Along with the housing market, that All-American suburban bubble of optimism has burst

The suburbs were once the promised land; the American Dream made manifest .

For over 65 years, home ownership was the defining definition the American Dream. Just as the NY Worlds Fair of 1939’s World of Tomorrow sprung up on a marshy wasteland of ashes, the same place that F. Scott Fitzgerald referred to as  a Valley of Ashes in the Great Gatsby, so the mid-century suburban dream sprung up in fields of potatoes and farm land.

The housing boom of the post-war years was unprecedented as the American dream burst into full bloom. To meet the needs of the ever-growing baby boomers, construction was at an all time high as new developments sprang up  across America seemingly overnight. For the first time, thanks to the GI Bill which helped in offering cheap mortgages backed by Uncle Sam,  owning a home was now cheaper than renting one. The deductability of interest on mortgages also made buying a house an economically rational one.

Manifest Destiny

Like thousands of other young married apartment dwellers in the post-war years , my parents began house hunting in the mid 1950′s.

As parents of a 2-year-old and  a baby on the way, things were too darn cramped in their small Queens NY apartment.

Every weekend they trudged out to developing Long Island in their Chevy, making sure to “Fill ‘er up” at the local Texaco station, for what they knew would be a long ride.

They’d been to so many new developments, traipsing from house to house; seen so many new models that they were totally confused.

Newly constructed houses were being snapped up left and right by boatloads of hopeful twenty and thirtysomething’s taking advantage of Uncle Sams generous GI bill that helped with the mortgage.

Just as all the houses seemed to look the same so the other house hunting couples  all seemed to mirror their own experience.

They all seemed to come from the NYC Boroughs; Bushwick or Bensonhurst, Flatbush or Forest Hills, a world of apartment houses and 2 family attached houses, broad stoops with great balustrades in lieu of backyards, narrow concrete alleyways where little boys rode bicycles and little girls played Double Dutch.

Promised Land

Vintage ad Metropolitan Life Insurance 1947

While their own  parents might have been content to remain  behind in decaying inner cities, these fresh-faced vets and their families were all ready for the modern suburbs of swing sets and split levels.

This was the land of Exodus where so many seemed to have already found the Promised Land.

Row upon row of newly built homes, with newly minted exotic names  like splanch’s  and split levels, sat ready to be filled with easy care  vinylite covered furniture and carefree new-as-tomorrow’s-telecast- kitchens.

These former urbanites wanted no remnant of a former life, or a reminder of a past left behind.

The boroughs were the Old World and for some, Brooklyn and Queens would become as far removed from this first generation of suburbanites as Minsk was from my first generation American grandparents.

Go West Young Man

My parents settled on a town named West Hempstead, that boasted paved roads, sewers, new schools, plenty of shopping and baseball diamonds for little leagues.

As my father got out of the car he stood on the little patch of newly seeded lawn in front of the model ranch style house on Western Park Drive. The street name evoked the pioneer spirit both my parents felt, and took it as an omen.

This new suburbia  would be their own Disneyland, a combination of  Frontierland and Tomorrowland.

“Only $22,000 ?” my mother asked the broker, as if a miracle were in the process of happening.

So they bought the house, a sprawling ranch with a sprawling mortgage helped in part by the GI Bill. My mother may have come to buy a house, but she sold my father on a dream.

The new house on Western Park Drive would be the beginning of the fulfillment of the Post War Promises that my parents could now begin to check off.

Boom and Bust

Though worth considerably more than what they paid for it, that  house now sits among the glut of inventory of mid-century houses, the tarted up real estate for sale sign festooned with balloons beckoning non-existent takers.

These houses that were once snapped up so quickly by young families lie dormant, unable to move in a depressed market, competing for attention along with deep discounted foreclosure homes. Joining the overcrowded housing market will  be the baby boomers for whom these first suburbs were built. The boomers are long gone from these first developments, raising families in their own over sized houses which will soon be up for sale as the first wave of retiring boomers turn 65 at the rate of 10,00 a day.

Ironically, many Seniors are now caught in the suburbs as  young people are moving to the cities. Saddled with credit card debt and student loans many  Echo Boomers question the value of home ownership.

Now the Greatest Generation and the baby boomers may be stuck in the suburbs that were created just for them.

Copyright (©) 20013 Sally Edelstein All Rights Reserved

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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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Cover Illustration from Colliers Magazine 10/27/51 This Cold War era magazine imagines a “Preview of a War We Don’t Want” a cold war what-if, featuring Russia’s defeat and US occupation 1952-1960. Articles by notables-Robert E Sherwood, Lowell Thomas, Walter Winchell, Bill Mauldin and Philip Wylie among others.

The increasingly frosty relations between President Obama and Russian President Vladamir Putin sends a big chill down my spine, as childhood memories of the Cold War are quickly defrosted. The cold war world of black and white, us vs them feels like deja vu all over again;  the deepening mistrust and accusations of lying being lobbed by both the US and Russia is familiar.

Is the Cold War being taken out of deep freeze?

Truth, Justice, and the American Way

Vintage Illustration from Community Silver advertisement 1943

It was 1956. The cold war was frozen solid.

Never were American dreams more potent or more seductive than in Cold War America when the USA stood united and confident in our role as leader of the Free World.

It would soon be my first Independence Day and my parents believed it was time for its littlest citizen to be introduced to her Uncle Sam and  “My America.”

What better place to be inculcated with truth, justice and the American way than at an honest to goodness Fourth of July parade.

Like most American  children I would be  inoculated with a strong dose of Americanism which if administered at an early age would build up your immunity to any opposing belief system.

That year, the theme of our local parade was the celebration of The Four Freedoms.

All across Long Island, residents were a buzz over the fact that our towns parade was being co-sponsored  by those Cold War crusaders of truth from “The Crusade For Freedom”.

Cold War Crusaders of Truth

Vintage Ad Radio Free Europe Truth Dollar Campaign 1955

The Crusade, was a privately funded donation drive that raised “truth dollars” to support Radio Free Europe, the radio station that broadcast news and current affairs to the enslaved people behind the Iron Curtain.

In the black and white cold war world of us vs them, we were convinced that the Russians were hell-bent on destroying  freedom and the American way of life and it would be up to us to contain them.

Who Can You Trust

WWII Soviet Allies (L) Life Magazine cover 3/29/43 featuring warm and fuzzy Joseph “Uncle Joe” Stalin (R) Life magazine cover 2/12/45 featuring our brave ally a Soviet Soldier courageously driving on to Berlin

Like so many war born marriages it turned out our grand alliance during WWII  with the Soviets was more a marriage of convenience and our relations had turned frosty.

As if shifting gears between enemy and ally was as effortless as the automatic transmission in your Chevrolet, the considerable fury and fear that had fueled our hatred of those bloodless Nazis had been seamlessly and swiftly rerouted to those Godless Russians Commies, uniting our country once again.

Uncle Sam was certain that the Communists were not only concealing the truth but were waging a campaign of hatred against us and our peaceful, decent motives.

They were weaving fantastic stories and twisted facts about America unlike in our country where the government told us the truth.

Truth as clear and undistorted as the perfect picture you were promised on your new Philco television set.

True picture, no blur, no distortion, that was the American Way.

Cold Facts

(L) Vintage Book The Soviet Image of the United States A Study in Distortion by Frederick C. Barghoorn Co. 1950 Harcourt, Brace & Company
The book claims that “Soviet propaganda against the United States is one of the main instruments of the Kremlin’s aggressive foreign policy Moscow, building the worlds greatest war machine, is seeking to turn world opinion against the US by accusing America of crimes against humanity of which itself is guilty>”

By exposing the calculated lies that Communists were spreading, and promoting the American way of Life, Radio Free Europe became a vital strategy in winning the Cold War.

The Crusade For Freedom had aired public service announcements on the radio all week leading up to the parade, as well as advertisements in all the papers.

“Every hour, every day, millions hear no other version but hating America”  Dad read aloud from a full-page ad in the NY Times, paid for by the Crusade and their Truth dollars. “The unfortunate people behind the iron curtain are fed a steady diet of lies and misstatements and the poor people are made to swallow that poison”.

Sugar Coated Goodness

Dad wanted us to realize how vital Radio Free Europe was.

As my brother mindlessly popped fistfuls of sugar crisps into his mouth -for breakfast its dandy, for snacks it’s so handy or eat like candy:  Dad tried to explain :“Just as mom feeds us wholesome good food, we needed to feed the poor people behind the iron curtain the good nourishing truth”.

America was not only the greatest nation in the world it was the very embodiment of freedom, democracy and progress.

With my made- in- the- USA regulation rattle in one hand and my National Dairy Council issued bottle of milk in the other I was ready to to be inducted into Uncle Sam’s service and pledge my allegiance to the land of the Free.

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The Post War American Dream would be waiting for the returning vet and his “best girl”
(L) Vintage Ad Community Silver “Back Home For Keeps” illustration by Jon Whitcomb (R) Vintage Ad 1945 Nash Kelvinator “My Tomorrow” “The girl I love, my boy, my dog, my car…all the things I long for, all the things I dream of…These things will be mine again in my tomorrow.”

Unlike today’s troubled vets who return home to an American Dream itself suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, WWII soldiers came back to a robust America, the American Dream gift wrapped just for them and tied with a red, white, and blue bow.

By 1945 with the end of WWII in sight, material dreams kept pumping through the culture in lavish color drenched ads, furnishing the material daydreams of the future. Corporations, advertisers  and government  banded together in a consensus of the good life.

Speaking directly to the battle fatigued boys overseas and to the best girls they left behind, the reassuring ads created identical longings for same American Dream.

And We’ll Live Happily Ever After

How to Make a Wish Come True! General Electric ran this 1944 advertisement promising ” A wish filled with hope and promise. Of Victory! Peace! Then a home of their own!”
“A home with happy, healthy children-secure and unafraid. That’s the heartfelt wish of all America. Your peacetime home of tomorrow is well worth the wishing” GE promised, ” for even the most modest cottage can have electric servants to banish household cares and drudgery-to give more leisure for living.” All this will be yours in the post war world of tomorrow

The first piece of the American Dream Pie the vet and his sweetheart wanted served up was a home of their own, and advertisers made sure it was served up a la mode.

“Sure enough,” the ads would announce,” the day is coming soon when Sgt Joe will be back home again. Back to his best girl and the little recruit he left behind.”

His wife and son will make life what it ought to be once more, for the returning hero.

Naturally, the house would have a picket fence; it would be within walking distance of a fine school for all their adorable children; the girl would have a chest of Community silverware, the ex GI his own Naugahyde lounger. And they’ll be other good things. A big comfortable Sealy mattress with genuine Cannon percale sheets  instead of a foxhole. A  juicy T bone steak instead of K rations.

“Yes, a different kind of mess hall, a bright cheery kitchen, with shiny appliances, complete with a chrome dinette set.”

They would garden together in their suburban plot and he would commute to his good paying job in his aerodynamic fully Hydro-matic-car   because they lived in a quiet suburbs, and oh yes, they’d have lots of babies.

Blue Print For The American Dream

And We’ll Live Happily Ever After- Vintage Ad 1945 Kelvinator

No series of ads served up a bigger helping of that American Dream than the brashly sentimental ads of  Nash-Kelvinator.

Though busy with war work building Pratt Whitney Engines, Nash-Kelvinator corporation, manufacturers of home appliances and automobiles, began running the  campaign even before victory was won,  tapping  into the longings on both sides of the ocean.

With a broadly sentimental brush they painted the very blueprint of the American Dream.

And We’ll Live happily Ever After

A full year before WWII ended the post war promises were being dangled to the soldier and his bride. Kelvinator painted a dreamy portrait of their new home they would return to some day. “We believe your hope for a new and finer home can and will come true. Here at Kelvinator when Victory is won, all the new strength, the new abilities and skills born of war will be turned to production of peace.”
Vintage ad 1944 Kelvinator

The ads took on the tone of a letter often written by the hometown gal he left behind who had plenty to dream about too..

“If I just close my eyes,,,I’ll see it now…the house we’ll build together…the house we’ll have breakfast in…Sunday-some day.

“And I’ll sit on u your knee and we’ll talk of the house we’ve built and the future we’ll have and the family we’ll raise…and we’ll know they’ll be nothing we can’t do together, ever…some day!”

Home Sweet Home

Vintage WWII Ad Kelvinator 1945

“I know it will be just the way your letters describe it to me…the life we’ll live in the house we’ll build when you come home…”

“A  bright sunny house that’s a blend of old and new with white shuttered door and a picket fence around a world of our own….”

Most important of course was the kitchen filled with Kelvinator appliances.

“And a kitchen for me that’s full of magical things. A wonderful new electric range that starts coffee perking and biscuits browning before we wake up…and cooks our dinners while were away.”

“A refrigerator that big and roomy with glistening shelves full of good things to eat…thick lamb chops and ice-cold  milk, butter and eggs spangled with dew behind crystal door.”

