Pan Am and the Glamour of Mid-Century Air Travel

For the past five years, we have seen an incredible surge of interest in the mid-century travel posters. We have sold a lot of these posters, and it got us wondering: why are there so many mid-century airline posters?

Original "Paris by Clipper" Poster by Anonymous, 1951

The short answer is that the US  made huge innovations in aviation technologies during World War II, and, after the war, airlines enhanced the routes. Once there were planes and hubs,  it was up to advertising agencies to build the market for international travel. And voila! The posters.

Original "Portugal and Spain by Clipper" Poster by Carlu, 1950

Original "Germany Fly Pan American" Poster by E. McKnight-Kauffer, c.1949

Mad Men got people thinking about ad men, and Pan Am, ABC’s new Sunday night  show, is going one step further, bringing to life the glamour of travel by plane in the 1960′s. We have enjoyed watching the show and couldn’t help noticing the many posters they use in their decor. So we decided to pull out our own collection of Pan Am travel posters.

Original "Caribbean Pan American" Poster by Anonymous, c.1965

Right now  in our Berkeley Showroom we are featuring travel posters for destinations VEP staff have visited and loved. Come take a look and catch the travel bug!

Original "Mexico Pan American" Poster by E. McKnight-Kauffer, 1949

We will be open Tuesdays and Thursdays, 11.30-5 in November — except for Thanksgiving — and the first three weekends in December.

Vintage Posters Make Us SMARTER

Original "Atoms for Peace" Poster by Erik Nitsche, 1955.

 

Posters sometimes elicit a strong reaction.

A beautiful image can make a client sigh, inadvertently. Clown posters actually
make some people jump out of their skin! WWI and WWII posters make some people
tear up.  Until recently, I had never had a poster that elicited a chill.

Check out the General Dynamics Posters by Erik Nitsche. These rare Swiss posters were printed in the 1950s, to make people comfortable with the forward science of nuclearpower.  Each poster says “Atoms for Peace”
in a different language.

Now if that isn’t propaganda, I don’t know what is.  And these Cold War era posters do elicit a chill.

Recently, we had a man in our shop who was fascinated with
the ‘Nucleo Dynamics poster. When he left the store, he dug a little

"Nucleodynamics" General Dynamics Poster by Erik Nitsche, circa 1955

deeper.  Here is what he told us:

“As I had suspected, the arrangement of squares is a chopped
up (and incomplete) chart of the nuclides, which is a representation of the
different isotopes of every element. (Like a periodic table for nuclear
physicists.) One axis is the atomic number of the atom and the other is
the atomic weight (allowing differentiation of carbon-12 and carbon-14, for
example, or uranium-235 and 238).

The top section is the light elements, with hydrogen on the left to about neon
on the right. The middle section is much heavier atoms, from (I think)
tin on the left to somewhere in the lanthanide elements on the right. The
bottom section is the heaviest and least stable elements (or at least the
heaviest known in 1955). This terminus represented the focus of a great
deal of research, especially in 1955.

One other thing I should mention is that the coloring is not incidental.
The light blue squares denote stable isotopes. The other colors are all
unstable and therefore radioactive isotopes. The particular color for
each one tells more information about either the type of decay or the
half-life.  Note that the heaviest elements (the bottom patch)
contain no stable (blue) isotopes.”

Swiss Poster of Nuclear Sub by Erik Nitsche for General Dynamics, 1955

And this is why we love our clients. We share what we know about posters, and they

Atoms for Peace Poster by Erik Nitsche

share what they know about the world.  In
the end, we all end up enriched, a little smarter and a little more in touch
with history. Bravo!

Geek out with VEP at the next LA Trunk Show “Posters for
Peace” November 12-13, 2011 at Loews Santa Monica Beach Hotel

Travel Posters and the Evolution of Flight

Early Commercial Air Travel

Original "Air France Marseille" Poster by Albert Solon, c. 1935

In today’s fast-paced world, we think nothing of scheduling a morning meeting 500 miles away with the intention of being home in time for supper. We take fast, cheap air travel for granted. It wasn’t always like this. In fact, a mere 75 years ago, the first passenger flights from San Francisco to Hong Kong took 3 days and cost $950 one way — the equivalent of $14,000 in today’s dollars.

Early long distance flights in the late 20’s and early 30’s were solely mail routes. In the U.S., Pan Am delivered the international mail and established routes, hubs, airports, pilots — creating the infrastructure upon which commercial aviation would later grow. Pan Am’s leader, Juan Trippe, thought he could increase profits by transporting a few passengers along with the mail and soon the Pan Am Clippers, also known as ‘flying boats,’ established regular passenger routes across the Pacific. This revolutionized travel: trips which had previously taken one month by ship, were accomplished by plane in a couple of days.

