Need a Nickle for the Soda Machine: Vintage Vending Machine Ads

I have some new friends in the ad collecting business and they are avid fans of Soda Pop Vending Machines! They have taken kindly to my web site deovoted to the soda industry: THE SODA SHOPPE VINTAGE ADS on eCrater.

As always when I meet "virtually" new customers, I become interested in their interests. I have discovered some beautiful sites for those interested in collecting, restoring or enjoying antique vending machines.

The Antiquities Vending Co has been in business since 1989. They have beautiful graphics on thier site.

Another great site for those interested is Soda-Machines.com

Evans Vacuum Cap...Guarantee Hair Grower

In the early 1900's it was decided that baldness could be cured by increasing the blood flow to the scalp. Enter The Evans Vacuum Cap. It was as you can see by this 1905 advertisement: the GUARANTEED Hair Grower.

In his (her) book: Baldness: A Social History, Kerry Seagrave writes that Evans claimed only 5% of people every requested thier money back. Thus I guess they were able to achieve a 95% success rate?

Here is a great picture of the machine on the fellow's head. The cap seems pretty secure. And we can see by this ad that women can enjoy the results of a good vacuum cap too. All of these, are of course, for sale in my shop: VINTAGEADS4U

WHAM-O..or where's my BLOWGUN Dude?

In 1948 Arthur "Spud" Melin and Richard Knerr founded WHAM-O®. It became known as the gurus of blockbuster fads. While most everyone knows they marketed the Hula Hoop and the Frisbee, did you know that in the 50's they had an entire line of sporting goods...especially for the hunter!

My particular interest in these 1956 ads is that my two brothers wanted every blow gun, dart gun and hunting slingshot that Wham-O could produce. My parent's were not as cooperative and I think the only thing they ever got was the slingshot. There was something just a little sketchy about sending away for something in the back of magazines, even if it was Field & Stream.

More Wham-O ads can be found in my store: VINTAGEADS4U

Vintage Advertising: Medical Quackery Ads - Dr. Leonidas Hamilton

Some of the best ads I have seen fall into the category of medical quackery. Let's view a few over the next few months. The oldest one I have is this one from 1870.

Titled Why Will Ye Doubt?...Earthly Blessings it guarantees you that Dr. Leonidas Hamilton can cure just about anything.

To back up his claim, he published a book a year later titled:

THE DISCOVERIES AND UNPARALLELED EXPERIENCE OF PROF. R. LEONIDAS HAMILTON, M.D., WITH REGARD TO THE NATURE AND TREATMENT OF DISEASES OF THE LIVER, LUNGS, BLOOD... CONTAINING ALSO, A BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF HIS LIFE WITH THE COMMON SENSE THEORY OF DISEASES AND THE EVIDENCE OF HIS WONDERFUL CURES.

Dr. Hamilton's expertise in curing you of absolutely everything was attested to by a whole page of people no one knew but surely existed somewhere.

Like many doctors of the day, Leonidas attributed ailments to catarrh. You could have catarrh everywhere. But don't worry, just writer the good doctor in New York and he will be there to help you. He seemed to specialize in liver ailments, but I think he was agreeable to treating anything you thought you had.

If you like medical quackery ads, then you might enjoy viewing more at my site: VintageAds4U

Thanks for stopping by. Next time, let's look at the 1880 Thomas Edison Patent Medicine Ad and the Polyform Lawsuit. Yes, that Thomas Edison.

Vintage Advertising Schlitz Beer VintageAds4U

Do you think Joseph Schlitz ever thought there would be a magazine devoted just to Beer? I think he would be a subscriber to Beer Advocate or All About Beer.

Three magnficent beer families in the United States: Schlitz, Budweiser and of course, Coors. This week Schlitz.

The Joseph Schlitz Brewing Company was founded by Joseph Schlitz, who came to America from Mainz, Germany in 1850, at the age of 20. In 1856 he took over management of the large brewery owned by the recently deceased August Krug. Two years later he married Krug's widow and changed the name to the Joseph Schlitz Brewing Co.

Schlitz died May 7, 1875, when on a return visit to Germany; his ship hit a rock near Land's End, Cornwall, and sank.

On June 10, 1982, the Joseph Schlitz Brewing Co. was acquired by Stroh Brewery Company of Detroit, Michigan. The regular beer is still produced, though in relatively small quantities, by the Pabst Brewing Company, along with three malt liquors (Schlitz Malt Liquor, Schlitz Red Bull, and Schlitz Bull Ice).

My favorite Schlitz ads are the ones that advocate drinking beer for your health. The Schlitz beer ads featured one or two "doctors" saying that it was really food and you should enjoy it, have it in your house, mix with your cheerios, etc. Here is what I mean:

Lots of vintage Schlitz ads can be found at VintageAds4U.

And eBay always has the vintage beer ads:

Vintage Advertising Murad Cigarettes at VintageAds4U

Murad Cigarettes

S. Anargyros produced many brands during the era of the Turkish Cigarette. Murad was perhaps one of the most successful. At fifteen cents a box of ten, Murad Cigarettes appealed to the well-to-do smoker.

In 1911, Murad and most of the other popular straight-Turkish tobacco cigarettes became the property of the P. Lorillard Company. They changed the slogan to "Everywhere, why?" and created beautiful ads like this one. That ad is for sale at VintageAds4U

Pretty ads.

Vintage Advertising Lord & Burnham Greehouses

Frederick A. Lord established Lord's Horticultural Manufacturing Company in 1856 in Syracuse, in central New York. Lord's son-in-law William Burnham later joined the firm, which was renamed in 1890 when Burnham became President. The company moved to Irvington in 1876, ostensibly to be closer to the great estates that served as a market for the company's products, its celebrated glass conservatories.

Perhaps the most famous estate was that of Jay Gould, just over the village line in Tarrytown. For Lyndhurst, the Gould estate, the firm constructed what has been said to be the country's first steel and iron frame, fire resistant greenhouse. (The previous, wood frame, conservatory at Lyndhurst burned in 1880.) Here is the ad from the May 1902 Country Life in America for that greenhouse. It is for sale on EBAY, of course.

Other commissions included Conservatory of Flowers at Golden Gate Park in San Francisco (1876-1879) and the Enid Haupt Conservatory at the New York Botanical Garden (1902). Later still, the company built the greenhouses for the Boyce Thompson Institute for Plant Research in Yonkers.

Wiki can tell you all about the company by clicking here. A great selection of vintage greenhouse ads can be found at VintageAds4U.

And of course, don't forget eBay where you can find almost anything, including Lord & Burnham vintage advertising.