Good art can make anything scintillating, and here’s a good example. It’s a brochure published by the Los Angeles based National Electrical School. The school billed itself as a million dollar training institution and claimed to have graduated thousands of students, not just in general electricity but also in that exciting growth industry known as radio. A cover like this makes you curious what wonders are inside, but when you open it up it’s just a regular ole boring brochure. See below. Just the same, the text touted the wonder and excitement of Los Angeles almost as much as the school, and we can only imagine it was very effective if you were reading it in Nowheresville, U.S.A. No date, but a mention of Thomas Edison in the present tense—he says, “If I were beginning my career again I should ask no better field in which to work”—narrows it down. You also get a photo of Alexander Graham Bell, who died in 1922, but no quote, so we’re post-’22, pre-’31 (when Edison died). Last clue is the vaguely art deco painting, so that probably pushes it toward 1930. So there you have it. 1930. Alternate theories? You know how to reach us.
