cloth known to the trade as Sticker became available to the false bottom and filibuster business.

“Don’t depend on buttons and bows, warned the copy in this 1949 ad, “but switch to Sticker and let Springmaid label protect you from the consequences of embarrassing accidents such as pictured in the ad. We stick behind our fabric and feel its tenacity so strong our only competition comes from a tattoo artist.”

Be Protected

During the war, “The Springgs Cotton Mills” was called upon to develop a crease proof cotton fabric. It was used wityh great success as a backing for maps, photographs and other valuable assettes. This fabric has now been further protected and made avaialble to the torso twister  trade.

After a convention, a clambake or a day at the Pentagon Building, you need not eat off the mantel if you have your foundation covered in Spring made Poker woven yarn.

Textile Tempest

As the ads heated up along with the hot-headed public’s reaction to them, Time Magazine reported on the tumult in the summer of 1948:

“Such lusty ballyhoo-for Spring Mills Springmaid fabrics- startled readers of the high-necked New York Times. It also drew a shocked cry of ‘bad taste’ from Advertising Age and protests from the New Yorker, Life and other magazines which refused to run other Springmaid copy until such phrases as ham hamper, lung lifter, and rumba aroma were deleted.”

“Not in months had advertising titups caused such a tizzy.”

Mad Men

Elliot Springs, at times characterized as emotionally unstable, clearly missed his calling in life as a showman or an adman on Madison Avenue. In a shameless bit of self-promotion, a self-published book he wrote was boldly hawked in each and every Springmaid ad:

“Elliot White Springs, president of The Springs Cotton Mills, has written another book,’ Clothes Make the Man’ which was indignantly rejected by every editor and publisher who read it. So he had it printed privately and sent to his friends for Christmas. After they read it, he ran out of friends, so there are some extra copies. It contains a veritable treasury of useless information, such as how to build cotton mills, how to give first aid on Park Avenue, and how to write advertisements. If not available at your local bookstore, send a dollar and postage to us.”

Who Puts the Broad in Broadcloth

Vintage Springmaid fabrics Ad 1952 We Put the “Broad” in Broadside featuring actress Vivian Blaine star of Broadways “Guys & Dolls” and MGM’s “Skirts Ahoy”

In addition, for those who loved the Springmaid campaign, one could order a set of the ads suitable for framing for just 25 cents. How about a new calendar featuring 15 titillating Springmaid ads sold at newsstands everywhere. For a mere quarter, you also could be the owner of a sheet of decals of 6 sprightly Springmaid girls.

If that weren’t enough, Springs had designed a sports shirt with 16 Springmaid girls printed in 6 colors on Springmaid broadcloth. For $3 they would gladly mail you one.

And underneath it all, what man wouldn’t lust after a pair of boxer shorts sprinkled with Springmaid beauties in dazzling color and provocative poses!

Vintage ad 1951 Men’s shorts printed with Springmaid Beauties

He may not have made much money from “Clothes Make the Man”, but in the great American tradition, the controversial ads paid off handsomely with record sales for Spring Mills.

Elliot White Springs crazy? Crazy like a fox!

Looking for ways to perk up your Valentines Day?

The internet is awash with sensual suggestions on how to spice up your romantic life, from erotic toys to lingerie but surprisingly nary a mention is given to the potent and passionate power of a cup of hot tea to revive your love life.

Learn how tea came to the rescue of a hopeless wallflower.

You Haven’t a Chance at Love

It was tragic indeed.

The heroine of this 1940 sob story, an advertisement for tea,  had been the victim of a cruel, heartless Valentines Day joke.

Yes sir, there would be no Dick for our listless sob sister Sue,

Tea to the Rescue

Lucky for her, her Mom had the solution.

Vintage Ad for Tea 1940

All she needed was some perking up and apparently, tea was the ticket.

No green drinks or energy smoothies for her! Tea worked wonders with all kinds of athletes and men in high pressured jobs and it would work wonders on girls too!

Vintage Ad for Tea 1940

Several cups of the hot cheery drink later and our heroine was quite the whirlwind! If tea is so good for athletes, heck it must be good for girls too!

Vintage Ad for Tea 1940

Tea had turned our Sue into a real temptress- she’d really learned how to get ol’ Dick to stand up and pay attention!

Happy Valentines Day!