“And still another fabulous magic chest to make our kitchen complete- a home freezer we’ll dip into all winter for peaches, cherries and all kinds of meat so all winter long we can feast like kings.”

“Oh, its easy to see how happy we’ll be…when our days are filled with peace of being together in our very own home…forever and ever.”

Everybody’ll Know It’s Our House!

Vintage WWII Ad Kelvinator 1945

The Kevinator ads all ended in the same upbeat way encouraging the reader to hold onto their bright dreams.

“We believe your hope for a new finer home can and will come true……this will be our part in the building of a happier nation. For we believe all of us owe it to those who fought to preserve it, a strong vital and growing America where all men and women will have the chance to make their dreams come true.”

The letter closes, “And I’ll ask you to pinch me just to make sure…it isn’t all just a lovely mirage and it won’t disappear when the lights go on.”

It would take over 65 years for the glare of bright light to finally make that mirage called the American Dream disappear, as today’s vet might very well  return to find his dream home in foreclosure, and yes, everybody will know its their house!

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The coincidence of Hanukkah and Thanksgiving this year has set things off balance, and finally given the Jews an edge in the Festival of Lights.

Normally, while Jews across the country begin celebrating Hanukkah, the festival of lights, Christians have had a good 2 week start on them with their own festival of lights- the installation of Xmas lights.

Along with Black Friday the official kick off for the display of Xmas lights seems to happen as soon as the last piece of pumpkin pie is eaten on Thanksgiving.

Like clockwork, hundreds of tiny electric lights of all colors magically appear on storefronts and homes, trees and shrubs across the land. One can hardly find a street in America during the month of December where the majority of houses are not lit up in a dazzling display of lights.

Eight skinny, little Hanukkah candles can’t even begin to compete with vibrating LED lights pulsating in sequence to the tune of  gangnamstyle.

Ghosts of Christmas Past

When I was growing up, a favorite family activity -a true example of 1950’s  togetherness- was driving around my suburban neighborhood admiring the dazzling display of Xmas lights.

Looking at Christmas decorations was as much a holiday ritual for me as playing spin the dreidel.

No sooner would we finish lighting our Hanukkah candles on our silver-plated menorah than we’d load up in the car to drive around the neighborhood in pursuit of this most American display of merriment – a  twinkling winter embodiment of the American dream. Suddenly plain, lack luster split levels were dressed up in their holiday best, each competing with the other for the most dramatic and colorful display of electric Christmas lights.

By the time we returned home, our own little holiday candles dripping and drooping in a pool of wax,  had forlornly reached the end of their illumination. The flickering reflection of a distant neighbors colorful Xmas lights reflected in our darkened home.

We may have had 8 days of Hanukkah but they had nearly 6 weeks of illuminated glory. That glittering part of the American dream winking at us seductively from neighbors homes was always just outside my grasp.

Let There Be Light

In the winter of 1961, I was actually invited into the inner sanctum of one of those illuminated homes by my first grade classmate Linda Harris. As my Mom dropped me off at her house I stood outside in my Snowster Gaytee rubber boots in the snow and stared at the glittering house.

An illuminated, translucent plastic Santa mask beamed at me merrily from their large picture window. His glowing, jolly face intending to radiate good cheer was in fact a bit frightening. The door was gaily decorated with bright red vinyl plastic streamers with 8 tinkling bells in graduated sizes, the jingling of bells announcing my arrival.

Once inside the exotic smell of balsam and baking holiday ham filled my virgin nostrils.

If it were true that GE brings good things to life it was certainly true in my friend’s home where every corner of her living room was magically a glow, thanks to the wizards at General Electric, Westinghouse and Sylvania.

There in front of me stood their tree majestically filling the room. The big gleaming globes of glass ornaments that had been taken down from their  attic now hung on the branches of the Douglas Fir.  The ornament’s lustrous colors with silk screened designs of Santa and reindeer, holly and jingle bells shimmered, reflecting the twinkling string of electric lights.

The tiny tree lights twinkled independently and the effect was mesmerizing.

The twinkling lamps called fairy lights made merry little pinging sounds as each flashed on and off. However to the family’s great consternation, their Philco TV  was constantly on the fritz with the twinkling of lights. The winking lights caused severe electrical interference on both television and radio, causing snow to appear on the TV screen as often as it did outside.

Bubble-Liscious

But nothing was more magical than the electric bubble lights nestled on the tree.  Bubble Lights were all the rage and the Harris family were not short of supply

Bubble lights were tiny glass tubes styled like miniature candles and their holders, filled with a colored liquid that bubbled rhythmically as the bulb inside heated up the liquid creating merry little bubbles The sparkle of tiny bubbles in motion added to their cheery glow as they  flickered like the candle it was supposed to replace.

When all was said and done,  it all came back to  candles even if their electric candles were  filled with  the chemical methelyne chloride to create that intoxicating holiday glow.

The Candles Are Burning Low

Once upon a time the only way to light a tree before electricity was with candles.

Though a tree lit with candles was a charming sight, it was to say the least  quite dangerous. Originally the candles were just attached to the tree by dripping hot wax on the branch and pressing the base of the candle on it. Eventually candle holders were designed just for this purpose came on the market.

The open flames coming in contact with pine needles especially on dried out trees could generate a fire. Cautiously, most homeowners kept a bucket of water or sand near the tree for such emergencies.

Despite their danger, the use of small candles remained the popular method of illuminating Xmas trees well into the 20^th century.

GE Comes to the Rescue

General Electric was the first to market a Xmas light set in 1903.

Referred to as “Festoons” the 24 bulb set was priced at a hefty $12. While this may not seem too expensive today, the cost was out of the reach of most people The average wage for the time was 22 cents per hour which equaled a weekly paycheck of about $13.20. Electric Xmas lights were for basically for the wealthy 1%

These early sets did not plug into a wall socket like today. Houses in those days were wired only for lighting so the end of the string had to be in the shape of a screw in light bulb base so that it could connect into an existing wall lamp or ceiling socket.

By the 1920s demand went up and prices went down. As household electricity became more available  and “electric servants” became more a part of daily life, strings of electric bulbs became increasingly common on Xmas trees. By the 1930s electric Xmas lights had become a standard of holiday decorating

WWII

“Twas the night before Xmas when all through the house, you could hear poor papa yelling “Our Xmas tree lamps won’t light again” So begins this 1940 ad for GE Mazda lamps for Christmas. Nothing was more frustrating than a burned out bulb and with GE’s new multiple light strings you could avoid the frustrating holiday hunting of burned out bulbs. When one lamp goes out, others continued to sparkle.  “There would be,” they promised no “blackout of holiday joy.”

1940 would turn out to be the last good Xmas season for a while.

With the bombing of Pearl Harbor in December 1941, war was declared. Needless to say Americans holiday spirits were severely dampened. The Xmas 1941 selling season was a dismal one for the lighting manufacturers and that would only be the beginning.

The manufacture of Xmas lights virtually stopped during WWII as the materials were needed for war effort instead. Old string lights that were in warehouses before the war were sold as long as the stock lasted, and then Americans had to make do with their old sets.

A Bright Post War

A t the end of  WWII,  pent-up post war enthusiasm for Xmas lighting returned with a vengeance.

War-weary folks were eager to light up their new sub division homes and marketers were happy to oblige. Lighting companies took a full year to recover but by 1946 were able to offer an amazing number of innovative lighting outfits.

Some new types of lamps appeared including the bubble light introduced by NOMA which soon became the worlds best-selling Christmas light set. Bubble Lights were actually invented in the 1930s but NOMA the purchaser of the patents on the lights had to wait till the war was over before they could be manufactured.

Consisting of a colorful candle shaped glass tube filled with a chemical called methylene chloride and a plastic base that holds a light bulb in close contact with the bulb, the units bubble whenever heated. The chemical had such a low boiling point that it would even bubble from the heat of your hand or the sunlight entering the room through a window. The liquid came tinted in several colors

Heavily advertised in 1946 NOMA’s Bubble Lights were the thing to have for a properly decorated Post-War tree.

Let It Snow Let it Snow

The next great step forward was the introduction of Permacote finish for Christmas bulbs, which let you use the same bulb indoors or outdoors. An exclusive Westinghouse development the color was provided by colored glass, fused to the bulb itself.

“Yes,” explains this 1951 ad by Westinghouse “Let it rain snow, blow or blizzard…these new Westinghouse Permacote Christmas bulbs will burn steadily with sparkling jewel like brilliance throughout the holiday seasons Their colors can’t chip or peel! It’s not paint! You’ll be smart to insist on Permacote when you buy new tree lights”

Mr New Years Eve,
On December 31, 1956 Guy Lombardo and his orchestra the Royal Canadians did their first telecast New Years Eve Special on CBS live from the Roosevelt Grill in the Roosevelt Hotel in NYC. They had played there since 1929 where it was carried live on radio. Their New Years Eve performance in 1959 at the Waldorf Astoria would continue be their venue until 1976

Long before Dick Clark rocked in the New Year from Times Square , New Years Eve belonged to Guy Lombardo.

For one night the Canadian bandleader and his Royal Canadian Orchestra ruled television.

A childhood viewing ritual that rarely varied, the ringing in of a new decade was particularly exciting.

 New Years Eve 1959: All Eyes to the Future

It was a freezing finish to the fifties, that last day in December of 1959, and the exciting “World of Tomorrow” 1960, was less than twenty-four hours away.

1960, the far-off world that had captivated my parents at the New York Worlds Fair in 1939, the very year they had been magically transported to courtesy of General Motor’s Futurama ride was now almost here.

Yesterday’s tomorrow was right around the bend.

Warm up to New Years

The epitome of high-bred good taste, Guy Lombardo’s New Years Eve extravaganza was telecast live from the famous Waldorf Astoria Hotel located on fashionable Park Avenue, where New York’s glamorous high society would bid a farewell to 1959 and a noisy welcome to 1960.

By 11:00 on New Years eve, the television set was warmed up in the living room  as everyone gathered around the TV to watch Guy Lombardo. Thanks to our new giant 24 inch Philco, the New Year revelers came in crystal clear –no fading, no flickering, no ghosts.

An assortment of colorful lithographed tin noise makers of all shapes, were strewn about the coffee table ,including drum shaped tin clackers festooned with ballroom dancers, clowns with guitar, New Years revelers, and balloons.

I latched on to a bell-shaped, noisemaker with a bright yellow handle featuring many dancers including a Spanish dancer a ballerina, a Black and a White orchestra conductor, (perhaps it was for use in the deep south) and a black man playing the banjo.

I felt like Cinderella, permitted to stay up to the stroke of midnight and watch, along with millions of other TV viewers, as Guy Lombardo rang in the New Year.

The epitome of high-bred good taste, the New Year extravaganza was telecast live from the famous Waldorf Astoria Hotel located on fashionable Park Avenue, where New York’s glamorous high society would bid a farewell to 1959 and a noisy welcome to 1960.

For one night only, I too would be a part of “those who know life’s more sophisticated pleasures.”

World of Tomorrow

(L) Vintage NY Worlds Fair Program 1939 The World of Tomorrow (R) Tomorrows life here today Vintage Motorola ad 1962

It seemed only fitting to usher 1960 in with Guy Lombardo on television.

Along with his Royal Canadian Orchestra, it was Guy Lombardo who on opening day of the 1939 N.Y. Worlds Fair played a tune Dawn of Tomorrow composed especially for the Fair by George Gershwin.

My parents enthusiasm for the fair-inspired future was infectious and like any good fairy tale I loved hearing about it again and again.

Like so many, they had been enthralled with the sights and sounds presented at the 1939/40 NY Worlds Fair whose theme The World of Tomorrow celebrated technology and progress.

The sunshine of progress seemed to shine as brightly as all the new glittering automobiles, gleaming appliances and too-good-to-be-true television that loomed in our future.

The future in 1960 seemed a glittering dream. My future; the one my parents dreamed about.

 Telecasting Tomorrow Today

Vintage ad 1940 Body by Fisher
“This modern miss looks at motoring in a new and modern way”

It was at the  1939 Worlds Fair that, besides a preview of the year 1960, my parents got a first glimpse of that marvel of technological possibilities, television, or as RCA explained it “radios newest contribution to home entertainment.”

Mom could recall vividly how visitors to the RCA Building, the one shaped just like a radio tube, would crowd together to watch in amazement as NBC broadcast on closed circuit television.

Picture Radio

As a thirteen year old she was tickled when she was selected as volunteer to be televised. Escorted outside to the cameras she was encouraged to wave at the amazed folks back inside the pavilion.

For her efforts she was rewarded with a printed card certifying that “I was televised” as cherished souvenir of her experience. The TV looked different-the pictures were viewed indirectly by reflections in a mirror built into the cabinet lid.

To counter the doubters who thought it might all be a trick or magic, the sets transparent cabinets revealed the inside workings of the “picture radio.”

Not only was  the television of tomorrow very expensive, the coming war put its development on hold.  Mom would have to dream of “The radio Living Room of Tomorrow” for another decade.

