Kitchen Retro

An Invitation

noreply@blogger.com (Lidian) — Fri, 19 Apr 2013 14:28:00 +0000

Back when I started this blog in 2008, it was on Blogger. Then I hopped over to WordPress for a hot minute, and finally came back to Blogger. Been here ever since. There are almost 1300 posts here, which is amazing (or horrifying, depending on how you look at it!). So you can understand that I'm a little bit blogged out.

But I still love retro and vintage ads....SO -

The kitsch and the retro will continue!

But I've moved the party over to Tumblr.

For a whole lot of reasons. Not the least of which is that for me, the images are the focus of my posts, and usually, these days, I only want to say a little bit about the images...not really a post's worth of writing. And Tumblr is perfect for that.

Anyway, please do visit Kitsch and Retro for more retro and vintage ads, a bit of domestic history, and (I hope) lots of fun!

I have another Tumblr, too, called The Vintage Medicine Cabinet which covers the world of patent medicines, vintage cosmetics and beauty preparations, and other odd devices, potions and elixirs.

Oh, and also I'd like to invite you to visit my page on Facebook, also called Kitchen Retro - I am lucky enough to have the absolute best group of friends there, and I update it quite a bit. And unlike this blog, I respond to comments and questions and stuff pretty well (lol). The coffee and drinks are on, and there will always be plenty of "absolutely divine" Ritz crackers to share - as long as those 1938 sorority girls haven't broken them all by playing catch with the box.

Maughan's Geyser: A Victorian Water Heater

noreply@blogger.com (Lidian) — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 13:46:00 +0000

The next time you have a Water Heater Installation going on at your house, or maybe even the next time you use the hot water tap, you might want to say a silent thank you to a 19th century painter in London, England, named Benjamin Maughan. He was the person who invented the first modern water heater in 1868.

It was named the Geyser after the type of hot spring called a geyser. Geysir, the original spring in question, is a gushing, extremely hot spring in Haukadalur, Iceland. The name comes from the Old Norse verb "geysa," which means to gush. Half of the roughly one thousand geysers that exist all over the world are in Yellowstone National Park, so if you ever want to go see one, Yellowstone is probably the best place to go.

Anyway, Maughan's Geyser aimed to gush out hot water, albeit in a much more organized way than the springs in Iceland or Wyoming. A burner at the bottom of the heater heated up gases, which in turn heated
wires that went up to the top of the tank where cold water entered. The cold water was then heated by the wires, and once hot, then flowed into pipes that went to the sink, the tub, or wherever one wanted the hot water to go. In 1872, the Journal of the Society of Arts (volume 20, p. 918) explained how Maughan's Patent Geyser worked:

Geyser in Iceland (Wikimedia Commons)

[The] patent geyser [is] a machine like an ordinary gas-stove in appearance,and to use this machine you have to light a jet of ordinary gas at a burner, and turn the jet in by a small hinged bracket, so that it, in its turn, ignites a myriad of pygmy flames within the utensil. An inverted cone of metal, something like an open umbrella, hangs over the flame, and receives upon its upturned surface a shower of cold water, which is turned on above by a tap. The water first passes through a sieve, then makes its way down among a series of coils of tinned copper wire, and is afterwards collected round the bottom of the hot cone by a kind of gutter, which leads it to the tap below.

Unfortunately, Mr. Maughan had not made any provision for ventilating the gases out of the house, so it definitely wasn't a perfect heater. Later in the Victorian era, other inventors such as Edwin Ruud, an American engineer, built on Maughan's work to create better (and safer) water heaters. And of course today, water heaters are marvels of safety and efficiency; you don't have to tinker with metal cones and geysers, either.

Disclaimer: This is a sponsored post, however all the views and points are my own.

You Look Simply Marvo, Darling!

noreply@blogger.com (Lidian) — Tue, 26 Mar 2013 12:30:00 +0000

This strange little advertisement for Marvo came out in 1931, and so far I haven't been able to find out anything much about the company or the product. Except that, of course, it worked wonders on your skin. And that it came in the proverbial plain brown packaging, because having "humiliating skin" was not something you wanted all your friends to know about.

But wait...they already know, right?

Marvo Beauty Laboratories was founded in 1923 by Semeon P. Glashkoff of Brooklyn (you can read a bit about his family, and see his house on Ocean Avenue, at the link).

One ad from 1927 claims that they have got the "most astonishing German discovery in the history of beauty culture":

Hundreds of men and women are now doing it at home - in the quiet of their own rooms - without the knowledge of their most intimate friends, emerging in a few days with a new, soft, velvet, clear, spotless, youth-like skin on face, neck, arms, hands or any part of the body where a new skin is desired.

So what was this stuff? Google Books quotes one of those frustrating "snippet views" from an FTC publication from 1940 which calls it Marvo Liquid Skin Peel. In 1941 the AMA reports that physicians are telling them "of severe reactions suffered by persons who had used the Marvo product."* The AMA's 1936 edition of Nostrums and Quackery notes that the Liquid Skin Peel had "many years ago" contained salicylic acid as the main ingredient; another book, Peter Morell's 1937 Poisons, Potions and Profits tells us that in the late 30s, Marvo's active ingredient was resorcin (also the active ingredient in products like Clearasil). The product seems to have disappeared quietly after about 1941.

*You can see all the "snippet views" here.

Disembodied Heads Prefer Juniper Tar

noreply@blogger.com (Lidian) — Wed, 20 Mar 2013 13:16:00 +0000

If you are a disembodied head with a cold, Juniper Tar Compound is the stuff for you. It sounds like a Victorian patent medicine, doesn't it? Yet this ad is from 1949.

This product, also known as Forrest's Juniper Tar Compound, was indeed a carry-over from the 19th century and was marketed as early as the 1870s. It was then called Forrest's Juniper Tar Drops and was, as in the 1950s, sold as a cough and cold medicine.

