Here are more pages of WWII business ads from the 1943 St. Louis Municipal Opera program. This starts with an advertisement for The Gatesworth (and the Walnut Room), and with the synopsis for The Great Waltz underneath.
Here is the center of the 1943 St. Louis Municipal Opera Program, with ads for local businesses starting with an ad for American Zinc, Lead, and Smelting Company stating how zinc was being used in...
Here are more St. Louis beer and brewery advertisements and the synopsis of The Great Waltz from the 1943 St. Louis Municipal Opera Program.
Advertisers in these pages included: Falstaff Brewing Company, Manhattan Coffee, Efficiency Service Co (employment specialists), Griesedieck Brothers Brewing Company, The Circus Snack Bar at the Forest Park Hotel, and the Gaylord Container Corporation.
These 4 pages of the 1943 St. Louis Municipal Opera Program were a little less blatantly patriotic, but such a preponderance overall of beer advertisements and funeral parlors! In today’s modern theater program, you might find one advertisement for a Mausoleum, but not so many… it reminds me that 1943 was the thick of World War II when peoples’ husbands, sons, fathers and friends were coming home in body bags or not at all.
4 more pages of scans from the St. Louis Municipal Opera 1943 season. These include WWII-era ads for Hyde Park Beer, Coca Cola, Tums, and Kieffer Cleaners. The cleaners advertisement has prices listed, which I think is pretty interesting.
These next four pages of the 1943 St. Louis Municipal Opera program were packed with advertisements! Monsanto Chemicals had a full page ad, “Streamlined Flavor” appealing to World War II sensibilities:
Here are four more pages scanned from the 25th anniversary program of the St. Louis Municipal Opera (now known as The Muny).
The Zodiac Cocktail Lounge and Bar at the Chase Park Hotel advertised Neil Bondshu and his Society Orchestra, Mary Raye and Naldi, Don Tannen (Russian Comedy Song Star), and “Snow White” Sensational Wizard of Tap with Bobby Swain and his “Note-ables”. Entertainment nightly with Joe Karnes and Betty Barr (satirical songs and piano styling). This was probably my favorite advertisement of these pages, because they really gave me a flavor for the type of WWII nightlife and entertainment available here in St. Louis.
Here are 4 more pages out of the 25th Anniversary Program for the 1943 season at the St. Louis Municipal Opera (The Muny). The St. Louis Municipal Opera was started in 1918, and 1943 was the 25th (Silver Anniversary) Season. Included is an advertisement for the musical romance “Rosalie”, an ad for Hunter Meat Food Products (out of East St. Louis Illinois), Philip Morris Cigarettes, Alpen Brau Beer (and KMOX) promotional advertisement, and an ad for Nu Grape Soda (bottled locally by American Soda Water Co.).
I came across this Silver Anniversary Program for the 1943 Season of the St. Louis Municipal Opera (now known as The Muny), in going through some of my boyfriend's deceased dad's mountains of...
“It’s the inevitable cycle…. in 1910 it was the bust, and cleavage went down to the limit. In the 1920s the sex emphasis was on the legs. In the 1930s it veered to the back and posterior. In the 1940s it concentrated on the bust again. And now we are back to the bottom.”
What a cool treasure, to find a fashion book published at the dawn of World War II. It’s been interesting to expand my fashion vocabulary, and to learn so many new things about the history of fashion.
These look like advertisements for two more different shoe companies in St. Louis! I kept seeing the name "McKays", especially "novelty McKays" shoes, and realized from the context that McKays are...
Mary doesn't remember her aunt being very wealthy, and doesn't know if this first couples picture from approximately the 1930s is her wedding photo to her second husband, or was just a special...
This 1940s dress was such fun to photograph! It has red buttons down the front and an abstract polka dot pattern. I put a smart black hat on the model. Like many dresses of the era, it was unlined and meant to be worn over a slip or under=dress. We borrowed a rolling red wooden storage box as the only prop with this simple set. I love the model’s exaggerated “cheesecake pinup” expressions! She did her own makeup and hair, too.
This was a decadent vintage satin dressing gown, complete with a matching 3/4 length over-robe. It totally has the vibe of a classic Old Hollywood movie star, and the model got quite serious...
This was an impromptu and unplanned patriotic pinup set done at my Retro Car Workshop! Pinup model Nikki borrowed a cute polkadot 1940s styled dress, matching red beads, and got her hair done pinup style by another model. I did her retro makeup (including putting the faux lashes on). Nikki is one of the first models I worked with, for the Carondelet Historical Society historical fashion project, and it was great to get to work with her again and see how far we’ve both come in the past few years!
I love shooting double exposures in spooky settings such as this mechanic shop! Linzy Anna is styled WWII period in an authentic, vintage 1940s, cotton side zipping blue dress. She looks like the ghost of a girl, coming back to haunt the 1950s car that she tragically died in.
Amy W. was an awesome classic All American Pinup model in a blue halterneck dress, running around and draped in the American flag, posed with the 1940s Willys Jeep.
I did model Linzy Anna’s hair and makeup, and dressed her in an old ripped up vintage 1940s blue cotton dress. You can’t see the rips in these pictures, though! We were going for a “Rosie the riveter” look.
I’ve decided to change things around, and re-focus this site on my vintage blog and on writing more about some of the fabulous finds that I post on my Etsy shop. I’ll only be posting higher end, and personal favorite, vintage items in my shop on this site (and ofcourse ephemera as I scan or photograph it).
The practical reason is that for a twenty five dollar dress, it takes an extra 15-20 minutes to upload the images to this site as well as to Etsy. That time adds up, and I could be listing even more, or marketing, or writing a fun blog entry or scanning more ephemera! There’s currently no way to import Etsy listings into this ecommerce system 🙁
With that hour or two that I save every few listings, I’m going to be blogging and writing more personally here. 2013 has brought me many personal changes, the most notable being a healthy dose of getting fed up!
How often does a professional high end vintage car restoration company allow photographers to shoot beautiful gals with custom and vintage cars, without it being a car show or public event? This...
