The suburban mom needs a new car every year

Detroit's car makers must have cheered the suburbs. The book's first chapter says that in 1940, only 19.5 per cent of Americans lived in suburbs but by 1950 to 1970, 83 per cent of the population lived in them. Here was a chance for the two-family car, the lady of the house needed wheels for shopping, school runs and local travel. As well as selling to Dad, now car makers would spend ad dollars persuading the suburban ladies that this year's model was just what she needed. Of course, it was the same car whether ma or pa bought it and the editorial of the book just considers car ads aimed at the ladies.

What I enjoyed about the title is the dozens of ads that are a reasonable size, so that the copy can be read. Mad men churned out over-the-top hype about every year's new model that had improved engine performance, interior elegance and trendy exterior colors. The ad photos obviously required a lady at the wheel and what better than a model wearing the latest European couture.

I think it's worth saying that this isn't a book about mid-century design in the broadest sense. Any reasonable book about that probably wouldn't include any of the cars featured in these ads. Well-designed products don't change every year but last year in and out. Detroit's cars were sort of the opposite of good design.

 

Weegee the now famous

My expanding library of Weegee, stacked by year of publication

Weegee, a man of two halves, as revealed in these pages. Ukrainian-born, in 1899, Usher Felig came to America when he was eleven and worked in various jobs until 1935, when he started as a freelance street photographer and in 1937 created his unique name. His speciality was taking crime, fire, accident and street-scene photos for New York's tabloids, easily achieved as he listened to police radio messages and arrived on the scene before any other snappers.

The book has an excellent selection of his New York photos, though they have all appeared in other books about him, especially in his 1945 book 'Naked City.' The net is awash with various (poor) editions issued over the years. Italian publisher Damiani issued a first-class facsimile in 2019 (ISBN 978 8862086950).

I was rather disappointed with this book, though it has 130 photos and four worthwhile essays. About half the book is Weegee's tacky photo-facial caricatures of celebrities and politicians. On page 161 there's a reproduction of a spread from an April 1962, Mechanix Illustrated magazine where he explains how to take your own facial distortions. I think Miles Barth's 'Weegee's world' (ISBN 0821226495) with 262 pages of photos and essays, is a good introduction to this interesting photographer.

US

Amazon.com: Weegee: Society of the Spectacle: 9780500029121: Chéroux, Clément, Bonnet, Isabelle, Campany, David, Young, Cynthia: Books

UK

Weegee: Society of the Spectacle : Chéroux, Clément, Young, Cynthia, Bonnet, Isabelle, Campany, David: Amazon.co.uk: Books

Amazing Soviet film posters (5/5)

The Soviet film posters book I'm writing about is the large-size version (ISBN 978-3836589529, 34x26mm with 320 pages) and not the smaller version (ISBN 978-3754405543, 21x15mm with 512 pages). Both sizes have the same cover design, so you need to make sure you get the larger copy, which I think is the better of the two.

The 250 posters are so unlike anything produced in the West during the 20s and 30s. They rely on incredibly strong graphics, especially photomontages, to put their message across to the public. The only common element is the use of faces in lots of different photographic and art styles. 

The posters are presented on black pages throughout the book. Each gets a reasonable-length caption about the film, plus technical details naming the designer, size, date etc. The author writes a worthwhile essay about the designers who created this amazing art. The back pages has brief biogs of them and a three-page index.