Juniper tar and pine tar are sticky substances that have been used in medicine for generations. They are produced by a process known as dry distillation, which involves carbonizing wood (and in the case of pine, the roots as well) in a closed environment. The pine oil mentioned in the ad is another product of the dry distillation process. Juniper or pine tar soap is a traditional treatment for skin irritations and diseases. Juniper tar alone is also used as an external skin treatment for conditions such as eczema.

The NMAH has a page on Forrest's Juniper Tar, and you can see a picture of a bottle from the 1920s there, as well as a list of ingredients. The compound contains juniper tar, pine tar, oil of pine tar, caramel coloring and - rather startlingly - petroleum distillate.

Petroleum distillate is literally a product made or distilled from crude oil; there are many types. One kind are solvents used in cleaning (such as paint remover) and the mostly highly purified distillates are used in cosmetic products and lotions, such as Vaseline. Not so much in medicines taken internally, though. I'm not sure if they still put it in the Juniper Tar by the 1950s; probably not.

I almost put this on the Kitchen Retro Facebook page but I thought it was about time for a post. Do come and visit Kitchen Retro over there, I post a lot more fun stuff over there, pretty much every day - and we have a great time!

Miss DeBoth's Peanut Butter Streusel

noreply@blogger.com (Lidian) — Fri, 15 Mar 2013 16:59:00 +0000

This is one of my favorite vintage cookbooks, and the only one I own that was autographed by the author, too. It was published in 1936. Jessie Marie DeBoth was a very prolific cookbook author and "homemaking expert" who also ran a travelling cooking school. In a 1939 interview in the Spokane Daily Chronicle, she promises that her class will "demonstrate party suppers that look so good, taste so good, and are so easy to prepare that women attending the school will be tempted to run right out and throw a party."

Miss DeBoth was keen on cooking innovations, so I think that she would approve of using powdered peanut butter in her Peanut Butter Streusel Cake, which is in Food For Family Company and Crowd. As a matter of fact, powdered peanut butter is even better than regular peanut butter for making a streusel topping, because you want it to have a crumbly texture. Streusel is generally only made slightly moist with the inclusion of butter.

DeBoth suggests using a Two-Egg Cake for the base of your streusel cake; this is a fairly standard yellow cake; you could use any plain cake recipe you like. Here is her recipe for Peanut Butter Streusel:

PEANUT STREUSEL CAKE

Use brown sugar instead of white. To Two-Egg Cake recipe add 1/2 tsp cinnamon and 1/2 tsp. nutmeg. Pour batter into greased square cake pans, cover with Peanut Streusel Topping and bake in moderate 350 oven about 25 minutes.

Peanut Streusel Topping: Mix 1/4 cup peanut butter and 1/2 cup sugar until granular, sprinkle on cake before baking.

If you use powdered peanut butter, you can definitely make a more complex, traditional streusel that incorporates chopped nuts (maybe even peanuts) and butter - I think it would work really well; the texture would be better, too. In fact, you could use powdered peanut butter in any recipe calling for cocoa powder (substituting it, for example, for some of the flour in a cake recipe to flavor the cake). If I make this, maybe I will (like Miss DeBoth's eager students) be inspired to "run right out and throw a party." I had better run right out and buy some powdered peanut butter first, though.

Some Grand Hotels In Old St. Paul

noreply@blogger.com (Lidian) — Fri, 15 Mar 2013 15:16:00 +0000

The Ryan Hotel (Wikimedia Commons)

When my mother was a college student in Minnesota back in the 1940s, one of the things she and her friends loved to do was to take a road trip into the city of St. Paul. I'm not sure which of the St. Paul MN hotels of that era were familiar to her but I've been learning about some of them as a way of visualizing what she might have seen and done there, as a young woman.

The Ryan Hotel was the first building to exceed six stories in height in downtown St. Paul when it was built in 1885 by Dennis Ryan. He was an Irish-born miner, only 28 years old in 1885, who had made his money as part owner of the Horn Silver Mine near Frisco, Utah. In the early 1880s he and the other owners sold the mine for six million dollars. So he had plenty of money to spare when building the hotel that bore his name. As you can see from the stereograph (this is a double image, as you probably know), it was a huge and magnificent building. Sadly, it was demolished in 1965.

The St. Paul Hotel (Wikimedia Commons)

Happily, the St. Paul Hotel at 350 Market Street remains to this day. Opened in 1910, it was designed by Reed and Stem, architects from New York who had also designed New York's Grand Central Terminal. It featured a garden on the roof and grand restaurants and even had a ballroom. I would like to think that my mother and her friends might have come here for afternoon tea or perhaps even for a St. Paul Sandwich.

The St. Paul Sandwich is a local delicacy that reflected the Swedish and Irish heritage of the city's original settlers, according to America Cooks (1949). The recipe is given there, as follows:

ST. PAUL SANDWICH

1 slice ham
1 slice onion
1 green pepper ring
1 small sweet pickle
1 egg, beaten
toast, lettuce, olives

Chop ham, onion, pepper, and pickle together, stir in egg, fry brown on both sides, serve on toast with lettuce and onion. The city of St. Paul was settled largely by Irish and Swedes, both of whom seem to have contributed to this combination sandwich. [America Cooks, 1949, pp 431-2]

Disclaimer: This is a sponsored post; however, all the views and points are my own.

SOURCES

"Dennis Ryan, Miner and Capitalist of Old Time, Is Dead," The Morning Leader, Dec. 24, 1917, p. 9.
St. Paul Hotel history at Historic Hotels

The Flavor-Aged Cola

noreply@blogger.com (Lidian) — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 14:51:00 +0000

The Cliquot Club Soda Company dates back to 1881 and was founded by Henry Millis in Massachusetts. Four years later the town of Millis, a company town for Cliquot, was established. Cliquot Club lasted until 1960 when the company was bought by Cott Corporation; five years later Cott was bought by Canada Dry. There were just too many soda brands by the 1960s for Cliquot Club to survive.

