This 1931 Packard Model 840 Dietrich Convertible Victoria was the centerpiece of an exhibition on the Art Deco movement at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, MO. The exhibition, “American Art Deco: Designing for the People, 1918-1939,” ran July 2022 through January 2023. (Photo by Corbin Crable)

Master of the Sky

“Art Deco was all about moving away from the past and paving a new way for the future, culturally and aesthetically, which meant keeping some decorative elements but also giving them a sleeker, cosmopolitan twist,” according to a 2020 article on Housebeautiful.com. “As such, many Art Deco buildings wear a ‘tiara,’ the nickname for floors that aren’t leasable spaces (speaking to the decorative value of design that this movement really pioneered). Tiaras make the buildings taller and distinctive, inviting you to look up.” Fittingly, the article adds, Art Deco was all about the celebration and promotion of modernity; some designers say the motto of the movement was “Master of the Sky.”

Of course, Collectors Weekly notes, since Art Deco items were so popular, they were mass-produced, and as such, they remain readily available on websites like eBay and Etsy, as well as online antique dealers and auction houses. Architectural marvels designed in the Art Deco style have become synonymous with the cities in which they are located.

“The 1930 Chrysler Building, an Art Deco masterpiece, is one of the most famous landmarks in Manhattan; the 1937 Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco is another Art Deco triumph, in this case of both design and engineering,” an overview on collectorsweekly.com reads. “Then there’s Ocean Drive in the South Beach section of Miami, home to some 800 preserved Art Deco structures.”

From the massive to the diminutive

Closer to home, nowhere can the Art Deco influence be seen more clearly in architecture than downtown Kansas City at the Municipal Auditorium complex, a grouping of four special event venues. Opened in 1935, it features Art Deco architecture and was hailed by The Architectural Record as “one of the 10 best buildings of the world that year,” according to the now-defunct Kansas City Times. All visitors to the Music Hall, one of the four buildings that make up the complex, are treated to the breathtaking foyer, filled with stunning Art Deco details that also are found throughout the hall’s public spaces, from restroom signs to wall decorations and the elaborate Art Deco chandeliers. In fact, the lighting fixtures in the Music Hall inspired the four Sky Stations on top of another building in the complex, Bartle Hall.

The smaller, everyday items that have survived the decades remain quite affordable, according to Collectors Weekly. “Industrial designers Raymond Loewy and Henry Dreyfus created many functional objects (such as clocks, radios, and telephones) with the classic Art Deco angular, streamlined look,” the site’s overview states. “Statuettes and figurines, frequently of female nudes, were produced in plastic, bronze, and ceramic. Glass objects — from vases to perfume bottles — were also popular, with Rene Lalique, Antonin Daum, Henri Navarre, and Maurice Marinot among the most prized practitioners.”

Porcelain figures in the Art Deco style, too, are collectible and easily found, the article reads.

“Porcelain figurines created for Robj, Rosenthal, and Lenci often depicted characters and caricatures dressed in the fabrics of the day, with Art Deco costume jewelry on their necks and Art Deco watches on their wrists,” the article continues. “By the bed would be a bronze and mahogany clock, in the dining room a china service emblazoned with geometric patterns, and in the living room silver and enamel cigarette cases leaning against ashtrays made of Bakelite.”

Part of the appeal of Art Deco was its accessibility to the common man; the items mass-produced in this style were affordable and allowed their owners a touch of class and elegance in their home —  “the use of inexpensive or innovative materials enabled the production of a diverse variety of affordable objects, bringing beauty into the public realm in a novel way,” according to Art File Magazine.

 A housewife hosts a Tupperware party in the 1950s. (Image courtesy of Click Americana)

June 2023

A wise addition to Tupperware

In the postwar years, when more homes began cropping up in newly designed American suburbs, convenience was king, and Tupperware added ease to meal preparation and storage. Tupper joined forces with Brownie Wise, a woman who had sold home products at parties that proved to be highly popular (he would eventually hire Wise to be his vice president of marketing in 1951). For Tupper, who initially had tried selling his new Tupperware in department stores with little success, the idea of marketing his new Tupperware at home parties was a logical next step. The “Tupperware party” was an event that proved to become synonymous with the product, finding its way into American homes in the following years.

