Like many parents in 1970, the gulf between Mad Men’s rebellious Sally Draper and her uptight and out of touch parents has grown as wide as the Grand Canyon, that great natural chasm  that Sally might visit on her summer teen tour.

At the same time, the real Mad Men of Madison Avenue were working overtime to close that generation gap by producing ads that appeared “relevant,” distancing themselves from the cop-out generation that produced war, prejudice and greed.

If the free-thinking generation of anti establishment kids didn’t dig uptight Madison Avenue, then Madison Avenue had to show them they could get down and “tell it like it is.”

No more coloring in the lines. By 1970 the grey flannel suit gave way to the powder blue leisure suit, as advertising itself was swinging to a different beat .

By 1970 Madison Avenue went on a teen tour of its own to attract the youth market.

By donning their colorful silk neckerchiefs and groovy bell bottoms the creative ad men assured their clients that their agency was tapping into the cultural zeitgeist, keeping it real by shifting their focus to the groovy, individualistic now generation of consumers.

Sportcasters Shoes sent out an SOS to the reader to help them through their “identity crisis” by offering a name for their new line of fabulous fall shoes. 1970 ad

At times it seemed the manufacturers were having their own identity crisis.

Trying desperately to bridge the generation gap, these middle-aged men sporting mutton chops and Fu-Manchu mustaches in order to appear hip, shamelessly sought out the youth market with sometimes laughable results as they attempting to make their establishment products hip to the very anti establishment, anti materialistic teenagers committed to doing their own thing.

Marketing in the Age of Aquarius provided some astronomical profits in return.

April 1970 issue of Seventeen, featuring out of this world fashion by Peter Max the high priest of consumerism and counter-culture

Where better to target teens than in Seventeen magazine a publication devoted to their very needs and desires. The inch thick wish book of teen fashion, style and beauty was the undisputed authority, sanctioning looks and desires for the sassy non-conformist 1970 teen.

Encouraging teens to “Be an Individualistic! Go where the experience awaits you !”the magazine was a kaleidoscope of psychedelic colors and catchphrases, filled with ads hawking the same products they had for decades only now catering to the readers individuality, rebelliousness and hedonism, while incorporating relevant trends like women’s lib, Vietnam and ecology.

Our own tour through the April 1970 issue of that teen bible features a first ever fashion layout by Peter Max described as “the pied piper of effervescent young ideas.”

What’s Your $ign

L) Peter Max Electric Clocks from General Electric “The absolutely wild, wonderful way to tell time.” (R) Peter Max for Right Guard Funbrella “You’ll be swingin in the rain with this original Peter Max Funbrella designed exclusively for Right Guard. Wild colors, groovy designs only $3.95 and proof of purchase.’ 1970 ad Seventeen

No one combined peace, love and commerce better than Peter Max. The former Madison Avenue wiz kid was a wizard of marketing, . His ubiquitous designs of heavenly influences could be found everywhere from clocks to clothes, all espousing harmony love and Max-imum good vibrations.

No doubt his horoscope predicted major profits.

 Fashion to the Max

Cosmic Tricks- Peter Max goes astronomical with his head in the clouds and heavenly angel wear etched on his mind. A 2 part knit with double-faced portrait ( it’s Peter- see the mustache?) in profile on skirt. Fashion from Seventeen Magazine 1970

Peter Max was a one man design explosion with his interplanetary, hearts and stars and whimsical flourishes, all marked with merry Max-isms. “His creativity burst into fashion ( for the first time)  in the pages of Seventeen,” the article gushes “and practically paints the whole issue in the warming colors of peace and love.”

A Galaxy of  Mod Max Fashion

“Love is in the stars, blinking pinks on a knit harmony happiness and balance.” Peter Max fashion Seventeen Magazine 1970

 “Multiplex minis by Max! Zap! Here’s Peter Max splashy phantasma graphics on little knit cut-ups.”

(L) Hop to in a skippy scrambled legs petaled pantyhose pace in a myriad of colors

 “There are no gloomies in Peter Max land-just twirl the cheeriest umbrella this side of cloud 9 and see the smiles Inner Peace is achieved by stretching deep into the environment we feel Max-imum vibrations beneath the surface as Peter puts his stamp on weightless body stocking. The cling-a-ling all in one zings with colorworks.

“Colors play a game in mixed Max media. All you need is love for a spectrum of sweatshirts.” Peter Max Fashion and accessories Seventeen Magazine 1970

All you need is Love

 Color Me Groovy

Lady Esquire Shoe Coloring offered a “Change the World Contest” Submit your grooviest design ideas and win a $3,000 Pierre Cardin wardrobe. Vintage ad 1970 Seventeen Magazine

Trying to attract a younger audience for their shoe polish ( now rebranded shoe coloring) Esquire was no longer just for your establishment Dad’s corporate wing tips or your Moms died to match satin pumps.

With Lady Esquire Instant Shoe Coloring – you could be creative and make your whole world a coloring book in groovy colors like Cop-Out Copper, Butter Up Yellow and Groovin Green.

“So you’re out to change the world,” the ad begins. “We can do it together. Turn the world Mad Magenta, color your shoes, go onto boots, belts, bags buttons.”

Do Your own Thing.

Vintage Rit Fabric Dye ad 1950s

Rejecting tradition, these teens would rather die than end up like their uptight cookie cutter parents.

Old reliable Rit fabric dye found a whole new generation of consumers.

No longer just for Mom’s organza curtains, or that new shirtwaist dresses, with a bottle of familiar Rit fabric dye you could create a total tie-dyed world.

1970 Rit Ad features simplicity patterns for some groovy threats as shown on model Cheryl Tiegs.

A fad was born.

For the ultimate do your own thing kind of chick there was Rit’s “Splash and Dash” a companion to tie dye. No matter what you do, the ad promised, “ it’s exciting, it’s unique …it’s you. A real original original.”

The ad featured some far-out fashions from Simplicity Patterns suggesting “You not only sew the dress…you print the fabric too! Splash dyeing with Rit is the fun fad of the year…..yet no 2 are alike.”

Unleashing your inner Jackson Pollack was never so easy.

“Take a small paint brush and dip it in Rit. Then let it drip on the fabric. You can flick your wrist sprinkle freely or move it in a patterned movement or paint with brush on long free form strokes or use a squeeze bottle to squirt the Rit.”

 A Charmed Life

Vintage Monet Ad – 1970 Seventeen Magazine

Hoping to charm a new generation of consumers. Monet jewelry went out to prove that even a non materialistic hippy chick could still dig that 1950’s charm bracelet.

A frequent advertising device was to simply slap on a leather headband on a pretty model and instant hippy.

This Woodstock wannabe is incongruously still sporting a charm bracelet, an oh so feminine piece of jewelry, dangling with the decorative pendants and trinkets that chronicle the small moments in a life. Unless Monet intended to create trinkets marking a first acid trip, Grateful Dead concert or a miniature gold protest sign, its success seems doubtful.

Free To Be Me

From Carefree to Free To Be You and Me. (L) The New Look of Confidence- Kotex ad 1960 (R) The Fussless Generation by Kotex vintage ad 1970

On the cusp of women lib, girls wanted liberation too and Madison Ave was happy to oblige offering 2 New Freedoms – “better ways to be free to enjoy being a woman.”

Kotex sanitary napkins beckoned the liberated teen to catch up and become part of the hassle free generation. This was the new, newer look of confidence.
Getting your period was a hassle, man. But now with Kotexs New Freedom there was no hassle . Out went the old-fashioned sanitary belt.
Beltless, pinless and fussless, Kotex offered these revolutionary self adhesive napkins, No compromising and no bulging, no embarrassing…just flush it and forget it. (though the environment might not be so forgetful)

Free Love

The Freedom Spray from Massengil! “New Freedom. It’s a better way to be free to enjoy being a woman.” Vintage ad 1970 Seventeen

Freedom was all around these girls; raising their consciousness, they were free to love and free to be you and me. Young women were shucking their inhibitions along with their bras. It may have been the dawning of the age of Aquarius but it was also the dawning of the age of FDS.”Being a girl was never nicer…than now…in the age of FDS. ”

Feminine hygiene spray was no longer just for married ladies; it was the now experience to show the world you’re with it!

Let it All Hang Out

Counselor scales in 12 op art designs in bold vibrant, Now colors! Vintage ad Seventeen Magazine 1970

The way out weighs in! Exercise your option to lose weight even if being slender wasn’t really optional…fatso!

Keepin’ It Real

This was the age of peace, love and polyester

Madison Avenue knew it was important to harmonize with the world and keep in tempo with whats real. Nothing said  back to the earth authenticity like a non biodegradable polyester/ peasant blouse made from petro chemicals. They may have been wearing polyester but they were down to earth in their hearts.

The Now Generation Makes clothes for the Now Generation

Groove through the looking glasses for 2 eye-catching knits of EZ care Quintess polyester. In get-him-and-keep—him-colors. Vintage ad 1970

Environment Clothes for the Environment Hassle Free Polyester

Vintage ad 1970 Seventeen Magazine

The environment was on everyone’s mind.

In April of 1970 millions took to the streets, auditorium to demonstrate for a healthy sustainable environment in. What better way to celebrate the first Earth day than protesting at a rally in crinkly polyurethane coat

Organically Beautiful

“ Cornsilk is the makeup that contains formerly living organic materials from the earth. We think Corn Silk goes so well with other organic things. Like Women.”

Even back to nature chicks needed to powder their meaningful teenage noses. Corn silk brand makeup came to their rescue. When corn wasn’t being used for high fructose corn syrup it was pressed into service as face powder.

Tellin It Like It Is

A really cool medium to communicate major truths beautiful thoughts and the stuff of dreams.

Write On!

Hallmark got hip with their stationary making it easier to get down and tell it like it is!  “The great new writing paper that’s half the message. Extrasensory colors in madly relevant designs.

Flower Power

“Send a sample to the different drummer with a gift card signed: From the girl who plays along.” Vintage ad Bravura Cologne 1970 Seventeen

With war protests spreading across campuses, Bravura Cologne made this offer “If your guy has a mind of his own then he’s a man who hears a different drummer and deserves a mini bottle of Bravura, the different cologne. ”

This ad appeared one month before the tragic protests at Kent State  when Ohio National Guard fired into a crowd killing 4 and wounding 9  students. Sadly, there was not a “different drummer” among the soldiers that day.

Copyright (©) 2015 Sally Edelstein All Rights Reserved

Mutually Assured Consumption and Destruction – Collage by Sally Edelstein

I am pleased that my collage Mutually Assured Consumption and Destruction will be on exhibit at Guild Hall in East Hampton, New York from May 2 – June 6, 2015

Using collage as a means of examining social fictions, the piece is composed of images appropriated from vintage advertising, periodicals, newspapers, vintage school books, and old illustrations, dissociating them from their original use to better evaluate its original meaning.

The collage filled with appropriated mid-century American imagery offers a glimpse into American consumer culture that helped define the fairy tale American dream and the possibility of its attainment..

Mutually Assured Consumption and Destruction

The mid-century martini swilling magicians of Madison Avenue were working their magic in tandem with the Mad men of the Military Industrial Complex, working double time fusing a double set of desires for the nuclear family for more weapons of mass destruction and more ease of living.

The desire for the ever larger tail finned car and ballistic missile, frost-free refrigerator and 3 stage rocket were brought to you by the same corporation..

Nuclear weapons both to protect and threaten became the icons of the Cold War.

What enhanced the happy housewives Clorox clean home was not unrelated to what protected the homeland since many of the same consumer companies like GE, Westinghouse and Chrysler were also major defense contractors.

It was a time of mutually assured consumption and destruction.

Exhibition

Guild Hall 158 Main Street East Hampton, NY 11937

If you are in the East Hampton area I invite you to the opening reception on Saturday May 2 from 4-6pm.

