Thursday, December 30, 2010

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2011.....

Hi everyone...Hope you all have a Very Happy and Safe New Year 2011. There's much more to come on HR&J in 2011 so be sure to check back from time to time. We will be getting back to more local history and more cool car stuff next week.
Don't end up looking like Daffy here, with his face and eyes all red....even his Woody Woodpecker slippers are laughing at him.

Poor Daffy.....Check this next old sign....with the gas prices climbing higher and higher, beer is definitely cheaper than gas...even in Canada.........BUT, as noted...If you drink, DON'T drive!

These are old ads from the 1940's, and not soon after the invention of the automobile, there were signs like this one posted in many places that gas and whisky don't mix. The little one here is a cutesy Happy New Year postcard with a little car and the last one is one of my favourite "Aspirin" ads saying that "Aspirin" is as fast as this old stock car, but hopefully you won't need any the morning after your New Years Eve party.
Poor Bowser has a hangover after the New Years Eve party and he might have had to use a number of remedies such as the ones in the next photo(remember these)??
Click twice on this one for sure to see how to relieve a hangover with "Alka-Seltzer". Remember "Plop plop, fizz fizz, Oh, what a relief it is!"
Poor Homer also indulged too much and is having a bad dream thinking that he feels just like the little round faced guy in the next photo.....Is that how you look after your New Years Eve party?? LOL
A couple more vintage remedies for the proverbial hangover. Indulge a bit, enjoy but be sure to drive sober....We want you back to read Hot Rods and Jalopies in 2011.
THANKS TO EVERYONE FOR FOLLOWING OUR WEBSITE.....IT IS VERY ENJOYABLE BRINGING IT TO ALL OF YOU........Be Safe, Dave and family.
click on all photos to enlarge!!

Wednesday, December 22, 2010

MERRY CHRISTMAS 2010......and a few more interesting ads....

....CLICK ON THIS WONDERFUL PIECE OF DALE KLEE ART AS WELL AS ALL THE OTHER PHOTOS!
Be sure to come back and see us after Christmas. Also ....have another look at this link from last year http://hotrodsandjalopies.blogspot.com/2009/12/christmas-television-specials-to.html
...then come back and enjoy the rest!

Here is another great Norwell piece for Christmas as well as a "Model T" cover from an old Christmas card by artist Ralph Hulett.

Its amazes me that anyone could actually draw like this 7-up commercial ad. This was done by none other than Haddon Sundblom of Coca-Cola art fame. Most people don't realize that the modern looking Santa with the red suit, white beard and large belly as we know him today was invented by the Coca-Cola Company in the 1930's. Coke commissioned Haddon to develop images using Santa Claus as more lifelike to the times. He painted Santa using a live model, his friend Lou Prentiss, a retired salesman. When Prentiss Passed away, Sundblom used himself as a model, painting while looking into a mirror. After the 1930's he used photos to create the image of St. Nick, and the children in many of his paintings were based on his own neighbours kids. Sundblom also painted many other Santas but they were not to look exactly like the Coca-cola ones.
The next commercial art piece is a cartoony Santa promoting bananas....."Do not open 'til hungry"!


If you have travelled into the US you will still see Gambles stores here and there and as far back as the 1940's. These two pages are a 1959 example of one of their Christmas Toyland magazine advertisements.

Not sure if this one is a Sundblom art piece but it is a fabulous rendering of teens and adults having fun drinking 7-up at which looks like a family Christmas gathering.
How can you forget Ronald Reagan, movie star of the '40's and '50's and former US President. Here Ronnie is promoting Chesterfield cigarettes in the nice new Christmas packaging. Everyone smoked in those days....I remember my mother giving the tin "flat-50's" cigarettes to the mailman, milkman and breadman.

Everyone gave tobacco for gifts.....a far cry from today. Look at this cool red wall phone........you could actually have an extension in your kitchen so you could talk and bake cookies at the same time....what a unique idea....WOW, how things have changed. Wait a minute........I actually have a red dial phone in my garage still........that must surely date me!!

