November 2022 – Literary Art and Illustration

The Age of Advertising: The Voice of the Operator: New York Telephone Company – Another Big Day for Long Distance!

An advertisement for the New York Telephone Company, appearing in The New York Times in the latter part of the Second World War.

Of note: The early style rotary phone.

Of note: Manufacturing. That is, physical manufacturing! “And when the factories that make switchboards – now busy producing war communications equipment – resume peacetime production, it will take time to manufacture the quality needed, and still more time to fit the new switchboards to existing central offices.”

Of note: The reference to the Red Cross, consistent with the tenor of the (war) times.

Of note: Could Mr. New York Telephone be a distant cousin of Reddy Kilowatt? (!)

TODAY

Another Big Day for Long Distance

THEY’RE all big days for Long Distance these days. Our job is to take them in stride and get your calls through without waiting.

Most of the time it works out that way, but sometime there’s an extra big crowd on some circuits.

Then Long Distance will say – “Please limit your call to 5 minutes.”

NEW YORK TELEPHONE COMPANY

To Girls and Young Women in the New York City area: The telephone company offers opportunities to help put the calls through – as operators and clerks. Call or Dial “Operator” and ask for “Enterprise Ten Thousand”. No change.

The Age of Advertising: The Voice of the Operator: New York Telephone Company – Long-Distance Calling!

This WW II-era advertisement from New York Telephone is a reminder of the enormous changes in the nature, quality, and ease electronic communication compared with prior decades. What was formerly limited – in time and distance – is now near-ubiquitous; near-instantaneous.

Like the other New York Telephone ad displayed at this blog, the “center” of this advertisement features a telephone operator wearing a headset and microphone.

The text (presented below) is accompanied by sketches of a soldier, a businessman or professional in a managerial position, a younger businessman or factory manager, a clergyman, and, the national capital.

Of particular interest in the ad are the rotary (!) telephone and stopwatch. The message: “Time is limited.”

When the long-distance lines are extra-busy, the operator must say:

PLEASE LIMIT YOUR CALL TO 5 MINUTES, OTHERS ARE WAITING.

Imagine the number of long distance calls required to train and equip a division of troops, then move the men to their embarkation point.

Think of the many more calls necessary for war production and supplying our armed forces overseas.

It’s easy to see why these calls will often overcrowd the long distance lines. Yet we all want every such call to go through quickly.

You can help by making your long distance call as brief as possible when the traffic is heavy. Sometimes, when there is an extra rush of calls, the operator may ask you to limit your call to five minutes.

We know you’ll be glad to cooperate in this mutual effort to speed vital war messages.

NEW YORK TELEPHONE COMPANY

The Age of Advertising: The Voice of the Operator: New York Telephone Company – 1945

New York Telephone, circa 1945: Putting a human face and a human voice in communications. (Hey, it’s better than voicemail.)

SHE STILL HAS “THE VOICE WITH A SMILE”

War traffic keeps her busier than ever but she manages to keep calm and pleasant.

She still has “The Voice With A Smile” even when the lights are thick on the Long Distance switchboard and the circuits are crowded. Even when she has to ask you to –

“Please limit your call to 5 minutes. Others are waiting.”

That’s to help everybody get better service and you couldn’t ask for a better reason than that.

NEW YORK TELEPHONE COMPANY

The Age of Advertising: General Electric and Plastics – July 10, 1945

From July 10, 1945, here’s an advertisement by General Electric promoting and introducing “PLASTICS”.

The advertisement, divided into six sections – each with an emblematic illustration – describes the use of plastic in three contexts: Military: The M-51 fuse; The home: kitchen utensils; Industry and machinery: gears; The military once again: the triple-cluster aerial bazooka as used by USAAF P-47s and P-51s, and, binoculars. The ad then concludes with a section about the design and development of plastic.

Though the first genuinely synthetic polymer had existed for some time (Bakelite, created by Leo Bakeland in 1907), only by the 40s and 50s did mass production of plastic actually commence.

The war was winding down, victory was obvious, and GE was thinking of the future.