The company started out making sparkling cider but later on they moved into things like ginger ale, and, as you can see in this 1950s ad, cola, too. They prided themselves on using really good ingredients, like Jamaican ginger and Cuban sugar. This advertisement from 1912 says that the "crystal-pure spring water" used in the beverages was from Clicquot Springs. The flavors they made back then included Orange Phosphate, Root Beer, Birch Beer,Sarsaparilla and Lemon Sour (Cola came later).

In 1938 they were the first soda company to sell its drinks in cans - called cone-top cans, they were made of steel and first made in 1935. More Cliquot Club history here from the Milford Daily News. And more Cliquot Club imagery here on the Google Images search page. I tend to worry about whether I can use images, so I'm just going to send you over there to look.

A Short History of Riding Motors and Mowers

noreply@blogger.com (Lidian) — Mon, 11 Mar 2013 14:10:00 +0000

Wikimedia Commons

We have a very small lawn and consequently a very small lawn mower to match it. At first, we had a rotary one - the kind you have to push, which is great exercise but not ideal in the height of summer. I grew up in an apartment in the middle of New York City, so this was all new to me.

Now we have an electric, fairly middle-of-the-road lawn mower; the larger, zero turn riding motors will have to wait until we move to a bigger place with more land.

I have been doing a bit of research into the early history of the lawn mower, since the weather is getting warmer and soon we will have to start to think about cutting the grass once again. I am always amazed at the history behind everyday things, that seem as if they'd always been ordinary conveniences.

Lawns have been created by people since the Middle Ages, when they were simply enclosed pieces of common land where the people in a town or village grazed their sheep. The sheep, of course, were the lawn mowers. The word lawn itself probably comes from an early Celtic word, "llan," which meant "enclosure." As time went on, lawns (which were cropped by sheep or cut with scythes) were a symbol of wealth. You had to have enough money to be able to spare land from growing crops. In England, lawns were also used as fields for playing sports, and, later still, in the 18th century, in the creation of public parks. Lawns became popular in the United States during the Victorian period, though Thomas Jefferson and others had tried their hands at creating lawns much earlier.

The first lawn mowing machine would not be invented until the early 19th century. Edwin Beard Budding, an English engineer, received a patent for his cylinder-based lawn mower (inspired by the trimming machines in cloth mills) in 1830. The early cast iron models were heavy and clumsy to use, and many innovations and improvements were made upon Budding's initial design. By the middle of the century, lawn mowers were being produced by several companies. The first engine driven machines appeared in the early 1900s; and in 1921, Atco produced the very first motor mower. And now, of course, there are a huge range of rotary and power motors which can either be pushed or ridden on, which is good news for all of us who have lawns.

Disclaimer: This post is sponsored, but all of the views and points are my own.

Silvertips and Other Fine Shaving Brushes

noreply@blogger.com (Lidian) — Fri, 08 Mar 2013 15:31:00 +0000

Ad from 1925

The shaving brush is a necessity in traditional men's shaving. Without the brush, hard shaving soap would not lather up properly - and even if it did, you'd have to smear it on your face with your fingers. So the French devised the shaving brush in the mid 18th century. They called it a blaireau - which is French for badger. Badger hairs are the best, most traditional material for shaving brush bristles. In fact, the hairs are graded from most coarse to the best - the finest, most expensive bristles are found on the so-called Silvertip Badger brush.

In the 19th century, badger hair shaving brushes became increasingly popular and they still are today. Why? Because no matter what material the brush handle is made of - whether it's a gold or ivory Victorian heirloom or a modern synthetic handled brush - badger hairs work best at picking up the soap and applying it to the face. They are soft and strong, as well as really absorbent. They are also gentle on the skin, which is important. The hairs come from the badger's underbelly and the quality depends upon the coarseness, color and flexibility of the hairs, which differs according to the area of the belly they come from. Brushes made of "pure badger" are the least expensive, "best badger" denotes medium-quality bristles, and the above-mentioned "super" or "silvertip badger" is the highest quality. Shaving brush bristles may also be made of boar's hair or synthetics, or a combination of natural and synthetic bristles.

Victorian brushmakers were often women, according to American writer Caroline Wells Healey Dall in 1868, because "the delicate, con-like arrangement of the badger's hair, in the modern shaving-brush, can be made only by a woman's hand; and she who has the skill to do it well may ask her own wages."

Mechi and Bazin were mid-19th century English cutlery manufacturers, who also made shaving brushes as well as cutlery, cosmetic cases and jars, and Men's and Ladies' Dressing Cases. You can see an ad for the Mechian Dressing Bag on the right; it dates from 1850. It includes a Badger Shaving Brush as well as many other interesting items, including a Cigar Case, a Pocket Railway Key, a Pomade Jar and even a Plated Sandwich Box.

Then as now, a good badger's-hair shaving brush was expensive; but it's a good investment if you like shaving in the traditional way. The cheaper Victorian brushes seem to have been made of hog's hair - which must have been quite rough on the skin. In 1835, Louisa Henrietta Sheridan wrote a comic ode "To My Shaving Brush," in which she takes on the persona of a poor young solider forced to shave with one of these:

I was a subaltern when first
I dipp'd thee in my shaving pot,
Brimful of zeal, and all althirst
For deeds of glory: - now I'm not.
And thou, whose maiden hog's-hair rubb'd
A poor Lieutenant's chops, I'll wager
Shall have it yet to say thou'st scrubbed
The wrinkling vidage of a Major:
Nay, some odd day, thy faithful bristle
May mollify a Colonel's gristle! [from The Comic offering; or Ladies' Melange of Mirth, 1835]

Ideally, of course, anyone who likes to shave in the old-fashioned manner will invest in a good quality badger's hair brush. They are the most effective and most comfortable way to help mollify stubble - or even gristle.

Disclaimer: This is a sponsored post, but all the views and points are my own.

