Intl. Notebook

March 28 2018

FUN KIST

How about a taste of something different?

This nice pin-up style sticker was painted by legendary illustrator Rolf Armstrong for Kist Soda around 1930. Kist was created in 1922 by Citrus Products Company of Chicago, and was soon being manufactured in orange, ginger ale, lemon, and grape flavors. By the time Armstrong was brought in Kist had been licensed by the Quality Beverage Company, also based in Chicago. There’s a bit of conflicting information online concerning the whos and whens, as always, but we just wanted to show you this very rare and pretty piece of Armstrong memorabilia.

Chicago, Kist Soda, Rolf Armstrong

Hollywoodland

October 26 2015

THE BIG SCREENLAND

Screenland was one of the earliest and biggest cinema magazines.

Actress Claire Windsor appears on the front of this October 1923 issue of Screenland magazine, one of the U.S.’s most venerable celeb publications, launched in Los Angeles in 1920 and surviving, under the control of several owners, until finally folding in 1971. The beautiful cover was painted by Rolf Armstrong, and within the magazine’s sprawling 108 pages are Gloria Swanson, Rodolph (aka Rudolph) Valentino, Phyllis Havers, and many other personalities, plus art from John Held, Jr. and writing from Delight Evans and Robert E. Sherwood. You can download your own copy of this here.

Los Angeles, Screenland, Claire Windsor, Alma Rubens, Nita Naldi, Phyllis Haver, John Held Jr., Robert E. Sherwood, Gloria Swanson, Rudolph Valentino, Natacha Valentino, Winifred Shaughnessy, Mae Murray, Rex Ingram, Alice Terry, Martha Mansfield, Rolf Armstrong, Delight Evans, magazine art

Intl. Notebook

March 16 2014

LUCKY PENNIES

Winning against the Odds.

Punchboards such as the one you see above originated during the 1700s, and by the early 1900s were being produced at a rate of millions per year. They hit the peak of their popularity during the 1930s and 1940s and were generally found in bars and other places of merriment. So, what were they? Basically, you’d pay pennies to select numbers and if you punched out the right one you’d win something. That something used to be money, which made these similar to lottery tickets, but when that type of gambling came under legal pressure from state governments, the prizes became goods such as beer, cigarette lighters or, in this case, cigarettes. What makes this Odd Pennies punchboard particularly collectible is the art by pin-up king Rolf Armstrong. Probably 1940-ish on this item.

Update: We got an email from Joe R., who writes: “RE: the Lucky Pennies post, the Lucky Strikes package went from green to white in 1942 (the famous “Lucky Strike Green has gone to war” ad campaign), so there’s a good possibility that this punchboard goes back to the 1930s.

Joe: Thanks for writing in. Now that you mention it, we think you’re right. We took a detailed look around the interwebs and some of the other punch boards Armstrong illustrated actually go all the way back to the late 1920s, apparently. So mid-1930s seems like a good deduction on the date here.

Rolf Armstrong

Vintage Pulp

December 3 2013

DEAL US IN

What do you say we scope out some girls?

In 1894 a motion picture device called Mutoscope was invented. It worked by flipping a series of cards printed with still photographs. The cards featured slightly different versions of the same scene shot in sequence, and viewing them in rapid succession created a motion picture. Basically, the Mutoscope was an arcade attraction, and the films, viewed by one customer at a time through a peephole, often featured racy material. Much later, during the 1940s, a company called the International Mutoscope Reel Company began publishing what it called mutoscope cards. These were never meant to be used in actual Mutoscopes—instead they were cheaply printed pin-up paintings that people bought as novelties. We came across a set at an auction site recently, and so you see some here. These are collectible today because the artists were luminaries such as Earl Moran, Zoe Mozert, Billy Devorss and Gil Elvgren, and we have examples from those four and others below.

International Mutoscope Reel Company, Earl Moran, Rolf Armstrong, Zoe Mozert, Billy Devorss, Gil Elvgren, mutoscope cards

Vintage Pulp

October 22 2013

FUNNY SIDE UP

So these two fraternity brothers walk into a bar...

Below are five more covers of College Humor magazine with art by Rolf Armstrong. During the 1920s and 1930s, Armstrong made his income illustrating sheet music covers and magazines, and later he became known as a portraitist, painting likenesses of Mary Pickford, Greta Garbo, and Boris Karloff, among others. He also worked in advertising for RCA, and was a sought after calendar artist. We’ll have more from him soon, and you can see our previous post of five College Humor covers here.

College Humor, Rolf Armstrong, magazine art

Vintage Pulp

September 25 2012

SCHOOL GIRLS

Learning to have a good laugh.

Above: five covers of the American humor magazine College Humor, which ran from the 1920s to 1940s and counted among its contributors Robert Benchley, Groucho Marx, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Zelda Fitzgerald, and many other leading literary personalities of the age. This group, with covers by pin-up artist Rolf Armstrong, appeared between 1928 and 1930.

College Humor, Rolf Armstrong, Robert Benchley, Groucho Marx, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Zelda Fitzgerald, magazine art

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HISTORY REWIND

The headlines that mattered yesteryear.

November 15

1920—League of Nations Holds First Session

The first assembly of the League of Nations, the multi-governmental organization formed as a result of the Treaty of Versailles, is held in Geneva, Switzerland. The League begins to fall apart less than fifteen years later when Germany withdraws. By the onset of World War II it is clear that the League has failed completely.

November 15

1959—Clutter Murders Take Place

Four members of the Herbert Clutter Family are murdered at their farm outside Holcomb, Kansas by Richard “Dick” Hickock and Perry Smith. The events would be used by author Truman Capote for his 1966 non-fiction novel In Cold Blood, which is considered a pioneering work of true crime writing. The book is later adapted into a film starring Robert Blake.

November 13

1940—Fantasia Premieres

Walt Disney’s animated film Fantasia, which features eight animated segments set to classical music, is first seen by the public in New York City at the Broadway Theatre. Though appreciated by critics, the movie fails to make a profit due to World War II cutting off European revenues. However it remains popular and is re-released several times, including in 1963 when, with the approval of Walt Disney himself, certain racially insulting scenes were removed. Today Fantasia is considered one of Disney’s greatest achievements and an essential experience for movie lovers.

November 12

1912—Missing Explorer Robert Scott Found

British explorer Robert Falcon Scott and his men are found frozen to death on the Ross Ice Shelf in Antarctica, where they had been pinned down and immobilized by bad weather, hunger and fatigue. Scott’s expedition, known as the Terra Nova expedition, had attempted to be the first to reach the South Pole only to be devastated upon finding that Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen had beaten them there by five weeks. Scott wrote in his diary: “The worst has happened. All the day dreams must go. Great God! This is an awful place.”

November 12

1933—Nessie Spotted for First Time

Hugh Gray takes the first known photos of the Loch Ness Monster while walking back from church along the shore of the Loch near the town of Foyers. Only one photo came out, but of all the images of the monster, this one is considered by believers to be the most authentic.

November 12

1969—My Lai Massacre Revealed

Investigative journalist Seymour Hersh breaks the story of the My Lai massacre, which had occurred in Vietnam more than a year-and-a-half earlier but been covered up by military officials. That day, U.S. soldiers killed between 350 and 500 unarmed civilians, including women, the elderly, and infants. The event devastated America’s image internationally and galvanized the U.S. anti-war movement. For Hersh’s efforts he received a Pulitzer Prize.