Happy Valentine's Day, Corn Scallops!!
[Detail from a Stokely's advertisement from Woman's Home Companion - February 1946]
[Detail from a Spry advertisement from Woman's Home Companion - February 1948]
From the June 1947 Woman's Home Companion comes Frosty Firsts by Elizabeth Walker (with wonderful illustrations by Harry Diamond). The article suggests several cooling mealtime drinks and appetizers to imbue your sultry summer supper with an arctic blast. Even in the midst of winter, some of these chilly treats (with the exception of the Cukato Cocktail) sound pretty good! I'm posting these more for the whimsical illustrations, but you might still get a kick out of some of the drinks! 
The June 1947 issue of Woman's Home Companion had a series of articles about women in the workplace. Here is the accompanying fashion spread, Cotton To A Career, by fashion editor Mary-Alice Hamory.
The much-desired 'efficient as a filing cabinet' look. I think she looks nicer than the cabinet, incidentally.
Another nice dress upstaged by the filing cabinet
Hamory described the main feature of this after-work look as an 'impertinent bustle'!
Catch his eye at the soda shop
BONUS! for all you Mad Men fans. In A Year Of Your Own by Beatrice Green Taines and Jean Beck, several women's careers were described, including advertising, medicine (as receptionist or nurse), fashion design, theater, teaching, personnel work, and merchandising (retail). Here is what they had to say to ladies considering work in advertising:
Rinse away the dirty water of the past year and start a whole new cycle with these top o' the line washers. Elizabeth Beveridge offers up these tall drinks of water, but try finding them at Best Buy. In fact, ask a Best Buy associate for a machine with 'jouncing washing action' and see what happens!
[from Woman's Home Companion - June 1947]
Meet Mrs. Margaret Deeds. She is a woman who knows a thing or two about human nature and relationships. Perhaps this is why the illustrious Woman's Home Companion turned to her for, possibly, the most important primer a young newlywed will ever read, Catch Him Young! Train Him Right! (May 1947 issue).
In her article, Mrs. Deeds articulates the steps a bride must take to ingrain better habits in her Romeo before the ink is dry on the wedding contract. This is the only way to ensure that your lesser half will be as beneficial inside the home as he is at the office. As you can see from the following illustrated (click to enlarge for uncomfortable slave owner reference!) guide, it's easier than your mother told you to trick your beloved into aiding you in the kitchen, setting the table, and making the bed. Let your fella know that if he wants to drone on about his preference for his mother's cooking, he had better help you devise menus and do the shopping! Men might be more interested in drinking and impressing you with his stacking abilities, but that's no reason not to put him to work with the vegetable scrubber! Finally, remember that a sure-fire way to get him to be useful around the house is to make him feel like a king, and the best way to do that is to boost his ego by giving him the easiest tasks to free up your time (even he won't screw up packaged convenience foods!) and liberally using exaggerated compliments. Also, provide him with a selection of cheery aprons. He'll enjoy the snappy look, won't soil his slacks, and his chums needn't know about his house garb!
In a detail from an advertisement for Wear-Ever Aluminum Utensils, a rosy complexioned wife tightens her husband's apron strings as she puts him on KP. He might think he's lording over the manor with his virile pipe and bowtie ensemble, but his wife's jollied up expression tells a different story.
And, from yet another Woman's Home Companion article (this one about the importance of a good cuppa coffee), another writer submits her number one method of training her man in Good Coffee Makes Good Husbands
[all articles, images, and advertisements from the strangely thematic May 1947 issue of Woman's Home Companion]
From Woman's Home Companion's 'Cotton In Action' by fashion editor Elizabeth Ambrose (May 1947 issue)
Skip, skip, skip to your lou in this gingham party frock (flies in your buttermilk not included)!
Dazzle that rugged out-of-towner at the picnic with your skimpy basket and severe pleated skirt!
Playtime in a 'mimosa and heliotrope'-colored playsuit with wide suspenders (with a giant 'red' balloon)
You'll 40-Love this cotton culotte tennis outfit!