Copyright (©) 2015 Sally Edelstein All Rights Reserved

The sexist suburban landscape. With names like Dandy Boy, The Lawn Boy and Lazy Boy, lawn mowing was clearly male turf. Vintage Illustrations (L) Saturday Evening Post Cover 1955 illustration: Dick Sargent (R) Vintage Ad 1955 Beer Belongs Home life in America Series “Showing Off The New Power Mower” illustration by Fred Siebel

The silent spring morning of my mid-century suburban childhood were broken by the sounds not of birds chirping but of a symphony of puttering gas lawn mowers synchronized all over the neighborhood.

The air would permeate of fresh-cut grass, gasoline and a heavy dose of testosterone

While ladies might putter in the garden, the lawn was strictly male turf.

But there was one fearless housewife in our neighborhood who broke the grass ceiling, venturing boldly and brazenly into that vast male prerogative known  as mowing the front lawn.

Better Homes and Garden

Most afternoons the Kaffee Klatch of new young mothers from our new development would congregate in one anothers fully loaded Kelvinator kitchen. These recently built ranch houses were  part of a bumper crop of housing that were sprouting up with record speed, and now stood in the  fields where only a year before Farmer Gutsky planted Long Island potatoes.

The newly minted suburbanites  would gather  exchanging hints on such vital information as which was the best diaper service, the most reliable milkman, which Jackson Perkins roses were the best to plant in the rocky Long Island soil and how to keep hubby off the links and onto their front lawns with their power mowers.

Do It Your-selfie

Who’s the Boss now? Vintage illustration from County Gentleman Magazine 1954

One neighbor who regularly was absent from the Kaffee Klatch was Martha Mc Guinness, the neighborhood’s reigning do- do-it-yourselfer Queen.

As much as my mom raced about like a whirling dervish, she was no match for Martha who more often than not missed out on the Kaffee Klatches for some do it yourself project like installing some new asbestos Kentile floor covering in the baby’s room.

Be Modern…go Lawn Boy! Not just for boys anymore. Vintage Lawn Boy ad 1955

All the girls marveled at Martha.

 A freckled face 22-year-old mother of three she didn’t let pregnancy or a household of toddlers get in her way. After all, there’s so much to do to get ready for that little bundle of joy.

The Lady and the Lawnmower

 Even with a “bun in the oven” Martha was a real force of nature.

 If she wasn’t busy chemically stripping and painting an heirloom crib in it-never-flakes-lead paint, she’s off gardening making sure to spray plenty of insecticides to get rid of those pesky old flies, grateful for the new insecticide bomb that contained both DDT and Pyrethrum!

Vintage ad Lawn Boy Mowers 1955

 She was also the only gal in the neighborhood who could be found every Saturday morning marching up and down the lawn with her Lawn Boy, leaving in its wake a lawn as smooth as velvet.

 While advertisements for power motors often showed scantily clad young women in short shorts and dresses to attract the attention of the male reader, Martha chose sensible poplin peddle pushers, foregoing the pumps for a pair of good ol’ Keds.

 Ladies and Lawns

(L) The Household Magazine 1940 cover illustration John Holmgren (R) Vintage ad Lucky Strike Cigarettes 1951

Of course like all homeowners, the gals were concerned about the appearance of a perfect lawn, the very symbol of the American Dream and suburban success.

Women’s magazines were chock full of  “Advise to the Ladies” articles on achieving the exemplary deep green  lawn. But they did not assume women did the work themselves.

No sir.

 Women who wanted model lawns got men to work on them.

Vintage illustration Jon Whitcomb

A smart cookie could cleverly  manipulate her husband to achieve a beautifully landscaped home, guiding them  for example, into buying proper lawn food or fertilizer.

One Power Mower ad promised: “Easier mowing makes husbands easier to get along with!”

Some ads acknowledged that in the modern marriage, wives were often part of the decision-making process for the purchase of power equipment even though men were actually the ones to use the mowers.

Suburban Family Fun! Eclipse Lawn Mowers ran fun-filled “try out parties” in suburban communities to test run one of their mowers, promising the party “was fun for the whole family.”

The Goodall Manufacturing Corp addressed the ladies directly: “Mowing is a mans job…but here’s a tip for wives whose husbands are about to buy a mower. Unless your lawn is the kind that obligingly stops growing when hubby ‘just cant find the time to  mow it’…you’d better slip your arm through his and join him when he goes lawn mower shopping. If you’re going to end up chauffeuring a power-driven grass cutter- make sure its one you can handle!”

Look Lady We Designed This Big Mower Just for You!

Dressed for success. Vintage ads (L) Hoover Floor Polisher 1958 (R) Moto Mower 1953

As the suburbs continued booming, clever ad men began to see the opportunity to include women in an expanding lawn care market. Advertisements for power mowers began appealing to women by making it sound as easy as housework.

Splendor  in the Grass

Vintage illustrations (L) “The Happy Family” Little Golden Books 1955 (R) Lawnmower ad 1958

In 1952 House and Gardens magazine published  “The Intelligent Woman’s Guide to Power Mowers.”

The article assured m’lady that : “You don’t have to be mechanically minded in order to operate a power lawn mower. It’s no more difficult than running your vacuum cleaner or learning to drive the family car.”

Other lawn mowers  promised that the mower “pushes easy as a baby buggy.”

Whether a waxer or a mower Mother loves its streamlined beauty! Vintage ads (L) Bruce Floor Products 1948 (R) Mowa -Matic Lawn Mower 1953

Lawn mowing could be downright fun.

“Everybody loves to use the Worchester Lawn Mower,” exclaimed onw ad.  “Kids and grown ups- male and female- they all get a thrill out of the Worchester power mower.”

The Eclipse Lawn Mower targeted the lady of the house in one ad : “Mrs. Home Owner will appreciate the easy handling, free rolling and distinctive styling of your new Eclipse as much as the man in the family goes for it  its exclusive mechanical features and trouble-free maintenance.”

1954 Vintage as Johnston Lawn Mower Company

“Lovely Conover Girl Joan Tuby”  coyly appealed to the ladies that choosing a lawn mower was “Like picking a Husband.” Wearing short shorts and a halter top,  the vivacious model also appealed to the gents.

Despite the best efforts of ad men, men dug their heels into their turf and  lawn mowing remained a male domain, then as now.

Copyright (©) 2015 Sally Edelstein All Rights Reserved

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Hunting Down a Misogynist

Clutching their dusty, out of print copy of “The Misogynist Field Guide to North American Feminists,” many took to twitter at the urging of a conservative radio host, using the hashtag #HowToSpotAFeminist in pursuit of this latest sport.

After conservative radio personality Doc Thompson sent out a message tweeting “Any tips on #HowToSpotAFeminist, twitter exploded with sexist tweets , the hashtag sparking an angry debate about feminism.

Predictably mocking feminists as whiny, unattractive and unable to attract a man, these hackneyed tropes seem straight out of an episode of Mad Men where jokes were cracked about meetings “being bitch sessions, strictly consciousness lowering” a clear jab at  the newly formed women’s lib.

“Lib Poster” Illustration from Newsweek Magazine 3/23/70 Women in Revolt

Now 45 years after the women’s liberation movement stormed onto the scene opening a floodgate of discourse about women’s rights, it’s déjà vu all over again.

Ironically because feminist ideas are so taken for granted, few women think of themselves as feminists. Just as the right has demonized liberalism, so the backlash has convinced the public that feminists are the true American scourge.

The modern aversion to the word feminism and the archaic  clichés of feminists as male bashing, make-up-less, angry and non domestic are the very same stereotypes perpetuated by the media during  the burgeoning women’s liberation movement of the 1970’s.

With more dissatisfaction among women regarding huge gender disparities in pay and advancement, along with sexual harassment at work,  women  began to revolt.

Women in Revolt

Newsweek Cover March 23, 1970 “Women in Revolt” Cover Photo by Richard Ley

In 1970 as the national women’s movement gathered steam, Newsweek magazine’s all male management decided to put feminism on their cover, featuring a lengthy article entitled  Women’s Lib: The War on “Sexism.”

A new specter is haunting America,” it announced ominously – the specter of militant feminism. Convinced they have little to lose but their domestic chains, growing number of women are challenging the basic assumptions of what they consider a male-dominated society.

Women’s liberation, members demand full rights for the once frail sex: A new American dream for the 70’s. Newsweek Magazine 3/23/70 Photo by Howard Harrison-Nancy Palmer

Right off the bat, the magazine offers an explanation why a woman was writing this feature, a job usually best left to a man.

In an age of social protest the old cause of U.S. feminism has flared into new and angry life in the women’s liberation movement. It is a phenomenon difficult to cover; most of the feminists wont even talk to male journalists who are hard put in turn to tell the story with the kind of insight a woman can bring to it. For this weeks coverage Newsweek sought out Helen Dudar, a topflight journalist who is also a woman.

1970 negative stereotypes of feminists as karate chopping, bra burning, male hating women in desperate need of shaving their legs still persist.

Forever solidifying the stereotype of the feminist as unattractive, combative and a women in need of Nair, the article offered the reader its’ own guide to spotting and identifying a feminist .

Plunging into the movement can mean a new lifestyle,” the article explains. “Some women give up make up; a lot of them fret over whether to give up depilation in favor of furry legs; A few of them are bouncy looking lot, having given up diets and foundation garments.

Femininity vs Feminism

The image of the  unattractive feminist stuck.

By mocking and dismissing the way feminist activists looked and behaved, they reinforced the same notions that sometimes sexual objectification and subordination were just fine.

Though eager to shed many of the holdover trappings of the 1960 femininity, the backlash against feminism was filled with cautionary tales about what happens to women who are too outspoken and too much freedom. (L) Germaine Greer, an attractive Australian journalist and theorist was a major feminist voice in the 20th century who was palpable to men (R) The liberated lady could still swing to a new beat in a bra and girdle in this 1970 Maidenform Ad

Unless you were a saucy feminist like Germaine Greer, the media noted, a libber that even men liked with her easy charm that distinguished her from her militant sisters, you could count of being pretty lonely.

You’ve Come a Long Way Baby

Vintage Virginia Slims Cigarettes Ad 1971 Women could celebrate their own slim cigarette

 “And virtually all of them in the movement light their own cigarettes and open their own doors,” the article continues.

“Chivalry” is a cheap price to pay for power, one lib leader commented. In any event the small masculine niceties now appear to liberationists as extensions of a stifling tradition that overprotects women and keeps her in her place.

Male Chauvinist Pigs

The male gaze

A favorite negative stereotype was the hostile, humorless, man-bashing, sexually uptight, karate-chopping libber who saw male chauvinism at every turn.

Newsweek explained:

Among the man things that incite movement women to fury are the liberties men take in addressing them on the street-whistles “Hey Honey” greetings, obscene entreaties.

Casual annoyances to the unenlightened, this masculine custom becomes, in the heightened atmosphere of women’s liberation, an enraging symbol of male supremacy reflecting mans expectation of female passivity and more important, his knowledge of her vulnerability.

Photo Newsweek Magazine March 23, 1970

“We will not be leered at smirked at, whistled at by men enjoying their private fantasies of rape and dismemberment, ” announced a writer in a Boston lib publication.” WATCH OUT. MAYBE YOU’LL FINALLY MEET A REAL CASTRATING FEMALE it boldly announced.

Her point was part of a plea for the study of karate a fashion that inspires men to helpless ho-ho-hos’s.

The lib view is that most girls discouraged from developing their muscles grow up soft and weak and without any defense reflexes to speak of. A little karate can go a long way in a woman’s life, according to Robin Morgan, a poet a wife a mother and the designer of the movements signet- a clenched fist within the circle of the biological symbol for female.

In the new feminist doctrine karate is not merely a physical or psychological weapon, It is also political if you agree that rape is a political act.”

Thus the karate-chopping libber became forever part of pop culture.

Hai Karate

In an odd coincidence, karate was already part of the pop culture landscape in a series of ads run by Hae Karate After Shave, but here it was the man performing karate to defend himself against his sex crazed girlfriend ( or even his own wife ).

