Mixed Media Quickie Number Twenty-Two

1943
black and white photo on matboard, painted newspaper, book
cutouts, wallpaper
10 x 13 inches

I happened to get a whole set of books published in 1943 and only realized after I finished that the dates all lined up here (this guy in the background was the KC Club prez in 1943).

Found Cards and Names

As is the way of our family, one does not throw out old cards or envelopes.  It just doesn't happen.  So I get to time travel occasionally when I find these treasures of yore.  

Found in a Russell Stover box, these cards and other papers are in decent shape.  Musty, but usable.

Six cards left...I wonder how many family members got RD subscriptions that year.

Fun fact: hawthorn is the Missouri state flower, which you can see here.

Names on the back of anniversary card: April 25, 1951
Jeanette
Catherine
Kathleen
Harriet
Elizabeth
Ruby
Shirley
Katherine
Henrietta
Blanche
Paulina
Dorothy
Catherine
Elizabeth
Kathleen
Ann
Marie
Irene
Lois
Agnes
Mary
Mildred
Edna
Julia
Thelma
Margaret
Nancy
Edith
Laura
Jean
Marie
Elsa
Ann
Barbara
Irene
Carol
Bessie
Grace
Gladys
Violet

What goes around comes around!

I have no idea whose anniversary this is for, since the envelope is labeled in SHORT HAND.  Thanks, aunts.  Helpful.  But it's a safe bet that it's a friend of theirs at Ma Bell telephone company.

This weekend: 4TH ANNUAL OPEN STUDIO//AMY MEYA + FRIENDS, 3345 Baltimore Ave, KCMO.  Come see us, buy art, eat brownies, drink wine.  

Viagra, 1940s Style

My great-aunts dabbled in the chiropractic so I often come across booklets and instructional things...I opened this little one up hoping to find some cool anatomical diagrams or something.  Instead I found an early (likely snake-oily) version of America's most beloved male pharmaceutical, Viagra!

Seems simple enough...

Whoa!  Okay, you have my attention.

$12.00 in 1944 has the buying power of $161.41 in 2014 dollars.

Seems legit.

I wonder how much an ad like this cost at the time...Three color, thicker paper, widely distributed booklet...  And, YES!, Dartell Labs is still around, but I can't find any info on them besides their phone book entry.  

Found It: BOOKS!

I found many books, primarily from the 1940s, last summer out in the sheds.  They were mostly my grandmother's romance novels (she married "late," especially for the '40s/'50s Midwest).  I originally put them in my antique mall shop, but with the fragile state of their beautiful dust jackets, I felt they were being mishandled a little too much.  I sold a few, but I thought maybe it would be better to throw them up on Etsy so the whole wide world could easily search for their titles.

So, in honor of the upcoming Valentine's Day, here are a few...

Can't you just hear the sweeping score playing as they (finally, I'm sure) embrace?
"It is a story of passion, dread, struggles and strength."
That clears it right up.

Double novel!
Party Line:  A telephone worker knows everything about her small town's goings on.
Out on a Limb: Baker's autobiography about losing a leg (a limb!) at a young age.

Forbidden romance!
A titan of industry!
World War One looms...

Love in a church...

This book spawned four movies about Tammy, a girl who grew up on a boat.

Look at that guy in beige!  Nerd!
A young gal takes in an orphan and fends off suitors. 

Some of the online reviews are pretty funny, and don't seem anything like what the covers and end papers depict, but that seems to be the way it goes.

Speaking of Valentine's Day, if you are a person who likes to send flowers to your favorite people, please make the order NOW and DO NOT use an online/telephone conglomerate (you'll be wasting your money).  Call your local florist.  Be a pal.

P.S. I will be working at a flower shop Valentine's week, and have for the last five years, so I kind of know what I'm talking about here.

Found It: Christmas Box

Inside an old envelope, that was in an old locker full of tools, that was in a falling-down shed, that is on a farm, sometimes you can find the most unusual things.  Sometimes they're just funny or sweet.  It never ceases to amaze me that the papers I find aren't just completely rotten or worm-eaten. 

So, in this envelope,

Mid-sized manila envelope.

there was a box


Cheerio cards by Cassino Studios in Salem, Mass.

And in the box was a Christmas card to my great grandparents from December 1942.

Their last name is misspelled.

I don't know who these people are, nor can I make out that last name, but they must have met them in California the summer they left to pick fruit.  Luckily, they didn't sell their farm and came back to Kansas when it became obvious that line of work wasn't profitable.

Wow, look how dressed up they got for their Xmas card picture!

I didn't know people had not-perfect handwriting back then. 
Makes me feel better about my lack of penmanship.



Both my great aunts worked for the telephone company, hence the Ma Bell swag everywhere.  Inside this envelope are some naughty jokes and cartoons that must have gone around during the Christmas party.  Too risque to share.  Honesty.


And for fun, a bunch of Christmas tags were in here, too.  Because, why not?  "The Friendship Book" is a collection of poems by various artists, maybe given as a gift at the party (my own narrative here), and there are some other poems copied into it, too, in pencil.  Kinda sweet.  Copywrite 1934 by the Cassino Co. with a pencil-written note dated 1936.

It's all jumbled together, and that's ok.  The thrill of the hunt! I'm not sure if I'll put the tags on my Etsy page or not, but I have time to think about it.