Windows to the Past: A Visit with Santa

I love this photo.

Taken a few years prior to my arrival into the world, it features my two older brothers on the lap of a department store Santa Claus. A wonderful snapshot of the late 1950s.

Just Watched: The More the Merrier

What a fun and wonderful film that so strongly echoes a place and time--Washington D.C. at the height of World War II, or at least as filtered through the lenses of Hollywood movie cameras.

In The More the Merrier, one woman and two men share an apartment in the midst of a housing shortage in the capitol city. Jean Arthur, Joel McCrae and Oscar-winner Charles Coburn form the odd trio. Coburn's character, retired millionaire Benjamin Dingle plays cupid to the other two, Arthur's already engaged Connie Milligan and McCrea's soon to be shipped out soldier Joe Carter. It is a very funny film on so many levels, but most especially its frequent and hilariously choreographed pratfall comedy, and it clever, witty and often fast-spoken dialog that touches on much of the era's popular culture.

Two terrific exchanges exemplify that notion. First, Dingle and Carter together recite the parts from a Sunday Dick Tracy comic and then impart:

Dingle: "Gosh, that Dick Tracy is sure playing with dynamite."

Carter: "Sure is."

Milligan: "Is that the best you can do with your time?"

Carter: "Gotta keep up with what's going on."

Dingle: "I missed two Sundays with Superman once, and I've never felt right since."

And an equally funny dialog between Milligan and her young teenage neighbor about a particular American institution:

Morton: "Do I want to join the Boy Scouts or don't I?"

Milligan: "Well of course you do!"

Morton: "But I'm not the camp-craft type! So should I join because I don't like hunting and fishing and hiking and camp-craft, and ought to? Or not join because I don't like hunting and fishing and hiking and camp-craft?"

Milligan: "Well yes, definitely."

Morton : "Some problem. A person should know if he's the camp-craft type."

Washington D.C.'s wartime ratio of eight women to one man is one of the movie's underlying comedic themes and is featured prominently via women whistling at men and nightclub gender imbalances. Set dressings further evoke the era; a war bond poster can be seen near a timeclock, nightclub dancers are costumed in patriotic regalia.

A terrific movie and great snapshot of bygone popular culture.

See the Presidential Race on a Big 20" Picture

As we approach the dawn of all-digital television, it's sometimes hard to believe that America's love affair with television is just a little over six decades old. The 1952 presidential election was the first to really extend into Americans' homes via television, and Westinghouse used that as an advertising hook as this magazine ad reflects.

Windows to the Past: Fun at the Pier

Four teenage girls enjoy the midway games on the Newport Beach Pier during the spring of 1954. The photo was taken by a photographer from the Los Angeles Examiner newspaper.

Hello from Alaska

"World War II changed the ideas of many Americans about Alaska. Americans became interested in the problems of the territory. Opportunities in Alaska today are already vastly improved because of two inventions, the radio and the airplane."

So observes this 1950 publication entitled Hello from Alaska, created to promote the then United States territory and sponsored by the National Dairy Council. As Alaska has recently been in the headlines due to media surrounding presidential election politics, I thought it would be fun to visit its vast northern landscape as it was perceived over a half century ago. The small booklet used a two-page map to illustrate the area's resource-rich geography:

"With the airplane, radio, and new highways, as well as a vigorous, intelligent people, tomorrow in Alaska promises a new kind of pioneering."

A Quick Note

Apologies for the shortage of content this week at both 2719 Hyperion and Boom-Pop! We got caught up in some extensive home remodeling that was long overdue but is now happily completed. We will return to our regular schedule of posting next week. Thanks as always for your continued interest and encouragement!

Windows to the Past: Celebrating Victory

Here is the Victory they were all gardening for.

Teenagers in Salem, Oregon celebrate the end of World War II during August of 1945. The picture was taken at the intersection of State and High Streets in downtown Salem. Gas rationing also ended the day the photograph was taken, August 15, and likely influenced the celebrants mode of transportation. The picture is from the Oregon State Archives.

Gardening for Victory!

"Every town, city and suburban family with a plot of sunny, open space of suitable soil, or access to a community or allotment garden, can make an important contribution to our national food program and our war effort by growing a victory garden."

So declared then Secretary of Agriculture Claude R. Wickard in early 1943. Thus, the Victory Garden became not just a means of supplementing food supplies and alleviating the need for extensive food rationing, but also emerged as one of the more pronounced aspects of World War II era popular culture. In the same statement, Wickard went on to say:

"This year we need more food than ever before in history. We need it for our men at the battlefronts, and those in training. We need it to keep the folks at home healthy and strong.

"Farmers broke all records in food production last year for the third time in succession. They are ready to do their level best to produce even more this year. All they can possibly produce of most foods will be needed. In many cases, more than can be produced on our farms will be needed. We simply can't get too much of some kinds of food. Every farm family, of course, will be expected to have a garden for home use and, if possible, to provide extra supplies of vegetables for nearby markets.