Copyright (©) 2022 Sally Edelstein All Rights Reserved

On Memorial Day we pay homage to all the soldiers who didn’t come home. To all those we lost in WWII, Korea, Vietnam, Desert Storm, Iraqi, and Afghanistan, this Buds for you!

Memorial Day has the word “memorial” for a reason

More than a Monday spent at beaches, backyard barbecues, and blockbuster movies, Memorial Day is the day we remember and honor those who died serving our country.

Unlike Veterans Day it is not a celebration; it was intended to be a day of solemn contemplation over the high cost of freedom.

Come together

In this time of deep divisiveness and polarization, of mud-slinging and violence, it is more than ever important to stop, come together, and remember those who have given their all.

Today we pay homage to all the soldiers who didn’t come home.

To keep the American principles we love.

We Must Remember This

Vintage ad 1944 Illustration Fred Luderkens

During WWII the grimness of war wasn’t hidden from the public.

No series of ads brought the realities of war closer to home than  a memorable series that ran during WWII  by Nash/ Kelvinator.

During the war when Nash/ Kelvinator was busy with war work building Pratt Whitney Engines and sidelined from manufacturing home appliances and automobiles it still wanted to keep its name before the American public. Like many other companies occupied with war work and nothing to sell the consumer, they ran patriotic advertisements.

While most adverting reflected the red, white, and blue fervor of our nation, glorifying and supporting the war effort and our boys overseas, the Nash/ Kelvinator ads  dealt with the harsh gritty realities of war. The full-color ads graphically showed the pain, blood and fear of our military men and women.

The ads served not only as a tribute to the harshness, fortitude,  and bravery endured by our servicemen and women it was a tribute to the American Way and the American dream for which we were fighting for and for many, ultimately dying for.

“I’m fighting for freedom! I’m fighting for the things that made America the greatest place in the world to live in. . . . I want to come back to the same America I left behind me . . . where our way of living has always brought us new and better things . . . That’s what I’m fighting for.”

Told in the first person, the ads put the viewer in the mind of a courageous infantry soldier, sailor, army nurse, or medic in the midst of battle.

Vintage WWII ad 1944 Illustration Fred Luderkens

We took the beach head at dawn.

Our destroyers stood out to sea and threw the shells and our planes pounded hell out of their pill boxes, and then we came in…

But the wind and the tide tricked us.

The landing boats grounded off shore and we jumped over the sides and stood in the warm, shallow water and stared at the faraway beach and then at each other…and our eyes and our mouths were wide with fear as we waded in…

And we fell under their guns like wheat to the blade of the reaper. And though they said we could never take it…at dawn on the third day we took it.

I’m not fighting for myself alone….

I’m fighting for the buddies who fell beside me…for Joe and Pete and Jack and Harry.  For the flag they loved, and their kids back home, and the faith they held in their right to be free…for the future and the life that they gave up…for the things that make America the one country in all the world where a man can be somebody…where a man can go somewhere.

I know why I’m still out here.

I know whats got to be done

And I’m not coming back until I’m through with my knife and my gun…until I know that terrorism and the lust to kill and enslave are forever dead…until all men and women and children can live without fear…as free individuals in a land and a world, where there will always be liberty, equality and freedom of opportunity.

That’s what they fought and died for.

That’s what I’m fighting for.

That’s America.

Keep it that way until I come home.

Vintage WWII ad 1944 Illustration Fred Luderkens

He was a thorn in their side…

All morning long his accurate mortar fire kept them from forming up, broke the spearhead of their attacks…

So they went out to get him…

And finally a sniper shot him.

Then they laid down a cross fire that was death to defy. I know…because one of our men tried. But it was damned hard to lie there and hear him call “Mom”.. and cry and call “Mom” again like a kid who’d been hurt,he didn’t know just how or why

And all we could do was just lie there…and grind our teeth together and tighten our guts because each time he cried Mom…it tore out our insides.

I put a syrette  into his arm and he relaxed and his head fell back and his eyes were still wide  but I could tell he thought his mother was there bu his side as he left…

Listen America.

Pen your hearts, wives and daughters!

Open your pocketbooks fathers! Give your blood brothers and sisters!

So the freedom you want…

So the country you want…

So the future you want

Will be there when we come back.

I looked Into My Brothers Face

Vintage WWII ad 1943

Even now I can’t sleep.

All night long I heard again the words I said bending over the litters as the wounded came in…

“Where are you hurt soldier?”