“The company had tremendous cultural impact,” Venkatesh Shankar, marketing professor at Texas A&M, said in the April 25, 2023, article on CNN.com. “The famous neighborhood house parties where Tupperware products were sold by the host to her family and friends was a new way of marketing, combining socializing with direct sales.”

Indeed, the Tupperware party was an ideal innovation of the time.

“The practice dove-tailed brilliantly with the rise of post-war suburbia: women had bigger homes, bigger kitchens, more money to spend, more children to feed, and more responsibilities to keep house,” the article continues. “Into that climate came Tupperware. Its first milky-white plastic product, the “Wonder Bowl,” cost 39 cents, according to Smithsonian Magazine; the museum has a huge Tupperware collection. Over the years, tangerine orange, baby blue and pink, and kiwi green products followed.”

The parties themselves were glamorous, upscale social events – much like an afternoon tea party, according to the article, housewives dressed in their very best dresses, gloves, heels, and hats. The host would carefully present her wares, stacking them delicately in order to show them off. Since this was one of the few socially acceptable ways for women to make money, it proved to be a popular way for housewives to earn income.

Dedication to the brand

Brownie Wise, meanwhile, saw her star rise within the company, combining her sales knowledge, charisma, and femininity to build Tupper’s company and its product, enlisting legions of American housewives to assist her in her crusade.

“Wise had inspired a kind of religious devotion to their work,” Bob Kealing, Tupperware scholar and Wise’s biographer, wrote in “Life of the Party: The Remarkable Story of How Brownie Wise Built and Lost a Tupperware Party Empire.” “She promised them a better life, and they adored her.”

Tupper took notice but didn’t seem to want the company to become “all about her,” according to Kealing. Tupper fired Wise in 1957.

The success of Tupperware throughout the 1950s and ‘60s shouldered by the brand’s hostesses, led the product to go global, eventually reaching Europe, where hostesses were required to follow a rigid dress code of skirts, stockings and gloves, in keeping with the parties’ feel of an elegant, upscale event. Tupperware proved to be successful in Asian countries, too, in the decades following the product’s peak years.

Sagging sales

Tupperware sales numbers began a slight dip in the 1980s, throughout numerous acquisitions and mergers. The brand saw its sales continue that trend toward the turn of the century, with the number of salespeople shrinking to just under 2 million by the end of the 2000s. In the past five years, Tupperware has withdrawn its operations in Middle Eastern and European countries. In an effort to boost sales, Tupperware began selling its products in Target stores in recent years with disappointing results, unable to keep up with competitors such as Pyrex, Rubbermaid, and Ziploc, as well, as the changing needs of a younger consumer base.

In April 2023, Tupperware announced that the company needed more money soon so it could remain in operation. And though the company’s next path could be the one that leads to a bankruptcy filing, its name, and nostalgia will endure with those who still own those pieces they bought or received as gifts so many years ago.

“The most valuable thing Tupperware owns is its brand,” John Talbot, business professor at Indiana University said in the CNN article. “Like Blockbuster, the Tupperware brand will never go away,” he said. “I suspect it could file for bankruptcy and if there is a buyer for it, Target would be a great option to revive the brand with new designs and a new marketing plan.”

“It’s been there all my life”

Sellers and collectors alike shared their memories of Tupperware following the news of the company’s struggles – and showed that even in cyberspace, there exists a demand for the beloved bowls, pitchers, and storage containers.

“I rarely deal in newer stock,” collector and eBay seller Karen St. Esprit, 68, of Beaver County, PA, said in an April 23 New York Post article. “I really love vintage and not the new Tupperware.”

Another Tupperware enthusiast and former longtime Tupperware party host, Debbie Angus from Australia, told one news station that the products have always been around her household.

“It’s been there all my life. My mother had Tupperware,” Angus said. “It would be very sad if it folded, I think.”

