Jack and Jill magazine & "Helmet for my Pillow"

(Versions of these two posts originally appeared on Relics in January 2010.)

Detroit longs for the return of these days

Here's a reader letter from the February 1955 issue of Jack and Jill children's magazine. (The cover price was 25 cents and a one-year subscription cost $2.50.)

I'm sure the Ledgerwood family had a much nicer experience flying into the Motor City back in the 1950s than air travelers do today. And I'm sure the days of people traveling to Detroit to pick up a shiny new American automobile and then drive it across half the country to get home are long since over.

Know anyone who ever did that?

By the way, here's an interesting piece of trivia about the history of Detroit: Five people have been awarded the key to the city -- James Earl Jones, Jerome Bettis, neurosurgeon Benjamin Carson, businessman Christopher Ilitch and, in 1980, "in recognition of large donations to a church," Saddam Hussein.

"The real combat experience..."

A while back, I came across a 1965 paperback copy of Robert Leckie's "Helmet for My Pillow."

It's Leckie's memoir of the Pacific campaign of World War II. The back-cover description states that it's "the true, agonizing, brutal story of the fighting and the dying, the wild sprees of sex and drinking in Australia, the murderous assaults on island after island. ... A brave, tough, sardonic and beautiful book."

It was Pearl Harbor that catapulted Leckie into the war. As he writes on the opening page:

"I had sought to enlist the day after Pearl Harbor, but the Marines had insisted that I be circumcised. It cost me a hundred dollars, although I am not sure to this day whether I paid the doctor or not. But I am certain that few young men went off to war in that fateful time so marked."

The book -- creased, shelfworn and tanned like any other well-read paperback -- contains another, more personal, stamp of approval. On the first page of the book, someone has scrawled in ink: "Right on for the real combat experience. Have been there also -- WWII. 2nd Marine Div."

That anonymous note-writer wasn't the only one who believed "Helmet for My Pillow" was a great non-fiction book. Leckie's memoir is one of two books (Eugene Sledge's "With the Old Breed: At Peleliu and Okinawa" is the other) that served as the basis for "The Pacific," a 2010 HBO miniseries about the Pacific campaign.

Papergreat's origin story

So where did the word "Papergreat" come from, anyway?

If you're a fan of the band Genesis, as I am, then you probably caught the reference right away.

Here's the full rundown on "Why is this blog called Papergreat?", complete with footnotes and tangents:

AUGUST 1973: Genesis -- which at that time consisted of lead vocalist Peter Gabriel, Tony Banks, Steve Hackett, Mike Rutherford¹ and drummer Phil Collins -- records the song "Dancing with the Moonlit Knight," which is to be the first track on the album Selling England by the Pound.

"Dancing with the Moonlight Knight" opens with the following lyrics:

"Can you tell me where my country lies?"
said the unifaun² to his true love's eyes.
"It lies with me!" cried the Queen of Maybe
- for her merchandise, he traded in his prize.

"Paper late!" cried a voice in the crowd.
"Old man dies!" The note he left was signed 'Old Father Thames'
- it seems he's drowned;
selling England by the pound.

And so that was the first use, in lyrics, by Genesis of the phrase "Paper late." It's a phrase that kids selling the evening newspaper on street corners in England used to cry out.

MAY-JUNE 1981: Genesis now consists of just lead vocalist/drummer Collins, Banks and Rutherford. The group records "Paperlate," taking the title from their previous "Dancing with the Moonlit Knight." (The two songs couldn't be more different. "Paperlate" is an upbeat pop song³ with generic lyrics that feature no unifauns, mythological references or deep meaning.) A sampling:

Paperlate
Ooh I'm sorry but there's no one on the line
Paperlate
Oh I'm sorry but rest easy no news is good news

