The Year in Korean Nostalgia: December

As we prepare to say good-bye to 2017, the bubbles of memory waft in. As in olden days, Korean children gather 'round the fire to roast sweet potatoes.

For Sporting People

Product of Columbia.

The pause that refreshes.

The Year in Korean Nostalgia: November

The Complete Book of Progressive Knitting

Published 1940.

Not merely signed by the author.

Author portrait cut from a newspaper and glued to end paper

Bonus items inside the pages are newer than 1940. From a later owner?

Detail is done in fuzzy flocked stuff.

Sadly, the back of the card is missing. No clue, then, as to when this was manufactured. The cartoon style and poodle motif may most likely be from the '50s or early '60s.

And without inside matter, any further punchline is lost to the ages.

The Year in Korean Nostalgia: October

Persimmon harvest time, and hijinks ensue.

The fruit looks convincing, if only in comparison.

The Year in Korean Nostalgia: July

Just Around the Corner

NOTE EXTRA THREAD FOR ADDED STRENGTH

This is the idea of what happens when the replacement has been made and the pocket is open for business.

Extra thread for added strength... A must at the join on bottom right, where the edge is sewn shut, and at the bottom, so stuff doesn't fall out.

No sign of company history, but there's a Directory of Manufacturers listing in this volume of Chain Store Age (see: Binding, Blanket & Quilt). That's from 1941; a wartime trade journal.

Like this product, the journal also is very much of its era.

Eventually Your Ribbon House (Tales From the Schmatta Trade, 2)

Sample folder; front—

Dial MUrray Hill 4-4322, and, Eventually...

Reverse—

Merchandise inside—

Opened; 7x14 inches

Left side of triptych: two thin layers of fabric ("self material") are sewn together for straps—

The other straps use machine-made ribbon ("standard qualities")—

Stock shades: white, pink, tearose

The company's one-time headquarters, 102 Madison Avenue at 29th St—

Photo: 14 to 42  (2003)

This is from New York City Signs – 14th To 42nd Street. Among the site's details on 102 Madison Avenue at 29th Street—

The Ribbon Mills Corp. dates from 1924. They were located at 1180 Broadway (Arthur Flatto, president-treasurer) until 1933, then moved to 102 Madison Ave. They remained at this address until 1939. Click here for Ribbon Mills sign. Ribbon Mills Corp. was preceded by the Flatto Ribbon Corp., founded by the brothers George I. Flatto (1886-1969) and Arthur C. Flatto (1895-1955) in 1919. They were sons of Samuel A. Flatto, a pawnbroker, who immigrated from Germany ca. 1867-70. The family appears in the U. S. Census of 1900 living at 170 E. 95th St. George is 13 years old and Arthur C. Flatto is 5. Prior to founding Flatto Ribbon Mills in 1919 George Flatto had previously been employed for 17 years at E. H. Levy. Another brother, William Flatto (1885-1965), was also associated with the business. He was elected a director of Flatto Ribbon Corp. in 1953. Ribbon Mills and Flatto were both located at 29-33 W. 35th St. in 1940/41 (with prominent signs) when the "tax photos" (available at the NYC Municipal Archives) were taken. The Ribbon Mills Corp. closed in the early 1950s and Flatto Ribbon continued until around 1959.

Site note: "Construction of new residential housing along 29th St. has almost totally destroyed the view of these signs as of mid-year 2007."

Among other long-ago building occupants was Max Held Waist Co./Forsythe Waist (previously, Max Held "Herald Square Waist Makers"). Fels Dresses was founded in the 1880s, and in 1901-02 was listed as manufacturing suits and children's clothes. 14 to 42 posts this 1920 New York Times ad—

1926 ad; different address, same old slogan...

And as for that Ribbon Mills slogan...

Sooner or later: You'll buy.

The mildly threatening line seems a peculiarly New York locution of yore. Though the ribbon folder is a fascinating bit of commercial history, the slogan can't help but make me think of an elderly, spectacularly hideous New Yorker of our own time.

If only we could send him and his locution ("You're going to love me! Believe me!"), back to the day of ribbon houses.

Tales From the Schmatta Trade (1)

As told on thrift shop sale day...

Marcus & Wiesen, Inc      Made in U.S.A.

(from pinterest: a product of somewhat newer vintage)

The Vanity Fair brand still exists—as VF, which includes more recently purchased brands (Lee, Timberland). As company history would suggest, the organization went from specializing in ladies' unmentionables to encompassing what might be the other end of spectrum—products meant to convey an image of the rugged outdoors. By now, however, all the stuff likely comes from the same set of Chinese factories.

Marcus & Wiesen, Inc., is not mentioned in that history page, and was probably a sub-contractor for Vanity Fair.

