May I make the Introduction, Mother? Vintage ad Anscochrome Film 1959

Here’s Your Hat…Whats Your Hurry?

While the Duchess of Cambridge, like most new Moms today, will get a very un royal speedy exit from the hospital after giving birth to her new little prince, my own mid-century Mom was treated like a Queen with a full 10 day stay in the hospital after giving birth to her own little princess…me.

When I was born in 1955, a hospital stay of at least 10-14 days was a must, although some progressive hospital sent patients home in as little as 7.

 A Womb with a View

9L) Vintage Illustration Baby in Womb (R) Johnson & Johnson Vintage Ad 1949

The stay in the hospital mirrored  the lengthy time I spent in my mother’s womb.

Apparently I was in no rush to be born.

Just as a giant sigh of relief was heard echoing around the world full of royal baby watchers when Kate Middleton finally went into labor, so my own family could relax when, after my own due date came and went, my mother finally went into labor.

Since I had taken up residency for over 9 months in my mothers womb, I felt entitled to squatter’s rights.  However, by late March my lease was nearly up and option for renewal was out of the question.

A creature of comfort I was unenthusiastic about the prospect of relinquishing the premises and would have been happy to stay put indefinitely. Despite the fact that the cozy quarters had become a bit claustrophobic and there wasn’t much of a view, you just couldn’t beat the amenities.

Regardless of my reluctance to leave, Mom was more than happy to serve an eviction notice on me. Could she possibly get any bigger, she despaired. Dad joked that she was expanding as rapidly as the Russians were over Eastern Europe.

Mom was eagerly priming for my big move.

 Separation Anxiety

“Carnation House Formula used in best Hospitals” Vintage Ad Carnation Milk 1945

 Once I was born my ten-day all-inclusive, all expense paid vacation in St Josephs Hospital was about to begin.

After fluffing up Moms pillows, a lovely nurse, who bore a striking resemblance to Nurse Cherry Ames, dressed in a crisp white uniform, her starched white cap perched on bouncing black curls, would bring me to Mom for my feeding. Wrapped in a sterile blanket,a sterile feeding sheet was  spread over the bed-clothes.

Although we were “housemates” sharing the same body  for over nine months, for the entire ten-day stay in the hospital, we were never roommates-my mother was in her room and I was in the nursery. We wouldn’t be formally introduced for several hours, at which time I could look forward to my very first meal.

After months of ordering in -“womb service”- I was looking forward to my first home cooked meal outside the womb.

Any hopes of latching onto a breast and getting me some bone fide mothers milk were quickly dispelled.

“Babies begin life on Dextrose Sugar” Vintage Ad 1941

My Mom knew that most modern babies “begin life on Dextrose.” Being a typical up-to-date-American baby, my very first mouthful of nourishment was a synthetic, sweetened bottle formula, sipped through a-its-so-life-like-just-like-mother-latex-rubber nipple.

Talk about whetting your appetite for future petroleum-based products.

Vintage illustration Mennen Oil for Babies 1943

In fact at the tender age of three minutes, I was baptized in a soothing petroleum product. I could look forward to a cornucopia of baby lotions, potions and potables that came from petroleum. These, their producer Shell oil confidently promised, would start your baby on his way to the 57,805 gallons of oil, they reckoned he’d use in a lifetime. (Lots of it from Shell they hoped.)

Breasts For Success?

Vintage Ad Carnation Evaporated Milk 1954

While Mom was still groggy from the anesthesia, a bouncy candy striper had handed her a colorful pamphlet (thoughtfully distributed by Carnation Milk) discouraging breast-feeding.

Why nurse baby when there were herds of Carnations contented cows more than willing to offer up their services. Breast feeding might be okay for Elsie the Cow, but not for my post war-mom.

To her surprise Moms roommate, who gently tossed the booklet aside, was quietly breast-feeding. Mom was bewildered. Why live in the dark ages when modern science and medical know how could make feeding so easy.

Vintage Illustration from Ad A&P Evaporated Milk 1948

Doctors did little to encourage breast-feeding and why should they.

Concocted by chemists in a lab, scientific baby formula was marketed as being as complicated as nuclear science and just as precise, so unless you had majored in bio-chemistry and physics, you would require detailed instructions from your doctor. Since formula feedings needed the special skills only he could provide, the pediatrician elevated his position in the mother’s life, and in his bank account.

Bottle-feeding formula became increasingly the norm, the relaxing, modern scientific, way. Feeding at fingertip control.

Better for baby, easier for you.

© Sally Edelstein and Envisioning The American Dream, 2013. 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.

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All American Childbirth- Fit for a Queen… or a King

Royal Baby Watch

First Born Boy With Benefits

A Hands On Dad

A Helping Hand From Dad- Vintage illustration from Penn Life Insurance ad 1955

Prince William is sure to be a hands on kind of Dad. Today’s Dads are much more engaged and involved in their baby’s birth and care than fathers from previous generations who were generally pictured as bumbling fools when it came to babies.

My Dad, like many mid-century Dads,  had been left out in the cold during most of the pregnancy.

Even though Togetherness was the decades foolproof formula for family fun and fellowship, the warm and fuzzy tableau of togetherness didn’t get all tangled up with the messy business of birth.

Not withstanding the fact that Madison Avenue had become enamored with the idea of an entirely  new type of fatherhood, portraying snappy pappy’s not just behind the wheel of a new Buick but behind a baby stroller, real-life fathers were still kind of an after thought when it came to babies.

In the hospital if my father had wanted to see his baby, he had to stand outside a nursery window, tap on the plate glass and look beseechingly at the night nurse.

Squinting through her coke bottle glasses, she would then check my tiny name bracelet made up of pink plastic beads, scoop me up as I snuggled into her thick white sweater and bring me over for a viewing through the window while Dad waved.

Of course he knew the hospital was right in guarding his baby and all the others from any outside germs.

Vintage Advertisement -Pablum 1951

But he would make up for that- he wanted to be a new kinda dad -a hands on kinda dad, transforming into the very model of togetherness.

My father may have said he wanted to be hands on kinda Dad but it was my Mother who had her hands filled.

Once the  the baby nurse was gone, Moms diaper decorated world kept her too busy for words. There was no time to flip through a magazine, talk on the phone or even open a newspaper to keep up with the news, let alone get her hair done, or shop.

Spare time with a new baby in the house? And a toddler? Fuhhgedaboutitt! Sometimes, she joked, she felt like a contestant on  the $64,000 Question, sequestered in one of those isolation booths, cut off from the world.

Vintage Magazines (L) Ladies Home Journal Oct. 1958 (R) Ladies Home Journal May 1959

But coming to Mothers rescue was the new kinda Dad. American Dads coast to coast were getting involved in child care, a trend so remarkable Life Magazine gushed enthusiastically on the phenomenon, calling the New American Domesticated Male the greatest advances in parenting.

Like many of the new kinds of Dads, Marvin had read excerpts of Dr Spock in Readers Digest. A booster for togetherness, the good doctor assured him, that active fatherhood needn’t deplete his testosterone levels: “You can be a warm father and a real man at the same time.”

Of course, Spock made it abundantly clear, he didn’t mean that the father had to give just as many bottles or change just as many diapers as mother. But it’s okay for the big brute to do these things occasionally.

Togetherness was fine as long as it fit father’s timetable.

Unlike Mom, in Dads version of togetherness, tedious, time consuming tasks were optional, picking and choosing chores like it was some sort of Chinese Menu, taking a time-out when ever he wanted.

“Madam! Suppose you traded jobs with your husband?” this vintage ad from Bell telephone asks. At a time when most families had one phone, the addition of a kitchen phone was a luxury, but soon became a necessity in the sprawling suburbs.
“You can just bet the first thing he would ask for would be a telephone in the kitchen.”
” You wouldn’t catch him dashing to another room every time the telephone rang or he had to make a call! “
“He doesn’t have to do it in his office in town. It would be mighty helpful if you didn’t have to do it in ‘your’ office’ at home.”

Bottle Service

Preparing my bottles appealed to the master mixologist in Dad, so Sunday mornings became his day for making the formula.

Since he knew a thing or two about mixing a mean martini- he applied the same skills in making my bottles. Fumbling around like the sorcerers apprentice he sterilized, measured and capped in great clouds of steam, mixing enough bottles for round the clock imbibing. His motto- keep ‘em clean and keep ‘em generous.

However when he decided to streamline the preparation using a cocktail shaker, his bottle tending license was quickly revoked.

She purrs like a kitten! (L) Vintage Chevy ad (R) Vintage ad Carnation Milk 1955

In the weeks to come, my snapshot totin’-puffed- up- proud papa would chew the ears off the boys in the office with his gloating, but you never could be sure if he was swooning over his new two- toned ‘55 Chevy… or me.

“You’ve never seen its equal”, he boasted, “This is a masterpiece of design” he would crow, remarking on the fine workmanship and ease of handling. “Of course,” he’d chuckle, “she’s born of a team of great engineering! And just check the chassis,” he’d brag, flashing the Brownie snapshots around.

“She sure looks like a honey to handle” they all agreed.

© Sally Edelstein and Envisioning The American Dream, 2013. 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.

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Vintage Beer Ad 1952 Beer Belongs Campaign- Home life in America Series #69 “Saturday Afternoon at the lake front illustrator: Douglass Crockwell

 Images of a green, velvety carpet of grass remain symbolic of home, family and the American Dream.

In mid-century America a deep green lawn was evidence of nothing short of good citizenship.

So what was  a patriotic suburban home owner to do when that mid-century lawn  showed signs of stress mid summer?

Lawn Doctor

As the dog days of August rolled around, the emerald turf would begin to show other colors- a paler green or worse still, yellow or brown.

Surveying the lawn, my Dad would say the grass was sick.

It had caught a bug.

Just as with medicine, scientists came to the rescue of sickly lawns plagued by turf insects chewing away at vital roots.

Vintage ad Shell Chemical Corporation for Dieldren 1955

One shot of Dieldrin insecticide would make our lawn sit up and sing, Dad would say.

It was the fast convenient way to soothing relief.

Like a good vaccine, Dieldrin was so effective that a single treatment would keep soil insects under control for several years.

Be prepared for the nicest compliments.

“Jeez”, envious neighbors would ask Dad, “doesn’t this stuff just break down after a while and become inert?”

“Nope, its effectiveness goes on and on.” he’d boast.

“This new formula is so effective, its effects last years after it’s washed away.”

“Like General MacArthur,” he laughed, “old pesticides never die, they just fade away.”

Yeah, like thirty years later they come back as breast cancer.

Copyright (©) 2013 Sally Edelstein All Rights Reserved

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Ladies and Lawns

Critical Care

As the halls of Congress morph into a Critical Care Unit, the GOP’s prescription “to preserve our freedom” appears to be to pull the plug on Obamacare- STAT!

Although Senator Ted Cruz’s overt hysterics appear to have gone into temporary remission, the bilious rage against the Affordable Care Act escalates.

A Bitter Pill to Swallow

Health Insurance Heartburn (L) Vintage Pepto Bismol Ad 1957 (R) Vintage illustration from 1955 Insurance Ad

The health care crisis in America has a long troubling history, the bitter debate about Federally Funded Insurance, persistent.

For decades, Republicans have suffered from Chronic Obstructive Healthcare Syndrome, a debilitating disease characterized by acute agitation, myopic vision, paranoid delusions, ultimately devolving into a state of delirium.

The seemingly incurable disease first presented itself during the health care debate in the late 1940’s when President Harry Truman, a staunch supporter of  National Health Insurance, argued before Congress that the federal government should play a role in health care.

Cries of “socialism” reverberated in the halls of Congress, and the histrionics we now associate with  Chronic Obstructive Healthcare Syndrome began to appear like a bad rash.

Socialized Medicine

Vintage illustration from 1944 Advertisement

In the chilly climate of the Cold War lawmakers wanted to make sure that the US would not catch a bad case of socialized medicine.

Because America was on red alert, opponents  to Compulsory Health Insurance were able to make socialized medicine a symbolic issue in the growing crusade against Communist influence in America

The revered leader of the Republican party in domestic affairs, Senator Robert Taft was dead set against National Health Insurance.

In his cool, Ohio twang Taft declared gravely, “I consider it socialism. It is to my mind the most socialistic measure this Congress has ever had before it.” Taft suggested that Compulsory Health Insurance, like the Full Unemployment Act, came right out of the Soviet Constitution and promptly walked out of the Congressional hearings.

It’s a Medical Fact

But no one was more vehemently opposed to National Health Insurance than the American Medical Association.

The idea of compulsory National Health Insurance ran afoul of the AMA one of the most powerful lobbies in the country. The AMA hired public relations firm Whitaker & Baxter to organize it’s opposition, running ads like this one in all the major magazines. The headline in this 1950 ad ask “Who runs America? The Congress? The President? Or You the man next door?” Painting a lurid picture of life under Socialism they concluded that “In the American manner, the people studied the case for socialized medicine and the case against it and they found that the government domination of the peoples medical affairs under Compulsory Health Insurance means a lower standard of medical care, higher taxes, damage to research, penalties for the provider, rewards for the improvident.”

Determined the NHI would be DOA, the AMA poured millions of dollars successfully lobbying congress, and waging a massive slanderous public relations campaign forever entangling compulsory health insurance with that cold war boogeyman Communism.

Your Doctor Knows Best

Vintage illustration of the Family Doctor by Norman Rockwell from Upjohn Advertisement 1943

Mid Century doctors were at the pinnacle of authority figures, riding the tide of unquestioning devotion.

So in 1948 when 32-year-old Frank Goodfellow went for his annual checkup,  he took the expert advise of his genial family doctor  Richard “Dick” Lawson very seriously. Nodding in agreement when Dr Lawson advised him to beef up his daily intake of heart-healthy, AMA-approved rich red meat, Frank listened implicitly as the good doctor spoke about health care and freedom in America.

Health Care Crisis Giving You a Headache? Vintage photo from Anacin Advertisement 1962

Though Frank was in the pink of health, a gnawing, debilitating tension ate at him.

Like many Americans in the 1948 presidential election year, Frank was confused about the battle brewing in between the 2 parties concerning Presidents Truman’s proposed National Health Insurance.

