Leader Board Ad

Sunday, July 29, 2012

Great Concerts Coming in August...1971

Now, where did I leave that time machine?...I know it's around here somewhere..oh! Here it is *click*
Concerts from 1971

Wednesday, July 25, 2012

Ad Quiz #21 What's your Brand? (Now with Solution!)

Of all the oddball claims made by products over the years, one of my favorites has to be how smoking is good for you. Today's ad quiz asks you only to guess the brand. Can you? (By the way, smokers who wish to guess will be held back while non-smokers are given a head start...out of fairness.)
Solution is below..Click READ MORE


Sunday, July 22, 2012

Your Papers Please! #2

I could  have made this 3 separate posts but I didn't want to post with an eye-dropper. Instead, I have 3 fine examples of identification papers from the past.

With this post I will begin another series. This is Number 2 - if you want to take a look at the first in this series click here.

The first ID came from a scrapbook. It is a great example of the high level of security that existed during WWII. The wife of a lieutenant is granted access to the base while her husband is training or assigned to train many of the Bomber groups before they were assigned a theater of war. Notice the stamp of the 400th Bomber Group...

 In keep with the military theme, I found what I believe is a draft registration card for WWI


And if you wanted to avoid the draft and military altogether this last piece is the one to have. 

 In what was still the golden age of rail travel who wouldn't want a free pass on any train?


Wednesday, July 18, 2012

Gadgetology 101 - A little box with a lot of detail...


If you're visiting for the first time WELCOME!  Please look around.  I will be posting another great find this afternoon.   ~gva

Here's a nifty item. Desperate to find something interesting and standout at a recent sale I came across this on a dresser. Pillboxes don't usually interest me, but this one had character. 
 After playing with the doors I figured that it wasn't a pillbox, or at least that wasn't its only purpose.
 2 compartments that snap closed.
 The smaller compartment separated but again into 2 different sizes
 Finally, a clue! Writing stamped into the case
"Colgate & CO New York, USA" this should seal the deal. So it's a small tooth care kit with powdered dentifrice on one side and a lasso of floss on the other? Yes? Colgate made a lot of different products, not just tooth care.
The case seems ornate with a square piece on the top of one of the doors that might have been for a monogram. It seems like tin and not stainless or silver that was painted at least one color that looks very olive drab. Is this another hint?
 But wait! There's more. On the large compartment there is a nib extending to the inside, and it isn't there to make the clasp work.
 And a little indentation on the inside more like the clasp reciever, or to maintain gentle pressure. I lift on the nib, and....pop!
Another clue? Why would this tray be necessary? And what is that residue in both sides? left over tooth powder? It seems more like corrosion and dirt as though this was buried and recovered...like from a fox hole? I have to stop looking at this tiny box because I keep seeing more detail. It's a good lesson in gaining perspective and not make snap judgements. Without taking more pictures I can see there are small retaining clips on the underside of each door. The small one is empty, the large one is holding a piece of metal different from the rest of the box....well you can officially carve my epitaph, " He died of curiosity"

Come on Internet! I am counting on you to help me figure this one out.

Monday, July 16, 2012

Ad Quiz #20 Fran can touch her toes! (now with solution!)

I think I could really get to like Life Magazine. The ads are bold, colorful (see below), a tad suggestive, and grow more and more interesting with each passing day.
Life Magazine ad

So the question of the day is: What is the one thing you'd say for Fran? Or, what is the product that Fran is advertising? I'll give you a hint by displaying another ad for the same product in the same magazine issue.
Life magazine ad

I don't know...not really risque for Life but what exactly are these two ladies selling?

Click READ MORE for Solution.


Sunday, July 15, 2012

1972 Color Computer that isn't "PC"

Sorry if you feel "baited" into clicking on this post because of the title.  I enjoy finding things that are visually interesting to me, and whose titles are no longer exactly correct. The artist in me (as well as the concerned husband) picked this up at a tag sale in June. At the time my wife and I were trying to pick out a color for the kitchen and this was meant to be another way to look at color tints, shades, etc. 

The funny part is (there's always a funny part) that I went searching for this and found that the exact same computer is still sold by the company that owns the Grumbacher name. Max started the company in 1905 and it is still a US company and part of one of the biggest art supply manufacturers in the world.
It didn't really help my wife and I chose a color, but it was a fun distraction for a few minutes. 

Wednesday, July 11, 2012

Seltzer- Cures by Assisting NOT Outraging!