 Keep Your Eyes Open

1945 Vintage ad Belmont Radio

Post war promises of television were dangled during the war to whet out appetites of future wonders.

“There’s a great new day coming when you can turn on your Belmont Television and bring a new world of enjoyment in your home,” announced Belmont Radio excitedly to a war-weary readership in this 1945 ad.

Though busy supplying high precision electronics for Uncle Sam, the company had their eyes set on the future which was television.

“It’s a pleasure you can count o for some near tomorrow. And Belmont is planning for that tomorrow.”

Television evoked such wonderment, such possibilities- it would be an instrument of learning and beauty.

Auld Lang Syne

New years Eve Reveler- Vintage Pepto Bismol ad

And now in the comfort of our own living room, we could marvel at the sight of, drunken couples-“those epitome of high-bred good taste and elegance” decked out in their After Six tuxedos and silly hats, dancing cheek to cheek to “the sweetest music this side of heaven” direct from the Grand ballroom of the Waldorf Astoria.

“A new world… a greater world… a better world…. come travel into the future!…the America of 1960!”

© 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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New Years Eve Party

The countdown to my parents  1959 New Years Eve party had begun. On the cusp of the space age my parents prepared for a new years Eve Party that would send them soaring into the world of tomorrow.

1960 was just hours away.

Blast Off

My parents, like most suburban couples, enjoyed entertaining. But this was company unlike my standard family get-together’s, which had more to do with genealogy than congeniality. Neither relative nor neighbor, they were my parent’s friends, not mine.

Here was a constellation of adults mysteriously visible only at night, making appearances at certain times of the year and certain days of the week. Not withstanding the funny hats and loud noisemakers, this gathering was for mature audiences only.

This was no pin-the-tail-on-the donkey- ring –around- the –rosy- Simon –Says- kind of affair.

Strictly Adults, it was a party strictly off-limits to me.

Last Minute Rehearsals

As my father raced about giving last-minute checks of the Ronson silver plated lighters making sure the wicks were high enough, and Mom unloaded the last clean glasses from the GE dishwasher, my brother Andy and I kept a look out for the arrival of our guests.

Our faces pressed against the frosty picture window, we waited in watch for the convoy of cars carrying the party company that would soon appear at the top of our snowy suburban block. The clanking sound of chains and studs on snow tires would be heard before we spied a single car.

Along with my brother, I was excluded from the main festivities. After a brief walk-on, long enough for cheeks to be pinched and hair tousled, we were vanquished to our bedrooms. The show would go on without us; we were to wait in the wings until we got our cue, to reappear for the third act, the big countdown to the New Year.

Party Time Rules

Earlier that evening Andy and I had a run through of the company bathroom rules.

Once Mom brought out the fancy perfumed soaps and beautifully embroidered monogrammed terry towels, it was our cue- they were strictly were off-limits to us.

If we had to use the bathroom while the party was in progress we were to carry out towels from our rooms to the bath and back again. We were forbidden to touch the 12 delicate pink guests soaps. I would stare longingly those plump little heart-shaped bars each with a rose design molded in the middle, nestled on a Limoge dish.

In all the years of trotting out those eternally pristine soaps, I don’t think they were ever touched by guests either.

The Party Begins

The future seemed frosty as a blast of cold air greeted us as each guest arrived.

At the first sound of a doorbell ringing, like some Pavlovian response, Andy and I scurried into hiding like some frightened mice. Despite our protestations on being excluded from the party, the truth was we were both painfully shy and really didn’t need much coaxing to stay out of their hair. After our perfunctory meet and greet once the company arrived, we were vanquished until midnight.

But the lure of the forbidden world, the tantalizing smell of new and exotic foods, seemed irresistible and drew us out of our bedrooms. We stealthily slithered down the hall way to get a worm’s eye glimpse of the festivities.

My eyes like my brothers were focused on the drama being played out direct from the intimate living room of my house on fashionable Western Park Drive, a spectacle that could easily compete with TV or the movies.

Watching the spectacle from the sidelines, listening to the sounds and laughter, was like a guided tour through an exhibition of what adulthood might look like for me in twenty years, my own world of tomorrow..

The universe was changing for the night. This was a world in which I played a tertiary role. As a four-year old used to being in a starring role I was stuck backstage,  a mere walk on player, summarily called for to appear, just as summarily dismissed.

I who felt chosen, whose life revolved around Moms just as in equal measure I was sure hers revolved around mine, suddenly found Mom spun out of orbit into her own world, a different galaxy, one that didn’t include me.

Even dressed in my kids glamorous mink stole, puffing on kiddie puff puff cigarettes, I was way out of my league.

The glowing house and the beaming guests all so shimmering, glittering out dazzled me.

A Hair Raising Good Time

The gals, fresh from the beauty salon were set to have a hair-raising good time.

Their collective teased hair a colossal cacophony  of  colors, spun like great puffs of cotton candy, an homage to Clairol, the first name in hair color who were the proud sponsors of the  Guy Lombardo show.

Coming or going it was an eye filling picture, flirty bows, back and front, dresses of  midnight magic in velveteen whimsy, merged with heavenly, billowing rayon chiffon, fancied bodices in shimmering acetate competed with figure hugging sheaths in crepe and Shantung.

Underneath it all, a galaxy of girdles, firming with femininity, girdles with magic controls, to mold, hold, and control, gently assuring social security.

While hips were subdued, waists whittled and tummies tightly kept in check, bosoms were lavishly displayed, generously arranged, poised like missiles for take off in their bras.

With glowing faces shiny with pink pancake makeup, eyebrows deftly penciled in, their eyes as if smudged with crayolas in iridescent jewel tones of turquoise and sea green, the girls hotly debated and exchanged sizzling party recipes; fondues were scrutinized, zippy dips and dunks dissected, and potato chips pondered-with or without ridges.

Heavy trading went on, swapping a cherished Kraft TV Theatre clam dip recipe, for a new twist on Lipton’s California dip,

New Frontier

 Men smelling of Vitalis and Lavoris were trim in tapered slimming Continental suits. Suddenly they weren’t someone’s Dad who drove a dowdy De Soto but a man about town behind the wheel of an Austen Healy or an Astor Martin.

 Puffing on their Cuban cigars, dressed in cone-shaped cardboard party hats embellished with glitter feathers and ruffled crepe paper fringe, the men discussed politics.

On the cusp of a new decade we were ready to blast off into the New Frontier of the ‘60s leaving grandfatherly Old-father-time Eisenhower in the dust. Suddenly the promise of young men vying for his job was on everyone’s mind. And no more so than the young Senator from Massachusetts John Kennedy, the hottest democratic card in the race.

The biggest day circled on the upcoming 1960 calendar would come in November when the US would go to the polls to choose the president who would lead the US into the future- the fabulous promise of the 1960s.

Retreat

Vintage Cover Saturday Evening Post 1958 Illustrator: Thorton Utz

The future looked very hazy to me as the room filled with blue smoke.

After a quick meet and greet, with stinging eyes I retreated from the haze into the quiet seclusion of my parents bedroom. Stifling a yawn, I stretched out in the darkened room on the cool satiny bedspread, nestling in the heavy pile of coats and fedora hats that had been tossed their earlier by the guests.

Glamorous Mink coats with labels from I J Fox, Stein and Blaine, fancy monograms in contrasting color stitched onto the lining, either first name or initials. Silky smooth, beautiful linings-vivid cerise or orange brocade or gold lame with matching scarf from the  lining to complete m’ ladys look.

Stretched out on the cool satiny bed in my parents bedroom, I marveled how even the beds got dolled up in their company finest, dressed up in fancy quilted satin bedspread   instead of their everyday chenille.

Hibernating under the pile of coats, a tangle of dark brown ranch minks, luxurious beaver, Persian lamb and camels hair, not a single respectable republican cloth coat among them, I dozed off engulfed by smells of loose face powder, and a mélange of cloying floral  perfume.

Stay Tuned for  Remembrance of New Years Eve Past  Pt. III

Related articles

• Remembrance of New Years Eve Past Pt I (envisioningtheamericandream.wordpress.com)
• Remembrance of New Years Eve Past Pt III (envisioningtheamericandream.wordpress.com)

(L) This 1955 ad by New Departures Ball Bearings looked into the future predicting a home laundry for the happy homemaker of 1965 that would wash, dry, iron and fold your laundry. We’re still holding our breath for that one.(R) Post war promises- Naturally there would always be a Ford in our future

Past Perfect- New Years Predictions

The New Year has always been the traditional time for crystal ball gazing offering tantalizing predictions for our imagined future.

Who can resist pondering what great scientific discoveries and technological wonders the future will hold.

For forward thinking post war Americans, peering into the future was a favorite pastime.

So it was with great interest that on my very first New Years day 1956 my mid-century mom gazed ahead 20 years for a glimpse of life in 1975.

My future; the one my parents would dream about for me.

New Years Day 1956

On the first day of January in 1956  New Yorker’s were hit with an icy, blustery snowstorm and it showed no signs of stopping.  Cars were at a standstill as Ford Fairlaines were replaced by flexible flyers. The eerie suburban silence was broken only by the occasional sound of kids building forts in the snow drifts.

As the snow continued to fall silently, the weathermen advised everyone to stay put in their igloos. Fortunately for us, we were as well stocked with frozen food as any Eskimo.

Snow bound in our suburban ranch house, Dad raised the temperature on the thermostat to a balmy 80 degrees and why not; oil was still the biggest bargain in the American budget.

By late afternoon, with the dishes washed, laundry folded, and my baby bottles sterilizing in the electric sterilizer patiently awaiting refill of baby formula, Mom could take  a rare moment off for herself.

My 3-year-old brother was busily engaged with the TV. Displaying  the skill of a safe cracker,  he delicately adjusted the large knobs on the mammoth mahogany encased set- one for the snowy picture,  another for the sound.

Mom could sit back, relax and give me my afternoon feeding while flipping through the latest issue of  Everywomans Magazine.

 All The News Thats Fit to Print

Dad  as usual had his nose buried in the newspaper. It was a slow news day. Other than the story of Sudan declaring its independence from Egypt and the UK, and Egypt’s Nasser  declaring his New years resolution  “to conquer Palestine,” the paper was filled with the usual new year predictions.

Dad read one optimistic article aloud:

“Man is being thrust into the future even as he lives in the present,” the article buoyantly noted. “Mankind has already had a mouth-watering taste of the meal that technology is cooking up. Such modern wizardry’s as plastics, miracle yarns, TV, air conditioning and frozen foods, once the dream children of imaginative inventors has become commonplace…”

High Hopes

Despite the cold weather and the Cold War, everyone was filled with high hopes  not only for the new year but for the future.

Never before had a country so heralded the future never before had a country so surpassed ones highest hopes.

Back to the Future 

Predictions of Family Life 20 Years From Now. Vintage illustration from article “Everywoman’s Magazine” Jan. 1956 illustration by H.B.Vestal
Based on the film “People, Products and Progress-1975″ produced by Chamber of Congress of the United States with the cooperation of industries and trade associations.

As Mom read through the woman’s magazine, she skimmed over the feature  story on family weight planning  chock full of helpful hints on “how to slim husbands painlessly” and “add pounds to thin kiddies.”

Suddenly one article caught Moms eye. The colorful  feature promised to transport the reader 20 years ahead with a preview picture of life in America in 1975. Envisioning future technology, it ventured a guess at what we might find in a 1975 home.

It was hard to imagine life getting any better.

 Tomorrows Living Today

One end of the year ad in 1945 offered a glimpse into that promised post war world “Madam lets look to your future” announced the headline.
“What will it be like-your bright new world of tomorrow? New styles…new comforts new conveniences…new joy of living All kinds of marvelous things to brighten your days to lighten your burdens to make life more enjoyable than ever before. “

 In 1956, Mom felt we were already living tomorrow’s life today.

Only 10 years earlier many of the post war dreams envisioned by manufacturers busy with war production , had come true.

Now, it was a world of no waiting- no wondering- no defrosting- no fuss- no muss. Everything was long wearing, fast drying, king sized, the last word, the most convenient, working twice as fast.

(L) Vintage ad Monsanto Plastic through the House 1948 (R) Vintage Westinghouse ad

From morning to night the colors of the rainbow were all around me thanks to all the gay and festive plastic toys and household items that surrounded me. From my pink polyethylene teething ring and vinylite pacifier right down to my cheerful Playtex waterproof Happy Baby pants in five happy lollipop colors, these laboratory-born wonder materials would make life easier and more convenient.

Yes, mine would be a sugar-frosted world of colorfast, frost-free fun.

Predictions of Family Life 20 years from Now

Predictions of Family Life 20 Years From Now. Vintage illustration from article “Everywoman’s Magazine” Jan. 1956 illustration by H.B.Vestal
Based on the film “People, Products and Progress-1975″ produced by Chamber of Congress of the United States with the cooperation of industries and trade associations.

