Life as it was lived then

[skyvue]

One of the things I like most about old movies (of which I watch a couple hundred a year), books, and even music is that I pick up little tidbits about life as it was lived back in the day.

For example, I'm currently reading Cornell Woolrich's 1932 novel "Manhattan Love Song," and there were, in the chapter I read at lunch, a couple of things that caught my eye and piqued my interest.

The two lead characters, Wade and Bernice, are having an affair, and Wade hasn't revealed to Bernice, who's no choir girl, that he's married. But Wade's wife Maxine pays a visit to Bernice, who confronts Wade the next time he pays her a visit:

"Wade," she said, shaking a finger at me, "you've been holding out on me."
"I have? What do you mean?"
"You see, in Europe," she laughed, "the married men wear rings just like the women do. It has its advantages."​

See, I had no idea that wedding rings for men were uncommon in the U.S. as recently as the Thirties (or, for that matter, that they were common in Europe).

A few pages later, Wade and Bernice have decided to skip town (for reasons I won't go into here), and in a hurry, so Wade rushes home to pack:

"I began to pile shirts in like one of those three-decker sandwiches, colored ones on bottom and on top and white ones in the middle, where they wouldn't get dirty so quickly."​

This may not be an especially vintage approach, but I was intrigued by this very specific method of packing shirts, meant to keep the white shirts unsullied.

Anyway, I thought it might be fun for us to log any bits of info and insight we pick up while watching old movies and television programs and reading older literature. I've gleaned dozens of similar tidbits over the years, but won't try to recall them all now -- I'll start with just the above two. But I'd be interested to hear from the rest of the group.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Great stuff. My grandfather wore a wedding ring, but most of the other men I knew from his generation did not. Jewelry on blue-collar men was considered both effete and potentially dangerous if it got hooked on moving machinery.

I once did a presentation to a class of junior high kids laying out a whole blackboard full of differences between Depression-era daily life and life today. Here's a few at random --

In most US states, stop signs were yellow.

The majority of drivers signaled turns by sticking their arm out the window.

Mailboxes were green.

Mail was picked up and delivered twice a day, morning and afternoon.

Common gasoline was commonly used for spot-cleaning laundry and removing stains on woolens. A housewife would go down to the corner filling station with a glass jug and buy a nickel's worth at a time, and would store it in the shed or on the back porch until needed.

Until the war years, there was only one radio station in the US that remained on the air 24 hours a day, KGFJ in Los Angeles.

If you had dial telephone service, it was only necessary to dial four -- or, at the most, five -- digits to make a local call.

It was very common for men to re-sharpen old razor blades to save a few pennies here and there.

Every woman knew how to mend a stocking.

 

[skyvue]

Common gasoline was commonly used for spot-cleaning laundry and removing stains on woolens.

I once saw a PSA-style B&W short from, I think, the 1940s, warning against this practice. But prior to seeing that film, I had no idea the practice had existed. I think the film's narrator referred to it as "home dry-cleaning."

Another one that comes to mind -- I don't now recall which picture it was, but a character in a movie I once saw was going on about how a storm had suddenly passed through earlier that day and it had gotten so dark that she'd had to turn the lights on. But she said it in such a way that made it clear that it was a really big deal to turn on the lights during the day, that it just wasn't done. That struck me as interesting. I mean, even today, most of us use electric lights less during the day than at night, but I think most folks have some lights on throughout the day. In any case, it's not considered unusual or strange to have them on.

But it was depicted as very odd indeed in that movie.

 

[skyvue]

Not long ago at flea market, I was reminded, upon viewing some movie theatre flyers, of something that's changed a great deal in just three or four decades.

These were flyers that listed two weeks worth of films showing at a particular theatre. The one I liked best (but resisted purchasing) included an Elvis movie (LOVE ME TENDER, I think it was), TEENAGE REBEL and THE BEAST FROM HOLLOW MOUNTAIN. Each movie was playing only a couple of days. Such was the practice of neighborhood theatres back in the day, with only bigger, fancier downtown theatres running movies for a longer period of time.

Can you imagine non-blockbuster movies today opening in a town and playing a single theatre at a time, going from neighborhood to neighborhood, staying at each theatre only a few days at a time?

My father also told me that in his day (the Forties), they used to give very little thought to the start time of movies. The programs ran without stopping, including a second feature (often), a cartoon, a newsreel, and coming attractions. So they didn't worry about getting there at a particular time -- they just arrived whenever they arrived, and if they walked in on the middle of something, they stuck around until that movie or short played again and watched the part they'd missed.

