Eat Out Often

(Enlarged): logo, Michigan Restaurant Association, from the group's 1968 publication—

Along with restaurant listings and recipes, this 66-page booklet includes a guide to state-wide travel—

Here's a closer look at the cover restaurant's bounty—

On the back cover is—

—a place that's still there, and with new, improved necessities of family fun.

The company's official history is rather funny. There's all that ancestral uprightness of founders William and Emilie Zehnder, yet—

"Prohibition was a conflict... in that alcohol, primarily beer, was part of the culture of Frankenmuth. Many businesses, including Zehnder's and Fischer's (now the Bavarian Inn) sold alcohol to the "right customers". Zehnder's and Fischer's were raided by Federal agents on July 30, 1930. William and Emilie, along with Herman and Lydia Fischer, were arrested and spent the evening in the Saginaw County Jail. Bond for the Zehnder's was set at $5,000 and $8,000 for the Fischer's.

It sure was a painful "conflict," but opportunity knocked, the competition down the street was cleaning up, etc.

As to the other establishments (with or without bootlegging history), I've searched a number of names, but haven't found any that still exist. Or, they only exist in random memorabilia posted by local history buffs.

Sure, restaurants come and go, but this guide also hints at the decline of a state with a once mighty economy. And many of the establishments were in a city that had been the 4th largest city in the country, hitting (says wiki) a population of 1.9 million in 1950.

It happens that I was finishing up these scans around the time Michigan's CEO governor was making his hostile takeover of Detroit's duly elected government.

As many problems as Detroit may have, there clearly are still public assets to be picked off.

But: back to 1968, when it was generally assumed that rising prosperity would lift all—and that was considered a good thing...

Among the departed Michigan institutions are echoes of former commercial glory: a department store that once boasted of having, after Macy's, the country's second largest square footage.

The store is long defunct, along with the services listed in its full-page ads (reduced here). Ads for store eateries—

Food and wine departments—

One-time giants aside, most ads here are for much smaller enterprises, and locals no doubt regretted those closings. After all, who doesn't want to go to a friendly place—

Considering some of Detroit's history—a couple decades before events closer to 1968, the quaint name can't help but also hint at the clientele—

Tastes in entertainment do change; one is aware that the crowds may no longer clamor for a constant supply of organists—

Movies lasted a couple more years at this location; the theater's closing may well have finished off the shop's business—

Fondly remembered by the class of 1960—

This incarnation of the building—

—was in operation from 1945 to 1976. The restaurant located there now has been kind enough to provide a little history and a post card.

A tootling train brought the goods all the way from N'awlins—

—to Ecorse—

Sophisticates could have their appetites teased at—

A couple more places evocative of days gone by—

While it's sad that none of these places have survived, the guide also featured a representative from one particular family business that I am truly delighted to see gone.

Sure, the guy's descendents have no shortage of cash and power, but as of recently, the holding public office branch of the family business is over—and dead for good (or so one can hope)—

Marketing? ¡Sí!

It was in the 1980s that U.S. commercializing of Cinco de Mayo began.

Here's a use of "colorful" Hispanic culture that's a bit earlier (as well as being California- and industry-specific)—

This copy is "Rev 4-78"; put out by—

Where the fruit is grown (click for full size)—

Detail—

"Avocado Bravo," the copy writer informs us, is "Spain's Legacy to California Cuisine"—

As shown on our cover, it is the spirit of a bold and dashing cooking style that we would like to capture for you in this book... with the full color and flavor of the Spanish West.

The very word California carries the smack and crackle of adventure...a colorful procession of historical personages [...]

From the highborn Castilian officers sent from Spain to protect the missions, the original Californians are descended. These young dons sent back to Castile for their womenfolk, and the mistress of each hacienda taught her Indian servants to cook in the classic Spanish style.

Yes, this has original Californians being served by Indians, who would seem to have materialized from thin air.

To continue that paragraph—

What evolved as a formalized cuisine of the Spanish West was a spirited blend of Spanish, Mexican and Indian... with a little Gringo thrown in, as many a proud, but impoverished hijodalgo [sic] married off a dowry-less daughter to a blue-eyed, go-getting Yankee. The Spaniards brought their delicate egg dishes, their spitted meats and barbacoa. The Indians contributed the secrets of corn cookery. The Mexicans came north with peppery salsas fired with spices and cooked with limes. And chocolate, of course. And avocados. Avocados crushed for guacamole...halved to stuff with tomatoes, coriander and green chili—or to eat net with a squeeze of lime and a little tequila...whole, just to savor with a lick of salt.

California's own uninhibited cuisine offers a hundred ways to serve avocados [... ] These recipes reflect the open-handed hospitality of the West, combining ingredients in a free-wheeling western manner to achieve splendid effects of color, texture and flavor and...overall...a certain rough elegance that is uniquely Californian!

This is followed by a history of the fruit's cultivation; useful tips—

"Some pleasant things about avocados" touts the versatility and nutritional value. Not only that, but you can grow a tree; the next page offers full details.

Some of the recipe illustrations—

And, yes—

This gets so psychedelic that it must be said: Avocado Seed Soup!

Crafts For All Seasons

How about these, for last minute gift-making ideas?

From this publication—I have several copies, found on the shelves the library provides for magazine donation/recycling/local house cleaning. This one is the oldest (1967); the others are from the early '70s.