The Father of Our Coffee

noreply@blogger.com (Lidian) — Thu, 07 Mar 2013 15:06:00 +0000

Even the doughboys in the First World War really loved G-for-George Washington's Coffee, as you can see in this advertisement from 1918.

You'd be excused for thinking that the coffee was named in honor of America's first president. Not only is he the one George Washington people generally know about, there's the whole cherry tree legend and cherry pie thing associated with him, too. Well, that kind of goes with coffee, right?

But there was another George Washington (1871-1946) who was born in Belgium and came to the US in the late 1890s. His name really was George Washington - his father was English, and his mother was Belgian. Some sources say he was related to or descended from the George Washington but that doesn't seem to have been proven.

He invented a kind of instant coffee when he lived in Central America in the period just before World War I. It wasn't the very first instant coffee, though. That would be Strang's Coffee, invented by New Zealander David Strang in 1890. And American chemist Satori Kato popularized his instant coffee at the Pan-American Exposition in 1901. But George Washington's was one of the first really widely sold kinds of powdered coffee, building on Strang's and Kato's earlier versions.

His company also sold G. Washington Seasoning and Broth in the 1930s (it is still made today, by the way); according to this site, this was sold at first under the charmingly minimalist name, "Broth." Later this was changed to the much more evocative (though confusing) name "Soup of Tomorrow." But mostly people remember George Washington as the Father of Instant Coffee.

Rhyming Signs of the Times: Burma-Shave

noreply@blogger.com (Lidian) — Wed, 06 Mar 2013 19:35:00 +0000

Wikimedia Commons

Whether you're creating Real Estate Signs or other kinds of business signs, it's always been a good idea to make them stand out in some way. A catchy slogan, a memorable image - they make for great advertising. As you know, I love vintage advertisements. And even though I generally write about print ads, I also love old advertising signs and billboards.

One of the most famous advertising sign campaigns - and one of the most successful - was the Burma-Shave campaign. Burma-Shave was a men's shaving cream first marketed in 1925. The original product, a lotion, had been advertised as having special ingredients that came from, among other places, Burma. A lot of medicines and cosmetics of that era (and earlier) implied that they contained exotic ingredients - such as Pompeian [sic] Massage Cream and Gouraud's Oriental Cream and Magic Beautifier. But this didn't seem to be working for the Burma-Vita Company.

Wikimedia Commons

Instead, they turned to a new kind of advertising sign: small signs, consisting only of words, read in sequence to form a funny little advertising jingle. From the mid 1920s through the early 1960s, everyone who had taken a trip somewhere in the United States knew about Burma-Shave signs. They weren't known for their fancy imagery - there wasn't any. Catchy slogans - well, yes: ones that rhymed. What Burma-Shave was famous for was its little light verses - funny little poems that they very cleverly broke up into several two to three word signs placed in sequence along the highway. The earliest signs weren't rhymed, but by 1929 they were. Usually there were six Burma-Shave signs placed along the edge of the road, visible to car riders. The last line - the punch line - was always "Burma-Shave." For example, one of the most famous ones goes:

Does your husband/Misbehave/Grunt and grumble/Rant and rave/Shoot the brute some/Burma-Shave

Humor is such a brilliant way of catching people's attention in advertising. If you can make people laugh, they will associate your product with the great feeling of laughing at a good joke. And the writers of those Burma-Shave poems certainly knew just how to do that. They also worked in road safety tips such as:

If you dislike/Big traffic fines/Slow down/Till you/Can read our signs/Burma-Shave

Over the decades the number of signs decreased, and by the middle of the 1960s the Burma-Shave signs were gone forever. But they will always be remembered for being some of the most effective commercial signs ever created.

Disclaimer: This is a sponsored post but all the views and points are my own.

The Yeastie Boys

noreply@blogger.com (Lidian) — Tue, 05 Mar 2013 15:49:00 +0000

A new crop of pimples was always taking the joy out of things!

Doesn't matter whether you're a cartoon or a photograph guy, does it? Pimples are everywhere. And they always do take the joy out of things. Yes, Ted (for that is his name) - we know. Even your mirror image knows, because it's the one doing the talking.

Let's ask it for some advice. Mirror, mirror on the wall, who's the pimpliest of them all? But the mirror doesn't want to say anything.But luckily, here comes a Friend in a Hat, saying "What's wrong Ted? You look all worked up!"

Ted explains that he has "a flock of chin blossoms" - which is one of the most disgusting expressions I have ever come across. That's another problem you have, Ted - the way you talk. But unfortunately Fleischmann's Yeast isn't going to teach Ted how to have a normal conversation.

Ted's friend tells him to lie low for two weeks and eat lots and lots of Fleischmann's Yeast. Yes, yeast. Three cakes a day, in fact. Yes, Ted, hide out in the house and eat yeast right out of the package. Yummo!

And then - Ted turns into a loaf of bread.

I'm kidding, of course. You know what happens, don't you? This is an advertisement, after all. Let's do the math: Yeast + Ted = Skin - Pimples. Elementary, my dear Fleischmann.

Plus, of course, girls. Swell girls. And when one of those swell girls asks where he's been for the last two weeks (she's been keeping track) Ted replies "Oh just out making sure there were no girls as pretty as you - and there aren't!" Smooth, isn't he. Just as long as he never mentions chin blossoms ever again.

[From Boys' Life, November 1935.]

The Whispering Campaign

noreply@blogger.com (Lidian) — Sat, 02 Mar 2013 17:26:00 +0000

Gentlemen, there's something you need to be worrying about. Unless you have a beard. In that case, just relax and ignore this 1937 advertisement. But the rest of you, listen up: everyone will be making fun if you get a little 5 o'clock shadow. Yes, they will. And they will also giggle and point and generally have at you.

They will not stop at one joke either. There will be a veritable campaign started about this very terrible stubble problem. A whispering campaign!

