From the Archives:

December 7, 1941

Just as 9/11  is a marker for this current generation, and November 22 was for mine, Sunday  December 7, 1941 was a where-were-you-when-kind of day that was seared permanently in the memory of the greatest generation, including my parents.

The war was still over there, though the news was full of muffled but ominous portents. From the Far East came reports of Japanese troop movement in Indochina and that Saturday  night FDR would make a last-minute appeal to the Japanese Emperor Hirohito for direct talks but to no avail.

Like most Americans, my mother and her family did not expect to be at war the next day or the next week or even the next month, but they knew in their hearts it was inevitable.

When, was the big question.

Business as Usual

So like everyone else, my mother’s family went about their business.

The day before Pearl Harbor there were  only 15 shopping days to Xmas and the department stores were having one of the biggest shopping sprees in years.

Goods were plentiful but pricier than last year. Nylons were replacing silk stockings which had been scarce because of the darn embargo on Japanese silk thread. But Stern’s Department Store  in NY offered them at “one special buy all you want price” of $1.75 a pair.A fifth of scotch was 3 bucks, but in two Christmases these items as well as many others would be next to impossible to find.

A Night on The Town

Saturday night in NYC where my mother’s family lived, was a mass of Christmas shoppers and visitors streaming into restaurants, night clubs theaters and movies, ready to paint the town red.

That evening my grandparents were Broadway-bound with tickets to see the critically acclaimed Lillian Hellman production of Watch on the Rhine at the Martin Beck Theater.  It’s portrayal of a family who struggle to combat the menace of fascism in Europe during WWII responded directly to the political climate of the day, and the continuing debate on American neutrality in the War.

Warnings

While the audience absorbed the words of Lillian Hellman’s warning that “all who chose to ignore the international crisis were helping to perpetuate it and that no one could count himself or herself free of danger,” 6 carriers of the Pearl Harbor striking force under Vice Admiral Chuichi Nagumo sliced through the blue waves of the Pacific a few hundred miles north of Hawaii.

Pearl Harbor in the News

(L) 1939 Vintage advertisement- Matson Cruise Line to Hawaii “A Voyage as Colorful as Hawaii’s flowered isles”

 Picking up a copy of the Sunday Herald Tribune on their way back to Brooklyn after the show, my grandfather  read in the rotogravure section an article about the naval base at Pearl Harbor, “the point of Defense of our West Coast.”

The pictures of silvery sands mingled with war planes flying over Diamond Head. As the newspaper article pointed out, the lucky lei-draped  tourist vacationing there would be too busy eyeing the hula girls to  notice the Army pillboxes since they were cleverly concealed from prying eyes. The accompanying pictures showed an idyllic tropical setting, causing my grandmother to make a mental note to visit there sometime soon.

It was difficult for many Americans to understand what was happening in the Pacific. We were preoccupied with Hitler.

Enchanted Isles

Another factor was plain and simple geography.

Until the air age, islands like Midway and Iwo Jima were practically worthless. Like most Americans, most of what my parents did know about the Pacific had been invented by Hollywood. The south Seas were pictured as exotic isles where lazy winds whispered in the palm fronds and native girls wore sarongs like Dorothy Lamour.

1938 Vintage ads Dole Pineapple Juice

The closest most Americans would get to those enchanted Isles of Hawaii would be courtesy of Dole. Whether as canned juice or slices, exotic  pineapple from Honolulu Hawaii had become immensely popular over the past decade due to its unusual health values.

Pearl Harbor a once unfamiliar name for most Americans who weren’t quite sure where it was, would grow increasingly familiar all too soon.

A Day That Will Live In Infamy

The next day, Sunday, the eastern seaboard was quiet but jittery with the news of the surprise attack.

Along with millions of Americans, my mother first learned of the attack when her father turned on the big mahogany RCA Radio to hear his favorite CBS broadcast of the NY Philharmonic concert at 3pm. That Sunday most people gathered around their radios listening for whatever news they could get about Pearl Harbor.

On anything but a mundane Monday, 60,000,000 jittery American would remember exactly where they were when they turned  on their radios at noon to listen to President Roosevelt speak of that day that would live in infamy!

© Sally Edelstein and Envisioning The American Dream, 2015. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Sally Edelstein and Envisioning The American Dream with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

What clown has hijacked the GOP?

The summer of Trump has now moved into the winter of our discontent. What was to have been a mere summer freak side-show has become the big top spectacle.

Other Republican candidates are walking a tight rope just waiting for Trump to take a prat fall that never seems to happen despite referring to Mexicans as rapists insulting women and proposing a ban on Muslims from entering out country.

Now that clown has totally hijacked the Republican party, don’t you think it’s time Mr. Trump, for the circus to leave town.

Christmas Caroling at Home. Vintage Illustration 1947

On overload from some of the schmaltzy Christmas songs that seem to permeate every shopping venue, I thought I might switch it up and deck the halls with a mix of holiday hip hop. Returning home I went through my massive collection of pop culture.

Filed under “vintage Christmas rapping” I expected to see some old school classics like Run D.M.C’s 1987 “Christmas in Hollis.”

Vintage Good Housekeeping article by Kay Riley, illustrations Lauren Cook. December 1946

Instead of some funked up holiday tunes, Christmas rapping took on decidedly different meaning in mid-century America as evidenced by this article that appeared in Good Housekeeping, December 1946. Instead of chillin’ with Santa I got bunch of Xmas etiquette do’s and don’ts.

Talk about a hip hop mashup.

It’s a very mobile Christmas.

Imagine the old days of being tied to a desktop computer to do shopping. It’s so 2006.

As we swipe our ways through the holidays on our smart phones, it’s hard to remember a time when we were once tethered to a solitary phone in the house.

Vintage illustration from Planning For Home Telephones 1948

Though it might seem inconceivable to millennials, once upon a time phones were stationary, grim black objects found in only one room of the house. But this Brothers Grimm – like fairy tale had a happy mid-century ending when home phone extensions were introduced in the mid 1950’s.

Thus it was that a prelude pink kitchen wall phone extension appear on every mid-century homemakers wish list for Christmas …or anytime.

Dial Up Convenience

Vintage ad from Bell telephone 1955 explaining the benefits of extension phones in the home

A telephone has always been a busy gals best friend so when home extensions became widely available they promised unparalleled ease of living to the housewife.

Home telephone extensions were the original mother of multitasking. Call the plumber, watch the kids and bake your brownies without the risk of burning…all from the convenience of your Formica kitchen.

No mid-century home could be considered modern without at least one phone extension and certainly no modern up to date homemaker would dream of not having a kitchen phone.

“Basic as salt and pepper a kitchen extension phone brings calls where you’re cooking save you time and steps.” explains this 1962 ad from Bell Telephone

Bell telephone ran many ads touting their convenience especially to the homemaker. Hours of time saved, miles of steps and precious energy. No wonder more and more busy homemakers say “My telephone is worth more to me than it costs!”

Vintage 1955 ad from Bell Telephone speaking directly to Mrs. Homemaker

Vintage ad 1955 Bell Telephone

Suddenly you could enjoy the comfort and pleasure of convenient telephones throughout the house and you would wonder “how you ever did without one?”

Just ask Mrs. Dan Gilman of Danbury Conn, busy mother of three.

“Christmas when you spend extra hours in your kitchen you can run your house and visit family and friends without neglecting cookie baking or candy making. It’s easy with your handy kitchen phone.” 1958 vintage ad Bell telephone

It was December 1956 and the snowy town of Danbury was banked in snow.

With the whirlwind of Christmas time activities needing to get done, the family Country Squire station wagon still in the shop and her middle child sick in bed, Madge Gilman might have been frantic. But as she cheerily said with a smile “Let it snow let it snow let it snow.”

This home-bound homemaker was well served by her handy, convenient extension telephone.

In these modern times a phone extension was as essential to a busy homemakers rush about life as was an automatic washer and dryer.

vintage illustration Bell Telephone ad 1960

In her whirlwind life as mother, wife and PTA bake sale czar, Madge couldn’t possibly be tied to a singular phone.

At any time of year kitchen extension phones saved steps and time. But the bright and busy Christmas season seemed to double their usefulness.

She could finish baking those Christmas cookies, dial-up Dan about dinner guests, and mop up the mess the kids made all without leaving the comfort of her fully loaded Kelvinator kitchen.

With the convenience of Christmas catalogs she could enjoy the ease of Xmas shopping the telephone way with a whole department store at her fingertips allowing her to window shop from her very own home.

Walk This Way

Before there was google, before apps, before the web when customers wanted to find a local business they reached for a big fat iconic yellow book – The Yellow Pages. Vintage yellow pages ad

And with the mind-boggling amount of information available from the ever ready yellow pages she could let her fingers do the walking whether in the kitchen or the rumpus room. Her well manicured fingers could sashay through those yellow hued pages with the dexterity of a Radio City Rockette.

Even little Jimmy’s cold didn’t stop her from getting things done.

With a phone outlet in the rumpus room, now serving as a sick room, she could sit by his side and call Mr. Antoine to cancel her hairdresser appointment all without leaving the bedside of little Jimmy. As she rubbed the Vics Vapo Rub into his congested chest Madge could still re-schedule her cut and curl right without leaving him alone.

For this busy home executive, an extra phone was a like having a Girl Friday to take care of business.

Reach Don’t Run

In the madcap pace of modern living no one had time to be restricted by one phone. A single phone was downright old-fashioned.

The old days of a lone phone in the hallway niche were long gone. By the time the suburbs blossomed so did the idea of extension phones.

Planning For Home Telephones

Vintage Booklet “Planning For Home Telephones” 1948 Bell Telephone

As a newlywed,  Madge Gilman had relied on a helpful booklet prepared  Bell Telephone especially for new home owners, called Planning For Home Telephones. Acknowledging the importance of the telephone in modern life,  it offered advise on how to plan the placement of outlets for various rooms where one day you might plug-in a phone:

“The telephone is now being recognized as an integral part of home life. The prospective home owner not only wants his telephone located where they will be most convenient to use, he also expects his telephone wiring to be concealed.

A new home is not modern throughout unless the telephones are installed at planned locations. A new home needed to plan their outlets for phones.

But by the early 1950’s the world was changing; convenience and decoration were as important — or even more important — than pure utility. People wanted more than just the main phone in the hallway. They wanted a phone that would fit on a bedside table; and they wanted the teenagers out of the hallway, too.

And they wanted them in cheery decorator colors.

Bell Telephone saw this potential market and went after running after them, placing ads that spoke directly to the housewife.

Telephones Where We Need Them

Mrs. Raney has wisely chosen the lovely phone in largo yellow for the den. Vintage ad 1957 Bell telephone

In this 1957 ad we are introduced to Mrs. Dallas Raney who like most busy homemakers  enjoyed the convenience of telephones where we need them.

Evenings, the Raneys relax in the family room where Mrs. Raney often plays the electric organ. The telephone here is a must since the family spends so much time in the room. Boisterously singing along to On Top of Old smokey they would never hear the phone ring in the front hallway niche.

A busy homemaker with a family on the go, Mrs. Dallas P. Raney of Little Rock finds her new modern home makes her day easier. It includes practically every homemaking convenience among them , telephones where the family needs them the most.

“They’re part of the way we live, says Mrs. Raney. “We all depend on the phone a lot. I rely on it for all my grocery shopping in church committee work and visiting with friends.

“That’s why we have phones in the kitchen, family room, master bedroom and our daughters bedroom. Their colors harmonize with each rooms furnishings. Wiring is concealed in the walls and portable phones serve little used rooms and the outdoor patio.”

You and your family can enjoy the convenience of telephones where you need them ( reach don’t run for our phone) The cost is low.

As Essential as Salt and Pepper

Smartly decorated colored phones came in largo yellow, tempo turquoise or prelude pink

Since the kitchen was Madge’s domain, her family’s  first extension phone was installed there, natch.