The Characters ... Four young couples hellbent on partying within budget
The Scene ... One of their houses -- a demure white cottage located on top of an Indian burial ground
The Plot ... Who concocted this murderous meal and WHY?
Who dished it out and washed his or her hands of the ordeal?
Most important: Who paid for it later?
Who nixed the salad?
Where did the fruit come from?
Most important: Who ate the shrunken demon heads (designed by HR Giger) and are they still larval.. I mean, living?
[Featured menu from Woman's Home Companion, May 1947]
Before it's out with the cold and in with the new, here's a look at Elizabeth Beveridge's pick of the coolest fridges on the runway. Me, I prefer the Philco, but they weren't featured in this show.
[From Woman's Home Companion, May 1947]
Curly Wurly wishes you and your family a happy holiday season and a happy and healthy 1948!
Dahlings, you have to try my A&P Lavish Lamb Dinner!
What is it, you ask? It's a banquet fit for a queen. Lamb shanks encrusted with nature's ruby red and amber jewels. Oui, glistening apricots topped with the finest wild cherries from Maraschino! A chorus line of truffled potatoes flanked by pencil-thin asparagus and daubed with the most decadent of hollandaise sauces to make your mouth water! Notice how the quaint Alpine daisies playfully dot the table while luscious strawberries and creme dance with a salad made of a gelatine so wobbly you might wonder if it's had as much champagne as you have! This grand extravaganza is garnished only by the duskiest radish roses with a never fading blush!
And where did my luncheon come from? Why, from a smart little bistro downtown. I think it's called the A&P. It stands for Aristocratic and Palatable.
[featured advertisement from the March 1947 Woman's Home Companion]
Before there was MTV's Cribs, there was Woman's Home Companion's March 1947 issue. The magazine featured a rare behind-the-scenes glimpse at celebrity dressing rooms. Can it be that these meticulously decorated dressing rooms were the standard? Two of my favorite spaces belonged to co-stars Margaret O'Brien and Judy Garland. Margaret O'Brien's area looks more like a dollhouse or a whimsical play area with its carousel motif. Judy's is characteristically stylish. Look at how the bright colors of the sophisticated settee complement her lovely red locks! And does she really have time to page through her library while on the job?
In other news, head over to my other blog for a chance to win $500 worth of handpicked (by me) books from my favorite publisher, Chronicle Books. This year, Chronicle Books has extended their Happy Haul-idays contest to include a charitable element, so not only will one lucky blogger (and one of the blog's lucky readers) win a matching set of books, but Chronicle will donate $500 worth of books to a charity of the winner's choice. If you're interested in seeing the books I chose and entering to win my selection, comment on the linked post. And, if you're a blogger, you may want to enter the competition yourself!
Four Sure Tricks In A Suit by Lucie Lyons for Woman's Home Companion masquerades as a blouse pattern article, but the models'-heads-swapped-for-flower-pots look seems like a mad doctor's dream. Despite its January 1947 publication date, I think it was published a few months too late. It should have been the spotlight of their Halloween issue as a collection of disturbing floral costumes to scare young trick or treaters.
Bewitched by this creepy-crawly idea? Not only could these sketches be inspiration for striking costumes, but you could also populate your porch or front yard with freaky flower people decorations. Create a bevy of Burtonesque figures to hold your candy bowls or even dangle fake cobwebs and insects (or even more macabre accoutrements) from their wormlike fingers. All you'd have to do is acquire mannequins or dress forms, remove heads, and attach flower pots filled with various blooms. The more unassuming the bloom, the creepier the effect.
The Hats Came Back! Elizabeth Ambrose, Woman's Home Companion fashion editor, introduced the newest hat styles of the day in the April 1947 issue of the magazine. Here are four of the newest looks that you're sure to see donning some of the loveliest heads. And, if you're looking to dress your own naked head, be sure to ask for these styles by name!
Woman's Home Companion had fish on the brain in September 1947. There were two eager fishmen vying for your attention that month, both presenting themselves in alluring treatments sure to please the pickiest eaters.
