By Ben Marks — Once upon a time, in a galaxy suspiciously similar to our own, people decided what movies to see on Friday nights and at Saturday matinees by thumbing the pages of their daily newspapers until their fingers were dark with ink. Eventually, after much rustling and folding, they’d arrive at the paper’s “entertainment” section, where single-color, text-and-graphics advertisements for the latest flickers from Hollywood promised thrills, chills, action, laughs, and romance. There were no...

That Old-Time Hucksterism: The Oddest Doohickeys of Industrial-Age Entrepreneurs

By Ben Marks — In present-day Silicon Valley, disruptive technology is the coin of the realm, no doubt because its business model is so simple: 1. Turn your competitors upside down. 2. Grab them by their ankles. 3. Shake vigorously until you are standing knee-deep in cash. Indeed, making money off other people’s ideas by identifying and developing an “unfair competitive advantage” has long been a sign of business acumen and ingenuity rather than mere charlatanry, even if the end products of such efforts...

Driven to Drink: How 1930s Booze Labels Helped Americans Forget Their Troubles

By Ben Marks — The historic alcohol labels that were on exhibit a few years ago at the California Historical Society in San Francisco were all printed during the Great Depression of the 1930s, when millions of Americans drowned their economic sorrows in newly legal beer, wine, and assorted spirits. These bottles of previously demon alcohol were adorned with illustrations of pretty girls, dramatic sunsets over the Golden Gate Bridge, boxers in the ring, mission bells unrung, and endless clusters of fat,...

Singapore's Beloved and Creepy Wonderland, Built on the Healing Powers of Tiger Balm

By Ben Marks — The name Aw Boon Haw is not usually uttered in the same breath as Walt Disney, but both men were wildly successful, marketing-savvy industrialists in the first half of the 20th century, and each is remembered for a theme park. Disney’s industry revolved around the antics of a cartoon mouse. Haw’s fortune was built upon the healing powers of a tiger, the mascot for a salve called Ten Thousand Golden Oil, which was developed by his herbalist father, Aw Chu Kin, in the 1870s. With a leaping...

Extreme Shipping: When Express Delivery to California Meant 100 Grueling Days at Sea

By Hunter Oatman-Stanford — At the frenzied height of our current technological gold rush, the denizens of America's West Coast cities can have almost anything delivered within 24 hours—food, toilet paper, shoes, marijuana, and so on. But during California’s first boom, it typically took more than 100 days for goods or people to reach San Francisco from the East Coast. Getting there at all was a death-defying feat. "It sounds romantic, but I think it was a rather miserable existence for everyone.” These harrowing...

Māori Modernism: The New Zealand Artist Who Put the Islands' Native People First

By Ben Marks — Sitting more than 1,000 miles off the eastern coast of Australia, New Zealand is one of the most far-flung places on the planet, which probably explains why New Zealand was the first nation on Earth to make a tourist agency an official part of its government. From its earliest days as a British colony (1841-1907), New Zealand's non-native settlers and indigenous inhabitants alike promoted the island-nation's attractions to pretty much anyone who would listen, as we learned recently when we...

The Forgotten Kingpins Who Conspired to Save California Wine

By Ben Marks — If you live in San Francisco and want to show off your knowledge of California wine to a few friends from out of town, you might take them to a wine-savvy restaurant like Boulevard, a block or so from the Ferry Building and San Francisco Bay. Scanning the multi-page wine list, you'd say something knowing about how hot Kongsgaard is right now, but you'd pass on the $165 bottle of its 2013 Chardonnay and order a $94 bottle of Far Niente—same varietal, same year—instead. Perusing the reds,...

Drunk History: The Rise, Fall, and Revival of All-American Whiskey

By Hunter Oatman-Stanford — At a time when obscure new whiskeys are appearing on cocktail menus from Savannah to Seattle, it's hard to imagine the American whiskey industry was ever under threat. For starters, the grain-based spirit is as American as apple pie, or at least George Washington—in fact, the first president’s Mount Vernon estate was once the site of the country’s largest distillery, specializing in the Mid-Atlantic region’s famous rye whiskey. But despite its noble foundations, America's whiskey industry...

How a Makeup Mogul Liberated Women by Putting Them in a Pretty New Cage

By Lisa Hix — When Caitlyn Jenner made her debut on the July 2015 cover of “Vanity Fair” in full old-Hollywood glamour mode, her highly styled appearance triggered discussion and debate: After all, not every woman has the money to, or even wants to, embody that particular ideal of feminine beauty, which involves elaborate foundation makeup to create shimmery highlights and contoured cheeks. Fifty years after the women’s lib movement railed against makeup, we’re still deeply conflicted about the stuff. Is...

