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  A N N O T A T I O N S
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PASTELOGRAM is named in honor of the poet Marianne Moore, who wascommission- ed by Ford Motor Co. in the 1950s to come up with names for its new mid-priced car. Among her suggestions: “Pastelogram,” “Turco- tinga,” “Silver Sword,” “Resilient Bullet,” “Utopian Turtletop” and the especially cryptic “Mongoose Civique.” Ford declined to use any of these and instead went with “Edsel.” The rest is history.

WE’VE HAD LOTS
of requests asking the Curator: “You’re so darn modest, we don’t know much about you. How about posting a picture or some biographical info? And have I told you about the time I was abducted by aliens?” Well, you get the idea. So here’s a little about our history.

FUN A LA MODE
The old Patent Office applications in the PatentRoom are a soft- serve lesson in history. New on the menu: Tees.


 

COME FLY WITH ME
The early aircraft designs on view at AdventureLounge will take you back, though maybe 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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   L I N K A T O R I U M
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PRELINGER ARCHIVE
CAR MANUAL PROJECT
TV LAMPS
KITTY GIRL VINTAGE
IMPERIAL CLUB
1950s CARS IN NORWAY
WALTER MILLER
McLELLAN’S
IMAGINARY WORLD
RAY PATIN STUDIOS
LILEKS I.O.O.C.
SHAG ART
BUICKS.NET
PALACE OF CULTURE
KING OF THE ROAD
BROCHURES ON EBAY
STARBURST
FRANCISCAN OASIS
FRANCISCAN TRIO
SILVER PINE
SOCIETY of
   ILLUSTRATORS

ADVENTURELOUNGE
VoIP SOLUTION
PATENTROOM
SCREENMATH

   

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 2005

≈ Surfin’ Safari (Make That Bonneville)

The well-ordered Pontiac for ’61 trims width outside the wheels for better balance. You have the feeling of sitting erect, even swinging around curves and corners  . . .

How one would lead to the other, we’re not sure. We do know that Pontiac’s Safari station wagon would have been a lot better for headline-writing purposes. This illustration of 50-year-old hipster surfers and their ride is by Art Fitzpatrick and Van Kaufman.

≈ Comet, the Better Compact Car

Another illustration by Bob Peak for the Comet, Ford’s upscale versi0n of the Falcon. Although our recollection of Comets when we were growing up is that they gave off a decidedly downscale vibe, usually as an extremely used car.

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 2005

≈ GameBoy, 1960

Endless hours of fun with the most exciting toy ever made — the super-realistic “OPERATION X-500.” Rockets & Missiles soar at the press of a button. Superstructure glides into position to change nose cones. Set includes radar screen, helicopter, space men, scientists, and more! Engineered for perfect safety, easy handling — sure to thrill every child from 3 to 12  . . .

This fantabulous Cold War playset was made by DeLuxe Reading of Newark, which later became Topper Toys. There were two parts, the Defense Base and Rocket Launcher. Sold at grocery stores, the X-500 could be yours for just $11.88; a complete set now might run into the hundreds. X-500 pages here and here and here (side trip: Avocado Memories); DeLuxe also made the Playmobile dashboard. More here.

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 2005

≈ Prints, Prints and More Prints

We’ve just added 27 images (097 through 123). Try to restrain yourselves.

≈ Valley of the Goblins

There’s nothing like a new car to give you that “let’s go” feeling. Short jaunts or long journeys — it makes no difference — a family with a new car finds more things to do, and more fun in the doing. Why? Because new cars just won’t stand for sitting in a garage. Even before you get out of the driveway the quality of the workmanship and materials in your new GM car is excitingly apparent. You know you’ve got a real car under you — a car that was expertly built for reliability as well as fun  . . .

This amazing illustration of a 1960 Electra was painted by the tragically obscure P. Sutton: Unwitting family, borne by malevolent Buick, tootles along to almost certain doom in Utah’s Valley of the Goblins. We nominate it for the cover of Stephen King’s next book.