The name does appear in Chain Store Age, Volume 17 (1941). In the section, Directory of Manufacturers (page 42, under "Garters, Ladies' & Children's"), Marcus & Wiesen is listed at 26th E. 14th St., New York.

Emilio Guerra

An extensive and interesting history of 22-26 East 14th Street is found in the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission's 2008 report (pdf). The building began as Baumann Brothers Furniture and Carpet Store, built 1880-1881.

One of the more prominent, prolific, and versatile New York firms in the late-nineteenth century, D. & J. Jardine executed designs for a wide variety of building types, including a number of notable cast-iron fronts, in contemporary styles. The wide cast-iron front facade of the Baumann Brothers store, manufactured by the West Side Architectural Iron Works, is one of the Jardines' and one of the city's most inventive, unusual, and ornamental. Built toward the end of the heyday of cast-iron fronts in New York and the flourishing creativity in that material, the Baumann Brothers store is also a signal achievement of Aesthetic Movement design.

In 1884 Baumann Brothers occupied the entire building and advertised as, "the largest and most complete furnishing establishment in America." During the twentieth century—

For eight decades, the ground story contained 5-10-and-25-cent stores, beginning with the fourth Woolworth store in Manhattan (1900-28), acclaimed at its opening as "the largest ten-cent store in the world" and in 1910 the location of the chain's first lunchroom. This space was later a store for F. & W. Grand, H.L. Green, and McCrory. The upper stories were leased for over eight decades for show rooms and manufacturing by various firms related to the textile and sporting goods industries. This was the location of Rubens & Meyer, hosiery (1901-14); [Lewis Mark] Hornthal, [Joseph J.] Benjamin & [Simon R.] Riem, wholesale clothing manufacturers (c. 1902-23); Sohn, Oppenheimer & Co., fine trousers (1913-29); [Alex] Marcus & [Alex] Wiesner (later Wiesen), elastic specialties, garters, and girdles (1930-85)...

Following ownership changes over the years, the lot was transferred

... in 1967 to the Marcus & Wiesen Realty Corp., whose principals were the long-term garter-making tenants in the building. The southern portion of the lot and the building were conveyed in 1902 to the James McCreery Realty Corp., which retained ownership until 1965, when they were acquired by the Marcus & Wiesen Realty Corp. The entire property was sold to Irving and Elliott Sutton in 1979. The building became a condominium in 1999. The upper stories (Lot 1101), acquired at that time by the New School University, are currently in use as an annex to the Parsons School of Design, while the ground story contains a drugstore and several small shops.

Along the way, the "garter-making tenants" were involved in some legal drama, according to the 1940 Federal Supplement: Cases Argued and Determined in the District Courts of the United States and the Court of Claims, with Key Number Annotations, Volume 30 (Page xxix). The case in District Court of NY.: Marcus & Wiesen v. Universal Brassiere & Just-Rite Corset Co.

At some point the company relocated from such valuable real estate as its original home, but continued in its industry for an undetermined period of time. The last reference I find is from 1995, per a note in this book, Unions and Workplace Reorganization (edited by Bruce Nissen).

A note that's sadly quaint in itself; just imagine, companies deigning to talk with unions. And, it turns out, 1995 was when the storied ILGWU last existed under that name.

Speaking In Code

Now that we're told it's best we shut up about pre-election hacking communicate by courier, this will come in handy...

How to Write Codes and Send Secret Messages, Scholastic, 1966

Author John Peterson apparently had a background in illustration, but pictures here are done by the great Bernice Myers.

Lucky readers can learn the secrets, just by following the how-to's: of Space Codes, Hidden Words Code, Invisible Ink, and more...

Can you read it? The message is...

Where there's a will...

... But, on the other hand: "If you can't train your dog, maybe your friend can train his dog."

The Year in Korean Nostalgia: January

J found something...

Old-fashioned pastimes are rendered in paper mache dolls. Those are finished with a sheen so extraordinarily oily-looking as to seem at odds with the theme of childhood innocence.

Each month's figures are placed against a traditional backdrop. Photo alteration includes adding bubbles, which apparently summon up the memory for the month.

In January Grandpa is busy tailoring. Presumably, he also tells stories to the kids who sit so raptly. To complete the cozy picture, Grandma stokes the brazier while memory bubbles float through the room.

Le Urla Silenziose del Popolo

Found in library sale castoffs: thirteen years old, yet so timely...

MicroMega, February 2004

Essays published bimonthly; this volume's theme:

Antipolitics, indeed... A little less of that mentality, and the orange-tinged antipolitica to end all antipolitca would have been stopped.

Somehow, Gruppo Editoriale L'Espresso took a snapshot of the future. This definitely matches the current mood, for the sentient part of the American public.