When Rock 'n' Roll Loomed Large Over the Sunset Strip

By Hunter Oatman-Stanford — The enormous, unblinking chrome eyeballs stared down from their perch above L.A.'s famous Sunset Strip as record producers, nightclub owners, and movie stars sped by in their convertibles. The sign included no words, but in 1972, everyone was familiar with "Tommy," the rock opera about a "deaf, dumb, and blind kid" who plays a mean game of pinball. It didn't really matter if passing motorists didn't know these meticulously painted pinball eyes signified the release of the London Symphony...

Flipping Out Over Handheld Movies

By Ben Marks — When artist Ben Zurawski sits down at his light table to create a palm-size flip book designed to deliver about 15 seconds of animated action to one viewer at a time, he typically unwraps a fresh pack of 100-pound index cards, places 60 or so before him, picks up a mechanical pencil, and begins to draw. From start to finish, including storyboarding, penciling, rubbing out mistakes with a wadded-up ball of gum eraser, inking, and stapling, the whole process can take a week, maybe two,...

The Art of Making People Go Away

By Lisa Hix — You probably don't think much about "Do Not Disturb" signs at hotels, unless the maid rudely barges in as you sleep. Then you think, "Hey, didn't you see the door hanger? What happened to that?" But when you look through Edoardo Flores' collection of just over 8,700 Do Not Disturb signs from 190 countries around the world—which he documents on Flickr—you'll find they can be quite beautiful and revelatory. So-called "DND signs" tell you a lot about the character and mores of the places you...

Double the Fun: The Husband-Wife Team Who Made Everyone Want to Chew Gum

By Ben Marks — As a kid growing up in Seattle, art director and design historian Norman Hathaway got his first taste of Otis Shepard graphics the same way most of us did—by chewing a piece of gum. He didn’t know it yet, but from the 1930s to the 1960s, Shep, as Otis was known, designed everything from the slender sleeves that wrapped sticks of Spearmint, Doublemint, and Juicy Fruit to the enormous billboards that promoted these iconic Wrigley’s products to the world. "Otis was a pragmatic person when it...

Kaboom! 10 Facts About Firecrackers That Will Blow You Away

By Lisa Hix — Firecrackers are essentially un-American, even though we associate them with our most deeply patriotic celebration, the Fourth of July. The fact is that firecrackers are foreign-born novelties, and have been as long as Americans have lit them for a noisy salute to the nation's birth. As it turns out, firecracker history is as colorful and complicated as the lithographed artwork used to sell them. Warren Dotz, a pop-culture historian, collector, and author of many books, including a pair on...

Cartoon Kittens and Big-Eyed Puppies: How We Bought Into Processed Pet Food

By Ben Marks — Warren Dotz collects the stuff most people treat like garbage. In years past, he’s gravitated to the noisy graphics of firecracker wrappers printed in places as far-flung as Macau and Manila, as well as the vividly illustrated, deity-drenched matchbox covers of India. These paper products, which normally make a one-way trip to the rubbish bin after their contents have been set aflame, are then meticulously cataloged and organized into handsome little books, transforming trash into...

Awkward! 28 Cringe-Worthy Vintage Product Endorsements

By Ben Marks — There's a moment in your typical advertising brainstorm when the people charged with wrestling the creative elements to the ground cry uncle, settling on a clumsy compromise for the sake of getting on with the really important business—billing their clients. Or so these advertisements fronted by some rather improbable pitchmen and women would suggest. Is a clown really going to convince us to buy tires for our cars? Did anyone ever believe Bill Gates bought his computers at Radio Shack? And...

Artisanal Advertising: Reviving the Tradition of Hand-Painted Signs

By Hunter Oatman-Stanford — Now that anyone with Photoshop can pretend they're a graphic designer, the art of signage has lost its luster. But before cheaply made vinyl banners took the heart out the sign industry, hand painting billboards and shop windows was a highly valued skill, and literally the only way to go. "Vinyl plotters allowed all of these people to open shops that put out terrible signage." In any urban area, remnants of this bygone era still cling to the brick facades of older buildings, faded ghost...

