Monday, February 23, 2009

This Week Magazine - September 19, 1954

Welcome to Magazine Monday. For today’s feature let’s set the way back machine as far as it goes here on the blog. From September 19, 1954 it’s “This Week Magazine”. This large format “Newspaper” magazine is from the “Cleveland Plain Dealer”.

Teen Tops. Fashion hits with the younger set” you’ll see more about that later. The mental illness article was a real downer with its talk of lobotomies so you won’t see more of that later.






“Walt Disney’s New Ten Million Dollar Toy”. These old article sure made a big deal about how much the park was going to cost and they were usually wrong! What train is that??? Parts of the train resemble the C.K. Holiday (link) but the number is wrong and it seems larger? Plus wasn't the C.K. Holiday built from scratch?

Throughout the entire article Disneyland is referred to as a “Fair”. I wonder what Walt’s thoughts on that were?






Sardinian Donkeys” and “Midget Horses”, sounds more like a Circus! “Pot Shots at Indians”, that is NOT the way the shooting gallery ended up.






Did someone ask the Sardinian donkey if they wanted to wear that costume? Fascinating information on the “Adventures of Alice in Wonderland” attraction. Poor Land of Tomorrow, getting the short end of the stick in 1954 just like 2009!!!!






Not much else in this issue except advertisements and this great Agatha Christie story “Murder at the Vicarage”. I like the full page illustration by Robert Fawcett.







Speaking of advertisements, here we go. It’s the 1950’s, so you gotta have Oatmeal! On the left are some more “Teen Tops", I like the “Jester” with its double droop.






For 4th Meal Fun”! Only in the 1950’s was dessert considered a meal!






"Waxed paper keeps food fresher, longer." “It isn’t a meal without BREAD!” so there.






Ok ladies, time for house work while wearing your Sunday finest. Do laundry the “safe, easy way” with “Purex Dry Bleach”. Hey that looks pretty handy, I’m going to have to find myself a jar of that stuff.






Nothing else will wash as clean as TIDE yet is so mild!” I hope Larry Tate paid Darrin Stephens top dollar for that slogan!






Since we are in 1954 and in case you missed my two prior 1954 Magazine posts, here are the links to both.


Link to: Why Disney changed his mind about TV - TV Guide October 1954






Link to: Fortnight revisited, November 1954 - Before the attitude....





6 comments:

The Viewliner Limited said...

Nothing like old magazines to give you an insight to the past. Great post.

TokyoMagic! said...

Yay, it's Magazine Monday....another great article today! "Permanent fair", hmmmmm. Yes, I also wonder what Walt thought when he read that. Well, I guess there hadn't been anything else like it before and the term "theme park" hadn't been coined yet. Speaking of fairs....DCA has always reminded me of sort of a fair that was just set up in the old DL parking lot. Nothing too permanent feeling about it except for maybe the Grizzly River mountain.

Major Pepperidge said...

The photo of Walt and the train is a trick photo... the locomotive is actually the miniature Carolwood Pacific (#173) - the one that ran around Walt's backyard. Walt was superimposed onto the photo.

It says something about the craftsmanship of the CP, it really is convincing as a full-sized train!

Anonymous said...

Worth noting is that This Week was a nationally-distributed Sunday rotogravure magazine supplement in newspapers across the country (in our neck of the woods, the Minneapolis Tribune and The Milwaukee Journal carried This Week in their Sunday editions, along with locally-produced "roto" magazines).

This Week went out of business in 1969 after several years of losses.

Kevin Kidney said...

Wowee! This is just incredible stuff you can't find anywhere else. Thank you!!
-K

Anonymous said...

So the girl on the cover -- is she the BEFORE or AFTER to the New Answer to Mental Illness?

--axhouist