Yes, this is number 4! Number three is the only issue that is missing. But as consolation, number 4 has some fabulous fashion! On the cover: a sporty windowpane-check coat by Carven, in "grey and marron" according to the caption. Love it, and the big belt buckle!
Keep it patriotic?
I'm not quite sure what to make of this article. The (male) journalist makes an experiment - how easy is it to just chat up young Swiss ladies in the street? The journalist (who looks quite young and a bit baby-faced) doesn't only try it himself, but has a few American soldiers and seamen try their luck with the same ladies too! The result? The ladies react friendly enough and say they don't mind as long as they're being treated respectfully, when the journalist tells them of the experiment. One of the GIs is an African-American (politically incorrectly, but at the time probably pretty normally called "Neger" in German - that's the times for you), and funnily enough, the lady has time for him, but not for the journalist! Why? She works in a hotel, and usually doesn't let unknown men chat her up at all, but the GI is obviously a tourist, and these she will talk to of course!
The big, wide world
The "Diamond Horseshoe" is the Metropolitan Opera in New York - but the old one, not the building that we know today - that one is from the 60s if I remember right. It certainly looks packed, and the nickname appropriate! The box decorated with the US flag is the president's box, and on the picture on the top left we have the First Lady and their daughter Margaret. Bottom left is the widow of Cornelius Vanderbilt, and on the right the opera singer Lily Pons. She had quite a career, as Wikipedia tells us:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lily_Pons. Googling pictures of her also turns up a load of glamour shots!
Speaking of glamorous - this little blurb talks about "London's number one pin-up girl", 20-year-old actress Jill Evans. To be honest, she doesn't look quite as glamourous or sexy as I would imagine a pin-up. Finding out anything about her has been hard... I guess they were given a couple of nice shots to fill up the page by some pulicist or movie company who wanted to promote her a bit, but she doesn't seem to have had a big career. IMDb doesn't find her in much either, with the last film being from 1945. Looks like she retired from film after that.
The mixed news page is quite interesting this week! At the top, it talks about the collection for the
Berghilfe charity. The organisation still exists, still helping farmers in mountain regions. I just didn't know it had been around for that long already! Here it talks about some of their projects, and gives the details where the money can be donated to.
Below: after six years, the bob sled-run in St. Moritz had been re-opened and a female US forces member (they don't say who she was or what her functions was) tried it out.
Real-life lieutenant John Hoy, hero of the movie
"The Last Chance" (check it out a IMDb - what an unusual Swiss film - sounds really interesting!) got married - to a Swiss girl from Lugano. The film is about an English and an American soldier escaping the Nazis in Italy and trying to make it to the Swiss border... The director was an Austrian who had emigrated to Switzerland, the film was produced by a Swiss company and distributed by MGM. No famous names in the cast list, and maybe John Hoy wasn't the only real-life soldier making a once-in-a-lifetime appearance in a film. I shouldn't wonder if he met the girl while filming this! I am fascinated now, and I actually want to see this!
Edouart Herriot, mayor of Lyon, was on a lecture tour in Switzerland.
French actress Michèle Morgan was also touring Switzerland, in aid of a French charity.
UN General Assembly in London (the first one...!) - it's first chairman, Belgian foreign minister Paul Henri Spaak holding a speech.
And whilst the UN was holding it's first assembly, Mr. and Mrs. Churchill went on a holiday trip to the US, on board the "Queen Elizabeth". I can't help having a bit of a laugh here!
And last... the Swiss ski association was holding ski camps for kids again. 500 girls, raring to go skiing. Just imagine...!
The fashion!
First up, pretty aprons, decorated with colorful embroidery. Just imagine putting so much work into something as seemingly banal as an apron!
But here comes the first taste of great fashion, Modeblatt style! The title says "Born in Paris...", so the implication is that these chic little day dresses are as good as anything designed in Paris. I love the illustration, and yes, the dresses are all very becoming. And just look at how short they are, they really just cover the knees and nothing more! Patterns could bought or ordered by mail in various sizes for these, but even better, each one was included in one size on the monthly pattern sheet! There were no actual sizes, it just went by bust-measurment, or hip measurement when the item concerned was just a skirt.
Here's a peek at the pattern sheet. Confusing? Indeed!
Household tips
Yes, can't do without those! No better way to plug a cookbook published by the same company ;-). Also included: another gas-saving menu list for a whole week (see issue no. 1).
I find some of the things here quite fascinating. Yes, there are birchermuesli, rösti and other classic staples of Swiss food. But there are spaghetti with tomato sauce and cheese too! I wouldn't combine that with potato salad though... and there is Russian salad. I've always wondered about that. Basically, it's carrots, green beans, green peas and potatoes, all cut to small pieces, with a mayonnaise-based sauce. Can be bought ready-made in a tin. Looks like this was something normal already then, but of course a the time you'd make it yourself. I did have something more or less similar in a "Russian" restaurant on my trip to Uzbekistan - but I've never been able to find out where it comes from and if it's really Russian...
Add-tastic
Looks like a baking-agony aunt-column... but it's just an advertising vehicle for baking products! Marketing was certainly creative even then.
Furniture by Möbel Pfister - a "starter set" so to speak for newly-weds. Reminds me of some of the furniture my grandparents had, who got married a few years earlier than this. The interesting thing? Their shop in downtown Zurich is still at the same location, Walcheplatz!
No new slimming-aid ad this time, but the usual Orbal ad is still there (see issue no.1), on this add-filled double page at the back:
Breast enhancement ad
Yes, of course, can't do without this! It may look like a normal article, but again, it's nothing but an ad - for the same product as already advertised in issue no. 1, Ronodoform pills! I haven't got the space here to translate it all, but this is... really, really crazy! They promise that with taking these pills, one's breasts would "awaken to new life and begin to grow, to fill up and become rounder" and that almost-flat ones (well, it's not put as nicely there!!!!) would grow to be "harmonically full hemispheres" and hanging ones would "return to their normal location and round normal shape". WHOA! If I didn't know that this was all hogwash (and that kind of thing only being able to be achieved with the help of silicone), I'd say this sounded rather alarming. Imagine this happening to you...!!!! I realise that there weren't as many advertising regulations around then as there are probably now, but still, this is the craziest ad I've ever read!