After more than a decade of New Deal Democrats, in 1946 the Republicans had finally taken control of Congress and had no interest in enacting Compulsory Health Insurance charging it was a socialist scheme. Now that Truman was up for reelection, the President  was pushing hard for the health care bill, his opponents fighting back even harder charging the possibility of its passage would result in dire consequences to the health of the nation.

Perplexed, Mr Goodfellow  turned to his trusted family doctor  for some help.

.After listening to Frank’s account of his concerns, Dr Dick-as he was affectionately known-leaned back in his comfortable cordovan leather chair, put a fresh match to the pipe he was smoking and grew thoughtful. Removing his glasses he came right to the point:

Compulsory health insurance was, simply put…un-American!

The Voluntary Way is the American Way

Could it Happen Here? Threat of socialized medicine instilled fear of lost freedoms
(L) Vintage Ad Wyeth Drugs 1944 (R) Vintage Cold War propaganda comic “Is This Tomorrow? America Under Communism” a 48 page cautionary tale of how easy it would be for Communists to take over the US. It was published to “make you more alert to the menace of Communism”

Socialized medicine or anything that even looked or smelled like socialized medicine gave Dr. Richard Lawson the chills and fever.

Reaching across his big oak desk, Dr. Dick handed  Frank a pamphlet put out by the AMA entitled “A threat to health – a threat to freedom!”

The good doctor put on his reading glasses and read aloud from the brochure:

“Freedom is coming under attack,” he began solemnly. “In much of the world today the people have resigned from running their own countries. Others have been quick to step in- first with the promises of security and then with whips and guns- to run things their way. The evidence is on every front page in the world everyday.”

Frank grimaced in agreement as he took a long drag from his cigarette.

“The reality of war has made every American think hard about the things he’s willing to work and fight for- and freedom leads the list.”

The doctor looked up from his reading, giving former Private First Class Goodfellow time to absorb what he had been saying.

L) Vintage illustration from 1948 Park Davis &Co. advertisement (R) Illustration from Boys Life Magazine 1963

“But that freedom has been attacked here recently just as it has been attacked in other parts of the world.” To emphasize the point, the doctor read slowly: “One of the moist serious threats to individual freedom has been the threat of Government dominated Compulsory Health Insurance, falsely presented as a new guarantee of health “security” for everybody.”

Leaning in close, his face flushed with determination, Dr Dick, somberly explained the grave consequences of such an act as spelled out by the AMA..

“Would socialized medicine lead to socialization of other phases of life? Lenin thought so. He declared socialized medicine is the keystone to the arch of the socialist state.”

Putting the down the brochure, Dr Lawson appeared to brush a tear from his eye.

Like all good standing members of the AMA,Dr. Dick  believed that compulsory health care would limit physician autonomy and income and cause doctors to “become clock watchers and slaves of a system.”

“It is my business to keep you healthy Frank,” he said sadly, the plume of pipe smoke forming a blue haze around him, “but with this alien way of life, of socialism doctors would be mere slaves.”

Diagnosis: Disaster

Is There a doctor in the House? Unable to resuscitate the badly bruised National Health Insurance bill, it died an unremarkable death in the Congressional committee. Vintage Illustration by Phil Dormont Saturday Evening Post 1944

With the same agility and shrewdness he had diagnosed Franks bursitis, Dr Dick went on to dissect the cancer that would be striking at the very heart of American freedom- Compulsory Health Insurance, the first step towards Communism.

“Communism,” he stated firmly, “was invading our shores.”

Communists were like cancer cells Dr Lawson skillfully explained to Frank, “a monster gone berserk. Relentlessly increasing their numbers, cancerous Communists proceed to crowd out healthy societies and begin to steal from the normal countries around them.”

Driving home the point the dedicated doctor continued. “Communists, like germs lived amongst us undetected and could attack and infiltrate anytime. If you were invaded by germs you could end up in an iron lung- if you were infiltrated y Communism you could end up behind the iron curtain. If we had socialized medicine we were one step closer to being enslaved.

Squirming uneasily in his chair, his legs sticking uncomfortably to the seat covered in plastic Fabrilite, Frank Goodfellow shook his head. “It sounds awful,” he said slowly breathing hard. There was more perspiration on his forehead and the color of his glowing pink skin seemed pale and drained of color.

Leaning forward in his chair, Dr Lawson concluded.“Keeping thing as they were was the only cure for a healthy America.”

“The American health system,” Dr Lawson diagnosed conclusively “didn’t need any curing.”

A country consumed with anti communist sentiment, shrouded in suspicion apparently agreed. Unable to resuscitate the badly bruised National health Insurance bill, it died an unremarkable death in the Congressional committee.

© Sally Edelstein and Envisioning The American Dream, 2013. 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.

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cartoon from Charles Atlas Ad 1947

While many Americans are outraged that members of Congress continue to pump iron in their members-only gym while the government is shutdown, it is in fact “essential “ for it to stay open so that the wimpy 98 lb. weaklings in Congress can build up their atrophied muscles to fight the bullies of the Tea Party .

Be a Man or Just Look Like One

Charles Atlas Ad 1947 “I Can Make You a New Man Too, in Only 15 Minutes a Day!”
Send for your free book that shows how he has turned puny weaklings into Atlas Champions!

Taking a page from Body Builder Charles Atlas, who knew a thing or two of turning a chump into a champ, Congress can learn a thing or two about becoming real he-men simply by working out.

Imagine the wonderful thrill, Democrats and moderates of the Republican party, never again cringe or shy away from a bully.

Imagine the wonderful thrill of confidence to know that nobody can push you around anymore. Think of the respect others will have for you, when they find out what a rough and ready scrapping, deadly efficient he-man you can be!

And it only takes 15 minutes a day!

Chump into a Champ

Cartoon- Charles Atlas Ad 1947

How many Democratic Congressman have felt like Joe in the 1947 ad, absolutely fed up with having bigger huskier fellows “push you around? If you have, then, only 15 minutes a day and Charles Atlas, who himself went from a scrawny 97 lb weakling to winner of the title “Worlds Most Perfectly Developed Man” promised  you can have a body you’ll be proud of,  pack ed with red-blooded vitality.

You’ll have more pep and zip in your step you’ll get sledge-hammer fists, a battering ram punch and back muscles so big they’ll almost split your coat seams.

Working out will strengthen that weak spine you’ve been exhibiting of late,  making you a finer specimen of real manhood than you ever dreamed you could.

Two Words Turned Mac into a He Man

Charles Atlas Ad 1947 “I Can Make You a New Man Too, in Only 15 Minutes a Day!”
Send for your free book that shows how he has turned puny weaklings into Atlas Champions!

Or how about moderate Republicans, are you like Mac in the ad, fed up with being “pushed around”- Are you sick and tired of that people pity instead of admire you —then 15 minutes a day will make you a new man red blooded specimen of real He-Manhood!

By working out, Congressmen or women  might learn a thing or two how to expertly defend themselves from they tyranny of the far .right. Learn how to KO the enemy, master him with a punishing wrestling hold, until he cries compromise!

© Sally Edelstein and Envisioning The American Dream, 2013. 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.

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Vintage Chevrolet Advertisement 1934

Step on the Gas

Nervous Dot the Democrat  is sure glad that Bette’s husband  Dick drives a Chevrolet. Men can be real speed demons on the road but with Republican Dick every ride is big and steady!

Unless you want to lead the youth of America down the dark ugly path of addiction, lock up those Oreos
(R) “Assassin of Youth” was a 1937 propaganda film showing the ill effects of marijuana. The title was “borrowed from an article written by harry Anslinger the head of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics who succeeded in criminalizing marijuana.
“Assassins of Youth” along with the classic “Reefer Madness” convinced the public that dope turned kids into crazed murderers.

Assassin of Youth….Drugs or Oreos?

A warning to parents: Keep the cookies away from the kids.

Are we turning the youth of America into hard-core addicts?

A new study from researchers at Connecticut College says Oreo cookies are as addictive as cocaine- to lab rats.

Concerned watchdogs have long kept an eye on substances corrupting the youth of America. Now we learn that the pull of that childhood cookie  is as powerful as a line of cocaine. Now we know why the kid in the  1952 ad says “I wish I had a million Oreos!”

Clearly, the poor little fellow is in the throes of addiction.
Vintage Oreos advertisement 1950

© Sally Edelstein and Envisioning The American Dream, 2013. 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.

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Vintage Ad- “The New Eugenics-Ethical Sex Relations” Pioneer Publishing Co 1934
Banish Fear and Sex Ignorance Forever . The naked truth stripped of all prudery and narrow prejudices.

Before Masters and Johnson’s ground breaking research liberated sex from the closet, frank discussions about sexual behavior was done behind closed doors.

Talking about what went on in the marital bedroom (that being the  only circumstance where sex was sanctioned to occur) was frowned upon and sex advice was furtively dispensed by small publishers placing discreet ads in pulp magazines.

How Sex Ignorance Could Ruin a Marriage

Vintage Ad Zonite Feminine Hygiene 1948

Even as Alfred Kinsey quietly took the pulse of America’s sexual response in the 1940s, discussing intimate details of sexual behavior was disapproved of..

Pity the young wife who had no one to advise her about those intimate matters.

Poor Dora Dukes was one such wife.

In 1940, life should have been a bowl of cherries for the pretty and perky newlywed, but things had turned plain sour after only 8 months of marriage. Her husband Dan was the dream guy all right, with his quick ready laugh, wavy chestnut hair and swell job down at the plant.

Dora had been over the moon to be married to a catch like Dan. And like every girl since Adam and Eve who has had  a deep and natural desire  to be married, Dora had a deep desire to live happily ever after-after the honeymoon.

But Dora was in the dumps.

Dan was giving her the cold shoulder…and how!

In recent months, Dan avoided her embrace. He was  no longer happy in their marriage, constantly makes excuse to avoid the romantic intimacy of their honeymoon.

How a wifes false modesty can freeze her husband’s affection

If only poor Dora realized that a wife’s ignorance or false modesty about the intimate facts of life often lead to an increasing coolness on her husband’s part.

If only every young woman could realize from the beginning of her marriage how important it was to know the facts.

Vintage Ad Zonite Feminine Hygiene 1949

Dora had only been 20 when they married and she was terribly inexperienced.

Fear gripped her on her wedding night, it was not the thrilling experience that was her birthright

Perhaps it was her mother’s fault . every daughter has the right to know intimate facts before she marries.

But when it came to the true facts about sex she really was a dumb Dora.

She had been too shy to ask her friends. And maybe just as well, as they might have given her half-truths and unscientific advise.

Poor Doras ignorance would lead her to shame despair worry and remorse.And she knew in her heart it was just this sort of ignorance that so often breaks up a happy marriage

Dora was in the danger zone

Learn the Naked Truth

Vintage Ad 1934 for book “Sex hHarmony and Eugenics” Pioneer Publishing
At last a famous doctor has told all the secrets of sex in frank daring language.

It was time Dan thought,  Dora learn the naked truth.

One evening while Dora was darning his socks, Dan sat down on the arm of the big Bumstead chair where she was seated. “What are you thinking of?” he asked gently. He hadn’t a coat or tie on and his open shirt showed his strong tanned throat. A shiver went over her, a warm glowing shiver.

“Nothing-of us,” she muttered, her fingers closed tightly on the arm of the chair. She wasn’t going to tell him of the fear she felt  that she  might not come up to all Dans dreams of the ideal wife.

“I would die of shame if I ever failed him,” Dora sighed to herself as she  buried her head in her arms and sobbed. She was a slave to ignorance and fear…. the rapturous delights of the perfect physical love would forever elude her.

Delicately Dan revealed an advertisement  he had cut out from Keyhole Detective Magazine. “The Forbidden Secrets of Sex are Daringly Revealed! screamed the headline.  The shocking ad was for a manual offering secrets of love and marriage.

“Would you like to know the whole truth about sex?” her husband offered delicately.

Color rose to Dora’s cheeks as she  closed her eyes as if to shut it out. But slowly she read the words that she knew in her heart would serve as a detour to divorce:

Masters of Sex

Vintage ads for Sex Manuals 1934
(L) “The New Eugenics” now only $1.98 (R) Sex Harmony and Eugenics ( Now only $2.98) Both published by Pioneer Publishing Co. NYC
“Love is the most magnificent ecstasy in the world…know how to hold your loved one…don’t glean half-truths from unreliable sources. Now you can know how to end ignorance…fear…and self denial!”
These book are NOT sold to minors!

“Away with false modesty!” begins this ad for the Secrets for Love and Marriage. “At last a famous doctor has told all the secrets of sex in frank daring language. No prudish beating about the bush, no veiled hints, but TRUTH, blazing through 576 pages of straightforward facts.”

“Sex is no longer a mysterious sin, mentioned only in the conversational gutters.” Dora read with rapt attention.

“Thanks to this bravely written book, it is no longer necessary to pay the awful price for one moment of bliss. Science now lights the path to knowledge and lifelong sex happiness.”

“Are you an awkward novice in the art of love-making or a master of its technique? The art of love-making takes skill and knowledge. The sexual embrace as practiced by those ignorant of its true scientific importance, is crude, awkward and often terrifying to more sensitive natures.”

Startling Facts

“All of the startling facts that even the frankest books have heretofore not dared to print, are explained in clear scientific manner, vividly illustrated in this revolutionary book. Here at last the naked truth stands forth, stripped of all prudery and narrow prejudice. Old fashioned taboos are discarded and the subject of sex is brought into the bright light of medical science by doctors.”

Illustration from 1934 Sex manual Sex Harmony and Eugenics

“Lost love…scandal…divorce…can often be prevented by knowledge. Only the ignorant pay the awful penalties of wrong sex practices. Read the facts, clearly, startling told…study these illustrations and grope in the darkness no longer.”

“You want to know…and you should know everything about sex. Sex is no longer a sin…a mystery…it is your greatest power for happiness. You owe it to yourself…to the one you love to tear aside the curtain of hypocrisy and learn the naked truth!”

More than 100 Vivid pictures

“The 106 illustrations leave nothing to the imagination…know how to overcome physical mismatching…know what to do on your wedding night to avoid the torturing results of ignorance.”

