Depicting the Postwar American Woman from Bride, to Wife, to Mother Tarin Burger

Florida State University Libraries

Electronic Theses, Treatises and Dissertations The Graduate School

2012 As Advertised: Depicting the Postwar American Woman from Bride, to Wife, to Mother Tarin Burger

Follow this and additional works at the FSU Digital Library. For more information, please contact [email protected] THE FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY

COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES

AS ADVERTISED: DEPICTING THE POSTWAR AMERICAN WOMAN

FROM BRIDE, TO WIFE, TO MOTHER

TARIN BURGER

A Thesis submitted to the Department of History in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts

Degree Awarded: Spring Semester, 2012 Tarin Burger defended this thesis on Tuesday March 27, 2012.

The members of the supervisory committee were:

Suzanne Sinke Professor Directing Thesis

Kristine Harper Committee Member

Jennifer Koslow Committee Member

The Graduate School has verified and approved the above-named committee members, and certifies that the thesis has been approved in accordance with university requirements.

This project is dedicated to my family. For always pushing me onward and upward, I am forever grateful.

iii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

There are so many people to thank for their support and encouragement during this project. I would like to begin by thanking my parents. Their support and sacrifice have made my academic and professional goals attainable. Without their guidance, I know my journey through academia would have been far more winding and far less enjoyable.

I would also like to show my deepest gratitude to my advisor and friend, Suzanne Sinke. She uses her years of experience and expertise to teach us to never be satisfied. Never be satisfied with your own work, because it can always be better. It is with this mantra that I‘ve tackled the chapters herein.

I am grateful also for the advice and guidance of my committee members, Kristine Harper and Jennifer Koslow. I am truly inspired by their talents and success. Kris, you‘ve become one of my closest confidants and for that I am grateful. Thank you for your friendship and for helping me keep everything in perspective. Professor Koslow, thank you for guiding me that first semester—for demanding better writing. I may not have thanked you then, but know I truly thank you now.

I would also like to extend a special thank you to Richard Kirk. I know my college experience would have been very different without his mentorship. Thank you for encouraging my interests and for explaining the true ins and outs of a graduate degree in history: ―I didn‘t say you had to read all of these books, I said you had to know what‘s in them.‖ Words to live by.

Finally, a thank you to the love of my life. From the moment I was accepted to FSU and he asked, ―When do we leave?‖ to now, his constant love and support have made this experience a positive one. For this, Jason, I thank you.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

List of Figures ...... vi

Abstract ...... viii

1. ADVERTISING IN STAGES: FROM BRIDE TO WIFE, FROM WIFE TO MOTHER .....1

2. WEDDING IN WHITE ...... 13

3. WIFELY BEAUTY AS A NATIONAL DUTY ...... 31

4. WHIPPING UP LOVE, FEMININITY, AND SECURITY ...... 49

5. ―YOU‘VE NEVER HAD IT SO CLEAN!‖ ...... 68

6. CONCLUSION: READING THE ADS BEYOND THE COPY ...... 86

BIBLIOGRAPHY ...... ……………………………………………90

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH ……………………………………………………………………95

LIST OF FIGURES

2.1 Bame-Merrick Wedding, July 17, 1954 ...... 14

2.2 Bame-Merrick Wedding, Cake Cutting, July 17, 1954 ...... 14

2.3 Bame-Merrick Wedding, Wedding Gifts, July 17, 1954 ...... 14

2.4 Dominion Deep Fryer, Ladies’ Home Journal, June 1953 ...... 16

2.5 Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, Wedding, February 1840 ...... 17

2.6 Imperial Dyeing & Cleaning Company, Harper’s Bazaar, June 1958...... 22

2.7 Priscilla of Boston, Harper’s Bazaar, June 1954 ...... 25

2.8 Herbert Tareyton Cigarettes, Ladies’ Home Journal, June 1951 ...... 25

2.9 Keepsake Diamond Rings, Seventeen, December 1953 ...... 26

2.10 Keepsake Diamond Rings, Mademoiselle, March 1953 ...... 27

2.11 Keepsake Diamond Rings, Mademoiselle, July 1953 ...... 27

2.12 International Nickel Company, Inc., Harper’s Bazaar, June 1950 ...... 27

2.13 Matson Manufacturing Company, Inc., Harper’s Bazaar, June 1957...... 28

2.14 Dayton Koolfoam, Ladies’ Home Journal, June 1953 ...... 28

2.15 Mr. and Mrs. John and Lois Bame, December 2005 ...... 30

3.1 Nixon and Khrushchev, ―Kitchen Debate,‖ 1959 ...... 31

3.2 Pond‘s Dry Skin Cream, Ladies’ Home Journal, February 1953 ...... 38

3.3 Pond‘s Dry Skin Cream, Ladies’ Home Journal, November 1953 ...... 38

3.4 Pond‘s Cold Cream, Ladies’ Home Journal, October 1953 ...... 39

3.5 Dorothy Gray Salon, 1951 ...... 40

3.6 Pepsi-Cola, Ladies’ Home Journal, October 1953 ...... 41

3.7 Health-O-Meter Scale, Ladies’ Home Journal, December 1953 ...... 41

3.8 Pond‘s Cold Cream, Seventeen, April 1953...... 43

3.9 Camay Soap, Seventeen, January 1953 ...... 44

3.10 Camay Soap, Seventeen, February 1953 ...... 44

3.11 Camay Soap, Seventeen, March, 1953 ...... 44

3.12 Dermetrics Cleanser, Mademoiselle, May 1953 ...... 45

3.13 Lanolin Plus, Mademoiselle, February 1954 ...... 46

3.14 Frances Denney, Mademoiselle, February 1953 ...... 46

3.15 Ann Delafield Reducing Plan, Mademoiselle, July 1953 ...... 47

3.16 Olga Company, Mademoiselle, April 1954 ...... 47

4.1 Certo, Ladies’ Home Journal, July 1949 ...... 55

4.2 Underwood Deviled Ham, Ladies’ Home Journal, April 1954 ...... 57

4.3 Hellmann‘s Mayonnaise, Ladies’ Home Journal, April 1963 ...... 60

4.4 Jolly Time Pop Corn, Ladies’ Home Journal, October 1954 ...... 62

4.5 Libby‘s, Ladies’ Home Journal, April 1950 ...... 64

4.6 Wish Bone Salad Dressing, Ladies’ Home Journal, April 1963 ...... 66

5.1 Tide, Ladies’ Home Journal, April 1953 ...... 69

5.2 Clorox, Ladies’ Home Journal, April 1957 ...... 75

5.3 Ajax, Ladies’ Home Journal, April 1965 ...... 77

5.4 Frigidaire, Ladies’ Home Journal, April 1961 ...... 78

5.5 Eureka, Ladies’ Home Journal, April 1953 ...... 81

5.6 Kelvinator, Ladies’ Home Journal, October 1953...... 83

vii

ABSTRACT

I am working to illuminate a connection between the pervasive anxiety regarding ―traditional‖ gender roles that permeated Cold War culture during the mid-twentieth century and the advertising industry‘s messages to women during the same period. By examining women‘s magazines, a particularly important piece of cultural media for the period, and their advertisements, I seek to examine patterns that develop in the way advertisers expressed their messages to women. Tracing the development of these messages through a narrative that examines the varying prescribed roles women were expected to assume will lead to a discussion that flows from advertisers targeting brides, wives, and mothers. This narrative strategy will help create an accessible, clearly organized discussion of this topic. This project relies heavily on an examination of primary sources including advertising images from the 1940s, 50s, and 60s.

Much scholarship has been written regarding gender, advertising, consumerism, and the postwar/Cold War era. While most of these works focus on only a few of these aspects, my work attempts to present a discussion of this period with these aspects at the forefront. By examining how advertisers spoke to women through their images in a period that was unquestionably influenced by an all-permeating anxious culture of the Cold War, I hope to prove that issues of gender, consumerism, and Cold War political efforts were inextricably connected.

viii

CHAPTER ONE ADVERTISING IN STAGES: FROM BRIDE TO WIFE, FROM WIFE TO MOTHER

Postwar Women and Consumerism: An Introduction For historians, the postwar years of America‘s history are often characterized by unprecedented prosperity, a rising middle class, and the constant anxiety of the Cold War. Scholars have produced countless volumes to analyze the elements that make this period unique: a rising consumer market, a booming birth rate, the rapidly expanding middle class, and a deeply entrenched attempt to return to ―traditional‖ gender roles. It is in this last characteristic that scholars of gender find particular interest in this period. At a time in American history when gender roles seemed to be expanding to incorporate more opportunities for the nation‘s women, a resurgence of ―traditional‖ family values landed many postwar women squarely in their kitchens. Grasping a hand mixer with the same hands that riveted World War II dive bombers, the postwar woman, beautifully coifed, glided back to the sanctity of her kitchen where she was free from arduous labor to love and protect her family by means of a well-chosen Jell-O mold. This is of course but an image perpetuated by cultural mediums that attempt to define the period. These images are precisely the material that advertising agencies during the postwar years rallied behind. 1 There was no better way to sell a box of Betty Crocker cake mix than to depict a smiling housewife gallantly presenting her family with two chocolately layers of love and happiness. An integral component of this period is the unprecedented rise in consumerism. The G.I. Bill promised returning World War II veterans the good life and with its help, homeownership in suburbia was within reach. Key to the gender scholar‘s examination of postwar consumerism is the critical role women played in the nation‘s booming economy. Never before had this nation had as much disposable income. Continually rising wages coupled with the economic

1 Historian Joanne Meyerowitz and film and literature authority Leonard J. Leff further explain the role mass media played in women‘s return to the home after the war in their works, Not June Cleaver: Women and Gender in Postwar America, 1945-1960 (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1994) and ―What in the World Interests Women?‖ Journal of American Studies 31, no 3, part 1: Looking at America: The USA and Film (1997): 385-405, respectively.

1 advantages that the G.I. Bill presented created a generation of rapacious consumers.2 The ―man as producer/woman as consumer‖ dynamic persisted as advertisers embraced the middle-class white housewife as the vehicle of their prosperity. As with any cultural study, this examination of the postwar housewife deals with an image. Not all women during the period had the ability or the desire to leave the workforce and return to the home.3 Also, images of the postwar housewife completely deny the existence of non-white women. However, the value in examining cultural artifacts, in this case, advertisements, is clear when one considers these images were put forth as the ideal. The social norm—the goal to be reached—set for postwar American women existed within the boundaries of a white, middle-class, stay-at-home example. Magazine advertisements are a provocative cultural source for this period. They embody not only the consumerism that developed in the postwar years, but also the committed effort advertisers put forth to target women specifically. Advertisers made it their business to instruct the postwar woman in the successful ways of being a beautiful all-American housewife. From the teenage boy/girl party menu to the middle age battle with wrinkles, advertisers proudly asserted their role as guides for postwar women. Scholars—historians and sociologists alike—continue to analyze these unique characteristics of the postwar period. During a time in which it seemed women would develop larger roles outside the home, a resurgence of domesticity took hold of the country. The Cold War and all of the anxieties it entailed added to this domestic shift as the media encouraged American women to be everything Soviet women were not: beautiful, well-mannered, and exceedingly happy in their homes.4 Targeting women in ways that appealed to their emotions and identity as citizens, advertisers instructed the nation‘s women that their success as good wives and mothers was inextricably connected to the safety and security of the country during this period of political and social instability.

2 Juliann Sivulka, Soap, Sex, and Cigarettes: A Cultural History of Advertising in America (New York: Wadsworth Publishing, 1998), 241. 3 Historian William H. Chafe and the aforementioned Joanne Meyerowitz each spend time addressing the reality of women working in the paid labor force after World War II in their books, The Paradox of Change: American Women in the 20th Century (New York: Oxford University Press, 1991 and Not June Cleaver, respectively. 4 See Elaine Tyler May‘s analysis of the implications of the famous 1959 ―Kitchen Debate‖ in Homeward Bound: American Families in the Cold War Era (New York: Basic Books, 1988), 13. 2

A Foundation of Historiography: Homeward Bound An examination of gender in postwar America would be critically incomplete without an understanding of Elaine Tyler May‘s 1988 seminal work Homeward Bound: American Families in the Cold War Era. Scholars, whether praising her work or criticizing it, extensively refer to May‘s work as a foundational piece of scholarship.5 Coming out of the decade in which the study of women‘s history developed, May‘s book set out to investigate the anomalous period after World War II when it seemed women retreated to their homes after participating in the labor force during the war years. She explains that after the war, Americans were ―homeward bound‖ – they turned to the ideal of the American nuclear family as an expression of safety and security during the politically anxious time.6 Addressing this sudden revival of domesticity in the country, May suggested her significant theory of ―domestic containment.‖ Looking inward, May explains, American families sought protection and safety during the Cold War. The constant anxiety of perceived Soviet threat weighed heavily on Americans and a return to ―traditional‖ gender roles – mother in the home and father at work – represented a modicum of stability in this insecure period. 7 May further connected her theory of domestic containment with the political atmosphere of the time as she investigated the famous ―Kitchen Debate‖ of 1959. At the American National Exhibition in Moscow, United State Vice President Richard Nixon used the image of the ―typical‖ American housewife to defend and promote the virtues of American capitalism to Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev. 8 Thanks to America‘s lucrative capitalist system, May explains, the nation‘s women were free from the drudgery of the labor force and able to stay home ―cultivat[ing] their looks and their physical charms, to become sexually attractive housewives and consumers…‖9 May concludes that by seeking security at home, American families were actively participating in the nation‘s containment movement during the Cold War.

5 Scholars both praise and criticize May‘s work. Her work weaving together the resurgence of domesticity and the anxiety of the Cold War is pivotal to many discussions of the unique atmosphere of the postwar years. Beth Bailey, Joanne Meyerowitz, William H. Chafe, and Mathew Frye Jacobson are only a few of the scholars that acknowledge May‘s work as a foundational piece of postwar gender historiography. 6 May, Homeward Bound, ix-xxvi. 7 Ibid., 10-29. Historian Joanne Meyerwitz also draws on May‘s argument for ―containment‖ theory in her groundbreaking anthology, Not June Cleaver. 8 It is important to realize that ―typical,‖ ―normal,‖ and other words that attempt to describe women collectively during this period often refer only to white, middle-class women. 9 May, Homeward Bound, 13. This section of May‘s argument in particular, illustrates the rhetoric utilized by the media and politicians to compare and contrast the lives of American women against those of Soviet women. 3

Again, May‘s work is critical to an understanding of postwar gender scholarship. Historians and other scholars often cite her theory of containment as evidentiary support of their own theories or draw attention to May as a counterpoint to new ones.10 May herself acknowledged her work‘s most damaging limitation – the nearly exclusive discussion of white, middle-class families, but defends the use of her sources as examples of what was perpetuated as the social norm during the period. Be it praise or criticism, a conversation regarding May‘s Homeward Bound is a crucial element in postwar gender scholarship‘s historiography.

Appealing to Rosie: Advertising to the Postwar Woman As previously mentioned, the period following the Great Depression and World War II was one of the most prosperous times in American history. The sheer volume of consumer goods produced and purchased during the postwar period has attracted scholars of many fields. Why this sudden consumer boom? Many scholars address the characteristics of this unique period in their discussions of American history, US gender history, and in histories of advertising in America. Two scholars in particular, Juliann Sivulka and Daniel Delis Hill, present thorough investigations of the postwar period‘s advertising climate and the effects these advertisements had on the nation‘s women. Professor of American Studies Juliann Sivulka explains in her book, Soap, Sex, and Cigarettes: A Cultural History of American Advertising, that men and women were ready to break away from the patterns of thrift and self-denial that had been instilled in them since the Great Depression.11 The years immediately following WWII saw unprecedented amounts of consumer activity in America. Increased income and governmental supports (New Deal policies) encouraged Americans to invest in their country through purchases. The new American had a ―work-to-consume‖ goal.12 Manufacturers were quick to recognize the desire Americans had for goods and changed their marketing strategies ―shift[ing] their emphasis from selling people what they happened to make to producing what people would buy.‖13 Advertisers

10 Meyerowitz‘s compilation Not June Cleaver is an example of an attempt to reconstruct an image of the postwar American woman that is not based within the limiting characteristics of white and middle-class. 11Sivulka, Soap, Sex, and Cigarettes, 241. See also, Susan J. Douglas, Where the Girls Are: Growing Up Female with the Mass Media (New York: Times Books, 1994), 18. 12 May, Homeward Bound, 146-147. 13 Sivulka, Soap, Sex, and Cigarettes, 243. 4 followed this shift in technique and began appealing to the ideal image of the American family— unrealistic roles that Americans would struggle to imitate.14 Sivulka‘s analysis also presents a practical approach to the study of postwar advertisements through the use of a timeline. The end of World War II up to 1953 Sivulka described as a period of ―catching up‖ from wartime scarcity. 1954 and beyond, she explains, was rife with consumption for consumption‘s sake. By the middle of this decade, advertisers had successfully inundated Americans with the message that consumption was a right of their national citizenship. American capitalism – distinguished from Soviet communism – provided Americans with the good things in life and advertisers profited from the proliferation of this message. A wonderful complement to Sivulka‘s cultural study of American advertisements is Daniel Delis Hill‘s examination of over 20,000 advertising images of the 20th century. Advertising to the American Woman 1900-1990 adds a significant amount of content analysis to more theoretical discussions of postwar advertising. His analysis is further strengthened by his commanding knowledge of the history of the period with regards to women and their changing places in society. He explains that advertisers acknowledged that women‘s buying power during this period skyrocketed. They were not only responsible for making purchases for themselves and the household, they were also often responsible for purchasing products intended for men.15 Hill examines advertisements with this information in mind as well as the understanding that advertisers—a group dominated by men—were not interested in, nor were they reflecting an image of reality in their work. Instead, they utilized deliberate strategies, including appealing to women‘s identities as American wives and mothers, to sell an ideal. From childhood, he explains, advertisers instructed girls in the ways to be acceptable wives and mothers. It was important for advertisers to develop emotional relationships with women as a consumer group in order to secure future brand loyalty.16 There seemed to be no better way of developing those long-lasting relationships than by reassuring women that through the use of certain products they were not only performing as good wives and mother, but also as respectable American citizens in

14 Ibid., 253. 15 Daniel Delis Hill, Advertising to the American Woman 1900-1990 (Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 2002), 15. 16 Ibid., 211. 5 a time of political anxiety. Advertisers, in a period of overwhelming consumerism, played a pivotal role in expressing those messages.

