All-American Ads of the 40s

by W. R. Wilkerson III (Introduction)

Like a pop-cultural walk through time, All-American Ads of the 40s covers the breadth of print ads from the World War II era. As one might expect, the ads look very different from ads today. Most are illustrated, and even the selling of innocuous products like candy bars taps into public interest number one, the war. The book is divided into chapters by product including alcohol, fashion, entertainment, travel, and automobiles. Saving the best for last, the conclusion of each chapter reveals the editor's pick for most peculiar ad. Most enticing are the movie posters. Classic pictures like Citizen Kane and It's a Wonderful Life appear in their original print incarnations as fantastic visions of old Hollywood. Hawking beauty products are famous stars such as Lucille Ball, Lana Turner, Marlene Dietrich, and Veronica Lake. Not surprisingly, gender roles are sharply divided, and race issues stick out sorely. Included is an essay by Willy R. Wilkerson III, "From Rationing to Prosperity, American Life in the 1940s," tracing the history of wartime consumerism. --J.P. Cohen

Genres: Art, Design, History, Nonfiction, Coffee Table Books

639 pages, Hardcover

First published December 1, 2001

Reviews

[N · Rating 5 out of 5]

Get ready to do some heavy lifting, this is no skimpy, slip of a book. This is one of the books that makes my family quip, "You sure do like big books," (why, yes I do, thank you). This is a book in which you can feast your eyes on ads, ads, and more ads. And yes, the irony was not lost on me that I avoid magazines, or anything printed, with too many ads, and complain about their infiltration of articles and real content, and yet, happily look through seven hundred something pages of ads from the 1940s and even read the fine text. (Maybe some day people will find our present day ads charming and insightful to the past, as well). I appreciate the very minimal commentary and interruptions from the author, because frankly, there's few things that annoy me more than having any kind of visual art come with some mammoth, two hundred page written psychoanalysis of it.

If you're interested vintage advertising of this era, this is for you, and if you know someone who lived through this decade they make love the walk down memory lane (I bought a copy for my grandparents, for instance). It's a pity the other books in this series are already out of print and expensive to get, I'd snap this one up while you can.

[Greg L Goldstein · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great fun, like all the books in the series. I'm finally getting around to building a collection of these.

[MKF · Rating 3 out of 5]

Now I'm curious if family who lived during the 40's saw these same ads, used any of these products, or saw some of things like the cars or planes.

[Themistocles · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic, like the whole series...

[Themistocles · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic, like the whole series...

[Scott Wiener · Rating 5 out of 5]

These are strange time capsules that are fun to look through.