donna723
Well-Known Member
Im having so much fun with this, I just had to share! I was born and raised in St. Louis and my grandparents met at the 1904 St. Louis Worlds Fair
if it wasnt for the Worlds Fair, I wouldnt be here! So
just on a whim, I started haunting eBay and other places, buying all kinds of little trinkets and souvenirs from the Fair
I have a modest but growing collection of little glass dishes, metal trays, books, pictures, post cards, buttons, all kinds of junk! Anyway
I recently bought a copy of the September, 1904 issue of Cosmopolitan magazine, devoted almost totally to the Worlds Fair, and it just arrived yesterday! Its not like todays Cosmopolitan magazine. Its about 10x7, 144 pages. Its very fragile, and the cover isnt attached anymore, but its all there. Most of it is devoted to pictures and articles about the Fair, and its absolutely fascinating!
But the real treasure is THE ADS! OMG! THE ADS! This is like a Twilight Zone peek back at what things were like 103 years ago, before the truth-in-advertising laws, and before the Food & Drug laws! There are ads for motor cars, both the steam models and the gasoline models priced at about $700! There are ads for tailor-made suits for men from $10 to $30, and mens bowler hats and garters! A brand new ornate iron bed for $7.75! Ads selling six beautifully bound Mark Twain books for $1.00. Brand new $35 typewriters from the Chicago Writing Machine Company !
There are ads promising a 10-day do-it-yourself cure for all your vision problems by mail order, using the Madison Absorption Method, with the endorsement of a Mrs. Margaret Harriman of New Richmond, Indiana, who used to be blind and now shes not, thanks to Dr. Madison! And ads for fleshy people to lose weight, also by mail order, and it is guaranteed that You will never be stout again! Think they might have been on to something there??
:wink:
Then theres Armours Extract of Beef, recommended for good health ... "If you have been to the country or seashore, it helps you retain the effects of an abundance of ozone!" It promises Rosy cheeks and bright minds for school children and grown-ups! And "Asparox", apparently some sort of asparagus-flavored powder to put in foods, or you can put it in water and make a beverage out of it if you like ... sounds yummy doesn't it! Like asparagus flavored Kool Aid! :cry: Theres a Postum ad with pictures of doctors warning about a serious ailment they called Coffee Heart! And some kind of "pre-digested" malt health food - made by Anheuser-Busch! It was highly recommended for "small children, invalids and nursing mothers"!
:doctor:
My son loved one that was a picture of three people - two men and a woman - attached to some kind of contraptions They had these things, almost like gas masks, attached to their faces, with a hose-like thing coming off of their noses the hose-thing was attached to large "wheels" that they were all lugging around, about the size of a bicycle wheel. The caption was, "Experimenting With An Apparatus For Wireless Telephony"! The 1904 version of a cell phone! Sheeeesh! If they only knew.... :wink:
My absolute favorite is the one that says, "Are your Legs Straight?" And it shows pictures of two pairs of mens trouser-clad legs, one with nice straight legs and one very bowlegged! They were selling, by mail order, some kind of little padded cushion things to stuff down the inside of their pants legs to fill them out around the knees so they don't look bowlegged! Apparently there were a lot of bowlegged guys back in 1904!
:rofl:
This is such a hoot! I can't stop giggling and Im only part way through the book! I spent $16 whole dollars for it and it will keep me laughing for years! Well worth $16!!! And now I finally know why my grandmother had such a wonderful sense of humor!
But the real treasure is THE ADS! OMG! THE ADS! This is like a Twilight Zone peek back at what things were like 103 years ago, before the truth-in-advertising laws, and before the Food & Drug laws! There are ads for motor cars, both the steam models and the gasoline models priced at about $700! There are ads for tailor-made suits for men from $10 to $30, and mens bowler hats and garters! A brand new ornate iron bed for $7.75! Ads selling six beautifully bound Mark Twain books for $1.00. Brand new $35 typewriters from the Chicago Writing Machine Company !
There are ads promising a 10-day do-it-yourself cure for all your vision problems by mail order, using the Madison Absorption Method, with the endorsement of a Mrs. Margaret Harriman of New Richmond, Indiana, who used to be blind and now shes not, thanks to Dr. Madison! And ads for fleshy people to lose weight, also by mail order, and it is guaranteed that You will never be stout again! Think they might have been on to something there??
:wink:
Then theres Armours Extract of Beef, recommended for good health ... "If you have been to the country or seashore, it helps you retain the effects of an abundance of ozone!" It promises Rosy cheeks and bright minds for school children and grown-ups! And "Asparox", apparently some sort of asparagus-flavored powder to put in foods, or you can put it in water and make a beverage out of it if you like ... sounds yummy doesn't it! Like asparagus flavored Kool Aid! :cry: Theres a Postum ad with pictures of doctors warning about a serious ailment they called Coffee Heart! And some kind of "pre-digested" malt health food - made by Anheuser-Busch! It was highly recommended for "small children, invalids and nursing mothers"!
:doctor:
My son loved one that was a picture of three people - two men and a woman - attached to some kind of contraptions They had these things, almost like gas masks, attached to their faces, with a hose-like thing coming off of their noses the hose-thing was attached to large "wheels" that they were all lugging around, about the size of a bicycle wheel. The caption was, "Experimenting With An Apparatus For Wireless Telephony"! The 1904 version of a cell phone! Sheeeesh! If they only knew.... :wink:
My absolute favorite is the one that says, "Are your Legs Straight?" And it shows pictures of two pairs of mens trouser-clad legs, one with nice straight legs and one very bowlegged! They were selling, by mail order, some kind of little padded cushion things to stuff down the inside of their pants legs to fill them out around the knees so they don't look bowlegged! Apparently there were a lot of bowlegged guys back in 1904!
:rofl:
This is such a hoot! I can't stop giggling and Im only part way through the book! I spent $16 whole dollars for it and it will keep me laughing for years! Well worth $16!!! And now I finally know why my grandmother had such a wonderful sense of humor!