Advertising Wedded Bliss: From Girl to Wife An important part of ideal postwar woman was that she be married. After all, one could not be a successful American housewife without first being a wife. Researchers have done intriguing work examining the use of bridal imagery and rhetoric in advertising from this period. From teen magazines instructing high school girls about how to get engaged before graduation to women‘s magazines teaching housewives to keep their husbands coming home at night, one thing was clear: ―Mrs.‖ was a life-long goal, not just a title. Perhaps one of the most intriguing, well-received books discussing women and media advertising is Susan J. Douglas‘s Where the Girls Are: Growing Up Female in the Mass Media. In this informative, often funny, discussion, Douglas, a professor of media studies, discusses the changing messages women received from the mass media. Self-admittedly in a love/hate relationship with these messages, Douglas uses her biting wit and humor to analyze ways in which the media affected women, but she also explores the tenuous relationship between women and the media. She does not believe women were merely victims of the mass media‘s attempts to define their lives, but were instead constantly engaged with a dialogue – both despising the messages and buying into them.17 Douglas spends much of her time criticizing magazines and their insistence that girls‘ only goal was to be married. In addition to magazines, however, she also analyzes television shows to illustrate her argument. One of her many humorous examples of this is her analysis of the 1959 Father Knows Best episode ―Betty‘s Career Problem.‖ In this episode, Betty finds herself in constant competition with schoolmate, Cliff Bowman. Both apply to a retail store‘s assistant merchandise buyer position. Cliff explains to Betty that she should not get her hopes up because companies do not like to hire ―pretty girls‖ for career positions since they will only marry and leave the company. The interviewer who hires Cliff on the spot reiterates this position to Betty. Instead, the interviewer offers Betty a modeling job, which she accepts. The episode concludes with Betty and Cliff modeling wedding attire and Betty deciding she would not pursue the job. Instead she had found something to do that she would always be better at than Cliff, ―be

17 Douglas, Where the Girls Are, 3-20. 6 a bride.‖ Douglas‘s examination is biting and ends with a comment about ―predictable swill.‖18 Despite the humor of Douglas‘s writing, it is clear that her work proves thought provoking to a multi-disciplinary audience. Attacking bridal imagery and marriage in advertisements more head on, historians Vicki Howard and Katherine Jellison present impressive research in their books, Brides, Inc.: American Weddings and the Business of Tradition and It’s Our Day: America’s Love Affair with the White Wedding, 1945-2005, respectively. Howard‘s 2006 monograph takes a critical look at the wedding industry in the United States and dissects the origins of many wedding traditions. She explains that advertisers, wedding professionals, and the media have successfully transformed the ritual of a wedding into a consumer rite of passage.19 Her interest in gender history is also relevant in her study as she explores how the transformation of the wedding into an ordeal defined by consumption caused the wedding industry to practically excommunicate men from the event.20 This analysis of gender divisions and also Howard‘s utilization of Eric Hobsbawm‘s theory of invented tradition gives Brides, Inc. solid footing within the historiography of advertising and gender in postwar America. In 2008, Jellison added her book to the discussion of advertising, weddings, and postwar America. Her contribution discusses similar issues to Howard‘s book, including the inventedness of tradition, but Jellison makes some of her best scholarly assertions in her analysis of class status and the white wedding in postwar America. She explains that during her period of study, certain ideas regarding race, gender, and class shifted and the inherent meaning of the white wedding shifted with them.21 Jellison uses her study to trace a pattern of class-status assertion through the consumption-riddled history of the white wedding tradition. She explains that World War II created a massive boom of white weddings as advertisers began to connect images of white-clad brides with notions of patriotism and national success.22 The unique postwar economy, she argues, as well as the production of synthetic fabrics, created an atmosphere that was particularly receptive to the notion that every bride could and should be a white-clad bride on her wedding

18 Ibid., 37-38. 19 Vicki Howard, Brides, Inc.: American Weddings and the Business of Tradition (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2006), 143. 20 Ibid. 21 Katherine Jellison, It’s Our Day: America’s Love Affair with the White Wedding, 1945-2005 (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2008), 5. 22 Ibid., 8-9. 7 day.23 She also characterizes the white wedding as an image that was used by advertisers to denote middle-class status. The postwar period saw an expansion in the boundaries of middle- class status as more and more families were climbing the economic ladder. Jellison points out that an elaborate wedding became a ritual that firmly signaled one‘s place on the middle-class rung of that ladder.24

From Wife to Mother: Advertising Motherly Love Advertisers made it their business to instruct women along the stages of their lives. White-clad brides walked down the aisle girls, but would walk back American housewives bringing with them unprecedented levels of consumer power and national responsibility. Advertisers would continue to shift their techniques to appeal to these new wives and mothers. In this time of political and social instability, advertisers ferociously appealed to women‘s sense of national identity and role as nurturer of the family. Dangling the image of the perfectly loving American mother, advertisers successfully reeled many women into advertising campaigns for the one product that would always show a mother‘s love – food. Two authors in particular have made generous contributions to the scholarly discussion of food being advertised as the best way to show one‘s love for her family. Jessamyn Neuhaus‘s Manly Meals and Mom’s Home Cooking: Cookbooks and Gender in Modern America and Katherine Parkin‘s Food Is Love: Food Advertising and Gender Roles in Modern America present well-researched investigations of how the adage ―the way to a man‘s heart is through his stomach‖ took on new levels of importance during the postwar years. Neuhaus‘s 2003 book distinctly linked the importance of a good home-cooked meal to the security of the nation. She explains that in the Cold War years of America‘s history, the security of the nation was wrapped up in the security of the family because of the period‘s resurgence of traditional gender roles. Because of this, she contends that advertisers and cookbook authors implored women to present their husbands and children with satisfying meals in an attempt to solidify a happy family life.25 Neuhaus also builds her analysis with a discussion of the rise in middle-class status during the period. She explains that in a time when it became

23 Ibid., 3. 24 Ibid., 3-4. 25 Jessamyn Neuhaus, Manly Meals and Mom’s Home Cooking: Cookbooks and Gender in Modern America (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2003), 218-227. 8 increasingly important for a family to actively assert their class status, preparing hearty meals with the latest techniques (namely using newly developing packaged and convenience foods) allowed families another outlet for middle-class status assertion.26 In 2006, Parkin published her monograph that is more directly focused on the way in which advertisers used messages of love to create lucrative food advertising campaigns. Through her investigation of primary and careful analysis of secondary sources, Parkin traces a pattern of sameness through the advertising industry—a component unique to her study. Parkin demonstrates that while women‘s position and roles in society were changing rapidly throughout the postwar period, food advertisers ignored those changes and opted to instead advertise a single image—the ideal image of a stay-at-home housewife.27 Parkin rounds out her discussion of food advertisements with a grounded understanding that the image presented was merely that, an image. She is critical of the tactics the male- dominated advertising industry took to make sure women received a message that equated their cooking abilities with their abilities as wives and mothers. Finally, Parkin acknowledges the many attempts in food advertisements to connect certain foods with a specifically American way of life. Through these attempts, she explains, ―[advertisers] sought to shape an understanding of gender that left women with sole responsibility for feeding men and children, and equated that duty with love, citizenship, and womanhood.‖28

The Protective Mother: Fortifying the Home As important as providing a loving home, filled with eatable happiness, so too was it necessary to provide a safe and secure home. Especially during this time of political and social anxiety, a safe home was an important retreat. Suellen Hoy explains in her 1995 monograph Chasing Dirt: The American Pursuit of Cleanliness that a national obsession with keeping the home clean and safe reached a fever pitch during the 1950s.29 Hoy examines the period with regard to its unprecedented consumerism. Examining consumption patterns—including the levels of electricity that increased to run all of the appliances purchased during this period—Hoy

26 Ibid., 168. 27 Katherine J. Parkin, Food Is Love: Food Advertising and Gender Roles in Modern America (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2006), 10. 28 Ibid., 222. 29 Suellen Hoy, Chasing Dirt: The Pursuit of Cleanliness in America (New York: Oxford University Press, 1995), 151-152. 9 concludes that the postwar Mrs. Consumer figuratively and literally bought into a ―culture of cleanliness.‖ Hoy‘s study rests on the shoulders of scholars that came before her to examine the relatively ignored topic of women‘s unpaid labor. In 1982, Susan Strasser‘s Never Done: A History of American Housework opened the field to scholars like Hoy who would come after her. Strasser‘s groundbreaking analysis examines the Progressive Era in America‘s history closely. During this period, she explains, the growth of the country, rising consumerism, and an increase in the role of experts all led to a heightened concern about cleanliness within the home. The common know-how of the housewife was no longer enough. Instead, housewives needed to seek out the instruction of professionals.30 We see this trend continue into the postwar years as advertisers expect housewives to look to their advertisements for advice. Strasser‘s book was quickly followed by Ruth Schwartz Cowan‘s More Work for Mother: The Ironies of Household Technology from the Open Hearth to the Microwave. Published in 1983, Cowan‘s analysis takes a critical look at the ―conveniences‖ that were supposedly available to American women at different times in history. She explains that as technology made certain tasks easier, the time and energy saved from those tasks shifted to other tasks. In other words, women may have not had to work as hard on a certain task, but they would work just as hard, if not harder on the whole. She explains that postwar women found themselves as busy, if not busier with household chores than their mothers.31 How could this be? With the increased amount of ―time-saving‖ and ―convenient‖ cleaning appliances and household aids, how could these women be working this hard? The answer, it seemed, was simple. Whatever time was saved by the convenience of appliances was filled by the need to do more to keep the home clean and safe. Now, instead of doing laundry once a week, advertisers encouraged women to throw in a load each day. Family members began to be less discriminatory about what needed to find its way to the washer, which led to laundry every day for Mom. With an understanding of these scholars‘ work as well as the importance of the Progressive Era with regards to cleanliness as a characteristic of a secure home, we can better understand how advertisers utilized images of a sparklingly clean home to target postwar housewives. In order to keep their families safe and protected from within, as May suggests was

30 Susan Strasser, Never Done: A History of American Housework (New York: Pantheon Books, 1982), 7. 31 Ruth Schwartz Cowan, More Work for Mother: The Ironies of Household Technology from the Open Hearth to the Microwave (New York: Basic Books, 1983), 192-193. 10 characteristic of home life during this period, the postwar housewife had to be diligent in the battle that raged in her own home. Dust bunnies and soap scum could not undermine her attempts to create a cocoon of security for her family during this time of national instability.

Conclusion: Examining Shifts and Filling in Gaps The scholarship concerning the postwar period and its atmosphere for the nation‘s women is filled with thorough and interesting research. Drawing connections and conclusions about women‘s sense of fulfillment and citizenship through advertisements, however, falls into the many pitfalls of using cultural sources. It is important to realize that cultural material, in this case magazines, project an image—not a reality. We can only glean from these sources what those who created them wished to express about the period. It is also incredibly difficult, if not impossible to gather information regarding how consumers received these advertisements. Just because a housewife subscribed to Ladies’ Home Journal did not necessarily mean she wished to imitate every image inside. As scholars, it is important that we understand the level of speculation involved in this type of examination and balance that with diligent research and a genuine interest in the reality of the period. Some authors are making their contributions to the period‘s historiography by exploring the untold stories of postwar women. Not all women were happy housewives whose most pressing decision was to make a Jell-O mold or a Hearts of Palm Salad. Two well-read and impressive contributions to this topic that seek to fill gaps in the historiography are William H. Chafe‘s The Paradox of Change: American Women in the 20th Century and Joanne Meyerowitz‘s anthology Not June Cleaver: Women and Gender in Postwar America, 1945-1960. Building on his 1972 study of American Women, Chafe explores the growing presence of women in the work force in this 1991 publication. He argues that cultural norms that generally define the time left no room for those women who were not stay-at-home housewives. In an attempt to correct this oversight, Chafe investigates the statistics regarding women‘s growing place in the workplace after World War II. He reminds readers that ―not only was the revolution in female employment continuing, it was also spearheaded by the same middle-class wives and mothers who allegedly had found new contentment in domesticity.‖32

32 Chafe, The Paradox of Change, 189. 11

In an effort to revise the ―tenacious stereotype‖ that postwar women in America happily retreated to their kitchens after the Second World War, Meyerowitz has collected essays that support a different image of American women during this period. Drawing on the academic research of historians, sociologists, and anthropologists, Meyerowitz is able to present a well- rounded argument that not all women during the postwar period were white, middle-class suburbanites. This compilation proves important for the fleshing out of this period‘s research for two reasons. First, the self-proclaimed ―revisionist‖ effort by Meyerowitz is supported by a multidisciplinary group of contributors who also insist on the need to fill the historiographical gap.33 Also, the unique nature of an anthology allows researchers to examine different discussions and findings from many scholars in one source. Setting all of these works up next to one another strengthens Meyerowitz‘s lofty project. As is evident from these final authors, the understanding of a historic topic is constantly growing and shifting. The examination of advertisements and how they spoke to women during the postwar years in America is no different. While we may think we understand the experiences of the Rosies and June Cleavers, history shows us that we can never know it all. All we can do is continue investigating, questioning, and exploring—things that the scholars herein have done effectively. The chapters that follow aim to continue this pattern of investigation and analysis as I explore how advertisers spoke to women differently through the varying stages of their lives. As is evident, these stages—bride, wife, and mother—were often not the clear, cookie-cutter images that these magazine advertisements portray. Indeed, not all women during this period followed this pattern, but the ideal image perpetuated by advertisers did. The following chapters explore the image of the middle-class, white housewife as advertisers married her off, encouraged her to be a beautiful wife, and taught her to be a loving, protective mother. My analysis aims to explore not only how these advertisements reflect the booming economy, but also how the advertisements—as well as many other aspects of life during the period—were affected by a looming culture of Cold War anxiety.

33 Meyerowitz, Not June Cleaver, 2-5. 12

CHAPTER TWO WEDDING IN WHITE

On a hot July day in Tecumseh, Michigan, seventeen-year-old Lois Merrick walked down the aisle of the Tecumseh Eagles Lodge to her eagerly awaiting groom, twenty-six-year-old John Bame. Engaged for over a year, the couple married on July 17, 1954, in a delightful white wedding. In an interview nearly fifty-seven years after that July afternoon, the bride reminisced about the event, ―I wanted a nice wedding…I would have liked to have been in a church, but [the Lodge] was big and you could dance, so it was nice.‖ Explaining that her father belonged to the Eagles Lodge, Lois conceded that she would have preferred a more traditional ceremony in a church; however, she understood the financial benefits of having the ceremony and reception at her father‘s club. Lois and John both continued with descriptions of her dress, the multi-tiered cake, and of course her three-stone diamond engagement ring. ―It wasn‘t a big one, but it was what I could afford,‖ John interjected as Lois cheerfully described the ring he presented to her on Easter the year before. There was ―a diamond in the center and one on each side,‖ she continued. Lois went on to explain how that Easter Sunday she wore it to her church‘s breakfast service ―to show it off to everybody.‖ At this point in the interview, John took a step back to sit quietly while his bride of nearly six decades continued her recollection of their wedding day. 34 ―I don‘t remember what my brothers were doing while we were getting married, probably running around, [and] I don‘t remember the food—only the cake.‖ Lois explained that in another money-saving endeavor a family friend baked the cake for their wedding: ―it was white […] and she made the three layers like I wanted.‖ Lois‘s descriptions of what she did and did not remember may be attributed to the six decades between then and now; however, her vivid

34 Lois and John Bame, personal interview by author, Jan 29, 2011. 13

Figure 2.1 Bame-Merrick Wedding, July 17, 1954 Left to Right: Maid of Honor Mary Robinson, Lois Merrick, John Bame, Best Man Russell Wilsey (Author‘s collection)

Figure 2.2 Figure 2.3 Bame-Merrick Cake Cutting, Bame-Merrick Wedding Gifts, July 17, 1954 July 17, 1954

(Author‘s collection) (Author‘s collection)

14 memories of specific elements of her experience may be indicative of how important it was to her that she and John marry in a white wedding.35 As was custom, her family paid for and arranged the wedding ceremony. Ever balancing a line between the working and middle class, Lois‘s family owned a grocery store, but relied on all of the family‘s labor to run it. However, by owning their own business, the Merrick family held tighter to the middle-class rung of society than the working class. Their white wedding became a material expression of their status. Scholars explain that large white weddings were key rituals of middle-class life.36 Throwing an affair for ―about a hundred or so‖ would have solidified her family‘s unquestionably middle-class status in the community.37 Scholars of business, advertising, women‘s history, and consumerism take considerable interest in the so-called ―tradition‖ of the American white wedding in recent decades. Delving into the history of many of our culture‘s traditional wedding rituals, these scholars have created a narrative that makes one wonder, how traditional are our ―traditions‖?38 In an effort to answer this question, these scholars weave a historiographical narrative that analyzes the ―invented‖ nature of these customs as well as their links to class status. Positing that the American white wedding tradition became a consumer rite of passage during a period of economic growth in the country‘s history, scholars examine the postwar period especially when insisting that the white wedding represented an assertion of distinctly middle-class status more than a time-honored traditional ritual. Wedding ―experts,‖ etiquette aficionados, and the advertising industry relentlessly pursued this connection between the white wedding and the upwardly mobile aspirations of middle-class status. Images of the bride in her pure white glory were used to advertise not only for a blossoming wedding industry, but also for items that were connected to middle-class living (life insurance, appliances, etc.). Magazines, one of the most popular forms of media in the postwar period, featured numerous advertisements that relied on the white-clad bride to sell products. Beyond bridal magazines, where one would expect the onslaught of bridal imagery,

35 Ibid. 36 Cele C. Otnes and Elizabeth H. Pleck, Cinderella Dreams: The Allure of the Lavish Wedding (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003), 49. 37 Bame, personal interview, January 29, 2011. 38 Throughout this paper, the term ―tradition‖ will be used in a way that represents the ―invented‖ traditions of our culture unless otherwise noted. For more on the ―inventedness‖ of tradition, see Eric Hobsbawm, The Invention of Tradition, eds. Eric Hobsbawm and Terence Ranger (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1992). 15 teen and women‘s magazines embraced the postwar American bride and all she had come to represent. The connection between the white- clad bride and middle-class status became so

Figure 2.4 Dominion Deep Fryer and Cooker Ladies’ Home Journal June 1953

concrete that the white wedding transitioned from a material assertion of middle-class aspiration to a required element of one‘s position within that class. This study focuses on advertisements that appeared in June (popularly referred to as ―wedding month‖) editions of four women‘s and teen magazines: Harper’s Bazaar, Ladies’ Home Journal, Seventeen, and Mademoiselle. Tracing the advertising patters from these monthly issues from 1950 to 1959, this examination seeks to analyze the advertising messages

16 associated with weddings during a complete decade of the postwar period.39

The Big White Ball Gets Rolling: World War II and White Weddings Many scholars attribute the beginning of the white wedding to Queen Victoria‘s wedding to Prince Albert in 1840.40 Royal and upper-class women before Victoria often chose rich, vibrant colors for their wedding gowns as signs of wealth. However Victoria, valuing the ideal of sexual purity, chose to wed her cousin in the color most closely associated with chastity— white. Magazines and other sources went on to describe ―the white Spitalfield satin of [her]

Figure 2.5 Queen Victoria and Prince Albert Wedding, February 10, 1840 Buckingham Palace

39 The collections of Seventeen and Mademoiselle were not complete for this time period, so I used images from other months as well as the June editions that were available. All advertisements include publication information including journal, month, and year of publication. Those not fully recreated in the text also include page numbers. This form of citation will continue throughout this thesis. 40 Otnes and Pleck, Cinderella Dreams, 30. See also Vicki Howard, Brides, Inc, 157. 17 dress, the handmade Honiton lace, [and] the orange blossoms in her hair.‖41 Eager to replicate the beauty of this royal union, upper-class brides in the late nineteenth century adopted the white wedding gown, thus the popular white wedding was born. While Victoria popularized the white gown, it was definitely the exception and not the standard of wedding attire before World War II. 42 Modest standards of living and the Great Depression often necessitated small civil ceremonies in attire that could be worn again. In fact, many wedding dresses before World War II were black, as they were also suitable for funerals and other obligatory affairs. However, the Second World War quickly changed attitudes about how couples should wed. Historian Elaine Tyler May points out that ―those who came of age during and after World War II were the most marrying generation on record: 96.4 percent of the women and 94.1 percent of the men.‖43 The heightened desire to wed before men were shipped away to war, rising wartime incomes, as well as increased advertising that linked marriage to wartime goals all added to the popularity of white formal weddings during World War II.44 While not always possible because of quickly planned weddings due to military service, author of All Dressed in White: The Irresistible Rise of the American White Wedding Carol McD. Wallace explains, ―the white dress hovered as the standard to be achieved if possible.‖45 The importance of the ―traditional‖ white wedding to the war efforts of World War II was solidified when the War Production Board‘s 1942 L-85 guidelines limiting the use of fabric during wartime exempted wedding gowns from its restrictions. Fearing that the newly establishing bridal industry would be snuffed out by wartime hardships, members of the Association of Bridal Manufacturers insisted that white weddings were too important for national morale to be subject to such rationing. They pleaded with the WPB and congress insisting that ―American boys are going off to war and what are they fighting for except the privilege of getting married in a traditional way? They‘re fighting for our way of life, and this is part of our way of life and the government is taking it away.‖46 Historian Katherine Jellison examines this victory of the group saying, ―By invoking ‗tradition‘ to justify its exemption from wartime

