Might Bum You Out Scale... 1-10...
1
A few weeks ago, Hub Man went to some yard sales. He brought me home a few treasures. Four old magazines. One from the 1940's during the war and three from the 1950's.
I spent several hours on Saturday reading through them very carefully. It was quite the education, to say the least.
Here's the cover of one of them:
[album 65561 Life1.jpg]
The story of two brothers who flew their plane around South America was inside. I noticed that the articles in these magazines were.... comprehensive. Much longer than most articles today. One wonders if ADD is genetic or if it has been conditioned into us by fast paced media... not just movies and tv, but even things like magazines. I'm just wondering ya know?
At one point, I read a paragraph from a political article aloud to Hub Man. It had more than a few 50 cent words in it that assumed the reader was quite literate. And mind you, Life was no high brow magazine.
There was one article in particular that was prophetic. It was a lot of excerpts from commencement speeches given by several erudite scholars of the day, some of which were quite concerned that there was too much 'conformity' going on in American life. Too much corporate thinking and not enough independent thought. I wonder what those guys thought of the 60's when they rolled around just a few short years later. Too bad the 'independent thought' didn't gravitate to higher planes. "Turn on, tune in, drop out."
I'm sure this is not what the man was hoping for when he wrote that article....
Then there were the advertisements.
Good golly Miss Molly.
[album 65561 Life2.jpg]
Many of the ads focused on one simple concept. If you buy our product, it will illustrate to the world [or the clerk who is assisting you] that you are a sophisticated, knowledgeable person, with discriminating tastes, who is 'in the know' about these things. In the fifties evidently, the last thing one wanted was to be seen as a rube.
I think today the main thrust of advertising is 'You deserve it', [no matter how ostentatious it may be] , with a side of 'environmentally friendly' thrown in, just for fun, or to induce guilt if you pass them up.
There was a lot of emphasis on catchy names for things.... "Allenized"
"Reach-Easy" "Skin Smoother" "GL 70!" "Knitterfluff" "HaloLight"
Many of the ads featured friendly neighbors getting together over various products...
[album 65561 Life3.jpg]
Seems like now there are more ads pitting neighbors in competition. But that could be my warped view.
And oddly enough, there were an inordinate number of lingere ads.
Including the ever famous... 'I dreamed I was doing ...something... in my Maidenform bra'.
This one was the prettiest lingere ad I found...
[album 65561 Life4.jpg]
One other thing. All the articles were on consecutive pages. I didn't find one that had you turn to page so and so to finish it. I liked that.
I liked it very much. I must be a consecutive kind of person.
I enjoyed reading these so much that Hub Man and I looked for some more of them on Ebay. I think we are going to get a Ladies Home Journal from the 40's or 50's soon.
I am going to be looking at contemporary magazine ads in a new light for some time. I want to see the differences.
One last thing. After reading through these magazines and seeing the amazing diversity in them, I was hard pressed to think of a magazine to compare it to today. Magazines have become highly specialized.
I found I really enjoyed reading such an interesting mix of articles all in one place. If anyone knows of a magazine like them today, please let me know!