A modern up to date gal, she wouldn’t be scurrying around to answer the phone, letting the water boil over the way her own mother did.

The advertisements  didn’t have to sell Mrs. Homemaker very hard on the importance of a phone in the kitchen as the copy in this as this ad from 1956 suggests “Why You Need a Kitchen Extension Phone.”

“First it’s a great help running the house. Your kitchen extension is near shopping lists and at your finger tips for emergency calls to the plumber and other repairmen.

Next it saves you trouble. Bisquits won’t burn, or a pot boil over, because a telephone call took you out of the kitchen. And while you handle important household calls, you can keep a watchful eye on playing children.

It saves you steps too. When it rings you’re right there to say “Hello.” Since the kitchen is where you spend so many hours of your busy day, it makes sense to have a telephone handy. ( Your husband, like you will find it one of your most useful phones)

And when all your work is done its easy and fun to take a break and chat with a friend on your handy kitchen extension.

But why stop there.

Bedroom Phones

Vintage Bell Telephone ad 1958

This Xmas what Madge really wanted was a smart new phone in her bedroom .

The ads made it so appealing:

Naturally the livable modern home featured in all the up to date magazines like “Good Housekeeping” had extension phone in the bedrooms.

They provide step saving convenience they offer privacy and the security that lets a family sleep serenely through the night. Whats more each of these telephones is in a harmonizing decorator color. Even the most budget conscious home buyers will be pleasantly surprised to learn how little extension phones cost.

vintage ad 1958 Bell Telephone

Closing her eyes, Madge could already imagine the phone sitting on the carved wood night table next to the Dresden china lamp.  With her smart decorators instinct, she knew the tempo turquoise would give her phone a fresh new glow-never-tired beauty. It was a color with a promise and it promised to match her chenille bedspreads.

And next Christmas when she had piles of presents to wrap and secret Christmas conversations to carry on, the phone would be there to bring extra holiday cheer.

© Sally Edelstein and Envisioning The American Dream, 2015. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Sally Edelstein and Envisioning The American Dream with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

Retro New Years Eve partying advice for teens. January 1949 Good Housekeeping

Wishing all a gay and lighthearted new year!

A touch of Mink

In the chilly postwar climate of conformity and concealment captured to perfection in the movie Carol, same-sex desires constricted by conflict often went unexpressed.

If compliance to the heterosexual norm was compulsory, it was all a game of charades.

A stunning portrait of sexual angst, repression and ultimately confidence, the chemistry in Carol is palpable.

The story of a strong attraction between Carol, an older moneyed suburban housewife and a younger shop girl Therese is filled with slow burning ardor, erupting into deep passion. But because it was a time when desire walked hand in hand with discretion and denial, curiosities and carnal desires were best consummated in the shadows of what was referred to as twilight love.

By necessity, clandestine encounters were conducted with great caution, covert meetings arranged with the honed skills of a cold war secret agent. Gaydar had to be finely tuned or face the consequences.

But unlike other cautionary tales of the time, this one had a surprising happy ending.

Curb Your Enthusiasm

1952 romance novel by Patricia Highsmith first published under the pseudonym “Claire Morgan.” The movie Carol starring Cate Blanchett is adapted from the book.

When Patricia Highbrow’s book Price of Salt ( from which the movie is adapted ) was published in 1952 it was revolutionary.

Unlike most cautionary tales of its day, it’s portrayal of female desire was decidedly different from lesbian pulp fiction of the time because it was a love story between two women neither of which end up crazy or dead.

In most lesbian pulp fiction of the time, the casualty of non conformity could be catastrophic.

vintage Lesbian Fiction

There was always a price to pay for not toeing the line.

As Highsmith herself wrote about other lesbian pulp fiction : “Homosexual male and female in American novels had to pay for their deviation by cutting their throat, drowning themselves in a swimming pool, or switching to heterosexuality.”

“There’s was a passion no man could share. The novel that dares to tell the truth about a perverse love.” 1954 Lesbian pulp fiction thrived at the time but the failure to conform led to dire consequences

“Dr. Nora Caine was shaken by the fervor and passion of the other girls kiss.” Vintage Lesbian Fiction

Ordinary People

(L) Vintage Lesbian Pulp Fiction (R) Little Golden Book “The Happy Family”

Never was the insistence that everyone fit into heterosexual model more powerful than in mid-century America, The media was obsessed with defining and exaggerating codes of gender.

Images of the nuclear family and happy homosexuals as the norm exploded in advertising books and magazines scattering its potent assumptions of family and marriage and who we should love deep into our collective psyches.

In a country long priding itself on endless choices of toothpaste and shampoo there was really only one choice who you could love.

You stuck with the brand you knew.

Heterosexuality was the right brand. Time tested. AMA approved.

Failure to conform to these confining roles had devastating consequences.

Deviant Disordered

Abnormals Anonymous by Stella Gray

The American dream of reinventing yourself took on a more disturbing quality when many homosexuals reinvented themselves into happy heterosexuals in order to fit in.

When Carol and Therese’s relationship is revealed, Carol is quickly chastened and sent to a psychiatrist who chalks up her homosexual adventures to a temporary lapse in sanity, the conventional wisdom of the time.

Buyers Remorse

Pray for the sexual deviants – You needed to repent and change. Today there are still those who “pray” that homosexuals can be saved at “Christian Conversion Therapy Camps”

Homosexuality was part of the American Psychiatric Association Diagnostic and Statistical Manual listed under “Sexual Deviation.”

Gay and lesbians were thought to be inherently heterosexual suffering from a psychic disorder on par with borderline personality or schizophrenia.

Therefore there was a cure. A few sessions on the couch with a Viennese trained psychiatrist and their disordered thinking would be set straight.

Literally.

Despite risking losing her custody battle with her estranged husband, Carol in a statement of affirmation decides to quit therapy refusing to capitulate.

It’s easy to forget how terrifying it once was and still is for many people in parts of the world to live openly as LGBT . As long as the connection between two people are hampered by censure and condemnation we are still living in a 1950’s shadow of Carol.

Tomorrow :  I Am Curious

Vintage ad Schlitz Beer I am Curious 1949

During the same time period as Carol takes place, Madison Avenue perfectly captured that culture of concealment and curiosity with a series of ambiguous, winking ads called “I am Curious.”

© Sally Edelstein and Envisioning The American Dream, 2016. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Sally Edelstein and Envisioning The American Dream with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

Highlights Magazine’s Gallant was always the epitome of good behavior, following all the rules. Rude and disrespectful, Goofus did not. Who would you want for president?

Everything I learned about right and wrong behavior  lead straight back to Goofus and Gallant.

Next to Romper Room’s “do-bees” and “don’t-bees,” that dynamic duo from Highlights Magazine served as the guidepost  for common courtesy  for baby boomer kids, offering them a right way and wrong way of interacting with others.

Romper Room’s Mr. Do Bee

Long before I could read, my moral compass was set by a smiling Miss Louise who spoke to her virtual classroom on TV’s Romper Room. A popular character on the show was  Mr. Do Bee an oversized bumblebee who taught  the viewing audience manners.

“Do Bee a smiler… Don’t Bee a frowner. Do Bee a good listener… Don’t Bee a whiner.”

What self-respecting boomer didn’t want to be a Do-Bee!

Getting Along Well With Others

Goofus and Gallant first appeared in Highlights Magazine  in 1948, and was created by Garry Cleveland Myers and drawn by Marion Hull Hammel.  Highlights Magazine Fun With a Purpose 1966

Once I began to read, the Do-Bees were replaced by Goofus and Gallant the recurring magazine cartoon  twosome whose example of good and bad behavior offered a template for socially acceptable interactions.

No trip to the dentist was complete without a perusal of Highlights Magazine. Along with regular features like the Timbertoes and the Bear Family, Goofus and Gallant taught kids the rules of common courtesy. (L) Vintage Illustration Kurt Ard Saturday Evening Post 1957 (R) Highlights Magazine Feb. 1967

Highlights Magazine was a fixture in every self respecting dentist and pediatrician’s office.

While anxiously waiting to have a cavity filled, I would get a good old fashioned morality lesson from those two illustrated characters whose purpose was to demonstrate acceptable and unacceptable social skills when confronted with the very same situation. “Goofus grabs a toy from others. Gallant asks politely.”

Goofus and Gallant Highlights Magazine 1966

Gallant was always polite, kind, considerate, and mature. Goofus was rude, self centered, disrespectful irresponsible and immature.

The rules on how to behave were as black and white as the drawings themselves.

Goofus and Gallant Highlights Magazine 1967

Highlights Magazine 1967

Goofus and Gallant Highlight Magazine 1966

Goofus and Gallant Highlights Magazine 1968

The choices were clear. No one wanted to be thought of as Goofus.

Well, not everyone apparently.

When it comes to common courtesy and good behavior Donald Trump is Goofus come to life.

Goofus teases those with physical challenges. Gallant helps them cross the street.

Gallant helps the foreign student  adjust. Goofus builds a wall to keep him out.

Goofus mocks and bully’s his classmates. Gallant respect’s others opinions.

Goofus and Gallant Highlights Magazine 1967

If you had told me that one day boorish, Goofus would be the presumptive Republican candidate I would have laughed in total disbelief. But that is just what we find ourselves in now. A childish bully who can’t seem to get along well with others is bullying his way into the White House.

Maybe poor Goofus like Donald Trump lashed out at others when he was wounded. Goofus and Gallant 1967 Highlights Magazine

Last night on Megyn Kelly had her famous sit down with Trump and when the Fox newscaster tried to ask whether anyone had ever bullied or hurt Trump emotionally, he answered, “When I am wounded, I go after people hard, OK? “And I try to unwound myself.”

No matter how hard she tried to evoke some sense of regret or introspection about his bad behavior he said he didn’t “think it was healthy” to apologize for making fun of John McCain, Carly Fiorina, Heidi Cruz or even Megyn Kelly herself.

“Bimbo?” she asked when he said he hadn’t re-tweeted “the more nasty ones.”

“Ooh, OK, excuse me, Trump said without a hint of apology. “Over your life, Megyn you’ve been called a lot worse.”

Spoken like a true Goofus.

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© Sally Edelstein and Envisioning The American Dream, 2016. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Sally Edelstein and Envisioning The American Dream with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

We need to take a hard look at history. A Vanity Fair cover from July 1933 showing a despondent Uncle Sam seated on the Western hemisphere with storm clouds above can serve as a somber harbinger for our own times. Illustration by Paolo Garretto

History has never seemed more relevant.

After a week of unspeakable tragedies both here and abroad, the weight of history hangs heavy as the Republicans nominate Donald J Trump as their candidate for president.

Historians are speaking out as never before.

A dozen distinguished  historians from David McCullough to  Ken Burns have bonded together to create a Facebook page called Historians on Donald Trump, dedicated to educating the voters on the disturbing threat trump poses to American democracy.

Historian Robert Caro called Trump a “demagogue” who appeals to the ugliest parts of human nature.

“History tells us we shouldn’t underestimate him,” Caro said. “History is full of demagogues and sometimes rise to the very heights of power by appealing to things that are unfortunately a part of human nature: racism, which I think is a part of human nature no matter how hard we try, and excessive virulent patriotism that goes by the name xenophobia.”

Joining them are Historians Against Trump, a group of  history professors, museum professionals, public historians  and scholars who are concerned about the ominous precedents for Trump’s candidacy. In a published open letter they wrote: “The lessons of history compel us to speak out against a movement rooted in fear and authoritarianism.”

They are all  urging us to take a hard look at history.

I didn’t need the urging

History surrounds me on a daily basis. Literally and figuratively.