41 Otnes and Pleck, Cinderella Dreams, 32. 42 Image location: Good Housekeeping, ―10 Unforgettable Royal Weddings,‖ http://www.goodhousekeeping.com/family/celebrity/memorable-royal-weddings#fbIndex1. 43 May, Homeward Bound, 14. 44 Jellison, It’s Our Day 8-9. 45 Carol McD. Wallace, All Dressed in White: The Irresistible Rise of the American White Wedding (New York: Penguin Books, 2004), 149. See also Jellison, It’s Our Day, 11. 46 Kitty Hanson, For Richer, For Poorer (Abeland: Schumann, 1967), 114. 18 restrictions, the association actually promoted a new cultural norm.‖47 Jellison goes on to explain that this event legitimized the white wedding as an ―invented tradition.‖48 Many scholars of this topic lean on the well-known ―invented tradition‖ theory of historian Eric Hobsbawm. Hobsbawm explains in the introduction of his edited work The Invention of Tradition that ―‗traditions‘ which appear or claim to be old are often quite recent in origin and sometimes invented.‖49 He goes on to explain that through repetition, these traditions seek links to the past to inculcate their existence with meaning.50 With newly-infused sentiments of patriotism and a clear connection with middle-class status, the white wedding grew in popularity. Lavish white weddings went from the desire of those aspiring to middle class to ―the standard for every bride.‖51

A White Wedding for All Brides: The Rise of the Middle Class The postwar period of American history was a time of unprecedented prosperity for the country. With that prosperity came a steady rise in the standard of living for most Americans. The boundaries of the desired ―middle-class‖ level of society began to expand and more American citizens were rapidly attaining middle-class incomes.52 Rising incomes, along with the production of synthetic fabrics after the war, made the dream of an opulent white ceremony more affordable to more brides than ever before.53 In her survey of the history of white weddings in America, Wallace explains that the simplification of the dress‘s production and the rising standard of living during the postwar period ―turned the gown from a garment into a symbol, by making it available at any price point to every girl who wanted to have her princess moment.‖54 It must be noted, however, that the notion of ―every‖ girl was often limited to white, middle- class girls during this period. Growing by more than a million households a year, the American middle-class embraced the white wedding as a distinct emblem of their economic station.55 As the Merrick family was

47 Jellison, It’s Our Day, 67-68. 48 Ibid. 49 Eric Hobsbawm, ―Introduction: Inventing Traditions,‖ in The Invention of Tradition, eds. Eric Hobsbawm and Terence Ranger (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1992), 1. 50 Ibid., 1-2. 51 Wallace, All Dressed in White, 157. 52 Sivulka, Soap, Sex, and Cigarettes, 241-242. 53 Jellison, It’s Our Day, 3. 54 Wallace, All Dressed in White, 198. 55 Jellsion, It’s Our Day, 18. 19 successfully able to put on an affair for ―a hundred or so‖ guests, other middle-class families during America‘s postwar years used lavish weddings as a way to display that they had achieved a certain level of material and economic success.56 Journalist and cultural critic Marcia Seligson summed up the connection between class status and weddings:

It‘s all about MAKING IT. Making, it, that is, in the American sense of being able to acquire GOODS, showing off POSSESSIONS, upward mobility on the THING scale, asserting your escalating status to your friends with SYMBOLS. […] The concept, of course, is strictly middle-class American, where the structure is always fluid, the challenge is to rise and rise, and the possibilities are seemingly limitless.57

Many historians and other scholars also allude to the specifically commercial nature of the white wedding. Insisting that the white wedding was the threshold through which a couple passed into a married life of consumerism, Seligson goes on to say, ―In America, newlyweds are being prepared for their roles in a consumer society, so it is surely appropriate that all of the dynamics of wedding hoo-hah testify to these commercial, mercantile terms. […] The American wedding is a ritual event of ferocious, gluttonous consuming, a debauch of intensified buying, never again to be repeated in the life of an American couple.‖58 While not always to this extreme, other scholars certainly share Seligson‘s assertion that the white wedding became a characteristic element of the consumer culture that defined the postwar period. Consumption is ―a socially embedded and embodied phenomenon,‖ sociologist Sharon Boden explains in her examination of opulent British weddings, ―put to use […] as a means of social display […] as a strategy in the power games of competing social groups.‖59 Historian Vicki Howard goes as far to assert that the ―new standard of consumption itself became tradition.‖60 The ―fluid‖ nature Seligson refers to illustrates another interesting characteristic about these lavish events. While advertisers recommended many traditions and rituals, the postwar American bride was able (if not forced) to pick and choose which parts to incorporate in her big day. Like the Merrick family, many families (middle-class or otherwise) still could not afford to have every element of the white wedding carried out in the way that advertisers and experts

56 Ibid., 17. 57 Marcia Seligson, The Eternal Bliss Machine: America’s Way of Wedding (New York: William Morrow & Company, Inc., 1973), 14, original emphasis. 58 Ibid., 6-7. 59 Sharon Boden, Consumerism, Romance and the Wedding Experience (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003), 4. 60 Howard, Brides, Inc., 178, emphasis added. 20 prescribed. Instead, they incorporated homemade elements: cakes baked by friends or invitations addressed by hand. One element however, the dress, was necessary for the all important white wedding. Armed with an indispensable image of the white gown, advertisers and etiquette experts developed what would become a $70 billion bridal industry.61 These leaders of the bridal world would inundate brides with the many ―do‘s‖ and ―don‘ts‖ of the white wedding tradition.

Building the Business: Wedding Professionals and Etiquette Experts ―It was from J.C. Penney, I think, oh no, not J.C. Penney. It was from Montgomery Ward. It was nice, though, and it was new.‖62 Lois‘s appreciation for a new dress was indicative of the postwar period. During this period, advertisers and the growing bridal industry relentlessly promoted the necessity of a brand new white wedding dress for each bride. As the white wedding gained popularity, a distinct group of professionals associated with specific services developed. Caterers, florists, etiquette experts, and bridal gown manufacturers happily accepted an authoritarian role in establishing the proper way to execute a lavish affair. ―Just as a wedding had been a kind of apotheosis in the Victorian era, so it was again in postwar America—only this time around, […] every girl could be a bride in white.‖63 Jellison looks to the creation of special bridal services in department stores back in the 1930s as the beginning of the specialized bridal service trade.64 This trend of professionalization would continue throughout the postwar period culminating to the creation of the National Bridal Service in 1951 and the development of bridal ―consultants‖ and ―secretaries‖ in the early 1950s.65 These experts of the bridal industry greatly discouraged a new bride from wearing a dress that had been handed down to her from someone else. Employing sentimental rhetoric, the bridal industry insisted that every bride was unique and special and, as such, she deserved her very own, personally-selected gown.66 The development of the tradition of the once-worn long, white wedding gown secured a solid position within the industry for bridal fashion producers,

61 Jellison, It’s Our Day, 5. 62 Lois Bame, telephone interview by author, February 25, 2011. 63 Wallace, All Dressed in White, 158. 64 Jellison, It’s Our Day, 65. 65 Howard, Brides, Inc., 154. See also Jellison, It’s Our Day, 21-22. 66 Wallace, All Dressed in White, 183. 21 who unlike caterers and florists, could not exist without steady demand for their products from brides.67 The wedding gown‘s lack of utility and its extravagant expense helped define it as a symbol of bridal tradition. Drawing from Hobsbawm‘s scholarship, Wallace writes, ―It‘s when an object loses its real-life utility that it‘s free to take on traditional meaning. The less a wedding dress resembles current fashion, the more emphatic its bridal significance.‖68 Bridal fashion producers now had the challenge of fulfilling the demand they had created at prices that would draw lucrative middle-class consumers. Alfred Piccione is often credited with developing a profitable way to create custom gowns at affordable prices. His brand of dress (later Alfred Angelo) brought the luxurious feel of a custom gown, once only attained by the upper class, to middle-class brides throughout the country.69 Now that women were rejecting used dresses, the problem of what to do with one‘s dress after the wedding day needed to be addressed. Another conspicuously consumption-driven endeavor developed. The new service, aptly named ―heirlooming,‖ promised to preserve the bride‘s gown in an effort that she might be able to pass such a cherished item down to her daughter one day. Not only was the process successfully added to the list of things on the wedding budget, but it also, itself, developed into a tradition.70

Figure 2.6 Imperial Dyeing & Cleaning Company

Harper’s Bazaar June 1958

67 Jellison, It’s Our Day, 67. See also Howard, Brides, Inc., 141. 68 Wallace, All Dressed in White, 182. 69 Jellison, It’s Our Day, 67. 70 Howard, Brides, Inc., 171. 22

Heritage Traditions Laboratories received thousands of dresses each year for what they called ―restoration,‖ a process Seligson describes as one in which ―a dress is, in effect, embalmed for posterity—cleaned by a special ultrasonic process that guarantees preservation for a hundred years. It is then put to sleep in a container whose resemblance to a coffin is impossible to overlook.‖71 Brides readily sought the advice of bridal etiquette experts on the style of their dress. Professionals often influenced the hue of white, the length, cut and fabric of the dress. Emily Post‘s Etiquette: The Blue Book of Social Usage advocated the importance of these details as well as noted how details changed over time. Containing expansive sections about the bridal gown, both the 1950 and 1957 editions of Etiquette explain the importance of selecting the most appropriate dress. The only place that these nearly identical editions differ in content regarding the wedding gown is the extended 1957 piece that includes details regarding fabric choices: ―In addition to satin, other materials suitable for autumn and midwinter weddings, are faille velvet, and moiré antique. In the spring, lace and taffeta. In midsummer, chiffon, organdy, mousseline de soie.‖72 This change in the text not only represents the enlarging fabric selection available, but also the desire for detailed advice from socially-conscious brides. Advertisers and experts stressed the importance of the perfect white dress to a point that encouraged brides to seek them out for advice. However, ―the problem is that seeking help and advice from anywhere within the wedding industry leads in one direction only: toward more.‖73 ―[Bridal professionals‘] expertise in all matters bridal was what made them authorities, and it was their authority that made them effective salespeople.‖74 Using that authority, wedding experts advised brides in issues beyond the gown. Caterers and other vendors became important elements of a lavish matrimonial event. Wallace remarks about the extravagant nature of the wedding as it developed into the 1950s and 1960s stating ―[it] became a logistical feat involving a set of vendors.‖75 What used to be an event with homemade dinners and cakes was now an event riddled with caterers and bakers. Etiquette manuals and caterers started to encourage not just one large cake, but two cakes at each wedding. One cake, the more extravagant of the two

71 Seligson, Eternal Bliss Machine, 125. 72 Emily Post, Etiquette: The Blue Book of Social Usage (New York: Funk & Wagnalls Company, 1957), 205. Also, Emily Post, Etiquette: The Blue Book of Social Usage (New York: Funk & Wagnalls Company, 1950). 73 Wallace, All Dressed in White, 287, original emphasis. 74 Ibid., 193. 75 Ibid., 192. 23 with multiple tiers, would be preserved for a cake cutting ―ritual,‖ while a larger sheet cake would be appropriately boxed up for guests to take home. Howard criticizes the ―traditional‖ nature of this ritual specifically saying: ―the fact that etiquette experts had to explain these customs suggests that they were spreading to those unfamiliar with the ‗tradition‘ and that perhaps caterers had a hand in their construction.‖76 All of these added elements seemingly caused an increased need for advice. As Emily Post‘s example illustrated, experts constantly reprinted new editions with updated information. Who paid for what, who escorted whom, and who stood where all were important questions that brides sought answers for and those answers changed over time. Acknowledging the fleeting nature of their advice through numerous reprints and new editions, Howard comments that etiquette authors only further supported their authority and continued to insist on the need for their advice.77 As the postwar period continued, ―more and more brides began to choose the large over the small, the public over the private, [and] the professionally done over the homemade.‖78 As the professionalization, specialization, and extravagance of the white wedding increased, so did its status as a distinctly middle-class consumer rite of passage. Towering cakes and impractical attire were only a few of the material examples of how the American white wedding transitioned from a matrimonial ceremony to a lavish display of status. American advertisers noted the profitable opportunities presented by the white-clad American bride and seized the opportunity to utilize her new class status.

Illustrating the Image: Advertising the White-Clad Bride Images of the white-gowned bride were more prevalent than ever before in the 1950s.79 Advertisers embraced the rising popularity of the white wedding and its star—the bride robed in white to catch the attention of women shoppers.80 She sold engagement rings, wedding bands, and bridal gowns all as one might expect; however, in the 1950s, the bride also sold televisions, deep fryers, refrigerators, cars, soaps, soft drinks, life insurance, and even cigarettes. Advertisers harnessed the selling power of such a distinctly middle-class image as well as the buying power of American women by including bridal imagery in their advertisements.

76 Howard, Brides, Inc., 193. 77 Ibid.., 74. 78 Ibid., 178 79 Jellison, It’s Our Day, 19. 80 Hill, Advertising to the American Woman, 70-71. 24

Capitalizing on postwar gender prescriptions, advertisers counted on a model of consumption that cast women as consumers and men as producers.81 Walking down the aisle a bride, the middle-class woman would return a powerhouse of potential consumption as a housewife. Because of such potential, advertisers were sure to use images of women‘s ultimate

Figure 2.8 Figure 2.7 Herbert Tareyton Cigarettes Priscilla of Boston Ladies’ Home Journal

Harper’s Bazaar June 1951 June 1954

1950s goal—marriage—to influence their decisions and capture their loyalty. Daniel Delis Hill investigates the role of the white-clad bride in Advertising to the American Woman, 1900-1999. Hill specifically analyzes the use of the bride in advertisements for wedding rings. He asserts that, again, the wedding ring was a status symbol that solidified a

81 Jellison, It’s Our Day, 3-4. 25 woman‘s achievement in the ultimate social goal—marriage.82 Hill goes on to examine the rhetoric utilized by wedding ring advertisers. Using words like ―cherish,‖ ―keep,‖ ―faithful,‖ and ―forever,‖ advertisers and jewelers demonstrated an understanding of women‘s ―traditional‖ thoughts and feelings about weddings.83 In a 1953 ad campaign, Keepsake Diamond Rings illustrated this point by announcing that a wedding ring was ―your keepsake…forever.‖84

Figure 2.9 Keepsake Diamond Rings Seventeen December 1953

It is also important to keep in mind that magazines like Seventeen and Mademoiselle targeted high school girls, specifically. These magazines also tended to have the most advertising for engagement rings, seemingly in an attempt to reinforce the notion that after graduation came marriage. The International Nickel Company, Inc. also dominated advertisements for

82 Hill, Advertising to the American Woman, 73-74. 83 Ibid., 74. 84 In my survey of these four magazines, I only found these specific Keepsake Diamond Ring advertisements in the teen magazines: Seventeen and Mademoiselle. 26 engagement rings. Heralding the best metal to make a bride‘s ring look bigger, The International Nickel Company, Inc. encouraged the purchase of palladium engagement rings.

Figure 2.10 Figure 2.11 Keepsake Diamond Rings Keepsake Diamond Rings Mademoiselle Mademoiselle March 1953 July 1953

FigureInternational 2.12 Nickel Company, Inc. InternationalHarper’s Bazaar Nickel Company, Inc.

Harper’sJune, 1950 Bazaar June 1950

Recognizing the white-clad bride as a symbol of ―domestic happiness and domestic spending‖ at a time when American families were expressing their newly-acquired middle-class status through material consumption, advertisers and manufacturers began to use the image of the bride to advertise luxuries of middle-class life.85 Whether the advertisements touted the perfect gift idea or advertised for items seemingly unrelated to weddings, advertisers often splashed items on pages with a white wedding playing on in the background or being adored by a bride in full wedding regalia.

85 Jellison, It’s Our Day, 18. 28

Figure 2.13 Figure 2.14 Matson Manufacturing Company, Inc Dayton Koolfoam Harper’s Bazaar Ladies’ Home Journal June 1957 June 1953

Conclusion: The Only Way to Wed During the postwar period, the white wedding became more than an exchanging of vows. It became a lavish display of social status swathed in layers of white blossoms, frosting, and satin. This association between the white wedding and privileged middle-class status became so concrete that a lavish white wedding became perceived as a necessary ritual determining one‘s placement within that class. Howard explains that the standard of consumption for weddings became associated with ―tradition‖ to the extent that it became difficult to understand a ―proper‖ way for Americans to wed without a white bride as the centerpiece.86 In the late 1960s and 1970s, a trend of more informal marriages emerged. Resisting the authority of wedding experts and advertisers, couples married in small, informal ceremonies without the opulence prescribed. Attacking the legitimacy of these marriages, wedding industry authorities blamed the rising

86 Howard, Brides, Inc., 178. 29 divorce rate on these quick, small affairs. The wedding industry argued that if brides and their families spent extensive amounts of time and money on the wedding, the marriage would be long and happy.87 The longevity and acceptance of the white wedding is unquestionable. Jellison explains that in 2000, a bride‘s wedding most generally imitated her grandmother‘s wedding from fifty years earlier. While some of the meanings have vanished from white wedding traditions (e.g.: only virginal brides wearing white), the white wedding remains an important display of social status and economic prosperity. 88 Seligson calls weddings ―psychologically loaded event[s], heavily weighted with fantasies of status.‖89 The weight of the white wedding has even caused contemporary couples not to marry. A common reason cohabitating couples do not marry, Jellison argues, is that they do not feel then can afford a ―real‖ wedding.90 The fact that the consumption-centered image of the American white wedding is so ingrained into the psyche of American couples is evidence of the success of the postwar wedding industry. Advertisers and wedding experts did their job. White weddings were not optional affairs of the aspiring middle class; they were ritual displays of status to be executed in accordance with their advice. The only proper way to wed was in a large ceremony, surrounded by fresh white blooms, towered over by tiers of baked ivory perfection, and enveloped in yards of white satin.