Now, not even the blessed numbness we pray for in this place can keep me from living over and over again the moment when sponging away the dark red mud, I looked into my brothers face.

He said, “Don’t cry Sis.” And suddenly we were children again playing nurse and wounded soldier on the battlefield of our yard back home.

I grew up last night.

Out here, I’ve seen my share of war. Women strafed in the streets…hospitals bombed…ripped sheets, splintered beds, the living and the dead tumbled together. And I’ve stood it because I’m an Army Nurse and that’s my job.

But a nurse is a woman first and when someone is wounded something breaks inside and the war hits home.

Hits home to you and to the heart of America.

And then you know why were out here. Not for glory. Not for  new worlds to conquer. Not for great high sounding words…

But to make sure we keep on having the kind of America my brother and I grew up in…to make sure well always have a hand and a voice in helping to make it an even better land to live in. To make sure we’ll come home to the America we’ve always known…were we can make our lives what we want them to be…where well be free to live them in peace and kindness and security.

That’s what my brother and I are fighting for.

Vintage WWII ad 1944 Illustration Fred Luderkens

We’ll come through.

Your heart cracks and the weight on your back seems to push you under and you think you’ll drown but you don’t.

You carry on not for yourself but for the rest of the folks…for the family… the kids…for guys like these swimming around, circling around with night coming on and no ship to come home to and around and below only the empty sea.

For every drop of blood they spill…for every heart they break… for every tear that’s shed… for every ship that’s sunk… for every plane it costs…for every man of ours who’s lost…they’ll pay with ten of their own!

So the freedom we want…

So the future we want…

Will be there when we get back!

Vintage ad 1944 Illustration Fred Luderkens

I’ll come through again

I know I’ll come through because I’ve got to.

Because in the  Marines a man is trained to stand alone…trained to work, to dare, to take a chance, to go ahead on his own..not just for himself but his buddy, his platoon his regiment …his wife…his kids…the country he’s willing to fight and die for.

That’s the spirit that made America strong

That’s the spirit that’s going to win this war.

© Sally Edelstein and Envisioning The American Dream, 2022. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Sally Edelstein and Envisioning The American Dream with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

Teachers + guns does not = safety.

It’s bad math. And bad policy.

It’s a simple equation – arming teachers doesn’t add up to safety in the classroom.

Senator Ted Cruz gets an F in that subject.

In the wake of each tragic school shooting gun advocates argue the solution to the problem is to flood schools with guns. After Uvalde, many State Legislators are locked and loaded to fast-track legislation to permit teachers to carry guns in classrooms.

Ohio is set to enact a law that allows teachers and other staff members to be armed with guns after 24 hours of training. Governor DeWine is poised to sign the bill.

Should a teacher have the ultimate responsibility of protecting the security of their classroom? Would that teacher have ended up becoming an educator in the first place if they thought they would have to be required to carry a gun and face an active shooter?

A teacher did not enlist in the military.

Can you expect a teacher to be ready for a gunman bursting through a classroom door firing an AR 15- not even if they were packing a locked and loaded handgun on their hip.

As we saw in Columbine, at Parkland, and at Uvalde, armed professionals who have extensive training with firearms and whose only job is to protect students have failed to stop mass shootings.

What could possibly make us think that a teacher, someone we already expect to do so much, could do a better job?

Old Debates

The old debate about whether arming teachers would make schools safer has been raised since the deplorable 1999 Columbine shooting and trotted out after every tragic school shooting.

A decade ago, the 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School reinvigorated the push to get more guns in schools, because according to Larry Pratt the executive director of Gun Owners of America: “ If educators carried guns the massacre at Sandy Hook could have been avoided.”

With that twisted logic, then answering the question posed by this vintage illustration above is a big resounding “yes” teachers should carry guns in the classroom even shotguns.

Of course, this cartoon question taken from a 1948 advertisement for soundproofing ceiling tiles was posed in a more innocent time. The notion of a gun-totin’ teacher was so ludicrous it was meant to elicit a guffaw more than a raised eyebrow.

When this advertisement ran, long before mass shootings became the norm in America, the biggest threat a teacher worried about apparently was noise disturbance in the classroom.

“Should Teachers Have Shotguns to Get Quiet in the Classroom? the headline asks the reader innocently.
We don’t think so, because thousands of schools across the country have proved there’s an easier way to get quiet-
Sound conditioning with Acousti- Celotex.
Sound conditioning blots up noise …sharpens attention and …eases the nerves of pupils and teacher.