Intrigued by what the crystal ballgazers would foresee for 1975, Mom read the futuristic article aloud to me in the hopes of offering a guided tour of what we might find 20 years from now  – my own world of tomorrow.

With a dramatic flourish they announced spectacular changes for the American family – “homes, food shopping and transportation of all kinds will undergo tremendous transformations. Some of the great advances to be expected in the realm of family life by 1975″ were lavishly illustrated .

Predictions of Family Life 20 Years From Now. Vintage illustration from article “Everywoman’s Magazine” Jan. 1956 illustration by H.B.Vestal
Based on the film “People, Products and Progress-1975″ produced by Chamber of Congress of the United States with the cooperation of industries and trade associations.

“Tomorrow’s kitchen will be a triumph of controlled gadgetry,” Mom read with wonder and  the same enthusiasm as though reading me a bed time  fairy tale which in a sense it was.

The article explained:

“You’ll probably have a dishwasher and clothes washer in which ultra sonic rays do the cleaning without mechanical agtation.” Mom gushed with obvious delight, visualizing her future homemaker daughter in this most modern of homes. “When you telephone your image will be flashed on a screen.for the party at the other end, and vice  versa. TV sets will be wafer thin and hung lie pictures. You’ll wear a two-way wrist radio. And your electronically guided automobile will have an  automatic parking brain.”

Predictions of Family Life 20 Years From Now. Vintage illustration from article “Everywoman’s Magazine” Jan. 1956 illustration by H.B.Vestal
Based on the film “People, Products and Progress-1975″ produced by Chamber of Congress of the United States with the cooperation of industries and trade associations.

Predictions of Family Life 20 Years From Now. Vintage illustration from article “Everywoman’s Magazine” Jan. 1956 illustration by H.B.Vestal
Based on the film “People, Products and Progress-1975″ produced by Chamber of Congress of the United States with the cooperation of industries and trade associations.

Some of the great advances to be expected in the realm of family life by 1975 are shown in the pictures.

Predictions of Family Life 20 Years From Now. Vintage illustration from article “Everywoman’s Magazine” Jan. 1956 illustration by H.B.Vestal
Based on the film “People, Products and Progress-1975″ produced by Chamber of Congress of the United States with the cooperation of industries and trade associations.

Profit with Progress

The upbeat article was based on a 28 minute film that was put out in 1955 entitled  “People, Products and Progress-1975″ produced by Chamber of Congress of the United States with the cooperation of industries and trade associations.

Interested readers were advised  they could get a more detailed insight into life in 1975 from the  film that was made  available for showing at local PTA meetings, Rotary and other clubs, and church groups.

Predictions of Family Life 20 Years From Now. Vintage illustration from article “Everywoman’s Magazine” Jan. 1956 illustration by H.B.Vestal
Based on the film “People, Products and Progress-1975″ produced by Chamber of Congress of the United States with the cooperation of industries and trade associations.

“Does tomorrows world intrigue you?” the article asked the reader at the end.

“All these wonderful things will be possible” they assured us, “so long as we maintain our free market economy, our American way of life.”

Of course by 1975  the future had turned from promise to pessimism. A post Watergate America saddled by an oil embargo, inflation, recession and dangerous pollution,  had seen the future and nothing had turned out as advertised.

© 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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Back to the Future

Back to the Future PtII Retro Tech

Back to the Future PtIII Tech for the Suburbs

American husbands were getting the frigid-aire from their spouses. According to experts the mid-century American woman was as frosty and frigid as the polar vortex.

The cold war was a chilly time to be an American woman.

A big chill had crept into the well-appointed bedrooms all across the nation and it would appear that the American housewife’s libido was in the deep freeze.

An epidemic was ravishing the nation  …frigidity. According to the medical community the mid-century American woman was as frosty and frigid as the polar vortex.

American husbands were getting the frigid-aire from their spouses.

Happy Homemaker?

The most envied woman in the world was the post war American homemaker…smart yet easy-going with never you mind freedom… this was the new Mrs America.

Her judgement and taste helped make Americas standard of living the highest in the world. It was a life of comfort and convenience, no rubbing, no scrubbing, no waiting no fuss no muss a world that was  flameless, frost-free, filled with touch tone push button ease, and oh, it was … passionless.

Apparently the happy homemaker’s  ability to orgasm was not achieved with push button ease, nor was it as automatic as her fully loaded kitchen.

Ironically the modern problem of “frigidity” had little to do with a woman’s actual enjoyment of sex. No longer did frigidity only mean disinterest in or ignorance of sex. It now included the woman who was sexually responsive, even taking pleasure in sex but did not meet the new criteria

According to mid-century psychiatrists and gynecologists frigidity was now defined as a woman’s inability to have a “proper” orgasm with her husband, the lack of which  could result in the breakdown of the contemporary marriage.

The only cure for defrosting the frigid woman was to achieve a “mature” climax, a vaginal orgasm, the only AMA approved kind of orgasm.

The Big Chill

How Happy Was the Happy Homemaker?
(L) Vintage Ad Maytag 1960 (R) Vintage illustration by Jon Whitcomb for Pin It 1958

 To the outside world Betsy Bland’s life in 1960 was bewitchingly magical.

In her smartly tailored shirtwaist dress and Playtex living cross your heart bra  she was living the new American Dream- a lady Clairol colorful cold war world of carpools, cookouts, and cream of mushroom soup casseroles, catering to contented children and happy-go-lucky husbands.

But to Betsy everything seemed drab, a dull routine….even sex.

Not that she would ever let her husband Randy know how she felt. She prided herself on never denying him his rights.

“This was one wife,” she would boast,“who never said no.” Betsy had promised herself a long time ago that she would never shirk from her wifely duty.

But the once pleasurable sex act had become a ho-hum chore. In the dark of night Betsy wondered if there something wrong with her?

The Cold Woman

One brisk October morning as the laundry tumbled in the Kenmore dryer, and the roast cooked in the automatic oven Betsy flipped through the morning paper.

With the presidential election a few weeks away the race was heating up. The press loved Senator Kennedy and the paper was filled with flattering pictures of the handsome, smiling candidate. Betsy glanced approvingly.

Checking out the TV listings, one ad caught her eye: “This afternoon NBC will air “The Cold Woman: A study of Sexual Frigidity.” The show was described as: “A frank account of a problem affecting millions of American women today.”

Betsy blushed deeply.

Wash in Cold Water Only

Airing Dirty Laundry
Vintage illustration from Oxydall advertisement

Like most housewives, she was familiar with the popular Purex Specials for Women.

Decades before Oprah’s daily airing of America’s dirty laundry became the norm, this highly acclaimed  series of soapy pseudo docudramas geared to the housewife dealt with intimate topics rarely talked about on television.

Running  on certain afternoons the award-winning  show  dramatized such now all too familiar topics as “The Trapped Housewife,” “The Single Woman,” “The Glamor Trap,” “The Problems of the Working Mother,” “The Change of Life,” and this afternoons offering “The Cold Woman.”

The intimate topic came as no surprise to Betsy.

Checking Under the Beds

Mid century doctors and gynecologists had joined forces with psychiatrists and put the American bedroom under the microscope.
Vintage ad Sealy Mattress 1955

In recent years the American Woman had come under close scrutiny in the media especially when it came to her sexuality.

Kinsey wasn’t the only one peeking into the private  lives of Americans.  Mid century doctors and gynecologists had joined forces with psychiatrists and put the American bedroom under the microscope.

When authorities weren’t checking under the bed for Communists, they  were looking between the sheets for signs of frigidity,

What they purported to find was chilling.

Frost Bitten

Frigidity in women was so widespread a problem that some psychiatrists claimed “it is the emotional plague.”

In the words of psychiatrist Marie N Robinson, whose 1959 book on women’s sexual frigidity “The Power of Sexual Surrender” sold over a million copies, “no other health problem of our time even approaches this magnitude .” (With polio recently eradicated, they obviously were seeking some other health problem to challenge.)

Concern over woman’s sexual frigidity so consumed mainstream gynecology and psychiatry during the 1940′s through the early 1960’s  that even the well-respected  Journal of American Medical Association published an article in 1950 which began with the claim:

”Frigidity is one of the most common problems in gynecology. Gynecologists and psychiatrists especially are aware that perhaps 75% of all women derive little or no pleasure from the sexual act.”

The Deep Freeze

Deep Freeze Heart of the Home
Vintage ad 1953 Crosley Shelvador Freezer

Frigidity wasn’t new; it was the definition that changed.

In the 1920′s and ‘30s Female Sexual Anesthesia as frigidity  was called, was all too common. Though physicians may have seen women’s sexual frigidity as a serious threat to the stability of families, forcing husbands to seek sex outside marriage which could lead to VD and the break up of the home, the problem was considered normal as “nice” women were considered less hot-blooded than men.

Good girls were  told :“Nice men with marriage on their minds do not like girls to discuss sex, to go out all on the subject. Nice girls do not discuss sex, tell off-color jokes. Common sense and  good taste forbid this. A man cannot become romantically interested in a girl who dwells on the subject.”

But the term frigidity itself had taken on a new meaning in the more enlightened post-war years.

No longer did frigidity only mean indifference to sex.

Oh Come On!

Apparently the happy homemaker’s ability to orgasm was not achieved with push button ease,

Now the diagnosis of frigidity  included the woman who feels sexually responsive, who was aroused “who enjoys some phases of coitus, even reaching clitoral orgasm during manipulation.”

But that was woefully inadequate.

The new definition classified every woman as frigid if she was incapable of reaching vaginal orgasm during sex. Anything else was second-rate.

Along with her dollies and teddy bears the grown up mature woman was to abandon all childhood attachments including the girlish clitoris in favor of the womanly vaginal orgasm.

A wife’s inability to experience the requisite “mature” climax was a neurotic with “deep rooted psychological problems” that could only be cured with counseling and psychiatrists.

The husband’s skill was not to be blamed.

Defrosting the Frigid Woman

After Glow
In the nuclear age, the only way to defrost the frigid woman was for hr to achieve an orgasm of nuclear proportion.

When it came to sexual dysfunction Purex struck a nerve with the “Cold War Woman.”

With great interest Betsy continued reading the article on the show.

Starring a hot Kim Hunter as a frigid woman with Jack Klugman as the husband, the actors  “ portray a married couple deeply troubled by the most personal of emotional problems in a dramatization based on case histories, professional reports and taped interviews…today despite the American woman’s privileged status, her club memberships, college degree and kitchen full of appliances a great number of her kind is in distress.”

“The complexities of her new situation, in many cases, have only added to her anxieties. And she may reach a point where she becomes a problem for society-perhaps in a divorce court, a magistrate’s office or an alcoholic ward.”

After Glow

Fumbling through her purse, Betsy found the crumpled piece of paper with the phone number  her gynecologist had given her.

Before she too ended up in divorce court or a hospital ward, Betsy would go see a psychiatrist.

Who was to blame for this epidemic of sexual frigidity?  And what could be done about it?

The answer tomorrow.

© 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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Sex Advise Before Masters and Johnson

Vintage Advise for Cheaters

Real Housewives of the Cold War

Occupation: 1960 Housewife 

(L) Vintage illustration Little Golden Book “We Help Daddy” 1962 illustration by Eloise Wilkin (R) Vintage ad for Pesticides for garden pests

Birds and the Bees

By the time I was 5 years old in the spring of 1960 Mother Nature began supplanting Mother Goose in my curiosity.

Now that it was spring, I was full of so many questions, about the environment; about things I heard, and felt, and saw.  But there were many questions even grown ups didn’t have an answer for…and even more questions they never seemed to ask.

Maternal Instincts

Vintage children’s school Book “All Around Us”

Like my own mother, Mother Nature was trustworthy and reliable.

The Miracle of Mother Nature

The big world could seem random and arbitrary so it was precisely the predictability, the certainty, the sheer regularity of Mother Nature, that like my own Mother, soothed me.

Earth Science

Vintage Children’s School Book “Stories about Linda and Lee” 1960

The first warm spring day I couldn’t wait to get my hands into the dirt. There was something primal about the feel of sun-warmed soil. Thrusting my hands into the loamy garden soil warmed by the spring sun, I could actually feel the earth itself.

Sifting it through my hands I’d see the essential elements of the earth, bits of decaying plant matter, tiny particles of pebbles and rocks, maybe billions of years old, filled with industrious earthworms digging their way through the ground-maybe even all the way to China!

Necessity is the Mother of Invention

Vintage children’s school B ook “All Around Us”

Looking around, I noticed how our spindly little saplings were growing as fast as I was and now baby sparrows would be collecting in little groups on the branches, squeaking and chirping. On our shrubs hungry green insects could be found greedily chewing and swallowing the leaves into their tiny bellies.

As Dad was busy spraying the perpetrators on the plants, down would come a bird, looking for something to eat.

Spying what she was seeking, the Mama bird would happily fly away with the juicy green insect in her beak to feed to the baby birds.