87 Ibid., 173. 88 Jellsion, It’s Our Day, 61-62. 89 Seligson, Eternal Bliss Machine, 182. 90 Jellison, It’s Our Day, 5. 30

Concluding our discussion of their wedding, Lois meekly commented, ―it seemed like it was a nice [wedding],‖ while John interjected lovingly, ―and it all turned out all right.‖91

Figure 2.15 Mr. and Mrs. John and Lois Bame These ―white wedding‖ participants will celebrate their 57th anniversary this summer. (Author‘s collection; December 2005)

91 Bame, personal interview, January 29, 2011. 31

CHAPTER THREE WIFELY BEAUTY AS A NATIONAL DUTY

At the 1959 American National Exhibition in Moscow, United States Vice President Richard Nixon defended and promoted the virtues of American capitalism to Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev. Instead of discussing the gross national product or other upwardly mobile economic trends as one might expect, Nixon instead utilized what he considered an even better indicator of America‘s capitalistic superiority—the American housewife. Explaining the benefits of the American capitalist system, Nixon relied on the imagery of the ―typical‖ American housewife.92 While examining the mock American kitchen, Nixon explained the ease with which

FigureNixon and3.1 Khrushchev Nixon and Khrushchev

―Kitchen―Kitchen Debate‖Debate‖ 1959 1959

92 It is important to realize that ―typical,‖ ―normal,‖ and other words that attempt to describe women collectively during this period often refer only to white, middle-class women. 32 modern appliances allowed the American housewife to live.93 Thanks to America‘s lucrative economic system, each housewife was spared the experience of unfeminine hard work. With the press of a button, dishes were clean and clothes were washed. The American woman need not be concerned with hard work, instead, as historian Elaine Tyler May concludes, she was privileged by capitalism to focus on ―cultivat[ing] [her] looks and [her] physical charms, to become [a] sexually attractive housewife and consumer under the American capitalist system.‖94 The question that follows this exchange for historians is how, by 1959, did gender, consumption, and politics become so intertwined? Why did Nixon choose to rely on the image of a ―June Cleaver‖ type of American woman to argue his point of capitalism‘s superiority? This chapter aims to answer these questions by developing a connection between the anxiety of the Cold War era and the advertising tactics of marketers and magazines. Appealing directly to women‘s anxiety over fulfilling their socially prescribed role of ―wife,‖ advertisers simultaneously targeted the 1950s woman‘s sense of national identity. During this period of Cold War high anxiety, with the rise and fall of McCarthyism, as well as a national embrace of ―traditional‖ family values and gender roles, advertising youth and beauty as necessary characteristics of a good wife took on new significance—wifely beauty became a national duty. In an effort to discover examples of how advertisers impressed upon American women these all-important characteristics, I examined a sampling of advertisements from three popular girls‘/women‘s magazines: Mademoiselle, Seventeen, and Ladies’ Home Journal from 1950 to 1959. Borrowing this research technique from the previous chapter, this is an effort to evaluate a complete decade from the period. My study includes a particularly heavy focus on the years between 1953 and 1955, as these years are important in the timeline of advertising during the postwar period. Juliann Sivulka explains that these years represent a shift in consumption patterns when consumers stopped ―catching up‖ from postwar scarcity and started to consume for the sake of consumption.95 In these magazines, as I will discuss, topics including skin care, cosmetics, soaps, and weight control dominated, all with the intent to make the American housewife seem a more beautiful, youthful specimen.

93 Image, May, Homeward Bound, 11. 94 May, Homeward Bound, 13. 95 This categorization as defined by Juliann Sivulka in her 1998 book, Soap, Sex, and Cigarettes, will be examined in greater detail later in the chapter. 33

Background: Advertising to the Postwar American Consumer The return of some women to their homes during this decade between World War II‘s paid labor opportunities and the politically active 1960s has drawn the attention of many scholars. The rise of women‘s history as well as a new interest in the history of consumption have led many scholars to analyze the postwar period of American history more closely in an effort to examine connections between gender and consumption. As historians have persuasively argued, the image of the 1950s housewife was an ideal, not the typical experience of the postwar American woman. Here, studies shift from examining the ideal image from that of the actual lived experience.96 While social historians and some women‘s historians may be more interested in examining the actual experiences of women living during the period, many scholars, cultural and otherwise, tend to examine the ideal and the effects the ―ideal‖ image had on society. Magazine editors at the turn of the twentieth century disliked advertisements in their pages, as they saw them as distasteful and desperate pleas for business. By the 1920s and especially the 1930s, magazines began to see the profitable opportunities advertising could present. Recognizing that women were the primary family consumers, buying things not only for the home and themselves, but also for the men of the house, advertisers began to target women directly.97 Advertisers relied heavily on the stereotypical image of the attractive young wife. Since the beginning of advertisements‘ placement in magazines, advertisers expressed the importance of women maintaining a youthful and beautiful appearance.98 Magazine editors and advertisers encouraged the message that in order for women to ―win a husband [and] keep a husband,‖ they had to cultivate beautiful and youthful appearances above all else.99 Sivulka, explains in her work on the cultural history of advertising in America that ―advertising taught women ways to attract a husband…‖100 Her choice of verb illuminates an issue that many scholars recognize,

96 For an authoritative treatment of this distinction between ―ideal‖ and ―actual‖ see Joanne Meyerowitz‘s edited anthology Not June Cleaver. 97Hill, Advertising to the American Woman, 15-18. 98Scholars of advertising, Hill and Sivulka both present authoritative discussions of the active role played my marketing and advertising agents in their works, Advertising to the American Woman 1900-1990 and Soap, Sex, and Cigarettes: A Cultural History of American Advertising, respectively. 99 Carol Hymowitz and Michaele Weissman, A History of Women in America. (New York: Bantam Books, 1978), 292. 100 Sivulka, Soap, Sex, and Cigarettes, xii, emphasis added. 34 that advertisers (overwhelmingly male) seemed to take it upon themselves to instruct American women in the ways of being womanly. Elaborating on this ironic reality of men teaching women femininity, Marjorie Ferguson comments in her 1983 comparative content analysis of British and American women‘s magazines that:

This difference [referring to the differing nature of men‘s and women‘s magazines] in audience approaches seems to rest on an implicit assumption shared between editors and publishers that a female sex which is at best unconfident, and at worst incompetent, ―needs‖ or ―wants‖ to be instructed, rehearsed or brought up to date on the arts and skills of femininity, while a more powerful, confident male sex already ―knows‖ everything there is to know about the business of being masculine.101

Ferguson explains that during the 1950s, as in the previous three decades of the twentieth century, advertisers consistently encouraged women to cultivate youthful attractiveness in their pursuit of fulfilling ―the female role of roles [..]—that of ‗Wife.‘‖102 Consumerism in America grew exponentially after the Second World War. Scholars have posited that after years of self-denial and frugality caused by the Depression and war rationing, Americans embraced consumerism with open arms.103 Purchasing at a remarkable rate, Americans in the postwar period consumed America into a position of capitalist superiority. It is this idea that leads me to Juliann Sivulka‘s timeline of advertising in American history. To Sivulka, the period between 1953 and 1954 represents a change in the pattern of American consumption. Americans, she explains, shifted from a pattern of ―catching up‖ from wartime scarcity to consuming for the sake of consumption. Sivulka explains that advertisers feared losing business after Americans had seemingly purchased all of the big buys needed for a new, prosperous way of life: home, car, appliances. In an effort to secure repeated purchases in the future, advertisers began to present consumption as an American right. Marketing agents and advertising editors embraced the image of suburbia. They created images of the model nuclear family enjoying the benefits of a prosperous American way of life. Backyard barbeques and flower gardens illustrated the leisurely lifestyles that Americans had earned after the war. Advertisers encouraged the purchase of items that would assist in filling up leisure time and

101Marjorie Ferguson, Forever Feminine: Women’s Magazines and the Cult of Femininity (London; Exeter (NH): Heinemann, 1983), 2. 102 Ferguson, Forever Feminine, 63. 103 Sivulka, Soap, Sex, and Cigarettes, 241. 35 would, more importantly, continue to exhibit America‘s capitalist superiority. Professor of American Studies Lizabeth Cohen explains in a discussion of her book A Consumers’ Republic: The Politics of Mass Consumption in Postwar America that ―[mass consumption] was a civic responsibility designed to improve the living standards of all Americans, a critical part of a prosperity-producing cycle of expanded consumer demand fueling greater production, thereby creating more well-paying jobs and in turn more affluent consumers capable of stoking the economy with their purchases.‖104 1953 also ushered in the presidency of Dwight D. Eisenhower, a period that would be marked with Cold War anxiety, Soviet competition, the fall of Senator Joseph McCarthy, and the perceived constant threat of communism. In their content analysis of the 1962 film, The Manchurian Candidate, film scholars Matthew Jacobson and Gaspar Gonzalez examine the film through political and cultural lenses against the anxieties of the Cold War period. They assert that ―Cold War culture was a culture of vexing contradiction‖ and lines between public and private were blurred.105 Private homes became the stages for national support. In their homes, by embracing ―traditional‖ family values (which included stringent gender roles), Americans could support the anti-communist efforts of the nation. As part of these ―domestic containment‖ efforts (which they would later be termed by May), government propaganda and mass media encouraged women to cheerfully take up their roles as American housewives—a role that went from an aspiration to a fundamental element in their roles as American citizens.106 Here, I again turn to May‘s theory ―domestic containment‖ and how gender played a pivotal role in its practice. ―Contrary to fears of observers at the time,‖ she asserts, ―the roles of breadwinner and homemaker were not abandoned; they were embraced.‖107 The ―fears‖ of the time that May suggests were fears that American women would resist the call of the nation to return to the home because of their involvement in the paid labor force during World War II.

104 Lizabeth Cohen, review of A Consumer’s Republic: The Politics of Mass Consumption in Postwar America, by Lizabeth Cohen, The Journal of Consumer Research, Vol. 31, no. 1 (June 2004):236-239, 236. This article was included in the ―Reviews and Reflections‖ section of the journal. For further discussion of how consumerism took on the role of national responsibility and the direct influence advertisers had on this shift see Sivulka, 241, and Susan Douglas‘ contemporary critique of the mass media, Where the Girls Are, 18. 105 Matthew Frye Jacobson and Gaspar Gonzalez, What Have They Built You To Do?: The Manchurian Candidate and Cold War America (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2006), 33-37. 106 Meyerowitz and film and literature authority Leonard J. Leff further explain the role mass media played in women‘s return to the home after the war in their works, Not June Cleaver and ―What in the World Interests Women?‖, respectively. 107 May, Homeward Bound, xi. 36

However, these fears were not realized and American women returned home to become wives and mothers at remarkable rates.108 Historians argue that the acceptance of ―traditional‖ family (and gender) roles occurred as a result of postwar peace and prosperity. During the postwar period, a notably economically prosperous time in American history in which the gross national product grew by nearly 250%, men and women returned to their socially prescribed roles.109 Women‘s evacuation from the workplace after WWII enabled men to take up their role as breadwinners. May, however, argues that prosperity and peace alone are not enough to explain the return of American women to their kitchens from the workplace after the war:

Prosperity followed other wars in our history, notably World War I, with no similar increase in marriage and childbearing. Peace and affluence alone are inadequate to explain the many complexities of the postwar domestic explosion. The demographic trends went far beyond what was expected from a return to peace. Indeed, nothing on the surface of postwar America explains the rush of young Americans into marriage, parenthood, and traditional gender roles. 110

Instead, she theorizes that the unique political climate of the Cold War—riddled with anxiety and fear—encouraged this trend.111 ―Like their leaders, most Americans agreed that family stability appeared to be the best way to bulwark the dangers of the cold war [sic].‖112 Armed with the images of the male breadwinner and the female homemaker, the mass media set out to encourage these gender stereotypes during these years of political and social change.

Women’s Magazines Magazines were an important source of media for consumers in the postwar period in American history. Recognizing women as a distinct consumer group, magazine editors responded with an increasing number of magazines targeted specifically to women in the late

108 Ibid., xiv-xviii. Note that May is analyzing a specific type of postwar woman. Her analysis does not take into account non-white women, or women of the working class. Leaving the workforce after the war, as other scholars such as Joanne Meyerowitz and William H. Chafe, was not the reality for many, if not most, postwar women. 109 Stephanie Coontz, The Way We Never Were: American Families and the Nostalgia Trap (New York: Basic Books, 1992), 24. 110 Ibid., xiii. 111 Jacobson and Gaspar elaborate on this discussion of national fear and anxiety in What Have They Built You To Do?, 39, and they utilize the scholarship of Arthur Schlesinger Jr‘s, The Vital Center: The Politics of Freedom (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1949), 52. 112 May, Homeward Bound, xviii. 37

19th and throughout the 20th centuries. Historian Kelly Schrum stressed the influential nature of magazines in her 2004 monograph Some Wore Bobby Sox: The Emergence of Teenage Girls’ Culture, 1920-1945. Schrum argued that even before World War II, magazines targeted to girls and women (in her case, she examines magazines targeted specifically to teenage girls, especially Seventeen magazine) encouraged images of youthful beauty and ―indoctrinated teenagers into a world of appearance and consumption.‖113 She examines the active role magazine editors and advertising agents played in perpetuating these images at the expense of self-esteem and self-worth arguing that the nature of advertising changed to include attention to consumer anxieties and to exploit peer pressure ―whenever possible.‖114 Sivulka also comments on the images of women represented by postwar advertising explaining that the men who dominated the advertising industry presented ideal images of American women from their point of view. The American woman, meanwhile, was expected to find satisfaction in the narrowly defined roles of wife, mother, and homemaker.115

Ladies’ Home Journal First published in 1883, Ladies’ Home Journal was the longest-running journal in my study. From its obvious longevity and the periodical‘s record breaking circulation of one million as early as 1903, it is clear that Ladies’ Home Journal has been an influential magazine to American women since the turn of the twentieth century.116 Designed to target middle-class (white) women who were already married and maintaining a household, the Journal’s advertisements in the 1950s focused more on recapturing and maintaining youthful good looks than on cultivating those characteristics to secure a husband. The topic of skin care dominated advertisements in the Journal. Images of beautifully coifed women in full makeup graced the pages imploring the women readers to care for their dry, old, unattractive skin. Whether alone on the page or with an admiring gentleman desperately ogling her, the skin care model was nearly always looking the reader in the eye while warning that ―dry skin is noticeable!‖ (Figure 3.2) In a particularly interesting advertisement for Pond‘s

113 Kelly Schrum, Some Wore Bobby Sox: The Emergence of Teenage Girls’ Culture, 1920-1945 (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004), 96. 114 Schrum, Bobby Sox, 14, 29. 115 Sivulka, Soap, Sex, and Cigarettes, 253. 116 Ladies’ Home Journal, ―125 Years of Ladies’ Home Journal,‖ http://www.lhj.com/style/covers/125-years-of- ladies-home-journal/, accessed Spring 2011. 38

Dry Skin Cream, a young woman eyes herself critically in a handheld mirror. The copy warns that ―after 25 drying skin begins to show‖ and a ―flabby, dry-lined throat puts that ‗getting older‘ touch on you.‖ Thankfully, Pond‘s provided the ―special replacer‖ needed to conquer such unsightly flaws in its ―lanolin-rich‖ Pond‘s Dry Skin Cream. (Figure 3.2) Advertisements for Pond‘s Dry Skin Cream and Cold Cream appeared throughout the sample, generally with models involved in a tedious examination of their flaws in handheld mirrors, or happily engaged in a thorough use of the product while explaining how it ―work[ed] wonders‖ for them. (Figure 3.4) These advertisements not only illustrate the self-criticism that magazines encouraged

FigureImage 1 3.2 ImageFigure 2 3.3 Pond‘sPond‘s Dry Dry Skin Skin Cream Cream Pond‘sPond‘s Dry Dry Skin SkinCream Cream Ladies’Ladies’ Home Home Journal Journal Ladies’Ladies’ Home Home Journal Journal JanuaryJanuary, 1953 1953 November,November 1953 1953

39 but also that by as early as age 25, advertisements urged women to actively recapture their slipping youthful good looks. Self-scrutiny was a value that women‘s magazines instilled in their readers with each issue. Ads instructed women to examine themselves critically, identify their flaws, and utilize

FigureImage 3 3.4 Pond‘sPond‘s Cold Cold Cream Cream Ladies’Ladies’ Home Home Journal Journal October 1953

the products advertised with exacting precision in an effort to save their highest-valued commodity—their looks. Professor of Media Studies Susan Douglas explained that ―self- scrutiny—of our thighs, our pores, our eyebrows, our breasts, our hair follicles, and our ‗true‘ inner selves—were drummed in by [women‘s/girls‘] magazines.‖117 Advertisers presented a

117 Douglas, Where the Girls Are, 99-100. 40

―perfect‖ complexion as one of a woman‘s most precious assets. Not only was a flawless complexion the foundation for a woman‘s good looks, but it was also a necessary component for the all-important appearance of youth. In 1951, Dorothy Gray produced an intriguing advertisement that begs detailed analysis. Advertising for the same Cellogen Hormone Cream mentioned in the example above, this advertisement appealed directly to women‘s fear of aging.118 The headline reads, ―Does Your Husband Look Younger than You do?‖ The image at the top of the page shows a supposedly 30+ year old woman looking over her shoulder with a look of terror. Her husband, as the reader is led to believe, has struck up a conversation with a younger woman. As the copy continues,

Figure 3.5 Dorothy Gray Salon 1951

118 See also Hill‘s discussion of the beauty industry‘s role in developing in women a fear of aging in Advertising to the American Woman, 107. 41 the reader is exposed to the tragic, serious nature of the problem. ―You may side-step the tragedy that overtakes so many wives…Glance about among your friends. How many wives look older than their years…and tragically older than their husbands?‖119 Finally, the advertisement closes with a picture of the aforementioned couple locked in a loving embrace. Dorothy Gray‘s Cellogen Cream was able to help the wife win back the affection of her husband and ―happy results [were] reported by women everywhere.‖120 Beyond retaining their youthful good looks, the Journal’s advertisements encouraged women to maintain trim figures. Advertisements and recipes for light eating permeated the pages. Pepsi advertisements assured women that slender figures were fashionable on one page

FigureImage 5 3.6 FigureImage 6 3.7 Pepsi-Cola Health-O-MeterHealth-O-Meter Scale Scale Ladies’ Home Home Journal Journal Ladies’Ladies’ Home Home Journal Journal October 1953 December 1953

119 Ad Access by Duke University, advertisement ―Dorothy Gray Salon,‖ (1951), http://library.duke.edu /digitalcollections/adaccess.BH1920/pg.1/. Emphasis added. 120 Ibid. 42 while a delighted woman holds her new gift, the Health-O-Meter scale, on another. It is also interesting to note that these advertisements for weight control were sandwiched between countless pages of recipes for cakes, cookies, and other non-figure-friendly dishes. While Ladies’ Home Journal tended to focus on targeting women who were already wives in its advertising, perhaps the most influential teenage girl magazine of the time, Seventeen, focused on explaining to young women that their good looks were the attributes they needed to propel them into their destined roles of wifehood.

Seventeen First published in 1944, Seventeen magazine played an important role in influencing the buying habits of one of the largest consumer markets of the postwar period—teenage girls. Seventeen filled its pages with images and advice that bolstered the ideal of young wifehood. Scores of advertisements for wedding/engagement rings, hope chests, and silver all sent the message that after graduation came the wedding. To advertisers, it was never too soon to begin planning for the much-anticipated engagement day. Making yet another intriguing appearance, Pond‘s Cold Cream placed an advertisement in the April 1953 issue of Seventeen that concretely connected the value of an attractive appearance with the assumed goal of marriage. The advertisement not only included the typical smiling model using Pond‘s Cold Cream while explaining the ―wonderful change‖ in her complexion, this advertisement included a picture of the woman‘s engagement ring and a description of the upcoming wedding. ―She‘s Engaged, She‘s Lovely, She uses Pond‘s‖ touts the copy.121 Another advertising campaign that permeated the pages of Seventeen was that of Camay Soap—―the soap of beautiful women.‖ Each advertisement included a short description of a girl‘s first experience with Camay Soap, her ―first‖ special memory with ―him,‖ and concluded with an image of the girl in wedding attire explaining her thankfulness to Camay Soap for her beautiful appearance. (Figures 3.9, 3.10, and 3.11. A series of three months, January, February,

121 This long-running advertisement campaign began in the 1940s when Pond‘s decided to start featuring women from the society pages in order to sell their products to a larger clientele. By combining images of socialites and engagement details, Pond‘s was not only appealing to the desire of some women to get married, but also to their class aspirations. Duke University Library, ―The Power of Refined Beauty: Photographing Society Women for Pond‘s, 1920s-1950s.‖ http://library.duke.edu/exhibits/ponds/index.html, accessed February 29, 2012. 43 and March 1953) As was the case in the Pond‘s Cold Cream advertisement, these ads quite literally connected the characteristic of beauty with goal of marriage.

