From Rationing To Prosperity
By Willy R. Wilkerson III. Excerpt from the book 'All-American Ads of the 40s', edited by Jim Heimann
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Advertising wasn't limited only to cars. Firestone, for example, campaigned their Champion Tires showing depictions of racing cars that used their tires.
But if the car became America's mid-wife delivering people to new exotic locations, the destination itself became the adventure that awaited the new traveler. From Acapulco to Florida, ads extolled the glamorous and the elegant. Ads even catered to specific desires. If gambling was your thing, warm tropical nights at the tables at the Hotel National de Cuba in Havana was for you.
Many did not feel like driving on their vacation and there were industries that capitalized on this reluctance. Greyhound chauffeured Americans from coast to coast. "Relax With Greyhound!" their ads read. For those who were in a hurry, Boeing and Lockheed built the planes that TWA and American Airlines now used to ferry their passengers across continents.
More luxurious travel, however, was provided by trains and ocean liners. For those who had a fear of flying nothing could compare to the elegance of The Queen Elizabeth that insured passengers would be ferried from New York to Portsmouth in style, or the Pullman car which rivaled the ocean liners in luxury.
The Pennsylvania Railroad advertised "It's always fair weather..." as their trains hurtled through the American wilderness. Railway companies knew their selection of scenery was no match for the ocean liners.
The American Dream had its origins in the GI Bill. For the first time, affordable housing was made available to returning war veterans. In 1949, 1,025,100 new homes were built, a stark contrast to the 141,800 homes built in 1944. A New York businessman named William J. Levitt had the idea of building homes using production line tech
niques similar to those utilized by the auto industry. With the purchase of 6,000 acres in the potato fields of Long Island, Levitt produced the first prefabricated housing development - and thus began the postwar migration from the cities to the suburbs.
In 1947, American women delivered 3.8 million babies, a record, and 32 million by the decade's end, beating the previous decade's record by 8 million. Diaper and formula industries in the U.S. flourished.
Page 1 2 3 4 5
Page 1 2 3 4 5
Advertising wasn't limited only to cars. Firestone, for example, campaigned their Champion Tires showing depictions of racing cars that used their tires.
But if the car became America's mid-wife delivering people to new exotic locations, the destination itself became the adventure that awaited the new traveler. From Acapulco to Florida, ads extolled the glamorous and the elegant. Ads even catered to specific desires. If gambling was your thing, warm tropical nights at the tables at the Hotel National de Cuba in Havana was for you.
Many did not feel like driving on their vacation and there were industries that capitalized on this reluctance. Greyhound chauffeured Americans from coast to coast. "Relax With Greyhound!" their ads read. For those who were in a hurry, Boeing and Lockheed built the planes that TWA and American Airlines now used to ferry their passengers across continents.
More luxurious travel, however, was provided by trains and ocean liners. For those who had a fear of flying nothing could compare to the elegance of The Queen Elizabeth that insured passengers would be ferried from New York to Portsmouth in style, or the Pullman car which rivaled the ocean liners in luxury.
The Pennsylvania Railroad advertised "It's always fair weather..." as their trains hurtled through the American wilderness. Railway companies knew their selection of scenery was no match for the ocean liners.
The American Dream had its origins in the GI Bill. For the first time, affordable housing was made available to returning war veterans. In 1949, 1,025,100 new homes were built, a stark contrast to the 141,800 homes built in 1944. A New York businessman named William J. Levitt had the idea of building homes using production line tech
niques similar to those utilized by the auto industry. With the purchase of 6,000 acres in the potato fields of Long Island, Levitt produced the first prefabricated housing development - and thus began the postwar migration from the cities to the suburbs.
In 1947, American women delivered 3.8 million babies, a record, and 32 million by the decade's end, beating the previous decade's record by 8 million. Diaper and formula industries in the U.S. flourished.
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