______________________________

General Electric answers your questions about

PLASTICS

26,000,000 fuses. At the tip of this trench mortar is the M-51 fuse – most difficult mass production job ever done in plastics. Sixty-seven different operations check its perfection. Design was completed and mold started by G.E. the day before Pearl Harbor. Why was General Electric picked for this job?

You’ll find the right answer in your own kitchen. The handle on your coffee maker, the case on the kitchen clock, the light switch on the wall – chances are these are G-E plastics. For General Electric has molded more plastic products than anybody else. And some you’d never guess. For example…

Cloth that wears like steel. Steel against steel is noisy. Wears fast. Imagine, then, a gear made of cloth – packed in layers, impregnated with resin, pressed under heat. Oddly enough, G-E engineers who discovered this found that for certain uses such gears were not only quieter, but actually outwore steel.

Would plastic bazookas blow up? The first hundred plastics tried failed. Then G.E. laminated a rare paper with a special resin. The plastic tube stood the shock of repeated firings, was non-inflammable. Now many planes carry these rocket launchers. G.E.’s 1400 presses turn out everything from electronic equipment housings to submarine parts.

Salt-water-proof binoculars are new. And won’t mildew in the tropics. General Electric worked these out with the U.S. Naval Observatory and specialists in optics. Plastics were combined with metal, and, to make shrinkage the same, a new metal alloy was developed. The lenses are universal focus, specially treated for night vision.

How do plastics get born? Designers say what shape, how heavy or light, soft or hard. Engineers design special machinery. Chemists then invent the plastic to fit the need. Finally, a factory can go to work. In war or peace, General Electric research and engineering count in plastics, too. General Electric Company, Schenectady, New York.

Hear the G-E radio programs: The G-E All-girl Orchestra, Sunday 10 p.m. EWT, NBC – The World News, Monday through Friday 6:45 p.m. EWT, CBS – the G-E House Party, Monday through Friday, 4 p.m. EWT, CBS.

FOR VICTORY – BUY AND HOLD WAR BONDS

Here’s One Little Reference

Thompson, Richard C., Swan, Shanna H., Moore, Charles J., and vom Saal, Frederick S., Our Plastic Age, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, B, V 364, July 27, 2009.

The Age of Advertising: General Electric and Television – March 14, 1945

On March 14, 1945, a few months prior to their advertisement promoting “Plastic” in military and civilian contexts, GE ran an advertisement – featuring a 6-panel design – presenting and explaining the economic, technical, and cultural aspects of “Television” for the postwar world.

In light of the world of 2022, there’s something almost quaint about the the content of and mindset behind this advertisement, exemplified by the description of the kind of programming that was expected to be available: studio stage shows; movies; sports events; news. This was a natural reflection of the entertainment and informational “material” then available to the public, much already extant on radio.

Understandably, the ad’s writers could not have foreseen the technological, cultural, and economic changes that – acting in synergy – would sweep the world in the ensuing decades, and continue to do so now. In their lack of knowledge about the future of entertainment, perhaps the copy-writers were fortunate.

An example, perhaps, of the way that the manifestation and anticipated use of any new technology, is – at the time of the introduction of that technology – seen in the immediate intellectual context of that time itself.

______________________________

General Electric answers your questions about

TELEVISION

Q. What will sets cost after the war?

A. It is expected that set prices will begin around $200, unless there are unforeseen changes in manufacturing costs. Higher priced models will also receive regular radio programs, and in addition FM and international shortwave programs. Perhaps larger and more expensive sets will include built-in phonographs with automatic record changers.

Q. How big will television pictures be?

A. Even small television sets will probably have screen about 8 by 10 inches. (That’s as big as the finest of pre-war sets.) In more expensive television sets, screens will be as large as 18 by 24 inches. Some sets may project pictures on the wall like home movies. Naturally, pictures will be even clearer than those produced by pre-war sets.