Figure 3.8 Pond‘s Cold Cream Seventeen April 1953

Mademoiselle Seventeen dominated the market for teen girl readers. However, Mademoiselle magazine played an influential role with young girls during the 1950s. The only magazine in my sample that is no longer published, Mademoiselle, presented young girls with a magazine that provided information and instruction not only regarding becoming a wife and mother, but also on pursuing college and employment after graduation. Each issue included articles and advertisements promoting courses for clerical and secretarial work as well as pieces discussing popular college campuses. However, despite Mademoiselle‘s seemingly progressive ideal of the American

44 woman, advertisements throughout the issues repeatedly emphasized the importance of trim, young, beautiful bodies.

FigureImage 8 3.9 FigureImage 9 3.10 FigureImage 10 3.11 CamayCamay Soap Soap CamayCamay Soap Soap CamayCamay Soap Soap SeventeenSeventeen SeventeenSeventeen SeventeenSeventeen JanuaryJanuary, 19531953 FebruaryFebruary, 1953 1953 MarchMarch, 1953 1953

A 1953 advertisement for Dermetics Cleanser presented beautiful skin as an extension of one‘s self with the question ―What does your skin say about you?‖ A beautiful model pondered this question while pensively examining her reflection in a tabletop. Following this question were two choice answers: ―Lovely…utterly feminine, the kind of person people want to know‖ or ―Careless…drab, neglectful of your true, could-be-attractive self.‖ (Figure 3.12) Mademoiselle readers also faced messages that insinuated unattractiveness was caused by

45 laziness. Dusharme insisted its Hair-Sheen Wave-Crème was ―for those who care enough to look their best.‖122

FigureImage 11 3.12 DermetricsDermetics Cleanser Cleanser

MademoiselleMademoiselle MayMay, 19531953

Following a pattern more in line with Ladies’ Home Journal than with Seventeen, Mademoiselle advertisements stressed the importance of youthful looks. These advertisements expressed that firm, wrinkleless skin was the coveted commodity that readers should actively

122 Advertisement ―Dusharme,‖ Mademoiselle (January 1953), 117. Emphasis added. 46 seek. Remedies for crow‘s feet and sagging skin flourished. However, these efforts to regain youthful beauty would all be in vain if not accompanied by a trim figure. Reminiscent of the advertising in Ladies’ Home Journal, Mademoiselle also allotted space for advertising the necessity of slim figures. Images that resemble contemporary ―before‖ and ―after‖ success

ImageFigure 13 3.14 FigureImage 12 3.13 Frances Denney Denney LanolinLanolin Plus Plus Mademoiselle MademoiselleMademoiselle February,February 1953 1953 FebruaryFebruary, 1954 1954

stories of weight loss appeared numerous times, as well as images that promised the increased attention of men with the use of slimming undergarments. While Mademoiselle presented itself as a magazine for women with continuing education and employment in mind, an analysis of its advertisements and recurring themes demonstrates its adherence to the stringent gender stereotypes of the period, as did Seventeen and Ladies’ Home Journal.

FigureImage 14 3.15 ImageFigure 15 3.16 AnnAnn DelafieldDelafield Reducing Reducing Plan Plan OlgaOlga Company Company MademoiselleMademoiselle MademoiselleMademoiselle JulyJuly, 1953 April,April 1954 1954

Conclusion: Connecting Beauty, Wifehood, and National Identity In 1959, Vice President Nixon rested his argument for the superiority of American capitalism on a well-known woman. The image of the American housewife in her domestic glory shouldered his side of the debate. During the 1950s, women not only dealt with the everyday anxiety of living in a politically tenuous atmosphere, they had the added pressure of living up to the image of the domestic housewife set up for them through postwar and Cold War

48 propaganda and advertising. Advertisers armed with this image, encouraged American women to take up their place in American society as youthful, beautiful consumers. Advertising that clearly connected beauty to marriage dominated these magazines. It was acknowledged and accepted that a woman‘s goal was to get married. Her place in society was not in the factory, but in the home happily caring for her husband and children. It would be nearly a decade before this notion would be formally challenged by the women‘s movement of the 1960s. Beyond the advertising that linked beauty to marriage, women faced political rhetoric that tied their social status as housewives to their political identity. It was the task of every American housewife to be well-coiffed, attractive consumers privileged under the capitalist system. Juliann Sivulka explains that ―advertising both mirrors a society and creates [one].‖ 123 Through the analysis of these advertisements, we can see how this was the case in the 1950s. Advertisements both created and reflected the connections between beauty, wifehood, and national identity.

123 Sivulka, Soap, Sex, and Cigarettes, xii. 49

CHAPTER FOUR WHIPPING UP LOVE, FEMININITY, AND SECURITY

The image of Rosie the Riveter happily sashaying from the assembly line to the kitchen after World War II is one that the media worked hard to present to American audiences during the postwar period. After the turmoil and uncertainty of the war years, Americans sought whatever normalcy they might find after the earth-shaking realization that science had created the ultimate tool of destruction—the atomic bomb. By whatever name—the postwar period, the Cold War era, the ―long‖ 1950s—historians and other scholars often characterize the period directly following the end of World War II to the mid-1960s as one of great anxiety and fear for the American population. In an attempt to cope with the political tensions of the time, Americans grasped for chances to right the ―wrongs‖ that accompanied a country at war—couples were eager to marry now that men had returned, consumers were ready to compensate for years of shortages, and men were ready to return to the workforce after years away. The latter would present a distinct challenge. While men were away at war, women stepped up to fill their places in the labor force. Now, many women could not afford, or did not wish to relinquish their positions. Attempts by the government to encourage women to return to their ―rightful place‖ in the home led to an all- encompassing image of the American nuclear family. With a father earning the wages and a mother cheerfully tending to the home and children, Americans embraced the image of the nuclear family as a reestablishment of ―traditional‖ gender roles.124 In an atmosphere of uncertainty, this would be the image of normalcy that the media and American culture would grasp tightly to over the next fifteen or so years. Despite evidence to the contrary, the mass media projected an image of the middle-class, white family complete with a working father and a happy homemaking mother as the ideal American standard. In contrast to this image many American women remained employed outside the home after the war—the number of women employed outside the home increased quickly and deliberately during this period, doubling from 1940 to 1960.125 Perhaps blinded by

124 For further discussion of the government‘s involvement on launching a campaign to reestablish ―traditional‖ family values see Joanne Meyerowitz‘s Not June Cleaver, Leonard J. Leff‘s ―What in the World Interests Women?‖, and Annegret S. Ogden‘s The Great American Housewife: From Helpmate to Wage Earner, 1776 – 1986 (Westport: Greenwood Press, 1986). 125 Chafe, The Paradox of Change, 188. 50 the nation‘s need to cling to the family as a measure of protection against the threat of nuclear war, the mass media, especially advertisers, resisted these facts and continued to promote a June Cleaver-esque standard for American women to emulate. This contradiction is wonderfully illustrated in the advertisements for food during the postwar period. Food companies and advertisers splashed the image of a happy homemaker cooking for her family on nearly every surface possible. Domestic and women‘s magazines gave large portions of their advertising space to these food producers. Cookbooks during the period also acted as a sort of prescriptive literature that translated the images in advertisements into distinct instructions to be followed. During a period that saw the introduction of affordable, attainable processed convenience foods as well as an astonishing increase in the female work force, food advertisers ignored the reality of the American woman‘s position in favor of the ideal nuclear family in an attempt to preserve the home against the insecurities and anxieties of the Cold War era. As May persuasively argued in Homeward Bound, the privacy of American homes became a stage for political action. By subscribing to the image perpetuated by the media of the ideal middle-class family, Americans were able to assert their loyalty during this period of constant suspicion and anxiety.126 In my research I seek to examine the interconnectedness of this image with the advertisements produced by food advertisers during the postwar period. The image of the American nuclear family was so strong that instead of taking advantage of the rising female workforce as a sounding board to advertise newly developing convenience foods (canned and frozen, especially), advertisers resisted these facts in favor of promoting the image of the stay-at-home wife and mother. As the mass media promoted this family in television sitcoms such as Ozzie and Harriet and Leave it to Beaver, the food advertising industry did the same in their ads for canned corn and cake mixes. Many postwar scholars describe the postwar period as the time between the end of World War II and the assassination of John F. Kennedy. Food and gender scholar Jessamyn Neuhaus also utilized this timeline with regards to the fact that 1963 was also the year that Betty Freidan published The Feminine Mystique.127 I, too, follow this timeline as a guide for the period

126 May, Homeward Bound, ix-29, 81-118. Social and cultural historians of this period widely subscribe to May‘s theory of ―domestic containment.‖ Food, culture, and gender scholars Jessamyn Neuhaus and Katherine J. Parkin, for example, both recognize that the promoted ideal of the nuclear family was as much about security from communism as it was about a return to ―traditional‖ American values. 127 Neuhaus, Jessamyn, ―The Way to a Man‘s Heart: Gender Roles, Domestic Ideology, and Cookbooks in the 1950s,‖ Journal of Social History 32, no. 3 (1999): 530. 51 described as ―postwar.‖ Unfortunately, as scholars, the availability of archival materials can often impede research. The earliest copies of LHJ that I was able to acquire were from 1949. Despite this challenge, I examined issues published quarterly (January, April, July, and October) in the years 1949, 1950, 1954, 1958, and 1963 in order to obtain a sampling from the period.128 I organized the 537 food advertisements from these issues into several categories—the majority of which were advertisements expressing the ease and convenience of a product and those that included recipes.129 The issues in 1949 and 1950 included, by far, the greatest number of ads devoted to food.130 Each of these years‘ quarterly selections held over 120 food advertisements. This was followed by a noticeable dip in numbers in the 1954 selection, which amounted to only 95 images. For speculation regarding this decline in advertising in 1954, I turn to Juliann Sivulka‘s timeline for American advertising from her survey of American advertising Soap, Sex, and Cigarettes: A Cultural History of American Advertising. Sivulka distinguished the postwar period of American consumption into two parts. The first part—continuing from the end of World War II to 1953—represented a time when advertisers encouraged consumers to ―catch up‖ from wartime shortages.131 This heavy encouragement from advertisements to increase spending after the war could account for the large numbers of food advertisements before 1954. After 1953, however, Sivulka explained that Americans had ―caught up‖ and now turned to consumption as an American trait—a sort of consuming-for-consumption‘s-sake habit. In order to supplement my survey of LHJ advertisements, I turn to some of the predominating literature regarding gender, food, and the postwar period. Jessamyn Neuhaus‘s sophisticated examination of cookbooks throughout this period in Manly Meals and Mom’s Home Cooking: Cookbooks, Gender, and Modern America provided intriguing information regarding prescriptive literature for American women—in this case, cookbooks—as well as interesting research regarding the complicated definitions of gender presented in these cookbooks. Katherine J. Parkin‘s Food Is Love: Food Advertising and Gender Roles in Modern

128 The issues for April 1949 and January 1950 were missing from this collection. While these two years were the most abundant for food advertising in the sample, that number would have greatly been increased had their collections been complete. 129 The other categories I included in my survey were: Campbell‘s, Jell-O, ―America‘s best or America‘s favorite,‖ baked goods, ads with children, ads with men, women teaching other women, ―modern,‖ ―he-man‖ or ―manly‖ food ads, health of the family, frozen foods, Betty Crocker, ―home-cooked‖ or ―homemade,‖ history or ―traditional,‖ and ads specifically for women‘s weight loss. 130 1949 issues totaled 120 ads and 1950 totaled 124 and again, these numbers would have been larger had their selections been complete. 131 Sivulka, Soap, Sex, and Cigarettes, 241. 52

America paired nicely with Neuhaus‘s research. Offering research more directly regarding advertising, Parkin‘s work illuminated a compelling connection between affection and cooking as illustrated by advertisers. Through an evaluation of these secondary sources as well as primary research in the pages of Ladies’ Home Journal, one message seemed clearly articulated to America‘s postwar woman: her place was in the kitchen. Through cooking and tending to her family, the American woman was sure to be fulfilled in her two—and only two—roles: wife and mother.

Branded for Life: Girls in the Kitchen If women were going to help ―fight off contamination from this scourge [communism], they had to be dedicated to their work in the kitchen.‖132 A happy homemaker was a crucial element of American society. With this level of importance, it was never too early to get little Susie into the kitchen with Mother. It was her American and womanly duty to learn just what kind of cake mix Mother used and which one Father liked best. Neuhaus explained that cookbook publication soared during the 1950s. An onslaught of prescriptive literature that instructed women‘s behavior accompanied the push to get women to return the kitchen. During this period, juvenile cookbooks expanded as well—especially those targeting teenage girls—the fastest growing consumer group during the 1950s. Cookbook authors and advertisers encouraged young girls to take a place next to Mom in the kitchen in order to prepare themselves for a successful life as a wife and mother. While some cookbooks spoke to both boys and girls, most focused on preparing young girls for their culinary responsibilities.133 Sherrie A. Inness made a sophisticated contribution to her anthology Kitchen Culture in America: Popular Representations of Food, Gender, and Race with her article ―‗The Enchantment of Mixing Spoons‘: Cooking Lessons for Girls and Boys.‖ In this chapter, Inness discussed the gender differences inherent in juvenile cookbooks. She insisted that cookbooks are one of the most ―strongly gendered forms of popular literature.‖134 Inness explained that cookbooks guided girls in the direction of sweet, light, dainty foods, while they encouraged boys

132 Douglas, Where the Girls Are, 47. 133 Neuhaus, Manly Meals, 166 – 174. 134 Sherrie A. Inness, ―‗The Enchantment of Mixing-Spoons‘: Cooking Lessons for Girls and Boys,‖ in Kitchen Culture in America: Popular Representations of Food, Gender, and Race, ed. Sherrie A. Inness (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2001), 121. 53 to enjoy preparing meats and hearty meals. Inness concluded that juvenile cookbooks presented two distinct messages for boys and girls: girls should have a ―natural‖ affinity for cooking and boys were supposed to learn to cook in the case of an emergency or special occasion.135 Cookbook authors and advertisers alike exploited this ―natural‖ affinity that young girls should have for cooking. While cookbooks encouraged mothers to let their daughters prop up a stool next to them in the kitchen, advertisers utilized the same image in their attempts to sell products. One of the most blatant examples of how advertisers tied cooking with young girls is the inclusion of food advertising and recipes in young girls‘ magazines. These magazines— especially Seventeen—included not only recipes for young cooks to try, but also included articles that linked their femininity with their ability to execute the perfect luncheon.136 Jessamyn Neuhaus commented specifically on Seventeen’s role in this connection when she discussed The Seventeen Cookbook in her article ―The Way to a Man‘s Heart: Gender Roles, Domestic Ideology, and Cookbooks in the 1950s.‖ Neuhaus explained that the magazine linked a girl‘s desirability and popularity with her ability to cook. Seventeen also emphasized the primary role cooking would be in a girl‘s ability to catch the attention of young boys.137 Inculcating young girls with such messages and images was a sure way to encourage them to maintained their position in the kitchen into adulthood. Creating brand loyalty in teenage girls was a lucrative undertaking. Even today, when asked why some women choose specific brands over others, answers are often dependent on her mother‘s brand choice. Advertisers recognized that during the postwar period, teenage girls‘ buying power skyrocketed as they became the largest growing consumer group. Understanding that young girls had a determining voice in what a household consumed, advertisers encouraged women to teach their young daughters to cook—and how to do it well with their products.138 Parkin explained that the value advertisers placed on girls and their roles as cooks was expressed in two advertising techniques: showing girls feeding dolls and siblings in advertisements and

135 Ibid., 126-131. 136 This discussion about connecting girls‘ popularity and femininity is discussed by major scholars that deal with this topic. Katherine J. Parkin presents a particularly intriguing discussion of the topic when she describes how Seventeen used these types of articles and recipes to socialize girls into their prescribed gender role. They were to look for the approval of boys through their food and seek admiration from their girl peers through their culinary prowess. See Food Is Love, 186-187. 137 Neuhaus, ―The Way to a Man‘s Heart,‖ 538. 138 Shane Hamilton, ―The Economies and Conveniences of Modern-Day Living: Frozen Foods and Mass Marketing, 1945 – 1965,‖ Business History Review 77, no. 1 (2003): 57. 54 illustrating young girls engaged in the cooking process in their advertisements. Later, Parkin explained, this preference for targeting girls in food advertising was bolstered by the fact that food advertisers stopped considering boys ―long-term‖ consumers. They, instead, focused their advertising dollars on appealing to girls—the ones who would continue purchasing and preparing food for the rest of their lives.139 Advertisers and cookbook authors seemed to agree that in a woman‘s daunting role as the protector of her family against cultural and political uncertainty, being a competent cook was a key ingredient to her successful fulfillment of both ―wife‖ and ―mother‖ roles.

You Can Do It! Goof-Proof Ways to Make a Man Love You One of the most prevailing messages in food advertising to women was the promise of male approval. The entire thesis of Parkin‘s monograph relies on the fact that advertisers encouraged women to cook in order to attain approval and affection from men. Men‘s place was not in the kitchen—an idea repeated consistently throughout cookbooks and advertising during the postwar years. Instead, the kitchen was the woman‘s domain. It was here that the housewife was able to whip up nourishing, homemade dishes that illustrated her love for her family. In return, a woman could only hope for the approving chewing of her family members. The most important institution to be protected during the Cold War was the family—a strong family, stalwart against the threat of communism, centered on marriage. 140 Without a stable marriage partnership, American families were susceptible to political threat. With that in mind, advertisers impressed upon American women the importance of maintaining a happy marriage.141 The easiest way to please one‘s husband, advertisers professed, was undoubtedly through his stomach. Advertisers encouraged women to cook foods that their husbands would enjoy. Selfless devotion to the tastes of their families—especially their husbands—was so complete that advertisements ―rarely portrayed women finding gratification in eating.‖142 Instead advertisers depicted women cooking or serving their families. A 1949 advertisement for Certo, a fruit pectin

139 Parkin, Food is Love, 205-211. 140 Chafe, The Paradox of Change, 187. 141 Neuhaus, Manly Meals, 227. 142 Parkin, Food is Love, 37. 55 for jams and jellies, combined the aspects of serving your husband while pleasing him in the July issue of Ladies’ Home Journal.