Hai Karate After Shave ad 1969

Hai Karate ran a campaign offering a small self-defense instruction booklet sold with each bottle of after shave to help wearers fend off women. The notion being that the aftershave would turn women into wild maniacs who couldn’t wait to attack  you.

“New Hai Karate is so powerful it drives women right out of their minds, That’s why we have to put instructions on self-defense in every package.”

Newsweek Women in Revolt

Ironically, as Newsweek planned this issue on Women’s Lib, they were oblivious to their own staff of women in revolt.

As the rumblings of the embryonic women’s movement began to be heard in 1970 , some women in the workplace began quietly grumbling too.

With the help of attorney Eleanor Holmes Norton, 46 women employees sued Newsweek Magazine for sex discrimination, charging it was a segregated system of journalism that divided the work solely on the basis of gender .

The magazine’s well educated highly qualified women were no longer satisfied answering phones and checking facts for its male staff of writers and editors. When it came to writing they were forced to hand over their reporting to their male colleagues.

Newsweek’s News Hens Sue

Meeting secretly, the group of women  teamed up with a women’s rights lawyer challenging the sex segregation jobs, becoming the first group of media professionals to sue for employment discrimination based on gender under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act.

The night before the issue hit the newsstands the Newsweek women sent a memo announcing a press conference.

Media savvy, the women journalists called a press conference, filing the suit on March 16, 1970 the same day their magazine ran. Crowded into a conference room at the ACLU, “Newsweek’s News Hens” as the N.Y.Daily News called them, held up a copy of their magazine whose brightly yellow cover reflected their own story: Women in Revolt.

Copyright (©) 2015 Sally Edelstein All Rights Reserved

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My sweet Grandmother had a sweet tooth.

Whether Bartons, Barricini, or Lofts, chocolate was the common currency of celebration.

But Mothers Day meant only one thing- a Whitman’s Sampler.

Through the years, that gift of chocolate has become more closely associated with America’s Mothers Day than any other.

Remembering  Whitman’s

Every year at the precise moment the azaleas burst open in a blaze of color, my extended family gathered in our suburban backyard to celebrate Mothers Day. Along with a corsage, my grandmother Nana Sadie, always received a Whitman’s Sampler in honor of the holiday.

Between bites of rich chocolate nougat, Nana Sadie delighted in rhapsodizing about her life long love of chocolate in general and Whitman’s Sampler in particular. It was the same story year after year, relishing the telling as much as the chocolate.

In 1912 when Nana was 12 years old,  Whitman’s launched its famous Sampler.  Nana would explain how she would eye the pretty yellow box in the window display of Gussmans Pharmacy the fanciest Drug Store on Bedford Avenue in Williamsburg. The yellow cross stitched designed box had an aged yet timeless look, as though it had been around for decades.  Imagining the luscious treats that lay hidden in the box, had made her mouth water.

Two year would pass, Nana would continue, when one day in May of 1914 President Wilson declared the first Mothers Day as a day for American citizens to show the flag in honor of those mothers whose sons had died in war. “Sadly,” Nana would shake her head commenting, “in just a few years who knew how many thousands of mothers would lose their own sons to The Great War.”

A Woman Never Forgets The Man Who Remembers

Vintage Whitmans Chocolate Mothers Day Ad 1946

It wasn’t long before a marriage of merchandising and holiday heaven was born.

The following May 1915, Nana’s up-to-date father came home with a genuine Whitman’s Sampler box  tucked under his arm and proudly gave it to Sadie’s mother. Squinting at the unfamiliar box, my Great Grandmother’s search for the familiar seal of approval was futile. No union of Rabbis had sanctioned these chocolate nuggets as kosher, so my very observant Jewish Great Grandmother, rolled her eyes and politely offered the box and its  scrumptious contents to her welcoming children. Contrary to Whitman’s popular slogan, in future years my embarrassed  Great Grandfather would remember to forget Whitman’s for his wife.

Sitting on the front steps of their wrap around porch Nana and her 7 brothers and sisters eyed the candy box in wonder.

Such a selection! Piped chocolate whorls, flakes of coconut, round shapes filled with mysterious  somethings,  rectangles shapes hiding everything from nuts to pralines to assorted fillings.

A 15-year-old Sadie was in chocolate heaven. Her mother might  forget the candy but Nana would long remember.

Life is Like a A Box of Chocolates

Decades  later, the sharing of Mothers Day melt-in-your-mouth chocolates became a family ritual as my grandmother would offer sweets to her eager grandchildren gathered around her.

Part of the ritual was the opening of the box itself.

Getting to the goodies themselves was a treasure hunt, leaving us salivating with anticipation until the first perfect square was lifted from the brimming box. Nana would carefully remove the outer cellophane wrapper – the first cellophane ever used in candy packaging she would remind us.

Opening the lid revealed what is known as the “Pillow Puff” liner made out of embossed paper protecting  the chocolates below.

Treasure Hunt

On the bottom of the lid was the  “treasure map” of the contents of the box, that would direct you to your chocolate dream.  Donning her reading glasses, Nana would read aloud to us from the placement chart that would lead you through the maze of 14 varieties of perfect pleasure with names such as toffee chip, cashew cluster, almond nougat, pecan cluster, coconut, chocolate truffle, and cherry cordial.

Nana’s first choice was always the Molasses Chew, the most distinctive piece in the box and worthy of the guest of honor. Covered in smooth dark chocolate with fancy white zigzag stripes, it was filled with nougat.

 While cousins fought over chewy caramel squares and the chocolate covered nuts shining with confectioners glaze got scooped up by my brother, I zeroed in on the cherry cordial, its plump maraschino cherry swimming in sugary syrup, encased in milk chocolate.

An incurable pack rat, Nana Sadie loved Whitman’s as much for the iconic yellow box as for the chocolate goodies inside.

The candies long gone, the empty box would be saved for all kinds of flotsam and jetsam, objects evocative and sentimental,  mementos never mentioned in a will or bequest, that eventually found their way to her grandchildren.

Among the treasures were the bundles of saved Mothers Day Cards she had saved over decades and never had the heart to throw out. A most appropriate resting place.

Yes, there was Brooklyn’s own Bartons for Passover but Mothers Day meant Whitman’s.

A Sampling of Whitman’s Ads

In 1939 Whitman’s launched Samplers most famous advertising campaign “A Woman Never Forgets The Man Who Remembers” the campaign remained popular for 2 decades.

“There’s no hurt like forgetting and no joy like being remembered”. Vintage Mothers Day Whitman’s Candy advertisement 1940

Between 1942 and 1945 Whitman’s sent 6 million pounds of chocolates to overseas servicemen in Land, Sea and Air tins. Women on Whitman’s production lines slipped  notes into boxes to comfort fighting men. Many of these letters resulted in long-term friendships and even some post-war marriages, resulting in future Mother day celebrations.

“Her Day, Her Family, Her Chocolates” Vintage Whitman’s Advertisement  for Mothers Day 1946

“Remember Mothers Day With Whitman’s” Vintage Whitman’s advertisement 1951

Vintage Whitman’s Ad 1947

Copyright (©) 2015 Sally Edelstein All Rights Reserved

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Bye Bye Birdie – Mad Men’s Betty Draper

Like another Sally Beth, I too had to eventually bid my own Betty goodbye.

Though thankfully my own mother would live decades longer than Mad Men’s poor Betty Francis, as a teenager I witnessed the beginning of the slow demise of the happy homemaker.

Under the glare of the Women’s Movement, I watched as the job my own mother Betty and millions of her generation had performed devotedly suddenly become devalued.

During this period these women had seen all their own rules about love sex marriage, femininity and child rearing, overturned. They could hardly act as wise guides to their daughters as the gap was becoming too wide.

Scrutinized and trivialized the happy homemaker was characterized as trapped in a menial service job for which she didn’t get paid. Receding in relevance, she was replaced by the new liberated career girl.

Paradoxically in trying to liberate women and bring them the respect and opportunities they deserved, 1970s feminists devalued women’s traditional roles.

1970 sounded the death knell of the idealization of the Happy Homemaker.

The job a generation had diligently trained for became obsolete. Marriage let alone motherhood was not a high priority for the woman’s libber.

Happy Homemakers

Though Betty Francis, the former model turned mom was no model Mother, she was the epitome of the ideal mid-century housewife.

Beguilingly feminine in her cascading, stay-fresh bouffant dress nipped to a tiny waist, she went about her household tasks smiling like she hadn’t a care in the world.

And why not?

It was to be a life of self polishing ease, of no rubbing, no scrubbing, no waxing, no buffing,with twice the shine in half the time; a wash and wear world of no stretching, no stooping, no bending, and absolutely…no complaining.

Mrs. America

The mid century housewife knew in her heart- because all the magazines confirmed it to be so – that love, marriage and children were The career for women

The real Mad Men of Madison Avenue would have us believe that no one was the beneficiary of the cold war culture of casual carefree living more than the housewife of the 1950’s and 60’s.

The most envied woman in the world was the Post WWII American Housewife..smart…yet easy going with never you mind freedom. That was the new Mrs. America.

All manner of unparalleled ease from cleaning products to appliances promised the happy homemaker a life transformed, a life so carefree you could do as you please. So undemanding, it was a world of child’s play, so easy it turned routine into fun.

In her smartly tailored shirtwaist dress and Playtex Living Cross Your heart Bra, what gal wouldn’t want to achieve this new ideal- a Lady Clairol Colorful Cold war world of carpools, cookouts, cream of mushroom soup casseroles, and catering to contented children and happy-go-lucky husbands.

Mrs. Consumer

The happy homemakers life would be a carousel of Kodacolor memories

Her life was magical this bewitchingly new American housewife.

“Mrs. Housewife” advertisers boasted “your judgment and testate helped make Americas standard of living the highest in the world.

Her home is her castle. Snug within it she basks in the warmth of a good mans love, glories in the laughter of healthy children glows with pride with every acquisition.

For the up to date mid-century American housewife and helpmate, pretty and perky dressed in a festive apron and a fresh coat of pretty in pink lipstick, it was a life of comfort and convenience, flameless, frost-free, touch-tone, push button ease.

Brains and Brawn

Setting a table fit for a king

With everything so automatic no wonder she looked to a man to be in control. Despite this life of ease, she seemed often to be a damsel in distress waiting to be rescued by Dudley Do-Right.

For a successful marriage it was important that the proper cold war corporate wife understand the tensions of her husband’s job as breadwinner. When it came to who was in the driver’s seat there was no question who was in charge.

New Frontier Fantasy

A beautiful floor with no waxy build up was a clear reflection of your skills as a homemaker. Vintage Glo-Coat advertisement

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

Though the atmosphere of the early 1960s was one of infinite challenges, women were still chained to their Electrolux vacuum cleaners chasing dirt, debating the well-worn topic of ring around the collar and exchanging the latest busy day Jell-O recipes while men joined the Peace Corps to save the world.

While others were out marching for Civil Rights in the 1960s fighting the break the color barriers hermetically sealed housewives were cheerfully living a colorfast world obsessed their wash n wear laundry was not white enough.

The Feminine Mistake

Now I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

As discrepancies began to appear, the New Frontier would pave the way for Feminism as happy housewives were discovering how unhappy they really were.

During the cold war, the culture of containment was not just a foreign policy but applied to women and their identities as much as it did to the Soviets. Women were to contain their aspirations, their appetites and their bodies

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.

The problem that had no name was quietly being spoken about, in beauty parlors, and suburban kitchen across the country
Like underground nuclear testing, anger was to be buried underground, beneath the surface, but the fallout was soon to appear.

Before the decade was out, women would become as agitated as their miracle two agitator washers.

The End of Camelot

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 love 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.

Lib it Up

Vintage greeting card 1970

By 1970 everyone was rapping about the new liberated woman and her newly raised consciousness.

Suddenly Happy Housewives with their smiling glowing faces shining with pink pancake makeup in harmonized shades keyed to match their appliances, were like those same retro appliances, replaced for a newer model.