Q. What kind of shows will we see?

A. All kinds. For example: (1) Studio stage shows – dancers, vaudeville, plays, opera, musicians, famous people. (2) Movies – any moving picture can be broadcast to you by television. (3) On-the-spot pick-up of sports events, parades, news happenings. G.E. has already produced over 900 television shows over its station, WRGB, in Schenectady [currently Channel 6].

Q. Where can television be seen now?

A. Nine television stations are operating today – in Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, Philadelphia, and Schenectady. Twenty-two million people – about one-fifth of all who enjoy electric service – live in areas served by these stations. Applications for more than 80 new television stations have been filed with the Federal Communications Commission.

Q. Will there be television networks?

A. Because television waveschannelchannel are practically limited by the horizon, networks will be accomplished by relay stations connecting large cities. General Electric set up the first network five years ago, and has developed new tubes that make relaying practical. G-E station WRGB, since 1939, has been a laboratory for engineering and programming.

Q. What is G.E.’s part in television?

A. Back in 1923, a General Electric engineer, Dr. E.F.W. Alexanderson [Ernst Frederick Werner Alexanderson], gave the first public demonstration. Before the war, G.E. was manufacturing both television transmitters and home receivers. It will again build both after Victory. Should you visit Schenectady, you are invited to WRGB’s studio to see a television show put on the air.

TELEVISION, another example of G-E research

Developments by General Electric scientists and engineers, working for our armed forces on land and sea and in the air, are helping to bring Victory sooner. Their work in such new fields as electronics, of which television is an example, will help to bring you new products and services in peacetime years to follow. General Electric Company, Schenectady, N.Y.

FOR VICTORY BUY AND HOLD WAR BONDS20

Hear the General Electric radio program: “The G-E All-girl Orchestra,” Sunday 10 p.m. EWT, NBC – “The World Today” news, every weekday 6:45 p.m. EWT, CBS.

The Age of Advertising: General Electric Television Network

A sign of the times; a herald of the times, in the Times:

An advertisement by General Electric from early 1945, promoting GE’s television network, through station WRGB in Schenectady (currently Channel 6), New York. Relying far more on explanation than illustration (that illustration being a simple map), the ad connotes pride in General Electric Television’s recent past, describes the then current scope – in terms of geography and content – of GE’s network, and includes a hint about a future where, “millions of families throughout American can look forward to television in their homes after the war.” (They had no idea…)

In the context of today – 2022 – where accessing information can be done near instantaneously, an intriguing highlight of the ad is mention of a broadcast of the 1944 Democratic and Republican National Conventions, “derived from films flown to New York.”

The ad thus implies – without needed to explain the steps involved – the use of photographic (motion picture) film to record these events, and, the use of aircraft to transport said film to New York for development, after which images would be broadcast to GE’s audience.

Technology not only collapses space, it collapses time.

(And, it collapses cognition as, well…)

The text of the ad follows…

____________________

TELEVISION NETWORK

five years old today

JUST FIVE YEARS AGO TODAY – January 12, 1940 – General Electric Television station WRGB, in Schenectady, added relayed programs to the service it rendered to several hundred families in upstate New York. In addition to programs originating in its own studio, NBC programs sent out from WNBT, in New York City, were picked up by G.E.’s relay station in the Helderberg Mountains and broadcast to WRGB’s audience.

This was America’s first television network – the first time that two television stations broadcast simultaneously the same regular programs.

Television set owners in Schenectady, Albany, and Troy have shared a lot of G-E television “firsts”. This pioneer television audience has been a fireside laboratory. Besides serving as “guinea pig” for relayed programs, it has expressed opinions on more than 900 different television shows originating at WRGB. Experience thus accumulated on television programming will help to improve the television entertainment of tomorrow.

This television relay, five years old today, was developed by General Electric scientists and engineers as an answer to one of television’s greatest problems – long-distance transmission. It has been proved by five years of actual use. It is one more reason why millions of families throughout American can look forward to television in their homes after the war.

A FEW HIGHLIGHTS OF FIVE YEARS OF TELEVISION RELAYING

Here are a few of the many programs, originating at WNBT in New York, which the G-E relay has brought to homes in Schenectady, Albany and Troy areas.

