Ladie’s Home Journal December 1957
For my last blog post about a magazine issue I chose to write about an issue of Time magazine. This time, I wanted something a little more light-hearted. Ladie’s Home Journal seemed like a good choice. Growing up, my mom got countless issues of Better Homes and Gardens, and Good Housekeeping magazine, and I was just curious to see the kind of things her mother read and maybe passed on to mine. I also thought it would be interesting to see how gender roles have changed in the last fifty to sixty years.
I selected an issue from December 1957 to see how Christmas was depicted in the 1950’s since it is my favorite holiday. I started off looking at the table of contents and it was immediately apparent who the target audience for the magazine is. In the contents there were two short stories, one of them a holiday story. There were “Special Features” which included a series of articles ranging from Christmas desserts to love and marriage and even an article about mentally ill people in the workplace. “General Features” was more articles about family and household living and included a section of letters from readers. There were also sections entitled “Fashion and Beauty”, “Gardening”, and “Food and Homemaking”.
I began by flipping through the entire issue and looking at what pictures caught my eye. There were several pictures of various desserts, Christmas dinners, jello molds, and pies. Maybe it’s because I tend to think with my stomach and its 6:30 and I haven’t had dinner yet but I really like this magazine. One advertisement I found particularly intriguing for several reasons was an ad for BarcaLoungers. The picture depicts a man laying on a recliner in front of a Christmas tree and his wife and daughter standing over him admirably. They all have smiles on their faces and the little girl is holding a picket sign that says “Guess who wants you to live forever?” I began to read the ad and apparently 3 out of 4 men say they don’t have a comfortable chair to sit in and this contributes to great stress in the home. Certain words were italicized for emphasis. The chair was apparently designed by scientists and decorated by decorator stylists in order to offer the best looking natural relaxation for a working body. The caption under the picture obviously catered toward women around Christmas time because it said, “So give your husband a BarcaLounger”. The ad then talked about how in as little as fifteen minutes your husband’s bunched up muscles and nerves can be relaxed. This is kind of backward from our thinking today in which we think of a sedentary lifestyle as unhealthy. This ad also assumes a lot of households operate in the same way, which back then, they probably did. The man works all day and wants to come home and relax while the woman cooks and takes care of the kids. Everyone is happy and everyone has a specific role. This is also completely different from today. Lastly it said for a complete brochure and to find the dealer nearest you, to write the manufacturing company. This was obviously a sign of the times. How often do we turn to our computers or smartphones upon seeing something and wanting more information and needing to wait about thirty seconds to have that information, when people back then had to wait a week or more to get it by mail?
One article that I found particularly interesting was the true story of a married couple who was having problems. The article was called “Can this Marriage Be Saved?” It started out with the wife telling her side of the story about how her husband always worked late, came home and complained he was tired, then, the previous Christmas, had arrived home two and a half hours late from his office Christmas party drunk and covered in lipstick. The husband then told his side about how he only worked late because he was trying to provide for his family and that the lipstick at the party was a one time mistake he made when he was drunk. The last segment of the article was by a marriage counselor who explained how he helped the couple and explained where they were at today. He said they managed to work through a lot of their problems by compromising. He would not stay so late at work and she would push dinner back half an hour to allow him to relax when he got home, stuff like that. He also wrote about how the majority of their problems stemmed from insecurities rooted in their childhoods. I thought this article was interesting because it had the premise of a modern day reality television program or radio phone in segment or even self help columns. The problems seemed relevant to today as well; drinking, cheating, a lack of interest, and unhappiness in marriage. The advice the counselor gave also seemed relevant and like it had not changed much. He interpreted their actions objectively and saw each problem for more than just what it was on the surface. He identified the root of the issue and gave the couple concrete steps to take in order to save the marriage. It ended up having a happy ending and it all tied back in to their plans for this coming Christmas (Christmas of 1957). This was real life stuff in this segment and I found myself actively engaged and wanting to read more. It wasn’t until I got to the counselor’s part when I wanted to know what happened next and if they eventually saved the marriage that I realized, this happened over 50 years ago. These people are really old right now if they are even still around. Their children from the article are probably my parents age or older. I wondered where all these people were today and if the couple was still together. It was a pretty surreal experience to think about that.
Overall, for a Ladie’s magazine, I found the reading experience pretty enjoyable. I was given a great insight into the structure of the typical, middle class, magazine-subscribing home in the late 1950’s. It was definitely geared toward Christmas time which made me wish it was December already and also made me hungry looking at all the pictures of desserts. I would be interested to thumb through some issues of my mom’s magazines back at home to see how the two pair up and how they are different. And who knows, maybe I can convince her to bake something pictured on one of the pages… It can never hurt to ask.
Hi Kyle, thanks for the great posts. I enjoyed reading about your conversations with Khedir and Marcus (two for the price of one?). These conversations sound like the went well, which I appreciate. I am sure Khedir is most appreciative. I also thought your response above to the Ladies Home Journal was great, and I am glad you picked something slightly unusual (for a guy). The Barcalounger ad was wonderful, and certainly it speaks volumes about traditional expectations of gender roles, as does the advice to the married couple. Sounds like a 40-year-old soap opera. Thanks for the good work. dw
ReplyDeleteKyyyyyyyle,
ReplyDeleteEven though many differences can be found between magazines written in 1957 and those written in 2011, it is always fun to find articles that are relevant in both time periods like the marriage counselor article you found. Also, I had a similar experience in my magazine I read from 1955. It was a story about a boxer who had gone from the best to on the streets and then back to the best. While it was a fantastic story, I researched and found he died in 1989. Every life has its ups and downs and you've got to enjoy them while you're still around. But even though he is long gone, I was still able to thoroughly enjoy his story.