Nuclear Family meltdown

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

The nuclear family detonated along with our notion of marriage and motherhood. As if hit by a strong dose of radiation the familiar 50s nuclear family in the media had mutated into monstrous families as June and Ward Cleaver were replaced by Lilli and Herman Munster.

Baby Bust

Parenting and partnering were not priorities for the newly liberated lady. An article written by Betty Rollins published in 1970 in Look magazine said it all: “Motherhood:Who needs it?”

Earth mothers were “in”. 1950’s suburban mothers were “out.”

Happy Homemaker R.I.P.

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 the 1970’s. Along with their bras, women’s libbers threw out the American housewife and June Cleaver got kicked to the curb.

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Copyright (©) 2015 Sally Edelstein All Rights Reserved

The debate about Mad Men’s ending may continue for years, but no one can debate the fact that Coca Cola has succeeded in getting the world to buy a Coke.

With the final image of Don Draper meditating on a hillside in an Esalen-like retreat, Mad Men ended its amazing 7 year run with the playing of the 1971 “Hillside” Coca Cola commercial.

As the sun rises behind them, the harmonizing group of smiling, multicultural teenagers dripping with saccharine sincerity and inner peace, “hope to teach the world to sing in perfect harmony” by drinking a bottle of Coke.

The imaginary home filled with good vibrations that these peace-niks sang about, the apple tree-shaded one they wished to “buy the world and furnish with love,” would also (if Coke had their way) be furnished with an avocado green fridge filled with icy bottles of Coca Cola.

It’s the Real Thing

Unabashedly and unironically appropriating the hippie culture ethos, this chorus of pure capitalism selling “The Real Thing” represents the ultimate merchandising of the 1960’s.

Buy The World

Changes (L) Vintage Coke ad 1962

Gone were the wholesome all American teens  we came to expect from Coke fun-filled ads.

Now dressed in culturally appropriate color-blocked dashikis, peasant blouses, and silky kimonos, each wholesome multicultural teen holds the iconic green glass bottle of this magic brown elixir ( each branded in its native tongue) that they hope will help bring peace and harmony to the troubled world…. it is after all “What the world wants today!”

The wildly successful commercial (the ad campaign code name was aptly named “Buy The World”) was in perfect harmony with Coke’s marketing strategy and the way Coca Cola had been extending itself globally for decades.

What the World Wants Today

Vintage ad Coca Cola Admirality Isles, Bikini 1945

Whether hawking peace, love and human connection or freedom, democracy and camaraderie, that corporate colossus has accomplished the coca-colonization of the world which began long before the “Hillside” ad ran in the summer of 1971.

Coke had long advertised itself as offering a bit of commonality across the globe.

Nearly thirty years earlier during WWII Coke presented itself as an international sign of friendliness.

“Coke has become the high sign between kindly minded strangers the symbol of a friendly way of being,” they explained in one 1944 ad. “Have a Coke’ says he to a stranger and in one simple gesture he has made a friend. In 3 words he has said “You and I understand each other. ”

WWII Advertising: A Global Blitzkrieg

Vintage Coke ad 1942

With the precision used to plan a bombing mission in the South Pacific, Coca Cola calculated their advertising campaign during the War to make sure Coke was seen as vital to wartime morale and essential to Americans and their fighting men.

While the Coca Cola Company was busy boosting the morale of G.I. Joe, they were simultaneously laying the groundwork for becoming an international symbol of refreshment and solidarity.

The Global High Sign… I’d like to Buy the World a Coke

“How Americans Make Friends in Ireland” Vintage Coke ad 1944

Coke was our secret weapon for world peace

Rather than show war-weary soldiers enjoying their product, Coca Cola focused on Cokes ability to bring people and nations together. The ads carried the catchphrases “The global high sign” and introduced American readers to a few foreign phrases.

Set in exotic locals such as Russia, Newfoundland, and New Zealand the ads portrayed grinning GIs mixing it up and laughing over Cokes with British, Polish, Soviet and other Allies always with a caption along the lines “Have a Coke- a way of saying we’re with you.”

The ad men continually touted the drinks status as an American icon. “Yes around the globe, Coca Cola stands for the pause that refreshes- it has become a symbol of our way of living.”

But it wasn’t just G.I.’s for whom Coke was a symbol of the American way. It was a symbol for the native population as well.

The presence of Coke did more than lift the morale of the troops .

It gave the local people in the different countries their first taste of Coca Cola and paved the way for unprecedented worldwide growth after the war.

Have a Coke – Sealing Friendship in New Zealand

Vintage WWII ad Coke in New Zealand 1944

Kia Ora, says the New Zealander when he wants to give you his best wishes. It’s a down under way of telling you that you’re a pal and that your welfare is a matter of mutual interest. The American soldier says it another way.

Have a Coke, says he, and in three words he has made a friend.

It’s a custom that has followed the flag from the tropics to the polar regions. It’s a phrase that says Welcome, neighbor from Auckland to Albuquerque from New Zealand to New Mexico.

Round the globe, Coca Cola stands for the pause that refreshes – has become the high sign between friendly minded people.

Have a Coca Cola…How to Break the Ice in Iceland

Vintage ad Coke in Iceland 1943

Come be blessed and be happy says the hospitable Icelander when he meets a stranger. That’s a warm way of putting it but no more friendly than the way American soldiers say it. ‘Have a Coke,’ says the dough-boy and it works in Reykjavik as it does in Rochester. The pause that refreshes is the friendly way to say Hi Pal in any language.

Coca Cola has become the gracious ice breaker between kindly minded strangers.

Have a Coke –  How Friends Are Made in the RAF

Vintage Coke ad 1944

Have a Coke is a friendly greeting among RAF flyers back at early dawn from a night mission. It’s a salute among comrades in arms that seals the bonds of friendship in Plymouth England or Plymouth Mass. It’s an offer as welcome on an English airfield as it is in your own living room.

Our fighting men meet up with Coca Cola many places overseas where its bottled on the spot. Coca Cola has been a globe-trotter “since way back when.”

Making Pals in Panama

Vintage Coca Cola ad 1944 “Making Pals in Panama”

Being Friendly in Newfoundland

Vintage ad Coca Cola in Newfoundland 1944

There is an American way to make new friends in Newfoundland. It’s the cheery invitation Have a Coke an old U.S. custom that is reaching ‘round the world. It says let’s be friends, reminds Yanks of home.

In many lands around the globe, Coke has become the symbol of our friendly home ways.

Have a Coke – You’re My Kind

Vintage WWII ad 1944 Coca Cola

There’s a friendly phrase that speaks the allied language. It’s “Have a Coke.”

Friendliness enters the picture when ice-cold Coke appears. Over tinkling glasses of ice-cold Coke minds meet and hearts are closer together.

Coke has become an everyday high sign of friendliness among people of good will.

Liberators

G.I.’s liberating towns throughout Europe or working side by side with locals in the Philippines felt pride in sharing their favorite drink with their new-found friends.

Vintage Coke ad 1945

One of the interesting things that impresses people overseas about the American fighting man is his friendliness among his fellows. Everywhere they see Americans bringing with them their customs and home-ways-their own brand of open heartedness.

Have a Coke, foreigners hear the G.I.’s say when he wants to be friendly, and they begin to understand what America means. For in this simple gesture is some of the essence of Main Street and the family fireside.

Yes, the custom of the pause that refreshes with ice-cold Coca Cola helps show the world the friendliness of American Ways.

 

 Yank Friendliness Comes back to Leyte Phillipines

Vintage WWII ad Coke 1945 Philippines

Naturally Filipinos thrilled when their Yankee comrades-in-arms came back to the Philippines. Freedom came back with them. Fair play took the place of fear. But also they brought back the old sense of friendliness that America stands for. You find it quickly expressed in the simple phrase Have a Coke.

There’s no easier or warmer way to say Relax and be yourself. Everywhere the pause that refreshes with ice-cold Coca Cola has become a symbol of good will – an everyday example of how Yankee friendliness follows the flag around the globe

Winning Minds in Nazi Germany

Despite all American coca cola’s claim that it was the high sign between like-minded strangers the very symbol of patriotism, democracy and freedom, no mention was ever made to the fact that Coca Cola was doing business in Nazi Germany.

In the midst of their global advertising blitzkrieg, patriotic Coca Cola appeared at Hitler youth rallies as Coca Cola trucks accompanied the marchers hoping to capture the next generation.

“Mach Doch mal Pauss (Come on Take A Break) …Have a Coke – or winning minds in Nazi Germany” was one ad that we would never see.

Coca-Colonization Post War

Vintage ad Coca Cola in Alaska

WWII did more than perpetuate an image – it also led to Coke’s dominance abroad.

They created an enormous consumer base throughout the world that would not have been possible without General Eisenhower and the Coca Cola Company’s cooperation working towards bettering the morale of the American fighting man.

After gulping down more than a billion servings of Coke, 11 million veterans returned with a lifelong attachment to the soft drink. But it wasn’t only Americans who got hooked on the sweet elixir.

Many of the bottling plants established overseas during the war continued to operate as non military factories after the war. When the war ended, the coca cola company had 63 overseas bottling plants in operation in venues as far-flung as Egypt, Iceland, Iran, West Africa and New Guinea.

The idyllic post war world of Coca Cola fit in perfectly with the “Hilltop” commercial images “Grow apple trees and honeybees and snow white turtle doves.” Vintage Coca Cola ad 1946

During the war drinking Coke became  synonymous with fighting the enemies of freedom and democracy .

Now post war Americans would help underdeveloped countries improve their lives and know the real joy of good living by exporting American consumer goods helping them to better resist Communist pressures.

With our sparkling pepsodent smiles, Americans would meet our obligation to the free world-spreading democracy and offering a helping hand to people all around the globe-a coke in every Frigidaire and a Chevy in every garage. The path to the future would be bright and profitable

Globe Trotting With Coke

“In exotic Acapulco- Here too you find the pause that refreshes with ice cold coca cola. Because good taste itself is universal enjoyment of Coca Cola has become a welcomed social custom in over 100 countries. The best loved drink in all the world. Artist Robert Fawcett captures a moment of companionship in Mexico’s famous Acapulco. Vintage Coke ad 1957

Thanks to the dawning of the jet age, mid-century Americans were traveling out into the cold war world as never before and they knew coke would help them find new friends in this new global community linked by Coca Cola-“A recognized symbol recognition of friendliness and good taste.”

In 1956 Coke took their advertising business to McCann Erikson who produced these series of ads ads directed at this new international set, many illustrated by Jack Potter.

India …Coca Cola -Favorite of the World

“From a Maharajas Palace in far off India comes another interpretation from the brush of young Jack Potter.” Vintage Coke ad 1957. I was fortunate to have taken a class “Drawing and Thinking” with Jack Potter, the innovative illustrator who taught drawing and conceptual thinking at School of Visual Arts, after a highly successful career as an illustrator.

In ever widening circles. the uniquely pleasant taste of Coca Cola wins fresh appreciation and new friends.

Through more than 100 countries more than 58 million times a day someone enjoys the special flavor the welcome little lift of Coke. This remarkable endorsement has won for Coca Cola a gracious badge of good taste that’s all its own…recognized everywhere.

The best loved drink in the world.

Spring Time Paris…Goes Better With a Coke

“Enjoyment of the world famous pause is captured for you in Paris by artist Jack Potter.” Vintage Coke ad 1957

 Come to Paris in the spring…and here too Coca Cola waits for you….so good in taste in such good taste that the invitation Have a Coke has become a gracious custom in more than 100 countries of the world today.

Hawaii Holidays

Hawaii was still a territory when this 1957 ad ran. Illustrated by Jack Potter

 When you come to Hawaii…here too you’ll find the enjoyment of Coca cola is a welcomed social custom just as it is in over 100 different countries.

