“Miss Wisconsin” Arrives for National October Cheese Week Festival, 1951

She's the one on your left.

Source.

Posted By: Paul - Sun Mar 01, 2020 - Comments (1)
Category: Animals, Beauty, Ugliness and Other Aesthetic Issues, Food, 1950s

CheeSweet—Swiss Cheese Candy

Wisconsin lumberman Stuart Stebbings wanted to be able to eat candy. But being diabetic, he couldn’t. So, in the mid-1950s he invented “cheese candy,” in which much of the sugar was replaced by cheese. Specifically, Swiss Cheese. He marketed it as CheeSweet. His advertising described the flavor as “delightfully different.”

Apparently the American public didn’t take to it, because by 1960 Stebbing’s CheeSweet Company had declared bankruptcy.

The In Too Deep blog notes that CheeSweet did, however, achieve a minor form of literary fame, in that it was mentioned by John Steinbeck in his 1962 book “Travels with Charley: In Search of America.” Steinbeck wrote:

Twin Falls Times-News - Aug 31, 1958

Posted By: Alex - Tue Feb 25, 2020 - Comments (0)
Category: Candy, 1950s

Follies of the Madmen #467

This is asking an awful lot from a mere bathrobe, isn't it?



Source.

Posted By: Paul - Mon Feb 24, 2020 - Comments (1)
Category: Business, Advertising, Excess, Overkill, Hyperbole and Too Much Is Not Enough, Fashion, 1950s

Shoe Gongs

Anthony Faranda of Yonkers, NY worried that children didn't like wearing rubber-soled shoes because they made no noise when walking on a pavement. So, he invented a shoe gong. Or, as he called it, a "footwear actuated noise maker." He patented it in 1957.

It was a disc and clapper that could be worn over shoes. He explained: "The arrangement is such that upon normal walking steps or running strides the clapper is activated to make noise and thereby promote the interest of children in wearing shoes with soles that do not make an audible sound in engaging firm or rigid surfaces."

Maybe kids would have liked these, but not, I imagine, their parents.

He assigned the patent to the NY advertising agency McCann-Erickson. It's unclear what plans they might have had for these things.

Posted By: Alex - Sun Feb 16, 2020 - Comments (2)
Category: Inventions, Patents, Shoes, 1950s

Linda Lawson, Miss Cue

From her Wikipedia page:

On May 5, 1955, Lawson was dubbed "Miss Cue"[4][5] in reference to a series of nuclear tests conducted by the US military under "Operation Teapot," and publicized as "Operation Cue" in a short film distributed by the US Federal Civil Defense Administration. [6]

Posted By: Paul - Sun Feb 16, 2020 - Comments (3)
Category: Death, Government, Corporate Mascots, Icons and Spokesbeings, Atomic Power and Other Nuclear Matters, 1950s

Follies of the Madmen #466

This was part of a campaign that made far-fetched comparisons between the animal kingdom and a desire to eat Jello.

Source.

Posted By: Paul - Sat Feb 15, 2020 - Comments (0)
Category: Animals, Business, Advertising, Food, 1950s

Serve More Cottage Cheese

A 16-page recipe book published in 1954 by the National Dairy Products Corporation, Sealtest Division.

A better name for the cover recipe would be Vomiting Clam.





via reddit

Posted By: Alex - Thu Feb 13, 2020 - Comments (0)
Category: Food, Cookbooks, 1950s

Nuke-Powered Commercial Shipping

As we know, this scheme detailed in NEW SCIENTIST never came to completion. But are there, or have there been, other, non-military nuke-powered surface vessels?

Yes, a few.

Posted By: Paul - Thu Feb 13, 2020 - Comments (1)
Category: Oceans and Maritime Pursuits, Atomic Power and Other Nuclear Matters, 1950s

Helmet Heat

The heat might actually have helped to alleviate symptoms. So, in that sense, it wasn't a bad idea. But I doubt many people were willing to wear this for an extended period of time.

Dayton Daily News - June 16, 1957

Wausau Daily Herald - Apr 20, 1957

Posted By: Alex - Thu Feb 06, 2020 - Comments (2)
Category: Health, Cures for the common cold, 1950s

Mum Loves Me Now

Bile beans as a cure for parental neglect.

Posted By: Alex - Wed Feb 05, 2020 - Comments (5)
Category: Advertising, Parents, 1950s