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Wouldn’t You Really Rather Have A Cadillac?
Cadillac Standard of the World (L) Vintage Cadillac Ad 1953 (R) Vintage Cadillac Ad 1958 With the conviction of a car salesmen selling a wouldn’t you rather have a Cadillac, Mid-Century Americans were...
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Beach Club Paradise on Parade
L) Vintage Ray Ban Sunglasses Ad 1960 (R) Vintage Jantzen Swimsuit Ad 1950s, illustration by Pete Hawley Preening In the summer of 1960 the glitter and glamor of my Grandmothers beach club often...
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The Cabana Set Boys of Summer
Vintage Cabana Set ads (L) Mc Greggor Sun Wear 1948 (R) Catalina Sport Sets 1954 as worn by Norm van Brocklin and Elroy “Crazy Legs” Hirsch who formed one of footballs greatest passing teams Beach...
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Beach Club Paradise on Patrol
Life Guards During the 1950′s and 60′s my grandmother was in possession of prime beach club real estate on a narrow spit of land on suburban Long Island. A much coveted corner cabana at the El Patio,...
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Beach Club Paradise Protected
Summer beach traffic during the Cold War had its own special flare. The huge-wrap around picture window in the rear of my Grandmothers Cadillac offered unexcelled visibility to see and be seen,...
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Cold War Defrosted
Cover Illustration from Colliers Magazine 10/27/51 This Cold War era magazine imagines a “Preview of a War We Don’t Want” a cold war what-if, featuring Russia’s defeat and US occupation 1952-1960....
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When the GOP Really Was Grand
The Man Who Feels Right About the World! Vintage image from Airfoam Ad 1946 Fact or Fiction It may sound like a fairy tale but once upon a time the GOP really were…well, pretty Grand! Today when the...
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Sun, Sand and JFK
The sizzling summer of 1960 was dominated by the equally hot Presidential race between John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon. Earlier in the summer Kennedy had boldly beckoned us to hitch our wagon to his...
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JFK’s Inauguration: A Colorful Account
TV and John Kennedy were made for each other. The Kennedy years stand out as a time bracketed by TV milestones. In the years between the Great Debates and the network coverage of the assassination and...
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Christmas- The True Festival of Lights
The coincidence of Hanukkah and Thanksgiving this year has set things off balance, and finally given the Jews an edge in the Festival of Lights. Normally, while Jews across the country begin...
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Heating the American Dream
As the winter chill begins to set in and we reluctantly turn up the costly heat, its hard to imagine that in mid century America oil was still the biggest bargain in American’s budget. The second...
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Remembering Pearl Harbor
December 7, 1941 Just as 9/11 is a marker for this current generation, and November 22 was for mine, Sunday December 7, 1941 was a where-were-you-when-kind of day that was seared permanently in the...
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Remembrance of New Years Eve Past Pt II
New Years Eve Party The countdown to my parents 1959 New Years Eve party had begun. On the cusp of the space age my parents prepared for a new years Eve Party that would send them soaring into the...
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A Winter War Time Romance
WWII Vintage Illustration 1945 Pruett Carter Illustrator The winter of 1944 was a blustery one. ..but it would soon turn torrid. Christmas break, my 18-year-old college freshman mother Betty hopped on...
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Winter War Time Romance PTII
Vintage ad WWII Woodbury Soap 1944 Moonlight Becomes You “The breathless night. The moon burning on its billion watt radiance. Multiplying mystery, quickening the pulse. Stirring up a suddenly sweet...
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Crisco and Kosher Kitchen Culture
Vintage advertisement Crisco 1915 Once upon a time to a transfixed nation, trans fats were not the troublesome substance we now view them as but were the very symbol of scientific progress. If the FDA...
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Passover Tears
Like Johnson & Johnson’s Baby Shampoo, Lipton’s Onion Soup Mix produced no tears. That dehydrated marvel of mid-century cookery was a staple in my Mothers repertoire. Mom joined the legion of...
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A Girl and Her Girdle Pt II
“The Story Begins in the Middle” Vintage 1955 ad Warner’s I figured out very early on that every female had a figure flaw. But luckily when it came to figure problems a slew of manufacturers had it all...
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Kitchen Garden All Year Round
Thanks to war-time research and American know how, growing up in suburban mid-century America I would be the happy recipient of a veritable bushel basket of sun-kissed, vitamin rich fruits and...
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The Model Bride and Illustrator Jon Whitcomb
Like most mid-century girls, Bitsy Bendix longed to be a bride, convinced that the basic occupation of virtually every girl was choosing a man to marry. But for bachelorette Bitsy the next best thing...
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