“Some will be offended by the amazing frankness of the book and its vivid illustrations but the world has no longer any use for prudery and false modesty.”

illustration from 1945 ad for Sex manual “Secrets of Love and Marriage”

What Every Man Should Know

• The Sexual Embrace
• Secrets of the Honeymoon
• Mistakes of Early Marriage
• Homosexuality
• Venereal Disease
• Sexual Starvation
• Glands and Sex Instinct
• The Truth About Abuse

What Every Woman Should Know

• Joys of Perfect Mating
• What to Allow a Lover to do
• Intimate Feminine Hygiene
• How to Attract and Hold a Man
• Essentials of Happy Marriage
• The Sex Organ
• The Crime of Abortion

Homosexuality…Sex Abnormalities

illustration from 1945 ad for Sex manual “Secrets of Love and Marriage”

Because the book prided itself on scientific truths, they dared go to the darkest corners of sexuality….including homosexuality!

“Everything pertaining to sex is discussed in daring language. All the things you wanted to know about your sex life information about which other books only vaguely hint, is yours at last.”

“Do you know about the astounding world of ‘half sexes’? They crave the companionship of their own sex…their practices are unbelievable to the normal mind….yet you should understand them.”

Vintage Ad 1945 for Mail order Sex Manual “Secrets of Love and Marriage “
“Marriage has thrills that thousands never enjoy. Now you can know how to experience rapturous satisfaction of the perfect love. Everything pertaining to sex is discussed in daring language!”

Send Away For this Book Now

“The sale of this book is restricted to persons either married or contemplating marriage. You send no money just fill out the coupon below and then when it arrives in plain wrapper pay the postman $1.98. keep the book 5 days then if not satisfied send it back and we will refund your money”

Dora would banish fear and sex ignorance forever, thanks to these masters of sex!

© Sally Edelstein and Envisioning The American Dream, 2013. 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.

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You’ve Come a Long Way Peggy Olson

To Canoodle or Not to Canoodle

“Every citizen must read this as it tells what you and every American can do to save our constitutional freedom and competitive economic system from destruction.”
“The Road Ahead: America’s Creeping Revolution” by John T. Flynn 1949 A vintage propaganda booklet distributed by the Fighters of Freedom , a right-wing reactionary group in post war America

,

George Washington Small’s biggest bugaboo was big government.

It was, he felt, the duty of every American to build down Washington’s bloated bureaucratic government.

Alarmed that the expansion of the government to regulate almost every aspect of American life meant only one thing- Socialism- George was convinced that Moscow-directed Marxist’s dressed in Robert Hall suits were infiltrating our government!

America was traveling on a road to its own destruction.

A Rocky Road

Mr. Small feared the country was turning into something foreign and frankly un-American. He understood all too well that the “welfare state” was  politicians gobbledygook for socialism.

In 1949, he was certain the American way of life was under siege.

Was George W. Small a member of the Tea Party? Hardly, since that movement wouldn’t evolve for another 60 year. But this post-war patriot was a member in good standing of the Fighters For Freedom, a branch of a larger right-wing group called The Committee for Constitutional Government.

Everything Old is New Again

Taxes, taxes, taxes-What Our Government Takes From Us
(L) Illustration of Boston Tea Party -Taxation without representation is tyranny. 1773 The nation fought for a principle and won! Illustration from James Pepper Whiskey Ad 1940 (R) Illustration of US Taxpayer by Artzybasheff for Time magazine 3/10/52

Today’s conspiracy-loving, big federal government despising, environmentally-bashing, Glenn Beck-watching, true believers of the Tea Party may well be the progeny of George W. Small.

The unhinged right-wing ideas we hear today were generated generations ago. The Tea Party is merely the new kid on the block.

The Tea Party is clearly a descendent  not of the original first American fighters for freedom who created the American Republic, but of a right-wing reactionary group formed in the 1940’s called Fighters for Freedom. Exploiting people’s fears, its members were convinced that there was a conspiracy  in the highest places of government to get rid of American Constitutional rule and replace it with a Marxist dictatorship.

On The Fringes of Freedom

In 1949 the NYC group published The Road Ahead:  America’s Creeping Revolution written by  conservative American journalist John T. Flynn and distributed by The Committee for Constitutional Government.

The purpose in writing this book he explained. “is to describe the road along which this country is traveling to its destruction. The American government has in recent years changed its character. It has become an overwhelming  and omnipresent machine of controls and compulsions.”

The book had at least 3 printings totaling over 500,000 copies. The National Committee to Uphold Constitutional Government (also known as the Committee for the Constitutional Government) was founded in 1937 in opposition to many of FDR’s “socialist” New Deal Legislation. John T. Flynn wrote extensively opposing FDR and interventionist foreign policies, shifting his focus to fight  Communism. During his last years some of Flynn’s books were promoted by and reprinted by the right-wing reactionary group John Birch Society.

“The door opener to socialism is ‘FEDERAL AID’ for services which citizens can as well or better perform for themselves and for which, in the long run, they themselves must pay. Federal Aid aids mostly the politicians to extend, centralize and firmly fasten their controls on the lives of its citizens.” Quote from: The Road Ahead: Americas Creeping Revolution By John T. Flynn 1949
Vintage Illustration from Men’s Lee Work Clothes Ad 1953

The hope of the book was “ to dispel the mass delusions that have been fastened upon national consciousness by decades of propaganda portraying the welfare state as something desirable.”

“Fighters for Freedom realize that those who have lost their freedom have not the strength to regain it,” the book explained, “and those who have it seldom realize until too late how easily their freedom can be lost beyond recall.” They were there to heal a sick America.

What Ails America

“The American Government has in recent years changed it’s character. It has become an overwhelming and omnipresent machine of controls and compulsions”-
from “The Road Ahead America’s Creeping Revolution” by John T Flynn

Like today’s freedom worshiping Republicans who are desperate to rescue the mistreated public who are being enslaved by Obamacare, the Freedom Fighters wanted to protect the poor American citizen from the evils of socialized medicine.

Then as now both groups excelled in spreading misinformation.

Not limited to the fringes of political life , groups with these beliefs  had close ties to members of Congress.

A reprint of a speech given in the hallowed halls of Congress by the Honorable Ralph W. Gwinn of NY. was printed in The Road Ahead. After espousing on the perils of government control of minimum wages and hours, education, housing, etc. the  Republican Congressman tackled socialized medicine:

Socialized Medicine

Health Care as we know it will vanish under Socialized medicine. Under Socialized medicine“There will be no more need to excel in skill and devotion to patients; there will be no more competitive effort for public favor.”
“The Road Ahead :Americas Creeping Revolution” by John T. Flynn
Vintage illustration from Wyeth Drugs Advertisement 1944

“Our Socialists propose to continue the march down the road to Marxist serfdom by bribing our doctors to socialize health and medicine from Washington just as the British Marxist government  has done.”

“The procedures are almost identical. 750,000 doctors nurses and hospital personnel would enter our government employment and cease free practice of medicine.”

“Washington would guide and control it all, drying up the voluntary source of skill, mercy, health and hospitalization.”

“There will be no more need to excel in skill and devotion to patients; there will be no more competitive effort for public favor.”

“Payments by government will be for quantity, not quality of service.”

“Yet as a doctor in Nashville said recently, ‘Socialism is the syphilis of medicine. It is easy to take but rots the body to death.’”

“Government medicine is sterile. It never invents or discovers new cures.”

“It can but appropriate and try to take by force what the individual alone can give as a voluntary free servant of the people. He alone can have the heart of sacrifice and devotion and love of service. Without freedom in medicine, the art of healing itself disappears.”

Evangelist

“Politicians who ask you to turn over to them more of your paycheck and to let them be the guardian of your children in what they tell you will be a “social welfare state’ are only forging “new instruments of power’ which in the end will shackle the liberties of the people.” From “The Road Ahead: Americas Creeping Revolution” by John T. Flynn
Vintage illustration from Imperial Whiskey Ad 1949

A true believer, George Washington Small worked tirelessly spreading the word, distributing pamphlets, booklets wherever he went.

Fighters For Freedom believed “it was imperative that millions of copies of  The Road Ahead must be distributed quickly, every citizen must read this as it tells what you and every American can do to save our constitutional freedom and competitive economic system from destruction.”

In a final burst of self-importance, the book declared: “Timely informative books like this have swayed the destiny of nations- as did “Uncle Toms Cabin” before the Civil War. Use the Road Ahead to project and multiply many fold your citizens influence to save our form of government for yourself and your children.”

© Sally Edelstein and Envisioning The American Dream, 2013. 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.

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Health Care Hysteria

Republicans Failing Report Card

“Modern nutritionists agree that when the body calls for energy, candy is one of the quick and happy answers.”
Vintage ads (L) Mars bar 1957 (R) DuPont Cellophane 1958

With Halloween approaching, panicky parents are getting spooked at the prospect of  their children overloading on candy .

Relax.

In mid-century America a Snickers bar would have been greeted with the same encouragement as chowing down a serving of kale.

Nothing to Snicker At

It may be hard to swallow but once upon a time candy was not the unhealthy villain it is viewed today but an “essential” nutrient. Through the first half of the 20th century, sweets and  sugar were deemed essential to health- good tasting and good for you.

In fact it was sanctioned by Uncle Sam as part of the 7 essential food groups during WWII. No wonder the government rations for our fighting men included candy as a dietary supplement.

 Sugar Rush

In a nation of can-do Americans nothing was more can-do than candy!
Vintage Candy Ads Mars Bar 1950

Flush with victory after the war, can-do- Americans were ready to surge into the post-war future and candy would be there to facilitate the rush.  In a nation of can-do Americans, nothing was more can-do than candy! And conscientious mothers made sure America’s youngest citizens had adequate supplies of this energy producing miracle.

Sweet Dreams

Mother’s made sure their children had adequate supplies of energy candy
Vintage advertisement Milky Way Candy 1948

In 1946 Dayton,Ohio housewife Dotty Draper was an up to date homemaker, schooled in the latest scientific nutritional facts.

As chief cook and dietician, she understood that if hers was to be the perfect American family, her husband and her children must be perfectly fed. All those home-ec classes she had excelled in during High School would really come in handy.

Vintage ad Ovaltine 1948

When Dotty’s thoughts turned to preparing her children for life of course she thought of their  health – to keep them rosy, robust, chubby and strong.

Sometimes she felt as if the bold headlines of the advertisements in her magazines screamed out just at her: “And remember if a child becomes thin and nervous, frail or under par, the cause is your fault mothers, faulty nutrition. Remember always that the most common correctable cause is faulty nutrition- even among supposedly well fed children. And this cause is one that you the mother can do something about”.

Dotty understood that an active child might need twice as much energy food as an adult and according to the experts, a child’s craving for sweets shows that this need is unsatisfied. The answer: Candy . Real nourishment which quickly translates into action.

Dotty had taken a solemn oath: “There is nothing more important in this world,” she was fond of quoting to her brood of freckled face kids,“than the feeding of your ladies and gentlemen of tomorrow! And your fathers and mothers realize too that on your healthy strength and growth depends not only the happiness of the family but the future of the nation.”

That’s why in-the-know-Dotty was sure to load the kids up on plenty of  wholesome candy!”

Sugar Shock

When the chill blasts of winter keeps you inside, there is always cozy comfort with baby Ruth around. The whole family-grandma, dad, mother and the young folks, even the tiniest tot-enjoys this delicious candy and finds real nourishment and health building energy in its wholesome goodness.
Vintage Baby Ruth Ad 1927

By 1946, candy’s place in the diet had been firmly entrenched with the dietary authorities recognizing its nutritional food value. Home Economists – especially those in the employ of candy manufacturers – were quick to point out the nutritional value of candy aiming to show candy as good wholesome food..

Modern nutritionist’s called it a muscle food. It’s carbohydrates “were as important to the human body as coal or oil is to the furnace.”

Full Steam Ahead: Stoking the Engine

Vintage Nutrition Booklet 1944
You and Your Engine by Laura Oftedal National Live Stock & Meat Board

All Mothers understood that food was foremost fuel.

As long as you kept stoking the engine like a Pullman train you’d keep running full steam ahead. This was the marvelous age of the engine. Engines moved cars, trains, ships; they ran machines that could clean our floors, heat our home.

Because we were told to think of our body as an engine, mothers were instructed that they were the engineers of the worlds finest kind of engine- their childs.

Vintage illustration-from Nutrition Booklet 1944
You and Your Engine by Laura Oftedal National Live Stock & Meat Board

Before you fill your childs tank again, mothers were warned, you better read and learn and remember. A good railroad engineer or automobile driver, knows what fuel is best for his engine. So if you wanted to be a good mother it was imperative to learn what fuel is best for your child’s engine to keep your children streamlined and in good condition.

The best fuel was the food which gives your child engine muscle, heat, and energy.

Wholesome Candy provides energy, muscle-building protein and healthy protective minerals.
Vintage ads (L) illustration from Carnation Milk ad 1942 (R) Mars Bar Ad 1957

Candy was wholesome energy food with muscle-building protein and health protecting minerals. “You’ve burnt up energy you need energy refuel. That’s the fundamental story of candy-quick energy for bodies that need energy more.”

“If your body never sent out an “SOS” for energy  there would be no call for candy…exept for pleasure purposes. But bodies do need energy, and candy is steam on the job, whether you’re working at a factory, on the job in an office or at home, or playing football on the corner lot.an energy food.”

“Yes, America, we are growing beyond those stern days which ruled, “If it tastes good to you, it mustn’t be good for you.”

In the know-Modern nutritionists now agreed that when the body called for energy candy was one of the quick and happy answers.

Candy Land Trick or Treat

Vintage Ads 1946 from the Council on Candy of the National Confectioners Association . “The crave for Candy is a call for energy! The fundamental story of candy- quick energy for bodies that need energy. Candy is dandy-keep it handy!”

In 1946, The Council on Candy of the National Confectioners Association ran an aggressive ad  campaign titled: The Crave for Candy is a call for energy. Headquartered in Chicago The Council on Candy  was “an organization devoted to maintaining high standards of quality in candy and the dissemination of authoritative information on its use as an energy producing, morale building food.”

“By All means, let em’ eat cake…and candy too!” Illustration from Vintage 1946 ad for Dextrose Sugar who encouraged the benefits of sweets. Corn Products Refining Company, producers of Dextrose fanned the sugar flame with their own heavy advertising

“Isn’t it true that you often have a hankering for candy”? the  Council on Candy asks in one of its ads.