Venice…Ciao Coca Cola

Vintage Coke ad 1957 “Venice” Illustration by Jack Potter

In Venice too…sign of good taste…the art of living cheerfully speaks many lamnguages. And almost every language today knows the invitation Have a Coke.

Romance in Rio

 In Romantic Rio, too…sign of good taste…the taste of Coca Cola is so distinctive and so popular that the serving and enjoyment of Coke is a cheerful symbol of good taste in living everywhere.

Through more than 100 countries…More than 58 million times each day …the invitation Have a Coke has a welcoming meaning and acceptance all its own.

Canada and Coke

A famous Canadian resort inspires another interpretation from the talented brush of jack Potter

At Lake Louise, too…Sign of Good Taste…the instinct for pleasant living goes wherever pleasant people go…and take the custom of enjoying Coca Cola with it. So good in taste in such good taste …in more than 100 countries today, the invitation Have a Coke is the recognized signal for one of life’s unique pleasures

Better in Belgium

1958 vintage Coke ad Brussels World Fair

 Visit the Brussell’s Worlds Fair where you’ll find a ready welcome at coca cola pavilion

Why have people in more than 100 countries made coke cola the best loved sparkling drink on earth?

If Coca Colas mission was to offer Coke to “whoever you are, whatever you do, wherever you may be, when you think of refreshment think of an ice cold Coca Cola”, then “mission accomplished.”

Postscript: How Blue Jeans Could Spread World Peace

Vintage Wrangler Jean ad 1970. Contest to go to Europe as a Young Ambassador to spread peace and harmony

Note:Coke wasn’t the only company to use an utilize a multicultural  approach in 1971. A year earlier all American Wrangler Jeans offered a trip to teens to be “Wrangler Young Ambassadors”. Any boy or girl between the ages of 16 and 22 could enter their contest to win a prize “traveling throughout Europe meeting people exchanging views,” in the hopes of spreading peace and harmony.

Copyright (©) 2015 Sally Edelstein All Rights Reserved

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The Mad Men Of Madison Avenue Get Real

Glancing through a Boy Scout handbook, you notice how filled it is with skills you must learn and rules you must follow. before 2013, the rules for joining the Boy Scouts hadn’t changed much from 1960’s when this vintage handbook was written.

How to Join the Boy Scouts

So you want to get in on all the fun and excitement that scouts have?

Well there are 3 things you have to do to become a Boy Scout and enjoy the fellowship of a patrol and a troop.

First, you have to be at least 11 years old.

Second, you have to find a Boy Scout troop near your home.

Third, you have to know the rules of scouting…gays need not apply.

The third requirement has finally changed.

In 2013, the Boy Scouts of America finally dropped a longtime ban on gay members, ending its decades long policy, but the antiquated policy that no openly gay adult can serve in a leadership role still remains on the books. For now.

Vintage Boy Scout Handbook: A Handbook of Training For Citizenship Through Scouting Co. 1962 Cover Illustration Norman Rockwell (L) Ad for handbook

Meeting the Boy Scout Test

“Simply coming in to a troop meeting and getting in with your future pals won’t  make you a  Boy Scout overnight,” explains the Scouting  Handbook from 1962. There are skills you must learn and rules you must follow to be a full-fledged scout.

Apparently gadar is one of the important skills a scout must develop as the rules were clearly spelled out when it comes to sexual orientation…scouting was not for ALL boys

Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell

The Boy Scouts had long-held onto this outmoded policy reflecting a time when gays were silent and invisible.

Naturally no gang of boys can turn into good scouts unless it has a good leader

This longtime policy of banning gay adult leaders continues to be  dated  as these vintage illustrations are.

Red White and Blue Scouts

Vintage illustration Coca Cola ad Norman Rockwell

Who better to depict the red white and blue American Boy Scout than Norman Rockwell whose Brown & Bigelow Boy Scout calendar has always been a hands down best seller.

Vintage Boys Life Magazine 1960 – 50th Anniversary of Boy Scouts Illustration Norman Rockwell

“That fellow in the upper left in Norman Rockwell’s painting  celebrating the 50 years of Boy Scouts, doesn’t show 50 years of wear and neither does the scroll he is passing on to his modern counterparts,” the description reads on this February 1960 illustration from  Boys Life Magazine.

” Matter of fact,” they say proudly,  “that code spelled out on the scroll has stood up to 50 grand years of scouting.”

Fifty years later the code is indeed beginning to show some wear and tear.

Our Democracy

The Boy Scouts  notorious history of excluding gay youth from their organization, contrasts starkly with their flag waving  emphasis on equality and citizenship.

“The scout oath and the scout laws are meant to be your guide to citizenship”, the  1962 Boy Scout Handbook advises us, defining “what it means to be a good American, becoming the kind of citizen our country needs and deserves.”

An important component of the Boy Scout Code states- “I will recognize the dignity and worth of my fellow men and will use fair play and good will in dealing with them.”

“To you and me, America is the finest country in the world. But it is not just the land we live in, it is also the kind of life for which America stands- democracy.”

The Scouts stand firmly for democracy.

“It is your duty as a scout and as an American to help keep that democracy alive. To do this you must know the true meaning of America, you must believe in her forms of government, you must be willing to do your part to keep America great.”

“The Americans creed sums up in the words of great Americans the things for which America stands. It points out your rights and privileges’ and your duties as an American citizen.”

“I believe in the United States of America……as a government by the people for the people…” Of, by, and for the people – not just some of them, but all of them. Not just the rich or the poor, not just people of one race or one creed, but all the people- the people to which the declaration of independence refers when it says: All men, are created equal.”

Un-American Activities

Boy Scouting Hierarchy. Vintage Scouting Handbook 1954

Some scouting units lost their sponsors and many corporations have cut off donations because the ban violates their non discrimination policies.

In 2014, Lockheed Martin halted Boy Scout donations over the organizations ban on gays serving as Scout leaders, choosing not to support non-profit organizations that do not  align with its commitment to diversity. It follows  other company’s like UPS, Merck & Co. and Intel in withdrawing support.

In recent years there has been more and more criticism for this controversial policy as the US has become more accepting of gay rights.

Vintage Illustrations Little Golden Book Cub Scouts 1959 by Bruce Brian; illustration Mel Crawford

A slew of negative headlines began appearing: A lesbian Mom was kicked out of her position as a den leader in Ohio. The Eagle Scout application of a California teen who came out was rejected. A few summers ago a 19-year-old Eagle Scout in Missouri was fired from his job at a scout summer camp after he announced he was gay.

Is this really the American Way?

Morally Straight

“It is important to America and to yourself that you become a citizen of fine character physically strong mentally awake and morally straight”, we are told in the introduction of the Handbook.

“The strength of America depends on YOU.”

“You are the guardian of what the early Americans have built. You are the American on whom the future of our wonderful country depends.”

At a time when President Obama became the first president to use the term “gay” in reference to sexual orientation in an inaugural speech the idea that scouting might reflect the actual diversity of thought like the multicultural and sexually diverse fabric of modern America is encouraging.

“The Scout Leader- He is the friend whom you can always turn to for advise. Why does he do all this? Because he believes in Scouting because he likes boys and wants to help them become real men.” Vintage Cub Scout Handbook 1954

In fact, Robert Gates the president of Boy Scouts of America recently called for an end to the groups ban on gay adult leaders, warning Scout executives that “we must deal with the world as it is, not as we wish it to be.”

If the Boy Scouts wish to remain relevant in the modern era, they must start by changing their discriminatory and bigoted attitudes towards gay adult volunteers.

As part of being morally straight the Scout is advised “to respect the rights of others, treating them justly, giving them a fair chance.” If being a Scout means doing what is right rather than what is easy, the decision to chance the discriminatory policy is an easy one.

Now that Scouting truly is for ALL Boys, lets give ALL those who wish to lead the scouts a fair chance.

Copyright (©) 2015 Sally Edelstein All Rights Reserved

The Smell of Democracy in the Air

Making their season debut, white shoes and Weber grills come out of hibernation as Memorial Day kicks off the beginning of summer.

What better way to remember those brave men and women who died while serving our country, than with firing up a grill and charing some meat to a fare thee well,  a great American tradition beloved by family’s for generations.

Every Memorial Day when I was growing up, 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 the seasons  first back yard barbecue to commemorate  Memorial Day.  Like some sacred Old Testament tradition of sacrificing an animal to please the Lord, every  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

This once enviably svelte housewife now found herself among the masses of women who realized they needed to whittle their waists.

For decades, Memorial Day has long been a solemn occasion.

Besides reflecting on those brave souls whose lives were lost in service to their country, the holiday has also signaled the beginning of swimsuit season and with it the sobering reflection of the state of ones body as winter weary thighs and middle-aged spreads come out of hibernation.

In 1965 Winnie Roberts had one such sobering experience, bravely confronting herself in the harshly lit confines of a department store dressing room.

One glance in the triple view mirror and poor Winnie did a double take. The new slim fashions were not for her. Crestfallen, she knew in her heart that “her size” just wasn’t “her size” any more. Suddenly for the formerly winsome Winnie, dressing up wasn’t as exciting as it used to be.

Hangers filled with this seasons must-have figure flattering swimsuits in stripes , ruffles and pleats beckoned forlornly.

As she struggled unsuccessfully to wiggle into a new Rose Marie Reid swimsuit in unforgiving Banlon, her reflection in the dressing room mirror confirmed what she already suspected.

It was time for Winnie to whittle her waist.

Vintage illustration by Dick Sargent for Post Grape Nuts Cereal Ad 1958

There came a time in every cold war housewife’s life when the safety of the containment policy offered by a good girdle simply wasn’t enough to keep those pesky curves in line.

That time had come for Winnie.

Now that she was nearly 38 and officially middle-aged, the pounds didn’t come off so easily. If she wanted to compete with the Pepsi Generation, she had to do more than get with the now taste of Tab !

Is This the Day You finally Do Something About Your Weight?

Vintage Weight Loss Ads (L) Sego 1964 (R) Metrecal 1963

Back home as she carefully dusted the Kimball upright piano, dousing the pecan wood with aerosol Pledge, Winnie’s eyes fell on the array of framed family photos that adorned the top of the piano.

Glancing at a photo from a trip to a ski weekend at Hunter Mountain with her husband Jack from several winters ago, she marveled at how slender she was in the glow of the fire. Her face darkened musing “Would he think so now?…..”

That settled it. It was  time to do something about her weight. She pledged to go on a diet.

Hunger Pangs

But true dieting takes will power. Those temptation hours between meals when hunger sets in, are the undoing of so many wishful weight watchers.

And all those calories to count could make a gal dizzy.

Like millions, Winnie had read Dr.Herman Taller’s hugely successful  1961 bestseller Calories Don’t Count.

But even if she didn’t have a head for figures ( as her hubby always pointed out), she figured the good doctor was dead wrong. Calories did count.

Lucky for her there was no shortage of new diet products to help m’ lady in her battle of the bulge.

Best of all, she could leave the counting to someone else.

By 1965 over 5 million had been helped with that mid-century miracle – Metrecal.

Metrecal came in a variety of delicious flavors including eggnog and tantalizing raspberry. They also offered wafers and soups as alternatives. Vintage Metrecal ads

It was while flipping through her latest issue of Ladies Home Journal that help came to Winnie. There nestled between tempting recipes for gay, festive cakes and hot day casseroles was a double page ad for Metrecal.

“Is this the day You do something about your weight?” the ad’s headline asked the reader.

“If you are overweight, if your clothes don’t fit right, if you don’t even feel as attractive as you should, isn’t it time you considered Metrecal? ” The copy seemed to speak directly to her.

Like most savvy gals, Winnie had heard about Metrecal. Since it was introduced in 1959, Metrecal had changed the dieting habits of the nation. The 225 calorie meal replacement drink taken 3 times a day melted the pounds in a jiff.

As the ad explained: ” Of all the ways people have tried to lose weight nothing approaches the record success of Metrecal dietary. Gave Americans a new solution to the dilemma of having to choose between embarrassment and danger of overweight on the one hand, and the hunger monotony and uncertainties of dieting on another.”