CertoFigure 4.1 Figure 1

Ladies’Certo Home Journal JulyLadies’ 1949 Home Journal July 1949

This advertisement encouraged women ―to prove you‘re a wonderful wife‖ by using its product. (Figure 4.1) In this ad, the husband looks on adoringly as the wife happily displays her peach and pineapple jam. A closer examination of this advertisement illustrates many patterns that postwar advertising adopted. The first and most obvious is, of course, the serving wife. She

56 happily presents her successful jam to her husband as he smiles in approval. A second theme depicted in this advertisement is that of ease and convenience. This jam, the ad assures women, could be made ―in 15 minutes.‖ Also, the recipe notes that canned pineapple could be used for further convenience. Finally, this advertisement includes a recipe utilizing the product. Many postwar food advertisements (as well as many of today‘s food ads) included precise recipes for the dishes advertised. These recipes are, of course, reliant on the proper use of the advertised product, but they also depend on the ability of the reader to precisely follow directions. Erika Endrijonas commented on the exacting nature of recipes and cookbooks during the postwar period in her contribution to Kitchen Culture in America, ―Processed Foods from Scratch: Cooking for a Family in the 1950s.‖ She explained that these recipes addressed women as if they had never stepped foot in a kitchen before. Especially for brides, the opinion of advertisers and cookbook authors was that these women needed step-by-step, exacting instructions in order to execute the dish. Advertisers seemed to imply a ―generational gap‖ between daughters (new brides) and their mothers.143 The fact that most of the mothers of these postwar daughters were employed during World War II may add to this notion that young women in the 1950s lacked the tutelage of a full-time homemaker in their youth. The need for such instruction could also be attributed to the new styles of foods being used by postwar cooks. Instead of the limitations of whatever grew in one‘s Freedom Garden, the postwar housewife had aisles of frozen and canned convenience foods from which to choose. With new postwar technologies came new skills and techniques. Postwar women were, indeed, learning to cook in ways their mothers would have never been able to teach them. In fact, Neuhaus adds to these points by explaining that many cookbooks that were designed for new brides resembled those compiled for children—containing complete, precise directions for only the simplest of cooking tasks.144 Good food was not just used to appease husbands. It was also used to catch them. As if husbands were a commodity to be ensnared, advertisers encouraged women to use their culinary wiles to snag a groom. This 1954 advertisement for Underwood Deviled Ham (Figure 4.2) bombarded the reader with a number of advertising elements characteristic of postwar American

143 Erika Endrijonas, ―Processed Foods from Scratch: Cooking for a Family in the 1950s,‖ in Kitchen Culture in America: Popular Representations of Food, Gender, and Race, ed. Sherrie A. Inness (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2001), 166. 144 Neuhaus, Manly Meals, 174. 57 food advertising. The first thing the reader was drawn to is the lovely bride-to-be‘s success symbol—her diamond engagement ring. This advertisement created a connection between this lucky woman‘s ability to make delicious deviled ham sandwiches with her happiness as a newly engaged woman.145 One of the only advertisements in the sample that did not include an image of the prepared food product, this Underwood advertisement appealed directly to a woman‘s desire to fulfill her role as a wife rather than her taste buds. To reassure women that

FigureUnderwood 4.2 Deviled Ham Figure 2 Underwood Deviled Ham Ladies’ Home Journal Ladies’April Home 1954 Journal April 1954

145 Parkin also commentates on advertisers using images of wedding/bridal elements to connect success in the kitchen with a walk down the aisle. See Parkin, Food Is Love, 42. 58 this deviled ham was a fool-proof winning choice, the advertisement included a stamp of approval by Good Housekeeping guaranteeing replacement or refund should the product not live up to its advertised promise. The advertisement does not disappoint with regards to ease and convenience either. Underwood‘s ―Sandwich Idea‖ was complete with instructions for using canned pineapple or canned peaches with this canned ham spread.

Inconveniencing Convenience Food: Jazzing It Up! A primary feature of most food advertising and recipes during the period following World War II was a dependence on processed (frozen or canned) convenience foods. Be it the belief that postwar women were not able to handle ―from scratch‖ cookery or because postwar technology allowed for affordable, homogenized processed foods, advertisers and cookbook authors moved further away from skilled cookery to instead giving directions for ―heating, combining, and augmenting‖ convenience foods.146 Canned fruits and vegetables, frozen juices, and boxed caked mixes promised to ease the burden of America‘s women. During one of the largest employment booms for young wives and mothers—the number of mothers with young children that worked outside the home increased by 80 percent between 1948 and 1958—one would imagine convenience food companies using the busy life of the American working woman as a sales strategy.147 ―Not enough time to slave over dinner after working all day in the office? Come home to our canned vegetables. No shucking and cleaning corn for you, Mrs. Professional, let XYZ Canning, Co. do the work for you!‖ Sounds like a successful advertising campaign to most of us. Unfortunately for the 1950s homemaker (which she was considered first and foremost regardless of employment outside the home), it was the labor she poured into preparing the family meals that somehow equaled her womanly love for her family. Convenience food advertisers simply refused to think of their consumers as anything other than housewives.148 No self-respecting housewife would simply heat up soup for her husband out of a Campbell‘s can—No! She mixed in a touch of this and a dash of that to maintain her prowess as the only ―real‖ cook in the family and to reassert her love for her family.

146 Neuhaus, Manly Meals, 172. 147 Ogden, The Great American Housewife, 187. 148 Hamilton, ―Economies and Conveniences,‖ 53. 59

After all, she prepared something beyond what came in the can.149 In her survey of postwar American cookbooks, Neuhaus described how many cookbooks during the period consisted of nothing but soup recipes that entailed mixing and augmenting canned soups.150 The free time promised by pre-processed foods needed to be filled by something socially acceptable. The nuclear family image did not include a mother relaxing—lounging about because the science of modern technology afforded her a moment‘s rest—definitely not. Instead, advertisers and cookbook authors instructed women to utilize the time processed foods had freed up to add special extras to every dish. Out of this need to fill up one‘s time in the kitchen, the 1950s saw a resurgence of recipes for ―mock dishes.‖ In 1957, French philosopher Roland Barthes termed these meals, in which ingredients were shaped, coated, or positioned to look like other foods ―ornamental cookery.‖151 What more perfect way to eat away those extra minutes that using canned tuna provided for the homemaker than shaping that tuna salad into a fish! Advertisers and cookbook authors throughout the postwar period encouraged women to be creative with the presentation of their dishes. Transforming carrots and cottage cheese into the ―Golden Porcupine‖ was just another way Mom proved she loved her family.152 A 1963 advertisement for Hellmann‘s mayonnaise (Figure 4.3) illustrated this culinary trend with exacting precision. The recipe and the jar of Hellmann‘s mayonnaise in the corner are definitely secondary elements in this advertisement. The fish is the focal point. Taking up nearly a full page, the image of this molded ―tuna‖ fish about to gobble up a spoonful of mayonnaise catches the reader‘s attention. Hellmann‘s ―Temptation Tuna Salad‖ seemed to be best served in the shape of a fish. Thankfully, for the woman up to her elbows in mayonnaise trying to mold a can of tuna flakes into a somewhat recognizable shape, ―Hellmann‘s is so full-bodied [that her] ‗fish‘ holds its shape.‖ Recipes and advertisements like this one were indicative of the unwillingness of advertisers to recognize that their consumers were not all homemakers. A working mother would scarcely have time to do all of the housework and cooking that was still expected of her after working all day, let alone have time to dream up fanciful ways to serve the food. Instead of exploiting women‘s busy lifestyles as more women entered the workforce, convenience food advertisers and cookbook authors

149 Neuhaus, ―The Way to a Man‘s Heart,‖ 533-535. 150 Neuhaus, Manly Meals, 176. 151 Roland Barthes‘s term as quoted in Neuhaus, Manly Meals, 172. 152 Neuhaus, Manly Meals, 173 60 continued to envision their readers as full-time homemakers.153 They continued to promote labor intensive recipes encouraging women to show their love for their families through the food they prepared.

FigureHellmann‘s 4.3 Mayonnaise Figure 3 Hellmann‘sLadies’ Home Mayonnaise Journal

Ladies’April Home 1963 Journal April 1963

Dressing for Dinner: The Importance of Aesthetics The importance of aesthetics in the postwar kitchen extended beyond food. The image of the American nuclear family was specific in detail. White, middle-class families fit the bill as

153 Parkin, Food Is Love, 63. 61 long as Dad worked in a white, button-down shirt and skinny tie, while Mom, clad in a pressed shirtwaist dress and pearls, stayed home to tend to the home and family. As has been discussed, this image was a security blanket for the nation during a time of political and social upheaval. American homes—tightly guarded from the danger of communism—relied on the execution of that image. As Father went off to work, Mother was expected to cook and care for her family while looking stunning. Beautifully coifed, the American housewife embodied the return to ―traditional‖ general roles that American society strived for during the Cold War. During the 1959 Kitchen Debate, it is not hard to understand why Nixon would reach for a June Cleaver-esque image to help define the pleasures of American society. American sitcoms during the 1950s recreated this same version of an American wife and mother. June Cleaver and Harriet Nelson fed and nurtured America‘s favorite families in heels and pearls. In Manly Meals and Mom’s Home Cooking, Neuhaus explains that just as these all-American sitcoms embraced this image of the postwar American mother, so too did cookbook authors.154 Food advertisers also sought to exploit the image of the popular sitcom ―Mom‖ in their advertisements. The following 1954 advertisement for Jolly Time Pop Corn utilized the image of the Nelson family to sell its product (Figure 4.4). Guaranteed by Good Housekeeping, Jolly Time Pop Corn promised the consumer that she would ―never [have] any unpopped kernels, [and] never [experience] any failures.‖ The image of one of America‘s most famous nuclear families enjoying the product also reassured women that her family may, too, resemble this image with the help of Jolly Time. Food advertisers and cookbooks encouraged women to meticulously cultivate all of the details associated with being a housewife. Not only were women to focus on the visual appeal of the food they prepared, but they were also expected to present themselves in a way that was appealing to their husbands and families. Inness explained in her ―Mixing-Spoons‖ article that cookbooks taught girls that aesthetics were the most important element in cooking—even over taste. While men may have liked certain foods because they tasted good, women should pick some foods over others because they looked better. Taking the time and spending the energy to make food look beautiful was considered part of a woman‘s feminine nature. This attention to

154 Neuhaus, Manly Meals, 239-240. 62 detail, a main characteristic of her American femininity, extended to the presentation of herself and her dining table as well.155

FigureJolly Time 4.4 Pop Corn Figure 4 JollyLadies’ Time Home PopJournal Corn

Ladies’October 1954 Home Journal October 1954

Warned that their husbands could become easily bored with the same old place setting and the same old meals, advertisers and cookbook authors instructed women to try new dishes as well as make their table settings and their own appearances reflections of their bright, cheerful,

155Inness, ―Mixing-Spoons,‖ 123-124. 63 happy homes.156 Counseled to fret over making every detail decorative and attractive, the American housewife could turn to the images in advertising, cookbooks, and on television to learn the proper way to present herself and her food to her family. As Parkin explains about food advertising, a woman‘s appeal to her husband, whether through food or her appearance, was important to her livelihood. During the first two-thirds of the century especially, Parkin asserts, women depended on their husbands for financial security. Therefore it was easy for advertisers and other authorities to exploit women‘s insecurities regarding fulfilling their roles as wives and mothers.157 As the image of a well-dressed wife serving her family implied not only notions about gender and patriotism, it also suggested a certain level of suburban class status. In a period when the middle class was expanding with extraordinary speed, families often sought out new ways to assert their distinctly middle-class status. Parkin elaborated on this connection between food purchases and class, explaining that advertisers suggested that purchasing their products would help women illustrate their families‘ upward mobility and status.158 Thankfully for new bride Lois Graham, Chef Pail Brunet was available to help her with the menacing tasks of opening a can and pouring the processed fruit cocktail into a bowl in the following 1950 advertisement for Libby‘s canned fruit. This advertisement illustrates many elements of gendered food advertisements discussed thus far (Figure 4.5). First, the woman in this image is beautiful with her lovely ruffled apron as well as perfectly styled hair and complete makeup. The jewelry she wears as she learns these ―3 dazzling desserts‖ only accentuates the notion that this woman is secure in her position as a new, middle-class housewife. Beyond the elements of beauty and class, this advertisement also addresses the understanding that new brides were especially in need of step-by-step cooking advice. Finally, ease and convenience take precedence in this Libby‘s advertisement. These desserts promise to be a ―Cinch for any bride.‖159 Canned peaches, pears, and fruit cocktail, Libby‘s assured women, were the keys to making dishes that would please any husband. Attention to detail, from the color of the tablecloth to a perfectly set hairdo, reflected a woman‘s feminine nature. Fulfilling her role as a feminine American housewife not only

156 Endrijonas, ―Processed Foods from Scratch,‖ 157-160 157 Parkin, Food Is Love, 39-40. 158 Parkin, Food Is Love, 79. 159 Ibid. 64 reflected class and patriotic standing, but was often tied directly to a woman‘s ability to maintain her lifestyle. With every aspect of the mass media—advertising, advice literature, television, etc.—instructing women to keep the aesthetics of the kitchen manicured and cheerful, many women tried to replicate the images of June Cleaver and Harriet Nelson in their own homes. Unfortunately for them, however, these women were characters. From June Cleaver to every ―Mom‖ in any food advertisement, teams of people prepared these women to give them their effortlessly beautiful appeal. American housewives were sure to fall short of this image as

Libby‘sFigure 4.5 Figure 5 Ladies’Libby‘s Home Journal

AprilLadies’ 1950 Home Journal April 1950

65 they tried to prepare the perfect place setting, the perfect ensemble, and the perfect ―Crème Brulée à la Libby‘s Fruit Cocktail.‖

The Working Homemaker: Making Money and Cooking Meals In the late 1950s and early 1960s, food advertisers and cookbooks started to acknowledge that women, indeed, worked outside the home. During this period, cookbooks and advertisements even acknowledged that not all women had a ―natural‖ affinity for cooking— some might even consider it a bore. 160 In ―The Way to a Man‘s Heart,‖ Neuhaus argued that these comments—however small—regarding the drudgery of cooking acknowledged the growing dissatisfaction many women had with their prescribed roles in society.161 Finally realizing that working outside the home was a reality for majority of wives during the postwar period, food advertisers started suggesting that their products could help women fulfill their role as family cook, in spite of their work responsibilities outside the home.162 It is interesting to note that regardless of how busy a woman‘s life became, advertisers never suggested passing along the food preparation responsibilities to any other member of the family (except the occasional shift of responsibilities to her daughter). She—as wife and mother—was responsible for cooking for her family.163 Being sure to continue the notion that womanly love was expressed through the labor involved in preparing meals, advertisers often encouraged women to use their products for convenience, but cover up their use with elaborate ruses.164 In the following Wish Bone salad dressing advertisement (Figure 4.6), the reader was encouraged to use the product, but repackage it in a way that looks homemade. Tapping directly into the rhetoric facilitated by years of advertisers, the advertisement directed women not to feel guilty about it not being homemade (of course, how else would they sell bottled dressing). Well aware of the guilt women would feel for not providing a homemade item to her family, Wish Bone reassured the reader that even she

160 Neuhaus, Manly Meals, 240. 161 Neuhaus, ―The Way to a Man‘s Heart,‖ 543. 162 Parkin, Food Is Love, 31. 163 This fact is noted by multiple scholars. See Parkin, Food Is Love, 10, Neuhaus, Manly Meals, 241, and Jessamyn Neuhaus, ―The Joy of Sex Instruction: Women and Cooking in Marital Sex Manuals, 1920 – 1963,‖ in Kitchen Culture in America: Popular Representations of Food, Gender, and Race, ed. Sherrie A. Inness (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2001), 111. 164 Neuhaus, ―The Way to a Man‘s Heart,‖ 533. 66 could not have made a better Italian dressing—knowing that the product she was serving her family was the best, she could scoff at the guilt associated with processed foods. These tactics for making foods look more like homemade were yet another example of ways in which advertisers encouraged women to fill up the free time associated with convenience foods. Pouring bottled Italian dressing into a glass pitcher may have appeased those who imagined that the cook has whisked away at oil and vinegar all evening preparing the perfect dressing, but instead it actually produced more work for the time-starved woman. Who‘s going to clean that extra dish? It certainly would not be her husband. Some cookbooks actually prohibited working women to ask for assistance from their husbands. It was the opinion of many cookbook authorities that a man‘s ego was already in a delicate state because of his

Figure 4.6 Wish Bone Salad Dressing WishLadies’ Bone SaladHome Dressing Journal Figure 6 Ladies’April 1963 67 wife‘s working outside the home. But to ask him to help with the dishes on top of that—that could be a fatal blow to his delicate male psyche.165

Conclusion: Whipping Up Love, Femininity, and Security in the Kitchen As Neuhaus asserted, ―if ever a nation needed comfort food, it was the United States in the 1950s.‖166 After years of shortages, rationing, and upheaval, America was ready to indulge in the tastes that the Depression and WWII had denied it. Unfortunately, the uncertainty and anxiety of the Cold War ushered in a period of frantic protection of the one institution Americans felt they had control over—the family. The strong embrace of ―traditional‖ gender roles enforced an ideal that relied on a woman‘s place within the home. However, the postwar period represented a time of immense increase in the employed population of women. After the war, many women did not want, or could not afford to leave their employers. Neglecting their own data and research, advertisers and cookbook authors ignored the reality that a majority of married women during the postwar period held a job and instead advertised in ways that encouraged women to dedicate themselves fully to their families—and their kitchens. Advertisers, especially food advertisers, embraced the image of the American family that the mass media created after the war. Subscribing to the fantasy 1950s American sitcoms, food advertisers constantly bombarded women with contradictory messages: do it quick, make it by hand, use convenience foods, do not let them know you use convenience foods, be creative, follow the recipe, and so on. As television shows depicted homes without bomb shelters or children humming the ―Duck and Cover‖ tune, so too did food advertising wish to represent an image of American life that was free from the fear and anxiety of a constant nuclear threat (or the belief in one). Mom presenting her perfectly baked Betty Crocker Angel Food cake was about more than selling cake mix, it was a symbol of ―normalcy,‖ safety, and security. Unfortunately for America‘s women, they had the responsibility of fulfilling that fantasy image.

165 Neuhaus, Manly Meals, 243. 166 Neuhaus, ―The Way to a Man‘s Heart,‖ 532. 68

CHAPTER FIVE “YOU NEVER HAD IT SO CLEAN!”