 A metal sign advertising Mobilgas from the company that would later become Exxon Mobil. The company used the mythological winged horse Pegasus on most of its advertising and logos. (Image courtesy of eBay)

May 2023

Fill ‘er up!

Oil and gas collectibles remain popular with collectors

Collecting is a gas

Several locations around the country claim to be the site of the first dedicated gasoline station (known in their early days as “filling stations”), including St. Louis, MO. It can generally be agreed, however, gas ceased to be sold in general stores around the turn of the century.

Don Sherwood, longtime collector of vintage gas pumps and other related memorabilia, offers as a resource his virtual gas station museum, www.vintagegas.com, which features images of some of the more impressive pieces in Sherwood’s collection. His collection of fuel-related collectibles often referred to as petroliana, also includes oil cans, metal advertising signs, and advertising globes, in addition to gas pumps themselves.

“’I get phone calls and emails all the time from people wanting to know how much their grandfather’s TEXACO pump is worth from 1935,’” Sherwood tells the Automobile Driving Museum. “But, as he describes, it’s difficult to tell because ‘TEXACO never made a pump. Most pumps were painted red by a manufacturer and then labeled by the pump distributor with the brand of gasoline it served. The retailer who purchased the pump may switch gasoline brands over the years, in which case it would be repainted and a new globe would have been installed on top.’”

Sherwood says he can’t name his favorite piece in his expansive collection, adding that every pump he owns is unique and a reminder of a simpler time.

“I don’t have a lot of money, but every piece I have I bought because I loved it,” Sherwood told the Automobile Driving Museum. “The hobby is alive and well.”

Wash your windshield, sir?

Unlike the gas pumps themselves, the features of vintage filling stations have mostly been lost to time. The first drive-in station, opened in Pittsburgh in 1913, and until as recently as the fuel crisis of the 1970s, many offered either minimum service – an attendant operates the gas pump for the motorist – or full service – in addition to pumping the customer’s gas, wipes windshields and windows, and checks the car’s oil level and tire pressure. And, unlike modern gas stations, these vintage filling stations didn’t include expansive convenience stores with every candy bar and snack imaginable. These quick stops were all about servicing your vehicle and getting back on the road, according to Greg Zyla of More Content Now.

“Unlike today’s gas station stores that are mostly eateries, the old-time gas station was a real service center offering specialized auto repair, tires, oil, batteries, and more,” Zyla wrote in a 2019 column for The Palm Beach Post. “The only things in common with today’s gas stations were restrooms and, at best, a small selection of gum, candy bars, crackers, and potato chips. Other than that, it was servicing your car and selling gasoline as the primary business plan.”

Though such service stations are extremely rare, they haven’t completely vanished from the American roadside. One still in operation in Olmos Park, TX, has been owned and operated by Greek immigrant Gus Velesiotis for nearly 30 years.

“A lot of people, they are busy. They have no time to check the oil. They have no time to check their tires,” Velesiotis told KSAT.com in 2018, with employee Joey Perez adding, “In the full service, we include the gasoline. We will check the tires for you. We will check all the fluids under the hood in order to be safe, clean the windshields as well — whatever our customers need.”

America goes highway bound

In postwar America, gas stations were big business, especially with the advent of the Interstate Highway System in 1956, connecting communities across the nation with greater speed and ease of transport. For the next two decades, the roads hummed with vehicles that zipped along thanks to the services offered and products sold at gas stations. Gas companies, including TEXACO, even took up the mantle of merchandising, producing gas station play sets for children. Those playsets remain available on online sites such as eBay and Etsy, with prices ranging from $20 or $30 to several hundred dollars.

By the time movie audiences howled at Steve Martin’s antics as a hapless service station employee in the 1978 comedy film “The Jerk,” the energy crisis of 1973 led to the shuttering of many full-service fuel stations; even more would close during the energy shortage of 1979. In less than a decade, Martin’s character’s job would become all but extinct. Despite this, the demand for petroliana remains high among collectors.

“Collecting petroliana is not only a hobby. It’s also a great way to invest in a piece of history,” according to the website for Richmond Auctions. “The value of petroliana has been steadily increasing over the years, and it is not uncommon for a rare or unique piece to fetch a high price at auction.”