What a wonderful Christmas Texaco commercial ad with all those cute dalmations. Those pups had become a trademark for Texaco Fire-chief gasoline. Dalmations were a fireman's best friend, weren't they?
Who could forget Slinky. Every kid had a Slinky. It's difficult to find good ones now...some are even plastic. Remember, a Slinky could actually walk down a whole flight of stairs?
Remember thee only decent gum to blow those big bubbles....YES...it was Dubble Bubble by Fleer, with the little "Pud" comic strip inside. Finally, it didn't matter how much snow was out in the yard. If you got a new bicycle for Christmas, you took it for its first ride in the snow. Schwinn was mainly available in the USA in the 1950's but in Canada we had CCM bicycles. CCM stood for Canada Cycle & Motor Company, and has been around for about 110 years. They are still sold today in various bicycle shops and in Canadian Tire Stores.
Please click on all photos to enlarge somewhat!
ALSO - Don't miss the Happy Days Christmas Episode original broadcast Dec 17, 1974...NEXT POST

Monday, December 20, 2010

Christmas Clippings - News Chronicle Dec. 18/1939 and Dec. 24/1951 Port Arthur and Fort William without the musty basement and attic odour...

Click on each of these first twelve ads from near Christmas 1939 to see what locals paid for such things as Christmas Dinners and grocery items.


Christmas dinner with entertainment at the Royal Edward Hotel was only $1.00 for adults and half price for children. A family of 5 could have a wonderful outing at Christmas for about $3.50 and no sales tax! Does anyone remember the Service Inn Service Station at Court and Van Norman Streets. We all remember the Thunder Bay Co-op Dairy(it was called that long before the twin cities amalgamated into Thunder Bay). Well....that is the name of the bay out front of the two cities!!

We all remember Marshall Wells, a Canadian hardware, grocery and sundries chain on Cumberland Street in Port Arthur. Does anyone remember the Central Candy Kitchen on Arthur Street in Port Arthur, now Red River Road. Shop-Easy stores were a mainstay around the Lakehead cities right into the 1960's. They had smaller grocery stores in many parts of both cities including the Westfort area....eventually knocked out of business by larger grocery chains. How 'bout Round Steak for .20 cents a pound and two cans of soup for .15 cents.

The Shaw Baking Co. building in Port Arthur was just recently torn down. The Shaw's building in Fort William still exists on the corner of Dease and May streets...with a new tenant of course. Shaw's was THE bakery around here for many years. Another group of stores was the Cut Rate Food Market....they had 4 stores locally in 1939. Look at that....T-bones for .20 cents a pound, and tins of sardines for less than .05 cents a can. LeCocq the Florist was another long time survivor having a store in both Fort William and Port Arthur.

I had to put a bit of the want ad section for this date to let you see some of the prices of things....such as: Rent a 7 room house for only $22.00 a month, 2 X 4 lumber for .10 or .15 cents each, and buy a 1933 Chevrolet Special Deluxe Sedan for $350.00 ...a lot of money in 1939.
Finally for 1939 is what was playing at two Port Arthur theatres, The Colonial and the Lyceum. ............Click on each scan for better detail!!!
The last 5 scans next are moving ahead to Christmas Eve 1951.

Cochrane-Dunlop Hardware was located on Hardisty Street in Fort William. The building still stands today on the far southern end of Hardisty Street.
Heintzman & Co. Limited was on the corner of Syndicate and Victoria Ave, across from Chapples Limited and the Victoria Hotel. It was a well known music store for many years here in Fort William. The best memory from Heintzman's was choosing a record that you may want to buy and playing it for yourself in one of many small isolated booths. They would let you test the record before you bought it, and even though I was only about 10 years old when I first went in there, I was never shooed away, as they believed that a young customer if treated right would return for many years.......and I certainly did! The spot where Heintzman's is now is right inside what is now Victoriaville Mall.