The sweet smell of blooming French Lilacs that perfumed the air, blended with freshly spread fertilizer and the acrid aroma of the insecticides Melathione and Diazinon  gently wafting over from Dad’s tin atomizer sprayer.

He could mark his territory without even lifting a leg.

Mocking Bird

Vintage illustration children’s work book “We Read Pictures” Dick Jane and Sally

These new miracle pesticides were right at home in this land of good humor and friendship. They belonged to pleasant living, and our right to enjoy them belonged to our American heritage of personal freedom.

American scientists were hard at work in the name of freedom. Man, they believed, should and could take over the management of the Mother Earth he lived on  and use it exclusively for what he regarded as mans higher purpose.

His needs.

Silent Spring Mornings

As the soft spring breeze carried the mist, the residual oil caressed my skin, the pesticide’s warming tingle, stimulated a healthy glow….my delicate skin tingling, and my little eyes tearing was Diazinon come to life.

The amalgam of scent so strong, its imprint would forever evoke spring. “Yes I can’t seem to forget you, your Diazinon stays on my mind,”  Dad hummed to himself.

Ah, pesticides, the subtlest form of communication between a man and nature.

Its aftermath, a lingering and memorable message.

Bye Bye Birdie

All day long, birds would come in the garden and fly away with the now caustically coated green insects.

Eventually, by summer’s end, the green plants would grow big and tall, but sadly, the baby birds  their bellies filled with the pesticides infused insects would never get to grow up at all.

Which Ones Are Alive?
Vintage illustration children’s schoolbook 1950s

The beauty of outdoors…the feeling of life around us…that was the spirit of modern living!

© 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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Just as mid-century garden nurseries were busy preparing for spring, filling their shelves with packets of seeds and cans of DDT, so American parents were diligently decorating their baby nurseries with happy-go-lucky wallpaper coated with protective DDT.

No April Fools!

Due Diligence

In the last weeks before my late March birth, my baby-bound mother Betty was busy preparing for her new baby in our new house. After all, there was so much to do to get ready for that little bundle of joy, and my nursery was not yet completed.

The enchanting sheer pink organza curtains to let in lots of cheery light had been bought and a soft plush pink rug underfoot for me to crawl on had been installed. But the nursery walls were woefully bare.

Something cheery and springlike seemed in order.

The miracle of spring time when color is fresh and vivid was the perfect time to be born, Mom thought wistfully. With its renewal of life, the joyful first appearance of daffodils, crocuses and forsythia was a magical time

She couldn’t wait for me to soak it all in.

Shoo Fly Don’t Bother me

But first sign of spring would also bring the flies and ants marching through our suburban house.

Mom would be right in step behind them, her aerosol can of Bug a Boo spray poised to douse the entire house. In large, can’t-miss-print, the can boldly boasted, that it contained DDT that far exceeded the US Government standards for insecticides.

From the time she was a little girl, no insect put the fear of God in my Mom and grandmother like the housefly.

It was no wonder people of a certain age had a fear of insects and flies.

These deadly pests, they were told, were carriers of deadly diseases. All insects were bad but houseflies were by far the worst since it was thought you could get polio through an insect bite.

The fly, this most feared and dangerous beast that frolicked and feasted greedily in uncovered garbage cans, the gutter, rotting food, or a dead horse even, could have landed on your nice ripe peach wiping his poisonous feet on the food.

The thought of a fly landing on her baby sent shivers through Betty’s spine.

But as luck would have it, science would come to my rescue.

How Lucky Can You Get

Vintage Ad Trimz Wallpaper with DDT

It was at her final obstetrician appointment that my mother learned the perfect solution; one that would offer protection for her baby and solve her nursery decorating problems.

To think her doctor was a decorator too!

Just in time for my spring birth a new wall covering appeared on the market that would be perfect for my nursery-a colorful. cheerful children’s wallpaper infused with DDT promising unsurpassed protection for your child against disease carrying insects.

“Tested and commended by Parents Magazine,Trimz DDT children’s room wallpaper kills flies, mosquito’s and ants on contact,” the doctor told Mom handing her a brochure to read.

“Medical Science knows many common insects breed in filth, live in filth and carry disease,” Mom read shuddering in agreement.

“Science recognized the dangers that are present when these disease carrying insects invade the home. Actual tests have proved that one fly can carry as many as 6,600,000 bacteria! Imagine the health hazard- especially to children- from flies seriously suspected of transmitting such diseases as scarlet fever, measles, typhoid, diarrhea…even dread polio!

Protects as it Beautifies

“Now a new wallpaper coated with DDT was developed just for children,” the copy continued. “Jack and Jill, charming storybook animals or Disney favorites- gay new patterns that protect as they beautify a child’s room.”

Here was a war born miracle so amazingly effective you could scarcely believe it.

“Guaranteed effective against disease carrying insects for 1 year. Actual tests have proven the insect killing properties still effective after 2 years of use.”

Years later we would discover it’s effects would be longer lasting than that.

Vintage ad Trimz children’s wallpaper with DDT Safe for Children

Best of all, Dr Orenstein reassured her, it was absolutely non – hazardous to children or adults to pets or clothes. “Certified to be absolutely safe for home use.”

”Your baby,” her doctor told her solemnly, “will be spared so much, because of the wonders of modern science!”

The Wonders of Science and Nature

Yes, mid-century spring was pure celebration of nature…or man’s conquest of nature.

Like most folks, Mom wondered in amazement: How can the chemists and the people who produce these products to sell, keep coming up with so many ingenious new services, so many welcome new products?

There had been so many more advances to help these young mothers, thanks to new remarkable products and knowledge to meet the new way of modern living.

DDT was the dawning of a whole new age of safety and dependability.

DDT Makes Dreams Come True

Giddily grasping the  brochure, Mom’s thoughts drifted back to a few months earlier when she walked  from room to room in the model house, mentally installing furniture and decorating it’s rooms. Pausing in the coziest sunniest one of the three bedrooms she lingered, imagining how perfect it would be for her not yet- born- not- yet- determined-new baby girl.

Smiling now, she envisioned the walls  covered with loads of playful prancing kittens and lambs gambling through the room awash in a sea of DDT.

Mom couldn’t wait for Dad to head on down to the hardware store, load up on Trimz wallpaper  and start papering the nursery.

Insurance Policy

While Mom and I were in the hospital for our 10 day maternity stay, Dad could get busy on the finishing touches of the nursery. My Dad like many mid-century Dads had been left out in the cold during most of the pregnancy, but now would be his time to shine.

The first day in April was a sunny one; it was the perfect day to tackle the wallpapering job.

Installing the paper would be a breeze! “Ready Pasted! Just dip in water and hang!” the instructions boasted. It would be finished way before my April 8 homecoming.

“Anyone can put Trimz Wallpaper up without help or previous experience,” the package  stated. “Millions have done it- proved its quick clean easy! Nothing to get ready, no tools paste or muss. Just cut strips to fit dip in water and hang. Dry’s in 20 minutes! You can protect your child for $8-$10 dollars so inexpensive.”

Best of all it was so convenient, so safe because “the DDT is fixed to the paper. It can’t rub off!”

Delirious with DDT

Vintage ad Bugaboo Insect Spray 1946

Dad happened to be a big booster of the ingeniously new DDT.

He called it an Atomic Vermin Destroyer. “They said it couldn’t be done, they said nobody could do it,” Dad bragged. But that didn’t stop American know how.

This was the wonder chemical that had saved thousands of lives during the war. It had been sprayed heavily on the South Pacific Islands where Dad served and he would proudly tell us how this wonder insecticide had saved lives from malaria carrying Mosquitoes. In fact, soldiers were issued DDT powder to sprinkle on their sleeping bags with no adverse effects.

After winning a victory during WWII, DDT shucked its military clothes, and came home a hero to take over the number one spot in Americas bug battle.

Peace of Mind

Vintage ad New York Life Insurance 1960

DDT was like a good insurance policy.

Surveying the  nursery Dad thought of the task ahead of him, but it was nothing compared to the long task ahead.

Parenting.

That was a job for a long time. Now that he was the father of 2 he knew how important life insurance was. His new baby deserved the best of everything within his power.

Just as insurance would safeguard his children’s future, so this protective wallpaper would safeguard me.

Fortunately  I would be well protected. A 1955 baby didn’t need a four-leaf clover to be lucky.

With DDT, your family could approach the dreamed of day of a healthy home.

© 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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Vintage Ad Chun King American Chinese Food 1957

My Mom was one smart cookie…fortune cookie that is.

When my mid-century Mom wanted to go exotic..she’d go Oriental and thanks to Chun King canned chow mein it was cantoneasy !

Like many mid-century housewives, when she wanted to add some exotic glamor appeal to our family meals, a trip to the Orient was as nearby as her electric can opener.

Oriental Express

Go Chinese tonight for a quick change of pace with real glamor appeal

Confucius say: When family tire of tuna noodle casserole, bore with hum drum meatloaf wake up family taste buds with trip to exotic Orient right in comfort of your suburban split level.

Serving Oriental was a real walkee on the wild side according to this Chun King ad:

Vintage ad Chun King 1957

“For something to surprise…to thrill your family or guests, switch your thinking completely.”
“Forget about little twists in ordinary, everyday kinds of foods. Put yourself in an Oriental mood.”
“Here’s your new idea….Chun King Chicken Chow Mein. Wake your family up with a complete menu change and its only about 30 cents per person.”

Best part was- no rickshaw needed for this taste treat!

La Choy Makes Chinese Food Swing American

Vintage La Choy ad 1955

The granddaddy of American Chinese Food was La Choy who promised You could perform oriental magic with their Dinner in a package for a real Cantonese feast!

Vintage la Choy American Chinese Food ad 1955

La Choy founded in 1922 beat Chun King by over 2 decades. The company had capitalized on the growing fascination America had with the Orient including an entirely new cuisine.

Vintage La Choy ad 1953 For those daring you could prepare your own Chow Mein using La Choy ingredients

Chef La Choy say: Speciar occasion You no wolly!

” Your Turn for bridge lunch? Serve la Choy Chop Suey! As a pleasant change from the usual party dishes give the girls savory La Choy Cop Suey. It’s bound to be a crowd pleaser!”

Chow Mein Challenged

Vintage ad 1955

In advertisements we would never see today, these American Chinese food companies ran ad campaigns that were sorely in need of Steven Colberts now shuttered satirical Ching Chong Ding Dong Foundation of Sensitivity to Orientals or Whatever.

Egg Foo Yung On Their Face

Chock full of Asian stereotypes and pidgin English, the ads barely raised an eyebrow.

That’s how the fortune cookie crumbles, a nonplussed, non pc public shrugged!

No Speekee Engrish

Vintage ad 1948

Mid century Americans had a real ten for the exotic as long as it was on their terms. Next to hot dogs and coca cola nothing was more American than a plate of chow mein or a bowl of chop suey.

In the great American melting wok nothing was more red white and blue than a divider pak can of Chun King Chow Mein, the American Chinese food company founded by the son of Italian immigrants

The post war pioneer of foreign ethnic food Jeno Paulucci ( of Jenos pizza roll fame) founded Chun King in 1947.

With Six You Get Egg Roll

Vintage Saturday Evening Post Cover 1/12/52 Illustration by Alajalov .”Here are 3 grades of chopstickers” the copy explaining the cover art begins. “The female tyro is about to knit one wad of chow mein and purl 2. The sailor considers himself quite a man with chopsticks and lets hope they don’t slip and toss against the lady’s face. As for that chap who was practically born with chopsticks in his mouth, he is thinking Do I ask the guy if he can drink tea with chopsticks or just let the bush leaguer get away with this?”

At the time, going oriental meant eating out in a Chinese restaurant. In those days American homemakers only contact with mysterious East might be a thrilling trip to Chinatown.

Going out for Chinese food, sophisticated young moderns could eat such an exotic dinner secure in the belief that they were getting something excitingly foreign yet completely familiar. Seated in the dark red banquette, fumbling with chopsticks they could choose strange-sounding delectables-  one from column A  two from column B.

Like much of our so-called foreign cookery at the time, Chinese food would not have been recognizable in the country of its assumed origin. Along with a lack of availability of popular Chinese ingredients here in the US they also needed to adapt the food to make it palatable to Americans.

Chop Suey for the Suburbs

“Solving that problems of getting variety in your family meals- savory Chinese Chop Suey is one good answer. Try it on the head of the house tonight then be prepared for compliments by the male!”

After WWII post war Americans were primed to chow down on chop suey in the comforts of their own homes and Jeno Paulucci saw the possibility of a huge market of convenience foods.

With borrowed money and the purchase of 25 pounds of bean sprouts, he began production in a converted WWII Quonset hut in Duluth Minnesota.

“And if you’re thinking that no chow mein fixed at home can come up to the fine Cantonese restaurant kind, then you don’t know a thing about the Chun King Divider-Pak way,” boasted the early ads.