Despite what some assert, advocating for more guns to protect against mass school shootings, guns will not ease the nerves of pupils and teachers.

This debate distracts from the essential discussion on ways to curb violence in school before it begins.

Nope, more guns don’t add up to more safety in the classroom.

© Sally Edelstein and Envisioning The American Dream, 2022

The reactionary gasbags are at it again.

With great indignation they are whining “First the Feds came for our guns. Next, they came for our God. Now they are coming for our gas stoves!

Holy Rachel Ray! Chill out.

Can’t stand the heat -Get out of the kitchen!

While some Republicans are on a low simmer, many are boiling over in rage at yet another perceived overreach of government.

Dubbed stovegate, the outrage was triggered by comments that a member of the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission made. Floating the possibility of regulating or banning gas stoves because research suggests their harmful emissions pose health hazards, quickly ignited a heated debate.

Gaslighted?

Live Modern For Less. Vintage ad 1960s Tappan Gas Range

It’s been known for quite a while that gas stoves unleash indoor pollutants like soot, formaldehyde, carbon monoxide, and nitrogen dioxide.

The hazards of cooking with gas are hardly news, but the facts have been drowned out by the well-oiled gas industry and its extensive gas crusades.

For nearly a century the benefits of this magic fuel have been well publicized, completely ignoring the idea of what it might mean to combust a fossil fuel in our home sweet home.

Gas was your quick, clean, economical Servant. 1937 ad

Gas the Wonder Fuel. Vintage ad 1941 American Gas Association.

Vintage 1947 American Gas Association ad

Vintage 1952 American Gas Association Ad

In the 1950s, Gas Industry utilized celebrities to promote their product. Esther Williams appears in this 1950s ad.

1958 Vintage ad American Gas Association

A recent study revealed that one in 8 cases of asthma in US children is because of the emission of toxic chemicals from gas stoves. Vintage Children’s cookbook

Vintage ad 1962 American Gas Association

Despite its glamourous portrayal, the methane emissions from gas stoves in the US are equal to adding 500,000 cars to the road each year. Vintage ad 1964 American Gas Association

Fuel to frug by. Gas was the hip, with -it fuel for swingers. Vintage 1966 American Gas Association

The Art of the Spiel

Over the last hundred years, gas companies have engaged in an all-out campaign to convince Americans that cooking with a gas flame is superior to electric, bombarding us with ads portraying gas stoves as a desirable, cleaner, and healthier way to cook.

The Modern Miracle Fuel

Vintage Magic Chef Gas Stove ad 1920s

When gas stoves first appeared after the turn of the 20th century they were in fact nothing short of a miracle contributing enormously to easing the exhausting work of the home cook.

In 1920 my grandmother Sadie was a newly married bride eager to join the up-to-date young modern set that was defining the postwar world. Her racy Packard ran on gas and so would her home!

Along with a new husband, and a new apartment in a swanky elevator-operated building on fashionable Eastern Parkway Brooklyn, Sadie had an up-to-the-minute gas stove. The smooth, white, painted steel appliance with the elegant slender legs that emphasized the lighter mechanics of gas appliances would replace the heavy, ornate black iron coal stove of her Williamsburg childhood.

For a cooking-challenged new wife, the ease and efficiency of a gas range would help her take the guesswork out of baking and easily help her provide her husband with those man-pleasing meals she read about in pages of the women’s magazines.

With no more soot or ashes to worry about, her new gleaming Princess Ware pots and pans would stay bright when she cooked with a clean blue flame. And the whole range cleaned as easily as a China plate!  Best of all it would give her plenty of leisure time to shop and attend her various Women’s Clubs.

Modern all the way

The history of how the miracle of gas cooking campaign that made this source of fossil fuel combustion in our homes seem completely safe, has been going on for a century.

By the roaring twenties, coal was becoming as old-fashioned as the horse and buggy and Mrs. Modern would equip her kitchen only with the most contemporary gas or electric appliances. This was an era when there was a widespread transition from wood and coal-fueled stoves and electric and natural gas stoves vying for the public’s loyalty.

Home use of gas once provided a very small market for manufactured gas until the turn of the 20th century. Manufactured gas was the dominant fuel in the early U.S. but during the 19th-century natural gas supplanted it. Though there was no shortage of gas companies, their product was used primarily for lighting city streets, public places, and gas lighting at home.