But travel wasn’t glamorous yet. A flight from Paris to New York was a twenty hour trip with two stops to refuel. The Clippers were twin engine planes and they could carry only 20 passengers. Because of this, travel posters in this time period suggest a sense of adventure — destinations were exotic, and the traveler was a pioneer.

Original "Pan American Paris" Poster by Anonymous, 1951

Pan Am pressed on, and in 1942 they were the first airline to operate a commercial route circumnavigating the globe with stops ineight cities. Most commercial development came to a halt during WWII, as many of the big planes were pressed into service of the war. Their sole purpose was to carry military brass, soldiers, mail, supplies and munitions overseas. In fact, travel for leisure was discouraged as a waste of resources during wartime.

Original "ME Travel" Poster by Dorne, 1944

Original "Bundles for Berlin" Poster by Brindle, 1942Original "ME Travel" Poster by Dorne, 1944

Aviation was a huge part of WWII, both for transport and for combat. Squadrons of fighter jets helped win the war, but they also successfully trained pilots, advanced aviation technology and cemented routes which could be built on in the postwar period.

Original "TWA Egypt" Poster by David Klein, c. 1960

The Postwar Period

After World War II, TWA, United, Pan Am and American, battled to dominate transatlantic and transcontinental flights. Technological and marketing advances such as pressurized cabins (1940), the invention of “Ocean Liners for the Skies” aka Coach Class (1944) and Jet Engines (1958) made travel more comfortable, more affordable and faster. Finally, the world was open to everyone. In 1946, TWA joined Pan Am as a provider of international service with flights to Cairo, and soon after, flights to Bombay and Ceylon. Meanwhile TWA and United expanded their intercontinental routes. In 1946, the trip from coast to coast took 10 hours, with one stop to refuel in Nebraska. In 1953 TWA offered the first non-stop service from NY to California.

The travel posters from this time period reflect the sheer joy of travel and they were incredibly effective. Travel by air caught on. In 1958 more than 1 million passengers flew to Europe – for the first time overtaking the number who ‘crossed the pond’ by ocean line. By 1968, Transatlantic air travel had increased to six million passengers. The chance to see the world, a luxury once only available to the elite, was now accessible to the masses in the post war period.

Original "United Airlines New York" Poster by Stan Galli, c. 1960

Original "United Airlines Los Angeles" Poster by Stan Galli, c. 1960

Original "United Airliens Hawaii" Poster by Stan Galli, c. 1960

Original "Las Vegas Fly TWA " Poster by David Klein, c. 1965

Airlines and boards of tourism poured money into their ad campaigns, as they tried to capture a slice of the tourist’s heart and therefore their dollars. Artists such as Guy Georget and Jean Carlu for Air France, (Air France French Riviera photo) David Klein for TWA (Las Vegas photo) and Stan Galli for United produced seductive images of faraway places to entice the viewer to choose their next holiday. Most of the posters were discarded and as a result,those that survived are highly sought after by collectors today.

Original "TWA Rome" Poster by David Klein, c. 1965

If you want to know more about travels posters and the evolution of flight, you can check out those books:

The Art of the Airways by Geza Szurovy (2002) MBI Publishing

Air France Posters Making the World Dream by Louis-Jean Calvet & Philippe Thibault (2006) pub Le Cherche Midi

This is a reprint from an article published in Los Angeles Modernism Show‘s catalogue of April 3o – May 1, 2011

I’m on Fire- Cigarette Smoking in Vintage Posters

Job Cigarette Papers by Cheret

Early cigarette advertising posters mainly feature rolling papers.  Smokers purchased their tobacco and rolled their own.

This image by Jules Cheret (1836-1932) was created in 1895 and boasted that Job cigarette papers had won awards at the World’s Fair in Paris in 1889.  That was an important World’s Fair for many reasons, and because of it we have Gustav Eiffel’s Tower.  The  redhead  in the poster was emblematic of Cheret’s Belle Epoque style; he captures a ‘Modern’ women displaying her independence by smoking! Other clues to her modernity include her red rinsed hair and her posture of independence.  Cheret also loved to depict women in his posters twisting at the waist to showcase their corsetted midriff.  He used this image as plate number one in his Maitre de L’Affiche series.

 

Cachou Lajaunie by Tamagno

Francesco Tamagno (1853-1933) captures another turn of the century beauty in his poster for the breath mint  Cachou Lajaunie circa 1890. This mint, which you can still buy in France today, was often advertised to smokers, inferring that it’s strength would cover up smokers’s breath.  The red haired, wasp waisted figure seems to be flirting with the various gentlemen in the poster, and perhaps their fresh breath will influence her choice of a suitor.

