June, 1960: The world is alive. From Architectural Forum, we hear of a snack bar. The 1,600 employees in the Bell Telephone Company’s brand new Pittsburgh office building can point with pride to their new lounge and snack bar. It’s truly one of the interior “showplaces.” Two Natco products were used extensively to help create… Continue reading Bell Telephone Company Pittsburgh Office Snack Bar, 1960
Category: ApexUSA
ApexUSA is a stab into the darkness, an attempt via ad images to locate the exact point in the 20th century when America reached its cultural peak.
Is a LIFE ad for Pullman coaches really indicative of what was going on in America in 1937? Isn’t that a distorted view? Yes. But a serious, tight-lipped historical account would be equally distorted. Pick your distortion.
This is not a yearning for the past. As time goes by, you gain some things, lose others. There are no answers here. Only evidence.
How Waiting in Line Is the Purest Form of Democracy
Nobody likes waiting in line. You’re waiting in line at the DMV, for concert tickets, movie tickets, at the theme park. In non-First World societies or in First World societies that experience temporary collapse, waiting in line takes the form of breadlines, food lines, lines for assistance. Yet the alternative is worse: a mob rush… Continue reading How Waiting in Line Is the Purest Form of Democracy
Hong Kong Bank of China as Giant Protest Sign
As some of us sit around in the burgs and hamlets of the United States, knitting our fingers and wondering about the shape that China’s “invasion” of the U.S. will take, need we look any further than Hong Kong? In 1997, Hong Kong’s sovereignty was transferred to China, and the “one country, two systems” principle… Continue reading Hong Kong Bank of China as Giant Protest Sign
Switchboard Receptionist School: Never Again
File this one in the annals of things that will never again exist: switchboard operator school. This ad from the June 1, 1948 Los Angeles Times hit the zeitgeist of the times perfectly well, though. Picture: it’s 1948, the war has just ended, L.A. is booming, phones are still run through switchboards (though not for… Continue reading Switchboard Receptionist School: Never Again
Hi, 1587 35th Avenue, San Francisco, Meet the JFK Assassination
The Belasco Theater in New York at 111 West 44th Street was built over a century ago for Broadway theater impresario David Belasco. The Belasco is still there and thriving. Anyone who loves Broadway theater has undoubtedly been to the Belasco Theater at one point or another. The Belasco name would, strangely enough, surface during the… Continue reading Hi, 1587 35th Avenue, San Francisco, Meet the JFK Assassination