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ADVENTURELOUNGE



COME FLY WITH ME

The early aircraft designs on view at AdventureLounge will take you back, though not all in one piece.



ARE YOUR SCANS limp, lifeless, lacking pep and vim? Visit ScanTips for fast, safe, effective relief.



THE ART
of Josh Agle. Martinis, girls, guns. Think James Bond meets Jetsons at a tiki bar in Palm Springs.

 
 
 
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February 2005

CLICK ON ORANGE HEADINGS TO VIEW. SITE © 1999-2020

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 2005

It Sings in High "G"

IF you're one of those men who like to feel the surge of smooth, "there's-more-where-this-came-from" kind of power, just slip a new 1941 Lincoln-Zephyr into high gear—on the straightaway or up some stubborn hill—and listen to the whispered song of majesty it sings!

SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 2005

Hooky De Luxe!

EVENINGS like these  . . .  when the tree-toad choruses start tuning up and the moon rises white and misty in the sky  . . .  somehow a fellow gets the urge to play hooky again. And when you feel the tug of wanderlust  . . .  this call to the woods and hills and fields  . . .  just get behind the wheel of a new 1941 Lincoln-Zephyr—and you're headed for hooky de luxe!

1956: Oven Lovin'

Women love color. Now they have it in ranges and refrigerators that once were always white. They love new convenience. They get it in the new "built-in" ovens and washer-dryer combinations. They love lasting beauty. It's theirs, in durable steel cabinets fashioned to the shapes and styles of the moment  . . .

The illustrator here, Arthur Saron Sarnoff, was known for his pinup art, Western cowboy scenes and a series that featured dogs playing pool.

Drive This Full-Size Dollar Saver!

Extra room for extra comfort! A real beauty inside and out! Performs as only a Rocket can! Just try this fashionable, full-size Oldsmobile  . . .  and you'll never be satisfied with less! Here are bigger, higher doors  . . .  more headroom  . . .  more legroom  . . .  plus new Twin-Triangle riding ease and roadability! And Oldsmobile's full-size Rocket Engine delivers instant action on economical regular gas! Drive the dollar-saving Dynamic 88 at your Olds Quality Dealer's today! Fashion-Line Design  . . .  Rocket performance!

In the background: New York's Guggenheim! Museum!

Skyrocket!

A fiery new class of cars is here  . . .  Oldsmobile for '61!  Sparked by the spirit of an exciting new  SKYROCKET engine—blazing a bright new trail in automotive performance! Oldsmobile  . . .   with a completely new and smoother-than-ever Hydra-Matic Drive featuring Accel-A-Rotor action for quick, silken getaway! Oldsmobile  . . .   with crisp, sleek style that reflects its flashing performance  . . .  Fashion-Line design  . . .   SKYROCKET go! Oldsmobile Super 88—more spirited than ever for 1961!

The headlights of these cars feature a styling theme that became popular starting with the first quad-headlight models of the late '50s: The engine pods of a B-52 bomber, with twin jets hanging from a central strut.

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 2005

Next Stop Hopperville

From early 1956 (which explains why this picture practically screams 1955), a Greyhound express on the Detroit Diesel Thruway. Meanwhile, 400 miles away on a farm in Kansas  . . .

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2005

Old Paint

As Industry Mobilizes for National Defense, Pittsburgh Plate Glass Company Supplies Protective Paints to Safeguard This Vital Production  ¶  Industry is mobilized as never before to turn out the things the Nation needs to win the war! Wherever clanging riveter, forge and press are fabricating the tools of war, you'll find spray guns applying Pittsburgh finishes to products from barges to battleships  . . .

Better Killing Through Chemistry

Victory, like every other dynamic force, has a beginning—a center at which energy is generated. Chemistry is the beginning of the business of transforming raw materials into explosives, planes, ships, trucks, and into tanks  . . .  Michigan Alkali Company, Detroit  . . .  providing Soda Ash, Caustic Soda, Chlorine, Bicarbonate of Soda, Calcium Chloride  . . .

The Elastic Allegory

From 1952, an illustration by John Atherton painted in the final year of this wonderful artist's short life. A visual allegory of the shift from natural to synthetic rubber, it has many of the surrealist art cues that made their way into commercial illustration after World War II: vanishing lines of perspective on a landscape of shadow-casting rocks beneath wispy clouds, an enigmatic figure (in this case a styrene molecule) hovering in the foreground. A skilled angler, Atherton was known for his expertly tied flies, fishing scenes and marine art. He died on a salmon-fishing trip in New Brunswick, Canada.

America's Heaviest Crop, 1942

Timber, America's heaviest crop, is the most difficult to reap. Until recently, trucks were not capable of making a profitable business of going directly into most mountain stands of timber and hauling logs to the mill. But White Super Power Trucks are doing it now  . . .

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 2005

Oldsmobile's Golden Rocket

An interior shot of Oldsmobile's Golden Rocket, a "dream car" from the 1956 GM Motorama. The huge steering wheel was articulated, with the lower part folding forward for ease of entry. The two-spoke vee design and split dashboard appeared, in watered-down form, in the 1959 Oldsmobile.

Buick City, Cont'd.