1982: "Paperlate" was released to the world in the following ways:⁴

• As a single in the United States on May 15, 1982, with the B-side of "You Might Recall."
• As one of three songs on the EP album 3X3, which was released on May 21, 1982.⁵ The covers of both the "Paperlate" single (pictured above) and 3X3 album are an homage to The Beatles' 1963 EP Twist and Shout. The other two songs on the EP are "You Might Recall" and "Me and Virgil."⁶
• As one of the songs on the United States version of Three Sides Live, which was released on June 1, 1982. (This is how I first heard "Paperlate," when I bought Three Sides Live on cassette sometime in the period of 1989-1991.) The international version of Three Sides Live, a double album, had three sides of live material from Genesis' 1981 tour. There were two different versions of the fourth side put into release:
• The version that went out to North America and some other parts of the world features the studio songs "Paperlate", "You Might Recall", "Me and Virgil", "Evidence of Autumn" and "Open Door" on the fourth side.
• The UK version featured other live performances from previous tours on the fourth side. So, no "Paperlate."
• "Paperlate" is also available on Genesis Archive #2: 1976–1992, a box set that was released on November 6, 2000.

JANUARY 2010: My first stab at an ephemera blog, Relics, has a short-lived run of 15 entries.

NOVEMBER 25, 2010: Papergreat, an homage to "Paperlate," (and, frankly, a much cooler name than "Relics") has its debut post. Having a unique word as the blog title turned out to be pretty cool. It's sort of the "unifaun" of blog names.

So, here's a video of Genesis performing the catchy "Paperlate," if you've never heard the tune:





Footnotes
1. Rutherford's full name is Michael John Cleote Crawford Rutherford.
2. I used to think Gabriel was saying "uniform," not "unifaun". I was half right. It's kind of a portmanteau. George Starostin, in this insightful analysis of the full lyrics of "Dancing with the Moonlit Knight" states:

'Unifaun' is supposed to be a pun, a cross between 'uniform' and 'faun' - the 'faun' brings in the mythological element, while the 'uniform' brings in certain military associations. Patriotic lament over the fate of one's country?

There is also some discussion of "unifaun" and the song in general on The Straight Dope message board. Member "Johanna" wrote in 2003: "The song 'Dancing with the Moonlit Night' is about the ironic contrast between the romantic glamor of medieval England and the drab commercialism of modern England, both worlds overlaid on one another and interpenetrating in the singer's imagination. The unicorn is a symbol of the English nation — order and rule, while the faun is a symbol of wild nature — randy and untameable. Packed together they make an ironic contrast. The whole song is an exercise in wordplay. The fat old lady dealing out credit cards instead of Tarot cards is like T.S. Eliot's Madame Sesostris from The Waste Land, only satirical."
3. "Paperlate" is one of two Genesis songs that feature the Earth, Wind & Fire horn section. The other is "No Reply at All."
4. Disclaimer: I am not an expert discographer. And I don't play one on TV. This is not intended as the definitive word on the releases of "Paperlate" from the Genesis catalog.
5. 3X3 was one of two EPs released by Genesis. The other was 1977's Spot the Pigeon, a somewhat obscure (in America) release by the band that contains "Match of the Day", "Pigeons" and "Inside and Out."
6. Collins has said that the song "Me and Virgil" is "a dog" and refers to it as one of his worst pieces of writing.

Teaching America to sew in the 20th century

Here's the cover from "Simplicity Sewing Book: Easy Guide for Beginners and Experts." It was published in either 1954 or 1955.

Simplicity Pattern Company, a brand of Simplicity Creative Group, was founded in 1927. According to the website's history page:

Simplicity designs, produces and markets sewing patterns for individuals who love to sew. ... Simplicity has long been known as a company committed to sewing education and support. In the early 1940’s, Simplicity embarked on a major sewing education program, by which travelling representatives, fashion shows, educational books and literature were presented and disseminated across the country. Such programs cemented Simplicity as the key source for learning to sew, and set the foundation for how sewing is taught today.

Author Eudora Welty is said to have used Simplicity Patterns for her short stories, pinning her paragraphs to the paper and rearranging passages for the strongest storytelling effect.

Here's some more on Simplicity's vintage sewing patterns, if you're interested.

Florida's famed Cypress Gardens and the aquamaids

(This entry is a reworking of a pair of posts that originally appeared on Relics, a now-vanished blog that was the precursor to Papergreat, in January 2010.)

