web1_DDRealtyapt.jpg

Wilkes-Barre 18701: hot property downtown

web1_TTL050717gold.bdy_.jpg

Happy birthday Greyson William Gold!

<p>WILKES-BARRE &#8212; Who needs a girdle?</p><p>Apparently, in 1959, plenty of women needed these garments and an advertisement in The Times Leader Evening News told of a big sale.</p><p>Since Mr. Peabody&#8217;s Way Back Machine apparently has never been perfected, time travel can only be accomplished through more rudimentary means &#8212; like perusing vintage, discolored, frayed editions of The Times Leader.</p><p>The editions before me &#8212; thanks to colleague Jennifer Learn Andes &#8212; are dated Tuesday, Oct. 27, 1959, and Monday, Nov. 23, 1959, and feature everything from national and international news, local events, weather, Wall Street, comics, car ads and Little Studies.</p><p>These editions would make good reading for cartoon characters like Mr. Peabody and his trusted assistant, Sherman, who was a nerd/geek long before those terms were invented.</p><p>Perhaps the most intriguing ad is from Pomeroy&#8217;s Department Store for the &#8220;all new deduce-eze girdle.&#8221; Apparently, this item featured two &#8220;twin zippers&#8221; that would help the girdle &#8220;hold &#8216;n mold.&#8221; The ad says, &#8220;Makes inches seem to vanish. Don&#8217;t struggle, don&#8217;t tug, don&#8217;t strain, don&#8217;t pull.&#8221;</p><p>It actually says: &#8220;It&#8217;s eased, not squeezed,&#8221; and &#8220;It&#8217;s active, not captive.&#8221;</p><p>Who can tell me what &#8220;it&#8221; is that they are talking about?</p><p>This ad obviously is the ancient precursor to the ads of today that tell people &#8220;you might not be fat &#8212; you may just be bloated.&#8221; Yeah, right.</p><p>By the way, the deduce-eze girdle sold for $4.99 &#8212; a small price to pay to, as the ad says, &#8220;slim 2 inches off.&#8221;</p><p>As far as news of the day goes, one banner story&#8217;s headline read: Slides Block Cascade Mt. Routes. A sub-head tells of 4 missing in an Illinois hotel fire. Another story is about President Dwight D. Eisenhower&#8217;s vacation to Augusta, Georgia.</p><p>So prepare now for a trip back in time &#8212; get into Mr. Peabody&#8217;s Way Back Machine, fasten your seat belt and enjoy the ride.</p><p>There are advertisements for The Hub &#8212; men&#8217;s gift sweaters sold for $5.99. Kresge&#8217;s was offering Halloween costumes at $2.98 and below, and a rather handsome couple were enjoying their Tareyton new dual filter cigarettes &#8212; the ad took up most of Page 3. You remember Tareyton cigarettes. don&#8217;t you? One of their ad campaigns featured an actor with a black eye, who would rather &#8220;fight than switch&#8221; his brand.</p><p>And to be sure another vice was equally represented, an ad for Bellows Partners Choice Whiskey ran adjacent to the Tareyton ad &#8212; the bottle sold for $4.57. Page 3 also had a story about the capture of 11 escapees from Kis-Lyn &#8212; the place our parents threatened to send us if we didn&#8217;t listen, eat our vegetables or make our beds.</p><p>Percy Brown&#8217;s had a near-full page ad that told shoppers about all the Thanksgiving dinner &#8220;fixins&#8221; that were for sale &#8212;pumpkin and mince pies for 63 cents; turkeys for 47 cents per pound; hams for 39 cents a pound; chuck roast for 37 cents a pound; and a layer cake for 98 cents.</p><p>Food Fair had a full-page ad featuring lobster tails on sale for $1.19 per pound &#8212; marked down from the regular price of $1.59 per pound. And there is an ad urging customers to come to Bell Telephone to try the new Princess phone &#8212; a sharp deviation from the normal black dialer, this was &#8220;new, modern, small and the dial lights up when you make a call.&#8221;</p><p>As I flipped the pages, ever so gently, the next ad I saw took my breath away. It was for Miracle Mart, touted as a self service department store. This is 1959 and this was the first store of its type in our area. Miracle Mart was here long before Kmart and Walmart ever arrived.</p><p>Miracle Mart had ladies&#8217; slacks for $1.58, ladies&#8217; blouses for 57 cents, men&#8217;s coat sweaters for $5.74 and plastic storm windows 4 for $59 cents.</p><p>I remember going to Miracle Mart with my mother. It was an experience I will never forget &#8212; rows and aisles of merchandise everywhere and you could buy just about anything at a reasonable price. Plus, there was a huge parking lot where you could park for free. This was groundbreaking in the retail world.</p><p>One more thing, The Times Leader Evening News sold for 7 cents a copy. The motto across the top of Page 1 read: &#8220;The paper with a policy &#8212; all the news the day it happens.&#8221;</p><p>Quite a contrast to today&#8217;s news gathering, where deadline is always right now.</p><p>How far we&#8217;ve come &#8212; right?</p><style>
.neFileBlock {
	margin-bottom: 20px;
}
.neFileBlock p {
	margin: 0px 0px 0px 0px;
}
.neFileBlock .neFile {
	border-bottom: 1px dotted #aaa;
	padding-bottom: 5px;
	padding-top: 10px;
}
.neFileBlock .neCaption {
	font-size: 85%;
}
</style>
<div class='neFileBlock'>
<div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/web1_Columnshot-1-.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Bill O&#8217;Boyle </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/web1_Columnshot-1-.jpg</photo0><caption0>Bill O&#8217;Boyle </caption0><photoCredit0></photoCredit0></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/web1_Girdle-Ad.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Ad for a girdle in a 1959 edition of The Times Leader. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo1>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/web1_Girdle-Ad.jpg</photo1><caption1>Ad for a girdle in a 1959 edition of The Times Leader. </caption1><photoCredit1></photoCredit1></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Bill O&#8217;Boyle</p><p>boboyle@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Bill O&#8217;Boyle at 570-991-6118 or on Twitter @TLBillOBoyle, or email boboyle@www.timesleader.com.</p></shirttailMeta></div>

Beyond the Byline: Of twin-zipper girdles and Miracle Mart