Ciao Mein

Vintage American Chines Food Ads 1950′s

Authenticity was not the point. Ease and convenience with a heavy dose of familiarity

Ignoring Ancient Chinese Secret, Pauluucci, came up with his own chop suey recipe by canning his sprouts and adding bits of celery, pimentos and an authentic Italian herb mixture suggested by his Italian mother.

Years later at a ceremonial dinner for National Italian American Foundation in 1976 President Gerald Ford remarking on the success of Chun King ,the royalty of American Oriental food,commented : “What could be more American than a business built on a good Italian recipe for chop suey?”

Surprise the Occidental is Oriental

Vintage Chun King American Chinese Food Ad 1950s

The thought of Chinese food in your own home was thrilling

‘In fine Oriental restaurants and now at home-you feel the romance of food.” began one ad.
” The most romantic place in town to eat is where the food is Oriental. And tonight at home you can enjoy foods as delicious as those in fine Cantonese restaurants. Give your family a Chun King meal.

“Now, right in your own home- and with very little work- you can treat your family to a complete oriental meal,” they gush incredulously. “An exotic authentic meal such as you could only have enjoyed at a fine Oriental restaurant.”

“Because of Chun Kings exclusive Divider Pack, the interesting flavors contrasting textures and bright colors that make Oriental foods so distinctive are protected for you. Combine the contents of both cans heat for 15 minutes and your chow mein is ready.”

“You can do it because some store near you has Chun Kings delicious American Oriental foods..

Me So Busy You So Lucky

Vintage Chun King Ad 1957

Of course with the pace of modern life speeding up you could be just too darn tired to open the divider pack cans, Chun King came to the harried housewife’s rescue with their frozen entrees making dinner snap!

Have a Cantoneasy Kitchen Holiday

Vintage ads Chun King Frozen Dinners 1957

Hop in your Rickshaw and head to your latest supermarket and stock up on Chun King Frozen Foods

“A Complete Oriental meal all  ready to pop in the oven! Just like a fine Cantonese restaurant…an Oriental meal with no work for you”
“One picture is worth 1000 words say Chinese proverb. Doesn’t this new Chun King Cantonese Dinner look good?”

Spoon Fed Stereotypes

To end the exotic oriental meal, Mom always served us Jell-O.

Unlike poor Chinese baby in Jello commercial who tried using chopsticks to eat the jello his “mother bling him” we used “great western invention” the spoon, confirming that racist stereotypes can be spoon fed too!

© 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.

1954 advertisement

Breathe Easier

Mid Century America was the golden age of pesticides and it was love at first sight. Any thoughts about Earth Day and the environment lay far in the future.

Thousands of new chemicals were put to use in new and amazing products, quickly tested and just as quickly rushed to market.

Now you could get relief for your garden the modern, speedy way. Pesticides. They’re easy! They’re quick! They’re automatic!

Why wait for old-fashioned organic nature to deal with pests, when there were new, fast working chemical compounds that went to work instantly.  

 “Today’s pesticides,” so the thinking went, “go right along with the sensible modern trend. Today’s relaxed people at ease with so many things.”

Pesticides belong- to the fun of living!

A trip to the Suburban Garden Center

As spring exploded with a whoop and a holler, mid-century Americans cut loose in the great outdoors.Like clockwork, my father and I joined the swarm of suburban gardeners who would flock to their local garden center on Mothers Day.

In garden centers all over Long Island, you would find row upon row of pretty, terra-cotta potted geraniums and fetching baskets overflowing with petunias, prominently displayed as offerings for Mothers Day. At the eleventh hour, they were lifesavers for those last-minute husbands and sons who in their consternation of what to get Mom, perfume or another cotton house coat, had thus far bought nothing.

Time For a Breather

Vintage ad Monsanto Chemicals 1947

As soon as you entered the nursery, nostrils were bombarded with a blast of the earthy, musky, smell of peat moss, humus, and top soil, overpowered by the caustic odor of chemicals.

Ah, breathe deeply of the invigorating scent of power –chlorynated hydrocarbons.

 My father was like a kid in a candy shop, his eyes bigger than our small suburban backyard.

Dad dashed quickly down the nursery aisles, pushing past the plants, speeding by the spades, and totally ignoring the calibrated spreaders and wobbly wheelbarrows in his single-minded pursuit. What Dad looked forward to the most was the appearance of this springs new line of pesticides and petrochemicals.

Chemicals as bright and fresh as spring itself.

Aisle after aisle, choice after choice, shelves groaning under the weight of giant jugs of herbicides, boxes of insecticides, cans of fungicides and bottles of pesticides, all shapes and sizes, some dusts and pellets, others emulsions and granules.

Miracle products all,  with names such as Chlorodust, Toxiclor, Cook-Kill.

The miraculous herbicide 2,4-D (dichlorophenoxyacetic acid) was hailed as a breakthrough garden product when it was released in the late 1940s. Like most suburbanites, dad knew there was no longer any excuse for a weedy lawn.

He agonized over choice of weapons – should he go for the Martin Weed-Gun that came locked and loaded with a healthy supply of 2,4-D sufficient enough to kill ten thousands weeds or the nifty Killer Kane that squirted the same 2, 4-D herbicide killing  weeds “as fast as you can walk.” To compound the decision there was the ever popular suburban favorite  Weed-a Bomb, courtesy of the Thompson Chemical Corporation.

Speaking of weapons, 2,4,D would later come in handy fighting the Vietnam War as the principal ingredient of the defoliant Agent Orange.

It’s Not Nice to Fool Mother Nature

Vintage Illustration  Pruett Carter

Dad may have claimed he had great respect for Mothers in general, and Mom in particular, but the same couldn’t be said for Mother Nature. Mother Nature needed to be controlled. She was like a woman, fickle, stubborn but looking for a strong man to take control.

Though loath to admit it, my father had Mother issues.

Not unlike his own mother, he regarded Mother Nature sometimes as a friend, and sometimes as an enemy. He loved her, and resented her. Mother Nature was what he’d try to get away from, and yet he depended on her badly.

With Mother Nature he could act out his impulses and decisions freely, unchecked.

Formerly, Mother Nature, like his own mother, was more powerful than he. But now the balance had shifted. Man could control forces which at best rivaled and now seemed on the point of surpassing her.

 “It was heartening to recognize some of the things our science is continuing to create and store up for the better world of tomorrow! Dad would read. “American laboratories can now promise us virtual independence from many ‘natural’ sources of necessities. Food, fodder and fiber can now be grown without soil, without rain, without sunlight,” virtually, he’d chuckle “without Mother Nature herself!”

Intoxicating

Vintage illustration Ortho Ad 1950 “How to be a Carefree Gardner”

A clerk, dressed as a farmer in coveralls and a straw hat, was strolling around the nursery, spritzing samples of new herbicide 2,4,D for men to test.

Softly spraying some of the oily mist onto Dads wrist in order for him to sample, the Mr. Green Jeans -look -alike, tried to conjure up a bucolic image: “Experience the new aroma! Like the freshness of tingling bracing mountain air, it has a noticeable effect to all who partake. Hearts beat faster when you use it. It’s clean crispness stimulates. A unique scent prolonger M-10, makes the aroma really last.”

Apparently 1500 men tested other leading pesticides- and new, saucy, man-tailored formula2,4,D Dichlorophenoxyacetic won hand down. “And,” the clerk winked to Dad, “their girls loved it! “

“Its total harmony with nature assures you of being tastefully right.”

Dad splurged and bought 3 containers.

Years later we would we learn it was associated with cancer, birth defects, kidney and liver damage.

It was intoxicating!

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Vintage ad Reynolds Wrap 1954

Mid century mothers and daughters were clearly tied together not only by their apron strings but the same set of cultural expectations.  Not only did they share darling matching outfits but the same sunny enthusiasm for household chores.

And why not?

If Mom was queen, sis was certainly the princess! Vintage Frigidaire Refrigerator Ad 1960

The post war homemaker’s life was a breeze full of carefree living, going about her household tasks smiling as if she hadn’t a care in the world. It was a life of self polishing ease, a wash n wear world of no scrubbing no stooping no bending and absolutely …..no complaining.

Vintage Ad GE Washer 1962

With everything so automatic, it was automatically assumed that like mother like daughter she’d seamlessly follow in moms domestic high-heeled footsteps.

Ladies Be Seated

Life was a breeze, sitting while ironing . Rhythmic restful automatic ironing. Now ends homes last drudgery. Forget the hand ironing Fold up your ironing board ladies and push it out of sight forever. The sensational automatic ironing, a wonderful willing servant irons everything while your seated! Half the time and effort” Vintage ad US Steel 1947

The message was clear- Girls would be cut from the same cloth as their Mothers

The Pattern is Set

From McCall’s 1949. “A pair of pinafores with fly away shoulders is an inspired gift. These look a likes for mother and small daughter are pretty in pastel chambray.”

Department stores featured Mother Daughter clothing departments but the handy housewife could whip up a new outfit for Mom and sis on her singer sewing machine in a jiff .

Simplicity Patterns Mother Daughter Aprons

Simplicity began to issue many Mother daughter patterns beginning in the 1940’s, and women’s magazines regularly  ran features for sewing patterns.

A pattern for Mother Daughter play dress in Good Housekeeping Magazine 1948. The Simplicity pattern cost 15 cents

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Vintage Ad Mother Daughter Dresses 1952 Westway Sportswear

 “Prissy Missy-an irresistible picture….Mother and daughter dress alike in our Prissy Missy by Westway in fine wale piques…little waists and full skirts. So practical to launder!”

These images were indeed cut on the bias

Mothers Little Helpmate

These sugar-coated stereotypes of contented mothers and their copy-cat domesticated daughters seem as frozen and neatly packaged by Madison Avenue as the processed foods these happy homemakers served their families.

Vintage Ad Campbell’s Tomato Juice 1942

Vintage Hoover Vacuum Cleaner Ad 1945

Vintage Ad US Steel 1946

Vintage Rinso Ad 1948

Vintage Rinso Ad 1949

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Vintage Rinso Ad 1950

In these images filled with matching frilly aprons and starched shirtwaist dresses it was clear who would wear the pants in the family…not the girls!

© 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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Occupation 1960 Housewife

Happy Homemakers in Training

Detail of Collage by Sally Edelstein “And They Lived Happily Ever After” Appropriated vintage images. The end of Camelot saw our own fantasy’s begin to crack

The nuclear family was once as American as the nuclear bomb. But by the end of the 1960′s the nuclear family detonated along with our notion of marriage and motherhood.

Parenting and partnering were not a priority for the newly liberated lady…..just ask Mad Men’s Peggy Olson.

And They Lived Happily Ever After…

As the decade drew to a close, the New Frontier years of Camelot came to a crashing halt and turned out to be just one more fairy tale.

It wasn’t long before the spell was broken and we realized not everyone would live happily ever after like Cinderella.

The only shining white knight coming to the housewives rescue would be the Ajax White Knight galloping into her suburban neighborhood destroying dirt in his path with his magic lance.

Love and Marriage

Only 10 years earlier, the family’s outlook had never been brighter.

McCall’s Magazine even created a term for this Togetherness.

Along with the rest of the media, the real mad men of Madison Avenue painted the same glowing picture of the American family emphatic in their belief that the family was the center of your living and if it wasn’t you’ve gone astray… or you’re a communist!

Some magazine articles even went so far as to imply that a woman’s failure to bear children was a quasi perversion and just plain unnatural. Nothing was more patriotic than having children and like the steel industry, mothering was running at close to 100% capacity.

Waxy Yellow Build Up

Detail of Collage by Sally Edelstein “White Wash” Appropriated vintage illustrations of American Housewives from the 1950s and 1960s

With their gleaming Ipana smiles, happy homemakers asked nothing more of others than to refrain from scuffing up the shine on her freshly Glo coated floor.

In a world rampant with wars , rioting and male entitlement, these happy housewives may have been smiling but more than likely they were numb from Miltown or Valium.

Like underground nuclear testing anger was to be buried beneath the surface, but the fall out would soon appear. Before the decade was out women would become as agitated as their miracle 2 agitator washers.

But by the late 1960’s happy housewives with their smiling faces  dressed in harmonized shades  to match their carefree kitchen appliances, were, like those same retro appliances replaced for a newer model.

Nuclear Family Meltdown

Detail of collage by Sally Edelstein “Always Ask a Man” An amalgam of mass media stereotypes of women from the 1950′s and 60′s . A reshuffling of clichés about popular cultures representation of female choices.

With the bewitching speed and ease of Samantha Stevens twitching her nose the job a generation of women had trained for was suddenly obsolete by 1970. Along with their bras, women libbers threw out the American housewife and June Cleaver got kicked to the curb.

The single gal exploded on the scene knocking the married lady off her pedestal. Ads proclaimed: “It’s your time to shine baby and we don’t mean pots and pans!”

As if hit by a strong dose of radiation, the familiar 1950’s nuclear family in the media had mutated into monstrous families as June and Ward Cleaver were replaced by Lilli and Herman Munster.

