Vintage and Retro Ads, Promos, Fliers, Etc.
- Essence of Bend-Over - 1920s
This is perfume that you can spray in anywhere:
- Your home
- Your clothes
- Your ears
I wonder what is 'bend-over' mean. Is it trademark ?
- For digestion's sake - Smoke Camels - Life magazine - Nov 23, 1936
Source: https://books.google.com.vn/books?id=N0EEAAAAMBAJ&printsec=frontcover&hl=vi#v=onepage&q&f=false
- Radium Water - The Seattle Star - June 03, 1925
Drink radioactive water to stay healthy, as they believe
- Game ads Realms of Arkania - Electronic Entertainment 1 - January 1994
I think, this is it https://store.steampowered.com/app/237550/Realms_of_Arkania_Blade_of_Destiny/ Still selling on steam. The ancient relic that survive since DOS time.
- Radium Tonic Tablet - The Washington Times - January 22, 1925
Magic pill that make you younger ads.
But is Radium mentioned in the ads is 'Radium-88Ra' ? Can anyone dig deeper with me on this ? Found this [Radithor] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radithor) on wiki. Maybe this is it.
People really take radioactive pill to become younger these days ?
- Sheaffer pen - writing-to-text pen 1964
A pen combo that convert written text into typing text. From the ads, I think the device can also send the message for you.
The pen cost $15.
I don't know if sending that email cost anything. Unclear if it hook into your fax line or internet line or their own network.
- Radio combine with paper-roll to put inside your restroom - Parade Magazine - 1973
$9.95 With attached paper-roll
- Luckies - a light smoke - Life magazine - Nov 23, 1936
They make it like to lure non-smoker to become smoker. They target women, and probably teen.
Source: Life magazine - Nov 23, 1936
- Top Value Stamps - 1950
More to read on: https://northeastnews.net/pages/remember-this-trading-stamps/ !
> " Commonly called “trading stamps,” merchants across America offered savings stamps based on the amount of the customer’s purchase. The more one purchased, the more stamps were obtained for the cash transaction.
Stamps were pasted into savings books and when full, could be redeemed at a redemption center chock-full of name brand items, from household goods to appliances, home decor and toys. Depending on the merchant, the stamps offered could be Gold Bond, S&H Green Stamps, or Top Value, among others. "
I think, it work like royalty promotion, isn't it ? Can someone enlightening me on this stuff.
Perhaps it is not like food/fuel/clothes stamps in the Soviet ?!
- "So many uses!" (Black Leaf 40 ad from Country Gentleman magazine 1939)
It is 40% nicotine concentrate.
- Velvet tobacco - 1939
The leaves (brown stuff) to put in your pipe or roll your own cigarettes.
They even have flavour.
Ohhh, good old day when tobacco ads is not banned.
- Amatuer Hour - Heinz ads - Life magazine - Nov 23, 1936
A content-full ads of Heinz. Well, it sooo look like an ordinary article. Very interesting to read.
Source: Life magazine Nov 23 1936
- Liberty Mutual car insurance - Life magazine - Nov 23, 1936
*(Try to open image in new tab and zoom in, you can read the full text) *
The ads said that this car insurance is cheap because they only sell to careful driver.
So, I guess, you can be customer of this company until you have 1 accident. I guess they will stop continue contract with you after they pay, if they actually pay at all.
Maybe, because the law force us to buy car insurance, so those company exist. Am I correct ? What do you think ?
- Keefer Goldtone pencils - 1950
Source: https://archive.org/details/1950-advertisement-for-keefer-goldtone-pencils From the 4 November 1950 edition of Australian Women's Weekly.
-------- It is quite a surprise for me to see mechanical pencil is marketed as luxury product.
If only girl gift me a mechanical pencil on my date :D we'll see, we can write letter to each other, instead of texting.
- Slip 'n Slide - "Cool splashing fun for all ages." (1961)
Deploy it on your yard, and enjoy waterpark at home. ... Well, if only you have yard, or backyard.
Too bad, you live in a rented 20m2 apartment.
- Soap making with Banner high-test pulverized lye. 1900
This is ads about lye (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lye), an stuff that help you make soap. So, back in those day, people make soap at home to save cost, not because they want 'homemade' soap.
"Grease" in the ads was fat from animal. People have ton of those because they live in the farm. Grease is one of by-product of butchering animal. The 'lye' is something that help turn grease into helpful stuff (soap) and save cost.
- Bacardi and Stearns Brand Electric Paste 1965
Found this old newspaper page folded up in a box in the attic at moms house and thought I'd share!
- Dictaphone, 1929
Good old Phone ads.
So much information, and a comic.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dictation_machine
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dictaphone
This is a phone with voice recorder.
- Gold bond trading stamp
Found on pinterest. Someone please help me find source.
I think this is a company that provide royalty program for customer. People buy stuff, get stamp, and can use stamp to exchange for more stuff.
- [1980s] Penetrator-10 outdoor warning siren
This ad dates to the early-mid 1980s. The siren advertised is the Penetrator-10 (P-10 for short) which is a 10-horsepower electric outdoor warning siren built by Alerting Communicators of America (ACA). ACA was the siren division of Biersach & Niedermeyer (BNCO), a company previously shown in the Mobil Directo ads. The P-10 boasted a rating of 125 decibels at 100 ft, with a double-sided 10 horsepower motor driving both the chopper (which makes the noise) and the chain-drive rotation mechanism underneath the siren using a gearbox. The siren used weather-resistant fibreglass for the projector and motor housing, which was something ACA was famous for as other companies used steel. It could also be single or dual-tone depending on what was needed.