"The entire national food situation will be tremendously helped, and our total food needs more easily supplied, if those who have suitable ground will grow all the vegetables required for the family. Special attention should be given to green and leafy vegetables, yellow vegetables and tomatoes, because these kinds bring valuable vitamins and minerals right to the family table."

Shortly after the Secretary made his pronouncement, Time Magazine noted:

"This year Victory gardens have the Agriculture Department's blessing: Secretary Claude Wickard wants 12,000,000 in cities, 6,000,000 more on farms. The Department has arranged for production of a special Victory Garden Fertilizer and is ready with all kinds of free advice and pamphlets. Seed companies have keyed their advertising to Agriculture's campaign. From almost any catalogue, neophyte gardeners can choose a victory garden combination ($1 and up) with full instructions how, when and where to plant it. With a little luck and work, they will have fresh vegetables on their tables all summer. With a normal dose of inexperience, they will also waste a lot of seed and fertilizer.

"If Claude Wickard gets his 18,000,000 Victory gardens, food rationing will have much less sting this summer. The Agriculture Department estimates that every city garden will produce at least $10 worth of vegetables, every farm garden at least $50. At these figures, Victory gardens should yield a $420,000,000 crop."

Americans rose to the call. Nearly 20 million Victory Gardens were planted and tended in 1943. They grew out of farm plots, back yards, vacant lots and building rooftops. It was estimated that those gardens produced closed to 40% of the country's food supply that year. The initiative was so successful that public figures worried that a restored food supply would cause complacency among the new found Victory Gardeners and they would lay down the shovels and hoes the following season. Hence a "Dig More in '44" campaign was launched to insure continued participation and bounty. An article in the April 1944 issue of Modern Mechanix noted:

"Canned goods have recently been so plentiful that a few people, watching the points go down, have, like the grasshopper in the fable, questioned whether they should work a garden this summer or not.

"The answer to these slightly disillusioned persons is that they mustn't be fooled by any temporary signs of a food surplus, for this is more apparent than real. Food officials in Washington and authorities everywhere are really concerned about the needs for food that lie just ahead. after the invasion starts.

"The prudent householder will, therefore, garden this year as ardently as in 1943 and on as extensive a scale as his facilities, time and energy permit."

The Department of Agriculture produced numerous materials to promote Victory Gardens. Posters, pamphlets and extensive instruction manuals were readily available to an eager populace. Seed companies and hardware vendors were quick to also promote the effort for commercial as well as patriotic reasons. A booklet entitled ABC of Victory Gardens and sponsored by the Paragon Oil Company of New York, proclaimed to its readers:

YOU MUST HAVE A GARDEN THIS SUMMER!

You may not be able to carry a gun or drive a tank, but you can grow food for Victory! The scarcity of food is no longer something that may happen--it is here RIGHT NOW! Canned, dried and frozen vegetables have been rationed. Some experts estimate that we will receive about 70% of the amount that we had last year. WHY NOT RAISE YOUR OWN? Have as many of them as you want! Have the finest tasting vegetables a king could have, gathered fresh from your own garden.

Numerous Hollywood movies and cartoons made reference to V-Gardens. Eddie "Rochester" Anderson cultivated one in the movie What's Buzzin' Cousin? Numerous cartoons released in 1943 featured Victory Garden storylines. Popeye grew a beanstalk out of his Victory Garden in Ration for the Duration. He climbed it, only to encounter a giant who was hoarding not treasure, but valuable war rations. Both MGM's Barney Bear and Walter Lantz's Andy Panda starred in Victory Garden cartoons, and a Victory Garden was employed as a gag in the Warner Brothers short A Tale of Two Kitties.

When the war ended in 1945, Victory Gardeners prematurely abandoned their vegetable plots, causing some food shortages well into the following year. In the post war years, Victory Gardens became little more than memories of home front resourcefulness and patriotism.

Be sure to visit 2719 Hyperion to discover Disney's Victory Gardens.

Windows to the Past: Hot Rod Reality

Hollywood has often glamorized illicit hot rodding by teenagers, notably in films such as Grease and American Graffiti. The reality of that dynamic is pictured in this photograph from 1954. This teenagers were arrested for racing on Artesia Street in South Compton, California. A photographer from the Los Angles Examiner captured this window to the past.

It's Easy Fred, Once You Get the Hang of It

Though I don't doubt for a minute that there are youthful taxidermists out there in the world, I have never encountered one in my many years on the planet. So I was more than surprised when I found this advertisement for the Northwestern School of Taxidermy in a 1957 issue of Boys Life magazine. The ad poses some interesting questions:

• Can you really learn taxidermy by mail in your spare time?

• Is there really a market for stuffed and mounted pigeons?

• Do taxidermists actually make frog clocks like the one pictured in the ad?

Ah, if we could only get our hands on the FREE BOOK with 48 pages and a hundred highly interesting pictures . . .