(Image courtesy of Patti Klinge)

Apr 2023

Cover Story

​Just Your Type

Typewriters find second life as beloved antiques

Say hello to the Underwood

One of the more common typewriters that collectors may find in antique stores is the Underwood, Polt says.

“With the Underwood of 1895, this style of typewriter began to gain ascendancy. The most popular model of early Underwoods, the #5, was produced by the millions,” according to Polt. “By the 1920s, virtually all typewriters were ‘look-alikes’: frontstroke, QWERTY, typebar machines printing through a ribbon, using one shift key and four banks of keys. (Some diehards lingered on. The huge Burroughs Moon-Hopkins typewriter and accounting machine was a blind writer that was manufactured, amazingly enough, until the late 1940s).”

Most mass-produced typewriter models at that time sold for about $100, or much more than the value of a 21st-century computer, when adjusted for inflation.

Another early kind of typewriter – though not nearly as popular as the Sholes & Glidden – was the index typewriter, which entered the market in the early 1880s, just a few years after the Sholes & Glidden. Using a pointer or stylus to choose a letter from an index, then printed by pressing down on a lever, the index typewriter was only popular among those who only occasionally needed to produce typed correspondence. They were cost-effective, too, sold for 1/40th the cost of a Remington. But as keyboard typewriters became more popular, the index typewriter faded into obscurity.

That’s how they roll

By the early 20th century, the standard design of the typewriter’s platen, or roller, was mounted horizontally on a carriage that moved to the left after the operator typed each character. On the left was the carriage-return lever, pressed to the right to bring the carriage back to its starting position. The platen would then rotate and the paper would advance. While typing, the typebars would strike upward against the paper, according to author Martin Lyons and Rita Marquilhaus’ 2017 book “Approaches to the History of Written Culture: A Word Inscribed.”

Generations after Thomas Edison’s invention of the Universal Stock Ticker, the precursor to the electric typewriter that remotely printed letters on a thin stream of paper based on a typewriter at the other end of a telegraph line, a Kansas City man invented the first power-operated typewriter in 1914. The man, James Field Smathers, turned over his invention to the Northeast Electric Co. to refine it. When Northeast Electric was purchased by Delco Electronics Corp. in the late 1920s, the resulting company was then bought by IBM, which launched its own electric typewriter, building on Smathers’ invention over the next three decades.

IBM’s Selectric Typewriter, which made its debut in 1961, introduced a small metal “typeball” with reverse-image letters that, thanks to a motor and intricate system of pulleys and latches, rotated the ball into position and struck it against the ribbon and platen, according to the 2020 article “A Different Type of Dance Move” on the IBM website’s official blog. Many of the electronic typewriters of later decades replaced the typeball with a daisy wheel made of metal or plastic.

Electronic typewriters flooded offices and clerical staff members’ desks until the early 1990s. In 1991, the year the Soviet Union fell, so too did IBM’s typewriter division, sold off to Lexmark.

And, here in the 21st century, though the typewriter is more commonly found in antique stores, some of its components – most notably, the keyboard and its layout – remain a critical part of the devices we now use, from computers to cell phones.

Engineered to take a beating

Those who appreciate and collect typewriters are numerous, and they even include celebrities like singer and actress Lady Gaga; she wrote her 2016 song “Perfect Illusion” on an Olivetti Littera 32, the first of which was introduced in 1963.

The most prominent celebrity typewriter collector, however, is actor Tom Hanks. The first typewriter in his now-expansive collection was a Hermes 2000. Hanks has been collecting typewriters since the age of 19.

Hanks, in a 2013 column published in The New York Times, sang the praises of the typewriter, both a tool of beauty and a carefully crafted machine designed to outlast the technologies that replaced it in the world’s offices, homes, and studies.

“There is no reason to own hundreds of old typewriters other than the sin of misguided avarice (guilty!). Most can be had for 50 bucks unless, say, Hemingway or Woody Allen typed on them,” Hanks writes. “Just one will last generations — if it is cleaned and oiled every once in a while. The ribbons are easy to find on eBay. Even some typewriters made as late as the 1970s can be passed on to your grandkids or encased in the garage until the next millennium when an archaeologist could dig them up, hose them down and dip them in oil. A ribbon can be re-inked in the year 3013 and a typed letter could be sent off that very day, provided the typewriter hasn’t outlived the production of paper.”

