So easy a four-year-old can do it
From Newsweek - Jan 2, 1950:
Pamela doesn't look like she's having fun.
The Phillips-Jones Corp. was sure last week it had found the answer to the declining market for men's dress and business shirts in its Van Heusen Century. The Century's collar, the company says, cannot wrinkle, curl, or wilt. Dec. 21, as Phillips-Jones salesmen gathered in a New York hotel for a sales convention, the company proceeded to show how easy it was to iron the shirt by having a young miss of 4, Pamela Gaughan, take the stage and wield the iron.
Pamela doesn't look like she's having fun.
Comments
Don't look so sad, little girl. Wait until you get to exposed to New Math - in comparison, you'll want to go back to ironing shirt collars for the rest of your life.
Posted by KDP on 07/30/21 at 09:56 AM
Dawww. But that's really no challenge. Now picking a random guy out of the audience and seeing if he could properly iron the shirt, that would be a real challenge. With the added risk of possibly burning down the hotel.
Posted by eddi on 07/30/21 at 10:05 PM
@eddi: I can certainly iron my own shirts! I don't, because who cares when I wear them with jeans, but I certainly can and on rare occasions have. Not a single one burnt, either.
Posted by Richard Bos on 07/31/21 at 09:59 AM
Richard
So can a lot of guys these days. But back in the glorious 50s, that was women's work. Men wouldn't touch an iron for fear of Divine retribution and the mockery of their colleagues.
So can a lot of guys these days. But back in the glorious 50s, that was women's work. Men wouldn't touch an iron for fear of Divine retribution and the mockery of their colleagues.
Posted by eddi on 07/31/21 at 10:32 PM
I'm a guy, and I own two electric irons!
One's for edge banding (a wood veneer that comes like a roll of tape and has a heat-activated glue backing -- you cut it to length and use an iron to attach it to the edge of plywood/MDF); the other's for transferring laser-printed designs to a PCB prior to etching.
Maybe thirty or forty years ago, I actually ironed some clothes, but nowadays everything worth wearing is either permanent press or isn't something a reasonable person ever irons.
One's for edge banding (a wood veneer that comes like a roll of tape and has a heat-activated glue backing -- you cut it to length and use an iron to attach it to the edge of plywood/MDF); the other's for transferring laser-printed designs to a PCB prior to etching.
Maybe thirty or forty years ago, I actually ironed some clothes, but nowadays everything worth wearing is either permanent press or isn't something a reasonable person ever irons.
Posted by Phideaux on 08/01/21 at 12:01 AM
@eddi Oh, I'll believe you it was back then. I wasn't alive at the time. (Though, mind you, I suspect even my father could've done so in that ante-diluvial period.) It's not true these days, though, any more. We know better - both to expect our women to iron our shirts, and to bother to do so ourselves.
Posted by Richard Bos on 08/01/21 at 05:14 PM
Commenting is not available in this channel entry.
Category: Publicity Stunts | Children | 1950s