“Well here’s the reason.”, they explains.  “Scientists have learned that bodies hanker for foods that contain elements they need when they need them. Whether your golfing mowing the grass or going to the store, you need Can Do- and Candy is the can-do food!”

“Modern nutritionists now agree that when the body calls for energy candy is one of the quick and happy answers. That’s why we remind you in rhyme when its energy time: Candy’s Dandy/ Keep it Handy !”

Nutrition You Should Know

1945 Vintage Ad children’s Candy Quiz – Council on Candy of the National Confectioners Association

The Council eagerly provided a handy quiz for parents on the value of candy.

It explained the wholesome, nutritious value of candy.”Candy contains not only pure sugar for energy building but, from orchard and field and from the dairy farm it takes the products that make candy the wholesome,  colorful food that it is.”

“When you know the answers don’t you get a brand new picture of candy’s place in nutrition?” the ad asked the reader.

Illustration from Vintage Ad for Du Pont Cellophane 1946

“Yes, candy has a definite part to play. Naturally its outstanding usefulness is providing quick energy in a most inviting pleasant and handy form. “If you followed the experts advise “you would send your children off to school with a surge of power that will thrill you!”

“We call this the can do” of candy.”

Wholesome candy…trick or treat? You be the judge.

© Sally Edelstein and Envisioning The American Dream, 2013. 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.

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Stay as Sweet as You Are

The Big Gulp

Hooked on Oreos

Heartwarming Memories

Tis the season for trans fats….tra la la la la!

What better time of year to don your apron, and get busy in your kitchen, baking heartwarming holiday treats to fill your home  and heart with the comforting scent of Christmas memories.

But this may be the final holiday season for those flaky pie crusts, melt in your mouth pastries and  feather-light cakes made with shortening, the king of hydrogenated oils.

Before Crisco, Mother’s didn’t have a Merry Xmas. She slaved the whole day away preparing and serving Christmas meals. “Now Christmas is Merrier For Mother Too!” proclaims this Crisco ad from 1928.  “Crisco is a Christmas time saver. No more old-fashioned, time intensive holiday cooking. If you follow directions and methods carefully you will have what I wish for you all: ‘A merry and Easy Christmas.”
Vintage ad Crisco 1928

Baking and Crisco have been at the heart of every holiday for generations.

What is Christmas without Crisco?

A lot more heart healthy apparently.

This past fall a heartless Uncle Sam announced some heart breaking news.

If the FDA has their way about it, bad-for-you- hydrogenated oils, i.e. trans fats, will be banned from the American diet come next year.

Hard to Swallow

“Mother Learns Digestibility Secret -Vintage Crisco Ad 1936

It may be hard to digest but once upon a time vegetable shortening like Crisco was a smart, wholesome choice. Labor-saving, economical, character-building, and man-pleasing, this cooking fat was a miracle for the harried, health conscious  housewife.

For over a century, Crisco was as ubiquitous in the American housewife’s kitchen as the all American apple pie she would bake with it. Crisco and other partially hydrogenated fats were not just a substitute for other fats.

It was the healthy alternative. “A gift for your digestive system,” Crisco promised in a 1927 ad. This creamy white food was something “the stomach welcomes.”

Crisco’s  heartfelt promise to protect your digestion was sincere. They just never anticipated the long-lasting effect it would have on your cardiovascular system.   Many scientists erroneously believed that trans fats were harmless or even beneficial because they substituted for saturated fats.

Eat Well and Feel Well

Before you french fry another potato or make another pie let me tell you some thing about Crisco that’s terribly important,” begins one ad. “Crisco digests quicker. Crisco doesn’t overtax the stomach!”
“For over a year a very noted biologist has been testing Criscos digestibility against all sorts of fats. And after thousands of tests this famous scientist told me ‘Everyone should know that Crisco digests quicker –more easily. Eat well and feel well.”

When Crisco first appeared in 1911,  they  tempted  a nation suffering from chronic heartburn  with this groundbreaking  news:

“A few months ago if you had told dyspeptic men and women that they could eat pie at the evening meal and that distress would not follow, they probably would have doubted you. Praise of Crisco by hundreds who at one time had been denied such foods as pastry, cake and fried foods but who now eat these rich yet digestible Crisco dishes.”

Endorsements by doctors, dietitians and scientists put the seal of health on the product.

The vast American waistline was about to expand.

The Road to Success is Paved with Crisco

“Why long for pie but fear to eat it? Why condemn fried foods as indigestible?” asks this Crisco ad from 1937. “Doctors know that Crisco gives easy digesting food for junior to Grandpa. Here’s the case where food that’s good for you tastes extra good.”
Vintage Crisco ad 1937

Crisco and capitalism just seemed to go together. In the depths of the depression it could actually help you succeed in life.

“A good digestion will mean much to the youngsters health and character,” explained one 1933 ad. “A man seldom seems to be stronger than his stomach for indigestion handicaps him in his accomplishment of big things.” Eating Crisco was good for the economy.

And it was never too early to start making deposits in your childs cholesterol bank, deposits that would last a lifetime.

“Equip you child with good stomachs by giving them wholesome Crisco foods means a healthier future. They may eat Crisco doughnuts or pie without being chased by nightmares.”

“Sweet dreams follow a Crisco supper.” Clogged arteries would follow a lifetime of trans fats.

Have a Heart

“Want him to say you’re wonderful when you make his favorite dishes? The way to a mans heart is surer than ever with Crisco.”
Vintage Crisco ad 1943

A sure way to your man’s heart was with Crisco.

“Want to delight the man in your life? Bake him a cake with real man appeal! Let him have “another” of those luscious foods fried crisp and tender in pure Crisco!”

“Remember  9 out 10 doctors say Crisco is healthy!”  ( of course those may be the same doctors who also preferred to smoke Camel cigarettes)

By the post war years Crisco was solidly in place in the hearts of Americans –literally and figuratively.

Scientific Discovery

Once upon a time trans fats were the very symbol of progress

The turn of the last century was filled with wonders.

In an age of milestone scientific discoveries and advances, the development of trans fat rates right up their  with the electric light bulb when it came to convenience for the American family.

And in no small way the two are connected.

Crisco vegetable shortening was designed in a lab to replace lard. Made from partially hydrogenated vegetable oil a process that turned cottonseed oil from a liquid to a solid like lard, but was more digestible.
(L) Vintage P&G Soap Ad (R) Vintage Crisco Ad 1934

In the 1890s Proctor and Gamble owned many cottonseed oil factories in Mississippi that produced oil for use in their P&G soaps and candles. But with the invention of the light bulb, the candle business was in decline. What to do with all that extra oil they now had?

A light bulb went off in their heads

At that time there really wasn’t any alternative to lard and butter for frying and baking.

In 1907 a German chemist EC Kayser arrived  at P&G headquarters in Cincinnati with a new invention. Creamy white, it looked liked lard, cooked like lard, but contained no animal product.

It was hydrogenated cottonseed oil.

Eureka!

Doughnuts to Dollars Crisco went on an aggressive ad campaign. Crisco was presented as healthier, more digestible, cleaner, more economical, more enlightened and more modern than lard. Capitalizing on all the stories of adulterated lard , Crisco was endorsed and encouraged by doctors and dietician who lauded the product as one that would make food more digestible.
(L) Vintage Crisco Ad 1918 (R) Vintage Armor Lard Ad 1915

Perfect for baking and frying the new fat was cheaper than butter and easier than lard to use and best of all hydrogenated oils meant products could sit on shelves for months at room temperature … big profits ensued.

The hydrogenation process was developed in the late 1890s by a French chemist and it  was a German scientist Wilhelm Normann who in 1901 found that liquid oil could be hydrogenated to form trans fatty acids and patented the process in 1902 .

A German may have invented it, but it took good old American know how to turn a healthy profit.

The product was named Crisco a modification of phrase “CRYStallized Cottonseed Oil”

Winning American’s Hearts

“Look for the Grocer Who Shows this Display” exclaims an ad from 1915. “It means that he recommends Crisco for all cooking purposes as a standard, high-grade cooking fat. In your pantry your kitchen cabinets and closets today you use dozens of labor savers and time savers your grandmother never dreamed of. The old countries look with amazement at the quickness of America women in adopting improvements. Alert American housewives consider Cisco indispensable today!
Vintage ad Crisco 1915

“Science has made a discovery of far-reaching importance to every human being,” P&G proudly proclaimed in 1911 when Crisco first appeared on the grocery shelves.  Housewives accustomed to cooking with lard and butter had to be convinced  that this new product was superior.

For the next decades Crisco wooed Americans with a massive advertising campaign until Crisco became the  modern indispensable product for the kitchen.

It was advertised as pure and wholesome, a healthier alternative to animal fats and more economical than butter and then went right to the heart of the housewife…it saved work.

Crisco won over American’s hearts

Save Work

In 1939 Crisco introduced “its new million dollar Gyro-Turn Process- which whips and beats Crisco to new easy blending creaminess prepare yourself for the compliments.”
L) 1939 Crisco Ad (R) 1948 Crisco Ad

“Ladies why slave over baking! Spare your arm!” shouted  one headline in a 1934 ad.”  Whisk up your cakes with Crisco  creamed shortening”.

Making a cake with stiff shortening meant baking it until your arm ached, then you dribbled in the sugar but with Crisco you could dump the shortening sugar and eggs into mixing bowl because Crisco blended with sugar and eggs in one operation.

And because frying was now less of a greasy, smoky, chore than before, Americans went into a frying frenzy – if it could be deep-fried, Americans would fry it.

“My hurry-up suppers got lots of hurrahs…and I got a frying hint! From now on I’m taking the hint and frying with wonderful Crisco giving my family their fill of crisp tempting fried foods”
1947 Vintage Crisco advertisement

Thanks to the ease of Crisco, frying became the most popular cooking method especially deep-frying which  according to testimonials from satisfied housewives like Mrs Winifred Carter in a 1930 advertisement, was  a real lifesaver:“ Crisco saves me so much time and bother at meal time when there are so many things to do. Really I do not know how I could keep house without Crisco and all the good things it gives me.”

In this 1939 Contest you were asked to write a slogan for creamier Crisco using 10 words or less for the chance to win $5,000 Cash or 500 second prizes of Sunbeam Mixmasters.
Vintage ad Crisco 1939

Proctor and Gamble  perfected the modern art of branding.

In addition to publishing a cookbook “The Story of Crisco” containing 615 Crisco recipes (all traditional recipes that contained butter or lard now contained Crisco)  that was distributed free of charge to housewives, it shipped samples to hospitals and schools, produced cooking programs on radio and ran dozens of contests.

The all new 1949 Crisco Cook Book- Yours for just 15 cents!

Have Trans Fat Will Travel

All American Crisco boasted “that the entire culinary world was revising its cookbook on account of Crisco an altogether different cooking fat.

It would win over the worlds hearts as well.

Crisco boasted “that it was adopted by people of all nationalities,” claiming “that the entire culinary world was revising its cookbook on account of Crisco as an altogether different cooking fat. The old countries look with amazement at the quickness of America women in adopting improvements. Alert American housewives consider Cisco indispensable today!”

“Crisco has been adopted by French Chefs who used olive oil, Japanese cooks who prefer coconut oil, by the old negro cooks in the south instead of cottonseed oil, in the Far west by Chinese servants who used butter, and in American homes where lard has been for generations the only cooking fat known.” Crisco explained in its book The Story Of Crisco. “This wide-spread adoption of Crisco has been one of the most convincing proofs of the universal need of such products.”

But it was the niche marketing to the Jews that was truly revolutionary , one for which Crisco claimed “the Jews have waited 4,000 years for!”

Stay Tuned: Transformative Power of Trans Fats PT II Crisco and the Kosher Kitchen

© Sally Edelstein and Envisioning The American Dream, 2013. 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.

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Stay as Sweet as You Are -Sugar Seduction

With his overweight girth, penchant for candy, coffee and cigarettes, it’s a Christmas miracle that twinkly-eyed Santa is still around to make his Christmas deliveries. One only hopes there’s a Cardiac Care unit in the North Pole.

To believe the mid-century advertisements,  Santa’s prodigious sweet tooth was only surpassed by his capacity to chain smoke endless cigarettes and down copious cups of caffeine.

A Smokin’ Santa

With all those billions of presents to deliver on time across the globe, poor Santa’s nerves were sorely tested.

Reading all those billions of lists, checking then twice could fray on anyone’s nerves. Jolly Santa could get quite testy,

As any elf could tell you, nothing could calm those holiday jitters better than a cigarette. Medically approved to help your disposition, cigarettes were regularly suggested by doctors in all branches of medicine to ease tensions in our fast paced world.

Vintage Xmas cigarette ad Camels & Prince Albert Tobacco 1949

“It’s a psychological fact: pleasure helps your disposition.” Camels cigarettes claimed in their ads.”Ever yip like a terrier when things go wrong? That’s only natural. But it’s a psychological fact that pleasure helps your disposition! That’s why everyday pleasure-like smoking for instance- means so much. So if you’re a smoker its important to smoke the most pleasure-giving cigarette camel.”

And not just a hurry up puff, but smoke after smoke of soothing comfort.

If Santa stole a puff or two now and then, who could blame him?

Living under the constant cold war conditions of possible nuclear attack, mid-century Americans relied on the calming comfort of cigarettes.

A carton of cigarettes was number one on Americans wish list for Christmas. What better way to say Happy Holidays, Here’s to your Health! than as carton or two of smokes. Cigarettes, the gift you can give with confidence.

Vintage Xmas ad Old Gold Cigarettes 1952

Vintage Xmas Ad Camels & Prince Albert Tobacco 1943

Vintage Ad Ronson Lighter Santa Lights Up 1948

Vintage Xmas Ad Camels Cigarettes 1951

Candy is Dandy

Vintage Xmas Ad Whitman’s Chocolates 1949

It wouldn’t be Xmas with out candy.

Not only was it a Christmas tradition to give a hefty 3 pound box of chocolate pleasure to those at the top of our list, Santa made sure he kept plenty of brimming bowls of hard candies and chocolates around the home and  the workshop .

Vintage Xmas Candy Ad Brach’s 1952

North Pole Productions

The huge production operation at Santa’s North Pole workshop rivaled the defense plant at Willow Run during WWII in its stupendous output. Santa and his industrious elves were working 24/7. Engineers, designers, and production experts at the North Pole were hard at work secretly designing the newest and biggest toys.