And do you know what they are whispering? That "things aren't so good with you." What fun those girls are having, joking about your stubble, and making comments about how you must get your fashion cues from the Maison de Flop.

So you go out and buy a Gem Razor and shave, thinking everything will be copacetic now. Only guess what? They weren't actually talking about your shaving issues. They were giggling about the fact that you have a clock stuck to the side of your head.

Backaches Before the Tempurpedic: Asparagus Pills and Mustard Plasters

noreply@blogger.com (Lidian) — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 15:34:00 +0000

Like a lot of people, I have intermittent problems with back pain, partly due to arthritis and partly due to some other stuff. Fortunately, a combination of exercise, an ergonomic pillow and good mattress, and pain meds keep me going along pretty well. I am quite grateful for modern mattresses, especially after putting my back out at a summer cottage several years ago. Older mattresses were stuffed with things like cotton (as you see in the 1940s illustration on the left) or, in the Victorian period, with substances like horsehairor feathers; less expensive mattresses were filled with things like straw. Modern innovations such as the Tempurpedic, which conforms to the body's contours to give you an amazing night's sleep, was many years in the future.

In addition, the Victorians tended to think that back pain was not caused or cured by the sort of mattress you had, but by the kidneys. So they turned to all sorts of pills and potions to try and purify, regulate and generally tone up their kidneys.

There were some pretty strange ingredients in some of those kidney pills. Asparagus, for example. Dr. Hobb's Sparagus Kidney Pills were advertised in the 1880s and 1890s. Asparagus is known to be a diuretic, so it makes sense that it would be used in pills that were supposed to cleanse and purify the kidneys.

Dr. John Sargent's Backache Pills, shown on the right as advertised in 1871, also linked backache to problems of the kidneys and of the bladder. This ad tells us that back pain "is caused by chronic inflammation of the kidneys" and that like Dr. Hobbs, Dr. Sargent's remedy for back pain was in essence a diuretic. They were sugar-coated, just like Dr. Sargent's Anti-Dyspeptic and Liver Pills, which would cure you of a number of other ailments including bilious attacks, jaundice and "Sick Head-ache."

Swain's Back-Ache and Kidney Pills were available in the 1890s and early 1900s. Swain's ads urged the reader to "Expel the Poison and Make Life a Joy" and not only clear up the kidneys but to combat "weariness and sleeplessness."

Mustard plasters were also a common treatment for sore backs; this was literally a mustard powder paste (made from yellow mustard seeds) that was put onto a dressing or cloth, then put directly on the skin. You could buy them, but most people made them at home. Cookbooks that included home remedy chapters usually had recipes for mustard plasters.

Whether any of these pills and potions would have helped your back pain while trying to sleep on a horsehair mattress is another matter. I'm just glad I live in an age where you can address back pain with modern high tech mattresses.

Disclaimer: This is a sponsored post but all the the points and views are my own.

Hubby's Hobby Salad

noreply@blogger.com (Lidian) — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 14:55:00 +0000

The guests were startled to learn that Ted's hobby consisted of 3 cups of shredded cabbage, 12 broccoli flowerets, 12 cauliflower flowerets, a large tomato and some spinach leaves. All piled in a pyramid, as if they were about to be frozen in place by aspic.

Then they saw the dish of Hellmann's Mayonnaise and thought: maybe that's his hobby: the mayonnaise.

Actually his hobby is growing veggies. OK, I get it.

In the cartoon strip he and his blond wife, June, are at the grocery store and he is very excited that he recognizes Hellmann's. One gets the feeling that this is all new to him. You know how you get excited when you see some pink Anchorglass in a thrift store for a dollar a piece?* That's how Ted is feeling about the Hellmann's display.

Also in the cartoon strip, Ted is beaming at his salad while Tess and June discuss the difference between salad dressing and real mayonnaise.

Now, Tess is the lady who made the salad. And Ted and June are the guests. But it looks like Ted is cuddling with Tess up at the top of the ad.

"Tess serves Ted's vegetables in the style they deserve" - "really fresh, too!" - is this code for something? That's some hobby you've got there, Ted.

* No, I haven't seen this either, but I keep hoping. It was made by the Anchor Hocking Company (which is still in business) in the 40s and 50s - this was part of their very popular Fire-King line, I think. The pink variety is called rose-ite. The image at left is a detail from a 1955 ad.

There is an Anchor Hocking Museum - check out the ad postcards there, for the Royal Ruby Refreshment Set, which I also want, only in part because it is gorgeous. I also want it so that I can announce its name to people as I serve them Royal Ruby Refreshments in it.

Arthur Murray's Hamburger Masquerade

noreply@blogger.com (Lidian) — Sun, 24 Feb 2013 17:56:00 +0000

"Your guests will go away well-fed and envious of your prowess."

So now we know. Arthur Murray was not just a famous dance teacher of the 1930s on whose famous chain of dancing schools are still teaching people to rumba and mambo. After a day of turning wallflowers into Valentinos, Arthur could cha cha cha into the kitchen and make some "conversational ice breakers." Hamburger, the wallflower of the fridge, was turned into what looked like chops as fancy as Cinderella going to the ball, frilly skirts included. It's not just a meal, it's a masquerade!

Yes, the folks would have been talking about these Hamburger Chops all right. And since Arthur Murray's students included famous folks like boxer Jack Dempsey and Eleanor Roosevelt (who really liked hot dogs, which Arthur may not have known), there would be some interesting talk, all right.

Arthur's recipe is, in essence, meatloaf - i.e., hamburger mixed with bread slices soaked in milk and crumbled, an egg, some chopped onion and a little Lea and Perrins of course, since the ad is for their sauce.

Lea and Perrins made what we know as Worcestershire sauce, which is used mainly to flavor meat and fish, although there are apparently about 998 other uses for it. It is a blend of malt vinegar, molasses, sugar, anchovies, salt, tamarind extract and various spices and peppers. And garlic. Oh, and onions. A lot of different things, in other words.