“You Never Had It So Clean!”: An Introduction ―You never had it so clean!‖ What an inspirational promise to the housewife who toiled over the brightness and whiteness of her wash load. Leaping for joy, this housewife sings the praises of science, without which her Tide would have never been able to reach this level of cleanliness. This 1953 Tide advertisement illustrates not only the level of happiness advertisers equated to a perfectly done load of laundry—the clicking of the heels in glee adds a subtle touch—but also the importance of obtaining the cleanest clean ―possible‖ to the postwar housewife. (Image 5.1) During the postwar years, advertisers filled women‘s magazines with advertisements like this one that encouraged housewives to use their products in the fight against germs. Cleanliness became a daily battle for women. The newly acquired suburban home could not be tarnished with dust bunnies and scalded pots. Fortunately, companies like Tide and Clorox were happy to sell their products as weaponry in the epic battle that reigned in postwar suburbia. Of course, cleanliness and attempts to obtain it occurred everywhere in postwar America—not just on the avenues of Levittown. However, this study focuses on advertisements in the popular Ladies’ Home Journal. As such, it is concerned with an image—an ideal—that the media perpetuated as typical during the period. Not all housewives were white. Not all housewives were middle-class. Not all housewives leapt for joy at the sight of a stain-free load of laundry. These things we know. What this chapter seeks to explore are the messages associated with these images and ideals put forth by the advertising industry in a socially and politically unstable era. Historians have discussed at length this nearly national emotion that permeated the years after the Second World War.167 After Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Americans faced the reality that not only was atomic warfare possible, it was the key ingredient in a stalemate between the United States and the Soviet Union. As May commented ―the cold war could turn hot‖ [sic] at

167 See May‘s Homeward Bound as well as Jacobson‘s and Gonzalez‘s What Have They Built You To Do?, especially chapter 2. 69

FigureTide 5.1 Image 1 TideApril 1953 Ladies’ Home Journal April 1953

any moment and Americans carried that heavy reality with them through their everyday lives.168 As the country‘s social and economic makeup reorganized after years of wartime scarcity and a new threat of communism glimmered on the eastern horizon, many Americans turned

168 May, Homeward Bound, 16. 70 inward—to the home—for the comforts of safety and security.169 Advertisers seemingly took every opportunity to exploit this image of the happy American family comforted in the safety of the home. A key element to that safe home was its level of cleanliness. Thankfully for advertisers, associating any action—such as the scrubbing of the inside of a toilet—to the success of being a good wife also entailed developing a connection between that action and a housewife‘s national identity. Shielded from the threat of the atom bomb outside, the family needed to be guarded from the threat of dirt and germs inside. Fortunately for advertisers, the booming economy of the period paired with its rapidly expanding middle class lent itself well to the development of any market, including a cleaning product market. Americans had money to spend and class status to display. Keeping up with the Joneses got even more competitive as new products bombarded the market. Dishwashers, electric washers and dryers, and garbage disposals made their way into suburban homes and the proverbial Joneses happily welcome them. When advertisements told Mrs. Consumer that she needed a new Frigidaire washing machine to get her family‘s clothes clean—safe from dirt and germs—she had the resources to comply. This study explores these connections between household cleanliness and the security of the home in the postwar period. Surveying both the postwar years in American history and the history of cleanliness in the United States, I illustrate that when advertisers encouraged women to obtain the whitest white and the cleanest clean, they were also sending larger messages of national identity and security. My primary source research included a sampling of over 300 advertisements in the Ladies’ Home Journal between 1949 and 1965. In order to obtain a reasonable spread of data, I examined every fourth year from 1949 to 1965 (1949, 1953, 1957, 1961, and 1965). Within those years, I examined a monthly issue for each quarter (January, April, July, and October) of the year. There was only one instance in which one of these issues was unavailable and that was for the April issue of 1949, March was used in its place. 170

169 For more explanation for this turn inward, see May‘s discussion of ―domestic containment,‖ Homeward Bound, 10-29. 170 A note on methodology: 355 advertisements were analyzed that pertained to cleanliness of the home and body. Advertisements were organized into the following categories: Personal Hygiene—Breath, Deodorant, Soap, and Shampoo (Feminine hygiene products were counted under the ―Other‖ category for this specific study), and Household Cleanliness—Dishes, Counters, Floors, Laundry, Bathroom, Cleansers, and Other. 71

Germ Theory and the Gospel: The History of American Housework Scholars agree that the postwar years, the 1950s especially, were important times in the history of cleanliness in America. Propelled by the consumerism of the period, the amount of money spent on the raging battle against dust and grime in the home elevated to a point which convinced at least one scholar that the postwar years were in fact the zenith of domestic cleanliness.171 Indeed, as historian Suellen Hoy explains in Chasing Dirt: The American Pursuit of Cleanliness, the 1950s did represent a sort of national embrace of domestic and personal cleanliness. Electricity output nearly tripled and the amount of money spent on advertising nearly doubled during this period as advertisers implored Mrs. Consumer to purchase labor- saving appliances and cleaning agents to get her home the ―cleanest clean possible.‖172 Further investigation into the scholarship that examines the history of cleanliness in America illuminates another period—one before the Bendix washer era—that represents another high point in the history. Many scholars look to the Progressive Era in American history as a platform in the study of American cleanliness. An understanding of the Progressive Era and its unique role in the development of home economics and domestic housework is critical to understanding the postwar years‘ ―culture of cleanliness.‖173 The Progressive Era—that period roughly between the 1890s and the 1920s in American history that is usually defined by its shifting economy, unprecedented immigration levels, and an interest in ―progress‖ through science and expertise—provides a basis of information useful to understanding the history of cleanliness in America, especially as it relates to consumer activity. Most scholars who have tackled this topic describe the Progressive Era as the period in which housework took on a scientific nature and became inextricably linked to national goals of health and safety.174 The scholarship associated with the history of domestic housework and cleanliness is indebted to the rise of women‘s history in the 1980s. Before that decade, scholars paid little to no attention to the expanse of unpaid labor that is housework. Finally, in 1982, Susan Strasser

171 Hoy, Chasing Dirt, 151-152. 172 Ibid., 151, xiv. 173 This is the term Hoy uses to describe the obsession in the 1950s with domestic and personal cleanliness, 151. 174 For authoritative explorations into the Progressive Era and the characteristics unique to it see Maureen A. Flanagan‘s America Reformed: Progressives and Progressivisms, 1890s-1920s (New York: Oxford University Press, 2007), Steven J. Diner‘s A Very Different Age: Americans and the Progressive Era (New York: Hill and Wang, 1998), as well as Noralee Frankel and Nancy Schrom Dye‘s Gender, Class, Race, and Reform in the Progressive Era (Lexington: The University Press of Kentucky, 1991). 72 published a groundbreaking analysis of the subject with Never Done: A History of American Housework. Her work was followed by other important additions to the scholarship, namely Ruth Schwartz Cowan‘s More Work for Mother: The Ironies of Household Technology from the Open Hearth to the Microwave in 1983 and Glenna Matthews‘ ―Just A Housewife‖: The Rise and Fall of Domesticity in America in 1987. In Never Done, Strasser explained the Progressive Era‘s influence on housework in terms of industrialization and consumerism. She contended that during this period, the rise of the expert as well as the concern for efficiency in everyday tasks moved housework from the realm of the ―common sense‖ of the housewife to the advice manuals and teachings of what would become ―home economists.‖175 As the home shifted from a place of production to a place of consumption—another Progressive Era characteristic— housework became more of an activity of consumption as well. Instead of making soap, housewives bought it. Electricity and water, while indispensable to the modern housekeeper, still had to be purchased. Strasser sophisticatedly connects these changes to the nation‘s changing economy. America was a capitalist economy and needed to grow. In order to do that, things needed to change. Instead of creating and using products completely in the home, American families needed to seek out things to consume. The ―germ theory‖ of the Progressive Era created a timely vehicle through which those needs could be met. Germ theory began to rear its head in the 1890s as scientists started connecting the dissemination of disease and contagions with microbes—germs.176 This in turn led Progressive Era reformers, who were already concerned with the seemingly negative changes affecting the country due in part to massive urbanization and immigration, to take a stance against this invisible invader. Reformers and soon-to-be-named home economists would begin preaching the ―gospel of germs‖ as a method of eradicating this threat to the health of the home and family.177 The home economists during the Progressive Era—which were predominately, nearly exclusively women—took on intriguing responsibility as they not only attempted to lead housewives in ways that would protect their families, but they also struggled to create and represent the field of home economics as a scientific undertaking. Most historians look to Ellen

175 Strasser, Never Done, 7. 176 Barbara Ehrenreich and Deirdre English, For Her Own Good: Two Centuries of the Experts’ Advice to Women (New York: Anchor Books, 2005), 173. 177 For an excellent introduction to the ―Gospel of Germs‖ see Nancy Tomes‘ aptly titled The Gospel of Germs: Men, Women, and the Microbe in American Life (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1998), 1-20. ―Gospel of Germs‖ defined on page 2. 73

Swallow Richards as the mother of modern home economics. A Progressive Era reformer, she graduated from Vassar to attend (on ―special‖ terms) MIT. Trained as a chemist, she turned her attention to ―sanitary chemistry‖ as she attempted to develop housekeeping into a respectable scientific undertaking.178 No doubt influenced by the period‘s embrace of Frederick Taylor‘s scientific management or ―Taylorism,‖ Richards endeavored to streamline the labor of housework.179 Advice manuals and home economists explained to housewives the importance of efficiency in the home. No effort should be wasted. Every action should have a clear function and be performed without squandered energy. Barbara Ehrenreich and Deirdre English explore this turn to Taylorism and critique its actual practice for the early twentieth-century housewife in their 2005 For Her Own Good: Two Centuries of the Experts’ Advice to Women. They explained that aspects of scientific management not only failed to create less work—which was an expected goal of the process as less work in the prescribed amount of time could lead to more productivity as workers could then fill that void in time with more work—but its rigorous steps actually created more work for the housewife. No longer did she just need to perform the task, but she also needed to diligently record her actions and the time those actions took. Filing those records ate up precious moments as did analyzing the use of time. With Taylorism, tasks like laundry, tedious and arduous enough on their own, became elaborate works of analysis and bookkeeping as well. Ehrenreich and English also examined an overtly damaging aspect of Taylorism with respect to its application in the home. One of the main aspects of scientific management was the division of labor between the manager and the laborer. Seemingly it did not occur to Richards or her counterparts at the time that the Progressive Era housewife encompassed both of these roles.180 Home economists like Richards became increasingly important to the consumerism associated with domestic cleanliness in this period. Not only did they recommend the purchase of certain products in the constant battle against germs, but some of them even teamed up with companies and advertisers to explain the best ways to speak to housewives.181 Historians note Christine Frederick, author of Selling Mrs. Consumer (1929), as an indispensable link between

178 Jean Zimmerman, Made From Scratch: Reclaiming the Pleasures of the American Hearth (New York: Free Press, 2003), 83. 179 Ehrenreich and English, For Her Own Good, 178-179. 180 Ibid. 181 Hoy, Chasing Dirt, 154. 74 housewives and advertisers during this period. As a Progressive Era reformer and home economist, Frederick assumed a certain level of authority when it came to cleanliness within the home and her role with housewives. She utilized that unique authority by developing an interesting connection with advertisers instructing them on the best ways to target Mrs. Consumer. Hoy explains that Frederick encouraged advertisers to appeal to the housewife‘s emotions. Showing Mrs. Consumer the importance of protecting her family through the use of their product would ensure a company success in a period in which the health of one‘s family was an overwhelming responsibility for the housewife.182

Mop & Glo: Cleaning and Protecting the Postwar Home The housewife at the turn of the twentieth century struggled to provide a safe, clean place for her family to call home, and so too did the postwar woman. Something also made clear was that it was her responsibility alone to make this happen. Advertisers during the postwar period sent at least one message loud and clear: housekeeping was definitively a female undertaking. Likening a woman‘s success as a wife and mother to how well she performed domestic tasks— like cooking and cleaning—was part and parcel of postwar advertising campaigns. After all, what more was there to a fulfilling life than clean sinks and a perfectly frosted cake? An analysis of the advertisements from this period, like that of this study, becomes increasingly interesting when one examines them with the understanding of the pervasive Cold War anxiety of the time. Everything—from school yard ―duck and cover‖ drills to pamphlets that instructed vigilance against neighbors who might be communist sympathizers—was steeped in a perpetual Red Scare. A controlled environment in the home became a place of security in a world of fear. Advertisers understood the importance of a safe home and its significance to the nation‘s effort to hone more ―traditional‖ family values as they encouraged women to raise their toilet brushes in the battle against insecurity. Wielding boxes of Tide Flakes like shields against communism, postwar women were not only fulfilling their roles as good American housewives, but they were also epitomizing their roles of loving, protective mothers.

182 Ibid., 155. See also Ehrenreich and English, For Her Own Good, 174-175. Tomes also explores the level of responsibility placed on the housewife during this period for the health of the family. Housewives shouldered the burden and guilt should a family member fall ill or die as it was suspected that her housekeeping skills were partly, if not completely, to blame. Tomes, Gospel of Germs, 204. 75

Advertisers often used children in their advertisements to further the connection between the use of their products and a mother‘s ability to keep her family safe. This 1957 ad in LHJ exhibited this trend as well as the use of certain buzzwords like ―safer,‖ ―cleaner,‖ and ―protecting.‖ (Image 5.2) As the advertisement depicts, this ―little lady‖ was safer because her mother used Clorox. Not only does this decision guarantee ―whiter…brighter…sanitary‖ diapers, it also guarantees ―health-protecting cleanliness‖ for this family. Encouraging

Figure 5.2 Clorox Ladies’ Home Journal April 1957 Image 2 76 consumerism in its finest form, the advertisement encourages women to keep handy bottles of Clorox in their kitchens and their bathrooms—one simply will not do, besides who wants to walk all the way to the kitchen to clean the bathtub? Ehrenreich and English explain that during the postwar years the need for home economists ―became almost unnecessary‖ because the values of cleanliness that they touted had become part of the nation‘s everyday life.183 This national obsession is what Hoy described as the ―culture of cleanliness‖ in the postwar period. She explained that throughout the nation, women purchased more appliances and products to clean their homes while simultaneously depending less on domestic help.184 This fact is one that historian Ruth Schwartz Cowan investigated in her More Work for Mother.185 How, in a time when convenience and ease were promised on nearly every advertisement, could mothers be working as hard, if not harder, than their mothers had on housework? Protecting one‘s family from germs and dirt called for more than a quick run of the mop and fluffing of the sheets. Postwar Mom had her work cut out for her as she tried to fulfill her roles as national citizen and loving mother in ways that had become inextricably connected. The bonds of this connection were further solidified by Vice President Nixon in 1959. I turn again to the ―Kitchen Debate‖ between Vice President Nixon and Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev as a critical example of how aspects of domesticity were equated to cherished American values. Here at the American National Exhibition, Nixon explained the benefits of American capitalism to Khrushchev in front of none other than a model suburban kitchen. The Niagara Instant Laundry Starch and S.O.S laundry soap that rested on top of the washing machine boldly represented not only the use of the convenient automatic washer, but also the prosperity of a nation who‘s housewives could afford to buy the many accessories that accompanied her wash load, such as soap and fabric softener. Nixon launched into a speech praising the choices the American capitalist system presented to the nation‘s housewives: ―To us, diversity is the right to choose. […] We have many different manufacturers and many different kinds of washing machines so that the housewives have a choice […].‖186

183 Ehrenreich and English, For Her Own Good, 196. 184 Hoy, Chasing Dirt, 151-152. 185 Cowan, More Work For Mother, especially her introduction, 3-15. 186 Ibid. 77

This 1965 advertisement for Ajax laundry detergent illustrates the choices Nixon praised six years earlier. (Image 5.3) The brand of washing machine and soap—or perhaps, not soap as the Ajax advertisement suggests only one acceptable choice—a housewife used may have been left to her discretion, but the fact that she needed a new washing machine, soap, starch, and fabric softener—that was a carefully constructed need that marketing and advertising developed.

FigureAjax 5.3 Image 4 AjaxApril 1965 Ladies’ Home Journal April 1965

Susan Strasser examines this advertising technique critically in Never Done. She explains that after the war, marketers developed new ways to sell the products they were now producing. One of the most successful ways to be sure to have repeat customers was for companies to continually produce newer versions of their products.187 Part of asserting one‘s class status during this period was an exorbitant amount of consumption. The ―more is better‖ attitude guided purchasing decisions as suburbanites continually tried to outshine their neighbors with the latest and greatest consumer goods. This 1961 Frigidaire Automatic Washer

Figure 5.4 Frigidaire Ladies’ Home Journal

April 1961

187 Strasser examines the example of the washing machine specifically and how advertisers encouraged buyers to upgrade to new models when there may not have been anything functionally wrong with their previous model. Never Done, 264. 79 advertisement embodies that tactic.(Image 5.4) In fact, this advertisement has it all! Not only does it encourage housewives to upgrade to the new ―1961‖ model automatic washer, but it also appeals to Mother‘s protective nature with the usual buzzwords. Mom can be sure that her family‘s clothes are ―cleaner, cleaner, cleaner‖ because this model of the Frigidaire washer gently ―bathes out every speck of dirt‖ with its gentle agitating action. Also, just to be sure that the level of potential consumption was high enough, the folks at Frigidaire took the opportunity in this ad to let mothers know about the convenience of the Baby Care Washer‘s soak cycle. Who better to illustrate the need for a washer with safety and cleanliness in mind than a diaper- clad toddler? Mom could get started for as little as $2.09 a month—a small price to pay for her family‘s well being. The capitalism and consumerism of the period were important to this delicate balance between supply and demand. Advertisers played a pivotal role in creating demand, just as they do today. It took money to purchase these things. Upgrading to a new washer each year took on the same symbolism of upward mobility as did a new car. Like today, purchasing the latest gadget denotes an ability to allot resources to unnecessary products. In an era in which the boundaries of middle-class status were widening to engulf new consumers, consuming on all levels became an indispensable act.

“Lucky You!”: Advertising Convenience and Ease Thankfully for hardworking Postwar Mom, it seemed nearly every product brought with it a promise of ease in some form or another. Every weapon in her cleaning arsenal—from vacuums, to Brillo pads, to bleach—reassured her that with it came a glimmer of free time, a hint of leisure, a hope of not breaking her back. With this in mind, I return to Cowan‘s provocative question: How then, with all of this promise of ease and convenience, were postwar mothers doing the same amount, if not more, work than their mothers?188 At first glance, an automatic washer that one loads and walks away from seems like much less work than those that required wringing and water changing, let alone the boiling pot brand of laundry, but on further investigation it is interesting to examine how many of these time-

188Cowan, More Work for Mother, 192-193. These pages refer especially to the Postwar Years, but she examines this question throughout generations in modern American history. 80 saving and labor-saving appliances not only did not save time, but could actually create more work for the postwar housewife. Most scholars in this niche of American history explore this disconnect between advertised fantasy and reality in some way in their work. It does seem like an awkward reality: if so many advances had come about in the American market, why then did postwar housewives work from sunup to sundown scrubbing floors and washing dishes? The answer lies somewhere between the mysterious ―void‖ less housework would create and the connection that existed between a mother‘s love for her family and the tidiness of her home. Cowan does more than nod to this question in More Work for Mother. In fact, the irony of working as hard or harder with more ―convenient‖ products makes up the entirety of her research. She explains that while the processes through which work is accomplished may have changed, the work itself is still there and, in some cases, growing.189 As advertisers continued to market products as time and labor savers, the image of housework started to change during this period. Instead of perceiving it as the back-breaking labor it was, some began to perceive it as simple and easy.190 Being as connected to a mother‘s value in the home as it was, housework taking on an air of simplicity did little to bolster Mom‘s role as a loving and protective figure in this time of anxiety and insecurity. Similar to the pattern that developed with convenience foods during this period, as the level of convenience associated with a cleaning product grew, so too did the amount of work mothers had to do to it to reassert that she did it with love and concern for her family. Housework expanded to fill any time that might have been saved by these time-saving aids. There could be no ―void‖ created by less demanding work, instead advertisers instructed many women in ways to fill this time.191 Like the housewife who served Campbell‘s soups for dinner needed to jazz it up with toast cut in the shape of tiny fish, the housewife who pretreated stained fabric in ten minutes instead of overnight found more laundry to do to fill that saved time. This Eureka vacuum advertisement from 1953 illustrates how advertisers simultaneously

189 Cowan, More Work for Mother, 193. 190 Zimmerman, Made From Scratch, 92. 191 Ehrenreich and English, For Her Own Good, 158. 81

FigureEureka 5.5 Image 6 EurekaApril 1953 Ladies’ Home Journal April 1953

promised housewives ease, while reminding them of all of the tasks they could tackle with their products. (Image 5.5) Lucky Her! Not only was she saving ―$20 to $30,‖ she was also the proud owner of the ―2 to 5 lbs. lighter‖ Eureka Roto-Matic. Never mind that the vacuum still probably weighed upwards of fifteen pounds, now she could effortlessly use it on her wall-to-wall carpet, but also for all of her ―above-floor‖ cleaning tasks. Dusty lamp shades and dingy curtains did

82 not stand a chance against the Roto-Matic‘s ―hurricane suction.‖ It would probably be safe to assume that before the ease and convenience of the Roto-Matic and its counterparts in the postwar years most mothers were not vacuuming their lamp shades. Advertisements like this only bolster the conclusion that with more labor-saving advances (yes, pushing a vacuum was probably less arduous than beating a rug) came more tasks and more frequency (a housewife may have beat that rug once a season, postwar Mom vacuums each afternoon).