There could be no let up till the job was done. And back of it all, Santa guided, coordinated, and applied pressure where needed.

Since overseeing the toy making in his workshop was  an all day- all night operation, fatigue could set in mighty early.

The secret to their success….sugar, natures healthy fuel.

That’s why Santa made sure he and all his elves had all the sugary sweets they needed while they worked.

Call it pick up or call it pep-up. Or call it plain energy. “The Crave for candy is a call for energy,”  the Council on Candy of the National Confectioners Association  explained to the public in a series of post-war advertising.

When you have that crave for candy whether you’re shopping or making toys your body is saying “I need fuel, I’m running short on power ”

Vintage Candy ads The Council on Candy of the National Confectioners Association 1940s

Smart Santa took the advice offered by the Council on Candy in this 1946 ad:

“Wholesome Candy is a great top off to the workers lunch because it’s a great energy provider.”

“And in between working hours is a good time to take on the energy for the job ahead. Yes- candy cheerful as it is in the eating, is a serious food. It provides fuel quick – quick energy…can do. You like candy for what it is; your body appreciates candy for what it offers.”

“We’ve learned a lot new about nutrition during the past few years. Candy’s  important place in feeding our men during the past war is one indication of that modern knowledge. And aren’t we glad that something so useful to our bodies is so pleasant to our tastes “

Of course the important nutrition in candy was healthful, wholesome sugar, packed full of goodness.

(L)Vintage Xmas Coca Cola Ad 1949 (R) Vintage Xmas 7 Up ad 1949

Santa also stocked up on plenty of sweet sugary drinks to give that sugar rush a boost.

As one ad for Coca Cola explained it: “Supposing you were old Santa Claus. What a job you’d have. Chimneys waiting everywhere…youngsters gifts to be checked. The job certainly calls for that extra something. You’d get tired and thirsty too. You’d want that extra something. You’d find refreshment going quickly into energy. You’d be ready to shout “Ho Prancer, Ho Vixen….”

A Cup of Christmas Joe

Hmmm! Nothing smells as good as coffee.  Happy interruption. Keeps your mind sharp, alert. The smell of fragrant fresh brewed coffee carried through Santa’s workshop. No wonder the elves come -a running. Who can resist coffee’s cheery aroma, so tempting so full of promise.

That’s why Mrs Claus always kept a pot brewing up at the North pole.

She knew Santa needed to be on his toes….there were an awful lot of people to remember who was naughty or nice. Coffee kept Santa on the ball.

Without the helping hand of Fed Ex, Santa needed some help making those all night global  deliveries. Just like a jet pilot needed to be alert, so Santa needed the jolt he could count on from caffeine to get him through the long night.

When you’re on the open road , whether car or sleigh, Santa was wise to remember the safety slogan “Give yourself a coffee stop, for cup after cup of energy.”

The Pan American Coffee Producers ran a series of ads extolling the virtues of coffee as a beverage to drink any time of day or night and Santa was a perfect spokesman.

“Santa was  right to break the fatigue and monotony of his long cold route with  a second and third cup of hot coffee”, they reassured us.” For science says coffee relieves fatigue, actually rests you when tired and makes your mind alert and clear.”

Vintage Xmas Coffee Ad 1940 Pan American Coffee Producers . Illustration by JC Leyendecker

Merry Xmas to All and to all a Good Night

In this 1940 advertisement   published by the Pan American Coffee Producers for the benefit of the American Public, Santa needn’t worry about falling asleep on the job.

“Most people know there is good cheer in a cup of coffee.”

“For sound scientific reasons, it brightens conversation, makes mind and muscles more alert-lifts up the spirits  when you’re tired.”

“Industry recognizes the fact in factories the country over, by having “time out for coffee” in mid-morning and afternoon-finding a definite improvement in efficiency through it.”

“But what many people do not know is that they can enjoy coffee in the evening, and also enjoy  a good nights sleep. The reason is, if you’re like 97 out of 100 other folks the lift you get from coffee lasts only 2 hours. You can drink a fragrant cup of coffee whenever you want it- morning, noon and night- without worry over sleeping.”

“So when you feel the urge for a cup of coffee it isn’t only to give rich satisfaction to your taste-“the gentle lift” you get is good for you.”

“That’s why cheering, heart warming coffee chimes in with Santa, and says-“to all a good night.”

Vintage Xmas Coffee Ad Pan American Coffee Producers 1952

“Think Better! At the North Pole Santa Claus and Mrs. Santa plan the biggest Xmas list in the world…and give themselves a coffee break!” So begins this 1953  Pan American  Coffee Bureau ad.

“Work better…Santa’s elves load up the sleigh…and take a coffee break.”

“Whenever you have a problem…have a cup of fragrant coffee! The pleasant lift helps keep your mind alert. When you want an aid to clear thinking better take a coffee break.”

“Coffee’s gentle stimulation helps you do a better job have more fun when you take a coffee break.”

© Sally Edelstein and Envisioning The American Dream, 2013. 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.

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The Case of the Vanishing Velveeta

Americans beware; your nachos are in danger!

Last week Kraft issued a statement that some parts of the East Coast were experiencing a shortage of Velveeta.

Now it seems Kraft has confirmed the cheesepocalypse is real. Many consumers won’t be able to find Velveeta products on their store shelves over the next few weeks ….and worse still, the shortage could spread!

A Velveeta shortage?

Cheez whiz ! Say it ain’t so!

With the Superbowl mere weeks away what will Americans put on their nachos?

Does Velveeta put the “Kitsch” in kitchen

“A fun, family friendly food” Vintage Velveeta Ad 1951

Feelings about Velveeta are varying- fiercely loved by many, reviled by others.

Though some might wish for Velveeta to be vanquished permanently from the culinary landscape, to others venerable Velveeta has earned a place of honor in the America kitchen.

Food snobs, convinced that Velveeta puts the kitsch in kitchen, may turn up their refined noses at the creamy processed cheese spread but once upon a time Velveeta was considered a wholesome, nutritious food, welcomed by the modern housewife.

It was during the dark days of the depression followed by the food shortages of WWII  that helped catapult this gooey cheese into the  hearts (and arteries) of Americans.

“Triumph in Cheese Making”

American know how improves upon Mother Nature
(L) 1948 Vintage ad for Pyequick Pie Mix from Betty Crocker a far easier way to make an apple pie from a freeze dried apples and pie crust mix. (R) Vintage ad Velveeta processed cheese food

Velveeta is as American as apple pie, especially if the pie is made from a packaged mix.

When it comes to food no other country has devised so many elaborate methods for altering, emulating and improving upon basic ingredients.

A miracle of modern science, Velveeta cheese food, the orange-hued velvety smooth cheese hybrid that miraculously melts in one piece, was a careful concoction based on chemistry.

Though Kraft would eventually purchase Velveeta in 1928, it was created a decade earlier, the brainchild of a Swiss born cheese-maker Emil Frye who lived in Monroe N.Y. once home to some of the leading cheese makers in the country.

A few years earlier Frye, a cheese-maker with the Monroe Cheese Company, had struck gold with his creation of Liederkranz a soft ripening, spreadable  cheese and it soon became one of the most popular cheeses in the country.

But Frye had a bigger vision.

The Birth of Velveeta

In 1916, he began experimenting in his home kitchen. For 2 long years he fiddled with broken and misshapen wheels of Swiss cheese, blending them with whey and other byproducts of cheese making until he  created a smooth end product with a velvety consistency.

By turning waste into profit, a new cheese making process was born.

The visionary cheese-maker named it Velveeta.

With packages bearing the tag line “A Triumph in Cheese Making,” the brand spun off into the independent Velveeta Cheese Company in 1923, until it was sold to Kraft in 1928.

You can count on Velveeta

Vintage Velveeta Ads 1948 Grand main dish meals with Velveeta

“Never before,” Kraft announced a bold headline  in a 1933 ad for Velveeta.

“For many years cheese makers have regarded one thing as “impossible”-to give you full natural flavor in packaged pasteurized cheese.”

“Now Kraft does the impossible, with a new secret method discovered by Kraft experts and available only to these Master Cheese makers.”

Velveeta could do Mother Nature one better.

No matter the season or location you could always count on Velveeta to be the same consistency and flavor, unlike plain old ordinary cheeses that naturally varied in flavor ( the character of milk itself changes with the seasons so cheese would naturally follow suit.)

You could always count on Velveeta, it spreads, it slices, it melts to perfection every time.

Vintage ad Velveeta 1939

“How is it that the Kraft cheese you buy always tastes the same?” a quizzical housewife wonders in one ad from 1939.

“That’s easy.” the cheese-maker in the ad answers. “The Kraft process of blending cheeses!”

“Master Blending of many cheeses was the secret formula of Velveeta,” the Kraft cheese-maker explained,  and that  “they kept a full record of every cheese they use- a sort of birth certificate and personal history on it to assure consistency of flavor. The blending and processing of the cheeses that go into Velveeta protects the flavor peak deliciousness at every step. The result is utmost uniformity,” he  states beaming.

Whats more Kraft claimed proudly, “When making this famous pasteurized process cheese spread, Kraft returns to it important food values from milk that are usually lost in cheese making.”

Artisanal Cheese was plain  old-fashioned; why eat regular cheese when you could give your family the benefits of processed American cheese food.

Velveeta improved on anything a mere cow or a dairy farmer could produce.

© Sally Edelstein and Envisioning The American Dream, 2013. 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.

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Though some might wish for Velveeta to be vanquished permanently from the culinary landscape, to others venerable Velveeta has earned a place of honor in the America kitchen.

Like Faith Channing. For over 80 years Velveeta has been a vital part of her life.

It was during the dark days of the depression followed by the food shortages of WWII  that helped catapult this gooey cheese into the  hearts of Americans.

Bargain in Nutrition

During the Depression, Velveeta was a treat for the budget as well as the family
(L) Vintage as 1934 (R) Vintage illustration Velveeta Recipe

In the thrifty thirties, Velveeta was a boon to budget conscious mothers concerned about giving their growing children adequate nutrition.

Five year old Faith was often frail and underweight.

In 1934 Faith’s mother Blanche was always fretting about the food bills.

Vintage ad 1934

On her husbands Tom’s salary saving money on food really meant something. “When you do all your own housework and cook for a family of 5 you soon learn the meaning of true economy,” she would often sigh. And Blanche Ralston had to learn- because her food budget was only one-third of what it used to be.

“Of course I want to save money on food bills!”  Blanche bemoaned. But safeguarding the health of her children was vital.

Every housewife understood how difficult it was  to be economical and still give your little ones only the best.

But making sure Faith and her 2 brothers grew up strong and husky could break the bank.

“Are your children fully protected?” advertisements shouted out at mothers. “Danger threatens constantly in the years 1 to 6. A touch of over-strain and the door is thrown open to whole group of serious troubles.”
Vintage ad 1936

In a depressed economy, children were viewed as little spendthrifts of vital energy.

Like thousands of thrifty housewives, Blanche brooded, especially when it came to fragile little  Faith:

“Can my child live on her income…the income of nourishment she gets from the meals I serve?”

One thing Blanche knew for sure “Dairy would keep your youngsters thriving and making weight gains.”

Did her diet include an abundant source of milk?

Dairy Dream

Vintage Ad Duraglas Milk Bottles 1936

By the 1930’s milk had taken on an almost magical mystique.

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.

The gospel of milk as proselytized by devout domestic scientists, that milk was nature’s perfect food, was established in the dark days of WWI.

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.

But milk could be expensive to a family like Faiths who were carefully watching their pennies.

Well Lady, you’re in luck! Velveeta came to the rescue.

especially for the kiddies….Velveeta was like drinking a glass of wholesome milk.
Vintage ad 1936

“Velveeta is wholesome and solves this problem for you,” Kraft reassured the smart modern mother. “It’s economical and is a fine quality food.”

“With the children in mind Kraft experts created the cheese food Velveeta.” Kraft proclaimed proudly, explaining that “ It was extra rich in valuable precious  milk minerals, calcium and in muscle-building protein and a good source of vitamin A…and as digestible as milk.”

“It takes more than a gallon of whole milk to make a single pound of cheese,” they boasted “a fact to remember for planning thrifty meals.”

Just What the Doctor Ordered

“Seldom has a food product been so honored as Velveeta,” Kraft humbly explained upon receiving the coveted Seal of Acceptance by the Committee on Foods of the American Medical Association.
“Money cannot buy it.! Influence cannot obtain it! Only foods which pass the most searching investigation receive it”
Vintage ad 1934

And if mother still wasn’t convinced of the value of their product, Kraft suggested “Your own doctor will gladly tell you more about the benefits of Velveeta.”

And no one was more trustworthy than your family doctor.

In 1931 Velveeta was awarded the coveted seal of approval from the American Medical Association.

“To build healthy children, doctors approve this famous food,” Blanche read in an  article in Women’s Home Companion.

“What a joy to learn that today child specialists advise this dairy food to give children a splendid start to lasting health. Velveeta is rich in complete high quality protein, body building material for growing children and body repair material for adults.”

Sumptuous Dishes and They’re Thrifty

Vintage ad 1937

Velveeta was a treat for the budget as well as the family.

During those budget conscious times, Kraft encouraged the eating of other dairy products for the whole family  as economical alternatives to more expensive main dishes like meat.

“Need Budget help?”  Kraft inquired. “Velveeta gives thrifty grand eating main dishes. Reserve at least one dinner a week,” they recommended, “for a cheese main dish.”

Vintage Velveeta advertisements featuring tempting recipes

To help m’lady with her budget  meal planning  Velveeta supplied an endless assortment of recipes that always involved serving a cheese sauce over an assortment of food. Any and all food would benefit  from smothering it with  creamy sauce “as smooth as satin, golden as a buttercup rich tasting , cheese flavor and fine food value.”

So Blanche put her faith in that golden rich cheese flavor food   and found a gold mine of thrift and nutrition.

Faith was full of vitality thanks to Velveeta.

© Sally Edelstein and Envisioning The American Dream, 2014. 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.

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Viva Velveeta

Vintage ad Mallory Electronics 1949

A Thing of the Past

Today when it is unthinkable to go anywhere without your smartphone in hand, it’s hard to imagine the excitement and wonderment  generated by this post war ad that hinted at  the future possibility of a mobile car phone that functioned merely as a…. phone.