 

[skyvue]

Some years ago, I bought a baby name pamphlet that was published in 1938. I thought it might be interesting to see which names were included in a such a listing then that have since fallen out of favor. The first one that caught my eye was:

Bozo (Christmas child, Slavic)​

Hoo boy, and I thought my parents had done me wrong by sticking me with Stanley (my first name, and I don't use it).

The prospective parents who originally owned this booklet had the following names checked:

Boy: Blair, Court, Denis/Dennis/Denys, Derrick (this was checked and circled), Dirk, Fabian (!), Gail/Gale, Jock, Kim, Krispin, Michael, Peter, Robert/Robin (Robin was circled here), Shawn, Terence/Terrence/Terry

Girl: Claudia, Denise, Diana/Diane (Diane was circled), Fern, Haldis, Jill, Kirstie, Melinda, Pamela, Penelope, Sandra, Thais, Tina, Trine

Trine? Thais?

Haldis?

 

[dhermann1]

My father also told me that in his day (the Forties), they used to give very little thought to the start time of movies. The programs ran without stopping, including a second feature (often), a cartoon, a newsreel, and coming attractions. So they didn't worry about getting there at a particular time -- they just arrived whenever they arrived, and if they walked in on the middle of something, they stuck around until that movie or short played again and watched the part they'd missed.

That's where the phrase "This is where I came in." came from.
You could watch a movie three times over if you felt like it, or were unemployed and had nothing better to do, a common occurance during the Depression.

 

[skyvue]

Right! That had occurred to me before -- it's nice to have it confirmed.

On another trip to the flea market, I bought a little shopping-related gadget I found of interest. It's a handheld red plastic whatsis, about four inches long and two inches wide. On either side is a list of staples one might pick up during a trip to the grocery store. Each has a little arrow-shaped slider, which allows one to move to the left those sliders next to the items one needs, in lieu of making a list. Then, once you've placed the item in your basket at the store, you slide the indicator back to the right. I thought it a handy gadget (it was from the Forties or Fifties, the vendor assured me. I guessed the latter was more likely) and was intrigued to see if there would be any items that stuck out as a bit anachronistic.

Here's the list, what do you think?

Butter, Toilet Paper, Oil, Ice Cream, Milk, Napkins, Vinegar, Condiments, Cheese, Sugar, Meat, Soap, Eggs, Salt Vegetables, Detergent, Margarine, Spices, Fruit, Wax, Bread, Flour, Jelly, Amonia (sic), Coffee, Bread Crumbs, Baby Food, Macaroni, Tea, Juice, Pet Food, Soup, Cocoa, Soda, Rice, Fish, Paper Towels, Cereal, Cookies, Steel Wool Pads


The ones that struck me as a bit odd were cocoa, bread crumbs, wax and steel wool pads. Not that these items are not still used -- of course they are -- but are they so commonly used today that one would consider them a staple?

I don't have any idea what wax would be commonly used for -- anyone know?

Okay, I'll stop for now -- I just wanted to get this thread off to a good start. I'm fascinated by this stuff -- this comparison of life today and life as it was lived then -- and I hope you guys will chime in.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Can you imagine non-blockbuster movies today opening in a town and playing a single theatre at a time, going from neighborhood to neighborhood, staying at each theatre only a few days at a time?

My father also told me that in his day (the Forties), they used to give very little thought to the start time of movies. The programs ran without stopping, including a second feature (often), a cartoon, a newsreel, and coming attractions. So they didn't worry about getting there at a particular time -- they just arrived whenever they arrived, and if they walked in on the middle of something, they stuck around until that movie or short played again and watched the part they'd missed.

And that's where we get the saying "This is where I came in."

During the Era, the theatre where I work ran continuous shows every day -- 11 am to midnight -- and it was very rare for a film to run more than three days at a time. The programs changed at least twice a week, so if you wanted to see a picture you'd better hurry. We had two theatres here, in a town of 8000 people, but they were both owned by the same family, and frequently a successful film would be bumped from one theatre to another as a way of extending runs while still keeping up the flow of new pictures into town.

Studios controlled booking then -- they would require a theatre to buy an entire season's worth of product, including A-features, B-features, and shorts, sight unseen, in order to be sure of getting the most popular pictures. The exhibitor really had little control over what appeared on his screen, and occasionally when a really bad picture played a town, he'd write a letter of apology to the local paper so people wouldn't blame him for it!

 

[LizzieMaine]

The ones that struck me as a bit odd were cocoa, bread crumbs, wax and steel wool pads. Not that these items are not still used -- of course they are -- but are they so commonly used today that one would consider them a staple?

I don't have any idea what wax would be commonly used for -- anyone know?