© 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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Sally Edelstein Collage

Has the selling of the 1950’s nuclear family finally reached it’s expiration date?

In a consumer culture of unlimited choices, Madison Avenue has long sold only one brand of the American family…and it is now a bit shopworn.

Never was the notion of the idealized nuclear family more potent or more seductive than in mid-century America. The much cherished, deeply engrained ideal of Mom, Dad, Sis and Jr. was solidified into our shared iconography in the post-war years when America went on a binge of family life.

Family Construct

“Dads like a kid again when Bill and Bobby bring out their construction set. And Mom and Betty can’t resist a little “experting” on the sidelines. At all family affairs 7 up is a welcome part of everybody’s fun. 7-Up the all family drink-is a good friend of youngest and oldest alike. Be a fresh family…every member can be a 7 Up steady.” Vintage 7-Up advertisement 1949

The Mad Men of mid-century Madison Avenue cleverly created advertising campaigns calculated to sell the perfect family along with the American dream.

Images of the nuclear family exploded in advertising, scattering its potent assumptions of family deep into our collective psyches. And like a toxic overspill, remnants remain in each of us today.

Hawking the romanticized family as much as they sold brand loyalty to beer, cameras, or soft drinks, the ads both reinforced and reflected the fairy tale suburban life, offering a blueprint to the newly minted post-war middle class, living out the American dream.

The Nuclear Family Takes Off

The Nuclear Family Takes Off! Vintage 7-Up ad 1948

One popular ad campaign was a series of advertisements from 7 Up that created the picture perfect expression of the nuclear family who were as wholesome, bubbly and saccharine sweet as the soda pop itself.

Long before 7 Up was the “wet and wild” happening beverage for the “now generation” it was “The All Family Drink,” the perfect beverage for the perfect suburban family.

The ads which ran from the late 1940′s to the late 1950′s served up an idealized mid-century America enjoying their post-war promises of prosperity, while engaged in happy family living.

Share the Family Fun

7-Up the wholesome drink for wholesome families! The ads offered Kodacolor snapshots of the American dream made better with 7- Up Vintage 7-Up advertisement 1951

The idyllic snapshots of the American dream family that 7-Up used in the ads all portrayed an eerily homogenous landscape of spacious suburban homes and smiling, prosperous, cheerful, Anglo-Saxon families enjoying fun times together in their suburban rumpus rooms and backyards.

Naturally 7-Up was a regular part of family fun.

This “Happy Family Living” was the image that most advertising and entertainment seemed determined to project and one which served as a template for the idea of family.

“In Tune with Family Fun! It’s fun when the whole family gathers around Mom at the piano singing and playing their favorite tunes. And cheerful crystal clear 7-Up joins right in because its lively sparkle and clean taste appeal to all ages. It’s a regular part of happy family living in millions of homes. ” Vintage 7-Up Ad 1950

TV’s June and Ward Cleaver or Jim and Margaret Anderson-no slouches when it came to the nuclear family- would have fit right at home in any of these dozens of tableau’s of the American dream.

“Scores With all the Family- Young Bill may be the best bowler, but its pretty evident there’s another top scorer with the whole family. 7-Up lends its own good cheer to every family activity.” Vintage 7-Up ad 1950

All in the Family Drink

They really meant it when they suggested that sparkling clear 7-Up was the “All Family drink.” Several ads were directed at the playpen set.  Because 7-Up was  so pure, so good..so wholesome “…folks of all ages including little tots can “fresh up” with as much 7 -Up as they want, and as often as they want.”

“Really got a grip on that 7 Up haven’t you big boy? asks this 1953 Seven Up ad. “Go right ahead “fresh up to your heart’s content! Mom knows sparkling crystal clear 7 up is so pure so good so wholesome that folks of all ages even little guys like you can enjoy it often.” Babyboomers could get hooked for life.

“Pint size players can have big league thirsts and these little sand lot sultans of swat really know whats good for ‘em- and good to ‘em!” Vintage 7-Up ad 1953

Enjoy Good Times and Togetherness

“Bright and lively 7-Up is right down your alley whether you’re out bowling with the family or having your family at home!” Vintage 7-Up ad 1953

Funs a Poppin’ With  7-Up

Home Hearth and Kids. “Here’s a plot for happy autumn evenings…the fire glowing on the hearth the corn’s a popping and plenty of sparkling crystal clear 7-Up” Vintage 7 Up ad 1953

Pow Wow With 7-Up

Perfect for any suburban family pow wow. Seven Up is “one of the family” whether you’re working or playing. For friendly cheerful 7 Up adds its own lively sparkle to any occasion.” Honest Injun! Vintage 7-Up ad 1951

End Note

The advertising of those years have done so much to shape our impression of the era.

In the process, they came to crystallize some of the great American self delusions of the 1950s. By 1969 even Mad Men’s Peggy Olson wondered “Do family’s like this really exist anymore? Are there people who eat dinner and smile at each other instead of watching TV?”

Today as the very definition of family has gone through transformation allowing for more diversity, some still cling to the dusty and outmoded notions of the nuclear family that are as outdated as these vintage images.

 © 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.

Fit For a King

Once upon a time, but not too long ago, all Dads were king.

Not only for a measly third Sunday in June, but to believe the mid-century American advertiser, the head of the household was the sovereign ruler of his suburban dominion the year round.

But it was on that special date proclaimed Fathers Day, a day filled with pageantry and celebration, that all his subjects paid homage bearing royal gifts worthy of his majesty.

When I was growing up in the 1950′s and 60′s, Father’s Day was a day of protocol, precedent and custom.

Truth be told, in our house my father was known more as the Queen’s Husband than as Sovereign ruler, not unlike England’s Prince Phillip.

But not on Fathers Day, when his throne was never more secure nor its occupant more firmly rooted in his subjects affections.

A Suburban Fathers Day

While Mom was busy washing the dishes from the royal breakfast feast, our King for a day, his most excellent majesty, Marvin, sat in regal isolation in his Naughahyde  Barca-Lounger throne.

With a Kaywoodie briar pipe as his scepter, resplendent in his Dacron wash ‘n wear pajamas, he wore a crudely constructed cardboard crown given as a promotion from Big Al’s Appliance Store atop his prematurely balding head.

Contently he basked in the glow of the day as presents were offered on bended knee, displayed before him for his approval.

Nothing said “Thanks, Pop” like a splendid no-wrinkle Acrylan mu-mu sport shirt with authentic south sea prints. Who said  a ruler couldn’t be a snappy pappy?

What was more worthy of a king than a distinguished pair of fairway themed cotton boxers with golf balls and nine irons cleverly printed across the fabric?

Every imperial leader needed a touch of bracing after-shave now and again, the woodsy aroma the very finest in masculinity, whose daily use helped give the royal face a clean magnetic masculine air.

Vintage Fathers Day ads for McGregor Men’s Sportswear 1950′s

(L) Vintage ad 1948 Textron Menswear “Let the King Have His Fling in Textron Menswear” (R) “When Dad is King For a Day” Vintage 1948 ad Reis Underwear

(l) Vintage Fathers Day ad Seaforth Men’s Grooming Products 1946  (r) Vintage ad Fathers Day Spiedel watch bands 1946

Vintage ad Schick Electric Shaver1953 (r) Vintage ad Schick Electric Shaver For Dad or Grad 1953

A Pipe and Slippers Fit for a King (L) Vintage Fathers Day ad Evans Slippers  1951 (R) Vintage ad Zippo Lighters For Fathers Day

But for my Dad no princely ban-lon shirt, crush resistant slacks, tiki print tie, no, not even an out of this world, newer-than-tomorrow electric razor could light up his countenance the way something truly fit  for a Royal did -a 1 pound canister of Prince Albert tobacco- “the national joy smoke.”

The way to my Dads heart was through tobacco.

A Pipe Line to His heart

L

Like Old King Cole  Dad was never merrier than when smoking his briar wood pipe, packing it tight with his Prince Albert tobacco.

“More than you know, perhaps…you do wonderful things for Dad by giving him a Kaywoodie pipe.” the ads promised. “You give far more in fact than the countless sweet hours of relaxation this luxury pipe brings to a man.”

Of course governing can be a stressful job so when he wasn’t puffing on a pipe, Dad could be found relaxing with a soothing cigarette.

Lucky for us, mid-century tobacco manufacturers were more than happy to lend a hand on Fathers Day coming out with a  line of special gift-wrapped  Father Day cartons and canisters fit for a king.

Vintage ads Camel, Cavalier Cigarettes and Prince Albert Tobacco for Fathers Day 1953

RJ Reynolds Tobacco company reassured its readers that our choice was a wise one and truly fit for a beloved monarch:

“Nearest and dearest to Dad- next to you- are his favorite cigarette or his faithful pipe. One of the things closest to your father are his smokes-his cigarette or his pipe. He carries them with him wherever he goes…they’re always part of the picture when he relaxes.”

“When it’s a gift from loved ones it’s doubly precious”

Vintage ad for Fathers Day Kaywoodie Pipes 1954

Of course not as precious as all those years lost from developing emphysema. And that pipe line to his heart eventually found its way there with a heart attack at age 60.

God save the King!

Copyright (©) 20014 Sally Edelstein All Rights Reserved

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A Hands On Dad

Thanks to war-time research and  American know how, growing up in suburban mid-century America  I would be the happy recipient of a veritable bushel basket of sun-kissed, vitamin rich fruits and vegetables.

No other country we were told  “has the good fortune to enjoy such a varied, appealing and wholesome diet”.

And no, we did not have a plethora of farmer’s markets, green grocers or organic community food co-ops; in fact today’s locavore movement- the notion of eating what is produced locally local and shunning what isn’t – would have been laughed at.

Most of the farm fresh goodness I would experience came courtesy of Birds Eye Farms ( quick frozen for quick serving) and the verdant  Valley of The Green Giant

No matter the season, I could always enjoy cans and boxes of good tasting, fresh-from-the-pesticide-sprayed farm flavor of fruits and vegetables.

Old McDonald had A Suburban Farm

(L)Happy days on the farm vintage children’s book illustration from “On Cherry Street” Ginn Basic reader 1950s (R) Vintage ad- Snow Crop Frozen Vegetables Country Fair 1957

 Quick frozen or in cans, dried or powdered, when it came to fruits and vegetables it was like having a farm in your own back yard, which funny enough I did.

Like so many other housing developments of the time, my ranch house sprouted up on what had once been one of hundreds of potato farms that dotted Long Island.

The original farmer, Mr Gutztsky who looked remarkably like Mr. Green Jeans on Captain Kangaroo, held on to a small plot of his original farm so that in fact for many years instead of rows of split levels houses, there was an actual working farm behind us.

For a while there were the early morning rooster alarm clock, the stray clucking chickens in the backyard and even a horse poking his nose in an open bedroom window.

Whatever connection of being back to the earth my city-bred parents originally  felt, was in just a few short years, eventually  totally bulldozed away when farmer/businessman  Gutzsky sold the last of his acreage to developers.

Better n’ Fresh

Actually preparing fresh vegetables seemed as out of date as the horse-drawn plow used on the farm we usurped.

Why bother boiling and peeling and mashing those plentiful local Long Island  potatoes when Instant dehydrated flakes were so much easier.

But the abundance of all those local russet potatoes did not go to waste.

They came in darn handy in creating an extended family for Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head, with plenty o’ little tater tots to go around.

 A Ripe Idea

It’s Magic! L) Vintage Illustration Fairy Godmother Cinderella Walt Disney

Naturally from time to time, we did enjoyed the wholesome goodness of fresh fruits and vegetables straight from Mother Nature herself. The produce section had been set free of the tyranny of the seasons and become global in its choices.

Even with the proper refrigeration  the problem with these gold mines of health was that they were always so gosh darn perishable, but once again American scientists came to the rescue.

Why wait for lazy Mother Nature – when miracle sprays would force all the fruit to ripen and like magic, change color at once.

In this new, fast-paced jet-age, who had time to wait for vine ripened tomatoes?

Why wait till the end of summer, when with a healthy splash of ethylene gas those rock hard green tomatoes of yesterday suddenly would become today’s garish red ones, conveniently packed in styrephone trays encased in plastic, just ripe for tossin’ in the salad.

 Safeguarding Democracy

“Safeguarding the delicate natural flavor and goodness of many tree and vine ripened fruits and vegetables is made possible by Food Machinery Corp.’s Flavorseal process.” explains this (L) ad from 1948 “Protected by a thin wax like film these fresh grown products stay fresher and wholesome longer.” Just in time to be hermetically sealed in DuPont Cellophane wrapping. (R) Vintage ad DuPont 1957

 It was a Post War Promise kept – “You can have fresh fruits and vegetables tonight…..even if the calendar says no.

The reason- Flavorseal protection.

Developed by research scientists, Flavorseal was a solution which was sprayed in a thin waxy film over the surface of freshly harvested citrus fruit, tomatoes, cucumbers and other produce helping the products stay fresh and wholesome longer for your enjoyment.