Amazing how far we’ve come!

Traditionally, progress was what Americans could always count on…new and better ways of doing things.

Replacing one convenience for a new improved model that would irrevocably improve your life for the better has always been the American Way.

Calling All Doctors!

Vintage ads 1949 Mallory Electronics

 It may be two in the morning raining buckets  but in 1949 you could always count on Dr. Higgins.

Like the US mail neither rain nor snow nor dark of night could stop the beloved family doctor from making a house call.

When a call for help comes the doctor can’t say no!

But imagine the time when Doc Higgins can be reached even when he’s at the wheel of his old Buick just by picking up his mobile phone.

That was the near future offered up to the hopeful reader in this optimistic 1949 advertisement.

Thanks to Mallory, a manufacturer of parts for modern electronic equipment and their contribution to the future of the mobile phone, “the family doctor would always be within reach of his patients.  In emergencies he can give directions over the phone as he speed to the side of the stricken.”

“Modern miracles of communication were already happening,” the ad explains. “The spoken message is no longer chained to fixed routes defined by existing wire lines. With equipment now available, explained by Mallory “oral messages can now be sent from one moving vehicle to another and to central control points.”

 Call Waiting

The Doctor Makes his Rounds.
“Wherever he goes, he is welcome…his life is dedicated to serving others” the copy in the ad reads. ” Not all his calls are associated with illness. He is often friend and counselor. His satisfactions in life are reflected in the smiling faces of youngsters like this one and countless others whom he has long attended. Yes, the doctor represents an honored profession…his professional reputation and his record of service are his most cherished possessions.”
Of course this illustration appeared in a 1946 ad for Camels cigarettes, where our kindly family doctor heartily endorses smoking, so perhaps his professional reputation was less than sterling.

 Of course modern miracles of communications like the car phone did  come to pass, but the idea of a doctor making house calls has become as antiquated as the ad itself.

You may be able to speed dial your doctor on your mobile phone  but good luck in getting a timely appointment.

Now all you can count on in our ailing health care system is interminable office waits and astronomical costs.

Today, the smart phone has replaced the car phone but the house call by a family doctor…irreplaceable.

Amazing how far we’ve come.

© Sally Edelstein and Envisioning The American Dream, 2014. 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.

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Predictions for 1975

RJ Reynolds Tobacco Company ran a long series of ads (R) in which they claimed that according to a nationwide survey “More doctors smoke camels than any other cigarette.” Clearly if doctors are smoking this brand it must be safe (L) Vintage Philip Morris ad touts how gentle their cigarettes are

In mid-century America more doctors may have smoked camels, but pregnant women preferred Philip Morris.

At least as far as my own baby-bound mother was concerned.

In 1954  it would be a good tens years before the Surgeon General’s landmark report concluded that there was a link between lung cancer and cigarette smoking, so until then my mother blissfully puffed away while pregnant with me.

Panicky Pregnancy

Besides which, my second time Mom had first hand knowledge on pregnancy. She knew frequent cigarette breaks came in mighty handy to quiet pregnancy jitters.

Two years earlier in 1952 while pregnant with my older brother, my first time mother Betty was a bundle of nerves.

Like many moms-to-be, she had a good case of the impending-mother jitters. Not only could she feel overwhelmed at the thought of being a mother, her head was filled with stories of everything that could go wrong for her and her unborn baby.

But lucky for Betty her obstetrician was there to gently help dispel all her concerns.

In her second trimester, Mom had gone for her usual monthly set of maternal x-rays at the obstetrician office. Before she even had a chance to share her anxieties with the doctor, he  noticed she had a mild cough.

Padding over to his tall steel medical cabinet Dr Orenstein pulled out a pack of Philip Morris cigarettes. Along with tinctures, ointments, and penicillin, the painted cabinet was well stocked with dozens of cigarette cartons, tokens of appreciation  received at medical conventions over the years courtesy of Philip Morris and RJ Reynolds.

Handing her the familiar gold pack, he assured her, “You can kiss your cough goodbye Betty. You’ll soon feel better because you’ll be smoking the cigarette recommended by eminent nose and throat specialists to patients who smoke.”

“You’ll feel better,”  continued the doctor, pausing to light up a Camel for himself, “because in case after case coughs due to smoking disappear, parched throats clear up…that stale smoked out feeling vanishes. Tests showed 3 out of every case of smokers cough cleared on changing to Phillip Morris.”

“And,” he added smiling broadly,  “it was the same brand comedienne Lucille Ball smoked…and a pregnant Lucy at that!”

Mom loved Lucy.

An unprecedented pairing of fictional pregnancy with real life pregnancy occurred on I Love Lucy episode Lucy Goes to the hospital By pure coincidence and good luck the episode dealing with the birth of fictional Little Ricky was scheduled for Jan 19, 1953 which proved to be the day when the actress gave birth to her real son. Desi Arnaz Jr
When the episode premiered 72% of all American homes with TV sets tuned in receiving the higher ratings than the inauguration of President Eisenhower
The news made headlines. By the end of the second season it was Desi Arnaz Jr who graced the cover of the first issue of TV Guide. On Feb 18, 1953 a month after the birth of little Ricky the Arnazes signed a new 2 1/2 year 8 million dollar contract with Philip Morris

Everyone knew the popular Monday night show I Love Lucy was sponsored by cigarette giant Phillip Morris.

The animated titles that opened the show even featured stick figures of Lucy and Desi climbing a giant pack of Philip Morris Cigarettes interacting with Johnny Roventini the diminutive bellboy who for nearly 2 decades had been belting out the Philip Morris slogan “Cal-l-l for Phil-lip Mor-ray-sss!”

Medical Authorities

Although Mom had been a loyal  Lucky Strike smoker for years, everyone was familiar with the Philip Morris ads that ran for years.

Featuring the four-foot  bellhop who happily made health claims stating that “medical authorities  recognize that  Philip Morris proved less irritating to the smokers nose and throat.”

Promising research conducted by physicians , the ads assured the reader that after prescribing Phillip Morris brand cigarettes to patients with irritated throats “every case of irritation cleared completely or definitely improved”

Naturally other cigarettes made similar health claims always supported by scientific  research and glowing doctors endorsements.

Chesterfield for example boldly announced the results of a ten month scientific study in one ad: “Nose throat and accessory organs not adversely affected by smoking Chesterfield,” while Camels could claim that “noted throat specialists concluded that not one case of throat irritation was due to smoking Camels.” No mention was made on its effect on the subjects  lungs!

Chesterfield proudly announced the results of their 10 months scientific study- the ” First such report ever published about any cigarette,” they boasted. “A responsible consulting organization has reported the results of a continuing study by a competent medical specialist and his staff on the effects of smoking Chesterfield’s. After 6 months the medical specialist after a thorough examination of the test group stated: “It is my opinion that the ears, nose throat and accessory organs of all participating subjects were not adversely affected in the 6 month period by smoking Chesterfields.”

Smoke Screen

Opening up the current issue of Journal of the American Medical Association  Dr Orenstein pointed out an advertisement to Mom which  showed a physician writing on a prescription pad: “For your patients with sore throats and cough, Phillip Morris cigarettes.”

Of course buried deep in those same pages of the medical journal, tucked between ads for cigarettes were early reports suggesting a plausible relationship between smoking and lung cancer.

In fact, in May 27 1950 JAMA published the first major study linking smoking to lung cancer and after 1953 the medical journal  would no longer accept adverting from tobacco companies.

Many doctors still doubted there was a wide spread connection between smoking and disease. Instead it was believed that only certain individuals health was affected by smoking so it was a case by case situation.

Let Up and Light Up!

Besides the benefits to her throat , her doctor stressed out how beneficial cigarettes were for rattled  nerves.

“Don’t be such a brooder Betty,” he smiled at my mother offering a light for her cigarette.  She drew deeply of the fragrant smoke,  the cool mildness of the tobacco tars  a treat to her throat.

“Relax!” the doctor advised.  Modern pregnancy he assured her was a modern miracle. No Fuss no muss.

Gently patting my mother’s hand he tried to calm my fretting mother. “Nowadays pregnancy is a breeze.”

To help her achieve piece of mind, he assured her she’d be on her way  to a calm and collected  motherhood if she’d  relax and prepare. “Just as a healthy dose of arsenate of lead mixed in the soil before planting would produce a fine healthy lawn, you’ll have a fine healthy baby if you relax and prepare.” Nothing was more important than steady nerves.

And nothing would help you relax like a soothing  cigarette.

“Cigarettes contain not just one but a combination of medically proven active ingredients to sooth frayed nerves,” explained the doctor.  He promised it would “restore her flow of healthful energy , …a quick and delightful energizing effect!”

“Quit being a worry wort, Betty, ‘laughter,” he said referencing the famous Readers Digest section “was the best medicine’ and smoking was like a doctor’s prescription for relaxation.”

Mom tossed the pack into her purse, and with a new lilt in her walk, happily anticipated the birth of her new baby, and a great tasting new cigarette.

“Let up and light up and laugh,” he advised Mom shooing her out of the office.

The Last Laugh

Just what the doctor ordered…It feels so good to relax!

 In May, Mom had delivered a whopping 4 pound premature baby boy, and now and now she had her hands full.

This mothering business was tuckering poor Mom out and  she could be dog tired in the evening .That was just one of the many, many times during the day when she wanted to “Let up and light up.”

By December her diaper decorated world kept her too busy for words.

She barely had spare time to flip through a magazine, open a newspaper or even keep up with the news! With so  many new things to learn and discover about one tiny bit of humanity, she said sighing, that there doesn’t seem to be time to catch up with the rest.

But Monday nights at 9pm were  set aside as her half hour of  relaxation all week, when along with 40 million other viewer she looked forward to watching “I Love Lucy.”

With the dinner dishes washed, laundry folded, and baby bottles sterilizing in the electric sterilizer, patiently awaiting refill of tomorrow’s formula, all was finally quiet. Mom could sit back and give my brother his evening feeding. Shaking the baby bottle the milk felt pleasantly warm on Mom’s writs as she settled in with a soothing cigarette, in one hand, baby bottle in the other.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_1rpAUhbARY

While she waited for Lucy to begin she flipped through the current issue of Reader Digest turning to her favorite features first.  After chuckling at the heartwarming humor of “Life in These United States” and giggling over the gags provided by  “Laughter is the Best Medicine,” a more serious   article caught her attention.

It was anything but laughable.

Nestled between “The real meaning of Xmas’ and “We’re selling America Short” was an article entitled “ Cancer by the Carton.” Ominously linking smoking and lung cancer, it was the first widely read article that brought attention to the public about the dangers of smoking.

Brushing the magazine aside, she looked up at the TV screen just as the familiar stick figures of Lucy and Desi made their weekly climb up  the giant pack of Philip Morris Cigarettes.

Though the widely read Readers Digest article would eventually provoke a  lot of talk, in 1952 my mother  could never imagine a time when  “Life in These United States” would be smoke free.

As if squirreling the article’s information away for a rainy day, Mom let up, lit up and laughed.

It was just what the doctor ordered!

© Sally Edelstein and Envisioning The American Dream, 2014. 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.

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Smoking and Pregnant- Just What the Doctor Ordered Pt II The tobacco industry goes on the offensive

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Under the Weather? How About a Smoke?

(R) Vintage Winston Cigarette Ad 1954

1954 was a good year for smokers and an even better one for the big tobacco companies.

For a baby in utero…not so much.

After the previous years blistering reports on the dangers of cigarettes,  1954 new years resolutions to quit smoking could now be forgotten ,  thanks to the January report of the Tobacco Institute Research Committee which gave the green light to smoking.

Everyone was encouraged to let up and light up.

It was still tens years before the Surgeon General’s landmark report concluded that there was a link between lung cancer and cigarette smoking, so until then my modern-thinking mother blissfully puffed away while pregnant with me.

Pregnancy Pro

My second time Mom had first hand knowledge on pregnancy and smoking. She knew frequent cigarette breaks came in mighty handy to quiet pregnancy jitters.

Having successfully delivered a whopping four pound baby boy 2 years earlier, my baby-bound mother Betty was now a seasoned pro when it came to pregnancy and was happy to share her experiences with the nervous first-time mothers in the neighborhood.

(L) Vintage ad North Star Blanket (R) Vintage Lucky Strike Cigarette Ad

“It was really a pity,” she commented to Dad over breakfast one November morning, “when you consider how many young women still continued to enter pregnancy without first learning the real truth about being pregnant.”

Now 5 months pregnant with me, Mom couldn’t wait to offer her wisdom to the gaggle of pregnant gals who would soon descend on our suburban home  for their weekly Kaffee Klatch.

Lighting her usual post breakfast cigarette, Mom carefully measured out the Chock Full of Nuts coffee in her Mirro Matic percolator. Knowing how coffee was a great little picker upper for expectant mothers when they get that tired draggy feeling, she put up a big pot.

Experience told her that there was  nothing more welcome to a gal in-the-family-way, than to put her feet up, have a cup or two of piping hot coffee with plenty o’ sugar for extra pep, and relax with a soothing cigarette. Mmmm! Heaven!

Pregnancy on Parade

By noon, a bevy of bellies in all stages of protrusions waddled into our kitchen.

Decked out in an assortment of generously cut maternity separates that kept pace with modern times, these chatty women proved there was no need to be frumpy while pregnant

Gathered around the cheery, yellow Formica kitchen dinette set in our kitchen the fretful first timers were overwhelmed with questions.

Like so many ladies-in-waiting, they were suffering from f impending motherhood jitters, compounded by recent news concerning the hazards of smoking.

“There seemed to be so many things to be afraid of nowadays,” voiced our neighbor Bunny echoing the concerns of the others who were nodding in agreement “Yesterday it was the H bomb, today it’s cigarette smoke that looms over us like a dreadful mushroom cloud.”

In the past year, headlines about smoking and lung cancer had been getting bigger and scarier and naturally the baby-bound  women were bothered .

When a scientific report by 2 doctors found that painting cigarette tar on the back of mice created cancer, a bombshell had been dropped. Audible gasps could be heard over smokers hacks coast to coast.