Wax was and is an essential item in home canning, of which there was a lot more during the era. It was also used as a household lubricant -- every family had a block of Essowax or Gulfwax in the cupboard for fixing squeaky drawers and the like.

 

[Lady Day]

Wax, or a bar of soap was also great to fix a sticking drawer.

I was dismayed that there wasnt cocoa available on my recent shopping trip. I bake all my own cakes, cookies and breads, so much of that list are staples to me.

That list seems to contain some monthly and even bi-monthly items. I get steel wool pads, but stopped and get the green scour ones instead. I got tired of the rust washing off on my dishes.

LD

 

[JennyLou]

Great stuff. My grandfather wore a wedding ring, but most of the other men I knew from his generation did not. Jewelry on blue-collar men was considered both effete and potentially dangerous if it got hooked on moving machinery.

I once did a presentation to a class of junior high kids laying out a whole blackboard full of differences between Depression-era daily life and life today. Here's a few at random --

In most US states, stop signs were yellow.

The majority of drivers signaled turns by sticking their arm out the window.

Mailboxes were green.

Mail was picked up and delivered twice a day, morning and afternoon.

Common gasoline was commonly used for spot-cleaning laundry and removing stains on woolens. A housewife would go down to the corner filling station with a glass jug and buy a nickel's worth at a time, and would store it in the shed or on the back porch until needed.

Until the war years, there was only one radio station in the US that remained on the air 24 hours a day, KGFJ in Los Angeles.

If you had dial telephone service, it was only necessary to dial four -- or, at the most, five -- digits to make a local call.

It was very common for men to re-sharpen old razor blades to save a few pennies here and there.

Every woman knew how to mend a stocking.

Those are some interesting facts that are good to know. Thanks

 

[lazydaisyltd]

Right! That had occurred to me before -- it's nice to have it confirmed.

On another trip to the flea market, I bought a little shopping-related gadget I found of interest. It's a handheld red plastic whatsis, about four inches long and two inches wide. On either side is a list of staples one might pick up during a trip to the grocery store. Each has a little arrow-shaped slider, which allows one to move to the left those sliders next to the items one needs, in lieu of making a list. Then, once you've placed the item in your basket at the store, you slide the indicator back to the right. I thought it a handy gadget (it was from the Forties or Fifties, the vendor assured me. I guessed the latter was more likely) and was intrigued to see if there would be any items that stuck out as a bit anachronistic.

Here's the list, what do you think?

Butter, Toilet Paper, Oil, Ice Cream, Milk, Napkins, Vinegar, Condiments, Cheese, Sugar, Meat, Soap, Eggs, Salt Vegetables, Detergent, Margarine, Spices, Fruit, Wax, Bread, Flour, Jelly, Amonia (sic), Coffee, Bread Crumbs, Baby Food, Macaroni, Tea, Juice, Pet Food, Soup, Cocoa, Soda, Rice, Fish, Paper Towels, Cereal, Cookies, Steel Wool Pads


The ones that struck me as a bit odd were cocoa, bread crumbs, wax and steel wool pads. Not that these items are not still used -- of course they are -- but are they so commonly used today that one would consider them a staple?

I don't have any idea what wax would be commonly used for -- anyone know?

Okay, I'll stop for now -- I just wanted to get this thread off to a good start. I'm fascinated by this stuff -- this comparison of life today and life as it was lived then -- and I hope you guys will chime in.

I have a similar gadget, only mine is tin, and I think, a bit earlier than yours as it lists no paper napkins or toilet paper--it was the sort that were found on Hoosier cabinets...It lists baking powder, beans, bluing, bread, butter, cereal, cheese, cocoa, coffee, crackers, eggs, extracts, flour, fruit, gelatine, lard, lemons, matches, milk, macaroni/spagetti, oil, onions, paper, polish, potatoes, preserves, raisins, rice, salad dressing, salt, soap, soda, spices, starch, sugar, tea, vegetables, vinegar and wax.

The items on mine that I find a bit outdated are lard--so few people cook with lard anymore, and bluing, which (in case anyone doesn't know) is an old-fashioned laundry additive that made your whites appear whiter.

 

[Absinthe_1900]

Originally Posted by LizzieMaine
Common gasoline was commonly used for spot-cleaning laundry and removing stains on woolens. A housewife would go down to the corner filling station with a glass jug and buy a nickel's worth at a time, and would store it in the shed or on the back porch until needed.

I once saw a PSA-style B&W short from, I think, the 1940s, warning against this practice. But prior to seeing that film, I had no idea the practice had existed. I think the film's narrator referred to it as "home dry-cleaning."

Wouldn't that be what they called White Gas back in the day?