The Depression era discrepancy between “the haves” and “have not’s” is illustrated in this Vanity Fair cover “Fat Cat and Hobo” from October 1933. The Vanity Fair of May 1933 (R) illustrates an unpredictable Washington DC , optimistic one minute, foreboding and disastrous the next. Illustration Vladimir Bobritsky

The flotsam and jetsam from over the past hundred years, the  vintage advertising, articles, newspapers, booklets and illustrations that permeated the American Twentieth century mass media play in an endless loop through my mind, cluttering it like so many teetering stacks of  vintage magazines and books that clutter my art studio.

In my constant field of vision, are a series of framed vintage Vanity Fair magazine covers from 1933 that powerfully illustrate that most tumultuous year, a year that would have far reaching global consequences. and offer a somber forewarning to our own troubled times.

Many are illustrated by Italian artist Paolo Garretto arguably one of the great European illustrators of his time, his graphic covers expose the unsettling climate of the 1930’s including Hitler’s rise to power.

These compelling images of that unsettling time  serve  as a cautionary tale.

The cover of Vanity Fair December 1933. Figures representing U.S. Italy, France and England “tangle’ over Hitler. Illustration Paolo Garreto

As I listened to  a speech in Cincinnati a few weeks ago, a rambling  Trump maniacally defending the use of the Star of David in his anti Clinton image,  it was clear he was  pandering to his racist anti-Semitic supporters. As  I looked up at the vintage Vanity Fair covers that hang directly in front of my computer, I felt a chill.

An expert demagogue whipping discontented  working class voters into a frenzy, stoking racial resentment and exaggerated threats, giving the disenfranchised a bogeyman to blame misrepresenting the facts and exploiting economic insecurities.

Sound familiar?

Back to Back Fascism. Vanity Fair Covers (L) Hitler November 1932 illustration Paolo Garretto (R) Mussolini October 1932 illustration Miguel Covarrubias. Images Courtesy Vanity Fair

The use of ethnic stereotypes,the exploitation of fear of foreigners, and the concerns about national decline  is an ugly stew of propaganda straight from  a fascist recipes book .

It’s a recipe for disaster.

But confused and angry voters can take the bait.

1933

In a recent interview with Rolling Stone, Rachel Maddow said  that she has been studying Adolph Hitler in the first few months of his tenure as German chancellor:

“Over the past year I’ve been reading a lot about what it was like when Hitler first became chancellor. I am gravitating toward moments in history for subliminal reference in terms of cultures that have unexpectedly veered into dark places, because I think that’s possibly where we are.”

Cover Vanity Fair November 1933. Artist Paolo Garretto envisioned the globe as a bomb with a fuse waiting go off as diplomats stand at the top of the world seemingly oblivious.

1933 opened with Adolph  Hitler becoming chancellor of Germany.  The great theme of his speeches throughout the previous year was that “politicians had ruined the Reich.”

Some thought a Hitler government would be a farcical affair. The right had the illusion that Hitler was a lightweight, a ridiculous Austrian demagogue whose oratorical gifts they could exploit while “managing” to contain him.

Over the course of the one year these magazine covers appeared,  Hitler was elected as chancellor of Germany, the Reichstag’s Enabling Act was passed after the burning of the Reichstag, enabling police to bypass courts giving Hitler everything he needed to set up a totalitarian state making him dictator of Germany

This was quickly followed by massive Nazi Book burnings, legalized eugenic sterilization, boycotting of Jewish businesses, prohibition of trade  unions and forbidding all non Nazi political parties in Germany.

The very month FDR was telling a frightened nation we had nothing to fear but fear itself, Dachau the first Nazi concentration camp  opened.

It was a frightening time.

Out of the Disturbing Darkness

There are compelling reasons to feel grave concern today.

Pulitzer prize winner Ron Chernow, one of the historians on Historians on Donald Trump page remarked in a video :  “I have been deeply disturbed by the Trump campaign — more deeply disturbed than by any other presidential campaign in our history.

“We’ve all been horrified by the many shocking statements this man has made, but no less frightening have been the omissions,” he continued.

“I’m disturbed by the words missing from the Trump campaign: liberty and justice, freedom and tolerance,” he added. “The only historical movement that Trump alludes to is a shameful one: America First,” he said, referring to Trump’s foreign policy slogan, which shares its name with an anti-Semitic group from the 1940s.”

“Please, please, please folks don’t let it happen here,” Chernow pleaded.”

We have the power to stop it.

Vintage Coca Cola Ad 1958

To My Readers: “Having a Wonderful Time…Wish You Were Here! See you in September!”

Nativism is at the core of Trumps campaign and is one of the keys to his appeal, proving Trump really is a “Know Nothing” a direct descendant from the 19th century political party who trafficked on fears that morally and racially inferior Germans and Irish Catholic immigrants were threatening the livelihoods and liberties of native-born Protestants.

From the Vault

When it comes to America’s melting pot, Donald Trump is following an old-fashioned, tried and true recipe – heavy on the xenophobia with just a dash of racism.

By relying on the age-old tradition of stoking the public’s fear of a shifting American demographics, the finger licking good recipe is guaranteed to please even the most persnickety white nationalists who fear a brown America and desperately cling to a dated notion of what a real American looks like.

Who’s the Fairest of Them All?

Collage by Sally Edelstein “Blonde American Style ” detail. Appropriated vintage images

In the great cultural cauldron of 20th century America there was one basic ingredient to being an American Beauty- Caucasian.

It’s easy to point the finger at Trump for igniting this xenophobia that seems to run counter with our notion of embracing immigrants. Well  that old-fashioned recipe for prejudice was at full boil just last year, with the racist reaction to the choice of an Indian American for Miss America.

When Nina Davuluri won the title of Miss America 2014 last year she set off a flurry of controversy and outrage  as the first Indian American Miss America.

It Ain’t Fair

Racist comments crying unfair, littered the internet, setting twitter abuzz with backlash: “With all due respect, this is America!” spouted one twitter user.

“This is Miss America…Not Miss Foreign Country!” tweeted another, concerned that the winner was clearly not “fair” enough!”

The remarks would have been right at home at earlier Miss America pageants when non-white women were barred from competing (no African-American woman participated until 1970.) A restriction actually codified in the pageant rules stated “that contestants must be of good health and of the white race.”

The “other” in America  has always been questioned…just the nationalities change.

A New American Beauty

Vintage Illustration from Delineator magazine Feb. 1920
Here’s The American Girl
In her component parts, so to speak, our girls are composed of “sugar and spice and everything nice,” done up in racial packages and then exquisitely blended in various combinations by our American life.
In the upper left hand corner, for example, is the daughter of Italy as she comes over here to get into the picture. On her right is the Dutch girl, who began coming over nearly 3 centuries ago; then in order, the French girl, the Irish girl, the Scotch girl, the English girl, the Spanish, the Scandinavian and the Jewish.

In 1920 the year before the Miss America Pageant officially began, the great American melting pot had not spilled over into the antiseptically clean and white popular culture.

A “progressive” article appeared in the February 1920 issue of The  Delineator a popular woman’s magazine, declaring the “Birth of  A New American Beauty,”who was now someone other than…gasp…white Anglo Saxon, and could contain elements of the Irish lass or even a spicy Spanish senorita!

A New Type of Beauty: American

Written by Downing Jacobs, the lengthy article begins with the introduction of a Mrs. A. Lion Hunter, clearly one of the many Americans who felt  the world was changing too quickly and sighed in relief when handsome dreamy Senator Warren Harding of Ohio was elected President and  promised a return to normalcy.

Our proper lady is meeting with Mr Mann, a world-famous illustrator, presumably the one who illustrated the beauties in the illustration allowing the reader to eavesdrop in on their conversation.

“Mrs. A. Lion Hunter, who had been introduced to the famous illustrator, took aim for a pot shot and pulled the trigger,” the article begins.

“Oh Mr. Mann,”said she, “I am so glad to meet you! I simply adore your stunning American girls. They are so true to life- so typical! You must have a perfectly wonderful model!”

“Oh no,” replied the Famous Illustrator unenthusiastically; “nothing like that. Still Miss O’ Brien is a quiet little worker, and she holds the pose.”

“O’Brien! But that doesn’t sound a bit American!”

“No, she’s not. Her mother was English, or maybe Scotch.  Her father is an Irishman. She was born in Belfast.”

A gasp can be heard audibly as our matron takes in this shocking information.

“Belfast! And do you always use an Irish model when you do an American girl?”

“Oh no, not always,” The Famous Illustrators eyes twinkled. “I sometimes use Miss Schumacher. Her people came from Alsace, but I think she is partly Scandinavian. She looks as if she had stepped right out of Holland.”

Mrs. Hunter, feeling faint steels herself for what is to follow.

Vintage Illustration from Delineator magazine Feb. 1920
(L-R) The Spanish girl, the Scandinavian and the Jewish girl

“The fact is Mrs. Hunter,” our artist somberly explains, “when an American artist has to do a foreign type, no matter what it may be, Scandinavian, Italian, Czecho-Slovak, Armenian or what not, he can if he wants to, find a model of that nationality waiting at his door, but if he has to do an American girl – well he hasn’t time to page the American girl. He wades right in.”

So it seems, the American artist wades right into that melting pot and gives it a good stir.

“Exactly,” broke in professor High Brow, who had been listening to the conversation  with an amused expression. “It merely goes to show that there is no such thing as an American type.”

“The Famous Illustrator turned towards the professor with a puzzled look.”

“No such thing as an American type?”

“Why no- except the American Indian. The rest of us, barring the Negroes, are pretty much all Europeans, and of comparatively recent importation too. One out of seven Americans was born in a foreign country; another one out of every seven is the offspring of foreign-born parents.”

“Oh yes Professor Brow,” interrupted Mrs. Hunter, with an encouraging glance toward the famous illustrator. “we all admit that we Americans are  dreadfully mixed but isn’t that true of the Spanish too? Yet no one would deny there is a Spanish type.”

Vintage Illustration from Delineator magazine Feb. 1920
(L-R) The daughter of Italy, the Dutch girl, and the French girl

The article  finally gets down to the question at hand describing in detail the ideal American girl who has not varied for  the past 90 years, offering a recipe for a well turned American girl.

“And so we come back to our own American girl. We know she is of European ancestry, and yet, typically she is quite different from all her European cousins.”

“Let us not be misunderstood. When we speak of the American girl we are not speaking of our foreign-born and Americans of foreign parentage.”

“Even in America there are thousands and thousands of representatives of those purely foreign types that we have been discussing. But alongside of these, there is the American girl of purely American parentage or ancestry.”

Vintage Illustration from Delineator magazine Feb. 1920
(L-R) The Irish girl, Scotch girl and the English rose

“Isolated from the foreign types around her, she stands out as distinctly fair rather than dark, and white of skin, though not with the dazzling whiteness of the Scandinavian or the English girl.”

“Her eyes indeed are of a varying hue from blue to brown, but characteristically of a color subdues by gray- rarely of the light blue of the Scandinavian or the steely blue of the Irish girl nor the deep brown or black of the Southern Europeans. Her hair, a hue of brown, with here also minor variations due to varying ancestry, shading from a light brown to dark drown and generally straight or waving.”

“A medium type, a composite type if you will, but still a type – a sort of modified Teutonic, owing much to a basic English stock, re-blended to some extent with Scandinavian or other Teutonic blood, and tempered by a touch of darker, Celtic or Alpine elements, coming perhaps by way of Ireland or the south of Germany.”

Given that not a mention has been made concerning Asian Americans, the article curiously closes with a quote from a gentleman of the Orient.

“Perhaps we rather pin our faith to the words of Wu Ting Fang: “

“When I speak of the American woman, I can not say that there really is a prevailing type. It is a mixture of all types. The American type is a combination of all that is best in the types of the world.”

Yes, as long as that world is European.

Xenophobia, like Miss America is as American as apple pie. Only the nationalities change over time.

© Sally Edelstein and Envisioning The American Dream, 2016. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Sally Edelstein and Envisioning The American Dream with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

Why was the Happy Homemaker so happy? Beer of Course! Vintage Budweiser ad

Ever wonder what made the mid-century Happy Housewife so happy? It turns out hubby wasn’t the only one knocking back a few brewsky’s at the end of  a long day.