The next salvo fired was when another doctor delivered a headline making speech in NYC  warning “the male population of the US would be decimated if cigarette smoking increases as it has in the past unless some steps are taken to remove the cancer-producing factor from cigarettes.”

In late November 1953  Time Magazine declared that the the first definitive link between cancer and smoking “was proved beyond any doubt.”

But doubt still remained.

Ads movie stars  endorcements Movie stars smoke, athletes endorced it even society ladies lit up.

You Can Take Your Doctors Word For It

(L) A stylist lady-in-waiting circa 1954 (R) Vintage Camels ad  “What cigarette do you smoke doctor? When asked what cigarette they smoked the answers came in by the thousands..from general physicians, diagnosticians, surgeons, -yes, and nose and throat specialists too. The most named brand was Camels.”

Now the apprehensive girls were all ears to what Mom had to say

Fresh from her obstetricians appointment in the city, my mother was anxious to share what she had learned from her Park Avenue doctor.

Mom went all misty eyed talking about Dr Orenstein.  All the girls felt that way about their own doctors and Mom understood why.

No one was more trustworthy, more knowledgeable and more important in a pregnant gal’s life than her doctor.

Lighting up another  Parliament, Mom began.

“Despite all the worries,” she said assuredly “we girls were living in the best of times.”

“Back in the pre-historic days,” she explained, “when their own mother’s were pregnant, a baby-bound lady had to pace herself with the number of smokes she could have.”

“Doctors strictly advised limiting expectant mothers to only four cigarettes a day, to help wih digestion and soothe their pre-natal nerves . Pregnant women were advised to take it easy…. stick to AMA approved activities like reading cheerful books, knitting or chatting, but, heaven- forbid- nothing too controversial please!”

But now thanks to modern research  “there was little need to alter the lifestyle of “today’s modern- thinking young mothers”…including smoking!

Just What the Doctor Ordered Medical Authorities

“Smoking Without Fear” by Don Cooley published in Sept. 1954 claimed you didn’t have to give up smoking. The 48 page low priced book sold at newsstands, appeared courtesy of the tobacco industry and it’s public relations firm Hill & Knowlton shortly after the first medical reports emerged saying cigarette smoking caused cancer. (R) Vintage Camels ad “More Doctors Smoke Camels”

“Along with many of you, I was concerned about the possible injurious effect of smoking on my health after reading all the alarmist reports filled with scientific gobbledegook  pointing to the health hazards of cigarettes,” she said thoughtfully.

“So I asked my doctor straight out if I should quit smoking!”

“My doctor is a thoughtful man,” Mom  gushed,  “and after a little deliberation he said: ‘I think smoking does you more good than harm and I wouldn’t suggest that you quit.”

Quoting from an article by a popular medical writer in Harpers Magazine he said “that the case against cigarettes is by no means proved and that cigarette has little or nothing to do with cancer of the lung.”

These vintage ads from 1954 offer Testimonials from smokers who have smoked Camels for 35-40 years prove you can smoke and grow old! Even John Wayne boasts of 24 years of pleasurable smoking. Sadly this American icon would develop lung cancer in just 10 years time, dying of stomach cancer in 1979. He would eventually acknowledge his lung cancer was a result of his 6 pack a day cigarette habit.

“Maybe its the mice who should quit smoking,” he said chuckling.

Band of Brothers- Tobacco Institute Research Committee

Stepping up to dispel the alarmist rumors was the Tobacco Institute Research Committee and their research.

Handing Betty a booklet the group  had published entitled  “A Scientific Perspective on the Cigarette Controversy” the  doctor was sure it would put Moms mind at ease.

To put Moms mind at ease, he handed Betty a booklet the group  had published entitled  “A Scientific Perspective on the Cigarette Controversy”

The authoritative booklet ( written with the help of committees  PR firm ), distributed widely to the media and health practitioners all over the country ,  quoted 36 scientists questioning smoking’s link to health problems.

Quoting 36 scientists  questioning smoking’s link to health problems, the authoritative booklet ( written with the help of committees  PR firm ) was  distributed widely to the media and health practitioners all over the country.

Mom relayed the good news to the gals.

The latest information from the Tobacco Industry Research Committee Report confirmed the obvious “that there was no proof that cigarette smoking is a cause of lung cancer”

Of course years later we would find out the Tobacco Industry Research Committee was set up as a shield for the industry, their real  mission being  to deliberately confuse the public about the risks of smoking and spread doubt over strong scientific evidence and the public wouldn’t know what to believe.

Dr Orenstein explained to Mom  that the Tobacco Industry Research Committee, made up of esteemed scientists, university researchers  and notable physicians  was formed last December by the tobacco companies  who had banded together to look into the  health allegations.

Their mission explained the doctor, was to reassure the public that the industry could responsibly investigate smoking and health issues.

Science For Sale

Mom recalled the large ad that ran in the paper in early January announcing the  “the formation of the Tobacco Industry Research Committee.”

Headlined “A Frank Statement to Cigarette Smokers” the 2 page ad  was placed in 448 newspapers.

“Recent reports on experiments with mice have given wide publicity to a theory that cigarette smoking is in some way linked with lung cancer in human beings.”

 “Although conducted by doctors of professional standing these experiments are not regarded as conclusive in the field of cancer research.”

Exactly 10 years before the January 1964 publication of the surgeon generals report , in January 1954 the tobacco industry banded together and announced in a double page ad “the formation of the Tobacco Industry Research Committee. “
Growing concern among the public of dangers of smoking caused the tobacco companies to join forces when the realized their industry was in trouble.

 Distinguished authorities point out:

 1. There is no agreement among authorities regarding what the cause of lung cancer is

2. That there is no proof that cigarette smoking is one of the causes.

3. That statistics purporting to link cigarette smoking with the disease could apply with equal force to any one of many aspects of modern life.

 We believe the products we make are not injurious to health.

The Tobacco Industry Research Committee was a brilliant counter offensive by the Tobacco industry that left both doctors and the public unsure how dangerous smoking really was,

 “For more than 300 years tobacco has given solace relaxation and enjoyment to mankind.

At one time or another during those years critics have held it responsible for practically every disease of the human body. One by one these charges have been abandoned for lack of evidence.”

The Proof is in the Smoking

Dr Orenstein went on to tell Mom  that there was a beneficial side of smoking that is provable while tobacco has not been proven a killer.

“Hows your disposition today” asks this Vintage Camels ad from 1955. “It’s only human to feel edgy when little annoyances pie up-thats why its wise to choose Camels”

“It’s a fact  that moms to-be go through all sorts of mood swings…just ask any poor dad-to-be,” laughed the doctor. ” The fluctuations of  hormones make you moody and upset. That’s only natural. And because it was a psychological fact that smoking helps your disposition,” he continued, “everyday pleasures like smoking are so important.”

“You see cigarettes are like a doctors prescription for calming nerves and fighting fatigue,”  Mom explained to the group

Oh, Baby

A healthy start is so important. Without a hint of irony, this vintage Camels ad (part of the More Drs Smoke Camels” campaign) on the (R) boasts how this little 5 year old girl might live to 100 “due to the amazing strides of medical science that have added years to life expectancy. Not only the expectancy of a longer life but a life far healthier. Thank medical science for that. Thank your doctor for that and thousands like him…” (L) Philip Morris claims their cigarette is as gentle as a baby

And naturally it goes to reason what’s good for you is good for the baby!

“So you see, it was important to educate yourself if you have concerns and worries,” Mom told the relieved gals. “Learning facts can help dispel some of the fears based on inaccurate information.”

Reading aloud from her dog-eared copy of Pregnancy and You, the invaluable book her doctor had given her 2 years before, she explained

“Smoking during pregnancy is no more or less injurious for the mother than smoking when not pregnant. We are not so sure about the fetus. It is known that some substance from the tobacco smoke, probably nicotine, passes from the mother’s blood stream to the infant’s via the placenta. The result is a temporary and harmless speeding up of the baby’s heart rate.”

So relax and enjoy!

Folks everywhere, including mothers-to-be could feel free to light up.

My sugar coated kodacolor childhood would be be spent through a constant blue haze of cigarette smoke.

© Sally Edelstein and Envisioning The American Dream, 2014. 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.

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Smoking Just What the Doctor Ordered Pt I

(L) Vintage ad WWII Nash Kelvinator 1944

The cheesepocalypse is upon us and we are approaching ground zero!

Shell shocked Americans are going through a meltdown over the shortage of velveeta endangering the very lifeblood of their Superbowl nachos.

Jonesing for their liquid gold, it’s all out war as a deprived public frantically fumble in search of alternative recipes in time for the big game.

Time out!

We might want to hit the pause button and rewind to a time when food shortages, sacrifices and disruptions were a part of everyday life and not just an inconvenience for the Superbowl.

“If you’re packing daily lunch for one of Americas defense workers be sure to note that Velveeta was rich in muscle building protein and milk calcium.”
(L) Vintage Photo Sealtest Booklet 1943 (R) Vintage ad Velveeta cheese 1944

During WWII Velveeta along with meat, sugar, dairy  and coffee had gone off to war.

And when it was available Velveeta was not a mere snack, food but a vital source of sound nutrition.

The depression had introduced Velveeta as a thrifty convenient food source, but it was during the shortages and rationing of WWII  that helped catapult this gooey cheese into the  hearts of Americans.

Food Fights For Freedom

Two 1943 Vintage ads from Armour and Company offering suggestions to how to share precious food and conserve the vital food supply. “All of us must do all we can to protect the food supply and keep our home front healthy and strong. You have a responsibility in your own home. By careful buying, by efficient, thrifty use of your ration points, you can help make sure there will be enough meat and other necessary foods for everyone.”

Each of us on the home-front, was a vital part of the war effort. It was everyone’s job to conserve, avoid waste, play square and starve the black markets.

“Food fights for freedom” was the motto and American food  would be a big factor in winning the war

“Today food is one of Americas most important weapons. It’s the fuel of our fighting men and our fighting allies. It helps keep our home front healthy and strong. So all of us must do all we can to protect the food supply.”

“Twice as much food is going to the fighting fronts this year….because there are twice as many men to feed.”
“Even at that, we civilians here at home are still getting 3 out of every 4 plates of food we produce. And the men in our Armed forces are the best fed fighters in the world.”
vintage ad Crosley Corp. 1944

Uncle Sam had a big job to do to feeding our boys in the armed forces and supplying our Allies too.

Rationing was the only way the government could see to it that civilians got a fair share of food. Every man, woman and child got a ration book containing coupons with point values for different types of food. The one thing there wasn’t a shortage of was advertising explaining the importance of sacrifice.

“We folks on the home-front are still getting 75% of all the food in America,” explained one war worker in an ad promoting health for victory  “I know it takes a lot of chow for the boys in the service…but who rates it more!” Another thing, I’m all for shipping food to our allies and liberated countries because it saves a lot of lives. Shortages? They’re tough…but my wife’s learned to do with the foods she can get is okay by me.

“That’s the stout-hearted spirit that makes Food Fight For Freedom. There’s enough food in this country for everyone, if we learn to use it properly.”

Shortages and Rationing

In this 1943 ad, Elsie the Borden’s cow tries to explain to her husband Elmo the reason for shortages and rationing. Much of the milk Bordens produced went to our armed forces and our allies. And the milk must be used to make other concentrated dairy products like cheese.
Exhibiting good old American optimism, Elsie goes on to say: “Think of the things we have to cheer about. This year may not have been a picnic but it hasn’t been so bad. We’ve had enough to wear and we’ve had enough to eat.”

Cheese was one of the first to be drafted into service because of the government’s huge requirements of cheddar cheese.

Thousands of farmers and dairy hands had gone off to war making it hard to increase production and so there was a shortage. Men in the service drank more milk and ate more cheese than they did in civilian life.

“Great quantities of it were needed for our boys,”  cheese manufacturers like Kraft and Bordens  told us,  “ because cheese was such a grand and  easy way to feed milk nourishment to fighting men.”

In May 1942 sugar was rationed, followed by coffee , processed food, meat and dairy products making it a wartime challenge keeping a home-front family well nourished.

Women’s Double Duty

Home front Housewives deserved a heap of credit .In addition to devoting millions of extra hours to vital new work in factories and volunteer organizations they were doing a grand job in the kitchen…saving food points and not scrimping on nutrition

It was much harder to feed a family during wartime but housewives like Blanche Channing knew it could be done with careful planning and thoughtful shopping.

Before the war, budget conscious Blanche had counted on Velveeta for nutritious economical meals on a budget. Now besides her money, she had to count her ration points and budget her time.

Like most other home front housewives Blanche was doing double duty.

In addition to devoting extra hours to the Red Cross, Civilian Defense  and the USO  she had become a soldier of the kitchen. Her first order from Uncle sam  was to provide her family with foods that build strong bodies, steady nerves, and high morals

Uncle Sam needed us strong so it wasn’t long before Health-For-Victory clubs sprang up across the country. Monthly meetings conducted by able home economists of local power companies distributing meal planning guides for point thrifty meals and giving women practical help on health building meals in spite of rationing.
To help folks eat the kind of food that keeps them healthy, Uncle Sam set up 7 basic food groups that everybody needed every day And milk and milk products was one of them.

It was our duty to stay healthy.

Taking on those extra shifts at the war plant and visiting the blood bank regularly was no problem for her husky husband Jim.

“That man of mine hasn’t lost a days work in 7 months,  she boasted. “Eating right and staying healthy pays off in our house even stepped up pace of war work can’t keep my husband down!”

A home front soldier like Jim deserved something special when he got home! And Blanche saw that he got it!

The Channings may finally have been able to afford a juicy steak but there were no steaks to be had. Alternatives to those mouth-watering roasts that Jim hankered for had to be found.

It was the home front housewives  duty to be flexible and clever, to plan balanced menus that spread rationed foods thin. The trick was to make ration shrunk meals seem bountiful and appetizing and magazine articles were abuzz with ways to gussy up those plain meals.

Kraft along with nearly every major food company pitched in printing wartime pamphlets suggesting how their product could help the homemaker skimp on precious food like meat, sugar and fat and coffee

Ladies listen, A food shortage is no excuse for dull meals- not while Kraft cheeses are around

Despite there being a cheese shortage, eagle-eyed  Blanche could still find Velveeta on her grocers shelves from time to time. She was certain the processed cheese food would brighten up rationed meals!

