When Appearance is Everything

One of the most dynamic jet airliners ever designed was Convair's 990. It looked speedy standing still. Like its slightly smaller, older brother, the 880 was equally stunning, but other than setting speed records (they were the fastest sub-mach airliner until the Concorde), it arrived too late and too small to compete with the Boeing 707 or Douglas DC8. It was a failure in the USA, with only about 35 being manufactured during its short, ten-year career. It could not carry enough passengers to justify its thirst for fuel. It fared better in Europe, where flight distances were reduced. 

This classic American Airlines scheme, a carryover from the old prop days, exudes style and excitement. From the fighter-like nose cone to the stove pipe jets, to the anti-shock pods on the wing's trailing edge, it was truly a unique beauty to behold. The design screams speed, and many pilots felt they were in a very special class to command such a plane. A classic example when outward appearance overshadows many inner flaws.

Cottage Home Service

Hired from Gulf Oil in late 1925 to lead the Pure Oil Company's new marketing construction department, architect Carl A. Peterson was charged with creating a structure distinct and recognizable, utilizing Pure Oil's blue and white corporate livery prominently in his design, making their corporate affiliation obvious from a distance. His goal was to harmonize with residential neighborhoods that opposed flashy and brightly colored industrial structures.

Pure Oil unveiled Peterson's final design in 1927, which he called the "English cottage." It featured a design reminiscent of private homes in an effort to make the stations comfortable for motorists and incorporated many aspects of the popular Tudor Revival architecture of the time. These included homey details such as chimneys, window shutters, and flowerboxes. The brick walls of the building were white, and the roof was covered in an expensive, non-fading, gloss blue tile. 
What now seems quite amusing in self-service times, imagine this service attendant's helpful comment: "This pipe fits behind that little door on the driver's side of your car. It's difficult, pal. That's why I do it for you."

What now seems quite amusing in self-service times, imagine this service attendant's helpful comment: "This pipe fits behind that little door on the driver's side of your car. It's difficult, pal. That's why I do it for you."

Peterson oversaw and designed many variations on his initial design to account for economic, geographic, and other regional differences. The English cottage became an icon for the company, with more constructed into the 1930s. Pure Oil produced popular birdhouses and radios designed to look like their stations. A half-size replica produced for the 1933 World's Fair was a top attraction. With Pure Oil's merger with Union Oil Company of California (Unocal) in 1965,  the English cottage style became a thing of the past. However, many have been added to the National Register of Historic Places.

A Capital Idea

Though Capital Airlines has roots dating back to 1926, the Pennsylvania Air Lines and Central Airlines of the 1930s, and later in the decade as Pennsylvania Central Airlines, when this photograph was taken, Capital Airlines was officially just two years old. They received their first Lockheed Constellations (pictured) in 1950. The headquarters were located at Washington National Airport, now Reagan Washington National Airport, where crew training and aircraft overhauls were performed. The airline operated scheduled airline service in the eastern, southern, southeastern, and midwestern United States. 

During their first year, they introduced the "Nighthawk," one of the first coach-class services to compete with the railroads between Chicago and New York City, and with dominant airlines on the route. That same year, they introduced the first television on flights. Capital Airlines was the first U.S. operator of the British-manufactured, four-engine Vickers Viscount turboprop airliner in 1955. Capital was the fifth largest airline behind the "Big Four" of American, United, TWA, and Eastern until its merger with United Airlines in 1961. 

Pulling the Viewer In

This Coca-Cola advertisement could only be accomplished by an illustrator in the mid-twentieth century. Today, this scene could be copied through photo-manipulation software or AI. But painting was the go-to medium for the illustrator who understood the human anatomy and had the faultless ability to capture everyday life and all that it entails in a composition that draws the viewer into the moment.

George Bernard Whitcomb (1920-48) was an American artist and illustrator from South Bend, Indiana, who earned a full scholarship to the Herron School of Art and Design in Indianapolis, securing his early promise. He worked as a commercial artist for Grauman Advertising in Chicago, creating some iconic full-page Coca-Cola ads seen in Life Magazine and Saturday Evening Post.

Due to his untimely death at twenty-seven from heart failure, accentuated by damage from childhood rheumatic fever, Whitcomb was buried three days later on his birthday. Understandably, records of his professional work are limited, and most online searches will default to another more famous Whitcomb artist, Jon (1906-1988).

Prospect Point

Based on this illustration by Saturday Evening Post's James Bingham (1917-1971) and the late Forties nondescript "make-believe" car, automobiles were once able to drive near the edge of Prospect Point at the American Falls of the Niagara River.

"Hey, buddy, you can't park there!"

Approximately where this car is pictured, cracks appeared on July 27, 1954, at the edge of the observation area, leading to the area being cordoned off. During the late afternoon of the next day, a massive rockfall occurred that forever changed the look of the falls. Reports describe motorists on Rainbow Bridge witnessing the collapse of approximately 185,000 tons of rock from the brink of the American Falls. To eliminate remaining hazards, the Niagara Frontier State Parks Commission conducted controlled blasts in August 1954.

The rockslide was the largest since 1931. The debris pile became a tourist attraction until it was removed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in 1969. Automobiles are no longer allowed to drive onto Prospect Point itself. The parkway section within the state park was largely removed in the early 1980s to restore the landscape, further limiting vehicle access to the immediate brink. The site is a pedestrian observation area accessible via the Niagara Scenic Parkway and local streets, requiring visitors to walk to the viewing areas.

The Long and Quiet Road

The Natural Rubber Bureau Research Laboratory was a facility that conducted experiments in the 1950s to prove the viability of rubberized roads by embedding rubber in asphalt across the U.S. and Canada. The findings were published in the report “Stretching Highway Dollars with Rubber Roads” (1952). These studies demonstrated that such roads were longer-lasting, safer, slower to freeze, and less brittle below freezing than ordinary asphalt. The pavement provided better skid resistance and produced fewer cracks when compared to concrete, reducing maintenance costs for highway departments. 

The tests were part of a broader historical timeline of mixing rubber and asphalt dating back to the 1920s and earlier experiments in the Netherlands, confirming similar benefits. By 1954, the Bureau of Public Roads had also published laboratory studies evaluating various rubber powders, including those from scrap tires, styrene-butadiene rubber (SBR), and natural rubber, further validating the technology. 

Today, Rubberized Asphalt Concrete (RAC) is a noise-reducing pavement material that consists of regular asphalt concrete mixed with rubber made from recycled tires. It is currently used in many regions, though its use is not universal across America. While historically concentrated in warmer states like Arizona, California, Florida, Texas, and a couple of southeastern states, testing is expanding into northern regions of Washington, Colorado, and Missouri, with recent projects demonstrating improved durability and a quieter driving experience.

Note: Porous Elastic Road Surfaces are a type of low-noise pavement composed primarily of rubber granules, often from scrap tires, and mineral aggregates bound together with polyurethane resin rather than traditional asphalt. This composition creates a highly porous and elastic material that is even quieter, yet it faces challenges regarding durability and bonding.

Television Ratings: 1950s Part 4

A TOP 10 Nielsen ratings that charts changes over two seasons for selected popular shows of the 1950s. Check out my TOP 20 ratings charts (Parts 1-6) for the 1960s and (Parts 1-5) for the 1970s.

Wrapping up the 1950s, Westerns dominated the top 10 spots with the top three unwavering. Have Gun, Will Travel finished its run in top form. Wanted: Dead or Alive made its only appearance in its next-to-last season. The Danny Thomas Show remained solid among all the dusty gunplay, while the popular Father Knows Best finished its run with its highest rating.