December 1958 Good Housekeeping Magazine

Here is the Good Housekeeping magazine from December 1958, part of my collection of vintage magazines. 

The Year's End review article was very interesting. Movies included Tom Thumb and Amahl and the Night Visitors was showing on television. The Purple People Eater "harassed the eardrums," Volare was all over the airwaves, and Elvis Presley got married and was in the service. Sputnik II and Explorer were orbiting the Earth, Hillary and his dog team reached the South Pole while the atomic sub Nautilus cruised under the North Pole. The Bridge Over the River Kwai won six Academy Awards and Sunrise at Campobello won a drama award. Anatomy of a Murder and Peyton Place were published. The Yankees won the pennant. "Trouble bubbled in Little Rock, and a few South American neighbors threw a few rocks." "King Faisal of Iraq was murdered in a coup and the U.S. Marines landed in Lebanon." Hula hoops were the new fad and Alaska was granted statehood.

I had several Hula hoops and was quite adept. I never forgot when I visited my mom's cousins Linda and Patty and they played The Purple People Eater for me. I actually recall seeing the Bridge Over the River Kwai, although my today's standards I was too young for it. And Volare was all over the airwaves. 

I was a huge Roy Rogers and Gene Autry fan! I watched the old movies on television as did all my friends. We would argue over who got to play Gene or Roy and who was 'stuck' with Dale Evans.  Roy had the coolest horse, but Gene got to sing. So it is no wonder Roy Rogers was a celebrity spokesperson for children's toys. But an antique phone and 'Western' dinner set? 

Roy Roger- Dale Evans Western Dinner Set. 

 Joe Palooka Bop Bag had Ham Fisher artwork.

I loved the Shirley Temple Storybook television show. Mom had a Shirley Temple doll when a girl. i had the Miss Revlon.

What a lucky girl to receive a Russell Wright American Modern Tea Set for children in plastic with aluminum flatware!

Children's fashions were adorable. The child below modeled a raincoat in Arnel sharkskin that sold for $11.

 Below is a red cotton jumper with leotard tights from Kate Greenway which sold for $4.

Formal fashions were also shown in the magazine. For $9 you could buy this (see photo below)  Helen Lee of Alyssa cotton-sateen dress with organdy lining and petticoat. The child is elegantly poised and wears white gloves as well.

Below left is an embroidered cotton-sateen dress with sash from Kate Greenway, selling for $8, and a cotton-sateen dress with Empire belt and lined in Dacron mesh, $8 from Muppets.

What an adorable ad!

 When not attending a formal affair, what did these munchkins eat? Tang and bozed pizza!

Of course there were recipes throughout the magazine.

Which Mom baked in her new Caloric gas range.

For more elegant meals, Mom would have used her Pyrex casseroles.

My mom loved her Sunbeam frypan. I wish I had it now.

Mom used her hand mixer when making pancakes to cook in the frypan. (Ours was turquoise.)

We had Melmac dishes in our family. But here is Idealware refrigerator-to-tableware in Mamie pink. 

Paper plates, napkins, and cups have been around a long time!

When mom cleaned up the kitchen she tossed the laundry in her new gas dryer from Norge.

Tammis Keefe is one of my favorite Mid-century fabric designers. I have a nice collection of her handkerchiefs. She also designed towels, cocktail napkins, and more. 

 A few years ago the towel below was reproduced and I bought several panels!

 The Keefe towels were linen,, but terrycloth was also sold.

When Mom's work was done it was time to party. Skirts were full, fuller, and fullest. The skirts below were made with ten yards of tulle and decorated with velvet ribbon and other trims.

Here are the instructions for making the fabric roses.

 For the home sewer, the Simplicity dress pattern below features a 'harem skirt' in red cotton sateen.

A quick and simple party top could be made in a morning from two squares of wool and several yards of trim. 

The stole pictured below was another DIY project.

 It is hard to imagine a slipper with a heel as high as on the Daniel Green below!

Those fancy dresses required sturdy under garments like a Warner's girdle and maidenform bra.

 Checks were on trend, suitable for all ages, male and female.

I get a kick out of this Royal vacuum cleaner ad. It looks just like the one I bought in 1991 and still use.

This issue also included several short stories with marvelous art and was loaded with poetry.

This is just a glance into the 200+ page magazine! I hope you enjoyed this look back in time. 

Woman's Day, 1958: The Bride That Cried...

Today I am sharing the December, 1958 issue of Woman's Day magazine. What it reveals about the role of women in the home is very interesting.

In the cartoon above, a man rewards a woman for feeding him! She offers a tray of appetizers and he kisses her. I sure hope this was her husband or fiancée. It appeared in a Nabisco Thins advertisement for party food.

