Vintage 1950s Food: Ice Cream

Vintage 1950s Food

Ice Cream

Every summer in the hot sticky New York summers, my family would buy gallon tubs of ice cream (we were a family of 7) and we would decorate our scoop of ice cream into one of these. We had a theme each time we had ice cream. Loads of laughs!!

Little Pink Wigwam

Place pretzel sticks on  a scoop of ice cream

Snow on Mountain

Maraschino cherry and marshmallow sauce on

chocolate ice cream

Red Wing Sundae

Crushed strawberries on vanilla ice cream

Happy Hunting Ground

Strawberry ice cream with animal cookies and candy

Black Cloud

Scoop if chocolate ice cream in chocolate milk

Vintage 1950s TV Shows

Vintage 1950s TV

Private Secretary

          Private Secretary (also known as Susie MacNamara) was a sitcom that aired from February 1, 1953, to September 10, 1957, on CBS.  The series stars Ann Sothern as "Susie" MacNamara, devoted secretary to handsome talent agent Peter Sands, played by Don Porter.

          Susie is a former stage actress, a WAC veteran of World War II and single woman who works as the private secretary for theatrical agent Peter Sands at a New York theatrical agency, International Artists Inc. Susie's honest, good-natured attempts to help Mr. Sands, especially in romantic matters, always leads to comedic complications.

          Susie is assisted by her best friend, Violet "Vi" Praskins (Ann Tyrrell), the office's nervous and bumbling receptionist. In guest appearances, Jesse White played Mickey "Cagey" Calhoun, a chief competitor and loudmouthed agent business rival to Susie's boss. One of the show's trademarks was the set decoration which portrayed a 1950s state-of-the-art executive office, with stylish furniture, IBM typewriters and the latest office telephone gear from Western Electric. There are occasional references to a young actress, never seen, who was a client of Mr. Sands, named Harriet Lake.

          In an unusual move, Private Secretary also had two brief runs on another network. During the summers of 1953 and 1954, reruns from the recent season were shown on NBC as a summer replacement for Your Hit Parade, with the series resuming new shows on CBS each fall.^] Private Secretary, Your Hit Parade and The Jack Benny Program were all sponsored by Lucky Strike Cigarettes. Its parent company American Tobacco Company had some financial interest in all three programs and their respective network time-slots.

Vintage 1950s Toys Electric Football

Vintage 1950s Toys

Electric Football

          Electric Football can be traced back to 1929 when Elmer Sas incorporated Tudor Metal Products in New York City. The company survived the Depression and in the late '40s, Elmer's son Norman became president of Tudor and invented the game, Electric Football.

Norman Sas based the game on a vibrating car race game that Tudor already made. The early #500 Electric Football models were crude to the modern eye but were the first tabletop football game which featured actual moving players as they reacted to the vibrations created by the electromagnet motor under the metal field. Actual passing and kicking was also a unique feature of this first of its kind design.

          Electric Football was an immediate hit and became one of the hottest items at Christmas time from the late '50s and '60s and to date has sold 70 million games. Tudor did so well with the game that other companies also entered the market; Coleco, Munro and Gotham. Over the coming years, some of Electric Football's greatest innovations would come out of the competition between the companies.

          The Electric Football  today features many local, regional, national and even international leagues and tournaments with hundreds of coaches participating and  a World Championship tournament and convention.

Vintage 1950s Women's Wallets

Vintage 1950s Ladies Fashion

Women’s Wallets

          Women’s wallets were much more interesting in design than men’s wallets. A woman could get a wallet in any color to match her outfit or handbag. Wallets came in pink, light blue, red, white, black and every other color in the rainbow. Some wallets came with matching cigarette lighters.

          During this time, a woman’s wallet began to include a coin pocket. They usually had a snap-tight latch or zipper. Wallets also came in matching sets, in case she needed a separate coin purse.

          A common trend seen in 1950s women’s wallets was gold trim or thick white striped trim.