Imitation Is The Best Compliment

Al Parker (1906-1985) defined the progressive look and feel of published imagery at a time of sweeping change, when Americans, emerging from the great depression and War, sought symbols of hope and redemption on the pages of our nation’s periodicals. His innovative modernist artworks created for mass-appeal women’s magazines and their advertisers captivated upwardly mobile mid-twentieth century readers, reflecting and profoundly influencing the values and aspirations of American women and their families during the post-war era. 

Parker is credited with creating a new school of illustration and was much imitated. To distinguish himself from his imitators, he worked in a variety of styles, themes, and media. Examples range from children's crayons to acrylics. He sold illustrations to Cosmopolitan, Good Housekeeping, McCall's, The Saturday Evening Post, Sports Illustrated, Town and Country, and Vogue. A stamp commemorating his art was issued by the United States Postal Service in 2001 as part of the American Illustrators Issue series. 

That's Either Roy or Ray

At left is Roy Roberts (1906-1975) beside Ray Teal (1902-1976). Each actor might cross over because of the character roles, anything from a crooked judge to kindly banker. They started their careers one year apart and died one year apart. Both did many Westerns on film and television. Roberts became one of the most recognized actors in television in a number of comedy series as a banker, railroad president, or governor in such popular series as The Lucy Show, Petticoat Junction, and Green Acres. Teal, on the other hand, rarely ventured into comedic roles, staying primarily in Westerns, whether in film or television. Over a dozen times he played a sheriff. His most visible role is Sheriff Roy (not Ray) Coffee on Bonanza.

Television Talkers: The Early Years

 

John Cameron Swayze (1906-1995) was an American news commentator 
during the 1940s and 1950s who later became best known as a product spokesman. Born in Wichita, Kansas, Swayze initially sought to work as an actor. However, the Wall Street Crash of 1929 curtailed acting roles on Broadway and he ended up in radio by 1933.

Swayze hosted the radio program Stranger Than Fiction. In addition, he worked in sports, writing about and broadcasting football games, and took part in early experimental television broadcasts. By 1940, Swayze was working full-time doing news updates for Kansas City's KMBZ. He broadcast news items prepared by United Press Kansas City bureau overnight editor Walter Cronkite. By 1946, Swayze was hired by NBC as director of news and special events for its Western Division. Two years later, NBC produced The Camel Newsreel Theatre, a 10-minute program of daily events using newsreel film, which Swayze narrated and often scripted.

Eventually, NBC executives tired of Swayze's flamboyant delivery style, in contrast to anchorman Douglas Edwards's comparatively low-key delivery on CBS. The ouster offered him various television roles as a game show panelist and product pitchman. For twenty years beginning in 1956, Swayze became widely known as the commercial pitchman for Timex watches, subjecting Timex watches to grueling physical tests. After retrieving the watch, his authoritative delivery was perfect for the company's slogan, "It takes a licking and keeps on ticking." 

Bartholomew Richard Fitzgerald-Smythe

 

In 1916, a young schoolboy, Antonio Gentile from Suffolk, Virginia, submitted drawings for a "Mr. P. Nut" in a design contest and one of his drawings was chosen the winner. Seeing the potential of the concept, commercial artists added the monocle, top hat with a modified cane to create the iconic image. Legend suggests he is of British heritage and has the proper name of Bartholomew Richard Fitzgerald-Smythe. The boy's family received five dollars for winning the contest. However, Planter's founder, Amedeo Obici befriended them and paid for their four children's college education. Afterward, Obici then paid Antonio's way through medical school. He became a doctor in Newport News, dying in 1939.

Planters Peanut Company was founded in 1906 in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, and incorporated two years later as the Planters Nut and Chocolate Company. See Antonio's original drawings at:

https://acmemorylane.tumblr.com/post/152293213378/mr-peanut-in-1916-planters-nut-and-chocolate

The Vast Uses of Vanadium

 

The Vanadium Corporation of America (VCA) was a commercial producer of vanadium, a transition metal and a strengthening additive for steel. Founded in 1906 by Joseph Flannery, it was headquartered in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The company operated several vanadium mines in multiple countries, including the Mira Ragra mine in Peru. The raw material was converted into a ferroalloy at its plant in Bridgeville, Pennsylvania. Vanadium steel parts were in strong demand throughout the automobile industry during this period. Through numerous mergers and name changes since the 1960s, in 2016 VCA became AMG Vanadium LLC. (AMG: Advanced Metallurgical Group)

Vanadium compounds occur naturally in about sixty-five different minerals. Vanadium is mined mostly in South Africa, north-western China, and eastern Russia. Being ubiquitously distributed in soil, crude oil, water, and air, vanadium also found roles in biological systems and is an essential element in most living beings. Being a biologically relevant element, many vanadium-based therapeutic drugs have been proposed for the treatment of several types of diseases. Namely, vanadium compounds, in particular organic derivatives, have been proposed for the treatment of diabetes, cancer and diseases caused by parasites.

Above: The health benefits of injected olive oil? Rather, Vanadium's 1960 proposal for a "big gun against cancer," illustrated by Jo Kotula (1910-98).

The Speed Queen

 

Jacqueline "Jackie" Cochran (1906-1980) was an American pilot and business executive. She pioneered women's aviation as one of the most prominent racing pilots of her generation. She set numerous records and was the only woman to compete in the 1937 Bendix air race, working with Amelia Earhart to open the race to women. That year, she also set a new women's world speed record. By the next year, she had won the Bendix championship and set a new transcontinental speed record as well as altitude records. She was the first woman to fly a bomber across the Atlantic. Cochran was the wartime head of the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) from 1943–44. By 1948, Cochran joined the U.S. Air Force Reserve as a lieutenant colonel. Encouraged by lifelong friend, Chuck Yeager, she was the first woman to break the sound barrier in 1953. She was promoted to colonel in 1969 and retired in 1970. Flying jet aircraft, she continued setting numerous records, including becoming the first woman pilot to achieve supersonic speed. Known to many as the "Speed Queen", no other pilot held more speed, distance, or altitude records in aviation history than Cochran. Detailed history at Cochran. 

Al Parker (1906-85)

 

Al Parker was an innovative, influential modernist illustrator with mass appeal in women’s magazines. He emerged in the mid-1930s with is move to NYC and established a vibrant visual vocabulary for the new suburban life so desired in the aftermath of the Depression. More graphic and less detailed than the paintings of the influential Norman Rockwell, Parker’s stylish compositions were sought after by editors and art directors for their contemporary freshness. Parker is credited with creating a new school of illustration and was much imitated. To distinguish himself from his imitators, he worked in a variety of styles, themes and media, from children's crayons to acrylics. In cooperation with the magazine's art director, he secretly provided every illustration in an issue of Cosmopolitan, using different pseudonyms, styles and mediums for each story.

See additional Al Parker samples. 

Early Twentieth Century News

 

Corn Products Refining Company, and later Corn Products International, was founded by the merger of leading US corn refiners in 1906. The company was incorporated in New Jersey, supplying the raw materials for Argo cornstarch and Mazola corn oil. After additional mergers, since 2012, it has been known as Ingredion Incorporated, an American multinational ingredient provider based in Westchester, Illinois. Producing mainly starch, modified starches and starch sugars as glucose syrup and high fructose syrup, they turn corn, tapioca, potatoes, and other vegetables and fruits into ingredients for the food, beverage, brewing, including pharmaceutical industry and numerous industrial sectors. The company was named the “World's Most Ethical Company” in 2014 by the Ethisphere Institute.