Vintage Newspapers- From Headlines of Yore Comes News Galore

Hello! Thank you for stopping by. Grab a chair and a cup of something hot to drink and join us for a short trip through some vintage newspapers.

Women Work Wicked Wiles, The Maumee Advocate-Era (Maumee, Ohio), September 3, 1915

OK, is it us, or does this sound like the absolute opposite of what it means? Big deal, people have fun. Live with it. Curious as to what kind of “debauchery” the women provided to these “curious” boys, as 1915 morals are different than 2024 morals. Booze brought by the town “loafers”, well, maybe not so good. It could easily have been bathtub gin or plain old gut-rot whiskey. People got offended, you know, the “decent” folk. Oh well. Still sounds like a fun party. What do you think?

The Macomber Affair, Columbus Evening Dispatch (Columbus, Ohio), April 16, 1947

It’s movie time! The Zoltan Korda (born Zoltan Kellner; 1895-1961) directed drama film The Macomber Affair was released in April 1947 and starred one of the Golden Age’s most popular leading men: Gregory Peck (born Eldred Gregory Peck; 1916-2003) and his rugged good looks. Also appearing in this movie, Joan Bennett (1910-1990), Robert Preston (born Robert Preston Meservey; 1918-1987), Reginald Denny (born Reginald Leigh Dugmore; 1891-1967), and Jean Gillie (born Jean Mabel Coomber; 1915-1949), in final film before her untimely death at the age of 33. The film was adapted from Ernest Hemingway’s short story, “The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber.” Set in Africa, the story follows Margot (the scorned woman), her husband, Francis (the abusive a$$hole), and Robert (the big game-hunter.) The movie did pretty good at the box office and the critic’s loved it. So did Papa. He always liked a good safari. Check the film out sometime, it’s good. Oh, and read the short story, it’s very good.

Her Vulgar Language, The San Francisco Examiner (San Francisco, California), May 12, 1883

Once again, one has to wonder what “vulgar language” would be considered in 1883, let alone when uttered by a woman (this is sarcasm). Not much can be found about her, but we leave this article with this: Go Adele!

New Compact Dodge Dart, The Nashville Banner (Nashville, Tennessee), March 5, 1963

The early 1960s Dodge Dart, in our opinion, was not only cute, but incredibly reliable. The Dart was produced from 1960-1976 and had four generations. The Dart pictured for sale above was from the first year of the third generation. During it’s full 15 year run, this car was very popular and quite affordable for the time. But as time moved on, the Darts got uglier and uglier and in 1976, were replaced by the ugly Dodge Diplomat and the even more grotesque Dodge Aspen. Sigh. Such is life.

Dinah Washington Advertisement, The Mirror-News (Los Angeles, California), April 14, 1955

Wouldn’t it have been amazing to be at this show? Dinah Washington (1924-1963) was an amazing jazz singer who not only left the world far too early, but also, left an incredible catalogue of material to enjoy for infinite generations and we sure do here. We are quite partial to “September in the Rain”, “What a Difference a Day Made”, and “I Wanna Be Loved.” Absolutely gorgeous vocals from Dinah, who mastered jazz, R&B, blues, traditional pop music. If you haven’t listened to the tunes of Dinah Washington, we highly recommend you do. If you are disappointed in what you hear, maybe it’s just you.

Frightful Death of a Leather Employee, The Daily Evening Item (Lynn, Massachusetts), March 10, 1910

And here is a perfect example of how newspapers at this time were much more, what is the word? Grisly. Most of the time, this was done to cause shock to the reader, which in turn, caused the rumor mill to turn and that helped sell more newspapers. Did all of what is described above happen to Mr. Karcher? Maybe. The story may have also been inflated a bit to elicit horror with the readers with little concern of the feelings of the deceased’s family members, à la William Randolph Hearst, who was very willing and prone to feed the lion of sensationalism. Of course, if one thinks about it, it is because of Hearst’s love of yellow journalism and how the masses ate up all that lurid crap, that we begin to see that his influence on the media is still seen today, in 2024.

It can also be said that work related accidents didn’t go unnoticed and while it would take many years, these accidents were the catalyst of such safety monitoring agencies as, the United States Department of Labor (which was founded to handle, basically, all things work related in 1913). The agency would later found a safety arm of the DOL, called the Bureau of Labor Standards in 1934 (now called the Occupational Safety and Health Administration or OSHA.) Because of this, thankfully, work-related deaths were slowed down substantially because of proper education and work site safety programs.

A&P Advertisement, The News Sun (Newport, Pennsylvania), August 22, 1963

One cringes when they see the price of groceries today compared to the prices of a couple generations before. There are a lot of reasons for this, including inflation, the value of the American dollar, supply and product manufacturing costs, geographical location, etc. That said, using a inflation calculator, we have found out that a round steak that was priced at 79 cents in 1963 would be the equivalent of $7.96 a pound in 2024. At Costco, which carries decently priced meat, a round steak is about $6.30 a pound. Seems we aren’t doing too bad on some things these days.

And there you have it, another installment where we explore the characters of the past in vintage newspapers. Thank you and we hope you enjoyed our post! As always, be safe and love one another.

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During our genealogical research, CMS Research & Genealogy comes across many stories that have nothing to do with our current project. We have tons of them and will be sharing them all with you on this blog. All the more reason to come back and visit us again!

February 28, 2024

CMS Research and Genealogy

CMS Research & Genealogy