From California,  Jeff  S. writes in:  "I was particularly intrigued by the Buick City page because I was born and raised in Flint and worked for Buick Motor Division in Flint in the 1980's. The shed in the photographs is on the roof of the Buick Engineering building at the Buick complex in Flint. I think it's extremely likely that the photos were taken in order to give the artist details of the new models for the brochure renderings." Thanks to Jeff for pinning down the exact location of the photos.

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 2005

40-Wheeler

From 1947, one of the many futuristic renderings (by an undeservedly unknown artist, in the style of Arthur Radebaugh) used in the postwar ad campaign of Bohn Aluminum & Brass.

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 2005

The Road to Zion

An illustration for Gilbert Papers by the Western artist Maynard Dixon (1875-1946), painted in the year of his death. It appeared posthumously in 1947. Dixon spent the final years of his life painting the southern Utah landscape around his summer home in Mount Carmel, near Zion Canyon. Not long after this oil was painted, the cliffs of the desert Southwest served as a backdrop for thousands of uranium prospectors at the start of the Atomic Age.

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 2005

Buick City

With the aid of a high-powered scanner, satellite photography and Google, we've pretty much solved the mystery of the rooftop Buicks. Read all about it here. And see the pictures (more than a dozen new ones) here.

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2005

1954 Buick Roofmaster

Yet another curious shot, of two nicely turned out models pretending to drive a 1954 Buick  . . .  on the roof of an industrial-looking building in Michigan (according to the license plates of the cars in the background), probably around Detroit. Our best guess is that this was a study for the artists who illustrated the brochures. In a number of these photographs you can see the reflections of the people who took them.

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 12, 2005

The New Look

You may have noticed the site has undergone something of a makeover during the past week. We hope the result is that it looks less 1997 and more 1957.  There's also an RSS feed (top of this page) for people using newsreaders. In case of what might seem to be a broken link, try going back to the page you clicked on and hit "refresh," then click again. Or better yet, clear your browser cache to purge any dead links.

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 2005

Solitaire (1936)

ONLY A FEW jewels achieve the rare distinction of being "solitaires." For only a few can appear magnificent without a flattering setting. The Packard, we feel, is one of those jewels. Even if you take away its proud name, even if you strip it of its enduring identity—it will still be a monarch among motor cars. It will still be a peer in mechanical excellence. It will still be without an equal in the luxury men and women love. But you can no more divorce a Packard from its name, from its prestige and identity, than you can separate it from its comfort, or the swift-flowing ease with which it rides the roads. For more than a third of a century, the Packard name has stood for the utmost in fine motor cars. Packard today has the largest fine car clientele in the world. More large Packards are in use in America than any three other fine cars combined.

Subtext: Packard is starting to feel the heat from Cadillac.

Words From the Wise  (1936)

MOTORISTS who have been accustomed to higher priced cars (and have traded them in on LINCOLN-ZEPHYRS) are the most generous in their praises of this new kind of automobile. Quoting from a few of the many letters recently received: "It takes 70 as smoothly as 45 in any other car." The V-12 engine in the LINCOLN-ZEPHYR, designed by Lincoln, built by Lincoln, develops 110 horsepower. The next car with a twelve-cylinder engine costs more than three thousand dollars. "My LINCOLN- ZEPHYR has gone over two thousand miles and I am pleased to report 15 to 16 miles to each gallon of gas." Economy as well as stimulating performance is built into the LINCOLN-ZEPHYR. It writes a new record on the roads. The beauty of complete streamlining is evident at a glance. Seats are like divans. Passengers step from pavement directly onto the floor of the car  . . .

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 2005

The Virtual Buick

Photo from 1953 of a model seated at the controls of a 1954 Buick Roadmaster. Probably done as a study for illustrators to use in advertising and promotional materials, months before the actual cars were available.

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 2, 2005

Better Gears for Tomorrow's Skyliners (1943)

A new era in transportation is on the way! Already skyliners of the future are past the experimental stage, and tomorrow promises a world of short distances—a world where Bagdad and Cairo, Moscow and Budapest will be little more than sleeper jumps from New York. The giant engines to power these airliners of the future are today a reality. Making gears for these engines is Foote Bros.'  job. When the war is won and these new gears can be produced for peacetime industry, they give promise of new efficiency—new economy to American manufacturers, whether they be applied to skyliner engines or machine tools, farm equipment or motor cars. Foote Bros. Gear and Machine Corp., Chicago

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 2005

The Gauges of War, 1942

How to get home from Tokyo: Suddenly the arrow on a dial in front of you quivers  . . .  you're on the beam, tuned the wave length of a radio-location set somewhere in China! Gruen  . . .  makers of the Precision Watch  . . .  and Precision Instruments for War.

South Pacific, 1942

The "Someday" of Global Skyways  . . .  is Here Today! Veterans of the air lanes over the Seven Seas since the first Pan American Airways Clipper hopped off for distant horizons are Chase Fabrics  . . .  specially woven upholstery, carpets, linings and curtains. L.C. Chase & Company, New York.

Parrot Jungle, 1942

Molded Plaskon is now playing an important part in the operation of radios, field and base telephones, and "walkie-talkies" used by our armed forces throughout the world. Plaskon Company, Toledo.

Dream Boat, 1943

Keep your spirits high—speed Victory. Buy U.S. War Bonds Today—Tomorrow command your own. Chris-Craft Corporation, Algonac, Michigan. World's largest builder of motor boats. All men and women at the three Chris-Craft factories are working under the Army-Navy "E" with two stars for Excellence in War Production

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