The P-10 was released in 1980, replacing the Allertor 125 which was the same siren at its core, but used a similar projector to the Mobil Directo. This projector was found to suffer from water building up in the horn and freezing, which would jam up the chopper and burn out the motor. The P-10 didn't have this issue, which is why it replaced the Allertor. The P-10 was also sold alongside the 15HP Penetrator-15, and the monstrous 135 decibel Penetrator-50, which holds the record as the loudest electric siren ever built.
After ACA's bankruptcy and reformation into the American Signal Corporation in 1994, the P-10 was discontinued in favour of the P-15, which would be renamed to the RM-127 until it too was discontinued in 2002. The P-50 would be sold until 2007 under the name T-135AC. American Signal Corporation still exists today, selling the Tempest, E-Class, and i-Force lines of sirens.
- [~1948] BNCO Mobil-Directo air raid siren
This ad was released roughly around 1948, advertising the Mobil Directo air raid siren. I've posted an ad for this siren previously, which only featured the Mobil Directo's gas engine-driven BN52 model. This ad introduced a new variant of the Mobil-Directo, driven by a 10HP electric motor instead of the 25HP Wisconsin aircooled engine. This new electric model proved extremely successful, as engines require significantly more maintenance and are far less practical for siren use than a motor.
The new model, known as the Mobil Directo BN44E, saw widespread use across the United States and Canada. Rated at 126 dB @ 100ft for 10/12-port dual tone models to nearly 128 dB for 8-port single tone models, the BN44E was louder than most other sirens during the time of its production. The engine-driven BN52 would see sales dry up quickly after the BN44E's release, being discontinued in 1953. The BN44E would be sold until 1967, when BNCO was forced to stop making sirens due to stiff competition from Federal Sign & Signal.
BNCO would create a new division, known as Alerting Communicators of America (ACA) who would redesign the Mobil Directo into the Allertor 125, which saw the steel projector replaced with a fiberglass projector, and the dual belt-driven pulleys on the rotation drive replaced by a single chain-drive rotation mechanism under the siren. The Allertor 125 would be sold until 1981, when it was replaced by the Penetrator-10 which replaced the large projector with a simplified horn.
- [Early 1920s] Sterling Model "M" electric siren
The Model M was an early electric siren first developed in 1920 by the Inter-State Machine Products Company, who would later rebrand to the Sterling Siren Fire Alarm Company based out of Rochester, NY. The Model M was perhaps the most popular and widespread fire siren sold in North America, with units being sold across the US and Canada in great numbers. It is said that nearly every volunteer fire department in the eastern US had a Sterling Model M, or Sterling's other sirens such as the Model 5VX or Little Giant.
Unlike earlier electric sirens such as the Denver sirens I talked about in a previous post, the Model M was designed from the ground up to be weatherproof. Reliability in an emergency is everything, and its designer, Merton C. Armstrong, knew this. The choppers are covered with rounded "sounders" which also direct sound downwards, the motor is protected by a cover, and the air intakes on each side had protective wire mesh to keep debris out. By 1928, the siren would be improved with metal louvres on the intakes to further protect it. The Model M used motors between 3-10 horsepower, could be single or dual headed, and were rated to roughly 115 decibels @ 100 ft.
The Model M as previously mentioned saw incredible success. As shown by a friend of mine who made a map of every known Sterling siren, these sirens found their way everywhere. Unfortunately, by the late 1970s, competition became too great as Sterling's 50 year old design became obsolete. Sterling went out of business in 1972, but its designs were bought by a new company known as Sentry Siren who produced the Model M until 1986.
Sentry Siren is still in business today, and many of its sirens are directly based on the Model M's chopper design which is a testament to how good the Model M was. Many Model Ms remain in service today, including several units which are roughly 100 years old. Van Alstyne, TX's Model M is speculated to be the oldest surviving Model M, and is currently still in service.
Video of an early single tone Model M in Van Alstyne, TX, presumably the oldest known Model M
Video of a later dual tone Model M with louvred intakes in Columbus Grove, OH
- Royal Typewriter ads - Life Magazine November 30, 1936
The ads about a typewriter. Feel nostale. I wish i can acquire a newly product typewriter with good price (pricing as an device to be use rather than an ancient rare decor).
Source: Life Magazine - November 30, 1936 Link
- [1952] Federal Thunderbolt 1000 air raid siren
The Thunderbolt was one of the more unique designs for an outdoor warning siren. Instead of using a large chopper (the part that makes the noise in mechanical sirens) the Thunderbolt uses a small chopper through which pressurized air is fed from a Roots blower at the base of the siren. Because the feed of air is constant from the blower, the siren would not lose volume as it raised and lowered in pitch, unlike conventional sirens. Despite having a chopper diameter of only a few inches across, the Thunderbolt was more powerful than most sirens of its era at ~127 decibels @ 100 feet. The only siren that could beat it in 1952 was the Chrysler Air Raid Siren, which was powered by a Hemi V8 engine.
Thunderbolts were produced by Federal Enterprises (later Federal Sign & Signal and then Federal Signal Corporation) from 1952 to 1990. Federal's main competition, Alerting Communicators of America, famously created their own Roots-blown siren called the Hurricane 130 to compete with the Thunderbolt with questionable results. The design, while high-performing, was also maintenance intensive as the rotation mechanism and blower had belts that needed to be replaced on occasion. It would be succeeded by Federal's 2001 siren, which is sold today as the 2001-130.