$50,000 Guaranteed!

The 1958 film It! The Terror from Beyond Space is a generally well regarded piece of science fiction cinema.  It was the inspiration for Ridley Scott's original 1979 Alien film and has even been the basis for a new series of comic books in recent months.

Its movie poster, pictured above, is a classic example of 1950s B-movie publicity.  To quote:  "$50,000 GUARANTEED BY A WORLD-RENOWNED INSURANCE COMPANY TO THE FIRST PERSON WHO CAN PROVE "IT" IS NOT ON MARS NOW!"

I am imagining a young Carl Sagan attempting to collect the $50,000 while earning his doctorate of philosophy in astronomy and astrophysics at the University of Chicago.

The World's Safest Front Seat!

 

Last week we were introduced to mid-20th century industrialist Henry J. Kaiser by way of a World War II-era Warner Bros. cartoon.  Beyond his notoriety as a proficient and speedy ship builder, Kaiser also dabbled in automobile design and manufacturing in the postwar era, as demonstrated by this brochure found amidst other vintage car ephemera in Tony's Attic.  It appears that Tony attended a auto show sometime in 1951 and was potentially intrigued by the up and coming Kaiser models.

The highlight that year was "the first truly safety-engineered automobile--the Kaiser Manhattan--with the World's Safest Front Seat."  Kaiser himself is quoted as saying that, "the '52 Kaiser's new front seat protection represents the greatest safety-engineering advance in 30 years."

Kaiser stopped manufacturing passenger vehicles in 1955, and instead focused on utility vehicles such as the Jeep brand, which it had purchased in 1953.

Floating Airports - 1952

From the December 1952 issue of Mechanix Illustrated:

The main structure resembles an elongated aircraft carrier with an open flight deck above and an enclosed hangar deck below. In the ends of the latter are repair and storage space for planes. Each two-plane compartment is separated from the next by an elevator shaft. Workshops and-service facilities are spotted in projecting arrowhead islands along the entire length of the hangar deck.

The islands also contain sub-surface engine rooms in which powerful diesels are mounted to drive water propellers. These operate automatically to keep the airstrip headed into the wind and are governed by a master wind-vane -on the forward deck. The incoming plane touches down just inside the after end of the flight deck and is halted by arrestor gear at the first island. A deck handling tractor then couples to the nose-wheel gear and tows the plane to the "down" elevator. Painted tracks on this portion of the deck help keep it in alignment.

Descending to the hangar deck, the plane is towed off the elevator and forward into the "depot", area. Here, completely under cover, the passengers deplane or emplane and the ship is serviced. It is then towed forward to the "up" elevator and ascends to the flight deck again. The tractor then tows it clear of the elevator and the plane's undercarriage is engaged to the catapult traveler. A variation of the new British steam catapult accelerates slowly and smoothly and whips the plane into the air for the next leg of its flight.

Adjoining the depot area in a large central island are the passenger accommodations. If the traveler wishes to go directly ashore, he is directed to a door on his right. This leads through a thwartship passage to the taxi waiting room, customs shed, etc. Fast water taxis are tied up to - an open boat landing. In another section, helicopter taxis load in a pair of elevator shafts and are then whisked to the flight deck above to take off for various points in the city. Should the traveler find it necessary to wait for another plane, he turns to his left. Here he finds a spacious and comfortable lounge, flanked by an information booth, airline offices, newsstands, etc.

A city like New York could anchor a whole string of these airports in nearby Long Island Sound, the Lower Bay or even in the Hudson River where landing approaches and take-offs could be made over uninhabited stretches of water. Accessibility would be at least as good as that of the present airports and with helicopter taxi service, it. -would be better. Most of the other great centers of our country are similarly situated. Why don't we build floating airports to make air travel safer and save our cities?

 

Fresh Up!