I found an illustrated magazine from 1886, which although doesn't really grab me for the articles, but more for the advertisements.
Don't get me wrong...the articles sound interesting too. (Click for a larger image, though it may be hard to read)
But the ads are the best part...
 I am guessing that "Children Cry because of Pitcher Castoria"


The language in this ad is "Humiliating,and Tortures" more than the ad itself. 

It's the little mini ad below the actual that I wanted to draw your attention to...

What's wrong with him!?

Sunday, July 8, 2012

Welcome to 300

This post really is all about me. When I started this blog-thing in 2009 I didn't really know what I was doing, but I knew what I liked: Writing, Photography, and most of all - digging through the past. Well, 31,000 hits and 47,000 page views and 300 posts later - I still am not sure exactly what I am doing. However, I am learning a lot and finding that there are plenty of people out their willing to lend a hand, comment, or just add me to their blog-roll.

I also want to thank all the people who allow me to email them each time I post new. Please consider sending me an email (see profile for email address) and dropping me a note that says "Wholly Cow! Add me to your blog email list - my junk email folder is very lonely!" I actually created a graphic listing all the subject lines in each of those emails, but alas I can not get the resolution to a readable level, but here they are anyway.
Other than veiled threats of inbox overload I hope you will continue to visit and return and comment. I don't know where this is going, but it's on its way and I don't plan to stop anytime soon.

Coming soon - I will begin to incorporate video into some of my posts as well as looking for new ways for readers to interact with the content.
As always thanks for stopping by!
Greg VA

Wednesday, July 4, 2012

Ad Quiz #19 Guess the Candy (Now with Solution)

I'm on a kind of candy-craze, no, not a sugar-high. I feel like I have been reliving someone else's childhood ever since I created this article for Patch.com.  The subject if that article and this post is candy. For now, join me in my quest for the best of yesterday's candy and try to guess one of my childhood favorites from this ad in a 1963 Life magazine.
 Aw come on... the hints have to help! 

For the solution -  READ BELOW. 



Even though this predates the ad above, it is the iconic jingle that I think I liked more than the candy itself.



How did you do?
 I think they told this kid that if he could spill the whole box into his hand without spilling...he would get a Twinkie. I think it worked and they got the shot they wanted.

Flying this Flagg seems appropriate for today

I seemed to have picked up a book cover in my box of papers from 1917 featuring an adaptation of one of Robert Montgomery Flagg's iconic war posters. This cover was made for a reversible book about the Army on one side and the Navy on the other. Flagg is best know for the "I want you!" Uncle Sam poster. Which was later ripped off by Cheap Trick (which, come to think of it, was a cheap trick!). 
What you may not have known is that Flagg based his Uncle Sam poster on a similar one used in Great Britain. When he created it for the recruiting effort in WWI he actually used his own image for that of Uncle Sam, just adding age and a goatee to the image.
Read more about this amazing artist here.

Monday, July 2, 2012

The 1890's Illustrated News Part 1

How could you go from a talented visual artist reporting from the middle of the Cival War, to the publisher of the 19th century version of the National Enquirer " All the news that's fit to titillate!"
 Arthur Lumley was only in his 20's when he got a job with an Illustrated Newspaper to travel to Virginia to record and report on the fighting between the North and the South. I can't duplicate his drawings because of copy right, but the are very well done. Arthur is lucky to have reported so close to the action and not be killed or wounded as many other reporters, artists and photographers were. 
 He spent a lot of time at this paper, eventually becoming its editor and as you will see in upcoming posts - images were king. Despite the crudeness of how they were drawn and then carved in duplicate so they could be block printed along with the rest of the paper.


These are just a few ads and half of a cover, but I will be posting more soon.

Sunday, July 1, 2012

Ohm My God, this is an obscure calculator!

Nothing denotes the passage of time better than technology. We are all aware that if you need to put "2" and "2" together, and you can't figure it out, well, there's an app for that.  Once upon a time...slide rules were king and somewhere after that a huge technological advance followed when someone suggested, "Hey! Why don't we bend the slide rule so the 2 ends touch?" The poor guy was probably labeled a heretic and forced to down a salad sprinkled with hemlock (sorry, vegans).  

Eventually, someone agreed that this was a good idea and instead of looking like a total nerd before nerd was a word, you could more easily pocket a circular slide rule and not be snubbed by so many babes. 

In the era of radio someone felt the need to come up with a calculator that could tell you how many speakers you could connect together before frying the whole system. Ladies and gentleman, I give you the Impedance Calculator>>>>

and here is the back...
This was no fly by night company. It has a long history and still exists today. The founder began building and selling radios at a young age and fell into problems in the great depression (when broke). He eventually paid of his debts and started the company again. Read the timeline from the current name of the company  Dukane - here. Pretty interesting stuff.