Magazine Ads

[Kitty]

Looks at this --- a fridge with a built in radio!

[donnie]

That looks like some cool music she's listening to.

[Kitty]

That looks like some cool music she's listening to.

Maybe some Les Paul!

[donnie]

Nerd question: In that day radios operated on tubes rather than transistors, which produced a lot of heat. I wonder how they kept the heat generated out of the freezing compartment? I guess Philips figured it out. Or maybe they didn't, and that's why Radiofrigos didn't become a thing.

[Kitty]

Nerd question: In that day radios operated on tubes rather than transistors, which produced a lot of heat. I wonder how they kept the heat generated out of the freezing compartment? I guess Philips figured it out. Or maybe they didn't, and that's why Radiofrigos didn't become a thing.

I think they didn't! It would probably be a terrible pain to repair if something went out on either the radio or the fridge, and that's why this isn't a more well known idea!

[donnie]

From Popular Science. Apparently accordions were a big thing in '58.

[Kitty]

Portable! Electronic! One step up from the hurdy-gurdy! What's not to thrill???

[Kitty]

This is an advertisement on the back cover of the 1883 Chatterbox magazine compilation.

I guess 'comfortables' must be the old word for comforter. Also, what is a notion?

And look, they have a new cash system which has been adopted by which the confusion caused by cash boys has been stopped. Wonder what that's all about? I think this ad has lots to talk about.

[donnie]

Notions. I remember seeing that term used, but I never really understood exactly what it meant. I knew it was something to buy, but thought it might be like little decorative objects or something. Looking it up, I see that it was (is?) used to describe miscellaneous small articles for sale—kind of a catch-all category, I guess. I have a notion ( ) that the term probably came from things you'd buy more on impulse as opposed to more intentional, major purchases.

However, looking at it again here, maybe it pertained more in this instance to cloth-based articles, since it's grouped with them.

Another similar term that used to confuse me is Sundries (which I think means about the same thing). I can remember as a child seeing that sign in older drugstores and wondering if it was something similar to sundaes.

Now about the cash thing at the bottom, I'm totally clueless. Let me know if you're able to figure that one out, as I'm very curious.

And I think you're right about the comfortables. I also notice silverware wasn't a compound yet.

[donnie]

From the March '45 Popular Science. Classy, huh?
I wonder how long the Glow in the Dark Necktie Co. stayed in business.