The gas companies soon began promoting other domestic uses for their fuel especially cooking.  With stiff competition from the Electric companies, the gas lighting companies allied themselves with gas appliance manufacturers, forming the “ Commercial Gas Association” in 1905.

This new organization put its considerable energy into merchandising the fuel, developing new appliances, and creating showrooms and displays for demonstrations to the curious public. A national advertising campaign jointly sponsored by gas companies and appliance manufacturers began in 1912 promoting the many uses for its gas.

By 1918 it became the American Gas Association when it merged with American Gas Institute and with that its future was assured in spite of the serious competition from the powerful electric industry.

Vintage ad 1930s

By the time cooking by gas and electricity had come in, so had the advertising industry and they worked in tandem.

During the 1930s the AGA formed the National Advertising Committee to oversee an aggressive nationwide advertising program promoting gas for cooking, refrigeration, and home heating.

1936 Vintage ad

The American Gas Association wanted to imprint the idea in people’s minds that cooking with gas was an economical servant and the most effective way to feed the family.

Relieving women of burdensome chores, they wanted to convince the American housewife that cooking with gas would become a joy instead of a job. Not only that,  they assured m’lady “it was a savings on woman power- the economy of time steps and wear and tear the relief from kitchen drudgery and glorious luxury of greater leisure comfort and health.”

Vintage ad 1937

Imagine an appliance that promised to bring you happiness three times a day! That was the promise of an Estate Gas range in 1937.

Welcome a modern gleaming Gas range into your kitchen. A willing smiling friend that brings you more happiness morning noon and night.

Natural Gas Natures Perfect Fuel

Vintage 1930s gas company brochure

By the 1930s the industry embraced the term “natural gas” which gave the impression that its product was cleaner than any other fossil fuel. “The discovery of Natural Gas brought to man the greater and most efficient heating fuel which the world has ever known,” boasted one 1934 ad.

Just as milk would one day be aggressively sold to America as Nature’s perfect food, so gas was sold as “Natures perfect fuel.”

Americans Were Cooking With Gas!

Vintage ad 1937 American Gas Association

It was also during the 1930s that the industry adopted the slogan “Now we’re cooking with gas.”

The phrase was coined by Carroll Everard “Deke” Houlgate who worked in public relations for the American Gas Association, hoping to convince people to use gas, rather than electricity, to power their kitchen stoves.

Instead of going the usual advertising route of the period — print advertisements in newspapers and magazines, radio commercials, and spots running before the latest Hollywood movie release — Deke chose a different direction.

He planted it with Bob Hope’s writers who then wrote it into one of his radio scripts.

“Now we’re cooking with gas” quickly became a catchphrase for the wisecracking Hope who repeated it in both radio and movie performances. Others adopted the phrase, adding it to scripts for popular radio shows like the “Maxwell House Coffee Time” and “The Jack Benny Program.”

Before the start of World War II, the phrase was already American slang, thanks to the radio programs, movies, and even a Daffy Duck cartoon where it was spoken to indicate positive progress or achievement.

There was no going back as nature’s perfect fuel became embedded as the desirable best way to cook.

New Freedom

Vintage ad 1945 American Gas Association

The future of Gas cooking would continue to grow after WWII.

Urging women to begin planning their new post-war dream kitchen built around one of those beautiful post-war magic gas stoves,  gas kitchens were promoted as “ Freedom Gas Kitchens.”

Seventy-Five years later freedom kitchens take on a different meaning, as Republicans bemoan that their freedoms are being ripped out of their kitchen.

And by God, they are locked and loaded to protect them.

Copyright (©) 2023 Sally Edelstein All Rights Reserved

Forget Kale, kids, it’s time to dive into a pint of “Ben and Jerry’s” for that boost of good health.

For those like me with a weakness for the cold, creamy concoction, that bit of news is music to my ears. Ice cream has always been my go-to food for both comfort and celebration and now if it turns out to be not only good but good for you, I couldn’t be happier.

MSNBC’s Nicole Wallace seemed to agree.

That was my takeaway the other day when an effusive Nicolle Wallace reported on the latest story causing controversy.

For once it had nothing to do with Donald Trump or the Republicans.

The latest scoop was, she reported, ice cream is healthy. Beaming, this self-described ice cream devotee admitted this was her favorite story to report.

Our ice cream lover-in-chief Joe Biden.