Beer ads traditionally  targeting men  have long featured buxom babes, but there was a time the beer industry pitched a frosty brew directly to the wholesome homemaker.

Long before Budweiser jumped on the femvertising bandwagon using Amy Schumer and feminism to sell beer while discussing the gender wage gap, enlightened beer companies marketed their product to help make the American housewife life a lot happier. And increase their coffers.

Not For Men Only

Vintage ad 1961 United States Brewers association

In 1961, as JFK beckoned us all into a New frontier, American Brewers opened their own non sexist frontier welcoming women to enjoy the pleasures of beer.

If  brewers had their way, a cool brew among suburban housewives would become as common as the proverbial kaffee klatch.

The United States Brewers Association  ran this ad  posing the controversial question:

“Who says beer is a mans beverage?”

“Men do, ourselves included,” the copy begins.” . On the other hand, we’ve always said that beer is the kind of light sparkling drink- not hard, not soft, a perfect “in between” that would appeal to women too. In recent years its been happening: women are discovering the good taste of beer and ale.”

But don’t be alarmed , gentlemen, the ad says soothing any ruffled feathers that might have caused the big brute to fret, “There will always be plenty to go around. We ll see to that.”

Kinda like their  salaries and jobs

Just as men might worry that a woman might take their job, they could rest assured the woman would be paid less.

Hostess with the Mostess

Ads featured women as consummate wife and hostess carrying out wifely duties fetching a tray of frosty beer  to host a perfect party were the popular them in the series of ads run by the United States Brewers Foundation. This one entitled “St Louis Barbecue on the Terrace” by Douglas Crockwell was #55 in their series Home Life in America

But mid-century women didn’t worry their pretty heads about a gender pay gap because hubby was the sole breadwinner. But serving the right beer could help hubby get that raise

Mr America understood that serving the proper beer to the boss when he came to dinner would mean the difference between a partnership or being stuck in a managerial position for another few years.

By the mid 1950’s , brewers had begun directing their ads squarely at women but not as consumers but more as a service ad, as a way to help them in their important task as gracious hostess and helpful wives.

And really girls, what gal didn’t dream of being the perfect hostess?

She Never Suspected

Appealing directly to the homemaker this 1955 ad from Budweiser ran in McCall’s Magazine

Poor Pam. Everything seemed  set for the perfect dinner party, the rib roast was in the oven, the California dip snappily made, but when her husband Tom looked askance at the beer she was serving her heart sunk. With eyes downcast, she realized she had let Tom down.

She had stayed way too long at the bridge game with the girls and in her haste at the market she had purchased the wrong beer for her dinner party. The beer was on sale, and honestly, what did she know? Beer was her hubby’s domain.

Budweiser would set her straight.

“One thing about Men she never suspected” this ad from 1955 begins.

“It was how highly most of them regarded Budweiser. She had thought that beers were pretty much alike. When she served her husbands guests a less distinguished beer, he was pretty much upset about it. No ‘scene’ or anything like that. He just said: ‘Look darling: when you buy anything less than Budweiser, that’s exactly what you get-less.’ To serve beer to guest is hospitality – to serve them Budweiser, is a gracious compliment.

On the Ball With Budweiser

Vintage Budweiser ad

Unlike poor Pam, on-the-ball Babs always served the right beer for her lucky guests. Everything was always in the best of taste with Babs; her buffets were the talk of the neighborhood, her recipes festive, and most importantly, she never made a mistake in which beer to serve. That adoring glance of her husband Hank -the envy of all the gals-  proved it.

“Everything They Say About Her is True” ran the headline  from this Budweiser ad.

“Men think she’s perfectly wonderful – especially the husband she adores. Her flawless hospitality has expanded both their friendships and his business opportunities. It seems that she just can’t make a mistake.
When it comes to serving her guests,she never makes a mistake. That’s for sure. She serves Budweiser the beer whose taste and character have made it the symbols of gracious living with particular people everywhere.

The Real Housewives of the Cold War

Helen’s eyes were green with envy. “That woman is real competition,” she cattily hissed to her pal Joanne about their gracious host Caro Lee.  Seething with jealousy, Joanna had to agree.  Not only did Carol Lee whip up the best rumaki in town, her cheese balls were to die for.  And she always served the proper beer.

Budweiser’s 1956 advertisement  entitled “That Woman is Real Competition” pits housewife against housewife, like an episode of the Real  Housewives of the Cold War.

As a hostess I mean,” begins the ad copy.”She has more original ides for table settings than you can shake a stick at. And the dishes she dreams up are out of this world- but there’s one thing that never changes. The beer has to be Budweiser. She says that when you’re proud of a meal why not pay it the complement it deserves- the beer has graced more tables than any other beer ever known.

Marriage Advice – Budweiser to the Rescue

Vintage Budweiser beer Ad 1956

Newlywed Marci McKowskie knew her first job as a wife was to make her husband happy preparing meals to make him contented. And if she didn’t learn these husband pleasing tricks  it was her own darn fault. She had only Marci to blame for an unhappy hubby.

She found She Married Two Men, Budweiser reveals in this 1956 ad.

In fact, all women do…there’s always that inner man, you know. And think of all the planning that goes into meals to make him contented!

When you plan, are you fair to yourself? Do you complement your delicious dishes by serving the best beer ever brewed?

ps It’s a fact: Budweiser has delighted more husbands than any brew ever known.

Be a Happier Homemaker

Vintage Ballantine Beer ad 1954

It soon became clear the little lady of the house could benefit from beer too. A whole untapped market awaited the Mad men of Madison avenue and tap it they did.

Naturally like most American girls,  the happy housewife wanted to keep her girlish figure so in this 1954 Ballantine ad they spoke directly  to m lady  emphasizing how many fewer calories their beer had than any other. Beer they explained was a naturally low calories drink to begin with. beer thy said was starch free and hardly a touch of sugar. In the mid-century world of dieting where starches and sugars were the real bugaboo of dieters, Ballantine made sure to  emphasize that beer was starch free and hardly a touch of sugar.

So go ahead Mrs. Dieter, imbibe with gusto.

Ballantine Beer watched m’ladies belt line in this 1954 ad.

“Nearly all beers are lower in calories than they used to be. They’re all starch-free- and none has more than a negligible trace of sugar.

But…if you’re counting up your calorie quota your beer is definitely Ballantine Beer. Independent laboratory tests have shown that it has fewer calories than any other leading beer.

Is it Any Wonder Mrs. Norris Needs Malt?

Like a knight in white armor, beer was ready to come to the frazzled housewife’s rescue.

Between an overbearing husband, ungrateful kids, endless housework and spending her days pleasing other, is it any wonder Mrs America needed something to help her be happy.

Apparently the makers of Malt agreed.

Vintage ad Fro Malt 1958

In this 1958 ad from Fro Malt, proud makers of barley malt they understood the difficulties of the modern woman.

“Wife and mother, homemaker and hostess- this taxing pace makes malt in some form so vital to her daily diet. For malt is a source of sparkling energy no matter where its found.”

Thus the happy housewife.

© Sally Edelstein and Envisioning The American Dream, 2016. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Sally Edelstein and Envisioning The American Dream with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

“There’s a sucker born every minute!” Great American Showmen PT Barnum and Donald trump

In June 2015 when the  orange-hued Carnival Barker  tossed his hat into the circus  ring,  it seemed like a joke.

No one’s laughing anymore.

Now with the real possibility of a President Trump, the joke could be on us.

The throngs of adoring supporters  serve only to only to prove another great showman’s  famous line:

“There’s a sucker born every minute!”

When you vote, please don’t prove P.T. Barnum right.  Don’t be a sucker!

Cast your vote for Hillary

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Vintage New Years Eve reveler 1949

Few would disagree that 2016 turned out to be an “Annus Horribilis” so let’s end it with a bit of lighthearted  froth!

Here’s hoping our world can figure out how we can all be a kinder, more compassion and better informed this coming year.Wishing all a very Happy New Year!

Of all the roles women are required to fill in this society, daughterhood is universal.

Is there a daughter who didn’t devolve into tears after having watched Bright Lights,  Fisher Steven’s brilliant documentary on the remarkable relationship between Carrie Fisher and her mother Debbie Reynolds, which he called  “a different kind of love story?”

A woman’s stormiest love affair, its been said,  is the one all daughters have with their mothers.

What tugs at our hearts watching these two Hollywood legends engage, is the gut wrenching recognition. The primal power of a mother and daughter’s aching love and dependence is exquisitely reflected in these larger than life but profoundly real women.

Glitz and glamor aside, that unique mother daughter bond, layered and loving, fierce but often flawed, punctuated by trials and tribulations is one most women can understand.

Our Mothers Daughters

My own mother wasn’t a Hollywood star though she is surely a legend in my life.

Her ofttimes off  key voice didn’t stop her from singing, filling the house with equal measures of love and out of tune show tunes. Dancing was strictly for Bar Mitzvahs, and the closest she got to appearing in a movie was courtesy of a hand-held 8mm Bell and Howell home movie camera. But to me, especially as a child, she was a dazzling star, my child-like gaze followed her with the watchfulness of an obsessive fan.

In the years before I went to school I shadowed my mother everywhere she went.

I was Moms faithful sidekick. I was her  Boo Boo to her Yogi Bear, Tonto to her Lone Ranger. My life orbited around my Mother and the gravitational pull was strong. Within her sphere of influence I was a contented little satellite, spinning wherever she went, my movements carefully and lovingly monitored by a watchful eye.

But the universe would change in time.

I would want to spin off into my own orbit.  I might dare move into a world in which my mother might seemingly play a tertiary role. Used to  being in a starring role, there were years  I suspect, when Mom felt she was relegated to the bleachers, a stand-in, a mere bit player, summarily called for to appear, just as summarily dismissed.

She who was essential , whose life revolved around mine  just as in equal measure I was sure mine had revolved around hers, suddenly spun out of orbit into my own world, a different separate universe,  one that didn’t include her all the time.

Naturally, in time the universe had a way of spinning back to its original configuration. Once again I became my mother’s side kick, shadowing her wherever she went, attuned to her every need as astutely, lovingly and fearfully as she had been to mine.

In the end we each take our turn as caregivers, it’s just a matter of who’s watching who.

Like Mother Like Daughter

Debbie Reynolds , Eddie Fisher and baby Carrie

While Carrie Fisher was a teller of truth, her mother belonged to the world of myth-making. Carrie  often spoke of her childhood preening for perfect pictures of her perfect family for the paparazzi.

And why not?

Picture perfect images of mothers and daughters  filled the pages of magazines  through much of mid-century America.

Vintage Ladies Home Journal Cover 1940 Illustration Al Parker

The media had a  field day presenting us with idealized representations of proud mothers and aspiring daughters, always in unison, none more memorable than those covers from Ladies Home Journal that were an homage to the sweetly sentimental world of mothers and daughters.

Mothers and daughters were clearly tied together not only by their apron strings but the same set of cultural expectations. Not only did they share darling matching outfits but the same sunny enthusiasm for household chores. Vintage Ladies Home Journal Cover Illustration Al Parker

Al Parker’s  illustrations for Ladies Home Journal were well-known to his readers for decades portraying mother and daughter in identical outfits pursuing recreational activities together, whether  skiing swimming, or  baking always in perfect unison and in matching outfits.

Vintage Ladies Home Journal Cover Oct. 1939 Illustration Al Parker

Vintage Ladies Home Journal Cover Illustration Al Parker

Vintage Ladies Home Journal Cover June 1946 Illustration Al Parker

Vintage Ladies Home Journal Cover October 1941 Illustration Al Parker

Vintage Ladies Home Journal Cover December 1946 Illustration Al Parker

Vintage Ladies Home Journal Cover Illustration Al Parker

Vintage Ladies Home Journal Cover August 1946 Illustration Al Parker

The message was clear- Girls would be cut from the same cloth as their Mothers.