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 23, 2005

≈ What Comet Has, Everybody Wants

Style, savings and surprises! For 1960 Comet introduces to the compact field a new crisp, uncluttered look — a new sense of proportion. You’re sure to notice this (everybody does) — but still Comet is priced with or below other compacts  . . .

The ad copy doesn’t say what the “surprises” are. But they could be along the lines of:  In a few short years this brand will vanish, just like the Edsel, and your funny-looking car will be worth nothing. Surprise!

≈ THE SOCIABLES Prefer Pepsi

They know the art of hospitality  . . .  make friends welcome in so many pleasant ways. Of course, they serve Pepsi-Cola. It always refreshes without filling. You’re one of the Sociables. Have a Pepsi anywhere — at play, at home or your favorite soda fountain.

This 1960 illustration for Pepsi featured “fashions by Tina Leser.”

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 2005

≈ Yippee! Beans!

Give the folks — and the cook — a special treat! Take along the favorite picnic food that’s delicious, nourishing and easy-to-fix  . . .  Van Camp’s Pork and Beans.

Nothing conjures those wonderful childhood picnics of yore like a big, steaming bowl of baked beans. And of course the ride home was even more memorable. Thanks, but we’ll take the convertible back!

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 2005

≈ New 6-Transistor Shirt-Pocket Radios

A new Motorola radio miniaturized to fit in a shirt pocket (or purse) — yet with the power and sound you’d expect from a larger set. Motorola-designed Golden Voice speaker with new cone delivers rich, clear lows — crisp highs  . . .

From 1960, an illustration of Motorola’s X-14 shirt-pocket radio, which sold for $24.95, “in Black, White, Red or Blue.”


SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 2005

≈ Loomed for Lots of Living

Hardy twists, lush plushes, smart tweeds  . . .  this jubilant array is yours at prices you can afford, $8.95 to $25.95 a square yard. Choose now, during Lees Color Jubilee!

We present, for your perusal and edification, documentary proof that there was a time, specifically the second week of May 1960, when Purple Actually Seemed Like a Good Idea.

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 15, 2005

≈ Expect Wonderful Things

You hear a lot of talk these days about engine power and compression. What does it mean to you, as a car buyer, that Chevrolet offers the most powerful high-compression engine in the low-price field? You probably expect greater acceleration. It’s yours. You count on climbing hills with new ease. And you will  . . .

This colorful illustration of the 1953 Chevrolet is by San Francisco artist Fred Ludekens, a creative director at Foote, Cone & Belding who started out painting billboards. With Albert Dorne, he founded the Famous Artists School in Westport, Connecticut.

≈ Compare Them All — And You’ll Come Away With a Comet

Take a long look at the styling. Note the beautiful proportions. The Comet has long, flowing lines with an unmistakable fine-car flair. Comet’s full line includes two sedans and two station wagons. See them at your Mercury-Comet dealer’s.

The 1960 Comet, conceived as Edsel’s entry in the “compact” field, debuted late in the model year at Mercury dealerships as an upscale, slightly enlarged version of Ford’s popular Falcon. The illustration was painted by Bob Peak, “father of the modern movie poster.”

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 2005

≈ How Pontiac Enriches Each Hour You Spend With Your Car

Inspired by the car itself, our stylists have created interiors of rare beauty. The materials practically beg your touch. Lustrous star-patterned cloth. Glamorous but never gaudy weaves in tweed textures. Jeweltone Morrokide, yielding but rugged  . . .

From 1960, an illustration by Art Fitzpatrick and Van Kaufman for their patron of many years, the Pontiac division of General Motors. Art, the surviving member of this legendary duo, has his own Web site and recently designed a series of stamps for the Postal Service.

≈ Here You See What So Many People See in a Pontiac

(In this case the 1960 Bonneville c0nvertible with bucket seats) The leather is richly dyed, top-grain. The carpeting on the floors and doors is thick, soft, yet incredibly durable. The stately instrument panel is inlaid with genuine walnut. Bonneville beckons you to behold the inspiring new interiors of all Pontiacs  . . .

The 1960 Pontiac, à la Cadillac’s much pricier Eldorado, offered a number of high-end options like bucket seats and alloy wheels.

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 2005

≈ Passport to “Seventh Heaven”!

