Okay, I’ll admit it. While many in America have a pre-occupation for everything Irish, I have a pre-occupation for everything Scandinavian. Perhaps it began as an undergrad student during British Lit I when I was introduced to the Viking tale “Beowulf,” story of a fearless Geat leader from Geatland, now part of modern day Sweden. Perhaps it was years of tormenting high school students with...
Kill Your Darlings begins in the early 1940s, with Allen Ginsberg (Daniel Radcliffe) surprising his poet father with the news that he has been accepted into New York’s Columbia University. His mother’s mental issues have forced him to grow up fast but Ginsberg is still unworldly, and a chance meeting with fellow student Lucien Carr opens his eyes to a world of strong drugs, freeform...
The Holiday season is upon us, so it is time to pull out all those swanky and kitschy retro christmas advertisements from the past! These hand drawn illustrations are so awesome. Produced in mid century America they perfectly depicts the happy-go-lucky mentality of those decades. Which one do you like the best? From all of us, to all of you – Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukah...
As Harry Trenner told the story, he and his wife Florence were just sitting around the kitchen table after dinner when they hit upon the idea. Harry took it to Weintrob Advertising, where he worked in New York. They showed it to Maidenform and the “I dreamed…” advertising campaign was born. It would run from World War II thru to the early 1960s, featuring images...
During both world wars, though more popularly during WWII, victory gardens were encouraged among the people on the home front in America and Canada. There is quite a bit of propaganda encouraging the people to grow their own vegetables, fruits, and herbs so the troops can eat from commercial farms. Victory gardens allowed the average person to create a garden just for their household’s consumption,...
After WWII, America stood back and gazed upon itself. There was a new revitalized American Dream after all the bloodshed, home front hard work, and thick-as-molasses patriotism. The American Dream of the 1930s had been focused on working hard, men provided for their families, and hope to rise above the Depression. By the 1940s, post-WWII, consumerism and first wave feminism started to play a role...
The idea of an open air movie theater first phased Richard Hollingshead of Camden, New Jersey in the early 1930s. Hollingshead, who worked as a sales manager at his father’s company, Whiz Auto Parts, had extensive knowledge in automobiles. A motion picture buff, he combined these interests and envisioned a concept where people could watch a movie from the comfort of their own cars under...