After you make the meatloaf, you shape it into what look like chops, and cook it. Then you stick paper frills around the narrow part to "disguise" it. I just wish that Arthur Murray looked a little happier about the whole thing. If you're trying to trick the dinner guests, for heaven's sake, at least chuckle a little as you put your chops à la J. Wellington Wimpy in the oven.

A bigger version of this 1941 ad is here, just in case you'd like to make this "meal in masquerade."

A Home (and Some Home Recipes) In Kansas City

noreply@blogger.com (Lidian) — Fri, 22 Feb 2013 16:03:00 +0000

This is the beautiful John Wornall House Museum in Kansas City, Missouri. This Greek Revivial style house was built back in 1858 by John B. Wornall for his lucky wife, Eliza. Though you won't necessarily be looking for a Victorian mansion when you're checking out Kansas City real estate, it is still great fun to see what sort of house a well-to-do family would have lived in just before the Civil War. It's now located in the Brookside neighborhood.

During the Civil War the Wornall House was used as a hospital - for both the Northern and Southern wounded, after the Battle of Westport, which took place in October 1864 in Kansas City (Westport is now a neighborhood in Kansas City).

I adore house museums and would love to visit the Wornall House when I visit Kansas City. When I checked out their official site, I noticed that they incorporated cooking demonstrations into their museum tours, which I would not want to miss. Vintage kitchenware and kitchens are just about my favorite part of an old house. I also like to learn about a region's oldest cookbooks. The first cookbook ever published in the state of Kansas is thought to be The Kansas Home Cook-Book which was brought out in 1874 by the Kansas Home for the Friendless in Leavenworth. It was written by Mrs. C.H. Cushing and Mrs. B. Gray. But since it has not been digitized, I can't share any of its recipes with you. However, I do have a 1940 compilation called America Cooks, which features vintage regional recipes from all over the US. From this book, here are two Kansas recipes that Mrs. Worrall might have served for tea or supper:

Sand plums

KANSAS PUFFS

Combine 1 cup sugar, 1 1/2 cups shortening, 1/2 cup molasses, 1 cup sour milk, 1 teaspoon [baking] soda, 1 cup chopped raisins, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, cloves or nutmeg, and 1 cup currants. Add flour to make a stiff batter and bake in small gem [muffin] pans.

Kansas is also known for its gorgeous fruit trees, and this prize-winning vintage recipe features golden, tart local sand plums (also called Chickasaw plums or Cherokee plums):

PLUM LEATHER

Gather native Kansas sand plums, cook until soft, and mash them through a sieve. Pour out on a cloth and dry in the sun. The finished sheet of plum leather is rolled up like a jelly roll, and in the winter pieces are cut from this and stewed with sugar, eaten as sauce, or made into pies.

I would like to try this plum leather recipe in the fall, which is when the plums are best around here - plum sauce instead of apple sauce (or even the two blended together) sounds really good. If I could cook in a beautiful Kansas City kitchen like Mrs. Worrall's, of course, that would be even nicer - but maybe someday I'll get to visit Kansas City, and see the houses (and the sand plums) for myself.

Disclaimer: This post is sponsored but all the views and points are my own.

Baker's Chocolate Cake Cookies

noreply@blogger.com (Lidian) — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 21:11:00 +0000

Baker's Chocolate was not made and sold by a baker. And German Chocolate Cake - associated and made with Baker's Chocolate - did not have its culinary origins in Germany. I never knew this, even though I usually have a package or two of Baker's Chocolate in my cupboard. It's amazing what you can learn from vintage ads.

The Baker Chocolate Company was established in the late 18th century in Massachusetts. Until the 1840s, it was known for unsweetened cakes of chocolate used to make hot cocoa. But by the 20th century Baker's was best known for its sweetened and unsweetened baking chocolate.

As for German Chocolate Cake, it was actually named for German's Sweet Chocolate, invented in the early 1850s by Samuel German of the Baker Chocolate Company. Just over a century later, in 1957, a lady sent her recipe for German's Chocolate cake to a Dallas newspaper. It proved to be quite popular, and when it was reprinted, several of the other newspapers left out the apostrophe and a delicious misnomer was created.

Vintage Baker's advertisements like this one from 1940 usually include some really good recipes. This is one of them. It's called Baker's Chocolate Cake-Cookies - soft cookies that could also be baked in squares and iced, like brownies. They are probably something like that modern convenience, the cake-mix cookie - but much better. I might make these next time someone requires cookies for school or a social occasion (or someone else can do it if I point them in the direction of the Baker's Chocolate while I go lounge on the back porch and read a magazine).

Here's the recipe - they seems pretty adamant about us using Calumet Baking Powder, but I'm sure you can substitute whatever brand you happen to have. And you don't have to wait until summer to bake them, either.

An Amazing 1920s Invention: The Roto-Rooter

noreply@blogger.com (Lidian) — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 13:43:00 +0000

We've all had clogged up drains and we all know what a problem they can be. I remember having a plugged-up bath drain when we lived in Boston on the 2nd floor of a 1920s era house. It was a lovely, charming apartment with lovely, charming 1920s plumbing - which was all very well until the tub drain got blocked up. Unlike the folks in the 1916 picture on your left (from Popular Science Monthly via Wikimedia) our tub was not located in a travelling trunk, so when it stopped draining properly we couldn't just turn it into a suitcase.

Anyway, I remember us trying to use a snake to unblock it, and not getting all that far (literally and figuratively). I think in the end we did the smart thing and called a professional plumber in to help us. Probably someone from Rotorooter- and were we ever glad to see them!

It was also in the 1920s that a clogged drain in his son's apartment gave a man named Samuel Oscar Blanc a brilliant idea. Samuel and his son Milton invented a machine with rotating blades that cleaned out clogged sewer drains. Sewers often get filled up with stubborn things like tree roots and the Blancs' machine was a super-powerful variation of the plumber's snake we were poking into our 1920s tub drain.

