The Yarn Spinner

        Smoke If You Got Them   Bad advice….. Free and subsidized branded cigarettes were distributed to soldiers (on both sides) during  WW II and even afterwards. As a kid in the fifties, I recall watching   Navy Log   and hearing an announcer say over the ending credits, “The R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company has donated 5,000 cartons of Camel cigarettes to the following Army and Navy hospitals……”   I thought that if cigarettes were distributed at hospitals, they must be OK. How   about   that for subliminal advertising? In the early 20th century, German researchers found  plenty of evidence to show how smoking harms your health  which strengthened the  country’s anti-tobacco movement . and it led to a state-supported anti-smoking campaign. But the propaganda minister's view was decisive; Joseph Goebbels felt that cigarettes were essential to the war effort. Cigarettes were distributed free to sold...

  Skycraft   Look…up in the sky…It’s a bird…It’s a plane…It’s a… Yes, it’s a plane….a Skywriter.   Skywriting can be traced back to the beginning of World War I, when Royal Flying Corps Major John “Jack” Savage perfected a way to spew oily smoke out of his airplane’s exhaust   to help hide war ships at sea. Later, Savage’s war buddy and airman Cyril Turner modified a S.E.5a biplane   to make use of Savage’s concept to generate arial smoke signals – essentially brief messages on cloudless days. He called it skywriting - a way of advertising and communicating by writing messages in the sky with airplane exhaust smoke. The first documented use of skywriting for advertising purposes was in March 1922 when Savage used it to write "Daily Mail" over Epsom Downs in England.   A few months later, to attract attention, Turner flew over Manhattan and wrote HELLO USA into the sky. The next day, he puffed CALL VANDERBILT 7200 out of the rear of his bipla...

  The Little Black Dress Just a little story……   Women have been wearing black dresses “forever,”   but the modern “little black dress” (or LBD) was created by Parisian fashion designer Coco Chanel. In 1926, Vogue Magazine published a drawing of Chanel’s simple black dress in crêpe de Chine;   a type of fabric known for its delicate, luxurious feel. Chanel’s LBD showcased slim sleeves and was paired with a just simple string of pearls. The style quickly became popular.     The minimalist   design could be recreated inexpensively, which was very important during the Great Depression.   When textiles were rationed during the war, Chanel’s design for a simple black dress offered a way to be elegant while using the little fabric that was available economically. Vogue called it   called it, ”Coco’s Ford” implying it was simple, accessible to every woman and available in any color she might want, provided it was black.   At o...