© Sally Edelstein and Envisioning The American Dream, 2017. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Sally Edelstein and Envisioning The American Dream with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

“But I don’t want to go among Mad People, Alice remarked.” Lewis Carroll Alice in Wonderland

For the past few months it has felt as though I had joined Alice falling through the rabbit hole.

Ever since late January, living in what seemed to be an alternative universe littered with alternative facts has taken its toll on me.

The mysteries of the mind

Observing a once upon a time authority figure spouting gibberish on a daily basis has been unsettling. Witnessing his unhinged outbursts,  poor reasoning peppered with paranoia  has been unnerving.

Watching  a man once entrusted with my care show alarmingly faulty judgement and poor concentration, while make baffling claims and incoherent ramblings has been nothing short of disconcerting.

Conversations chock full of confabulations, became the norm.

And with each passing week it had gotten progressively worse.

I watched over the past 4 months as a man’s mind seem to deteriorate on a daily basis.

That’s what dementia will do to you. The man was my father.

But coexisting in my personal pain was this parallel universe, that was inescapable. Nonsense spouted not just privately by my father in dementia but publicly  by our 45th president.

“I don’t think…” then you shouldn’t talk, said the hatter.” Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland. Vintage Illustration Alice in Wonderland

Privately as I witnessed  my fathers once sharp mind  slip further into days filled with fantasy, fabrications and falsehoods I watched  our President do the same. Donald Trump’s lack of comprehension of facts was obvious, his speech unintelligible at times, a jumble of incomplete thoughts, childlike in scope.

Logic defying gibberish straight out of Alice in Wonderland.

It was all too familiar to me.

In Trump world like in the world of dementia, facts no longer mattered, truth doesn’t matter, language doesn’t matter.

Though my father has now sadly passed away, there is still no relief from this other madness…I still feel like I am falling down the rabbit hole.

Is Trump as crazy as the Mad Hatter or just crazy like a fox?

Like most mid-century girls, Bitsy Bendix longed to be a bride, convinced that the basic occupation of virtually every girl was choosing a man to marry.

But for bachelorette Bitsy the next best thing happened.

In the summer of 1950 she may not have been a model bride but became the ultimate model for a bride when she posed as one in a Community Silverplate advertisement.

Vintage Community Silverplate ads 1946 illustrations Jon Whitcomb “Happy is the bride the sun shines on…gloriously happy for keeps. And happy the bride who starts her household treasure with Community Silverplate.”

In an era run rampant with advertising and illustrations of happy brides and handsome grooms, no series of ads celebrated love and marriage more than the wildly popular Community Silver-plate series illustrated by that dream-weaver of mid-century American romance Jon Whitcomb.

Always a Bridesmaid…

Illustration by Pruett Carter- Ladies Home Journal 1948

It all began for Bitsy in April.

Springtime brought out the bride in all hopeful young women. April showers might bring May flowers but they also brought bridal showers blossoming into June Brides.

Along with the appearance of the first daffodils, each spring, would bring with it a new crop of bridal and wedding themed articles, advertising and illustrations. Every magazine you flipped through, every newspaper you read, painted the same glowing picture of the desirability and inevitability of marriage.

American companies were happy to align themselves with weddings and marriage. (R) This vintage 1950 A&P ad states: “Walking Down the Aisle Together. June the traditional month of brides is a happy time . For thanks to countless brides of many Junes A&P has become a tradition too. Seeing newlyweds in the aisles of A&P supermarket always makes us proud of our part in helping make Americans dreams come true.” (L) Vintage 1948 ad for Plymouth- the perfect car for weddings and beyond. “For a smooth getaway and a smooth path ahead” The car also boasted a huge trunk large enough for “a princesses trousseau!”

A Toast to Marriage. (L) Beer Belongs Ad Series “Preview of Wedding Presents” illustration by Haddon Sundblom (R) Pepsi Cola ad 1953

Long before the now defunct Doma (Defense of Marriage Act)  dictated what constituted a marriage, American mass media set the gold standard for the ideal of marriage.

Dream On

“Of all the wedding gifts, Presto cooker will contribute more to every brides homemaking happiness!” Vintage ad 1948 Presto Cooker

Like every girl she knew, Bitsy would close her eyes and imagine herself floating in a drift of white organdy with embroidered dots enveloped in a veil of tulle; her wedding shower filled with the latest Wear Ever pressure cooker, copper bottomed Revere Ware and perfectly wonderful Pyrex.

“A Presto cooker the most useful gift imaginable for the most wonderful woman in the world…a bride.” Vintage advertisements for Presto Cookers (L) 1950 (R) 1952

Planning for the Future-  One of the most popular gifts for brides was anything Pyrex as this 1946 Pyrex ad suggests: “If you want wedding and shower gifts that will thrill her now and help her later…” Bride Today…Hostess Tomorrow (L) Toastmaster ad 1950

But most of all she longed for her very own treasure chest of gleaming Community silver-plate, just like in the romantic ads.

Vintage Community Silverplate ad Illustration Jon Whitcomb 1951 “April showers are sunny when they sparkle with community”

A ring on her finger- Vintage Community Silverplate ad 1946 illustration Jon Whitcomb “Her ring-stardust circling a slender finger. Her Community…gleaming symbol of gracious living. This a bride treasures… for keeps.”

Bitsy would picture herself setting a table for 2, placing her cherished Community silver proudly on lace or linen, delighting in its tradition. With her husband beaming with pride, she could imagine herself a gracious hostess entertaining proudly, knowing her guests will whisper “Isn’t she lucky-“It’s Community!”

Marriage is For Keeps

Vintage Community Silverplate ad from WWII. The format was the same but because Whitcomb was off to war serving in the Navy, the illustration was taken over by an artist signed simply Michael. “Today he has a war on his hands, begins this,” 1943 ad.”But the day will come, please God, when your Tom or Dick or Jack come homes for keeps…when kisses will be real, not paper, when you may know a strong hand on yours in a dim lit room…when crystal will gleam and silver will sparkle.”

The famous series of ads that launched a thousand happy marriage trousseau’s had been running since  WWII where it featured long distance romance  between a soldier and his sweetie on the home-front, dreaming of a post-war world where they would be together for keeps.

The formulaic ads lushly painted by illustrator Jon Whitcomb always featured beautiful bride or bride to be gazing adoringly into the eyes of her beloved, a typical American love scene with a clean-cut boy and well scrubbed girl.

Vintage illustration by Jon Whitcomb 1955 Ladies Home Journal

Whitcomb has been called the master propagandist in the art of love and his highly romanticized vision of both men and women and their idealized lives filled the pages and fantasy of  post war America

 The Look of Love

“Lets Make it for Keeps” states this 1947 Community ad. “Two…in a world of music…2 in a world of their own…2 who have discovered each other…for keeps! For keeps too- the 2 will treasure the sparkling hospitality inviting beauty of their gracious Community.” Illustration Jon Whitcomb

Along with her best pal Guy Manning, Bitsy could spend hours poring over the latest women’s  magazines discussing flower arrangements, table settings, and a well planned trousseau.

But mostly for these 2 romantics it was the appearance of the seasons first community silver ad that set their hearts aflutter. It was something the 2 had shared since childhood.

“There’ll come a day when we’re the lucky ones,” a brooding Bitsy would sigh to Guy, staring longingly at the illustration of the handsome groom.

Sometimes it was hard to tell who was swooning more over the dreamy couple pictured in the ads, Bitsy or her old pal Guy.

Not the The Marrying Kind

Jon Whitcomb was one of the most recognizable mid century artists whose glamorous women with their wholesome American good looks appeared regularly in all the top women’s fashion magazines as well as ad campaigns. Illustration Ladies Home Journal 1948

Everyone always remarked that Guy was a real dreamboat, as handsome as any of the hunks in Whitcomb’s illustrations. But when it came to girls he was always batting zero.

Betsy just ignored him when he’d shrug and tell her “he wasn’t the marrying kind.”

“A man becomes the marrying kind,” Bitsy would lecture him, “when some girl makes him realize that marriage would be far more agreeable and worthwhile than bachelorhood!”

For years, Bitsy had tried setting Guy up with all kinds of gals from the office but they never amounted to anything. Sure he might flirt with a file clerk and share a soda and sob story with a girl from the steno pool but Guy seemed to prefer the quiet company of his equally handsome roommate Rod.

Exacerbated, Bitsy joked that the two confirmed bachelors were like an old married couple.

 A Man of Your own

“It’s magic, it’s moonlight, it’s mystery, it’s a miracle…when he finds that she cares for keeps! Vintage ad 1947 Illustration Jon Whitcomb

Bitsy just knew in her heart that some glad day the lump in her throat would melt and the man in her life would appear.

What Betsy didn’t know was that for Guy, he already had.

“Don’t you worry Guy,” Bitsy reassured her best pal. “They’ll come a day when your dreams will come true… And the hopes and plans for a marriage of your own will really happen topped off by a treasure chest of Community!”.

But for Guy there would be no wedding, and no presents for in 1950 for a closeted gay man in a small town there was no community.

Calling All Brides

Vintage Community Silverplate ad 1948

Who would ever guess that a shopping excursion to a department store in April would bring Bitsy closer to her hearts desire.

By early spring it always seemed someone in Bitsy’s set was about to take the big step. Shopping for wedding gifts at Swensons Department store in downtown Sweet Oaks  was a spring ritual.

One afternoon, while Guy and Bitsy were browsing through the silver department deep in deliberation mulling the merits of pickle forks for their pal Midge, a sign caught Guys eye.

“Manufacturers Sponsors Jon Whitcomb Contest for All American Girl” read the sign

Vintage Community Silver ad 1951

Picking up a flyer from the counter Guy read aloud:

“If you’ve ever dreamed of being a real life cover girl, this may be your opportunity,” an animated Guy read excitedly. “Jon Whitcomb famous illustrator and creator of the Whitcomb girl is looking 4 new undiscovered feminine faces to model for color page ads for Community Silverplate.

Who is the clear-eyed all American girl painted by Jon Whitcomb?

Vintage Community Silverplate Ads 1952 Illustration Jon Whitman

A model is desperately needed to model silverware for a Jon Whitcomb painting. A nationwide search is now being conducted to come up with 4 future Whitcomb lovelies and the lure is a fabulous summer vacation trip top NYC all expenses paid. and a week at Waldorf for girl and her chaperone or husband.

Four lucky girls will receive the original painting valued at thousands of dollars and $100 a day modeling fees while posing for 3 days plus $100 cash for incidentals.

“One girl will be chosen from towns of less than 25,000, one from towns of 25,000 to 100,000 one from towns of 100,000 to 500,000 and one from cities of more than 500,000.

Vintage Community Silverplate ad 1952 Illustrator Jon Whitcomb

The contest sponsored by Community Silverplate, one of the country’s foremost manufacturers is being conducted through jewelry stores and department stores silverware departments.

The contest ends May 1 1950. To enter a busy gal has only to visit a jeweler, fill out a very short application blank and mail it with a snap shot to the board of judges. Winners announced in June.

“Unless Hollywood is your first love, you can’t afford to lose this opportunity!

Opportunity Knocks

Vintage Community Silverplate ad 1951 Illustrator Jon Whitcomb

“Bitsy doll,  you’d be a shoo in,” Guy said eagerly.

Everyone in Sweet Oaks Iowa always said Bitsy was a jack-pot type of girl.

With her wholesome American good looks she fit a Whitcomb girl to a T. A honey strawberry blonde with a Pepsodent smile and plenty of pep, she had, as Guy would say “a cake baking disposition.”

“It oughn’t be so hard to have that ‘starry eyed look’ over a knife with which you can butter your bread, should it?” Guy asked joyfully.

“This could be your ticket to your dreams.”

