JB's Warehouse & Curio Emporium

Was the holiday season of 1931 a good moment to launch a pricey magazine for the men's fashion trade? The backers of Apparel Arts felt so.  "We prefer not to brag about the expensive character of Apparel Arts ," editor Arnold Gingrich noted in the magazine's debut editorial. "You all know, by now, what a photograph costs. You can guess, when it comes to drawings, paintings and sculpture. The Depression still being officially on, we're rather ashamed to admit payment to the piper. To dwell on this aspect of Apparel Arts , quite apart from considerations of modesty, would be, it seems to us, to elucidate the obvious." Apparel Arts was distributed to clothing salesmen, and included swatches attached to pages that could be shown to clients. "Our only hope," Gingrich declared," is that each issue may contain some one page, at least, that you may find it impossible to ignore, or to forget." The magazine's mission would be "to fi...

NOTE : This December, I'm challenging myself to prepare a post a day here. This is partly an attempt to use up materials I've hoarded lately, partly a writing exercise, partly a test of how disciplined I can be. The posts may be quick discoveries, writing experiments, scattered thoughts, or whatever else pops into my brain. Previous personal challenges like this have petered out quickly, so consider yourself warned! For the past few months, the Internet Archive has been my giant rabbit hole. I've spent many hours exploring its magazine collections, including random selections of major periodicals, titles I loved as a kid, and microfilms of trade journals that will be useful for future projects. It's been equally enlightening and head-scratching. Falling into the latter category is a run of The   American Legion magazine from the 1990s. Serving the largest veterans organization in the US, the magazine focused on sensationalistic right-wing content during this period. Hi...

Source: Family Circle , July 29, 1969. With the current heat wave slamming Toronto, it's tempting to run to the nearest beach to keep cool. But when even a dip in the lake isn't enough to cool you down, yet you want to remain outdoors, desperate measures are called for. Which brings us to this beach beauty's innovation: the human spinning top. As you spin in your preferred direction (I prefer clockwise), air flowing through the portholes will keep you cool as a cucumber. Spinning might make you dizzy, but who says that keeping cool and stylish doesn't come without costs?

While sorting through the stacks of magazines residing in the official warehouse coffee table, I came across the lone issue of Famous Monsters of Filmland I've ever possessed. Fueled by the horror movie boom on television during the 1950s, editor Forrest J. Ackerman cultivated many a budding film buff with a mix of classic movie stills and articles geared to a younger audience. I picked up this issue out of curiosity amid a stack of 1970s Marvel black-and-white magazines for 50 cents at the K-W Bookstore in downtown Kitchener years ago. Juvenile, but fun to flip through for its great images and breathless prose. Not mentioned on the cover of the Bicentennial month edition is the second-longest feature in the issue, a profile of a long-running British sci-fi television series which had been shown in a few American markets since 1972: Doctor Who .

(Click on ad for larger version) Intellectual Digest sounds as if it was attempting to be the brainier version of Reader's Digest , or skim the alternative press much like Utne Reader did later on. The highfalutin' name likely did little to bolster sales outside of intellectuals/wannabes. Based on the issue dates that pop up in a Google search, this ad may have been a last attempt to attract readers—I'm guessing that the publication ran from 1970 to 1972. The Toronto Reference Library has a few reels in their periodical microfilm cabinets that may prove a research distraction someday. Source: Saturday Review , May 27, 1972 - JB

Warning: pictures after the jump may disturb readers who don't want to see humans who resemble campfire treats.

Alas, Wonderland Mall's bag was full for only two more decades. The shopping centre closed in 2004 and was demolished to make way for a big box centre with the more genteel moniker of Wonderland Village . I have never been to either incarnation—we never spent time in the western suburbs of Detroit when I was a kid, and Dad and I rarely ventured through Livonia during our exploratory drives around southeast Michigan. Since any stores or services were available in the suburbs we usually went to (Southgate, Taylor, Troy, anywhere with "Heights" in its name), there was little reason to go wandering through the west. Water Winter Wonderland has a lengthy piece on the birth and death of Wonderland . Also in the July 1985 issue of Monthly Detroit : * A cover story on longtime Detroit Free Press columnist Bob Talbert , the source of at least one quote I've used on this site ("outta my mind on a Monday moanin'"). * Interviews with author Elmore Leona...