White gas was a term for Gasoline with no lead or additives, not the other term used for naphtha.

 

[AtomicEraTom]

It's kind of funny, my great-grandfather, grandfather, and father, all lathers. My great-grandpa (born 1902) wore a wedding band, he was married in I beleive 1922 or 23. My grandpa's (born 1930) nickname was diamond-mike, just your average lather on the construction site, but this man wears more jewelry than I've ever seen anybody wear, and his prime was the 1940s. He graduated in 1948 married in 51. He wears rings, watches, necklaces, bracelets (my favorite is big and has "mike" written in diamonds on it. And wears a heck of a nice fedora, as did my great-grandpa. Now my dad, born 1959, wears a cross and a watch, but refuses to wear a wedding ring, his is in fact, my great-grandpa's. Then me, (born 1990) I'd wear a wedding ring, no problem. I see no issue, but it's been a big fight between my folks for years. Just kinda funny how things change from generation to generation. Sorry for the rambling story.

 

[Barchetta52]

One of the things I like most about old movies (of which I watch a couple hundred a year), books, and even music is that I pick up little tidbits about life as it was lived back in the day.

For example, I'm currently reading Cornell Woolrich's 1932 novel "Manhattan Love Song," and there were, in the chapter I read at lunch, a couple of things that caught my eye and piqued my interest.

The two lead characters, Wade and Bernice, are having an affair, and Wade hasn't revealed to Bernice, who's no choir girl, that he's married. But Wade's wife Maxine pays a visit to Bernice, who confronts Wade the next time he pays her a visit:

"Wade," she said, shaking a finger at me, "you've been holding out on me."
"I have? What do you mean?"
"You see, in Europe," she laughed, "the married men wear rings just like the women do. It has its advantages."​

See, I had no idea that wedding rings for men were uncommon in the U.S. as recently as the Thirties (or, for that matter, that they were common in Europe).

A few pages later, Wade and Bernice have decided to skip town (for reasons I won't go into here), and in a hurry, so Wade rushes home to pack:

"I began to pile shirts in like one of those three-decker sandwiches, colored ones on bottom and on top and white ones in the middle, where they wouldn't get dirty so quickly."​

This may not be an especially vintage approach, but I was intrigued by this very specific method of packing shirts, meant to keep the white shirts unsullied.

Anyway, I thought it might be fun for us to log any bits of info and insight we pick up while watching old movies and television programs and reading older literature. I've gleaned dozens of similar tidbits over the years, but won't try to recall them all now -- I'll start with just the above two. But I'd be interested to hear from the rest of the group.

I love that stuff too, but I was afraid it was just my anthropology training.

 

[Foofoogal]

My father also told me that in his day (the Forties), they used to give very little thought to the start time of movies. The programs ran without stopping, including a second feature (often), a cartoon, a newsreel, and coming attractions. So they didn't worry about getting there at a particular time -- they just arrived whenever they arrived, and if they walked in on the middle of something, they stuck around until that movie or short played again and watched the part they'd missed.

As a child our mother used to let us go to movies on Sat. We would sit all day watching the movie over and over. A chicostick and maybe some iced pickle juice and we were good to go. lol We could not even see when we came out as sitting in the dark all day we had to adjust our eyes. lol
As far as the gasoline I remember this also. My mom would wash my dads khakis with this as spotclean and/or cocacola. Got the grease out.
One thing I sort of wish was still used but not as not good is creosote around houses to kill termites.

A bit off topic as the OP asked for things in movies. I will be watching and report back.

 

[Mid-fogey]

I remember...

...the clouds of curling smoke in the theaters. And going to see a double feature and cartoon for .50.

 

[Dixie_Amazon]

My dad grew up on a farm in rural central Arkansas (late 1920's, early 1030's) with his 6 brothers and one sister. His mother made them huge breakfasts of fried chicken, biscuits, eggs and ham before they went to work in the fields.

 

[BegintheBeguine]

My father also told me that in his day (the Forties), they used to give very little thought to the start time of movies. The programs ran without stopping, including a second feature (often), a cartoon, a newsreel, and coming attractions. So they didn't worry about getting there at a particular time -- they just arrived whenever they arrived, and if they walked in on the middle of something, they stuck around until that movie or short played again and watched the part they'd missed.

I read somewhere, or was told, that Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho was the movie that definitely put an end to this. Makes sense, when I recall how shocked I was before the picture was even halfway over that first time I saw it in the 70s.

 

[JimInSoCalif]

I don't remember it, but I have read that in some markets the evening movie did not start until the radio program Amos and Andy was over. A program, that of course, would not be aired today.