According to a collector, the magazine began as a family enterprise in 1935, with 16 newsprint pages of sewing and needlecraft patterns. By the late 1940s it had become successful enough to expand to a small magazine format. Bought by a larger company in 1990, the magazine folded six years later.

My '60s-'70s copies still are mostly newsprint; covers, plus a few interior illustrations and ads, are in color.

The magazine's long-time formula was a homey mix of recipes and needlework or other craft projects. Most of this went for the price of a subscription, or a single issue ($.25 to $.35 during this period), though some pages were devoted to sewing and other projects requiring readers to order patterns by mail.

Each month buyers got new patterns, like these good looks of the '70s—


Ads include lots of money-making schemes, both occupational and fund-raising.

A regular feature:

Not only could readers make $.25 to $1.00 a piece for these...
... but they also would earn $2 for a published submission (raised to $5 in the '70s).

Besides money-making opportunities, there were the usual women's magazine possibilities for self-improvement—even if companies and ads may have been a bit less slick than those in the pages of Good Housekeeping or McCall's—


Although there were some brand-name products also sold in stores, most items were mail order only, from companies that didn't seem to come with a Workbasket Seal of Approval.

While they would not exactly get their designers into MOMA...
...the products were made by small manufacturers located throughout the US. Ads for their wares crowded the pages of what, according to the collector's site above, had grown from its start in 1935, when—

The depression was in full swing, and Clara Tillotson's husband Jack had lost his job. Mrs. Tillotson used her resources and began putting together knitting, crocheting, tatting and quilting instructions. It was a time when people didn't have the money for new things; if they needed something, they made it. She sold patterns through the mail under the guise Aunt Martha's WORKBASKET; Home and Needlecraft for Pleasure and Profit.

Xacto Technics

c. 1942-45

Inside cover note—

In connection with World War II, scale models of aircraft, many of them made in our schools, have played a vital role. In making these X-ACTO has been in constant demand. If you wish to learn more about this, we'll gladly send you a copy of our booklet, "How to Build Scale Models for Defense," on receipt of 10 cents to cover mailing costs.

Before spotting that reference to the war, I assumed this booklet was about ten years older, as the xacto knife technique illustrations (which may be from an earlier printing) seem heavy on subjects from the 1930s.

Reminiscent of the 1930 Little Caesar, the bursting out of the frame energy in this portrait of Edward G...

...has him duded up, as in Caesar's "testimonial" scene.

Soon after the start of the '30s crime movies would be toned down, due to stronger industry enforcement of the Hollywood Production Code.

And before the decade's end, ambitious actors like Edward G. Robinson and James Cagney were eager to escape "tough guy" typecasting. After both won contracts giving them role and story control, they played law-abiding characters as well as gangsters, and played the later only occasionally, when project quality warranted it. (See for example, discussion in Thomas Schatz, The Genius of the System, 1988, page 302.)

Of other period notables, there's this—

"Spatter and spray" indeed! This 1937 Life cover story, "Some Senators Look Like Senators," includes Johnson, called "a thunderous orator, most effective when in opposition."

Wiki also notes—

In 1916 Johnson ran successfully for the U.S. Senate, assuming office on March 16, 1917. It is alleged that was the year that he spoke the words for which he is best remembered today: "The first casualty when war comes is truth," referring to the United States's entry into World War I.

A quote which, if not a completely new thought, is associated with Johnson in that particular wording.

Other celebrated figures of the era include—

Leopold Stokowski's celebrity began in the 1930s.

Full-page ad, National Geographic, February 1932

Wiki lists the Hollywood features he appeared in: starting with the The Big Broadcast of 1937, he appeared in others before his greatest success, Disney's Fantasia (1939).

I have a 1933 National Geographic with a long feature by
Auguste Piccard, Ballooning in the Stratosphere.
"With 34 Illustrations" and subtitled, Two Balloon Ascents Presage New Mode of Aërial Travel, the article covers the high-altitude flights and vehicle experimentation that had brought Piccard international fame since the start of the decade. The life and work of the physics professor—plus a face and tall, skinny frame made for caricature—inspired a fellow resident of Brussels to use Piccard as the basis for a character in Tintin.

Of other "professional work" illustrations, I like the period surrealist-inspired ad art—

"Student work" examples range from grade school to one by a Carnegie Institute of Technology student, whose collage

used wood, paper, scotch tape, sponge rubber, cardboard, cereals, macaroni, etc.

Just about everything but the kitchen sink... "The effect is pleasing," the brochure makes sure to inform us.

Xacto offers this company history—

X-ACTO was founded in 1917 by Sundel Doniger from New York City. The company started by producing syringes for the medical profession, and in the early 1930's began manufacturing precision surgical blades with a unique handle that accommodated a variety of interchangeable, replaceable scalpels. However, the X-ACTO blade that became the industry standard was created when an X-ACTO advertising artist needed a retouching knife. Doniger created one from his employee's sketch, and it worked so well that the company began manufacturing the product for other artists and hobbyists.

Too bad there are no historical images posted. I'd especially be interested in the dates when the company used this logo—
It's typical of the "Funny Little Man" design motif of the '20s and '30s. [Review of Virginia Smith's book.]

Product design history also would be interesting.

Well, I particularly covet the "handy wooden Knife Chest, natural finish $3.50"