“Lifetime lovely! Lifetime loved!” Vintage Community Silverplate ad 1952 Illustrator Jon Whitcomb

“Everyone knew,” he gushed  “ that many of Jon Whitcomb’s models had gone on to big time Hollywood careers, as well as leaving the business for matrimony, marrying big time railroad executives, and other successful tycoons.”

A thrill shot through Bitsy!

This just might help this bachelor girl to get a ring on her own finger.

Bride Make Over

Vintage Community Silverplate ad 1953 Illustrator Jon Whitcomb

With only 3 weeks left to mail in their application they got to work.

While Rod grabbed his Kodak Hawkeye Brownie and made like a shutterbug, Guy did Bitsy’s hair and her makeup applying just the right amount of rouge to give her that well scrubbed all American look.

Carefully he painted her lips in Revlon’s new color sunny side up red  for good luck. “A tempting red…teasing as a butterfly,” Guy cooed.
The ads said it all: “Revlon’s light hearted, sun sweetened crimson makes you kick up your heels…put a lift in your clothes…a laugh in your eye! Suddenly, all’s right with the world….”

The Waiting days are Over

“This is the moment, this is forever, this is the slice of enduring joy you have cut for yourself for keeps!” Vintage Community Ad 1946 Illustration Jon Whitcomb

Waiting to hear if she’d won the contest nearly drove poor Bitsy batty! The postman always rang twice, but for weeks Bitsy was at the door by the first ring anxiously waiting for the letter from Community.

When the congratulatory letter arrived in June, she was over the moon! Bitsy would be a bride at last if only in a painting.

On the train ride to NYC with her Mom,  Bitsy had to pinch herself! She was really going to be a Whitman girl!

And We’ll live happily ever after Shes In Love and She Loves Community

Vintage Community Silverplate Ad 1949 Illustration Jon Whitcomb

It wouldn’t be long before she could count on a set of cherished community silver for her very own.

By Christmas beautiful Bitsy Bendix was engaged!

It was the day she dreamed of and Community helped make her dream come true, turning a bride model into a genuine model Bride.

“You’ve dreamed forever…of this moment! You’ve lived forever…for this moment. You start forever…with this moment!” Vintage Community Silverplate ad 1946

Suddenly, just as Guy said, all was right with the world….

 © Sally Edelstein and Envisioning The American Dream, 2017. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Sally Edelstein and Envisioning The American Dream with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

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A summer staple at my 1960’s family barbecues was the ritual hot dog competition not in competitive eating but dissecting who made the best toothsome well turned frank.

The mouth-watering aroma of grilling franks wafting through the suburban air sparked the inevitable debate about who made the best hot dog.

There was fierce loyalty and intense competition.

A Hot Dog Makes Them Love Control!
Vintage advertisements (L) Del Monte Catsup 1961 (R) Gleam Toothpaste 1950s

The faithful kosher deli coalition whose Hebrew National dogs were grilled flat on a gas griddle to a crispy puckering finish, scoffed at the sacrilege of the  “dirty water dogs” languishing in a warm water bath sold by the city street vendors, whose devotees swore by the steamed Sabretts, heaped high with rich day-glo orange-colored sweet-tart onion sauce.

Loyalists to N.Y.C.’s  West Side Gray’s Papaya formed an unlikely alliance with their East Side rival Papaya King, both of which thought it blasphemous to  wash down a frank with anything but papaya juice, certainly never an orange drink, even if the frank dressed with mustard relish and nestled in a buttered toasted bun was “Good…like Nediks!”

For some the pontificating took on the seriousness of a rabbinic argument, though in actuality it more closely resembled a bunch of kids arguing over which were the best baseball cards, Topps in the nickel wax pack  or Bazookas cut from panels on the gum boxes, and like both discourses, no one ever won the dispute.

But on one point they agreed.

Vintage Photo Nathans Hot Dog Stand, Coney Island, NY

No one dared tamper with that most sacrosanct of hot dogs the one consumed on Coney Island on Surf and Stillwell Avenues – Nathans.

It’s the Wurst

 With the dexterity and skills of a fencer, Dad nimbly poked and prodded the franks on the grill. Normally the only dogs to sizzle on our Weber were those approved by a Higher Authority, Hebrew National, but as a surprise my grandfather had brought us cartons of gen-u-ine New York Yankee- approved-Stahl Meyer hot dogs direct from their Ridgewood Queens factory.

The boxes of pork and beef frankfurters were more than likely a token of thanks to my pawnbroker grandfather from a Stahl Meyer delivery truck driver with a penchant for poker who had pawned his Timex for the umpteenth time.To show his appreciation for my grandfathers leniency, he had made an unscheduled “delivery” to Edelstein Brothers Pawnshop on his regular route supplying dogs to Yankee stadium

The very mention of a Stahl Meyer hot dog brought boyish grins across generations of Dodger and Giants fans, instantly transporting my curmudgeon great Uncles and their broad beamed sons from the comfort of their webbed aluminum lawn chairs to the hard, gray painted, wood slatted seats of the bleachers of the old Polo Grounds and Ebbitt’s Field.

Even those observant Jews like my Great Uncle Leo who would never dream of eating a hot dog that wasn’t kosher, crossed a sacred boundary with ease at a baseball game.

Like eating at a Chinese Restaurant, age-old prohibitions were suspended for the day, as he willingly succumbed to the enticing aroma of a steamy Stahl Meyer dog fished out of rapidly cooling water by vendors dressed in white lugging around iron trays shouting “They’re skinless and boneless and harmless  and homeless”  as they bounded up and down the narrow aisles.

Not everyone was so enthralled.

For some members of my family any hot dog that wasn’t a kosher Hebrew
National, might well have been the same as barbecuing bacon.

As Dad casually nudged the plump Hebrew Nationals to one side of the grill, my  great Aunt Rena watched like a hawk making certain that a rogue Stahl Meyer frank did not accidentally defect over to the other side of the barbecue. It wasn’t just that these franks were not sanctified by rabbinic law, no it was far worse.

These dogs had Deutschland written all over them.

As if the factory was on the Rhine and not Ridgewood Queens, Aunt Rena shuddered at the thought of some former Bund Deutscher Madel blue-eyed blonde, meat-packing Fräulein fondling the Fuher’s frankfurters in their natural casings, while lustily humming the Nazi anthem “Horst Wessel song.”

Vintage Ad (L) Skinless Franks 1948 (R) Vintage Saturday Evening Post Cover 7/31/43 illustration Kenneth Stuart

Ridgewood, where the hot dogs were manufactured was a notoriously German neighborhood.

Not surprisingly, Aunt Rena was not the only family member who was convinced its many multi family row houses built-in the 1920s by Germans for Germans , brick by golden-colored Kreischer brick, was still populated by men in brown shirts, black Jack boots and wide Sam Browne Belts, rank and file members of the German American Volksbund who 25 years earlier, believed in Nazi power and strength to conqueror the world who still refused to embrace Aus der traum.

As the Stahl Meyer dogs rolled perilously close to the Hebrew Nationals, a shiver of terror went through some of my relatives, as if Joseph Goebbels himself had cheerfully stuffed those plump terra-cotta tubes with not only pork and spices, but a hefty serving of Nazi propaganda for good measure.

When it came to Germany, a wall had already been built by my family, beating the Russians by a full decade.

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Americas train systems are off the rails.

New York train commuters were told to be braced for the “Summer from Hell.” It was to be a summer of heat, humidity and horrible train service. After years of increasingly poor service, I was more than braced. Bad service on the Long Island Rail Road was the norm not the exception.

And don’t even get me started on NYC out-of-date subways.

Dashing Dan symbol of LIRR

Dashing Dan, LIRR’s iconic mid-century commuter shown dashing to catch his always on time train seems woefully outdated today.

Along with the aging tracks and tunnels, it’s time to update Dashing Dan too.

No, not for his Mad Men era fedora and mid-century garb.

Sadly today Dashing Dan would be less likely to be dashing to make his punctual train as he would be racing to his missed appointment after his commuter train was an hour late due to train derailments, signal problems or any number of disruption to service.

Instead of singing the Long Island Rail Road’s praises as was his original intent, today’s  Dashing Dan would most likely be muttering an expletive or two under his breath.

LIRR riders have been grappling with daily service disruptions due to Amtrak’s massive repair project at Penn Station. Several tracks are closed for long overdue repairs affecting all Amtrak trains and millions of passengers

Nowadays, Dan this once proud symbol of the efficient LIRR is the poster boy for our crumbling infrastructure.

Stalled trains, an antiquated signal system, massive delays and cancellations are crippling commuters unwittingly making Dashing Dan’s and Dashing Dottie’s out of all of us.

Dashing Dottie, was the female counterpart to Dashing Dan LIRR dashing commuters. Unlike Dan, Dottie never appeared on the sides of trains but relegated to publicity and promotional elements . Vintage decal.

And yes there is a Dashing Dottie, but as often happens, this female commuter took a back seat on the train next to her more well publicized male counterpart. Like so many untold stories of unheralded women, Dottie has her own.

Most Long Islanders  are familiar with lovable Dan, LIRR’s  company logo created in the late 1950s to increase railroad ridership and boost general good will. This perpetually running late suburban commuter dashing from his split level to his job in the city appeared as decals on the sides of locomotives, passenger cars, work equipment promotional material as well as souvenirs.

Vintage Illustration George Hughes “Saturday Evening Post “

Less well-known Dottie was introduced in 1963 as a companion to Dan. Kind of like creating Ken for Barbie but in reverse.

Mere months before the publication of  “The Feminine Mystique” when rumblings from women expressing their second class status began to be quietly heard, female commuters on the LIRR voiced their own displeasure at being underrepresented. Dashing Dan, they protested,  didn’t typify all commuters! Apparently bake sales were not all that were being discussed at PTA meetings.

The LIRR publicity department responded to their grumblings and decided to create their very own homage to the female commuter. Developing a name took time. As a nod to Rosie the Riveter they briefly  considered “Rushing Rosie” followed by my personal favorite and all too true today- “Sprinting Sally” but eventually settled on Dashing Dottie that worked oh so much better with Dan.

Of course Dottie was more likely to be headed to her job as a stenographer or secretary than an executive.

The magazine to introduce Dottie to Long Island Railroad employees before her big debut the next day to all commuters. Vintage Long Island Railroader April 1963. Archive Dave Morrision courtesy http://www.trainsarefun.com/lirr/lirrlogos.htm

Dashing Dottie made her debut in an issue of ” Dashing Dan’s Diary”  a newsletter in the early 1960’s issued by the LIRR Public Relations department. The issue was aboard all the commuter trains in the morning to introduce Dottie to their riders.  Despite creating her as a response to women’s protests, they dished up Dottie to satisfy men’s appetites, making sure her “anatomical parts” were mighty pleasing.

The headline read : “Here She is, Men: Dashing Dottie”

Here she – is Dashing Dan’s favorite running mate, Dashing Dottie,

Dottie is both the culmination of a dream for a cartoon counterpart of Dan and the answer to those distaff commuters who felt left out because all the emphasis has been on Dan.”

While Dan just sort of growed from a PR department doodle pad, Dottie was carefully and lovingly “assembled” until the combination of ‘anatomical parts and clothing seemed just right.

“We think she looks mighty sharp and pretty – just like our real life Dashing Dotties.

Dottie’s going to be a busy girl. Her first activity will be to co-star with Dan in a design for a couple of handsome new souvenir items that will be ready around the end of May.

Driving You to Drink

Created 1963, Dashing Dan commuter cocktail glasses from Libbey

In an era when bar cars were the norm for commuters who could count on downing a final scotch on the rocks before heading home to the kiddies, Dan and Dottie figured prominently on cocktail paraphernalia.

A  popular gift item was a “Dan n’ Dottie Cocktails 4 Two” set. It consisted of a 16 ounce Libby glass, mixing pitcher, two  matching cocktail glasses and a glass stirrer. On one glass is Dottie, the other Dan. Both appear on the pitcher- running headlong into each other.

