Old Life Magazines

[Tzimisces]

Several years ago a friend from church gave me a big box of Life magazines from WW2. There's at least 50, and they cover from 1940-1945, with few earlier and later. I have the first four after Pearl Harbor, but no D-Day.
I love reading them, especially the ads. It's a sort of time machine to a very different America. I have a degree in history and collect old American history textbooks, so they are particularly valued.
Any way I pulled a few at random and took a few pics of stuff that might be interesting, including some watch ads.

This is an ad from the November 3, 1941 issue. The nasty side of nuclear power wasn't appreciated yet. The 2nd pic is a closer view of the text.



Here's an ad from the October 16, 1944. Now that victory is in sight, companies are thinking ahead to consumer goods again.

And the text:


A Hamilton ad from the same issue.





And some cool stuff like this:




And for our Australian members, an article about Aussie war brides.

[mr00jimbo]

Nice find! I can't quite make out the text of the "Meet me on the moon" article...is it suggesting we would soon establish colonies on the moon?

[Tzimisces]

Nice find! I can't quite make out the text of the "Meet me on the moon" article...is it suggesting we would soon establish colonies on the moon?

Sorry about that, I'm new to photography and photobucket and it didn't seem to understand what I wanted. Stupid thing did what I told it instead.

Here's the text, and it is quite surprising:

"A giant passenger rocket....hurtling through black space on a plume of flame...bound for the Moon."
That would have sounded utterly fantastic only yesterday-but today we're not so sure it's impossible-because fuel for such a trip is available here and now! Scientists have learned how to develop and control almost unlimited power... by splitting the atom of an isotope of the metal Uranium (called U-235).
If this newly-found power is harnessed for general use, this is what it will mean to you! With a tiny lump of U-235, the size of a pin head, you will heat your home for two years, or drive your car 200,000 miles! Everyone will enjoy undreamed comforts and luxuries, when U-235 is made cheap and plentiful.

This is an insurance ad, and hindsight tells us that the nuclear powered home might be a poor risk...
Remember this is Nov. 1941, almost four years before Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and the true terrible power of splitting atoms was realized.

[John MS]

I love reading through old Life magazines. I'm glad to see I'm not the only one who looks for watch ads!!