 

Je Ne Fume Que Le Nil by Cappiello

Le Nil cigarette papers were manufactured by the Joseph Bardou Company.  This company was owned by one of the sons of the JOB cigarette paper brand.  Le Nil  had used a white elephant in their posters before (supposedly a white elephant with its trunk uplifted symbolizes good luck) so Cappiello (1875-1942) decided to stick with their ‘brand’ when he created this luciously colored poster in 1912.

 

Cigarettes Saphir

Cigarettes Saphir by Stephano features an exotic woman with a Hookah surrounded by curls of smoke.
She advertises a machine rolled cigarette, which would have been a luxury product in 1908 when most smokers still rolled their own.  This poster has elements of Art Nouveau style, such as curvy lines and ornamentation, but the artists use of color and contrast show the poster moving towards art deco.

 

Pelican Cigarettes

This Pelican Cigarettes poster, circa 1925,  by Charles Yray, features tobacco from Virginia packaged in a beautiful Art Deco style tin.  Tobacco from Virginia would have been a very special export in France in the 1920s.  This poster is quintessentially art deco- Yray’s use of high contrast images and bold colors make the poster pop, and the reverse silhouette is a satisfying part of the design.
Smoking was still in fashion in the 1920s.  The woman in the Cachou Lajaunie Poster asserts her independence with her saucy feathered (?) dress, her tobacco habit and her choice of mint.  Choosing Cachou Lajaunie allows her to smoke AND to attract suitors.  In a twist from the 1890′s poster, she is no longer offering the mint to smokers and would be suitors, SHE is now the smoker.

 

Vous Pouvez Voir Clair

In The ‘Bonnes Lunettes’ Poster, the smoker has assumed the persona of the cool beatnik “You can see clearly when you wear good glasses” is what the poster says.  But it infers smoky jazz clubs, where your vision is clouded by the smoky haze of cocktails.

 

Cachou Lajaunie - Cappiell

I will end this post with ‘Cachou Lajaunie’ by Cappiello.  This striking poster features a ‘modern’ woman circa 1920.  How do we know she is modern?  Three clues- her red rinsed hair, her modern attire, and the fact that she is smoking! All of these things suggest independence.

Since I have quit smoking, that makes me independent too.  Cheers!

 

A Snapshot of Women in the Military as Seen in Posters

Howard Chandler Christy, 1919

WORLD WAR ONE

The most popular depiction of women in the World War One  poster is as Columbia, the feminine symbol of America. (The name Columbia is derived from Christopher Columbus).

She is seen often draped in the American flag, personifying liberty, justice, virtue, and as a source of inspiration.  In the WWI Poster, women are rarely shown in uniform or  even at work. This is does not reflect the fact that 30,000 American women served in World War One.

Harrison Fisher 1918

Harrison Fisher, 1918

For the duration of WWI, women served as nurses in Belgium, Italy and England and many were decorated for their service.  American women also worked overseas during the war in a volunteer capacity.  On the home front, women contributed their labor to greatly to the YWCA, the Red Cross, Salvation Army and other Service Organizations.

Ernest Hamlin Baker 1918

WORLD WAR TWO

The scale of World War II led to a change in US women’s roles very quickly.  Almost 16 million soldiers left civilian jobs to join the military, leaving behind jobs unfilled, and creating new jobs in transport and maintenance of the vast armed force.

Steele Savage 1944

Anon., 1943

In 1941, Congress created the Women’s Army Auxillary Corps to augment the armed forces.  The theory was that every woman who served would ‘free a man for combat’.  WAACS trained as radio and telephone operators, operated the army postal services, did clerical work and taught.

Di Valentin 1944

All in all, 150,000 women served in the WAACs during WWII. It is not surprising though, that women were treated as separate and not equal to men.  Although they received food, housing, uniforms and medical care (an improvement over WWI) their pay was less than men of the same rank.  When WAACS served overseas, they received no overseas pay, no veterans medical coverage, no  life insurance  or death benefits.

Gone are the images of women  draped in flags.   Women in the WWII poster are active participants, in uniform, ready for action.

Toni Frissell, c. 1943

Nurses in WWII

As in World War I, the role of women as nurses in WWII was critical.  In 1941 there were fewer than 1,000 women in the Army Nurse Corps.  By the end of the war a total of 59,000 women served as nurses in the military.  To achieve such staggering growth the government enlisted the help of the Red Cross and launched a widespread recruiting campaign.

Anon., 1943

A shortage of nurses both abroad an on the home front led Congress to pass the Bolton act, which set up the Cadet Nurse Corps and subsidized the training of nurses.  This successful program trained 150,000 nurses between 1943 and 1948.

Relevance Today

Today, the nation debates whether women should participate in combat in the Middle East. Regardless of your position on this topic, you must admit we’ve come a long way since 1915.

To read more about women’s roles in US Miltary history, please visit http://www.history.army.mil/brochures/wac/wac.htm