Winnie was ready to turn her  back on Lobster Newburgh for her figures sake and join the Metrecal for Lunch Bunch,  sipping her way back to her former slenderella self.

 Sip Yourself to Slenderness

Mead Johnson & Co. makers of Pablum, eventually morphed into the diet business with Metrecal. (L) vintage ad for Pablum 1958 (R) Ad for Metrecal 1961

By the early 1960’s several liquid diet meal replacements appeared to help sip your way to slenderness.

But the granddaddy of them all was Metrecal, a product of pharmaceutical company Mead Johnson & Co.

Along with a generation of busy mothers, housewives like Winnie Roberts had long counted on Mead Johnson & Co, makers of Pablum and Dextri Maltose, to feed her babies.

Purchased at the recommendation of their family doctor these ready mixes were quite useful in plumping up baby. offering “an adventure for baby’s first solid food.”

By the fall of 1960, these same mothers were buying a new Mead Johnson product, a powder called Metrecal, which promised just the opposite-to take those unwanted pounds off mama!

Now women could confidently begin their own adventure with the same peace of mind inspired in millions by the name Mead Johnson & Company.

Metrecal- A Marketing Miracle

For Mead Johnson & Company founded in 1900, Metrecal was just a new trick coaxed out of an old product.

In the great American marketing tradition, Metrecal was really an old product re-marketed to the newly diet conscious population.

Mead Johnson & Company was best known for inventing Pablum in 1931, a nutritional powder that could be mixed with water or milk and spoon fed to young babies. For decades the cereal had long been prescribed for millions of babies by thousands of doctors

But nearly 25 years later, concerned that the company was almost exclusively identified with baby products, they set up a research department to develop a diverse  line of products.

Savvy researchers at Mead Johnson stumbled across an invalid’s food called Sustagen. A mix of skim milk powder, soybean  flour, corn oil, minerals and vitamins, Sustagen- a precursor to today’s Boost- was designed for hospital patients unable to eat solid foods.

It worked so well at giving patients the feeling of having eaten a solid meal and diminishing between meal hunger pangs, that Mead Johnson decided to rename it  Metrecal and market it as a weight-reducing food. The only change was to recommend a limit of 900 calories of Metrecal a day.

Naturally as a drug company, Mead Johnson wanted to keep the good will of doctors who prescribed most of their other products, so they wisely started advertising Metrecal in the American Medical Association Journal, eventually branching out into general markets. Wisely ending  each advertisement with a plug to “see your physician” about weight problems,  gave Metrecal that all important AMA stamp of respectability that most other diet concoctions lacked.

Sales soared.

Your Doctor Knows Best

Like most homemakers, Winnie would never dream of starting any slimming regime without the advise of her trusted family doctor.

Once she could eliminate any glandular problem as the cause for her excess weight she was free to enjoy imbibing on the 900 calorie, full-bodied goodness of Metrecal with her doctors blessing.

Like most physicians, her doctor was very boosterish on the canned beverage as an aid to slimming down. Smiling paternally, he patted Winnie’s hand advising her to “take a can, and take it easy!”

Sternly he also instructed her to avoid undue exercise  as part of her slenderizing program as it was counterproductive.

Like many doctors, he felt it was of very little value since it was believed that exercise spurred ones appetite. So Winnie would leave Jack La Lanne and his jumping jacks and the good vibrations of a slimming belt at Vic Tannys to others.

As Metrecal confirmed “Your physician is the best source of counsel and guidance in problems of weight loss and control.”

 Metrecal or Martinis

Adverting began targeting men and weight loss too. (R) In a vintage Borden’s Skimmed milk ad from 1955, Elsie the Cow’s husband Elmo goes on a diet. “But dear you don’t have to starve while dieting,” Elsie suggests sweetly to her husband. To which Elmo replies in a blustery tone” “And what’s wrong with my shape?” (L) The Metrecal ad from 1961 is targetting the businessman.

Women weren’t the only ones watching their waistlines.

If Winnie’s husband jack wanted to cut a fine figure in his cabana set, he might have to do a bit of dieting himself and Metrecal was there to help him too.

Tapping into the manly world of 3 martini lunches, it wasn’t long before Mead Johnson started targeting men too, expanding their market as quickly as American waistlines grew.

Metrecal was originally introduced as a powder, mixed by hopeful dieters with water or skim milk. Soon it was available as canned Metrecal which was marketed for the bloated businessman. A 1965 print ad stated “Not one of the top 50 US Corporations has a fat president!”

Who needs a BBQ? For the beef lovin’ American man, Metrecal promised their tasty can of Metrecal had all the nutrition of a steak and potatoes dinner.

If  Jack started to develop a bit of a paunch, Mead Johnson suggested he keep those canned Metrecals refrigerated in a desk drawer for his noonday  meal joining the Metrecal for lunch bunch.

And if he took clients to lunch, he could rest assured, Metrecal was served up the finest establishments. While clients could imbibe on a Blue Hawaii at Trader Vics, the tiki themed restaurant also offered a 325 calorie lunch which was 1.5 ounces of rum mixed with nutmeg and Metrecal.

A Deluge of Diet Drinks

Vintage ads Borden’s Ready Diet

Metrecal was so successful it spawned nearly 40 imitators from other large companies: Sears Roebuck brought out  Bal-Cal, Quaker Oat’s  pitched Quota, Jewel Tea Company had Diet-Cal; even deep discounter Korvette’s hawked Kor-Val. to name just a few.

Winnie’s head was swimming from the choices.

If reliable Elsie the Cow who was apparently watching her waistline too,  claimed her product “Ready Diet” was “the happiest tasting drink,” maybe  she should try Borden’s rich and creamy elixir. Their scientific blend of 900 full-bodied calories was ready to drink from the gold carton with no measuring, mixing, dissolving or diluting.

Focusing on the women’s market, Pet Milk’s popular Sego stuffed more protein and 2 more ounces into the same 900 calories featured by Metrecal.

Vintage Diet Ads (L) Sego Liquid Diet Food (R) Sego Liquid Diet Food 1965

“Those temptation hours between meals when hunger sets in are the undoing of many a wishful weight watcher. Now new Sego diet food promised it had built-in help for nibblers. Its secret came from added protein: “10%  more than other 900 calorie diet foods.   Because protein is consumed at a slower rate,” they claimed, “ it stays with you longer, helping to delay hunger.”

Sego promised you would forget you were dieting with their 9 delicious flavors. “This is hardship?” they asked the reader. “These rich flavored drinks tasted right out of a soda fountain.”

Copyright (©) 2015 Sally Edelstein All Rights Reserved

The school term was ending and community college sophomore Ginger Hawkins had taken all the tests and quizzes a gal could stand.

Except one…maybe the most important test she would take that year.

Strictly For Girls

Vintage Quiz from “The Girl Friend and the Boy Friend” Magazine May 1953

The May issue of The Girl Friend ( and The Boy Friend ) a pulp magazine, had offered 2 gender specific tests for its readers in 1953. The quiz, strictly for girls, asked the question “What are Your Best Fitted for: Love or Career.”

Ginger had put off taking the test till now, nervous to find out the answer.

Sure the saucy sophomore thought, she could conjugate a verb with the best of them and was a wiz at typing but the specter of ending up an old maid loomed over her.

A spinster stenographer swimming in the secretarial pool or a happy homemaker with a loving hubby and children…what would be her fate? Here was her chance to find out the answer to a vital question.

Vintage Quiz from “The Girl Friend and the Boy Friend” Magazine May 1953

As her Domestics Arts teacher emphasized “Satisfaction and self-sufficiency might result from a career”, she advised her students but that paled when compared to the “full and complete happiness and satisfaction offered by marriage.”

In the distance, the warm homey smell of her Mom’s rhubarb pie wafted through the house as Ginger took her #2 yellow Dixon pencil in hand and nervously began tackling the quiz.

Career…Just Say No

Answers Vintage Quiz from “The Girl Friend and the Boy Friend” Magazine May 1953

With a great sigh of relief Ginger answered “No” to all the questions…. discovering she was best fitted for Love!

Strictly For Boys

Vintage Quiz from “The Girl Friend and the Boy Friend” Magazine May 1953

Now that Love was her future, there was just one more test to be taken.

Turning the page of the magazine was another quiz this one strictly for the male species, but was directed to their “girl readers” : “If you want to see how your boy friend rates have him answer these questions!”

Vintage Quiz from “The Girl Friend and the Boy Friend” Magazine May 1953. Note: the original owner of the magazine did check off several “yes” answers detracting from his desirability of a good lover

That’s just what she intended her steady Pete to do, answering the Quiz’s question: “Will You Make a Good Lover?”
“Do you wonder how you will rate in the love department?” the article asked provocatively.

Just Say No

A perfect score of “No” meant he would be the kind of boy the girls will go for. Especially the non career girls.

How well did you score?

No need to draw the line between a career or marriage.

Contrary to yesterday’s post with its kooky quiz asking girls to choose  “What Are You Best Fitted For Love or a Career?” one mid-century miss proved the test wrong. Yes indeedy, you could have both.

“Why not,” she asked, “have it all?”

So taken with her tale, Crosley Refrigerator shared the successful career girl’s story with its readers in a full-page ad.

Patsy De Angelo, a talented illustrator didn’t draw the line when it came to love…she was engaged to be married in June and couldn’t be happier.

Many dreamed of being an artist but for Patsy it was no dream; the perky 23-year-old was now sharing in the glamorous world of commercial art.

Vintage advertisement Crosley Refrigerator

Confident in her career, she enjoyed the admiration of her friends. But she had a real case of the jitters when it came to meeting her fiance Fred’s mother. Her soon to be mother in law Sheila Shaw was suspicious of a working girls and didn’t believe that a career girl could also be a good housewife.

Moping at her drawing table littered with T squares, triangles and paint brushes, Patsy chewed her pencil nervously unable to concentrate on the drawing of the frolicking Christmas kittens that lay in front of her.

Vintage ad for Art Instruction Inc. “If you like to draw or sketch you may have talent worth training. Enter this contest and win 2 years of free training for a fascinating career in art. Best part is, youngster or oldster, men or women all have equal opportunity to make it.”

Lighting a cigarette, she smiled gently glancing at the matches that lay in front of her. Thanks to an earlier matchbook cover’s challenge to draw a pretty girl, and the Art Instruction Home Study Course, she now had a fascinating and profitable art career as an illustrator.

Drawing on considerable talents, she knew she could create a lovely home for Fred and she, and she vowed to prove her future mother in law wrong.

In the end it was her kitchen that won over Sheila Shaw.

Vintage advertisement Crosley Refrigerator

With her trained artists eye Patsy had designed the modern kitchen herself, choosing just the right wallpaper and smart linoleum. She knew how to make her kitchen say quality… start with a beautiful ultra modern Nairn inlaid linoleum floor… it’s the first step towards out of the ordinary smartness in any kitchen!

But it was the smart choice of appliances that bowled her mother in law over. Her wonderful Westinghouse electric range that let your meal planning dreams run riot that produced feather light cakes, superb roasts and foods broiled to a turn, certainly impressed Mrs. Shaw.

Vintage advertisement Crosley Refrigerator

But she really lit up with envy when she saw the smart beauty of the  Crosley Shelvadore refrigerator. Designed to give you everything you could want in a modern refrigerator, the designing woman won over her mother in law. , Whether career gals or happy homemakers, everyone knew that housewives in every home everywhere unanimously agreed “such conveniences cannot be imagined – you must try it to believe it!”

Sort of like having marriage and a career.

note: decades later this married illustrator proved Patsy was right.

(©) 20015 Sally Edelstein All Rights Reserved

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Did Dan Quayle’s infamous 1992 attack on unwed mother Murphy Brown – ominously warning it would lead to the destruction of family values – inspire Jeb Bush’s 1995 publication Of Profiles in Character where he suggested public shaming as an effective way to “regulate irresponsible behavior of unwed mother.” NY Daily News Headline May 20, 1992

Some have been likening Jeb Bush’s recommendation for the public shaming of unwed mothers as a throwback to the 1950’s.

