The Tall Men's Association of America was formed by Benjaming Ostling in 1925. It wasn't just a social club for tall men. It was an activist group that lobbied businesses with the goal to "make life more comfortable for tall men" (as its motto stated).
For instance, members of the association would petition hotels to have longer beds for tall men, or they would ask restaurants to have higher tables.
The group remained fairly active until the early 1940s, but fell into inactivity during WWII.
Atlanta Journal - Aug 5, 1928
Oregon Daily Journal - Nov 20, 1949
Honolulu Star Advertiser - Nov 17, 1929
Be sure to operate properly.
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It seems odd to come across an ad from 1928 promoting the use of soap. That is, not any brand of soap specifically, but just soap in general.
I've pasted an explanation below from
The Dirt On Clean: An Unsanitized History (2014) by Katherine Ashenburg.
The American Magazine - Aug 1928
Judging from the deluge of etiquette and self-help books, magazine articles and advertisements that urged Americans to wash themselves with as much soap and water as possible, the 1920s should have been a fine time for soap makers. Instead, they anticipated a drop in sales. A buyer's market of goods was overwhelming and distracting the consumer. At the same time, Americans were getting less and less dirty. Paved streets and roads, the automobile and electricity all made for people who were cleaner than those who lived with dirt roads, horses, coal stoves and kerosene lamps. More efficient central heating made the wearing of heavy woollen clothes unnecessary. Thanks to more mechanized factories and labour-saving devices, workers and housewives did not get as dirty as before. What concerned soap makers most, however, was the Roaring Twenties' booming cosmetics industry. The most successful advertising campaigns for soap had promised that cleanliness would bring beauty. Unfortunately for them, lipstick, rouge and mascara produced the illusion of beauty more effectively than the most luxurious soap.
In 1927 the soap makers retaliated by founding the Cleanliness Institute, a trade organization devoted to inculcating in Americans a belief in the supreme value of hygiene. Eighty per cent of soap manufacturers supported the new organization, and the New York Times welcomed its initiative. Happy that "the slovenly folk, who have been going on the theory that they can take a bath or leave it, are to be brought to their senses," the Times saw the Institute as meeting a genuine social need. Using magazine advertisements, radio ads and "public service announcements," and a battery of classroom teaching aids, the Institute aimed at making Americans feel that there was no such thing as "clean enough."
In the early 1920s, the deer population was growing out of control on the Kaibab Plateau north of the Grand Canyon. The area had been designated a National Game Preserve in 1906, and since then the deer population had swelled from around 4000 to as many as 100,000 (by some estimates).
Farmer George McCormick came up with a solution. He proposed herding thousands of the deer down into the canyon, over the Colorado river, and then up onto the South Rim where there was plenty of room for them.
Critics pointed out that you can't herd deer, but this didn't deter McCormick. He put together a team of about 50 men on horseback (including the writer Zane Grey) and 100 local Native Americans on foot. Then they set out to herd the deer. Details of how they fared from
Arizona Highways magazine (July 2004):
The Indians carried cowbells and rang them to get the deer moving out of the woods. They also beat metal pans with sticks, while the men on horseback waved hats, shouted and fired guns.
"But as they drew near the deer, instead of retreating, the animals almost invariably dashed through the cordon of men," reported the Sun. "Not only did they refuse to run away forward, but in charging the line, the animals seemed not to care a particle how close they came to the men. In many instances the latter had to give ground.
"One immense buck charged four mounted men, of whom Mr. Grey was one, and the latter reached for his gun, expecting to be run down. The deer just missed the quartet...
The effort continued through that day and the next. But it never approached anything but total chaos, with deer stampeding in every direction.
For more info, there's a detailed article about the deer drive in the Summer 2004 issue of
Boatman's Quarterly Review (
available as free pdf). Some images from that article:
Couldn't you achieve the same thing by just sticking your finger in a wall socket while exercising?
Full patent here.
FINALLY, I can achieve the effect so often seen in cartoons and gag panels!
Full patent here.