Author Archives: Sally Edelstein

About Sally Edelstein

Sally Edelstein is an award-winning artist and writer whose work has focused on mid-century American culture. Her nationally exhibited collages of vintage imagery, (www.sallyedelsteincollage.com) offer a remix of popular culture. Her blog, EnvisioningTheAmericanDream.wordpress.com, offers up a curated collection of vintage advertising and illustrations of mid-century American consumer culture. Weaving personal stories along with vintage images, the commentaries are an amalgam of satire, history and memoir.

How To Get Lucky At Your Prom

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Though Prom season is newly over, we just had to post this wonderful essay by our contributor Sally Edelstein. Was it really that way?

Pretty and popular, Patty Barnes was one Lucky girl.Not only was this perky senior voted her High School Prom Queen 1952, the honor came with a gift of a carton of Lucky Strike Cigarettes. Her steady, Rick, a hulking football playing -ROTC- National Honor Society- dreamboat, always knew Patty was one smokin’ gal; like Lucky Strikes “so round, so firm, so fully packed and easy on the draw.” Her yearbook said it best: “As a student and as a ‘personality’ Patty Belongs!”Big Party- Gay Time! After the whirlwind rounds of graduation festivities attending 15 dances, 20 Coke parties, 12 teas, 8 luncheons and 5 barbeques, winding down with a soothing cigarette was a most welcome break for pretty, popular Patty. Does a Girl Who Isn’t Pretty, Stand a Chance to Have Fun?

Vintage Listerine Ad 1950

But then there was poor Babs Johnson. The only date she seemed to have were with her musty old history books.

She read all the magazine articles and took all their advise on becoming popular. Eagerly she joined all the school clubs, taking a job behind the scenes as a prompter for the senior play, timer for the swim team, pianist for the school operetta and assistant in the library. But, she often wondered, does a girl who isn’t pretty stand a chance to having fun? It was only after Dee Dee D’Angelo offered her a Lucky Strike cigarette in the girls bathroom that Babs wised up and saw the light…lighting up could really light up her life. After that she made sure to light up a Lucky whenever the gang was around and it wasn’t long before Babs was wearing her steadies gold football on a thin chain around her neck. Be happy…go Lucky!

Back to the Future

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Back to the FutureA better life in the future is, in effect, the promise made by all advertising.

Beginning in the dark days of the Depression and accelerated during the War years, many American businesses adopted the future as an explicit leitmotif in advertising.

Especially during the deprivations and sacrifices of WWII, the glittering promises of a post-war world filled with unheard of conveniences and an abundance of tantalizing technological advances as presented by Madison Avenue, gave hope to a war-weary public.

Tomorrow’s Living Today

In the post-war push button dream world, a man would travel in 300 mph trains, translucent automobiles, four-decker planes, helicopters, buses equipped with cocktail lounges and amphibious jeeps. Television would bring the world to his living room, and he could transact his business by walkie-talkie while bagging a brace of ducks.

It was to be a world in which stockings never ran, fabrics never had to be washed, and intercommunication systems eliminated the need for a babysitter. Pants would never shine or lose their crease even in the rain since a man would ordinarily own several dozen synthetic suits, which after a wearing or two, he would roll up in a ball and fire into the automatic garbage disposer.

To read the entire article pick up the latest issue at Barnes & Noble or Book World Stores.

Envisioning the American Dream