One needn’t go back that far.

How about 1992 when another member of the Bush entourage, Dan Quayle did the same thing.

What seems like a loopy moment when politics and popular culture collided, the Vice President of the United States chided fictional TV character Murphy Brown for having a child out-of-wedlock.

For those too young to remember,  Dan Quayle was Poppy Bushes good-looking but dim-witted Vice President, the Sarah Palin of his day, famous for putting his foot in his very conservative mouth.

As silly as this seems, this feud between the fictitious TV character and the Vice President caused quite a robust dialogue in the 1992 presidential election.

Actress Candice Bergen as Murphy Brown, and her newborn son Avery Brown May 1992

On May 18, 1992 Murphy Brown a fictitious 40-something, single, news anchor played by Candice Bergen on a popular sitcom of the same name, gave birth to a baby boy on her show to the delight of millions of viewers.

A day later, Dan Quayle while making a campaign speech, played the family values card arguing that Murphy Brown was sending the wrong message – that single parenthood should not be encouraged, citing the CBS show as an example of the decay of family values in America.

Dan Quayle’s infamous attack that caused public debate, was based on the idea that Murphy Brown could contribute to a crisis in family values by portraying single motherhood in anything other than negative terms. Cover of Time Magazine 9/21/92 Photo by Firooz Zahedi

The topic erupted into a major campaign issue as the country debated the morality of Murphy’s decision to be an unwed mother. Whenever President George H.W. Bush appeared before the media he was asked about Murphy Brown’s baby.

The debate raged throughout the summer pitting liberal ideas of an evolving concept  of family, against the more traditional Ozzie and Harriet model. By 1992, the 2 parent nuclear family that Quayle suggested as an antidote to urban violence and moral decay was already on its way out.

Despite it being over 20 years since the Murphy Brown – Dan Quayle kerfuffle  why are we are still talking about shaming of unwed mothers and what constitutes a real family?

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Selling the Nuclear Family

c

A Texas elementary teacher gives new meaning to Throwback Thursday.

Now that Karen Fitzgibbons has been fired, I’m sure the “I’m-not-a-racist” Texas 4th grade teacher who proposed segregation on a Facebook post, can find another teaching job where her opinions still fit in… perhaps at a school in 1953.

The 1960s were to have served as a wake up call to many Americans concerning race and police. Recent events seem to indicate that somehow how we fell back to sleep.

Sweet Home Alabama. Of course there were never any racial disparities in Lily white Maplewood or any of the fictitious towns in our schoolbooks

The all American white schoolbooks of my own 1960s civil rights era childhood served as nothing less than a primer on white privilege. If racial identity shapes the way people are treated by police it also shapes the way we are likely to view them.

It’s time to stop living in a black and white world.

(©) 20015 Sally Edelstein All Rights Reserved

Exposed of lying about her ethnicity,  Rachel Dolezan has gone through efforts to change her natural physical appearance – her skin darker, hair kinkier than the pale blond of her teenage years.

Oops! Looks like Rachel Dolezal, the White woman who has been passing as a Black woman for years got caught with her pants down.

Sparking furor and causing a media frenzy, the recently resigned  president of the Spokane NAACP chapter came under intense scrutiny after her biological parents said their Caucasian born daughter has falsely portrayed herself as Black.

Not discounting her strong advocacy for the Black community, the essential element of “passing” involves deception. That’s the problem.

The unfolding story has created strong responses opening up yet another dialogue and debate about race and the very definition of racial identity.

Despite Dolezals good intentions, some are offended by her adopting Black culture without carrying the burden, while others are amused by her attempts to “pass” as a Black Woman.

Don’t Ask Don’t Tell

The practice of “passing” is nothing new.

But “passing” used to be one way only.

Visitors at the Whitney Museum’s 1993 Biennial Exhibition received printed metal admission buttons reading “I Can’t Imagine Ever Wanting To Be White” designed by artist Daniel J Martinez

What seems to fascinate is the idea that a White woman would choose to pass as Black, freely abandoning the privileges and entitlement that come with being White.

The idea of passing — identifying with and presenting oneself as one race while denying ancestry of another was not uncommon during the pre Civil Rights era.

For generations those from multiracial backgrounds with light skin often “passed” as White to avoid racism.

Like others who have historically “passed” Rachel Dolezal’s identity is strategically constructed and harkens back to the behavior of those who “passed “ during the restrictive Jim Crow days.

Your Complexion is to Blame

For generations black women would use bleaching cream to appear more attractive conforming to a white ideal of beauty, something a young, blond fair,Rachel Dolezal wouldn’t need.. (L) Vintage ad for Nadinola Bleaching Cream (R) A young Rachel Dolezal

For decades African-Americans changed their physical appearances by skin lightening creams and hair straightening to appear more White and/or to conform to a White culture’s idea of beauty and attractiveness.

With a little help from skin bleaching creams those with sufficiently light skin tones- but who were legally categorized as racially Black by their invisible “one drop of Black Blood”- could pass for White, choosing to live as a White man rather than deal with the discrimination of being Black in America.

Vintage ad Nadinola Bleaching Cream

For those with darker complexions who couldn’t “pass,” they could adopt White standards of beauty, lightening their dull dark complexion which  clearly was the source of their unhappiness.

Vintage Ad for Nadinola Bleaching Cream

“Don’t let a dull dark complexion deprive you of your popularity. Perhaps your complexion is to blame.”

Vintage ad ARTRA Skin Tone Cream

Many Blacks argue that imitating European Standards of beauty and grooming was necessary for Blacks to be accepted by White culture especially White employers.

Interestingly enough, the early users of skin creams were European immigrants. Since the appearance of whiteness was the key to accessing exclusive cultural and economic privileges whiteness promises, skin whitening creams helped dark-skinned Eastern and Southern European immigrant women to blend into and assimilate into a WASP ideal of whiteness

Strate Up

Over the years African-Americans have thrown away the European standards of beauty when during the late 1960s the Afro debuted and later during the 1980s and 1990s West African hairstyles began to resurface, women and men chose dreadlocks, corkscews, and fades. Pictures of Rachel Dolezal have appeared of her featuring large kinky Afros or braids and locs pinned into intricate updos. L) Vintage ad Hair Strate Permanent hair relaxer 1960 (R) Rachel Dolezal refers to her dark curls as “natural” though she was born with blonde straight hair

For generations hairstyles have reflected the history of American race relations and the way Blacks wore their hair reflected the dominant white culture, a culture that declared. “If I’ve Only One Life to Live, Let, Me Live it as a Blonde!”

(©) 20015 Sally Edelstein All Rights Reserved

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American Showmen P.T. Barnum and Donald Trump

The circus is officially in town!

After the never-ending clown car of  Republican Presidential candidates, the great Carnival Barker has tossed his hat into the ring.

At his own Big Apple Circus, Donald Trump announced he’s running for President to a cheering crowd, proving another great showman’s  famous line:  “There’s a sucker born every minute!”

Denise McNair, 11; Carole Robertson, 14; Addie Mae Collins, 14; and Cynthia Wesley, 14; from left, are shown in these 1963 photos. A white supremacist  Thomas Blanton Jr., 62, was convicted of murder in 2001, for the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church bombing that killed the four girls on Sept. 15, 1963. (AP Photo)

Over 50 years ago, a Black woman stood amid the debris in Birmingham, Alabama, her feet covered with shattered glass from the bombed out 16th Street Baptist Church, cried out in anguish: “My God, you’re not even safe in church!”

That was 1963.

We are still not safe.

Race based violence is not history. It is here.

As a Confederate flag defiantly flies over the South Carolina State Capital, racism and evil struck again, killing 9 people during Bible study at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston.

No More Birminghams

Institutional racism still exists, a stubborn stain we can’t whitewash away.

The history we learned in school and the violence we witnessed on the news in the 1960’s were to have served as a wake up call to many Americans concerning racism and violence.

Somehow we tragically fell back to sleep.

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It’s time to end the shame of being attracted to partners who fall outside the range of who our society tells us we should be attracted to. In a recent interview (L) Miley Cyrus discussed her sexual fluidity. (R) Vintage Love Comics

The selling of who we may love has finally reached its expiration date.

In a country that long prided itself on endless choices of toothpaste, breakfast cereal and shampoos, for far too long there really was only one choice when it came to who you could love.

You stuck with the brand you knew and trusted.

Heterosexual – It’s the right brand. Time tested, dependable , AMA approved, loved by millions. Don’t accept substitutes.

Don’t Box me In

Vintage Romance Comics

Today there is a cultural shift as we slowly begin to shrug off the need for definitions and labels in how we conceive gender or who our society has told us we should be sexually attracted to.

From Facebook and its 50 shades of gender to Miley Cryus discussing her sexual fluidity, the choices are widening, encouraging those who are uncomfortable being slotted into a gender binary.

Vintage Romance Comics

Appearing in an interview in Paper magazine the 22-year-old agent provocateur discussed the fluidity of both her sexuality and her gender identification stating :

“I am literally open to every single thing that is consenting and doesn’t involve an animal and everyone is of age.”

Cyrus’s comment is in line with an approach to sexuality that is gathering momentum among her fellow millennials and a departure with the conventions of the past.

The Normal Heart…Love Honor and Obey

Vintage Romance Comics

With the media  obsessed with defining and exaggerating gender codes of masculinity and femininity, never was the insistence that everyone fit into a heterosexual cisgender model stronger than in mid-century America.

Never was the insistence that everyone fit into a heterosexual cisgender model stronger than in mid-century America. The media was obsessed with defining and exaggerating gender codes of masculinity and femininity.

Images of the nuclear family and happy heterosexuals as the norm permeated  popular culture,  scattering its potent assumptions of family, marriage and who we should love deep into our collective psyches.

 Girls Romance

In the late 1940s and early 1950s romance comics were aimed at teenagers and young women in their 20s but they appealed to a younger market ranging from 10 to 17.

Vintage Love Comic

When it came learning about love, mid-century teen girls turned to romance comics, ground zero of mid-century hetero-normative love. The wholesome advise offered was more akin to Hannah Montana than Miley Cyrus.

With names such as Young Romance, Girls Love and Secret Hearts , the colorful, pulpy pages were filled with heart throbbing stories about the rocky road to love in the quest for Mr Right.

Interestingly enough romance comics were written and drawn primarily by men. Even the advice columns with bylines attributed to women were written by men

The formulaic stories were instructive, telling the readers how to find a man, how to keep him, how to be beautiful for him and most important how to get him to put a ring on your finger.

Skating on Thin Ice

Vintage Love Comic

There was only one path to true happiness and anyone who veered from that was headed for trouble. .  Fast girls who got pregnant got the shame they deserved but could be redeemed,  but a  girl who wasn’t boy crazy? Unthinkable!

Vintage Love Comic

No one wanted to be thought of as being “That Kind of Girl!”

Let’s follow the instructive story of “Liz” the non too subtly named Tomboy who queerly shows no interest in boys .Despite the taunts leering comments and shaming pointed our way our hero er …heroine stands firm.

That is until… she meets the Right boy, in a story entitled “That Strange Girl!”

That Strange Girl

Vintage Romance Comics

Failure to conform to these confining roles meant there was a whole lot of shaming going on.

The Key to Femininity

Vintage Romance Comics

Vintage Romance Comics

Vintage Romance Comics

Vintage Romance Comics

She Doesn’t Go For Boys!

Vintage Romance Comics

Vintage Romance Comics

Vintage Romance Comics

 What Do You Think I Was…?

Vintage Romance Comics

Vintage Romance Comics

This story appeared in a romance comic from the early 1970s. Still grounded in the morality of the 1950s’s, the Love Comics genre  could never adjust to the new changing morality despite trying to deal with contemporary themes, eventually dealing a death knell for romance comics.