Shout It Out!: Using Laundry as an Example Most scholars on the history of cleanliness in America agree that laundry was one of, if not the worst, chore for women through time. Strasser contends that laundry was the single largest complaint among nineteenth-century housewives.192 And who could blame them— hauling countless pails of water to and fro, boiling that water, and steeping dirty clothes in it for hours? Certainly the advent of the automatic washer was a welcomed advantage. With a machine that allowed the housewife to pile in the dirty clothes, turn it on, and come back to clean clothes, it is hard to imagine (at first) why the postwar housewife would need more ease and convenience when it came to laundry. Comprising nearly 25 percent of the advertisements examined for this study, washers, dryers, and other laundry apparatus filled a large part of advertising space as well as a large amount of the housewife‘s time.193 Again, Cowan explained that while the actual processes required to do specific work has changed over time, the amount of work produced has either stayed the same or has grown in recent decades. Strasser examined this concept and how it has affected laundry specifically. Explaining that the washing machine has more restructured the time spent doing laundry instead of reducing it, Strasser draws attention to the fact that during the postwar years housewives were increasingly expected to do laundry every day instead of once a week or month.194 The ease and convenience that a new washer afforded the postwar housewife made it possible to do a load of laundry whenever one accumulated. This was at least

192 Strasser, Never Done, 104. 193 Laundry-related advertisements accounted for 83 of the 355 advertisements analyzed in this chapter. Laundry was in fact the only category for advertisements whose popularity continued into the 1960s. After the end of the 1950s, most of the other categories dropped off extensively in frequency. For an interesting discussion in the shifts in advertising categories and their popularity through the postwar decades see Kristina Roberts Ellis‘s thesis ―Bodies of Thought, Sites of Anxiety: The Representation of the Female Body in ‗Cosmopolitan‘ Magazine During the 1940s, 1950s, and the 1960s‖ (MA thesis, University of Missouri—Kansas City, 2008). 194 Cowan, More Work for Mother, 192-93, Strasser, Never Done, 267-268. 83 the message that advertisers asserted. Less of a chore and more of something to be done in spare minutes, laundry became part of the everyday routine. In 1953 Kelvinator produced this advertisement for its new ―work-saving clothes dryer.‖ (Image 5.6) This Kelvinator dryer saved time, had three built-in safety features (for the mother concerned with the safety of her home), and boasted the ability of housewives to do laundry at ―any hour, any day of the week!‖ Laundry, thus, was not considered a hard-work task, instead one of little effort that could be done anytime, whenever a load presented itself.

Figure 5.6 Kelvinator Kelvinator Image 7 Ladies’ Home Journal OctoberOctober 1953 1953 84

With this notion of ease also came a less discriminatory attitude about what needed to be washed. Husbands and children haphazardly filled hampers with clothes that in earlier years would have been worn several more times.195 Mom washed the sheets every week instead of each season and things that had never before been considered laundry, like the teddy bear in the 1961 Frigidaire advertisement, made their way into the spin cycle. The example of the washing machine clearly represents how, in an effort to maintain the utmost cleanliness and safety in the home, housewives‘ housekeeping labor expanded to fill any gaps in labor that labor- and time- saving advancements may have created.

“Twice the Shine in Half the Time!”: Conclusion The capitalist system that Nixon praised in 1959 may have provided the postwar housewife with a new selection of options for her cleaning needs, but it did not cut her cleaning time down in any respect. As historians have articulated, as advances in housework reconstructed the labor required for tasks, new tasks or a greater frequency of tasks have developed to fill time. Mother, solely responsible for the health and well-being of her family during a time of political and social insecurity, lived with a ―silent imperative to work.‖196 An empty moment and an automatic washing machine equated to freshly washed curtains and pillowcases. As with food, advertisers encouraged women to purchase convenience products while simultaneously negating their convenience with new expectations. As in the Progressive Era, the postwar housewife found it her responsibility to bear the burden of protecting her family within the walls of a safe and secure home. Constantly scrubbing and washing, the postwar housewife worked to allay the fears and anxieties of her family as she welcomed them from the outside back into a sparkling clean abode each day. As consumption became an increasingly important element in cleanliness, it is clear how issues of domestic cleanliness during the postwar period began to be tied to national goals. With the rhetoric of an all-consuming nation being pitted against that of the communist Soviet Union, consumption in all respects became a patriotic act. Postwar housewives could consider their participation in upgrading each year to a new model washing machine as part of a larger cause.

195 Strasser, Never Done, 268. 196 Ehrenreich and English, For Her Own Good, 197, original emphasis.

She was exerting her consumer power in the face of the communist enemy. In the meantime, she was also providing an unmistakably middle-class home, complete with freshly laundered sheets, for her family to call ―home.‖

CONCLUSION READING THE ADS BEYOND THE COPY

By tracing the patterns of advertising by the roles the media prescribed for women— bride, wife, as well as loving and protective mother, we are able to examine a progression in advertising techniques. During the postwar period—one marked by tremendous consumerism, class status shifts, and an ever-looming threat of nuclear war—advertisers embraced tightly a fabricated image of the happy, young postwar housewife. Finally free from the turmoil of wartime labor, she was able to cultivate her true talents in the home such as cake baking and stain removing. Of course we know this was but an image. While some Americans did in fact turn homeward as May argues to the safety and comfort of their homes, this was not the reality for all Americans after the war. As Chafe and Meyerowitz argue, many women after the war had neither the ability nor the desire to leave the workforce to return to their kitchens. Instead, the period represents a growth in women‘s participation in the paid labor force.197 The question then becomes, ―Why?‖ Why would advertisers perpetuate an image that was representative of such a small group in society (young, white, middle-class homemakers)? The answer lies in the implications of such an image. By advertising a happy, beautiful homemaker using the latest gadget to feed her children and husband, advertisers carefully constructed an image that depicted many of the desired—as the media and mass culture dictated—characteristics for women in every glossy illustration. This homemaker was married. Of course this was the first required aspect of the ideal American housewife during the postwar period. As chapter two examined, advertisers illustrated that getting married was not only the acceptable avenue for women during this period, it was also an opportunity to demonstrate a woman‘s (and her family‘s) class status. A married woman could expect her white wedding to illustrate not only her success in finding a husband, but also her footing on the middle-class rung of the social ladder during a period in which class status boundaries were in flux. An ornate white wedding with all the trimmings demonstrated an adherence to the prescribed ―traditional‖ gender roles as well as an understanding of how consumerism was inextricably tied to class status during this period.

197 Chafe, The Paradox of Change, 189. 87

Advertisers‘ ideal women were not only married, they were beautiful and young. It was the well-coifed housewife they sought to illustrate. American housewives during the postwar years had perfect hair, beautifully manicured nails, vacuumed in pearls, and did the laundry in perfectly starched shirtwaist dresses. That is what advertisers tell us about the period. Here again, we can argue and recognize the differences between the reality and the ideal, but the ideal is the topic of this evaluation. As chapter three discusses, this period of American history was characterized by the anxious atmosphere created by the Cold War. An acknowledged stalemate between the two world superpowers created a tense environment. For the first time in the world‘s history, complete destruction was possible.198 The ever-looming threat of who would be the first to flinch permeated every aspect of life. School children practiced drills to protect them in the event of an atomic attack while homemakers designed the family budget to accommodate bomb shelter supplies. The one place that it seemed the shadow of Cold War anxiety did not touch, however, was the mass media. Television and advertising from this period explicitly ignored the subject. While many postwar mothers were busily preparing their homes and families for the threat of atomic warfare, June Cleaver‘s biggest worry was whether or not ―The Beav‖ was staying out of trouble. In this instance, the lack of reference to the Cold War is significant. The media tried to erase this reality from the realm of the fantasy it created. The absence speaks volumes. When analyzing cultural materials from this time period—in this case magazine advertisements—one must examine them with an understanding of the period in which they were produced. With something like the anxiety that plagued the American people during the Cold War—something that permeated so many aspects of daily life—it would be a mistake not to recognize its influence on the cultural elements that seem to ignore its presence. Chapters three, four, and five aimed to examine not only how the ideal postwar wife and mother participated in the rampant consumerism of the period, but how her actions in these advertisements could be connected to larger issues of national identity and security. Her purchasing power coupled with her beauty made the woman depicted in these advertisements an ideal representation of what American women could be. Thanks to the nation‘s superior

198 For an accessible, well-researched overview of the Cold War see John Lewis Gaddis‘s The Cold War: A New History (New York: Penguin Press, 2005). 88 capitalist system—the argument went—American women could enjoy their lives in their homes. They could focus on being attractive wives and mothers as well as creating an environment in the home that was both loving and safe. Again, this image was not representative of the realities most women during the period lived, but it was nonetheless presented as the image to emulate. My examination of the advertisements during this period was not only an attempt to examine the expanding consumerism of the period, but also to analyze a cultural source from a period that ignored a massive social and political tension—one that it, as everything during the period, was affected by. This study invites us to question ―why?‖ Why in this period—after a massive integration of women into the workforce during World War II—would the media, in all its forms, call for a return of women to their homes? Why was it suggested that the only acceptable goal for a woman to pursue after high school was marriage? We know that a call back to ―traditional‖ family values and gender roles instigated and fueled these assumptions. In the face of an unpredictable, anxious time, the media grabbed hold of the most secure image it could muster. The ideal image of the American family—complete with a well-mannered, beautifully-coiffed mother serving dinner to her family in her immaculately clean kitchen— became a type of shorthand—simultaneously depicting class, consumer power, and national identity as American housewives. Advertisers could use this to elicit interest from their target audiences. This study has been limited to the face-value of the advertisements. When dealing with any sort of cultural source or mass media medium, a historian must be careful not to confuse the response the medium was meant to create and the one it actually did. Just as magazine readers today do not wish to emulate every advertisement they come across, we can not fall into the trap of expecting that postwar housewives flipping through the pages of Ladies’ Home Journal did either. Advertisements have a primary goal—to sell things. This must be kept at the forefront of any analysis that deals with them directly. Once this is established, we can begin to examine them beyond their inherent purpose to delve into any other messages that may present themselves. This examination only scratches the surface of a topic that has countless avenues of study. An analysis of men‘s magazines would be an apparent complement to this work. How did advertisers target men during this period? If an ideal household had a mother staying home to provide love and protection from within, then the husband and father figure would surely need

89 to provide financial support from outside. How did advertisements illustrate the breadwinner role to men? Were there attempts to continually advertise a certain type of masculinity in a period when the nation seemed to be constantly poised for war? A study with these questions in mind would continue the work I‘ve tried to do here in asking: What do advertisements really say beyond their copy?

BIBLIOGRAPHY

PRIMARY SOURCES:

Bame, John and Lois. Interview by author. Inverness, FL, January 29, 2011.

Harper’s Bazaar, June Issues, 1950-1959.

Ladies’ Home Journal, January 1949- December 1965

Mademoiselle, January 1953 – December 1959

Post, Emily. Etiquette: The Blue Book of Social Usage. New York: Funk & Wagnalls Company, 1950.

Post, Emily. Etiquette: The Blue Book of Social Usage. New York: Funk & Wagnalls Company, 1957.

Seventeen, January 1953 – December 1955.

SECONDARY SOURCES:

Boden, Sharon. Consumerism, Romance and the Wedding Experience. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003.

Casey, Emma, and Lydia Martens, eds. Gender and Consumption: Domestic Cultures and the Commercialisation of Everyday Life. Burlington: Ashgate Publishing Company, 2007.

Chafe, William H. The Paradox of Change: American Women in the 20th Century. New York: Oxford University Press, 1991.

Cohen, Lizabeth. Review of A Consumers’ Republic: The Politics of Mass Consumption in Postwar America, by Lizabeth Cohen. The Journal of Consumer Research, Vol. 31, no. 1 (2004): 236-239.

Coontz, Stephanie. The Way We Never Were: American Families and the Nostalgia Trap. New York: Basic Books, 1992.

Cowan, Ruth Schwartz. More Work for Mother: the Ironies of Household Technology from the Open Hearth to the Microwave. New York: Basic Books, 1983.

Diner, Steven J. A Very Different Age: Americans and the Progressive Era. New York: Hill and Wang, 1998.

Douglas, Susan J. Where the Girls Are: Growing Up Female with the Mass Media. New York: Times Books, 1994.

Duke University Digital Collections, Ad Access. ―John W. Harlman Center for Sales, Advertising and Marketing History.‖ http://library.duke.edu/digitalcollections /adaccess.BH1920/pg.1/.

Duke University Library, ―The Power of Refined Beauty: Photographing Society Women for Ponds, 1920s-1950s.‖ http://library.duke.edu/exhibits/ponds/index.html.

Ehrenreich, Barbara and Deirdre English. For Her Own Good: Two Centuries of Experts Advice to Women. New York: Anchor Books, 2005.

Eisler, Benita. Private Lives: Men and Women of the Fifties. New York: Franklin Watts, 1986.

Ellis, Kristina Roberts. ―Bodies of Thought, Sites of Anxiety: The Representations of the Female Body in ‗Cosmopolitan‘ Magazine During the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s.‖ MA, thesis, University of Missouri—Kansas City, 2008.

Endrijonas, Erika. ―Processed Foods from Scratch: Cooking for a Family in the 1950s.‖ In Kitchen Culture in America: Popular Representations of Food, Gender, and Race, edited by Sherrie A. Inness, 157-173.

Ferguson, Marjorie. Forever Feminine: Women’s Magazines and the Cult of Femininity. London; Exeter (NH): Heinemann, 1983.

Flanagan, Maureen A. Progressives and Progressivisms, 1890s – 1920s. New York: Oxford University Press, 2007.

Frankel, Noralee and Nancy Schrom Dye. Gender, Class, Race, and Reform in the Progressive Era. Lexington: The University Press of Kentucky, 1991.

Geller, Jaclyn. Here Comes the Bride: Women, Weddings, and the Marriage Mystique. New York: Four Walls Eight Windows, 2001.

Good Housekeeping. ―10 Unforgettable Royal Weddings.‖ http://www.goodhousekeeping .com/family/celebrity/memorable-royal-weddings#fbIndex1.

Hamilton, Shane. ―The Economies and Conveniences of Modern-Day Living: Frozen Foods and Mass Marketing.‖ Business History Review 77, no. 1 (2003): 33-60.

Hanson, Kitty. For Richer, For Poorer. New York: Abeland-Schumann, 1967.

Hill, Daniel Delis. Advertising to the American Woman 1900-1990. Columbus (Ohio): Ohio State University Press, 2002.

Howard, Vicki. Brides, Inc.: American Weddings and the Business of Tradition. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2006.

Hoy, Suellen. Chasing Dirt: The American Pursuit of Cleanliness. New York: Oxford University Press, 1995.

Hymowitz, Carol, and Michaele Weissman. A History of Women in America. New York: Bantam Books, 1978.

Ingraham, Chrys. White Weddings: Romancing Heterosexuality in Popular Culture. New York: Routledge, 2008.

Inness, Sherrie A. ―‗The Enchantment of Mixing-Spoons‘: Cooking Lessons for Girls and Boys.‖ In Kitchen Culture in America: Popular Representations of Food, Gender, and Race, edited by Sherrie A. Inness, 119-139.

------ed. Kitchen Culture in America: Popular Representations of Food, Gender, and Race. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2006.

Jacobson, Matthew Frye, and Gaspar Gonzalez. What Have They Built You To Do?: The Manchurian Candidate and Cold War America. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2006.

Jellison, Katherine. It’s Our Day: America’s Love Affair With the White Wedding, 1945-2005. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2008.

Laird, Pamela Walker, ―The Challenge of Exhibiting Historical Advertisements.‖ American Quarterly, 43, no. 3 (1991), 464-485.

Leff, Leonard L. ―What in the World Interests Women?: Hollywood, Postwar America, and ‗Johnny Belinda.‘‖ Journal of American Studies 31, no. 3, part 1: Looking at America: The USA and Film (1997): 385-405.

Matthews, Glenna. ―Just A Housewife‖: The Rise and Fall of Domesticity in America. New York: Oxford University Press, 1987.

May, Elaine Tyler. Homeward Bound: American Families in the Cold War Era. New York: Basic Books, 1988.

Meyerowitz, Joanne, ed. Not June Cleaver: Women and Gender in Postwar America, 1945- 1960. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1994.

Monsarrat, Ann. And the Bride Wore…: The Story of the White Wedding. London: Gentry Books, 1973.

Neuhaus, Jessamyn. ―The Joy of Sex Instruction: Women and Cooking in Marital Sex Manuals, 1920 – 1963.‖ In Kitchen Culture in America: Popular Representations of Food, Gender, and Race, edited by Sherrie A. Inness, 95 – 117.

------. Manly Meals and Mom’s Home Cooking: Cookbooks and Gender in Modern America. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2003.

------. ―The Way to a Man‘s Heart: Gender Roles, Domestic Ideology, and Cookbooks in the 1950s.‖ Journal of Social History 32, no. 3 (1999): 529-555.

Nickles, Shelley. ―More is Better: Mass Consumption, Gender, and Class Identity in Postwar America.‖ American Quarterly 54, no. 4 (2002): 581-622.

Ogden, Annegret S. The Great American Housewife: From Helpmate to Wage Earner, 1776 – 1986. Westport: Greenwood Press, 1986.

Parkin, Katherine J. Food Is Love: Food Advertising and Gender Roles in Modern America. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2006.

Schrum, Kelly. Some Wore Bobby Sox: The Emergence of Teenage Girls’ Culture, 1920-1945. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004.

Seligson, Marcia. The Eternal Bliss Machine: America’s Way of Wedding. New York: William Morrow & Company, Inc., 1973.

Sivulka, Juliann. Soap, Sex, and Cigarettes: A Cultural History of Advertising in America. New York: Wadsworth Publishing, 1998.

Strasser, Susan. Never Done: A History of American Housework. New York: Pantheon Books, 1982.

Tomes, Nancy. The Gospel of Germs: Men, Women, and the Microbe in American Life. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1998.

Zimmerman, Jean. Made from Scratch: Reclaiming the Pleasures of the American Hearth. New York: Free Press, 2003.

Wallace, Carol McD. All Dressed in White: The Irresistible Rise of the American Wedding. New York: Penguin Books, 2004.

Weiss, Jessica. To Have and To Hold: Marriage, the Baby Boom, and Social Change. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2000.

Zukin, Sharon, and Jennifer Smith Maguire. ―Consumers and Consumption.‖ Annual Review of Sociology, 30 (2004): 173-197.

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH

Tarin Burger is from Ocala, Florida and received her Bachelor‘s degree in history from the University of Florida in the fall of 2009. Tarin enrolled in Florida State‘s history graduate program in the fall of 2010. Her research interests include gender, advertising, consumerism, and the Cold War. She also has interests in oral history and public history, especially in the development of museum educational programs.