Two words that were associated with 7-Up adverting campaigns for nearly a decade.  It was certainly an odd slogan, though I suppose derivative of the word refreshing that was of course used frequently in soft drink ad copy.  The slogan ultimately gave birth to a cartoon mascot named Fresh Up Freddie, a hyperactive bird created by Walt Disney's little known commercials production unit.  For more information on Freddie, check out this recent post on our companion site, 2719 Hyperion.

Still 10¢

Apologies for the lack of content here these past few weeks.  As always, real world obligations trump online hobbies.  Hopefully we'll get back on track over the next week or so.

I've been rediscovering of late my love of comics from the so-called Silver Age era.  Here's an advertisement for DC Comics that reminds us just what a dime would buy in those days.

The Return of Tom Corbett - and More!

eBooks are quickly becoming fashionable, and more importantly, accessible, thanks to the recent wave of eReader software programs and devices that have become available.  While most consumers embracing the various eBook formats are likely to head to Amazon or Barnes & Noble to download the latest Stephen King or Nora Roberts tomes, I have found myself instead exploring the lesser known but still very notable public domain repositories such as Project Gutenburg, ManyBooks.net and epub Books.  Their collected resources are quite extensive, and most notably--free.

If you are familiar with these various public domain archives but think they really only house the likes of Jane Austen and Charles Dickens, think again.  I recently made a discovery at ManyBooks that was a true Boom Pop! revelation.  There, available in eBook editions were all but one of the Tom Corbett Space Cadet series of books published by Grosset & Dunlap during the early 1950s.  The books were adapted from the well known Tom Corbett radio and television programs and are shining examples of mid-20th century outer space pop culture.  I had over the years managed to collect three of the eight books that were published, so to find four other titles immediately accessible was very exciting.

The Tom Corbett titles available at ManyBooks are:

• Stand By for Mars!
• Danger in Deep Space
• On the Trail of the Space Pirates
• The Space Pioneers
• The Revolt on Venus
• Treachery in Outer Space
• Sabotage in Space

The final book in the series, The Robot Rocket, remains under copyright protection and is not yet available in an eBook format.

ManyBooks also has an extensive selection of vintage mid-20th century science fiction novels and stories.  You can find some very obscure titles and authors, but also discover material from significant names such as Andre Norton, E. E. Doc Smith, C. M. Kornbluth, Robert E. Howard, Harry Harrison and Lester del Rey, just to name a few.

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.

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."

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 . . .

Science, Sputniks, Space

The state of American education as observed in the 1959 World Book Annual Supplement:

EDUCATION won an economic "shot in the arm" in August, 1958, that will affect education from the elementary school to the most advanced college level. Congress passed the $861,000,000 National Defense Education Act, a sweeping four-year program that makes federal grants to deserving students and schools. In this way the law seeks to promote science, mathematics, and foreign-language instruction. It also tries to improve testing, guidance, and counseling; to extend audio-visual techniques; to broaden vocational education; and to finance fellowships and loans for needy college students. But it allows no funds for teacher salaries or school construction.

The plan's cost for the first year is estimated at $200,000,000. Congress authorized $661,000,000 to be spent from 1959 to 1962. The loans will be administered by various colleges, and the rest of the plan will be managed by state departments of education.

Soviet Impact. The technological success of the U.S.S.R. continued to challenge the interest of American educators. A delegation led by U.S. Commissioner of Education Lawrence G. Derthick spent 3o days visiting Soviet schools. After returning to the U.S., Derthick said, "What we have seen has amazed us ... everywhere we went we saw indication after indication of a ... total commitment to education."

The impact of Soviet educational progress prompted educators to strengthen mathematics, science, and foreign-language instruction further. Some school systems decided to cut out "nonessential" courses, such as driver-education courses, and tighten school discipline. Perhaps the most visible effect was the increase of Russian-language teaching in high schools and colleges. Early in the year, only 18 high schools in the nation were known to offer Russian. By the end of the year, the number of high schools teaching Russian had tripled, and universities were adding Slavic studies as fast as the supply of instructors and textbooks permitted.

Wake Up Wichita! Before It's Too Late!