But wait, there's more! For a limited time, we'll toss in a set of sanding discs that allow you to use the Spot Reducer for simple household tasks like finishing furniture! Considering that this magazine is titled For Men Only , I'm guessing this product was meant to be purchased as a gift for the little lady, or else it wasn't considered macho enough to show a man using this product apart from its untapped potential as a workshop tool. For Men Only was one of Martin Goodman's stable of men's adventure magazines that flourished from the early 1950s through mid-1970s. Though the contents page indicates this issue was put out by Canam Publishers (one of about six million publishing house names Goodman operated under), this issue bears the Atlas distribution logo that also marked Goodman's comic book line, which evolved into Marvel Comics. Stories tend toward the first person and are distinguished by sensationalistic titles and gory subheads. These ma...

Based on today's ad and one posted last week , I'm coming to the conclusion that 1945 was a golden year for humourous usage of cows in automotive part manufacturer ads. Nothing like a bug-eyed bovine to convince buyers to try out new axles! United States News published its first issue in 1933. Its emphasis was on hard news or, as the front cover of the issue today's ad was drawn from proclaimed, "the only magazine devoted entirely to reporting, interpreting and forecasting the news of national affairs." International news was left to its sister publication, World Report. The two magazines merged in 1948 and continue to this day as U.S. News and World Report . More on the contents in a future post. Source: United States News , September 14, 1945 - JB

The model in this ad is - the heaviness of the makeup under her nose makes you wonder what else she may be hiding. Her expression under the clown's smile fits with the ad's message that print ads aren't necessarily fun to produce. Marketing in magazines might not be glitzy, but print ensures longevity for a striking image or campaign even if the passage of time wipes out the advertiser. We apologize to those readers with coulrophobia . Source: Saturday Night , September 1970 

Back in early August, I spent a week at the family compound sifting through the tons of old sports mags kicking around. It has taken awhile to go through them, but the light is at the end of the tunnel. There's only a couple of boxes to go through before they have all been prepared for eBay or hacked up for clipart. For a few years in the mid-late 80s, little sports junkie Jamie subscribed to Baseball Digest and Hockey Digest . These mags were as old as the hills - my father had a couple of crumbling issues from the 50s kicking around. Not deep, analytical reading, but enough to kill off the afternoon they arrived in the mail. Even then, I sensed these digests were in a time warp. The ads were the giveaway - into the early 90s, you could still order Fleetwood 7" records of late 60s sports highlights, posters of NHL stars circa 1973 and hats with slots to display your favourite player's sports card. The NHL poster offer was especially funny, given that no team posters...

One of the things I love about used items is finding traces of a previous owner. It gives a sense of history to the item. If you're lucky, you'll find out what that person was thinking while they used the item. Take my copy of Stevie Wonder's classic 1973 album, Innervisions , the one with Higher Ground and Living For The City . Picked it up in a $1 record bin in Detroit a few years ago. There are two spots on the jacket where an earlier owner wrote information on when they purchased it, each spot with the same information (symbols noted in square brackets): Jag 5. LP #440. [circle with a dot in the middle] in [Omega symbol] (30th of Omega; 21st of August, 1975). [crescent moon] in [one wavy line on top of another] (just minutes past full). [an "I" with an arrow pointing right through the middle] rising (when purchased, appox. 17:15 E.D.T.) What do the symbols mean? Was the owner heavily into astronomy, astrology or a faith? What were the 439 other ...

Busy weekend, the last one... Spent Friday night and most of Saturday cooking up a storm. The kitchen smelled heavenly from all the spices needed for the Indian feast. It was the first test of the cookbook series I've bought on the last few trips to Borders. They passed with flying colours, judging from the reactions of friends and the yummy, if scant, leftovers. The sole flop did not come from this series, a rosewater pudding devoid of taste that met its fate in the bathroom sink Saturday afternoon. The first dish out of the gate was a mixed success. Made some paneer, but when I tried to mix it in a mushroom curry, it fell apart (guess I needed to put a weight on it). Wasn't a loss - it added a nice flavour. The paneer itself had a taste and texture closer to ricotta than paneer I've eaten. Bet it would make a great lasagne. Everything else was easy and tasty. Tandoori chicken, dhal, channa (though this was made with a pre-bought spice mix), raita, chutneys...

Looks like Wal-Mart is attempting to reintroduce the concept of the plain brown wrapper for magazines it sells - only it's for such mainstream women's publications as Cosmo and Glamour, following a decision to remove several men's mags entirely. As the Associated Press reports, FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. (AP) Wal-Mart Stores Inc. will begin obscuring the covers of some women's magazines stocked in checkout lanes, shortly after a decision to stop selling some men's magazines over their racy content. The company has begun testing "U-shaped blinders" that will cover the photos and language on the covers of Cosmopolitan, Glamour, Marie Claire and Redbook, spokesman Tom Williams said at the company's annual shareholders meeting Friday. "That's to accommodate those customers who are uncomfortable with the language on some of the magazine covers," Williams said. If that's the case, I can think of several other mags they could extend this co...