Ice cream lovers worldwide were rejoicing, as waffle cones were licked, and pints of cookie dough ice cream were devoured.

Here’s the scoop.

A recent article in the Atlantic suggested that indulging in your favorite flavor of ice cream might be healthy. The article states: “Studies show a mysterious health benefit to ice cream. Scientists don’t want to talk about it.”

The story, which is causing controversy, is a deep dive into how nutritional science works — for better and for worse. It begins by looking at Harvard research from 2018 showing that diabetics who consumed half a cup of ice cream a day had a lower risk of heart disease. And it notes that other studies had drawn similar conclusions.

But truthfully, ice cream as a health food is not news.

That bit of nutritional information has been bandied about for decades.

Ice Cream For Health

Vintage ad 1927

A hundred years ago, it was touted as a necessary and nutritious food for children and oldsters alike. Served at the best hospitals and sanitariums it was highly recommended by doctors and dieticians.

In fact an ad from 1921 suggested you “Eat a dish of Ice Cream Every Day” because it contained vital and important nutrients. As healthy for you as a juicy, T Bone Steak!

“Famous specialists have recommended the use of ice cream for years back. One quart contains the same amount of protein as half a dozen eggs or 2 pounds of beefsteak.”

I Pledge Allegiance

Vintage ad 1927 A pledge you could trust

In the 1920s the Research Council of the Ice Cream Industry ran a series of advertisements explaining the benefits of their wholesome product, their logo stating proudly  Ice Cream For Health.

At the end of each ad, they offered their pledge: “Look for this emblem. Through this pledge to you, the Research Council of the Ice Cream Industry assures you of a safe and wholesome product.

“What Greater Tribute Could Be Given to a Health Food”

Vintage Ad 1927 Ladies Home Journal

“Ice cream heads the list of wholesome nutritious appetizing food in hospitals and health sanitariums. Doctors and dietitians know that it is a health food full of nutrition. Nutrition experts recognize it as an accepted way of giving children pure rich milk and cream.

What greater tribute could be given a health food.

 

Vintage ad 1926 Ladies Home Journal

“It is fortunate the food they love is so good for them.

But there is food that boys and girls and grownups too just love and that’s good for them-  ice cream  The ice cream of today contains only pure rich milk sugar and wholesome ingredients.

It was a great source of milk, at a time when the word milk did not set people into lactose intolerant shock.

Nature’s Most Perfect Food

Milk was once dubbed nature’s most perfect food.

Milk was a miracle, the stuff of magical fairy tales. In the world of nutrition, if meat was King, milk took on the notion of a Messiah.

The gospel of milk as proselytized by the zealous devout domestic scientists, that milk was nature’s perfect food, was established in the dark days of WWI. So pure, so white, so wholesome, a bottle of milk was a bottle of health, and children needed to drink at least a quart a day.

Milk they said would be the key to greater health of this generation and future generations. Because scientists had recently found that milk contained Vitamin A which caused growth, mothers regarded it as a magic potion.

Books and articles appeared, rhapsodizing about Milk as the miracle food.

The physical changes that can be brought about through the use of milk within a short period of time would be considered unbelievable by the average individual.

Yet thousands of people throughout the country are ridding themselves of grave ailments by the proper methods in the use of milk.

Milk possesses energy-building powers greater, perhaps than any substance in the world. It brings quick reinforcement of red, tissue-building disease-fighting blood, to the weakened body and gives it the power to overcome practically any ailment.

 

But soon this miracle food was not just for babies anymore, but an essential drink for everyone. It was so vital a food that the domestic scientists strongly preached the necessity of having a glass of this miracle elixir at every meal, with every glassful tasting better n’ the last.

And a wholesome dish of ice cream was a wonderful source of this miracle food.

Stay as Sweet As You Are

Vintage ad 1941 Corn Products Refining Company “The additional food energy value of dextrose is still another reason for the frequent serving of ice cream to young and old alike.”

But milk wasn’t the only health component of ice cream.

Sugar was a health component too. And not just any old cane sugar would do- Dextrose- good ol American Refined Corn syrup was the added health bonus for this confection.

This ad from 1941,  explained that ice cream is a genuine “food.”

It yields fuel for body heat and muscular energy.  Good ice cream is improved by Dextrose sugar. Better ice cream included dextrose. This pure white sparkling sweet sugar which is the chief “fuel of the human body does more than add quick food energy value to ice cream. Dextrose enhances delicate flavors and textures.