Long before Discovery Channel exposed viewers to the elements in Deadliest Catch, Deep-Sea Dave, the long-suffering famous Davis Bros. mascot, was living it. Dave agreed to represent Coddies, the fish cakes with 'oceans of flavor,' in exchange for his own life. While we'll never really know how many of his friends and family may have had their fates sealed in aluminum with labels promising 'broiled thrills,' we do know that the cods (and the mackerels) were on Dave's side when he was let off the hook that lucky day. Either that or he had some chum over at the Tupman Thurlow Company, distributor and 'Sole Selling Agents' of Davis Bros. seafoods. 'Sole Selling Agents'? I wonder if they were affiliated with B. Azlebub (of "B. Dazzled with B. Azlebub" fame) deviled seafood?
'Catch of the Day? Why, me, of course!' Mazola Salad Oil also netted a fish pitchman. Here, Mazola's unnamed chef offers up her broiled fish steak and tartar sauce recipes.
Partners in Brine (for closer consideration): It looks like her apron strings are dripping in seawater... or, is it Mazola Salad Oil?
Now, when you see a fish, you won't think anything but 'delish'!!
We've all been there at some point in our lives: alone in a new environment with nary a familiar face in sight.
Stranger At School, or The Loneliest Girl In The World, is a Woman's Home Companion pictorial from October 1947. It was photographed by Eileen Darby at the New Rochelle High School in New York. Woman's Home Companion takes us through the first few anxious days in the life of the new girl at school. If you're hoping for a few nuggets of comfort and motherly wisdom of the 'be yourself' variety for making friends and impressing the profs, you might want to steer clear of this list of don'ts and YOU BETTER NOTS lest you should require anti-jitter remedies before the big day.
Remember, your new schoolmates are just as unsure about you as you are about them!
From here on in, the Stranger is known as Smart Teen, but only as long as she keeps herself sleep deprived and spruce. You want your new classmates to think you're a neat package...
But NOT a sloe-eyed siren. Know your limitations. You're only average in the looks department (if you're lucky!), so rather than dressing to impress, you just want to adopt a passable hygiene routine and stick to it. 
Once you're on school property, there's no looking back. You're stuck, so you may as well head inside.
No one likes a brown noser. Talk to no one. You're better off being known as the new girl who walks around muttering to herself than someone who attempts to 'just make conversation' with new classmates and teachers.
There is only one thing worse than coming across as a cover girl or a teacher's pet, and that's being a stoopid pill popper. You'll need to sit up front in class during lectures so you can take good notes since you won't earn any cool points by asking questions.
Join activities but don't chummy up to any strangers. They don't like it, and they'll avoid you like the plague. Unless they're too polite to tell you that they're not interested in hearing your life story (with accompanying slide show) during the half hour lunch break.
Once school lets out, don't hang around campus like a stray puppy. Sure, the rest of the school will be cramming into soda fountains, but, remember, you have no friends. And, since it's advised that you talk to no one, you won't be making any anytime soon. Get used to spending your afternoons preparing for another lonely day at school.
Glutton for punishment? The only thing more awkward than Silent New Girl being photographed at school is Silent New Girl sitting alone at the soda fountain while a magazine documents her every move. Remember, you're not there to meet people or attract a boyfriend. Chug down your soda and get out of there and quick! Once you're home you can feel free to be yourself, but wait until that screen door slams shut behind you!
The major lesson to learn is that no one wants to get to know the real you. Not even if you're nice and pretty. But you don't want to be known as the resident handkerchief-head who takes stoopid pills. Leave plenty of time for homework!
The odd thing is Woman's Home Companion never explored the consequences that bringing a major magazine to cover one's first day at school had on this girl's popularity. Forget not bothering the teacher with extra questions or apple polishing; wouldn't it be a bit more annoying to have someone snapping photos over your shoulder all day? And are those resentful, judgmental students who look down their nose at the new girl really unfazed by the journalist following her around to document her every move? I'm sure if she really remained unpopular it would be because of this article!