You can see the machine that Mrs. Blanc named the Roto-Rooter, in this wonderful photo (above right) from Wikimedia Commons - along with the elder Mr. Blanc. It features a washing machine motor, steel cables and roller skate wheels - isn't that ingenious? It is just the sort of thing we needed for our vintage Boston tub, no doubt about it.

Anyway, the Blancs sold their Roto-Rooters to individuals all through the 1930s, and gradually a lot of those folks started their own plumbing businesses. The earliest ads I found for the official Rotorooter company are from the late 1940s and I certainly remember them when I was a kid in the 1960s and 1970s. I'll bet a lot of you, like me, remember the little Roto-Rooter jingle about troubles going down the drain - I always enjoyed it when it came on the radio or TV.

The company is still going strong, and ready to deal with all sorts of plumbing issues - whether you have a brand new house or, like us back in our Boston days, live in a vintage place with vintage plumbing.

Disclaimer: This is a sponsored post; however, all the points and views are my own.

An Exciting Mustard Discovery

noreply@blogger.com (Lidian) — Mon, 18 Feb 2013 13:56:00 +0000

Thank goodness, Mrs. Newlywed has managed to impress Mrs. Uppercrust, the pigeon-breasted, pince-nez-wearing doyenne of high society. And no, it isn't Mrs. Newlywed's ability to trowel on the makeup that has made her so popular. Or the strange striped bustle thing that's protruding from her left side.

It's an Exciting Mustard Discovery. As opposed boring ones. These are examples of Boring Mustard Discoveries:

-You discover that you're out of mustard.
-Or that you really don't care for mustard.
-Or that you got mustard on your fancy black velvet suit.

But just being in the same room as a jar of Best Foods Mustard with Horseradish = Excitement!

Best Foods was the same brand as Hellmann's, but were sold west of the Rockies and in Australia, New Zealand and Asia. If you were in the market for thrilling condiments east of the Rockies, in Canada, Europe, Latin America or the Middle East, you'd have to calm down a little and look for Hellmann's on the label.

And just wait until Mrs. Uppercrust tastes that cup of tea that Mrs. Newlywed's pouring her. Then she'll really know the meaning of the phrase Exciting Mustard Discovery!

A Blue Cocktail to Match the Pool

noreply@blogger.com (Lidian) — Sat, 16 Feb 2013 18:07:00 +0000

Martha Raye looks about like I do when the weekend rolls around (minus the lei, of course): a little bit worn down and needing a fancy retro cocktail. Ideally, in a scenic, tropical place to sit and enjoy it. I imagine that a lovely seaside bit of Hawaii Real Estate for sale would suit my needs perfectly. Martha knows what I'm talking about.

Waikiki Wedding (1937) was best known for the song "Sweet Leilani" - but did you know that another song in the movie, "Blue Hawaii," is actually the inspiration for the cocktail called a Blue Hawaii? Well, it is. Most people think that the drink was named for the 1961 Elvis Presley Blue Hawaii, in which he covers the Bing Crosby song. But this refreshing blue cocktail was created by a famous bartender named Harry Yee in 1957, 4 years before Elvis' movie. He presided over the bar at the Hawaiian Village Hotel on the island of Oahu.

The Hawaiian Village Hotel

Now, since I'm imagining having a retro cocktail party to celebrate buying some amazing Honolulu Real Estate, I will not only be sharing a few vintage cocktail recipes (at the end of the post) but I'd also like to share the locale of my dream retro cocktail party (below left). If you want to make yourself a Blue Hawaii, you will need some rum, pineapple juice, sweet and sour mix and Curaçao. Curaçao is a liqueur made with laraha citrus peel (it is kind of like an orange) will give the drink its gorgeous blue color. If you substitute cream of coconut for the sweet and sour mix you'll have yourself a drink called a Blue Hawaiian.

I haven't just been looking up blue cocktail recipes, though. I've been looking for a dream venue to serve them in. So I went looking for some Oahu Real Estate and pretended that I could have one of the gorgeous houses listed there. And on the left is where I wish I was serving Blue Hawaiis and Hula Hulas. At Distinctive Homes Hawaii you can take advantage of a full service, luxury Real Estate firm offering you an interactive MLS search. I do love looking at places with ocean views and relaxing swimming pools, especially in the middle of winter!

Anyway, as promised, here are the recipes...I plan to make these in my dream house, with the vintage cocktail shaker that I also do not have - yet. Not yet. But maybe someday I'll be sipping a retro drink that matches the swimming pool. In the meantime, here are the recipes:

BLUE HAWAII (from Food.com)

This makes one drink so multiply as necessary. Combine all the following in a cocktail shaker or, if you're using crushed ice, mix the lot in a blender: 3/4 ounce light rum, 3/4 ounce vodka, 1/2 ounce blue Curaçao, 3 ounces pineapple juice and an ounce of powdered sweet and sour mix. Pour into a tall glass and add a pineapple slice and a maraschino cherry for garnish.

HULA HULA (from the 1941 edition of The Old Mr. Boston DeLuxe Official Bartender's Guide)

This also makes one cocktail: take 3/4 ounce orange juice, 1 1/2 ounces dry gin, 1/4 teaspoon powdered sugar, and shake well with some cracked ice. Strain into a cocktail glass.

The movie posters, the Hawaiian Village Hotel image and the bottle of Curaçao are from Wikimedia Commons.

Lawson, I'll Have Wine

noreply@blogger.com (Lidian) — Fri, 15 Feb 2013 20:05:00 +0000

Here is Lawson Little, a famous golfer back in the 1930s and 40s (this ad is from 1941). He looks a trifle uneasy, but please don't let that put you off. He is a fabulous host and if you were at one of his parties - let's pretend that we are, just for a moment - he would be hoping that you'd demand something to drink. Don't just stand there being polite and thirsty! Mr. Little's guests quickly learn that he appreciates them speaking up and saying - all together now! - "Lawson, I'll have wine."