1940– January 12. First program ever transmitted over relay was the play – “Meet the Wife”.

Easter services and Fifth Avenue Easter parade.

Opening baseball game. Dodgers vs. Giants.

1941 – Boxing matches from Jamaica, Long Island, Arena.

Golden Jubilee Basketball Tournament from Madison Square Garden.

1942 – A series of instruction programs demonstrating Air Raid Protection methods for Air Raid Wardens.

1943 – World’s Championship Rodeo from Madison Square Garden.

1944 – Finals of Daily News Golden Gloves Boxing Tournament.
Democratic and Republican National Conventions in Chicago, from films flown to New York.

Hear the G-E radio programs: The G-E All-girl Orchestra, Sunday 10 p.m. EWT, NBC – The World Today news, Monday through Friday 6:45 p.m. EWT, CBS – The G-E House Party, Monday through Friday 4:00 p.m. EWT, CBS.

FOR VICTORY – BUY AND HOLD WAR BONDS

The Age of Advertising: The Time of Television – 1944

This 1944 RCA advertisement for television features an interesting combination of advocacy, sociological and technical prediction, and industry promotion.

Like the prior post presenting GE’s 1945 advertisement about television, this earlier example explains the future uses of television within the context of education (“courses in home-making, hobbies like gardening, photography, wood-working, golf”) culture (“drama, musical shows, opera, ballet”), and large-scale future employment for returning veterans.

All valid and true, at least in the mindset of 1944.

All valid and true, at least until those nations (both of the – then – Allies and Axis) which had been physically devastated by the war eventually rose to levels of industrial and intellectual capability which would challenge the technical and industrial preeminence of the United States.

All valid and true, until television, as well as other social and technological developments, would change – as much as reflect – the nature of American culture and society, and that of other countries, as well.

In terms of promotion of those firms involved in or contributing to the manufacture of televisions, the advertisement lists 43 different firms. Of the 43, how many exist today, either independently, or as subsidiaries?

________________________________________

Television

the “Baby” that will start
with the step of a Giant!

America’s “Next Great Industry” awaits only
the green light of Victory to open up undreamed-of horizons
in Education … Entertainment …Employment

It took fifteen to thirty years for the automobile, the airplane and the movies to become really tremendous factors in American life.

But television will start with the step of a giant, once Victory has been won and the manufacturers have had the opportunity to tool up for volume production.

Few realize the enormous technical strides television has already made, when the war put a temporary halt to its commercial expansion.

Dr. V.K. Zworykin’s famous inventions, the Iconoscope and Kinescope (the television camera “eye” and picture tube for the home), go back to 1923 and 1929 respectively. Signalizing arrival of the long-awaited all-electronic systems of television, their announcement stimulated countless other scientists in laboratories all over the world to further intensive development and research. By the outbreak of World War II television, though still a baby in terms of production of home receivers, had already taken giant strides technically.

During the war, with the tremendous speed-up in all American electronic development, man’s knowledge of how to solve the production problems associated with intricate electronic devices has naturally taken another great stride ahead.

When peace returns, and with it the opportunity for television to move forward on a larger scale, all this pentup knowledge from many sources will converge, opening the way for almost undreamed-of expansion. Then American manufacturers will produce sets within the means of millions, and television will undoubtedly forge ahead as fast as sets and stations can be built.

In a typical example of American enterprise, many of the nation’s foremost manufacturers, listed here, have already signified their intention to build fine home receivers.

IN THE TELEVISION AGE, the teachers of the little red schoolhouse will offer their pupils many scholastic advantages of the big city. And in the homes an endless variety of entertaining instruction: courses in home-making, hobbies like gardening, photography, wood-working, golf.

WHILE REMAINING AT HOME, the owner of a television set will “tour the world” via television. Eventually, almost the entire American population should share in the variety of entertainment now concentrated only in large cities…drama, musical shows, opera, ballet.

TELEVISION will aid postwar prosperity. Television will give jobs to returning soldiers, and an even greater effect will be felt through advertising goods and services. Millions will be kept busy supplying products that television can demonstrate in millions of homes at one time.

