Category: Nostalgia

Home Victory Garden

This 1943-1944 calendar from the McFarland Company is full of lovely images, including this victory garden, popular during WWII. The floral side of gardening is covered in the month of July.

Bright colors fill the room for January.

And who wouldn’t want their yard filled with wisteria?

Back To School: Creative Studying Solutions

LIFE 3/7/49

Preston Tucker, owner of the Tucker Corp, tries to prove to investors that a car can be manufactured with engines in the rear.

This photo was published exactly four days after the company ceased operations of the Tucker 48. Only 51 cars were ever produced. Among other negative publicity, top newspaper columnist Drew Pearson reported that the car was a fraud because it could not go backward and it went “goose-geese” going down the road.

giphy.com

But what horsepower!

Well, I Swan!

Back in March of 1949, when this ad debuted, Doris Day had not reached the apex of her “girl next door” fame. She was on the second of her four marriages, and had already born her only son, Terry Melcher, who passed in 2004.

I’d be willing to bet she didn’t hold on to that 35 cent locket all these years. Day, now 96, may just reach Hope’s milestone of living 100 years. With a long legacy as an animal activist, her cinematic legacy still stands strong today.

all gifs from giphy.com

She was quite the ham, no?

Oh, To Be Rich And At Sea

photos by Jean Howard

Art Director Mitchell Leisen is holding the plates, but he’s also the host of this July 4th, 1952 Catalina Island outing. He invited friends Cesar Romero, Mona Freeman, Rory Calhoun, and Robert Wagner aboard his boat, Escapade.

Perhaps, like me, you cannot help but think about Robert Wagner and his suspect boat activities, but this was decades prior.

Out on the water, with Mitch at the wheel, he is joined by (among others) Susan Zanuck in the hat, Cesar Romero, and Lita Baron (Mrs. Rory Calhoun).

When Lita later divorced Rory, gossip mags said she accused him of adultery with 78 women, including Betty Grable. In his 1999 obituary, he was quoted as retorting to her charge with, “Heck, she didn’t even include half of them.”

I’m not saying he did it, but I will say he stole a revolver at 13, was sent to jail, and subsequently escaped from said jail. From there, he hot-wired cars, took them for joy rides, and robbed jewelry stores for kicks. For this, he spent three years in prison.

What about you? Have you ever spent the 4th of July on a boat?

Have you ever worn long sleeves on the 4th? I can’t imagine.

Have you ever committed adultery with 78 different partners?