Old magazine ads can add some artful nostalgia into your home decor

The next time you pick up a magazine, take a close look at the advertisements that fill most periodicals. How many would you consider cutting out to save? Chances are, not many.

But 40, 50 and even 100 years ago, many of the magazine ads were small works of art. And there are scores of collectors who like to clip those ads to frame and display.

In my first house, I had a framed “Campbell’s Soup” ad hanging in the kitchen and an “Ivory Soap” ad in the bathroom.

But I’m not as quick to clip things out of old magazines as I used to be. Now, I love to take the time to read the articles and short stories, even the letters to the editor, and it’s frustrating to turn a page and discover the rest of what I want to read is missing. Plus, I find the contents of old magazines a fascinating look at both how times have changed, and how little people change.

For instance, in my October 1904 issue of “The Ladies Home Journal,” in addition to lovely illustrations of the latest fashions, and photos of “California” houses costing from $350 to $2200, there is a richly detailed article on how a family can live well on $600 a year, and a memoir written by a single woman who had to make her own way in the world.

In a 1933 copy of “Better Homes and Gardens,” amid the ads for “Kleenex” and “Eveready Batteries,” the editor goes to great lengths to explain to readers just how the newly formed Federal Home Loan Bank System – which was created in 1932 to restore public confidence in financial institutions – worked to the benefit of the public.

Similarly, ads from the 1940s encourage readers to buy War Bonds, and feature creative ways for thrifty housewives to endure rationing caused by wartime shortages. Articles on topics like “Sex fidelity in Wartime” and “The Mighty Soy Bean” with its predictions that the lowly soybean will help post-war Americans “paint your house, drive your car, make your clothes and bake your daily bread,” sketch a picture of the concerns and possibilities of life at that time.

In the July 1949 issue of “Holiday” magazine, an advertisement for United Aircraft Corporation, the conglomerate that supplied materials to most airlines at the time, touts the advantages of speedy coast-to-coast air travel for post-World War II families. The illustration shows a couple and their two children relaxing in an unbelievably spacious cabin. “There just isn’t time for children to get too restless, for normal routines to be upset, for your own tempers to get frayed,” the ad says.

A smaller illustration shows the “attentive, capable stewardess” changing a baby’s diaper while the mother, wearing hat and gloves, looks on. (That was certainly never an option when I was flying with small children.)

In this day of long lines, security issues and the general tension of air travel, old ads are poignant reminder of both how far we have come and what we have lost.

Magazines published in the 1950s, a time of prosperity for the country, feature automobile and alcohol ads interspersed with articles about dealing with Communism, and chatty updates on Hollywood royalty.

The Oct. 23, 1951, issue of Look magazine warns that the world’s population explosion was “as dangerous as the atom bomb,” and also tells us that Marilyn Monroe liked to spend her free time reading. The caption under a photograph of Monroe sitting on a bed wearing only a short robe, states that Tolstoy’s “Anna Karenina” was a recent favorite. (Interestingly, Tolstoy is in the spin-cycle again as the book has been adopted by yet another celebrity, and is now on Oprah’s list of “must reads.”)

In the same magazine, a full-page cigarette ad shows a Halloween Jack-o’-Lantern wreathed in the smoke from an “Old Gold” cigarette.

“We don’t try to scare you with medical claims,” the copy claims. In the fine-print at the bottom of the page - the box where the Surgeon General’s warning against the dangers of smoking now appears - are the following words: “We say boo to all those nose-and-throat tests…No other leading cigarette is less irritating, or easier on the throat, or contains less nicotine than Old Gold. This conclusion was established on evidence by the U. S. Government.” Could anyone in 1951 have envisioned lawsuits and huge settlements from the tobacco industry in the news today?

If you’re interested in collecting old magazine advertisements, there are myriad Web sites devoted to that kind of ephemera. And a number of local dealers handle clipped and wrapped ads.

Personally, instead of clipping, I like to scan the image into my computer. That way a facsimile can be printed and framed without destroying the integrity of the magazine.

It’s still possible find intact vintage magazines at estate sales and thrift stores, even antique malls, often for much less than the cost of an individual ad. And the pages provide a printed time capsule.

For each of my children, I saved a newspaper of the day and a copy of “Time Magazine for the week they were born.

Perhaps, sometime in the distant future, they will enjoy reading the articles as well as the ads and through them get a peek back at the world they joined.

Sources

Online shopping makes it easy to find specific magazines, magazine covers and advertisements. Here are a few sites to visit:

• Gallagher’s Gallery and Archive at http://www.vintagemagazines.com/, and Old Mags.com at http://www.oldmags.com/ sell vintage magazines.

• The Paperboy News sells vintage magazine covers, advertising ephemera and old vinyl records. http://www.paperboynews.com/ question.asp

• Yesterday Paper at http://www.yesterdaypaper.com/ home.html and Ad Attic at http://www.adattic.com/en-us/ front.html are other online sources.

Events calendar

• Palmer Wirfs Portland Expo Antique and Collectible Sale, Oct. 29 to 31.

This is one of the biggest sales in the country. More than 1,300 vendors fill the Portland Expo Center with antiques and collectibles. Hours are Saturday, 9 to 6, and Sunday 10 to 5. The $7 admission is good both days. For more information go to http://www.palmerwirfs.com/ portland/

• The Shopgirlz. Nov. 5 and 6

Four friends, all junkers and collectors from the Moses Lake area, will have a sale at the O’ Sullivan Grange located at 14724 Road 3 SE, just off Highway 17 outside Moses Lake.

The sale will feature ten vendors with antiques, collectibles, vintage kitchen items and retro clothing. Free refreshments will be served on Friday night.

Hours of the sale are Friday, 4 to 8 p.m. and Saturday 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Admission is free, and part of the proceeds will be donated to the local food bank and the Humane Society.

For more information, contact Kathie Grignon at (509) 989-6234.