Today’s changing morality has likewise signaled a death knell to limitations on love.

By the end of June, the  month long associated with love and weddings, the Supreme Court will issue a milestone decision about the right of two men or 2two women to exchange marriage vows, extending same sex marriage to all 50 states, making it the law of the land.

(©) 20015 Sally Edelstein All Rights Reserved

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To those who lived under Jim Crow laws there was no doubting the message or symbolism of the flag.

For those who still insist that the Confederate flag is a mere symbol of southern heritage and not one of hate, it should come as no surprise to the rest of us to whom it symbolizes and evokes years of Black oppression.

Racism and denial run deep in our culture

After the Civil War the symbol of the Confederate flag may have been a source of southern pride and heritage used primarily  at veterans events  to commemorate fallen Confederate soldiers, but nearly 60 years later, the battle flag of General Robert E.Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia got co-opted by White supremacists, becoming the very emblem of racism displayed at cross burnings and lynchings.

I Don’t Know Nuthin About Racism

Long immortalized in movies, books and advertising these media representations of gracious hospitality, and benevolent patrician life, deny the harsh reality of the South’s “peculiar institution.” (L) Vintage ad Four Roses Whiskey (R) Vintage photo of Peter aka Gordon a slave from Louisiana in 1863. The scars are a result of a whipping by his overseer.

Americas sense of moral superiority has long been blemished by that “peculiar institution.” 150 years later we still have a problem in this country coming to terms with the existence of slavery – the stubborn stain we just can’t seem to whitewash away. But not for lack of trying.

The mythology of the grand Old South is seductive. The Civil War was fought and the Confederate flag hoisted to preserve the “traditional” southern way of life as immortalized in countless movies and books. Even today Gone With the Wind, despite its many inaccuracies, forms the basis of American popular memory of the glory of the Old South.

Viewed through a gauzy haze of magnolia blossoms and weeping willows, the heritage of happy antebellum plantation life and their equally happy, loyal slaves co-existing in a mutually beneficial arrangement, is of course pure fiction. The romantic South is a figment of American popular imagination but one that has deep roots in our culture

I Wish I Were in Dixie

In 1948 the same year this Budweiser ad appeared celebrating gracious hospitality in the old South, the Confederate flag, that archaic symbol of slavery and secession was co opted by the Dixiecrats who formed to oppose the civil rights platform of the Democratic party.

The gracious hospitality of the Old South was celebrated by Budweiser in 1948. That same year while some Americans were hoisting a beer to southern hospitality, others were also hoisting the Confederate flag.

Toasting the Old South’s contribution to good taste may not seem to be in good taste today, but the depiction of the southern hospitality of a  plantation owner admired in this ad, ran the same year the Confederate flag was adopted by the Dixiecrats, the segregationists that formed to oppose the civil rights platform of the Democratic party that called for racial integration and reversal of Jim Crow laws.

Vintage Four Roses ad

In 1948 the fear that the federal government (and one controlled by a Democrat of Confederate stock no less) intended to tell the White majority how to treat “our Negroes,” was too much. Southerners needed to “preserve their way of life.”

Lavishing the plantation legend, Budweiser praised Southern geniality in their ad:

“Yes, be it lavish or modest, hospitality is quickly recognized as an expression of friendliness”

With a nod to their loyal customers below the Mason Dixon line the ad notes : “Certain customs may vary in different parts of our vast country, but thoughtful locals in the every clime have learned guests welcome Bud as a gracious compliment.”

What exactly were these “gracious customs” the “thoughtful locals” of Dixie wanted to preserve?

Southern Hospitality

“Yes the southern gentleman has a particular tact in making a guest happy”… as long as he’s white. Hospitality was not just modest…it was nonexistent if you were a southern  African-American.

This was the southern heritage they were holding onto so vigorously. Here are some things a Black man dared not do in the South in 1948.

-Buy a cup of coffee or a meal in a “white restaurant” or even get a glass of water in an emergency.

Vintage illustration for Woolworths

-Expect service from a white woman clerk at a dime store or department store, he was expected to stand quietly in the store until a man noticed him and asked what he wanted. He could not try on garments for size; he likely was not given a bag for his purchases.

-Sit on the ground floor of a movie theater. He bought his tickets at a separate entrance and climbed to the balcony.

-Ride in a taxi driven by a white man; Blacks were serviced by a separate fleet of ramshackle cars (“nigger taxis) run by the local undertaker.

Vintage Greyhound Bus ad

-The back benches of city buses were “reserved for Blacks” with White drivers periodically adjusting the boundary marker ( a card with arrows marked “white and “colored”) depending on the composition of the traffic. “Surplus” blacks stood regardless of the number of empty seats.

-Drink from a public fountain that was not marked “colored” Department stores that sold to Blacks had separate water coolers they offered no restrooms for Blacks whatsoever.

-Vote in the primary elections for city and county officials. The dominant party considered itself “private and did not admit Blacks. A black who insisted on paying his poll tax and registering to vote in a state or national election risked losing his job or worse.

-Swim in public pool, take books from the library, walk on the sidewalk if a white indicated he wanted right of way; be sure of service at a gas station, have a paved road in front of his house even though he paid his taxes.

This was what the Confederate flag was hoisted to preserve in 1948.

“The Truman civil rights plan wants to reduce us to the status of a mongrel, inferior race, mixed in blood, out Anglo-Saxon heritage a mockery” Keynote speech Dixiecrat convention –Alabama Governor F. Dixon

Walking out of the Democratic Presidential convention, the Dixiecrats waved confederate flags and chanted support of then-Governor of South Carolina Strom Thurmond for President. The platform called for the segregation of the races and the racial integrity of each race.” Their campaign slogan was “Segregation Forever.

The Confederate flag co-opted by these white supremacists was forever stained by hate . To those who lived under Jim Crow laws there was no doubting the message or symbolism of the flag.

(©) 20015 Sally Edelstein All Rights Reserved

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The Supreme Court Says I Do to Same Sex Marriage

As the The Supremes once said , “You Can’t Hurry Love”. Well it took decades to get another group of Supremes to the altar, but they finally said “I Do” to marriage equality for all!

As the window closes  for the chance to be a June bride,  the window to get married just opened wider.

Marriage Equality For All

Bringing a breeze of fresh air into the traditional notion of marriage, the U.S. Supreme Court made a  historic ruling concerning  marriage equality, legalizing gay nuptials nationwide.

With this ruling allowing same-sex marriage to be the law of the land, will come the predictable meltdown from conservatives there are still those who cling to a limited definition of love.

Notions of traditional marriage are dated as some of these images we have all grown up with.

Wedding Bells

Vintage Illustration Wedding Day by Pruett Carter 1948 Ladies Home Journal

Like the appearance of the first crocuses, each spring would bring with it a new crop of bridal and wedding themed imagery.

Every magazine you flipped through, every ad you saw, painted the same glowing picture of the inevitability of marriage. For most of the past century girls on the fast track to matrimony were convinced that the basic occupation of every girl was choosing a man to marry.

Vintage Saturday Evening Post Cover Illustration by Constantin Alajalov 6/1/46 “Kid sister tries on wedding dress.”

And what gal didn’t close her eyes and imagine her wedding shower, filled with all that latest Wear-ever pressure cookers, copper bottom Revere Ware and her very own silver-plate?

Vintage Ad Presto Cooker 1948 ” Presto Cookers Make Lucky Brides Happy Homemakers”

“Dream of arranging your table for two-his place, your place-with all the Community silver plate you need. Dream of entertaining-proudly-knowing your guests will whisper “Isn’t she lucky- It’s Community!”

Vintage Ad Community Silver 1946 illustration by Jon Whitcomb

“This would be for keeps. You’ve dreamed…forever…of this moment! You’ve lived…forever…for this minute. You start forever with this minute. This is for keeps.”

Human Rights Campaign logo for Marriage Equality

Everybody  Say I Do!

And now marriage equality can  be for keeps.

SCOTUS’s   landmark marriage equality case in 2013 striking down Defense of Marriage Act    brought us  one step closer to defeating discrimination, ensuring all Americans are treated equally under the law, and finally removing some of the barriers for Gays and Lesbians.

And now at last at last there is  full participation in the American Dream, including marriage.

The Right Is Wrong

The fact that most American are ready to evolve and embrace gay marriage is terrific and the swiftness of this shift is amazing.

It wasn’t long ago that the very notion of gay marriage  was inconceivable if not down right frightening to most of the public.

In the early 1970’s  as gay rights became more vocal, pamphlets were produced filled with dire warnings of the dangers of homosexuality and the “coming revolution” invading the mainstream.

In a 1972 homophobic comic booklet entitled “Gay Blade”,  they  ominously predicted a future filled with…gasp….gay marriage.

In 1972, the year this comic was published, the Supreme Court ruled against same-sex marriage in a one sentence decision “for want of a substantial federal question.”

These small comics published by the Christian right-wing Chick Publications were filled with dire warnings of the dangers of homosexuality and the “coming revolution” invading the mainstream. The small  3″x5″ comics sold cheaply in bulk making it handy for you to spread the hateful message  everywhere you went- in phone booths, tables, Laundromats, school lockers, windshield

Called “chick tracts” these small comic booklets, approximately 20 pages in length, were short Evangelic themed stories created by Jack Chick an American Fundamentalist. Chick Publications, who boast on their current website–“publishing cartoon gospel tracts and equipping Christians for evangelism for fifty years.”

“The Gay Blade” ( originally written in 1972, revised in 1984 and now out of print) borrowed several of its frames from a 1971 Life Magazine photo essay on the Gay Liberation movement, but with the images altered to make gay men look more depraved and  stereotypically feminized.

Chick tracts are unequivocal and explicit in their opposition to homosexuality and repeatedly employ themes such as:

1.The belief that God hates homosexuality and considers it to be sinful and

2. The true nature of homosexuality is revealed in the Christian fundamental interpretation of the biblical Sodom and Gomorrah story.

Since 1961 Chick has cranked out tract after tract to “help sinners see the light, believing that Jesus can deliver anyone from Homosexuality and make them a new person.”

The fear mongering continues over 40 years later.

Can This Marriage Be Saved?

The Evangelical comics seem ludicrous if not downright laughable now, but ironically not a lot has changed among some Christian groups, especially when it comes to gay marriage.

New York’s Archbishop Timothy Dalton quoted in the national Catholic Register, warned his flock:“You think it’s going to stop with this? You think now bigamists are going to want their rights to marry? You think somebody that wants to marry his sister is going to now say: “I have a right?’ I mean, it’s the same principle, isn’t it?”

Conservatives are desperate to hold onto the traditional definition of marriage.

Back in 2013 after the DOMA ruling  Think Progress reported that some Fox News contributors  claimed that Marriage Equality would actually criminalize Christianity.

“As the Supreme Court weighs the merits of allowing gay and lesbian Americans the freedom to marry, right-wing anti-equality advocates are cranking up fear mongering claiming that a world of marriage equality is one that would functionally ban Christians from practicing their religion.”

“Two Fox contributors made dire predictions along those lines. Todd Starnes speaking on American Family Radio, argued that “persecution (of Christians) like we have never seen it” had “already started” as a consequence of the marriage equality movement.

“Another Fox News contributor, Erik Erikson went further. Writing on RedState a conservative blog, Erikson fantasized about a world where the US government began terrorizing Christian institutions, shuttering Christian business for opposing marriage equality, and labeling Christians themselves criminals.”

“Within a year or 2 we will see Christian schools attacked for refusing to admit students whose parents are gay. We will see churches suffer the loss of their tax exempt status for refusing to hold gay weddings. We will see private businesses shut down because the refuse to treat as legitimate that which perverts Gods own established plan.”

Note: As the Conservative Right predictably goes into seizures over the legalization of same sex marriage, they’ll be glad Obamacare is there to help them!

#LOVEWINS

Copyright (©) 2015 Sally Edelstein All Rights Reserved

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