Selling Shame: 40 Outrageous Vintage Ads Any Woman Would Find Offensive

By Lisa Hix — One vintage ad warns women, "Don't let them call you SKINNY!" while another promises that smoking cigarettes will keep one slender. If the task of morphing their bodies into the current desirable shape isn't enough of a burden, women are also reminded that they stink. "You’re stuck at the party with a ripped stocking, and it’ll probably end your marriage." In these vintage ads, a woman may be emitting a foul odor from any body part—her armpits, her mouth, her hair, her hands, her lady...

Will the Real Santa Claus Please Stand Up?

By Lisa Hix — We always think of Santa Claus as an incredibly old man—positively ancient—but the fact is, he’s exactly 150-years-old, born in 1863. Indeed, we might be thinking of Santa’s predecessor St. Nicholas, who is far older, believed to have been a Turkish Greek bishop in the 300s. But the first European winter gift-bringer is even more of a geezer, going back to ancient Germanic paganism and the Norse god Odin. When he wandered the earth, the deity disguised himself as a bearded old man wearing a...

Before Rockwell, a Gay Artist Defined the Perfect American Male

By Hunter Oatman-Stanford — Nobody had to tell J.C. Leyendecker that sex sells. Before the conservative backlash of the mid-20th century, the American public celebrated his images of sleek muscle-men, whose glistening homo-eroticism adorned endless magazine covers. Yet Leyendecker’s name is almost forgotten, whitewashed over by Norman Rockwell’s legacy of tame, small-town Americana. Rockwell was just an 11-year old kid when Leyendecker created the legendary “Arrow Collar Man” in 1905, used to advertise the clothing...

What Were We Thinking? The Top 10 Most Dangerous Ads

By Hunter Oatman-Stanford — Often the criticism of vintage ads focuses on their inherent sexism, racism, or other displays of social prejudices, which we find laughable today, despite their continued presence. But what about ads that steered consumers into dangerous territory, espousing outmoded scientific evidence or misleading half-truths to convince people that appallingly toxic products, or even deadly ones, were actually good for them? While some faulty campaigns were merely the victims of evolving scientific...

When the Wild Imagination of Dr. Seuss Fueled Big Oil

By Lisa Hix — Ever had an encounter with a Zero-doccus, a Karbo-nockus, a Moto-raspus, or a Moto-munchus? These fantastical creatures are some of the first Theodor Geisel, better known as Dr. Seuss, introduced to the world in the 1930s. But the beasts didn't romp through the pages of his well-loved children's books. No, instead, they were badgering hapless drivers and boaters in motor oil ads. Yes, decades before he published 1957's "The Cat in the Hat," Dr. Seuss made a living as an ad man. For his...

Who's That Kodak Girl? Early Camera Ads Depict Women as Adventurous Shutterbugs

By Maribeth Keane and Brad Quinn — My father had a camera store, so I grew up with cameras and used Kodak film. These days I like digital better, but I still have a soft spot in my heart for Kodak. One day at a flea market, I came across a couple of early Kodak ads featuring women with cameras. I was taken by the difference between these early ads and those of today. In the early ads, the women depicted looked like photographers: They’re out in the world, traveling around carrying their cameras. They look like they’re...

Early American Packages

By Carl W. Drepperd — One of America's famed industrial designers sat at his quite modern desk (which he thinks was designed in 1936 but which was already old stuff in 1836) and, with his nose well in the air, vented his pontifical spleen upon an humble chap who had suggested Early American designs for use in plastic materials. It was utterly silly, he said. Foolish. Thoughtless. A material as modern as plastics required, deserved, and would get "modern design." Nothing daunted, the humble man pulled from...

The Disappearing Art of Porcelain Signs

By Dave Margulius — I liked to collect things even as a child. Things that didn’t cost anything, like different colors of stones. There was something about the advertising that I liked, so in the mid-1970s, I started to pick up porcelain signs. I got heavier and heavier into that, and by the 1980s, I had a fairly substantial collection. As a result of collecting telephone signs, I would run into other advertising specialists, and I started seeing the kind of stuff that other people were buying and looking...

Signs, Tins, and Other Advertising Antiques

By Maribeth Keane — How did I get started collecting advertising antiques? My dad was a lecturer and tutor in graphics and art from the 1960s onwards, and was into vintage automobiles and advertising, like vintage signs, pumps, and globes. So I spent the large portion of my childhood going to auto swap meets and antiques fairs, I think it all started from there. The first thing I collected was old bottles. In one of the books I read as a child, there was an aqua green bottle and I thought it was great and I...