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Long before Avon, before Mary Kay, before Tupperware, before Herbalife, before a hundred other companies, there were multi-level marketing pioneers like Lee Manufacturing… Continue reading The roots of Multi Level Marketing
Was it hats that Sears was selling, or the American Dream? This catalog illustration portrays postwar manhood so idyllically that it’s hypnotic and a little spooky… Continue reading The Stepford Husbands
In the 1950s, 60s, and even 70s, lots of men (invariably men) were encouraged to hone their hobbyist “Do It Yourself” skills. Heathkits were the pinnacle of DIY in electronics – everything from test equipment, oscilloscopes, an early analog computer (in the 1950s!)…and television sets. Continue reading Building your own TV…”Not as outrageously impractical as you might suspect”
Butler Brothers General Wholesale Catalog, 1935, Supplier of items for your general store. This page intrigues me because of none of the things pictured exist any more, either specifically or generally… Continue reading Four Things that Don’t Exist Any More
From the pre-computer, pre word-processing days of 1961, this budget-priced portable typewriter was specifically for students or “adults just learning to type.” Continue reading Not Yet a Laptop
For the budding scientist, 6 feet of chemistry experiments! This 1964 set encourages experiments in Electro-Chemistry, Qualitative and Quantitative Analysis, Metallurgy and Chromatography. Oh boy, what fun! Continue reading Better Living through Chemistry
Meyer-Blanke Farm Dairy Supply Catalog, 1930: “Everything but the Cow” – what a great slogan! Both memorable and accurate, based on this 1929/1930 catalog. Continue reading “Everything but the Cow”
In 1997 the action in mail order was found in specialty retailers, of which there’s hardly a better example than Williams-Sonoma. Founded in 1956, Charles Williams discovered that it’s not about what we need in the kitchen, but what we want… Continue reading Chocolate Cigars and Caviar Spoons
John B Smyth was a Chicago wholesaler of nearly everything you would need to stock a turn-of-the-20th-century general store. They offered tinned foods, teas, cigars, chocolates, soaps, dried fruits, housewares, shoe polish – even “Rump Butt Beef”…. Continue reading Meat by Mail
A new iPhone is being announced in a few weeks. It may cost close to $1000. A lot of money? Consider how much your iPhone does. Then consider just the function of video recording as it existed in 1984… Continue reading How to Shoot Video, 1984-style