What pressure there was on women to please men regarding FOOD. The advertisement below concerns a 'bride' who was in tears until Bell's poultry seasoning saved the day.

A Comstock pie filling ad reminded women that "Husbands love wives who make homemade Pies with Comstock."

The message again is Food=Love. Feed them and they will come home at night.

Here a man's heart is won by Coffeematic coffee. Can't you just feel the passion?

Is food a symbol for something else?

The pressure continued. It's party season and the little lady has to put on a show to impress hubby's friends and business partners.

A women's place was in the kitchen, and the magazine is filled with recipes.

I sure remember when everyone made the All-Bran muffins. Combine 2 cups All-Bran, 1/2 cup molasses, and 1 1/4 cups of milk. Let stand until the moisture is absorbed into the bran. Then add one egg and beat well. Sift 1 cup flour with 1 tsp baking soda and 1/2 tsp salt. Stir it all up with 1/2 c raisins until JUST mixed. Fill muffin cups 2/3 full and bake at 400 degrees for 25 minutes.

 A mystery fruitcake recipe from Betty Crocker looks pretty good...if you like fruit cake.

You start with a Betty Crocker white cake mix which is baked, cooled, and crumbled. Mix together 1 cup each candied pineapple, lemon peel, orange peel, and citron. Mix it all up with the cake and pack TIGHTLY into foil-lined 9x5x3 inch loaf pans. Cover with foil, chill for 24 hours, and slice and serve.

I remember when Mom made deserts with Fruit Cocktail. Don't  you love the type font used for "Glamour Desserts", complete with little stars? To make the Christmas Cloud Pie fill an 8" pie shell with 2 cups of drained fruit cocktail folded into one packaged of cooked and cooled vanilla pudding mix. Top with Betty Crocker meringue mix and bake "as directed." Serve cool.

Gift ideas included towels and bedding. My, that lady seems quite charmed by her Cannon towel. Note the star bursts on the wall. It was a very starry time, the late 50s.

 I also note that pastes in pink, blue, green, and yellow appear in both ads.

My grandmother, who lived with us in 1958, watched Arthur Godfrey's television show. Here he poses with his trademark ukulele while enjoying instant coffee. There is no woman around, no love in his eyes. Clearly this is not something to serve to your husband in the morning before he goes to the office. He may not come home.

 Unless you look like this.

In which case, your man would be glad to see you.

I'm not sure I like the look in this man's eye at all. Perhaps it is that over-the-top hat. Pepsi-Cola is wishing people a "light-hearted holiday," which apparently involves Pepsi and weird floral hats as aphrodisiacs.

Wait! There is more than food and men! The little lady can read short stories by Faith Baldwin, learn about houseplants, read the story The Wonderful World of Aunt Tuddy to the kiddies, and learn about books and records...to give as gifts, because obviously she doesn't have time to read a book or the sophistication to listen to Classical music...

Books suggested for gifting includes The Travels of Jamie McPheeters by Robert Lewis Taylor, which I have read, and which was the basis for a television show; The Greengage Summer by Rumer Godden, which I have also read, Godden being one of my favorite forgotten writers, whose ebooks have been released in the last year; The King Must Die by Mary Renault; C. S. Forester's Admiral Hornblower in the West Indies; Around the World with Auntie Mamie by Patrick Dennis; and books by Woodehouse Nevil Shute, Marquand, John O'Hara, Peter de Vries, and many others whose names are no longer familiar to most.

It was the age of LP records and stereos. "When you use your head, it's easy to measure a collector for a record without his knowing it..." Yes, it was assumed these gifts were for MEN. First mentioned was Rossini's Petite Messe Solennelle, noted as rarely recorded, the "last mortal sin" of his old age. Next was pianist Serkin's Variations on a Theme by Diabelli, followed by de Falla's Nights in the Gardens of Spain directed by Artur Rubinstein; Wagner, considered 'controversial'; and the Berlioz Requiem "always considered genius-laden." Others mentioned include Segovia, Luci di Lammermoor, Fidelio, and The Tales of Hoffman.

Then we are warned that the following recordings are not for the casual listener. This is hard-core stuff. Included are Bruckner's Symphony No. 9, Mahler's Resurrection Symphony, Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition (I'm shocked its in this category!), and Gluck's Orfeo et Euridice by the Met.

And so I close the pages on this glimpse into 1958. No people of color or ethnicity appear in its pages, no working women, college co-eds, no nurses or teachers. Men all wear suits and look like Cary Grant. Cooking appears to be women's most important duty, even before motherhood.