Pictured above is the front cover of a pocket-sized, fold-out brochure for Cypress Gardens in Winter Haven, Florida. It is from the 1950s or 1960s. Inside, the brochure touts:

"The world famous aquamaids and champions star in four water ski shows daily. 'America's Tropical Wonderland,' a combination of beautiful girls in old fashions amid settings of tropical plants and flowers. Truly a photographer's paradise featured in movies, television, newsreels and magazine covers."

The admission rates printed on the brochure were $1.50 or $2, depending on the time of year. Children ages 12 to 16 got in for a mere 35 cents, while children under age 12 got in for free.

The aquamaids were the big attraction. They were even featured in the 1953 MGM Technicolor musical "Easy to Love", starring Esther Williams.

Williams is still with us at age 89, by the way.

Sadly, though, Cypress Gardens is not.

Despite several attempts to save it in the past decade and smart ideas from bloggers like Garland Pollard, the park's doors were closed for good in September 2009. In January 2010, Merlin Entertainments bought Cypress Gardens and announced that it would be turned into Legoland Florida, which is slated to open in October 2011.

Pictured at right is a directory of Florida attractions from the same vintage Cypress Gardens brochure. (Click on the image for a larger version that you can read.) How many of these attractions are still around? How many have been razed? And how many are just deteriorating by the side of the road, as cars race by to somewhere else?

I found an interesting 2007 Washington Post article by Susan Harb that touches on Cypress Gardens (two years before its final demise) and other vanishing roadside attractions in Florida.

Harb wrote: "More than 150 Florida roadside attractions have closed since the heyday of the 1950s and '60s. Victims of interstates that bypassed the two-lane amusements, changing tastes in entertainment and stricter government regulations, many of Florida's mom-and-pop sites are on the endangered list."

The September 11 terror attacks took a toll, too, causing some potential travelers to remain at home.

For her article, Harb revisited Sarasota Jungle Gardens, Cypress Gardens, Spongeorama in Tarpon Springs and Weeki Wachee Springs to get the pulse of those Florida attractions.

Of Cypress Gardens, she wrote: "The aquamaids no longer wear tutus and tiaras, the human pyramid on skis is only three persons high, not four, and the audience has to listen to a half-dozen endorsements before the show begins. But the Cypress Gardens skiers are still doing their signature stunts -- barefooted, backward, over ramps and with a pair of wings."

But that only lasted for another 20 months or so after Harb's visit.

Stay away from the hard cider

The police blotter was a lot more fun in 1919. Here's another clipping¹ from the Oct. 4, 1919, edition of The State Register in Laurel, Delaware. Poor John Harmon² got himself into a fine mess.

The "Harbenson" mentioned in the story is almost certainly a misspelling of Harbeson, Delaware, an unincorporated community in Sussex County. Harbeson isn't too far from Belltown, another unincorporated community in southeastern Delaware.

Footnotes
1. See a previous clipping from this issue of The State Register here.
2. Is this the same John Harmon referred to in the clipping? Some of the dates and locations match.

A trip to New York City to see "Cleopatra" at the Rivoli

(A version of this entry was originally published on January 5, 2010, on Relics.)

My side hobby brings me in contact with a lot of books. Some of these books have not been opened in many years. And when you open them up and leaf through them, you invariably find interesting things tucked away inside.

It would be easy to toss out those receipts and ticket stubs and bookmarks and move on with the process of assessing the book. But what fun would that be? This blog is, in part, about all that ephemera that gets tucked between the pages and forgotten for decades.

Maybe those scraps didn't tell much of a story then, but they can tell us something now. Take these ticket stubs from 1963...

These $3 tickets were for a matinee showing of "Cleopatra" on Sept. 3, 1963, at the Rivoli Theatre, which was located on Broadway in New York City.

"Cleopatra," starring Elizabeth Taylor, Rex Harrison, Richard Burton and personal favorite Roddy McDowall, was one of the most famous debacles in movie history, even though it won a few Academy Awards. It cost $44 million to produce, the equivalent of more than $300 million today, and Taylor almost died during the filming.