Finally the Mariaggi Hotel(or the Marina Inn which it was called years later).....Here in 1951 you could have Christmas Dinner with you family in one of the more beautiful hotels that graced our waterfront in Port Arthur back then. The Mariaggi was razed to accommodate the new government building(I call the Parthenon) in Port Arthur.
Last but not least is an ad for some great Christmas entertainment at the Colonial, Lyceum and Paramount theatres in Port Arthur. I well remember buying "Famous Players" gift booklets for friends to go to the show!! ENJOY!!

Sunday, December 19, 2010

NEWS FLASH - Tom Kusznier of Thunder Bay(that's here) is the Grand Prize Winner of the National Sprint Car Museum's Sprint Car Raffle Dec 17/10....

Before this news is too old......you will have to click on this link to read the whole story and see the you tube video of the draw......CLICK HERE then come back ........ http://www.kniakrls.com/2010/12/thunder-bay-ontario-race-fan-wins-the-sprint-car-raffle/

Friend, Tom Kusznier won't have to finish his project as shown in the colour photo here(taken a few years ago), as he has won himself a state of the art ready to race sprint car. Click on the story above and be sure to see the video as proof.
Here is a picture of Tom(local gear head, hot rod builder, and car aficionado), taken way back in the 1960's while working on Tom Nesbitt's race car. CONGRATULATIONS TOM....WELL DESERVED!!!

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Big Daddy Roth...Old Car Ads, and other Christmas Oddities! ...Christmas and/or Winter Related part 2

In line with the other magazine covers in a prior post, and keeping with the Christmas season, here are a few other oddities to enjoy....Be sure to click on the pictures for larger images...sometimes twice for extra large ones!

Here is a bit more of Pete Millar's art work on a cover way back in the 1960's. The second group of photos here is a collage of Big Daddy Roth and a little bio that you will have to click on probably twice to read, as well as a little Happy Finky Christmas....(If you don't know who Rat Fink is, you have never lived in the hot rod world). Rat Fink still exists today and in most hot rod circles is still more popular than Mickey Mouse!!

A couple of real oddities here. "Santa Clause conquers the Martians" was an actual "B" movie back in the middle of the 20th century, and was dubbed as one of the worst movies of all time.
The next piece here is a very cool (likely fictitious) lounge sign that caught my eye...I guess I just really like the Art Deco art work here!
This is a wonderful 1941 Lincoln Zephyr advertisement showing Santa, looking so proudly upon either his own Lincoln or one that he will be giving as a gift on Christmas Eve.
The next one here is a great artistic piece of Christmas gift bearing people eyeing up the brand new 1946 Nash.
Here is a nice shot of Santa and an International Panel Truck. International trucks were a very important part of the delivery scene back in 1938. Next to it is a 5-Ton 1948 Studebaker Stake-side truck delivering Christmas Trees to the neighbourhood. Both are great examples of the art work for the advertising industry at the time.
One last art piece here is tons of Christmas shoppers at the Goodyear Tire store back in 1960....do you recognize the new red 1960 Plymouth Valiant?
The final 1954 picture here is one of my favourites showing Christmas shoppers in a city that could be anywhere in the USA or Canada a week before the holidays........How many of the vehicles can you name. Compare that picture to one that might be taken today, and from the same distance you would never be able to tell what the vehicles were!! The vehicles of today are basically clones of each other.
NOTE: CHECK OUT THESE TWO LINKS TO SEE LAST YEARS CHRISTMAS POSTS....THEY ARE WORTH A SECOND LOOK.....THEN COME BACK!
AND http://hotrodsandjalopies.blogspot.com/2009/12/christmasthe-best-days-of-our-lives-in.html
Please note that the image above "Ring-A-Ding-Ding Lounge" is courtesy of and property of "The Retro Christmas Card Company"  with it's link as follows  http://www.retrochristmascardcompany.com/ring-a-ding-lounge/
Many thanks to "Retro Christmas Card Company" for its use!