Meyer's Modeblatt 1946 - No. 1, 5th January

 

So, here we go! The first issue of Meyer's Modeblatt 1946 (need an introduction to this blog series? Check here: http://dollsfashionart.blogspot.ch/2012/10/meyers-modeblatt-1946-year-in-fashion.html). The year started with a cute baby on the cover, and continued with that theme... not much fashion in this one - sorry! But let's get on with the further categories!

Keep it patriotic!

Oh yes! Page 2 starts head-on with a big article on Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi. January 12 1946 marked the 200th anniversary of his birth, so this was an obvious choice.

 

I don't know if it was because of that, but this issue definitely had a children/baby theme going. Several pages of knitting and crotcheting patterns for babies and small kids followed. Mostly clothing, but also things like a pretty cover for a pram.

Hollywood movie

This issue didn't discuss a movie of the year, as subsequent ones would, but it has a little bit of movie history trivia. It talkes about silent movie star Bessie Love, who had returned to the spotlight after moving to the UK, to entertain the troops and then to appear on the theater in London. It shows her being a housewife, and doing her grocery shopping with her ration book under the arm.

Household tips

 

On this page further in the back, important advice is given to the thrifty housewife on how to safe gas. Basically, it's a plan for the whole week, on what to cook, and then there is a list showing which foods would take how long to cook. The gist of it was, with all the Christmas holidays etc., everybody probably used a bit more than planned, which meant they would have to be more careful in the following weeks.

World news

 

"Die bunte Seite" appeared in every issue, rounding up more and less important news from around the world. There's everything - an American farmer whose cow gave birth to five calves (!!!), the electrification of a railway line in Switzerland, an auction of rare stamps in Zurich, a strange kind of baby bed  that's electrically heated to a constant temperature (doesn't it look horrible?!) and the inhabitants of a mountain valley prostesting against a reservoir and dam project (and you thought that only nowadays these kinds of projects got severe opposition... think again!).

Another small blurb talks about Cunard's ship Queen Elizabeth going into dry-dock . I assume this was done to change her back from troop ship to passenger ship.

Ad-tastic

 This ad for apple tea may not seem to be so very exciting, but for me it has a certain significance, as Volg, an association of farmer's cooperatives, still operates supermarkets in large parts of Switzerland, and it is the supermarket I grew up with.

Here's the first weird ad. A cure against what's quite normal and natural: your normal vaginal discharge. I don't want to know what horrible stuff this must have been. Yuk!

Slimming product ad

Switzerland was still on food rationing in '46, and you'd think women had better things to do than to worry about being slim. Fuhgeddaboudit! Ther is a surprising number of ads of slimming pills, potions and what-not in Meyer's Modeblatt! Here's number one, Orbal. They promise no less than being youthful, healthy and elastic (*lol*) through this product. They don't say what it is, if it's a pill, a drink or whatever. But you could order a sample and a brochure. Duh.

Breast enhancement ad

Another weird thing! You think only nowadays, in this age of silicone breasts we are so fixated with breasts having to look according to a certain (artificial) ideal. Nope. All the vintage mags I have - from the 1930s to the 1960s, have loads of ads for all kinds of breast-enhancing, firming and whatever products. Mostly they were creams, but there are other ones too. It just strikes me as so weird! Who would honestly believe in this? Well, it seems many women must have, otherwise, there wouldn't have been so many products around. I almost overlooked this ad first, as it's title is quite harmless and talks about "More heart". It's quite the burner though. This pharmacy in Zurich promised that their hormone pills (uhhhhh!) , which could be ordered "discreetly" by mail, would give you no less than plump fullness, firmness and "noble shape". I am speechless....!

On quite a different note, for all the faithful subscribers to the magazine, there were also a few things on offer. First, a practical folder in which one could collect all the sewing patterns:

 

And then, on the back page - book covers you could order to have then a book binder bind a whole year's worth of the magazine into a nice book. I think that the covers that came with my magazines might have just been these, only this particular owner decided to pull some cotton ties through them and just tie it all up together...