A CASUAL INQUIRY

Hello, Metropolitan Opera House? Are opera gloves enough to meet your dress code, or is there more that I need?

Cigarette vending machines were banned in the U.S. in 2010, but back during the mid-century they were big business, and for a big business you needed big advertising. This bright red calendar sheet fit the bill for the Stern Cigarette Vending Maching Company in terms of major visual impact. It shows Margie Harrison in a shot made by glamour specialist Bunny Yeager, titled at the bottom “Perfection.” And indeed, it’s pretty close, with the pose, hair-do, and raven black arm coverings.

Harrison is a significant model. She appeared as Playboy magazine’s January and June 1954 centerfolds—yes, the coveted double-dip. Back then, Playboy was purchasing content from outside sources. As in the case of Marilyn Monroe, calendar vendors the John Baumgarth Company owned Harrison’s images and sold them to Hugh Hefner. Because the magazine was still tweaking its format, it was actually Harrison, not Monroe, who was Playboy‘s first Playmate of the Month. This photo shows that the title fit her like gloves.

John Baumgarth Company, Playboy, Technicolor pin-up, Margie Harrison, Bunny Yeager, Marilyn Monroe, Hugh Hefner, nudity

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HISTORY REWIND

The headlines that mattered yesteryear.

January 17

1950—The Great Brinks Robbery Occurs

In the U.S., eleven thieves steal more than $2 million from an armored car company’s offices in Boston, Massachusetts. The skillful execution of the crime, with only a bare minimum of clues left at the scene, results in the robbery being billed as “the crime of the century.” Despite this, all the members of the gang are later arrested.

January 17

1977—Gary Gilmore Is Executed

Convicted murderer Gary Gilmore is executed by a firing squad in Utah, ending a ten-year moratorium on Capital punishment in the United States. Gilmore’s story is later turned into a 1979 novel entitled The Executioner’s Song by Norman Mailer, and the book wins the Pulitzer Prize for literature.

January 16

1942—Carole Lombard Dies in Plane Crash

American actress Carole Lombard, who was the highest paid star in Hollywood during the late 1930s, dies in the crash of TWA Flight 3, on which she was flying from Las Vegas to Los Angeles after headlining a war bond rally in support of America’s military efforts. She was thirty-three years old.

January 15

1919—Luxemburg and Liebknecht Are Killed

Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht, two of the most prominent socialists in Germany, are tortured and murdered by the Freikorps. Freikorps was a term applied to various paramilitary organizations that sprang up around Germany as soldiers returned in defeat from World War I. Members of these groups would later become prominent members of the SS.

January 14

1967—Summer of Love Begins

The Human Be-In takes place in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park with between 20,000 to 30,000 people in attendance, their purpose being to promote their ideals of personal empowerment, cultural and political decentralization, communal living, ecological preservation, and higher consciousness. The event is considered the beginning of the famed counterculture Summer of Love.