BOUNCING BETTY

Venerable chocolatier revamps vintage vamp.


The world famous tea shop Bettys, based in Harrogate, England, recently unveiled a vintage line of chocolates based on one of their popular selections from the 1920s. The flapper figure perched atop the original papier-mâché box has a partially unbuttoned blouse and a mischievous expression that—in our humble view, at least—is perfect for the guilty pleasure of chocolate. But when the line goes on sale later this month, the flapper will have been bounced in favor of a more conservative breed of woman. Bettys execs are quoted in various British newspapers stating their belief that the 1920s figure is too risqué, and expressing their amazement that such a box was even made back then. A Telegraph quote from a Bettys archivist sums up their view: “I am surprised at how daring the original chocolate box is for its time as there is quite a lot of flesh on display. The fact that it is still a bit risqué even nowadays shows it must have caused quite a stir.”

Bettys management may believe the original box got everybody’s knickers in a twist, but in actuality, the 1920s were a sexually open decade. It was an attitude shift that arose among those who survived the generation-killing horror known as World War I. Life was to be enjoyed, because ten million dead on the battlefields of Europe proved it could be over in a flash. But the change also had to do with the rising numbers of women going to college (thus finding themselves in less protected social environments where they could make their own sexual decisions). Studies show that in the 1920s roughly 50% of American and British women were having sex before marriage. And let’s not even get the French, Dutch and Scandinavians involved. We haven’t researched it, but we’d bet they were humping like rabbits. The point is, though it’s possible Bettys’ suggestive flapper caused a stir, we wouldn’t assume it. And if it did, the reaction may well have been considered a boon to the product. What’s changed in 2010 is our default position—i.e., sexualization is automatically bad, even though sex is that thing we do that enables our survival. So the question becomes are we evolving to a better state, or a worse one? 

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HISTORY REWIND

The headlines that mattered yesteryear.

1961—Soviets Launch Venus Probe

The U.S.S.R. launches the spacecraft Venera 1, equipped with scientific instruments to measure solar wind, micrometeorites, and cosmic radiation, towards planet Venus. The craft is the first modern planetary probe. Among its many achievements, it confirms the presence of solar wind in deep space, but overheats due to the failure of a sensor before its Venus mission is completed.

1994—Thieves Steal Munch Masterpiece

In Oslo, Norway, a pair of art thieves steal one of the world’s best-known paintings, Edvard Munch’s “The Scream,” from a gallery in the Norwegian capital. The two men take less than a minute to climb a ladder, smash through a window of the National Art Museum, and remove the painting from the wall with wire cutters. After a ransom demand the museum refuses to pay, police manage to locate the panting in May, and the two thieves, as well as two accomplices, are arrested.

1938—BBC Airs First Sci-Fi Program

BBC Television produces the first ever science fiction television program, an adaptation of a section of Czech writer Karel Capek’s dark play R.U.R., aka, Rossum’s Universal Robots. The robots in the play are not robots in the modern sense of machines, but rather are biological entities that can be mistaken for humans. Nevertheless, R.U.R. featured the first known usage of the term “robot”.

1962—Powers Is Traded for Abel

Captured American spy pilot Gary Powers, who had been shot down over the Soviet Union in May 1960 while flying a U-2 high-altitude jet, is exchanged for captured Soviet spy Rudolf Abel, who had been arrested in New York City in 1957.

1960—Woodward Gets First Star on Walk of Fame

Actress Joanne Woodward receives the first star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, the Los Angeles sidewalk at Hollywood Boulevard and Vine Street that serves as an outdoor entertainment museum. Woodward was one of 1,558 honorees chosen by the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce in 1958, when the proposal to build the sidewalk was approved. Today the sidewalk contains nearly 2,800 stars.

1971—Paige Enters Baseball Hall of Fame

Satchel Paige becomes the first player from America’s Negro Baseball League to be voted into the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York. Paige, who was a pitcher, played for numerous Negro League teams, had brief stints in Cuba, Mexico, Puerto Rico, and the Major Leagues, before finally retiring in his mid-fifties.

Cover art by Roswell Keller for the 1948 Pocket Books edition of Ramona Stewart's Desert Town.
Rare Argentinian cover art for The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells.

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