Fiat Testing, 1929
Testing cars on the roof of the Fiat factory in 1929.
Vintage Photo Wednesday, Vol. 13: “Forty-Niner” Street Advertiser, 1890
“Forty-niner” Street Advertiser in Studio, San Francisco — 1890.
Smithsonian American Art Museum purchase from the Charles Isaacs Collection made possible in part by the Luisita L. and Franz H. Denghausen Endowment. Not currently on view.
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- Vintage Photo Wednesday: A Pair of Football Kicks (grayflannelsuit.net)
Vintage Photo Wednesday: Detroit, 1927
This is a news service wire photo of Randolph Street looking west in Detroit, Michigan. It’s dated July 9, 1927. I would love to travel back in time and ride one of those trolley cars.
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This Is Easily the Most Erotic Oil and Gas-Related Ad I’ve Seen Yet
Say what you want about those stuffy petroleum scientists, they know how to hold an impromptu wet dress contest!
Vintage Toys: Cape Canaveral Satellite Monitor, Circa 1950s
Via the Smithsonian — This toy “Cape Canaveral Satellite Monitor” bus is a tin toy produced in Japan for export to an American market. In post-WWII Japan, producing space-themed “tin toys” originated as a way to tap into an international market for “penny toys” or cheap playthings. By the late 1950s, however, this home-crafted industry had become a successful international business manufacturing creatively-designed, complex toys with moving parts and/lights that competed successfully with Western toymakers. This toy’s maker, Yonezawa Toys, Co., Ltd., was one of the biggest manufacturers in Japan of tin toys, many of which carried space themes. The design of this toy, which features lithography created to appeal to an American market, tapped into the American fascination with the new NASA human spaceflight program while also showcasing the toy’s battery-powered features.
Atari’s Barrel Pong — Boring Game, Great Conversation Piece
I was positive this was a Photoshop job when I first saw it. Damn internet’s made me so jaded. But alas, this is very real. It was an upright arcade console made in the early ’70s, and as you can probably guess it played Pong. The game is probably deathly boring to play now, but that’s one hell of a piece of furniture.
I Can Think of Two Things in This Ad That Would Get You Jail Time
(Mennen Antiseptic Baby Powder, 1943)
Use SPAM Spread on My Kids? Well OK, If You Say So!
Well isn’t this just delightfully creepy! The copywriter for this undated ad for Hormel SPAM Spread was apparently into smearing “deviled luncheon meat” on children.
More like “luncheon meat from the devil” if you ask me.
(thanks to Vintage Ads)
Now I Know Where Sammy Hagar Gets the Inspiration for His Song Lyrics
(“How Do I Know It’s Love” — 1957 marriage pamphlet for teens.)