WATCH FOR THESE NAMES AFTER THE WAR

The manufacturers below may well be described as a Blue Book of the radio and electronics industries. Their spirit of invention, research and enterprise built the radio industry into the giant it is today.

Who can contemplate their achievements and fail to realize that in them America has its greatest resources for the building of the “next great industry” – Television. Watch for their names after the war!

ADMIRAL ☆ AIR KING-PATHE ☆ ANDREA ☆ ANSLEY ☆ AUTOMATIC
AVIOLA ☆ BELMONT ☆ CLARION ☆ CROSLEY ☆ DE WALD ☆ DuMONT
EMERSON ☆ ESPEY ☆ FADA ☆ FARNSWORTH ☆ FREED-EISEMANN
GAROD ☆ GENERAL ELECTRIC ☆ GILFILLAN ☆ HALLICRAFTERS ☆ HAMILTON
HAMMARLUND ☆ HOFFMAN ☆ DETROLA ☆ MAGNAVOX ☆ MAJESTIC
MIDWEST ☆ MOTOROLA ☆ NATIONAL ☆ NOBLITT–SPARKS ☆ PACKARD–BELL
PHILCO ☆ PHILHARMONIC ☆ PILOT ☆ RCA ☆ REGAL ☆ SCOTT ☆ SENTINEL
SILVERTONE ☆ SONORA ☆ STEWART–WARNER ☆ STROMBERG–CARLSON
TEMPLE ☆ TRAV–LER ☆ WELLS–GARDNER ☆ WESTINGHOUSE

________________________________________

Just Two Little References

Standage, Tom, Writing on the Wall: Social Media – The First 2,000 Years, Bloomsbury Publishing, 2014

Trimble, David C., Television: Airwaves Church of the Future, The Living Church, V 110, N 1, Jan. 7, 1945

The Age of Advertising: Stromberg-Carlson Company – 1942

An advertisement from The New York Times about new radios – well, not-so-new radios! – from 1942, by the Stromberg-Carlson Company, listing radio retailers in the New York Metropolitan area, northern New Jersey, and Connecticut.

(Stromberg-Carlson w h o?)

The company was founded in 1904, and after being purchased by the Home Telephone Company in 1904, relocated from Chicago to Rochester, New York, where it became, “…a major manufacture of consumer electronics including home telephones, radio receivers and, after World War II, television sets.” Notably – at least in terms of this blog – the company produced the BC-348 communications receiver, which was used in WW II Army Air Force multi-engine transports and bombers….

The company was purchased by General Dynamics in 1955, and by 1980, sold by them in several components.

The acronym “OPA” refers to the Office of Price Administration, an agency of the Federal Government established in August of 1941, within the Office for Emergency Management. The OPA became an independent agency in January of 1942, and, “…had the power to place ceilings on all prices except agricultural commodities, and to ration scarce supplies of other items, including tires, automobiles, shoes, nylon, sugar, gasoline, fuel oil, coffee, meats and processed foods. At the peak, almost 90% of retail food prices were frozen. It could also authorize subsidies for production of some of those commodities.”

The full text of the ad (sans the list of dealers’ names for metropolitan New York, and Connecticut) follows:

______________________________

AN IMPORTANT
ANNOUNCEMENT
ABOUT NEW RADIOS

MANUFACTURE of new radios stopped April 22nd, 1942. Early completion of production brought about by 100% conversion to war orders has again made available a variety of our Radios and Radio-Phonographs.

If you are thinking of a new instrument to last you beyond the duration, we suggest you make your purchase soon. For when the current stock of new radios is gone, there will be no more until the war is won.

And you know that, for a long-term investment in good music at its best, you will find “There is nothing finer than a Stromberg-Carlson!”

Visit your nearest dealer listed below, where you will find most models on display, at OPA prices.