Now, this ad implies that "next time you entertain at your home," you might be welcoming Lawson and his friends sportswriter Grantland Rice and painter Norman Rockwell - "and many another good host." Yes, even good hosts like to drop by someone else's place once in awhile. And when they do, they'll be saying "Make mine wine." Red wine is what they prefer, it looks like. Also Brie and Ritz crackers, although that is a little harder to discern.

Being a good host was more than handing over a glass of wine and a Ritz cracker, of course - then and now. A good web host will give you a place to hang out online - just like Lawson and his pals are hanging out, in the little picture (I love how Lawson never seems to socialize without his golf club). And a good host also sometimes offers you coupons that are just as tasty as a glass of Burgundy. Just savor this handy burstnet coupon 2013 and get a good deal on domain coupons for places like name.com, Yahoo! and Network Solutions, among others. For example, how about 50% off on Yahoo web hosting (code: YWHBIGC50) or a Dreamhost-97 coupon (code: SAVEMAXNOW). You can pick whichever coupon code suits you best. And then you can raise a toast to all those savings - Lawson Little will be glad to top up your glass.

The Magic Powers of Lettuce

noreply@blogger.com (Lidian) — Fri, 15 Feb 2013 13:28:00 +0000

Welcome to today's edition of Salads For People Who Have Totally Given Up. Canned chicken + canned cranberry sauce = salad. Especially when you add the visual cue of a lettuce leaf. Handy tip of the day: adding a lettuce leaf to absolutely anything makes it a Salad. Pecan pie, mashed potatoes, olives and canned peaches. Mix and match on lettuce leaves and hey presto: it's salad.

These round things, minus the lettuce, aren't really salads so much as things in cans stacked one on top of the other. Although if you have the energy to cut out little cranberry-jelly chickens* to plonk on top, you probably could have made a tiny bit more effort that this.

*Yes, they look like turkeys, but this ad is from July 1952 and the whitish stuff is canned chicken. I think the cutouts were made with a turkey cookie cutter, though. Oh, and the white stuff is mayonnaise mixed with cream cheese.

My Imaginary Hawaiian Vacation

noreply@blogger.com (Lidian) — Thu, 14 Feb 2013 14:42:00 +0000

Well, it's been really snowy and cold for a long time, hasn't it? I keep wanting to start Couch to 5K. I'm waiting for the ice and slush to clear up a little because it's been awhile since I ran regularly and I need to be able to concentrate on the Couch to 5K app without worrying about tripping and falling head first into a snowbank. So I've been looking at some lovely Hawaii Vacation Rentals and imagining running along a beautiful beach. I love beaches and being near the water, always have done. And I've never been to Hawaii. We talk about putting it on our Future Travel List, though.

So anyway, I was putting off my novel-writing stint of that day (which is going to happen after I write this, totally) and looking up stuff about Hawaii and also looking up retro stuff because hey, retro stuff is my thing, etc. And I found this 1970s game show starring Bob Eubanks in a variety of loudly patterned shirts, called The Diamond Head Game.* Have you heard of this show? I never had, and I'm actually kind of surprised, because back in the 1960s and 70s I absolutely loved watching game shows. It only ran for a few months in 1975 and has the distinction of being the only game show that was ever filmed in Hawaii. You can check out a clip here.

There was an elaborate question-and-answer part that I won't even begin to try and describe. But when you got past the elimination rounds you got to go inside the Diamond Head Money Volcano where you could win some "fabulous, fabulous prizes" like cars and vacations. There were bills of various denominations and pieces of paper with prizes listed on them, all flying around, and you had to grab as many as you could in the allotted seconds.

Sadly The Diamond Head Game was not on the air for all that long, but you can give yourself some Hawaii-themed prizes right now by checking out some amazing vacation rentals online including Oahu Vacation Rentals and Waikiki Vacation Condos. This is the place I've chosen for my imaginary winter getaway. It's called Black Point Villa, and it's right on the beach, on the Black Point bluffs in Oahu. Can't you imagine walking - or going for a run - along that shore? If only I had a Money Volcano of my own, this is just where I'd like to be!

*I really did want to show you a screenshot of the opening titles of The Diamond Head Game, but I couldn't figure out if it was OK for me to reproduce the image, so I thought I'd use this delightful 1939 pineapple juice ad instead, which shows how I plan to relax after that run on the beach. Ta ta, horseback riding friends! I'm going to sit here looking gorgeous and swilling pineapple juice while you huff up that volcano. Oh, and if you find any thousand dollar bills, please bring them right back to me, darlings.

So Good You Could Frame It

noreply@blogger.com (Lidian) — Thu, 14 Feb 2013 01:47:00 +0000

Want a little romance for breakfast? Well, you aren't going to find it here. Not in this ad from 1941. No sir.

Yes, it would certainly not make my day if my husband called me and his National Biscuit 100% Bran cereal "my two great loves."

At least Bob mentioned her first, not the bran. That's good, I guess.

And here's even more exciting news: National Biscuit's 100% Bran is not only Double Milled, but it is a New Form of Bran that will tackle constipation like nobody's business. According to another ad for this cereal, from 1940 (which I'm saving, because it's pretty funny, too) the double milling is what makes it so, so special. That's what breaks the fiber down into teeny bits so it "is less likely to be irritating."

Unlike Bob, who is not a bit less likely to be irritating.

You can really see how much old Bob loves his cereal. Here he is, hugging the box and murmuring sweet nothings to it like "Such gentle action!" Does his wife know about this? I guess she does, it's not like he's sneaking around behind her back, two-timing her with some floozy of a cereal box. Why, he even brags about it to her. And here he is smiling while holding a picture frame up to his face - because National Biscuit has "A Flavor So Good You Could Frame It." No, I don't know what that means, either. Wait, yes, I do. It means that Insufficient Bulk is the least of Bob's problems, that's what it means.