Vintage Dashing Dan cocktail glass

In 1963 LIRR even concocted a new cocktail for commuters named Dashing Dan. It  consisting of a 1.6 ounces Vodka on rocks, a dash of orange bitters and a sliver of fresh orange. Drink cost 95 cents but you got to keep the Dashing Dan glass with the familiar logo.

Though there are no longer bar cars on the trains, the LIRR  might consider bringing them back.  Along with re jiggering Dashing Dan and Dashing Dottie they might want to brink back those cocktails.

Disgruntled commuters could sure use a Dashing Dan drink right about now.

© Sally Edelstein and Envisioning The American Dream, 2017.

“History won’t forget that when the streets of Charlottesville echoed with evil, Donald Trump responded with silence.” Tom Perez. L) Image via Andy Campbell Twitter R) Nazi Germany

There’s no way to whitewash this – it’s time to pay attention to history again.

History played out in front of us all this past weekend and we could not look away from the vile images.

Angry torch wielding white supremacists in Charlottesville, Va. August 11, 2017.

Angry people carrying torches in the dark of night, hate-filled faces waving Nazi flags and proudly performing the Nazi salute. But this footage was not Adolph Hitler’s 1930’s Germany airing on the History Channel. It was breaking news on CNN and NBC, clogging up every Twitter and Facebook feed.

And it was right here on red, white, and blue American soil in the sleepy city of Charlottesville, that idyllic town in Virginia that is the home of my father’s beloved Alma Mater, the University Of Virginia. My father, whose four  years at this Jeffersonian college coincided with Hitler’s rise in Germany overseas would be appalled to know Nazi flags were being waved in his former college town.

Even more appalling  I never thought I’d be living in a country where the wave of a Nazi  did not immediately inspire our President to be outraged, disavowing these groups by name.

Protesting the hate and Nazis in Charlottesville. Former KKK leader David Duke who was at the Charlottesville rally said that protesters “were determined to take our country back. Were going to fulfill the promises of Donald Trump,” he said. “That’s what we believe , that’s why we voted for Donald Trump.”

Imagine a different world where our president would have shown shock and revulsion when the incident happened not  taking days to offer a tepid response – one where he did not single out the neo Nazis. Trumps refusal to condemn the white nationalists who had explicitly said they were participating in the rally because they supported him.  He could have told them emphatically he does not seek their support and firmly reject it.

Making America White Again

White Supremacists felt emboldened by Trump’s silence. Not surprising since that anti-Semite Steve Bannon who made white nationalism mainstream through Breitbart, is still President Donald Trump’s Goebbels…er…Chief Strategist.

Finally on Monday succumbing to pressure Trump spoke more forcefully, primarily because it seemed as though he were forced to do so. Like a chastened  child who had been scolded and made to apologize, he robotically read his prepared speech, remarking unremarkably that “racism is evil.”

Now months after Trump took office he has finally said the word white supremacist, it’s a little  too late. After the violent demonstrations in Charlottesville leaders of white nationalists claim success.

History has never seemed more relevant. Now we need to listen to what’s not being said.

History: Attention Must Be Paid

Last  summer with  the weight of history hanging heavy as the Republicans nominated Donald J. Trump as their candidate for president, historians spoke out as never before.

We didn’t listen then.

We need to listen now.

It’s a post worth repeating, so we don’t repeat history.

It’s Worth Repeating

We need to take a hard look at history. A Vanity Fair cover from July 1933 showing a despondent Uncle Sam seated on the Western hemisphere with storm clouds above can serve as a somber harbinger for our own times. Illustration by Paolo Garretto

A dozen distinguished  historians from David McCullough to  Ken Burns have bonded together to create a Facebook page called Historians on Donald Trump, dedicated to educating the voters on the disturbing threat trump poses to American democracy.

Historian Robert Caro called Trump a “demagogue” who appeals to the ugliest parts of human nature.

“History tells us we shouldn’t underestimate him,” Caro said. “History is full of demagogues and sometimes rise to the very heights of power by appealing to things that are unfortunately a part of human nature: racism, which I think is a part of human nature no matter how hard we try, and excessive virulent patriotism that goes by the name xenophobia.”

Joining them are Historians Against Trump, a group of  history professors, museum professionals, public historians  and scholars who are concerned about the ominous precedents for Trump’s candidacy. In a published open letter they wrote: “The lessons of history compel us to speak out against a movement rooted in fear and authoritarianism.”

They are all  urging us to take a hard look at history.

I didn’t need the urging

History surrounds me on a daily basis. Literally and figuratively.

The Depression era discrepancy between “the haves” and “have not’s” is illustrated in this Vanity Fair cover “Fat Cat and Hobo” from October 1933. The Vanity Fair of May 1933 (R) illustrates an unpredictable Washington DC , optimistic one minute, foreboding and disastrous the next. Illustration Vladimir Bobritsky

The flotsam and jetsam from over the past hundred years, the  vintage advertising, articles, newspapers, booklets and illustrations that permeated the American Twentieth century mass media play in an endless loop through my mind, cluttering it like so many teetering stacks of  vintage magazines and books that clutter my art studio.

In my constant field of vision, are a series of framed vintage Vanity Fair magazine covers from 1933 that powerfully illustrate that most tumultuous year, a year that would have far reaching global consequences. and offer a somber forewarning to our own troubled times.

Many are illustrated by Italian artist Paolo Garretto arguably one of the great European illustrators of his time, his graphic covers expose the unsettling climate of the 1930’s including Hitler’s rise to power.

These compelling images of that unsettling time  serve  as a cautionary tale.

The cover of Vanity Fair December 1933. Figures representing U.S. Italy, France and England “tangle’ over Hitler. Illustration Paolo Garreto

As I listened to  a speech in Cincinnati a few weeks ago, a rambling  Trump maniacally defending the use of the Star of David in his anti Clinton image,  it was clear he was  pandering to his racist anti-Semitic supporters. As  I looked up at the vintage Vanity Fair covers that hang directly in front of my computer, I felt a chill.

An expert demagogue whipping discontented  working class voters into a frenzy, stoking racial resentment and exaggerated threats, giving the disenfranchised a bogeyman to blame misrepresenting the facts and exploiting economic insecurities.

Sound familiar?

Vanity Fair Covers 1932 Hitler and Mussolini

The use of ethnic stereotypes,the exploitation of fear of foreigners, and the concerns about national decline  is an ugly stew of propaganda straight from  a fascist recipes book .

It’s a recipe for disaster.

But confused and angry voters can take the bait.

1933

In a recent interview with Rolling Stone, Rachel Maddow said  that she has been studying Adolph Hitler in the first few months of his tenure as German chancellor:

“Over the past year I’ve been reading a lot about what it was like when Hitler first became chancellor. I am gravitating toward moments in history for subliminal reference in terms of cultures that have unexpectedly veered into dark places, because I think that’s possibly where we are.”

Cover Vanity Fair November 1933. Artist Paolo Garretto envisioned the globe as a bomb with a fuse waiting go off as diplomats stand at the top of the world seemingly oblivious.

1933 opened with Adolph  Hitler becoming chancellor of Germany.  The great theme of his speeches throughout the previous year was that “politicians had ruined the Reich.”

Some thought a Hitler government would be a farcical affair. The right had the illusion that Hitler was a lightweight, a ridiculous Austrian demagogue whose oratorical gifts they could exploit while “managing” to contain him.

Over the course of the one year these magazine covers appeared,  Hitler was elected as chancellor of Germany, the Reichstag’s Enabling Act was passed after the burning of the Reichstag, enabling police to bypass courts giving Hitler everything he needed to set up a totalitarian state making him dictator of Germany

This was quickly followed by massive Nazi Book burnings, legalized eugenic sterilization, boycotting of Jewish businesses, prohibition of trade  unions and forbidding all non Nazi political parties in Germany.

The very month FDR was telling a frightened nation we had nothing to fear but fear itself, Dachau the first Nazi concentration camp  opened.

It was a frightening time.

Out of the Disturbing Darkness

There are compelling reasons to feel grave concern today.

Pulitzer prize winner Ron Chernow, one of the historians on Historians on Donald Trump page remarked in a video :  “I have been deeply disturbed by the Trump campaign — more deeply disturbed than by any other presidential campaign in our history.

“We’ve all been horrified by the many shocking statements this man has made, but no less frightening have been the omissions,” he continued.

“I’m disturbed by the words missing from the Trump campaign: liberty and justice, freedom and tolerance,” he added. “The only historical movement that Trump alludes to is a shameful one: America First,” he said, referring to Trump’s foreign policy slogan, which shares its name with an anti-Semitic group from the 1940s.”

“Please, please, please folks don’t let it happen here,” Chernow pleaded.”

We have the power to stop it.

Copyright (©) 2017 Sally Edelstein All Rights Reserved

You don’t have to tour a battlefield to understand the Civil War. Look at today’s headlines. We’re still fighting the same issues that fueled the Civil War. The author and her brother at Gettysburg during the Centennial 1963

My Mad Men era childhood vacations were often spent visiting the past.

On weekends and school holidays I traipsed through countless creaky old historical houses of men who helped make America great, curiously observed colonial cobblers and blacksmiths hard at work and listened attentively to genteel suburbanites dressed in period costumes explain history.

Through the years I saw more than my share of the thousands of granite, bronze and marble monuments and statues that dotted the American landscape that helped shape popular perspectives of the past.

Loaded with assumptions and silences, the often sanitized, selective, historical narrative presented at all these places permeated the country, the classroom, and historic sites during mid-century America.

When it came to American history no place was loaded with more excitement or education than my visits to Gettysburg Pennsylvania. Certainly no National Park offered more bang for your buck per square foot when it came to monuments and statues  honoring our soldiers and generals. And too, no place had a more romanticized cast swept over it than Gettysburg did during the Centennial of the Civil War celebration.

Centennial Fever

Civil War Centennial postcard, top and Civil War Trading Card

In 1961 Americans caught Centennial fever and so did my family. Even as Americans raced forward into the New Frontier, we took time out to travel back and celebrate our past.

I Wish I Were In Dixie

States rights had a very special meaning in 1863 and 1963. Celebrating the historic moment when the southern states seceded from the Union dove tailed nicely for segregationists. What better way to encourage  opposition to court ordered public schools desegregation and black civil rights activism than to remind southerners of their ancestor’s uncompromising resistance to federal tyranny and unlawful assaults on southern institutions. Top illustration from vintage School Book “This is America’s Story” 1963. Governor George Wallace blocking the entrance of black students to University of Alabama 1963

For southerners, the 100th anniversary of the Civil War was a chance to unfurl the Confederate battle flags, wax poetically over the heroism of Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson and romanticize the resistance to Federal power.

Southern Hospitality. Part of the Southern myth making was the notion that many black slaves had been loyal to the pro slavery Confederacy, therefore happily accepted Jim Crow laws.

The “Lost Cause” was still the dominant story, and in this Gone with the Wind version, the southern gentlemen fought valiantly against a stronger (and less scrupulous) northern army and their noble aim was to protect states’ rights and a gracious way of life. Slaves were portrayed as contented and loyal, if discussed at all.

That peculiar institution had seamlessly been replaced by Jim Crow.

Reunited and It Feels So Good

1913 Sheet Music emphasized the attempts at National reconciliation between the North and South.

The War that had once been bitterly referred to as “The War of Rebellion” or the “War of Yankee Aggression” had for several generations now been firmly re-branded as the more friendly sounding “War Between Brothers.”

In this more sentimental reconciliatory light of Brother Against Brother, important lessons could be taught about the common bonds of bravery and patriotism on both sides. Treason was barely uttered.  Schoolbooks taught us that the War Between the State’s struggle had allowed the nation to emerge into “the bright sunshine of freedom.”