Hanks’ sweeping, exquisitely-written love letter to typewriters makes no secret of his affinity for those communication tools of yesteryear as lions of longevity.

“The machine, too, may last as long as the rocks of Stonehenge. Typewriters are dense things made of steel and were engineered to take a beating, which they do,” Hanks continues. “My dad’s Underwood, bought used just after the war for his single year at U.S.C., had some keys so worn out by his punishing fingers that they were misshapen and blank. The S key was a mere nib. I sent it to a shop for what was meant to be only a cleaning, but it came back with all the keys replaced. So long, Dad, and curse you, industrious typewriter serviceperson.”

(Image courtesy of Classic Media)

Mar 2023

Cover Story

Walk Like An Egyptian

Egyptomania Resurrects Country’s Magic, Mysticism

Late 18th century

In the late 18th century, interest in Egypt was revived when French General Napoleon Bonaparte invaded the country.

Bonaparte commissioned a team of nearly 200 scientists and scholars to study the art and culture of the country. One of the team’s most significant findings was the coveted Rosetta Stone, which unlocked the mysteries of Egyptian hieroglyphics to future generations of historians and anthropologists.

In the century following, the Victorian era became inexorably linked with Egyptomania. In fact, throughout the late 19th century, wealthy Victorians didn’t need museum artifacts to entertain themselves – the richest ones traveled to Egypt themselves and excavated tombs, robbing them of both riches and bodies. These Victorians would even host parties at which mummies would be unwrapped for entertainment.

Carter’s discovery in Egypt’s Valley of the Kings was vast – works of art, statues, jewelry, clothing, a chariot, golden shrines, weapons, and, laying within an elaborately decorated sarcophagus, the mummified body of King Tut himself.

“The public devoured every crumb of information as King Tut’s tomb was painstakingly explored by British Egyptologist Howard Carter and his colleagues.  The media was eager to fill the desire for information,” according to the Washington State Department of Archaeology. “Motion picture newsreels, magazines, and newspapers all featured the latest developments of the excavation.  Two years after the discovery, in 1924, the New York Times Pictorial Magazine carried the first color photos shown in the United States of the treasures from Tut’s tomb.  Articles about Tutankhamun carried well into the 1930s as archaeologists took 10 years to completely clear the tomb.”

With Carter’s discovery, an American obsession with all things Egyptian had begun, finding its way into architecture, fashion, art, and beyond.

Fashion

Examples of Egyptomania in textiles can be readily found, with the most stunning examples on display in museums worldwide.

“The designs, colors, and materials of unearthed Egyptian antiquities significantly impacted art and design for decades, especially via the 1920s and 1930s design movement now called ‘Art Deco,’” according to the Goldstein Museum of Design in St. Paul, MN. “Egyptian design elements thus found expression in architecture, interiors, graphic design, textiles, and fashion.”

A green silk dress in the museum’s collection was made by the Paris couture design house Callout Soeurs in 1925. A “masterful merger of design elements borrowed from ancient Egypt with 1920s fashion,” the dress features beading at the neck, center front, hipline, and hem, all off-white with a green border of beading around the bottom, according to the museum’s website. The color of the dress is especially interesting, since author Isabella Campagnol, in her 2022 book “Style From the Nile: Egyptomania in Fashion from the 19th Century to Today,” notes that in the earlier days of Egyptomania, “fabric colors named after Egypt were introduced in shades of green, blue-green, and umber.” Indeed, the beading and necklines of the flapper dresses of the 1920s found their inspiration from Ancient Egypt.

Campagnol also observes that accessories, too, of the 1920s were heavily influenced by Egyptian culture, with sphinxes, gods, heads of pharaohs, scarabs, and hieroglyphs featured heavily. Late last year, auction house Sotheby’s put on display a selection of valuable antique Egyptian-themed jewelry to mark the 100th anniversary of Carter’s discovery of King Tut’s tomb.