For you who like to own a car you can love, cherish and take pride in  . . .  the keys to this new Packard Super-8 One-Sixty will be a passport to the “seventh heaven.” Those keys will set in motion performance  . . .  power  . . .  nimbleness  . . .  comfort  . . .  that you never thought possible. Humming softly beneath its long, low, racy hood is the most powerful 8-cylinder motor being put into any American passenger car today!

The 1940 Packard One-Sixty took its name from the 160-horsepower engine under the hood. For $1,524 it could all be yours, and hers.

≈ Hill Roads Lead to Pleasant Places

Many a road in Vermont leaves the village abruptly and points toward a mountainside. It bends and twists, following the clear, stony brook beside it. Each turn brings its own little world of greenness, until an upland finds you in a whole swirl of intimate mountains. If your car doesn’t mind them, roads like this bring their own rewards. And if your car won’t mind them, you drive a Lincoln-Zephyr!

The Lincoln-Zephyr (1940 convertible pictured), which put a V-12 engine in a unitized body, lasted from 1936 to 1942 and was Ford’s attempt to build a medium-priced luxury car. The design, by John Tjaarda, heavily influenced the Mercury, which debuted in 1938. The name has been revived for Lincoln’s new small luxury car.

     
   
     

≈ Dad, What Will Cars Be Like When I Grow Up?

NO ONE MAN, no one organization, no one industry can answer that question. The development of the car of the future is in the hands and minds of many men in many industries. Informed men hesitate to predict exactly how future cars will look; whether their engines will be in front or rear; how many miles they will travel to a gallon. But there is little doubt in their minds that the progress of the next ten years will far exceed that of the last ten; that the car your boy will drive will make even today’s splendid machines seem hopelessly old-fashioned  . . .

From 1940, an illustration by Geoffrey Biggs (1908-1971) for the Ethyl Corporation, whose tetraethyl lead anti-knock compound put the lead in high-octane gasoline.

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 7, 2005

≈ On the Waterfront

Tons of drugs  . . .  many tons of many things. That’s the job that Autocars are superbly designed and precision-built by Autocar to do. How dependably and speedily they do it is known by every truck driver who has felt the pull and power of these great trucks that command the load  . . .

A noirish scene from 1945 by William Campbell for Autocar Trucks, with a Hudson River warehouse as the setting. The tractor bears the name of Storch Trucking, 18 York Street, Jersey City; the trailer is stenciled with the insignia of Merck & Company of Rahway.

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, 2005

≈ The Light  Refreshment

Everywhere in America today’s moderns are giving a new light look to all their surroundings. And their trim, youthful figures are part of the same lovely pattern. Keep up-to-date. Look smart. Stay young and fair and debonair. Be sociable. Have a Pepsi — the lighter Pepsi of today, reduced in calories  . . .

From 1959, an illustration by Roy Besser for Pepsi, which was touting itself as the “light” alternative to archrival Coca-Cola in the days when calories and diets were starting to intrude on the national psyche. This was near the end of the story arc for Pepsi’s “Sociables” campaign, which depicted thin young moderns engaged in a variety of modish pursuits — fonduing, barbecuing and skiing up a storm. The Freudian cues here are so thick, Roy must have used a trowel.

≈ Why Take Less?

When Pepsi’s best! On Television see Faye Emerson weekly over CBS-TV — On Radio hear Phil Regan weekly over CBS  . . .

From 1951, another dispatch from the vanished world of the past.

≈ Cooking Outdoors?

S.O.S. pads are all you’ll need to clean soot-blackened frying pans, the coffee pot and all your cooking gear  . . .

In 1955, there’s no Teflon yet but the picnic must go on.

≈ Big Trucks for Big Jobs

Refueling is a big job. On our fighting fronts, it must be done in a big way. This means big trucks  . . .  heavy-duty trucks  . . .  Autocar Trucks!  For every front, Autocar provides vehicles for our Army, our Navy, our Marine Corps and our Air Forces  . . .

This  1944 illustration by William Campbell for Autocar Trucks of Ardmore, Pa., takes a page from the war in the Pacific against Japan.

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