But let's set "Cleopatra" aside and discuss the Rivoli (right). It was anything but a debacle. It was one of the more decadent, spectacular places to see a movie in American history. According to Cinema Treasures, the Rivoli, designed by architect Thomas W. Lamb, opened in December 1917 at 1620 Broadway in Manhattan. In the 1950s, it was converted to 70mm Todd-AO, with a massive, deeply curved screen "that generated the illusion of peripheral vision" (imagine watching "Avatar" on that sucker). There was seating for nearly 2,100 film-goers. The Rivoli screened "roadshow" films such as "Oklahoma!", "Around the World in 80 Days," "West Side Story," "Cleopatra" and "The Sound of Music." With roadshows, films would play exclusively at one large metropolitan theater, sometimes for as long as a year, and tickets were usually sold on a reserved-seat basis, explaining seats E9 and E11 on the mezzanine-level ticket stubs (which, if you read the tiny type, were printed by the National Ticket Co. in Shamokin, Pa.).

But while these ticket stubs and their accompanying envelope to a sword-and-sandal cinematic flop from 46 years ago have stood the test of time, the Rivoli Theater did not. According, again, to Cinema Treasures, the Rivoli was "twinned" (converted to a two-screen theater) in the 1980s. One of the last films shown in its magnificent interior was "Class of Nuke 'Em High." It was closed in 1987 and later demolished, replaced by a glass skyscraper.

A piece of New York City's architecture and film history gone, leaving behind memories and ticket stubs.

See this 2011 followup post.

Lonely death of a 'raw-boned sourdough'

(A version of this entry was originally published January 7, 2010, on Relics.)

From the Oct. 31, 1935, edition of the St. Paul (Minn.) Dispatch (purchased at a flea market at the York Expo Center in 2007). Love the colorful writing in this.

Meanwhile, this was Time magazine's mention of Swanson's death: "Died. John ("Old Itchfoot") Swanson, 65, onetime rich, notorious gold prospector; in Los Angeles. He went to Nome in the 1890's, staked out the "Little Minook" mine, gathered in $15,000 a day for a great many days, was a crony of Tex Rickard, Rex Beach, Jack London and "Klondike Kate" Rockwell, poured his money in a yellow river across the gambling tables.

"Broke, hoping for another big strike, he succumbed in a dismal flophouse last week to acute indigestion."

Take a ride with Edwards Motor Transit Co.

(A version of this entry was originally published January 12, 2010, on Relics.)

This envelope (the front and back are pictured above) was tucked away inside an old book I came across awhile back. It came with a pair of ticket stubs indicating that some couple made a trip to New York City. Can't tell where they were coming from, though it could be any of the stops shown in the top image of the front of the ticket envelope. It's possible the travelers' origin was York, though it seems it would have been some circuitous to go from York north to Sunbury (or Williamsport) and then across to New York City.

Edwards Lakes to Sea System was also known as Edwards Motor Transit Co. According to the Web site Keystone Connections, "Edwards Lakes to Sea served a large portion of the state of Pennsylvania and its routes reached into neighboring states of New York, Ohio and New Jersey directly and Maryland and Washington, DC via a pool arrangement with Greyhound Lines."

Again according to Keystone Connections, Edwards Motor Transit Co. "was broken up in the early 1980s and its route system divided between Susquehanna Trailways and Fullington Trailways."

Some additional history on Edwards Motor Transit Co. can be found in this in-depth history of mass transit in Williamsport and northcentral Pennsylvania.

Finally, note the interesting fine print on the ticket stub: "Seating aboard vehicles operated in interstate or foreign commerce is without regard to race, color, creed, or national origin." That would seem to date this envelope and ticket stub after the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Rehashing the 'Relics' that never were

For the Six Days of Christmas, which are all I have at this point, I'm going to kick-start this blog by re-posting some entries from the late, great Relics, a vaporware blog that never got off the ground earlier this year.¹ There were some fairly decent posts there, if I do say so myself, and so I thought it would be nice to give them an official home here, instead of having them dwell forever in limbo.

So enjoy "The Best of Relics" this week. It will give you a good taste of what this blog will be like when I get busy posting original content in 2011.

Footnotes
1. It was going to be one of the blogs offered by the York Daily Record/Sunday News, my employer. But we decided that, while Relics was interesting, it didn't feature enough content of local interest to move forward with it. So the plug was pulled while it was still under construction.