Cold War paranoia could also be fun and entertaining! Employees of the Orpheum Theater in Wichita, Kansas, pose in costume to promote the release of the 1953 movie Invasion U.S.A.

Invasion U.S.A. opened at the Orpheum on February 26, 1953. The theater borrowed one of Wichita's air raid sirens to display in the lobby. The accompanying display warned "Wake Up Wichita! Before It's Too Late!" The theater's management took the advice of exhibitor's promotional material which encouraged them to "Work out if possible, a 'siren' opening of your film--a test 'alert' for civilian defense workers." They also arranged for a Civil Defense Rescue Service truck to be parked in front of the theater's entrance. An exterior promotional display indicated that Invasion U.S.A. was shown at the Orpheum on the same bill with Walt Disney's Color Cartoon Revue. Just imagine, Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck followed by the atomic annihilation of the United States.

As for the movie itself, according to the web site CONELRAD--

Shot in seven days in April of 1952 on a budget of $127,000.00, veteran director Alfred E. Green (THE JOLSON STORY) managed to combine a number of wildly disparate elements into this 74-minute tour de force of "atomic" filmmaking. The formula for Invasion U.S.A as accurately as can be determined is 30% stock footage, 20% staged newscasts to explain the stock footage, 30% intense and mostly nonsensical propaganda and 20% inappropriate romantic melodrama. Blended together the movie plays like a Joseph McCarthy fever dream.

Photos courtesy of Wichita Photo Archives.

Hey, Got a Nickel, Mack?

A Hare Grows in Manhattan - 1947

"It was once the world’s largest restaurant chain, serving 800,000 people a day. It was Horn & Hardart, and its cavernous, waiterless establishments represented a combination of fast-food, vending and cafeteria-style eateries. These restaurants, with their chrome-and-glass coin-operated machines, brought high-tech, inexpensive eating to a low-tech era. Making their debut in Philadelphia in 1902, just up the street from Independence Hall, and reaching Manhattan in 1912, Horn & Hardart Automats became an American icon, celebrated in song and humor. With their uniform recipes and centralized commissary system of supplying their restaurants, the Automats were America’s first major fast-food chain."

Carolyn Hughes Crowley

Smithsonian Magazine, August 2001

"Horn and Hardart believed that the cafeteria-like eatery would be a success if they could provide quality food inexpensively and conveniently. Customers could drop a nickel into a slot next to chrome and glass displays, choosing a hot meal for five cents. The company instructed employees to be especially friendly—anyone, despite the amount of money they spent, was welcome in an automat and could stay as long as they wanted. Some customers, unable to afford the nickel meals, were welcome to make tomato soup out of hot water and ketchup for free. In the 1930s automats appealed to both the working class because of their prices and to the upper class for their quality food. During the Depression, the automats flourished with their inviting atmosphere, excellent food, and bargain prices."

Catherine Finn

Preservation Magazine, Jaunuary 2007

"A kiss may be grand, but it won't pay the rental on your humble flat,

or help you at the automat."

-from the song Diamonds Are a Girls Best Friend,

as performed by Marilyn Monroe in the film
Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.

The Grasshopper - 1958

From The World Book Encyclopedia 1959 Annual:

ANTIGRAVITY BELT, a jet device that turns men into human grasshoppers, was unveiled by a New Jersey chemical company in 1958. It promises to be useful to soldiers, construction workers, policemen, and fire fighters. The 55-pound rocket belt, strapped around a man's waist, holds two small nitrogen gas tanks and jet nozzles. When the wearer pushes a button, gas escapes and thrusts him into the air.

Company testers, dressed as army infantrymen and wearing the belt, ran 35 mph without tiring, jumped Over 2o-foot trenches, and soared over cliffs and walls. The company said it planned smaller, lighter models, and expected to perfect a model simple and cheap enough for general troop use within two years. The belt, similar to that worn by the comic strip character Buck Rogers, was called "Buck Rogers," "The Grasshopper," and "Jump Belt."