Pet Fawn

Back in the 1940s, Beth Pitt liked to take her pet fawn named "Star Messenger" on walks through New York City. As reported by The New Yorker in its Dec 6, 1941 issue:


It was the part about letting the fawn roam off-leash in Central Park that eventually got her in trouble, landing her a $2 fine.

Posted By: Alex - Wed Apr 02, 2014 - Comments (8)
Category: Animals, 1940s

Kiss Me Necktie

[Click to re-size]

Did this ever work? And why did the tie turn the wearer into an African-American when activated, as shown at the bottom of the ad?

Posted By: Paul - Mon Mar 31, 2014 - Comments (2)
Category: Fashion, Signage, 1940s, Women

Gay’s Lion Farm

For almost 20 years, the only commercial lion breeding facility (and tourist attraction) "in the world."

The Wikipedia entry.

Article from 1926.

Posted By: Paul - Wed Mar 26, 2014 - Comments (5)
Category: Animals, Farming, Sightseeing, 1920s, 1930s, 1940s

Life in America:  1948

Posted By: Paul - Sat Mar 22, 2014 - Comments (7)
Category: Customs, 1940s, North America

Art of the Insane

In early 1946, the St. Anne Insane Asylum in Paris exhibited some of the art work of its inmates. Collecting the art of people identified as insane seems to have been a trend at the time. See, for instance, the book of "Poetry of the Insane," published in 1933, that I posted about back in Feb 2013.

The Associated Press caption on the top picture notes, "The writing is a miscellany of seemingly unconnected Gibberish, with no apparent relationship to the drawing."

Posted By: Alex - Fri Mar 21, 2014 - Comments (4)
Category: Art, 1940s, Mental Health and Insanity

Forest Fire Lamp

[Click to enlarge]

Favorite illumination of arsonists everywhere!

Original ad here. (Page 25.)

Posted By: Paul - Fri Mar 21, 2014 - Comments (10)
Category: Destruction, Appliances, 1940s

Good with first names

This photo was taken by Time-Life photographer David Scherman in 1943. According to the caption, it shows a local businessman in Kerry, Ireland who "claims to know everyone in Ireland by their first name."

If he knew everyone in Ireland by their first name, that means he must have met everyone in the country, which would have been an impressive feat. Or he was lying. Or he called everyone by the same name.

Posted By: Alex - Sun Mar 16, 2014 - Comments (9)
Category: 1940s

Three Decades of Slimming

Posted By: Paul - Fri Mar 14, 2014 - Comments (5)
Category: Exercise and Fitness, Food, Self-help Schemes, 1930s, 1940s, 1950s

Follies of the Madmen #217

Maybe I tend to overthink things. But I confess I am baffled by the situation depicted in this ad.

1) Assume the girl in blue is a child, not an adult. Let's call her 8-10 years old.

2) The thing in her lap could be a doll.

a) But if it is a doll, its eyes are directed at the cookie, and it's reaching for it. It is not drawn to resemble an artificial thing. It is drawn as real as the girl.

3) The thing in her lap could be another living child.

a) But the only living child bearing that proportion to a ten-year-old would be, oh, what, a six-month-old baby? And what six-month-old baby ever looked like that?

Alternate explanation.

The girl in blue is an adult woman, the creature in her lap is a midget, and the whole thing is a fetish setup.

Please provide other theories, if possible!

Original ad here.

Posted By: Paul - Wed Mar 05, 2014 - Comments (14)
Category: Business, Advertising, Comics, Candy, 1940s

Zovello, The Bonomo Magic Clown

Given fezzes to wear, and a supply of taffy to eat, the children in the audience were still at a loss for having to watch the sub-Krusty antics of Zovello the Magic Clown.

Posted By: Paul - Thu Feb 20, 2014 - Comments (6)
Category: Clowns, Television, Children, 1940s, 1950s