Of course that sunshine still did not shine for all.

The Selling of The Civil War

Color me happy. Vintage Coloring Book on American History portrayed a happy slave picking cotton opposite a noble and righteous General Robert E. Lee

Reconciliation sold a lot better than racial recrimination and the Civil War Centennial was a hot commodity in the early 1960’s.

Books and toys flooded the market, public service announcements abounded and every newspaper and magazine was flooded with pictures and commemorative stories about the Civil War.

Authentic Action figures to play out your best Gettysburg battle. The real battle was far from fun and games it was bloody and grim. Bottom photo Mathew Brady

Seated in the comfort of your Laz-E Boy recliner you could listen to the stirring history of the War Between the States told in music, sounds and photos and illustration thanks to Columbia Records that produced a special linen bound Centennial collectors’ album. For the mere price of $1.97 you could find yourself “Whistling Dixie” in the midst of a bloody battlefield at Chancellorsville.

Civil War News Bubble Gum Trading Cards portrayed Civil War scenes and could be purchased at your local candy store

Kiddies could ditch their baseball cards and collect a set of Civil War bubble gum trading cards memorializing the great war. Who wanted Mickey Mantle when you could have Ulysses S. Grant?

Gettysburg

Tourism to visit Civil War landmarks was booming, really heating up in the summer. Battlefields replaced beaches as part of easy breezy summer living. No mid-century vacation was complete without a visit to a Civil War battlefield.

Since Gettysburg was ground zero for Civil War Centennial remembrance, early on Monday July 1, my family loaded up our Plymouth and headed down to Gettysburg that summer of 1963 in time for the 100th anniversary of that conflicts  most celebrated and bloodiest battle.

Arriving in Gettysburg on the very day the two armies met and the great battle began, the town was exploding with tourists.

Official Silver Medal Gettysburg Centennial 1963 (L) Souvenir Civil War cup(R)

The Civil War was packaged in easy to understand stories and fun activities.

Pageants, re-enactments and parades filled the week. Souvenirs abounded. I could buy “real” civil war bullets for 30 cents,  stock up on Confederate money which to my disappointment would do me no good on purchasing all  these goodies, all while snacking greedily on pecans purchased at a Stuckeys built on the battlefield where the second day of fighting raged at Peach Orchard, site of a famous civil war battle.

I’m Just Saying

Vintage Brochure to visit Gettysburg

The local shops displayed banners paying tribute to the Blue and Grey Americans “all who were fighting for a just cause they believed in.”

Odes to the “Brothers War” was everywhere to be seen.

Every restaurant place mat had a civil war theme and every packet of Dixie Crystal sugar on the table told a Civil War story on the back. In a nod to Dixie, hominy grits migrated above the Mason Dixon lines and were served at every breakfast, “to make our Dixiecrats feel at home since they didn’t receive such a warm welcome last time.”

Robert E. Lee Trading Card. A series of trading cards produced during the Civil war Centennial could be purchased at your local candy store. Along with your bubble gum you could chew over the romanticized version of the Civil War. General Robert E. Lee, was now recast an honorable man who chose loyalty to VA over command of the Union Army. That he fought bravely to protect the Confederate constitution that enshrined the institution of Negro slavery went unsaid.

Even the local bank commissioned a majestic painting of Generals Meade and Lee standing together united, by conviction. They handed out keepsake postcards of the painting and I eagerly grabbed a few.

“General Lee,” the postcards said was not only “universally revered by friend and foe alike” but “also “a symbol of the true spirit of America. Talented, generous devoted to duty…he belongs to all of us.”

Dad who had spent 6 years at school in Charlottesville, VA couldn’t agree more. Lee was a bone fide American hero.

Make Believe

A visit to Fantasyland, an amusement park located on the edge of the battlefield in the shadow of the Soldiers National Cemetery would have to wait for another another time. The park,  where you were greeted by a 23 foot tall Mother Goose,  complete with magic castles, enchanted forests, man-made lakes, and a chance to have your picture taken with Santa, Red Riding Hood or a real Fairy Princess was the stuff of great make-believe. But I wasn’t disappointed.

The selling of the Civil War was fantasy enough.

Pickett’s Charge- Painting from Gettysburg Museum of History

Souvenirs notwithstanding, the climax of the three-day battle Centennial celebration was on that Wednesday. On July 3 the 100th anniversary of Pickett’s Charge, that bold attack against the Union Army that was a turning point for the war, was dramatically re-created.

At precisely high noon, the silence of the field of grass and gray boulders was filled with shrieks and smoke as 15,000 uniformed Johnny Rebs charged across the field against the Union forces on Cemetary Ridge. A sound system produced cannon and musket fire and a smoke screen produced smoke. With eyes stinging you felt like you were in the heat of battle.

Civil War re-enactors at the Gettysburg Centennial Celebration. Photo courtesy Gettysburg Museum

Unlike in  1863 when the brave charge failed,  with ¾ of the attackers killed or wounded, in 1963 the event concluded with Union soldiers greeting Confederates with firm and friendly handshakes. Finally those in gray and those in blue grasped hands, and all boisterously sang The Star Spangled Banner and recited the Pledge of Allegiance. Smoke aside, there wasn’t a dry eye in the house.

It was the perfect ending to an American story.

Just as many southern survivors of the war and their descendants worked hard to make Black Americans and their story disappear, the state monuments they erected continued their work, glorifying the Southern Cause. When folks expressed concern about the possible upset at the Centennial by African-Americans protesting segregation, Karl Betts, a member of the Centennial commission reassured folks.  “A lot of fine Negro people, he told a journalist from the Nation, “loved life as it was in the Old South.” (L) Mississippi Monument at Gettysburg. (R) The savages of slavery

Noticeably absent in that very white field of grey and blue was the color Black. The Centennial was pretty much an all-white affair. African-Americans avoided the battlefield uninterested in monuments celebrating white supremacy and the Confederacy cause, or in mingling with pasty-faced tourists with their Brownie Hawkeyes, waving souvenir Confederate flags.

If the goal of the Centennial was “keeping peace through understanding” some things were clearly misunderstood.

 American United

Vintage Textbook Illustration “This is America’s Story” 1963.

The Centennial had been planned in the cold war climate of the late 1950’s and the Civil War would be hi-jacked for the current  war between democracy and Communism, painting American democracy in the best light.   The Commission determined that the Civil War Centennial would be a great opportunity for Americans to “highlight our commitment to freedom and liberty.”

Family Feud

1913 Great Reunion at the Gettysburg Jubilee celebration . Photo courtesy Library of Congress

Fifty years earlier at the Jubilee celebration in 1913, the fiftieth anniversary of Gettysburg was a neatly packaged festival of North South reconciliation that had begun in the late 19th century. The celebration was also a segregated affair in which the only role for African-Americans was distributing blankets to the white veterans of what President Wilson a segregationist called “a quarrel forgotten.”

Now this “Quarrel” would be remembered as simply a family feud, brother against brother, the horrors of slavery long forgotten.

One Nation Under God

For school children the Centennial was to be an important history lesson in democracy. “Children will will gain a new conception of the meaning of their priceless heritage of human citizenship.”

In 1960, a year before the centennial, President Eisenhower remarked at the death of the last Civil War soldier: “…the wounds of the deep and bitter dispute which once divided our nation have long since healed and a united America in a divided world now holds up on a larger canvas the cherished traditions of liberty and justice for all.”

The war had been permanently rebranded in national memory as the moment when the US had been reunited and the moral leader of the Free World had been born. The Civil War was one part of American Exceptionalism.

Liberty and Justice For All

Vintage ad Sinclair Oil 1963 included a statement from Civil War historian Bruce Catton

Typical of Centennial  ads at the time that extolled patriotism, Gettysburg, and the American Way (with a touch o’ tourism thrown in) was this ad from Sinclair Oil in honor of the Gettysburg Centennial:

You can stand and sight along the barrels of 233 Union Guns or 182 Confederate cannons, standing just as they stood on those fateful July days in ’63.

More importantly, you will stand in Gettysburg with eyes closed, and you’re your mind will be touched by the hand of history and your spirit will feel the inspiration that gave Lincoln his finest speech. All Americans North and South can take pride in Gettysburg.

Millions of us have forebears who fought on one side or the other, hotly defending their own idea of liberty. This great battlefield so beautifully preserved by our national Park service is a tribute to the men who fought here.

But America, today united from sea to sea, is their monument.

But the reality was we weren’t all so united.

At all.

The Freedom Riders, the sit ins, marches and boycotts told a different story about “defending their own idea of liberty.”

The South Carolina Monument drew on Civil War past to make a statement about the present, Dedicated on July 2, 1963 to the tune of Dixie and Confederate flag flying it was filled by defiant speeches about States rights and the “tyranny of Washington.” The heritage of honor also meant denying Blacks basic civil rights. (Top) South Carolina memorial 1963 (Bottom) Civil Rights sit-ins at Greensboro, North Carolina. Four college students sit in a “whites only” lunch counter at Woolworths in defiance of segregation Feb. 1960

As Americans prepared to celebrate the Civil War, the inconvenient truth was that many of the same passions that divided the nation 100 years earlier divided it still. And still does today. The freedom and equality consecrated by the Civil War still remained elusive.

Even as the civil rights activists in Birmingham made clear that the civil war’s unfinished business was very much in the present, Uncle Sam and planners of the Centennial didn’t want to bring up that pesky problem of slavery into the celebration of the Centennial. How much nicer to embrace the enduring romance, the warm and fuzzy history of a national redemption, brother against brothers war.

It was a good story of democracy in action, important in our anti-communist crusade. The moral of the Civil War story was that only democratic change made social justice possible no matter how gradual.

Freedom Riders. (L) General Longstreet fighting for the “just” Confederate cause (R) Civil Rights Freedom Riders Bus burned near Anniston, Alabama 1961

That pesky problem was a black eye for Uncle Sam as leader of the Free World.  The lynchings, violence and racial segregation marred the image of the U.S. and tarnished our moral superiority.

And that pesky problem couldn’t be whitewashed away.

Sweet Home Alabama

Sweet Home Alabama. Confederate monuments were built to maintain white supremacy and offer an idealized narrative of the Civil War. Monuments all read that Confederate States were fighting for “a righteous cause and the sacred heritage of honor.”  The Alabama State Monument dedicated in 1933 by the  United Daughters of the Confederacy an organization dedicated to glorifying the “Southern Cause.” The monument features a beautiful Romanesque female, the female personification of the “Spirit of Confederacy” flanked by 2 soldiers. Portraying the spirit of the Confederate cause as a beautiful woman distorts a much more sinister historical truth. They fought bravely to protect the Confederate constitution that enshrined the institution of Negro Slavery(R) Birmingham Alabama 1963

The centennial anniversary of the battle of Gettysburg took place in the midst of the tumultuous summer of 1963.

That May, people across the world had been stunned by the images coming out of Birmingham, Alabama: police officers turning high-pressure fire hoses on peaceful demonstrators and ordering dogs to attack children. In June, Medgar Evers was assassinated in his own driveway. That very same month Alabama Governor George “Segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever” Wallace stood defiantly on the steps of the University of Alabama and denied entry to black students seeking an education.

A century after the battle, the issue of racial inequality remained in the foreground and background.

Fighting For a Noble Cause 1863 and 1963. (L) General Robert E Lee Virginia State Monument and (R) Civil Rights March on Washington. One month after the Centennial in August 1963 Martin Luther King gave his famous “I Have A Dream Speech” as African Americans marched from Washington Monument to Lincoln Memorial. Photo by Rowland Scherman for USIA

In the shadow of the Civil Rights movement, the idea of  commemorating a war that ended slavery being reduced to pageantry and not an occasion to reflect on bigger issues of what was won or lost, was a lost opportunity

The unfinished business of the past that was very much in the present. Ours too.

 Copyright (©) 2017 Sally Edelstein All Rights Reserved