Popular Culture

Perhaps no greater single example of Egyptomania in mid-20th century media exists than the film epic “Cleopatra” (1963). Starring the biggest film star of her day, Elizabeth Taylor, in the title role, “Cleopatra” was the most expensive film ever made until that point, with production costs topping $31 million. The film was a true treat for the eyes, with ancient Egypt brought to life in dazzling color.

“Cleopatra,” though, like so many other films, was plagued by scandal, even in the pre-production phase – rumors of an extramarital affair between Taylor and her co-star Richard Burton lived on the lips of the Hollywood elite and were reproduced in gossip magazines of the day. Despite those rumors (or maybe because of them), moviegoers eagerly flocked to theaters to enjoy the grandeur of the ancient world.

Though “Cleopatra” was a box office success, ticket sales were far from enough to cover the production costs, leaving many to believe the film itself to be a flop, despite being one of the highest-grossing films of the entire decade of the 1960s. Not exactly so, says filmmaker Kevin Burns.

“The film was not a bad film. It was not a flop. It was too expensive,” Burns told The L.A. Times in a 2001 article. “It was a financial mess, but it made $24 million in its initial release. It was one of the top 10-grossing films of the ‘60s. It was by no means a failure on any level. It is one of the most beautiful films ever shot. It has some incredible performances. It is very intelligently written and deserves to be seen.”

More than 30 years after the release of that epic, “The Mummy” film trilogy starring Brendan Fraser proved that, even as we faced the dawn of a new century, Egyptomania in media remained alive and well.

Architecture and interior design

The Egyptian Revival style of architecture mimicked the motifs and symbols – as well as the grandiose temples and palaces — of the ancient civilization. This was present not only in the buildings of the post-Napoleonic world but in funerary monuments, which made particular use of the obelisk and geometric renderings of palm fronds on grave markers and mausoleums in American cemeteries. Visit any cemetery today and you’ll see such features prominently included.

In the late 19th century, inside the homes of the living, meanwhile, Egyptian Revival-style furniture could be easily found.

“The Egyptian Revival took imagery and art from ancient Egypt and used them in a different light for western tastes,” according to UK-based Nicholas Wells Antiques. “The Egyptian Revival decorative art and architecture inspired artists from all over the world. The people of France, in particular, became very interested in Egyptian Revival decorative art and incorporated everything from lotuses, winged lions, and sphinxes on furniture and architecture. Some of the most famous Egyptian decorative revival furniture included ornamented armchairs with goat feet and pharaoh’s heads, elegant and overstuffed sofas with designs of lotus blossoms, and palmiform columns. These exotic designs added high fashion to the upper-class homes of France.”

Here in the United States, particularly in the Midwest, Egyptian Revival in architecture lives on in establishments such as the Cairo Supper Club in Chicago. Designed in 1920, the one-story building’s exterior “is adorned with glazed polychromatic terra-cotta, lotus-capped columns, and a winged-scarab medallion in the cornice,” according to the Art Institute of Chicago. “The Egyptian-themed façade combined with the Art Deco-inflected neon lights and large plate-glass windows seems to provide a vivid marriage of two different but equally influential cultures.”

In the nation’s capital, the Washington Monument pierces the skyline. Completed in 1884, the structure was “built in the shape of an Egyptian obelisk, evoking the timelessness of ancient civilizations … The Washington Monument embodies the awe, respect, and gratitude the nation felt for its most essential Founding Father,” according to the National Parks Service. “When completed, the Washington Monument was the tallest building in the world at 555 feet, 5-1/8 inches.”

And on the other side of the country, in Las Vegas, stands the Luxor Hotel and Casino, perhaps the most recent example of Egyptomania in architecture. The Luxor opened in 1993, and the pyramid-shaped resort, named after the Egyptian city, features two ziggurat towers; the resort’s pyramid is flanked by an obelisk and a replica of the Great Sphinx of Giza as well. When it originally opened, the hotel included a replica of King Tut’s tomb; that feature has since closed.