 Victory Velveeta

Mrs Housewife has learned about food alternatives, how to stretch ration points and pack a lunch with plenty of pick up.
Time must be rationed by Americas Double duty woman
(L) Vintage ad 1942 (R) Vintage Velveeta ad 1944

V for victory Velveeta suggested plenty of ways to keep the mealtime eye and taste appeal and satisfy cravings and appetites while holding down the costs. T

Their colorful  ads all offered “plenty of luscious nourishing dishes to surprise the folks on days when meat is off the list. Put the joy of eating into rationed meals with cheese soufflés, omlettes rarebits sauces with cheese”

Because it was important to prepare balanced meals and keep America’s stamina up, Blanche could count on protein rich Velveeta to offer up wholesome hurry up snacks for kids and He-Man sandwiches for Jim’s  lunch box.

“If you’re packing a daily lunch for one of America’s defense workers, one Velveeta advised,” be sure to note that Velveeta was rich in muscle-building protein, in milk calcium and vitamin A and G. “

“School lunches should have these protective food elements. So slice Velveeta or spread its golden goodness thick for those important away from home meals”

Waste Not Want Not -Velveeta to the Rescue

If you will save as little as a spoonful of food a day you will help shorten this war. Unless we stop the needless, careless waste in our homes, American won’t have enough food to go around!

In these vital times when food was so precious Blanche would never dream of wasting a spoonful of food or letting leftovers spoil in her refrigerator or her  pantry shelf. Every bit of food that came into her home was carefully used.

Admonished to not waste food, Velveeta promised to give new life to leftovers -any dish could be turned from plain to fancy with a gloppy cheese sauce

“Here’s way to squeeze extra nutrition out of your food points, make leftovers new and important and give your family better eating. Dress up your second day foods with Velveeta”

“Of course Kraft cheeses are rationed!” explained one ad.”The government wants everyone to get their fair share of these fine nourishing foods. So step up and insist on your share…put the joy of eating into rationed meals with Velveeta souffles, omlettes, rarebits and sauces with cheese”

Velveeta a “wonderful “buys” for your points and pennies” became the perfect dish for war-time nutrition, providing fine protein and concentrated nourishment.

© Sally Edelstein and Envisioning The American Dream, 2014. 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.

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Viva Velveeta

Viva Velveeta- Dishes for the Depression

Under the Weather? How About a Smoke?
(L) Illustration from Vintage Listerine Ad (R) Vintage Spuds Cigarette Advertisement 1943

What a Drag

Under the weather? Try a smooth smoke.

Why let a pesky head cold, sore throat or cough  get in the way of enjoying a cigarette or two?

Folks back during the 1940′s had the right idea. With no annoying restrictions on when, where or how often you could smoke…. why let your health get in the way of your enjoyment?

WWII was a stressful time taking its toll on you emotionally and physically.

While the boys overseas could count on Camels to quiet their war jangled nerves, folks back on the home front happily turned to “SPUD” cigarettes to fill the bill when they were rundown.

Vintage Spuds Cigarette Advertisement 1943

“There are times,” this 1943 cigarette ad informs the reader, “when Spuds are simply the one answer when nothing else will do, to help with whatever ails you.”

Smoke Gets In Your Eyes

Take the case of Mitzi Hansen.

Between her job at the GE defense plant, and her volunteer work at the Red Cross and local Canteen, she was plain worn down.

The Old Switcheroo

Illustration from Vintage Spuds Cigarette Advertisement 1943

That winter, a good old-fashioned cold was making the rounds at the defense plant where Mitzi worked. Between the long hours and the crowded conditions it wasn’t long before she caught the worse case of sniffles.

Trudging through the snow after work, Mitzi headed straight to Ol’ man Peterson’s Pharmacy  to stock up on cold supplies. When it came to health care, the pharmacists was as trustworthy as the family doctor.

As the druggist rang up the Kleenex, the hot water bottle and the bottle of liniment, he noticed she was missing one essential cold care remedy- a pack of cigarettes.

“Mitzi,” he asked perplexed “why let a head cold keep you from the enjoyment of smoking?”

But not just any cigarettes, our wise druggist advised. Mr Peterson recommended SPUD cigarettes made especially for smokers with colds and nasty coughs. Thousands of smokers agree- their sore throats felt clearer and cooler after smoking SPUDS.

Mitzi was sold!

Smart cookie, Mitzi was sure to switch to Spuds any time she caught a cold.

“Of course I switch to Spuds when I have a cold,” Mitzi explained to the other gals at the plant. “That clear, cool menthol seems to cut right through my cold-clogged taste, and bring back old-time smoking pleasure!”

Illustration from Vintage Spuds Cigarette Advertisement 1943

Whenever Mitzi’s throat is dry or over strained from singing at the local USO show, Mitzi doesn’t reach for a lozenge, silly. Common sense tells you a smooth cigarette is just the ticket for that cool refreshment only a good smoke will cure.

“When my throat feels dry or over strained, a SPUD is just what I want!” says Mitzi. “There’s a feeling of cool. Soothing refreshment that only SPUDS gentle touch of menthol imparts.”

Don’t Let Smokers Hack Rob You of Romance

illustration from Vintage Spuds Cigarette Advertisement 1943

Mitzi had a big date for the dance and wouldn’t you know she developed a good case of smokers cough. Uh oh, sounds like it could put the kibosh on romance .

But smart Mitzi never lets a smokers cough get in the way of real smoking pleasure… or romance. Whenever she can’t get rid of that annoying smokers cough she simply switches to SPUDS. “They  seem to be the only cigarette I want when I have a cough.”

Mitzi is sure grateful to her friendly family Pharmacist for his swell suggestion.

Good thing Peterson’s Pharmacy was a family business. With advise like his, chances are Mr Peterson wouldn’t be getting a job at a CVS -tobacc0- free-Drug Store  anytime in the near future.

© Sally Edelstein and Envisioning The American Dream, 2014. 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.

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Smoking – Just What the Doctor Ordered

Smoking and Pregnant- Just What the Doctor Ordered PtII

 It’s the height of cold and flu season again which means it’s all out war on sniffles and red running noses.

For those battle fatigued sufferers, endless reinforcements of Kleenex are constantly being supplied to the front lines.

Today we take for granted those ubiquitous boxes of soothing tissues, but for an earlier generation who battled the 1918 flu epidemic, the existence of Kleenex would have been nothing short of a miracle.

Kleenex Cleans Up

Kleenex wouldn’t make its debut until the mid 1920s and a grateful nation suffering from hay fever and winter colds sat up and took note.

Kleenex Guards Against Germs

No one was more grateful than my grandmother Sadie.

Tucked into her sleeve, or balled up in her pocket, Nana Sadie never went anywhere without a tissue at the ready, her first line of defense against deadly germs. Nana was certain the air was filled with dust and germs which could then be inhaled resulting in a nasty cold…or worse.

To her, the invention of Kleenex was a modern marvel of science, rivaling sulpha drugs and penicillin in saving mankind. With the simple toss of a disposable Kleenex into a waste basket, you were wiping out thousands of dangerous germs, and saving countless lives.

 1918 Flu Epidemic

As a veteran of the first and worst flu epidemic every, old fears and suspicion borne of that war, had scarred Nana Sadie for life.

In 1918 America was at war, not only over there but here at home  as  well. The Influenza epidemic of 1918 meant it was all out war on the home front too.

The public in 1918 and 1919 was petrified of the Flu.

It was a panicky time, when everyone and everything became suspect as the cause of contamination mirroring the Red Scare which reached near hysteria that year.

Provoked by a fear that a Bolshevik revolution in America was imminent – a revolution that would destroy the American Way of Life, ordinary people became suspect of being Anarchists and Communists.

So it was with the Influenza, when even everyday items such as books, candy wrappers came under scrutiny and attack as transmitters of the dreaded disease.

Vintage posters Warning of the 1918 Flu Epidemic

Everything came under suspicion – paper money, ice cream, even wet laundry. No one was safe from that villainous brute Influenza.

 “Everyday someone else you knew got sick,” my grandmother would explain sadly.

“It killed the young, the strong, the healthy, the rich, the poor, people who had so much to live for…my own brother and sister, so young, God- rest -their -souls. People avoided one another, they didn’t speak, if they did they turned their faces away to avoid the other persons breathing…”

Dangerous germs, scowling and sneering could be lurking right around the corner- yesterday a suspiciously shared sarsaparilla in a soda fountain, today, a sneeze on a shared seat in a sullied streetcar, tomorrow-who knows- the blunder of a borrowed book from the public library.

But the favorite source of blame continued to be handkerchiefs.

Vintage illustrations from children’s book on the proper use and care of handkerchiefs

Those lovely embroidered, heirloom hankies that every proper lady, gentleman and well brought up child always carried- might well be aiding and abetting unseen armies of influenza germs, rendering your dainty, lace trimmed hanky as dangerous as any incendiary device.

Carelessness on your part, and suddenly your monogrammed handkerchief, harboring germs, could be turned into a weapon of bio-terrorism, threatening you and your terror-stricken neighbors with the dread menace of infection.

The conventional wisdom at the time was that the menacing influenza virus when scattered by an infected sneeze, or a soiled hanky, could continue to live in household dust and infect the whole family with the flu even six weeks later.

(L) Vintage Poster 1918 Flu Epidemic- Warning to make sure to use a Handkerchief

As Nana explained it, “spittle contains many little disease germs and when the spittle dries these little germs are set free, caught by the wind and begin to fly about.”

Fear ran so deep that soiled handkerchiefs were stigmatized as dangerous transmitters of the flu, and people frantically resorted to using pieces of linen in their stead, which were then subsequently burned.

So when the miracle that was Kleenex appeared as an alternative to messy unsanitary hankies it was truly considered life saving .

Germs Can’t Escape

Vintage Kleenex Ad 1933
“As long as that cold hangs on use sanitary disposable Kleenex only! Kleenex, far closer in texture than any handkerchief stops germs holds them fast; keeps fingers dry clean and non infectious.”

“Keep that cold to yourself,” Kleenex announced in this 1933 ad.

Because hands catch germs as they seep through handkerchiefs, they could be considered weapons of mass destruction in reinfection

“Germs slip through the tightest weave of linen or cotton handkerchief as though through a sieve, contaminating everything you touch, warned Kleenex ominously. “And its damp rough handkerchiefs that add so much to the misery of a cold by constant irritation.”

“Kleenex is so much more sanitary.” The ad emphasised. “You use it just once then discard it. Cold germs are discarded too instead of being carried about in an unsanitary handkerchief to reinfect the user and infect others. “

A Beauty Discovery

Vintage Kleenex Ad 1930
This modern discovery offered a new way to remove cold cream that was cheaper than spoiling and laundering towels.

.But Kleenex’s great contribution to health was nearly missed initially, my grandmother remembered.

When Kleenex was first created in 1924 by The Kimberly Clark Corp. it was originally marketed as a way for m’ lady to remove cold cream.

In 1925 the first Kleenex tissue ad appeared in a magazine showing “the new secret of a pretty skin as used by famous movie stars.”

Young women like my grandmother wanted to emulate beautiful actresses like Helen Hayes who was featured in ads removing make up “the scientific way” using this ” modern disposable substitute for a face towel” called Kleenex Kerchiefs.

Vintage Kleenex Ad 1930
“The Kleenex patented pull out carton assures economy. Hands cannot mess up other sheets in the package or take out more than required from the patented serv-a- tissue box.

It was so new a product they needed to explain and instruct  a curious public what it was.

“Here’s what a Kleenex tissue is like: it’s the size of a handkerchief.  It’s very soft. Every tissue comes from the box immaculately clean and fresh,” they explained.

Even the box itself was proclaimed a marvel of ingenuity, and modern design.

“One of the things you will like about Kleenex tissues is the unique patented box they come in. Kleenex tissues are fed out one double sheet at a time! You do not have to hold the box  with one hand while taking tissues with the other.

The patented  serv-a-tissue pop up box invented by Andrew Olsen was “….. cleverly made to hand out automatically through a narrow slit, two tissues at a time ( the correct number for a treatment).”

It was a hit with the public

Don’t Carry A Cold in your Pocket

A few years later, the company’s head researcher persuaded the head of advertising to market tissues for colds and hay fever

In 1930 Kleenex repositioned themselves as the handkerchief you can throw away. “You know what Kleenex tissues are- those dainty tissues that smart and beautiful women are using to remove cold cream.could also be used for hay fever and colds ?”

“Did you know that Kleenex is rapidly replacing handkerchiefs among progressive people? Doctors are recommending it. Nose and throat specialists are using Kleenex in their office .”

Now Kleenex was marketed with the slogan “Don’t Put a Cold in Your Pocket” and its use as a disposable handkerchief replacement was solidified.

The Cold Rush is On

Vintage Kleenex Ad 1941

Vintage Kleenex ad 1940

Vintage Kleenex ad 1940

Soon the company was swamped by letters from consumers offering  ideas for all sorts of uses for Kleenex. Kleenex began running  the suggestions in their ads under the title “Kleenex True Confessions” offering $5 for every story of how they used Kleenex.

Vintage Kleenex ad 1940

Kleenex was handy ammunition wherever germs lurked

When Kleenex was first introduced they pointed out that they were economical too. Not only it was more hygienic they costs less than laundering handkerchiefs! “Kleenex is a great saving if you have your wash done

Vintage Kleenex Ad 1940

Encouraged to adopt the Kleenex Habit we were encouraged to keep a box of tissues in every toom in the house, as well as in the car where you could install a special chromium holder to fit under the  glove compartment.

Vintage Kleenex Ad 1940

And if health wasn’t an incentive, vanity was. Kleenex promised the m lady it would  keep her girlish figure. “Now I’m streamlined,’ boasted one young modern. “Carrying four or five hankies in my pocket during colds made my figure bumpy in the wrong places! Now I carry Kleenex and I’m in good shape again!”

Three Hanky Movie

Vintage Kleenex Ad 1940

Although hankies eventually came back into favor, and Nana, like my mother, always carried an ironed and neatly folded hanky in her pocketbook, she would never dream of blowing her nose in one.

Dabbing an eye at a three hanky movie maybe, but generally handkerchiefs were rendered inoperable by that king of tissues Kleenex.

Copyright (©) 2014 Sally Edelstein All Rights Reserved

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