COMPLETE LINE ON DEMONSTRATION
Gross Distributors, Inc., 570 Lexington, Avenue, New York City
Representative for New York and New England
Write for free booklet “Facts about FM”

STROMBERG-CARLSON
ROCHESTER, NEW YORK

A FINER RADIO FOR STANDARD PROGRAMS • THE ONLY RADIO FOR FM AT ITS BEST
TUNE IN WQXR MON, WED., FRI. 7:30 P.M. STROMBERG-CARLSON “TREASURY OF MUSIC”

______________________________

Well, since we’re talking FM, what better way to end this post, than with No Static At All?

References

Office of Price Administration (OPA), at Wikipedia

Stromberg-Carlson, at Wikipedia

The Age of Advertising: Pennsylvania Railroad – January 15, 1945

The advertisement below, for Pennsylvania Railroad – from January 15, 1945 – has a title that proved to be as optimistic as it was ironic, for after merging with New York Central Railroad in 1968, the resulting firm, the Penn Central Transportation Company, filed for bankruptcy in 1970.

The advertisement combines three elements to produce a striking image. On the left, symbolizing the future, new designs for railroad cars are displayed on a unfurled blueprint, against which are placed a T-square and right triangle. Translucent images of those “future” railroad cards appear below. On the right, a fleet of existing freight and railroad cars, en route from a “city” and a “factory” pass by a suburban rail station. In the background, stylized images of that city and factory are set against the horizon of a cloudless sky, surrounded by farmland. Above all is the emblem of the Pennsylvania Railroad.

Though “this” example of the advertisement was published in The New York Times, certainly the original advertisement was in color and doubtless intended for publication in magazines.

Here’s an example of that original ad, from Pinterest:

Here’s the full text of the advertisement:

________________________________________

EYES ON TOMORROW

On drawing board and blueprint, in research laboratory and on testing machines you will find the shape of things-to-come in railroading.
We know the American public expects great things – new, modern trains; daring designs; exciting and novel innovations; new power; new speed; new riding qualities; new comforts and luxuries; new services and ideas in travel, in shipping … in a word, transportation values beyond anything known or experienced before.

In its planning, the Pennsylvania Railroad has these things in mind – for it is a tradition of this railroad to look ahead, and apply its research to finding new ways to serve the traveling and shipping public better!

★ 50,757 entered the Armed Forces ☆ 532 have given their lives for their Country

BUY UNITED STATES WAR BONDS AND STAMPS

________________________________________

That the advertisement was created during the Second World War is strikingly evident by one particular facet of the text: The number of Pennsylvania Railroad Employees who died on WW II military service. Though listed as 532, the actual number is more than twice as many: 1,307. The discrepancy was likely attributable to the fact that the advertisement was created before the war actually ended, and thus, well before the status of all casualties (especially those missing in action) was verified.

The 1,307 men are memorialized at Philadelphia’s 30th Street Station, in the form of a bronze sculpture – entitled “Angel of the Resurrection” – which portrays the Archangel Michael lifting a fallen soldier out of the “flames of war”. The sculpture is set atop a four-sided black granite base, upon the sides of which are bronze plaques listing the soldiers’ names in alphabetical order, and, bearing symbols of the four branches of the armed forces.

References

Pennsylvania Railroad, at Wikipedia

Pennsylvania Railroad World War II Memorial, (once again), at Wikipedia

The Age of Advertising: Coke versus Pepsi – 1945

Here are dueling advertisements from 1945 for Coca-Cola, and, Pepsi (Cola), the former from The New York Times, and the latter from that same newspaper or (hmmm…?) The Philadelphia Inquirer.

Though Coca-Cola used the image of a fighter pilot to promote their product, the advertisement carries no mention of – and implies no endorsement by – the Army Air Force. It’s the visual symbolism that counts.

Interestingly, given that the pilot is seated in an early – “Razorback” – version of the P-47D Thunderbolt fighter plane and wearing “early” style two-piece goggles, perhaps the Coca-Cola company created this ad by using a stock publicity photo from earlier in the, war as a basis for the advertisement.

The Pepsi ad? Simple, and to-the-point.

They’re both still around.

Many things change, but some remain the same!

The controversy continues!