Intelligent parents who realize the food value of ice cream encourage children in their enjoyment of this delightful food treat.

© Sally Edelstein and Envisioning The American Dream, 2023. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Sally Edelstein and Envisioning The American Dream with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

Was the first Thanksgiving truly a pow-wow-worthy feast? Most of us associate the holiday with happy pilgrims and Indians sitting down to a big feast. It did happen once. It would be good to say this friendship lasted a long time but this was not the case. Vintage illustration 1940 advertisement Ballantine Ale

Racial stereotypes and historical inaccuracies have been as traditional a Thanksgiving fixture as melt-in-your-mouth. candied yams and marshmallows, though nowadays not quite as easy to swallow.

American mythology about that first Thanksgiving would have us believe that once that last slice of pumpkin pie was devoured, a peace pipe was smoked and the happy Pilgrims and contented Indians lived happily ever after.

There is a lot more to the story of Indian- Puritan relations in New England than in the Thanksgiving stories we heard as kids.

Although the Wampanoag Indians and Pilgrims joined for a meal of Thanksgiving in 1621 the Indians didn’t fare so well at other Thanksgiving observances.

The second generation of Pilgrims got greedy for land and Indians had to fight for survival.

Within 50 years the Wampanoag would no longer be a tribe. Indians living near settlers would be killed or die of disease.

Time Travel For Thanksgiving

Vintage advertisement Statler Hotels 1947

Along with our school books, mid-century advertising served up a heap big helping of offensive stereotypes.

In this post-war ad for Statler Hotels, we are introduced to Pilgrim Pete and his tomahawk-wielding pal.

Vintage ad Statler Hotel 1947

The politically incorrect Puritan travels into the future of 1947 where he checks into the hotel with his best bud affectionately called Redman. The Indian who is never identified by name, has obviously wandered off the reservation landing in a swanky room at the Statler.

The copy does imply that things were not all quiet after the first Thanksgiving. Apparently, poor Pete has been dodging the savage who has been on the warpath since 1624.

But they call a truce every year to celebrate Thanksgiving.

Really?

In the years that followed that first Thanksgiving in 1621, more English settlers came to Plymouth and they were not in need of help from the Indians as were the original Pilgrims.

Mistrust started to grow and the friendship weakened.

The relationship deteriorated and within a few years, the children of the people who ate together at the first Thanksgiving were killing one another in what came to be called the King Phillips War.

At the end of this genocidal conflict most of the New England Indians were either exterminated, living as refugees among the French in Canada, or sold into slavery in the Carolinas by the Puritans.

Vintage ad Statler Hotel 1947

A pious Pilgrim, Pete the Puritan says grace before the festive meal, with blessings all around.

Of course, the real pilgrims showed little grace when it came to tolerating other religions, telling Indians that their religion and customs were wrong.

In 1641 a raid against the members of the Pequot tribe in Connecticut was successful and churches declared a day of “thanksgiving” to celebrate.

During this feast, the decapitated heads of Natives were kicked through the streets of Manhattan. Many towns in New England held Thanksgiving days to celebrate victories over the natives.

Ugh!

Vintage ad Statler Hotels 1947

Statler Hotels prided itself on ensuring its guests had all the comforts of home, so naturally, our Indian pal is pictured sleeping with a teepee.

Historical inadequacies in Thanksgiving stories and images reflect a lack of knowledge about the native people. The Wampanoag people who lived near Plymouth at the time of the colony’s founding did not use teepees and did not wear elaborate feathered headdresses yet these features often show up on the sets of Thanksgiving plays and children’s art projects.

Vintage ad Statler Hotels 1947

Statler Hotels, the first great chain of hotel-keeping offered affordable rooms for business class for not a lot of wampum.

E.M. Statler considered the Henry Ford of hotels, opened his first hotel in Buffalo NY in 1908 introducing many innovations in services and conveniences for a large and growing business travelers, bridging the gap between luxury and second-rate hotels. His innovations included a bath with every room, closets instead of hooks or standing wardrobes, and electric lights in that closet.

Vintage ad Statler Hotels 1947

Racist? And How!

Something to be thankful for we don’t have to view these offensive ads anymore….there has been some Pilgrims progress.

Happy Thanksgiving to all!

Copyright (©) 2023 Sally Edelstein All Rights Reserved