Flavorseal, they boasted, slowed down the natural deterioration of the fruit or vegetable…preserves its original freshness flavor for many extra days or even weeks!

More food to eat- less to throw away.

Was My Face Red

“Wilt? I wilt- Not says this lettuce even after 30 days!” announced this 1944 ad for Goodyears Pliofilm. (R) Vintage ad 1944 Goodyear Pliofilm

Food could be kept fresh from the vine for months.

Believe it or not the ad claims this gorgeous red ripe tomato was picked ripe from the vine 30 long days ago!

Harvest wrapped in Goodyears miracle wrap Pliofilm- “a marvelous new transparent moistureproof, spoilageproof wrapping material that seals in natures goodness and seals out natures gremlins. “

To drive home the point  Goodyear boasted that tests made by the University of Florida Agricultural Experiment Station proved that “Pliofilm has a way with fruits and vegetables that lets them keep their natural goodness, flavor color and vitamins for weeks and even months after ripening.”

And toss those ripe tomatoes in wilt-proof lettuce. Imagine lettuce, we are enticed: “keeping its head- and its crispness, and color and flavor- for 30 days after leaving the garden” thanks to Pliofilm.

Yes, it was always harvest time in our household, no matter the season. And thanks to science, it was not just canned and frozen vegetables and fruits- but fresh, rot-resistant tomatoes, fresh frost resistant strawberries year ‘round!

The future of good nourishment was well protected!

The Smell of Democracy in the Air

Every July 4th our split level development would be shrouded by the smoke of burning charcoal, the sizzling smell of democracy was in the air.

Besides a parade, nothing was more quintessentially American than a July fourth back yard barbecue. Like some sacred Old Testament tradition of sacrificing an animal to please the Lord, every Independence Day a burnt offering of seared flesh was offered up in homage to Uncle Sam.

And in that  confident mid-century soaring bull market, Democracy was as vital to our health as a Delmonico steak.

Dad  knew tossing a hunk of  meat on a sizzling grill, the ubiquitous package of Kingsford briquettes at the ready proclaimed to the world “I’m proud to be an American.”

The Smell of Capitalism  In The Air

In fact nothing was more American than those Kingsford briquettes. Invented by the quintessential American capitalist Henry Ford as a way of further lining his own pockets, Ford had a better idea. By charring the wood scraps left over from his Model T’s and mixing them with starch fillers and just the right amount of chemicals, industrious Mr. Ford created briquettes .

The smell of democracy was indeed in the air – nothing reeked of capitalism more than turning industrial waste into profit.

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Patio Daddy-O

Life was a colorful, carefree wash n’ wear world

Summertime and the living was easy especially in the post war world of wash n’ wear clothing.

Summer and synthetics was a match made in chemical lab heaven.

The easy care revolution in textiles was always in full display at my suburban summertime family barbecues.

The World is Yours….especially in these Arnel Triacetate separates just right for the perfect couple. What says down home gingham better then ahhhh…..Arnel!

It was always fun to see my usually serious relatives suddenly seasonally transformed, parading around in their color-fast, color-fun, wash n’ wear summertime attire.

It was nothing short of a tribute to post-war possibilities in polyester.

“Dress Right You Can’t Afford Not To. The good old summer is time for all kinds of weekend fun…including the fun of dressing right for whatever under the sun you’re doing,” begins this 1957 ad. “When you look good, you feel good- sure of yourself.” And in mid century America nothing gave you the smart self confidence like an outfit in smart, wash n’ wear polyester.

As the humidity mounted on the sticky city streets, my small contingency of hot-town-summer-in-the-city relatives was always delighted to be out in the country for their dose of fresh air.

It was the perfect tonic for the exhaust fumes, grit and grime of 1960’s NYC.

Breathing in the fresh suburban air, laced with the fumes from the chemically laden charcoal briquettes emanating from all the other grills of ex-urbanite- neighbors up and down the block, stimulated a suburban sized appetite

Go casual or dress up in carefree colorful wash n wear Dacron

Two’s Company in wrinkle-shy smart woven cotton Dacron

In the summer of 1961 despite the Berlin crisis looming in the air and the possible threat of thermonuclear war, folks demeanor at my big family barbecue were as trouble-free as their Dacron separates.

No longer weighed down with winter’s worries, uncles aunts and cousins appeared buoyant in a way I never saw all winter.

It was if by shucking their winter wools and gabardines for the, wrinkle free ease of 100% Acrilan, they were ridding themselves of a seasons worth of heavy burdens.

In fact the only wrinkles present at these gatherings were on the heavily lined faces of my sun worshiping relatives.

Cool Daddy-O-in Drip Dry Dacron

Bermuda shorts in racy Rayon -Dacron texture you’d swear was linen! Frosty Cool, they wont crush or muss!

First sightings of our Uncles hairy legs and knobby knees poking out from baggy Bermuda shorts, brought on uncontrollable giggles for my brother and me.

Drip dry dashing in their 100% Acrilan sports shirts, they were a kaleidoscope of colors and patterns in the easy care, luxury  acrylic fabric.

Men’s winter bellies that had been neatly contained by worsted wool suit jackets were now bursting free in their clingy Ban-Lon shirts

Figure flattering Ban-Lon was the wonder material favored by  folks everywhere. The figure revealing fabric was a type of NyLON developed and patented by the laboratories of Joseph BANcraft & Sons.

Acrilan was was an acrylic fibre developed by Chemstrand. “Luxury’s yours in wash n’ wear shirts of 100% Acrilan.The texture must be touched to believe. “They’re soft and warm as a harem girls kiss” exclaims the copy in the 1956 ad on the right. Wear ‘em, wash ‘em, they don’t stretch or shrink. “Best of all they completely frustrate moths and mildew- completely satisfy men.” Vintage Acrilan Ads 1956

Ban Lon- He’ll love you for it…give him one of these exciting Ban-Lon beauties. “Believe us he’ll be your baby in Ban-Lon, claims the copy in this 1960 (R) ad. “Despite its luxurious look, it can well stand up to his manhandling! It’s shrink-proof. mildew-proof, and moth proof!”

 Cool, Colorful  and Carefree

Live easy…look breezy in cool carefree uncrushable Dacron in these patio perfect 1961 dresses

Polyesters you’ll love to live in! Bared and beautiful, Bouffant beats the heat with little straps that expose you to enjoy balmy suburban breeze. Fashioned in lustrous wash n’ wear Dacron . Vintage women’s fashion 1961 Sears catalog

Women’s winter weary bosoms, revealed in sporty little perma-prest sundresses seemed to be coming out of hibernation in an exuberant display of deeply tanned decolletage.

Perfect for the patio- these Ship ‘n Shore separates are wild about color. “Cool as as a breeze. And they go to any lengths to please!” Kinda like most mid century women!

The gals were comfortably fun-loving casual in their Ship n Shore drip dry patio pants, peddle pushers and capris.

Their color-happy, easy-wear Celanese separates were vibrant in sun coral, refreshing in turquoise and electric in jubilee orange, colors that seemed to match their enticing fruit colors-for-warm-weather-wear lips.

Celanese Fortrel makes the scene (L) Vintage Catalina sportswear ad 1962 (R) Vintage Sears catalog 1961

Patios and polyester were made for one another in vibrant refreshing colors Vintage catalog ads Sears 1961

Whether Antron, Acrylon or Dacron it was a veritable sea of drip dry, and wrinkle free, a wash n’ wear tribute to post-war man’s progress over nature, a cornucopia of the space age convenience of miracle man-made fabrics.

The real miracle was that there wasn’t a natural fabric among them. What a tribute to the great outdoors.

Because these new miracle man-made fibers were totally synthesized from chemicals found in the oil industry, there was enough petroleum in the clothes to ignite barbeques up and down the block.

Poke up a fire and relax while supper grills to a turn. Just don’t stand too close to the fire; nothing acts as an accelerant better than polyester.

These Dacron shirts make a man feel debonair. They’re designed to lounge in whether your brand of relaxation is a soft EZ chair or a turn on the golf links. Casual when it comes to taking care of, Dacron takes care of itself. Mens Dacron Sportshirts 1961 Sears Catalog

While the men huddled ‘round the smoky Weber grill, hotly debating whether Roger Maris would break Babe Ruth’s Home runs this season, the wives held their own smoky gab fest.

Engulfed in a plume of hazy blue cigarette smoke the normally harried housewives were as relaxed as their free and easy care fabrics.

More time to Play in Polyester

You look your best…work much less in Dacron and cotton for automatic wash n’ wear. Before this revolution in textiles a homemaker might spend up to 20 hours a weeks ironing clothes, tablecloths and bed linens made of natural fibers.

Thanks to the magic of modern chemistry we were into the new wonderful world of synthetic fabrics and the American housewife was the happy recipient of these new discoveries

In the easy does it, no fuss no muss, new and improved push button post war world, the miracle that could only happen in the wonderful world of wash n wear was a godsend to the housewife. No more long hot summer hours spent ironing out wrinkled linens or creased cottons. Here were clothes that practically care for themselves.

Yes there was a new way to live…and it was easy.

Better Living Through Chemistry

Vintage advertisement Union Carbide 1949

For years the wizards of chemistry had been working tirelessly in their labs concocting chemically made fibers that challenged natures best in wear and appearance

Far from being scorned as they are now, chemically made fibers were considered a key to better living.

How Can You Resist

Vintage ad Vicara Fiber Division Virginia-Carolina Chemical Corp. 1954 “Perfect for springtime sweaters”

Contemporary fabrics like Celanese Acetate were perfect for the new busy mid-century American Housewife. “She needed a special kind of clothes for her busy, rewarding life,” readers were told in one ad touting the fabric. “Whether as den mother, eagle eye supermarket shopper or decorating wiz it was a fast paced life.”

Polyester made good on its promise to lighten Moms load.

A New Way To Live

“There’s a new way to look …a new way to live in Dacron! There’s a new way to live…and its easy! It begins with your discovery of Dacron for modern living clothes that practically care for themselves. You’ll find wrinkle-shedding Dacron alone or blended with other fibers) lets you forget your ironing board…saves you cleaning upkeep ,helps your clothes wear and wear, stay fresh no matter the weather. Look to your stores for a whole new way of fashion a whirl of exciting colors and textures Dacron polyester fiber for you to live in and love. Dacron one of Du Ponts modern living fabrics” Vintage ad 1953

It all began with DuPont’s discovery of Dacron. By 1961, Dacron, the granddaddy of polyester was already a decade old

Dacron was made for modern living. It was the biggest thing to hit the clothing industry since nylon.

It Started with Stockings

Vintage ad DuPonts Nylon

Dupont started the EZ care revolution with the introduction of nylon in 1939, the first fiber synthesized entirely by chemicals. A replacement for silk, it was wildly popular as nylon stocking and women gobbled them up.

But duty called and nylon was soon drafted by Uncle Sam. Off to war, it was essential for parachutes , tents and airplane tires .

With the war over, the test tube boys knuckled down and got back to work fulfilling their post war promises of a better tomorrow.

In the spring of 1951 DuPont debuted Dacron (polyethylene terephthalate).

 The Dawning of Dacron

Vintage ad Dacron Suits 1957

No one was more a devotee of DuPonts miracle man-made fabric than my Dad. He could say so long to seersucker, and summer-weight woolens. When it came to summer suits, Dacron blew them out of the water.

Not only were Dacron Suits cooler,  the pants would keep their creases unless you deliberately removed it with a hot iron.Washed by hand or machine and drip dried, these suits were ready to wear!

Derided as tacky today, polyesters like Dacron were miracle space age wonder.

Nothing announced to the world that you were a man of discerning taste the way a garment of 100% Dacron did.

Synthetics were far from the cheap inexpensive items we associate with them now. In fact the only wrinkle was that the very first Dacron suits were a whopping $95, out of reach for the average Joe.

Wash and Wear to Go Go

This remarkable suit made with Dacron” polyester fiber can be machine washed machine dried and worn immediately. It was the worlds first Automatic Wash n Wear.This modern living innovation, DuPont explained, is made possible by new tailoring techniques, properly made fabrics, and modern home driers.

But in that fast paced, rat race world of mid-century America what business man on the go-go had time to wait for a suit to drip dry?

It wasn’t long before the world’s first Automatic Wash n’ Wear suit debuted.

The benefit of this new wonder was it wasn’t just wash n wear. This suit could be dried and “pressed” ( wrinkles out, crease still in) in your automatic dryer too! The automatic dryer which had only a few years earlier been a luxury was by the mid 1950s a necessity in the suburban home.

In the future, DuPont promised the consumer , you will be able to buy “Automatic Wash n Wear convenience in many other type of clothing.”

The Power of Polyester Unleashed

In another decade the possibilities of polyester would know no bounds. By the 1970s the postwar promises of polyester would be fully realized.

The Evolution of Polyester 1956-1971

Polyester was in full swing by the 1970s. Sears catalog 1971

Copyright (©) 2014 Sally Edelstein All Rights Reserved