The Funnies - Portrait of a Firecracker (1914)

Life Magazine, July 2, 1914

More firework hating from Life Magazine. I have to wonder if the publisher back in 1914 had a really bad encounter with a sparkler when he was a kid. He sure seems to be traumatized by pyrotechnics!

Happy 4th of July!

The Campbell's Soup kids are armed to the teeth and ready to celebrate! Happy 4th everyone!

Happy 4th of July!

Little Timmy always was a sicko, now he's got a job at the Pentagon and mom and dad are so proud! Happy 4th everyone!

Special Edition The Funnies - Old Friends Meet (1914)

Life Magazine, July 2, 1914

Apparently the lady finger was the early 20th century equivalent of the atom bomb. At least you'd think so by the number of cartoons Life Magazine ran depicting the Grim Reaper selling pyrotechnics.

Happy 4th of July!

 Happy Fourth of July everyone, may you and yours have a wonderful holiday and come home with all of your fingers intact!

The Funnies Bonus - Grandpa's Fourth (1883)

Left: "It seems to me they don't make so much noise on the Fourth as they did when I was young."
Right: But he changed his mind a moment later.
Puck, July 4, 1883 issue

Gold Medal Flower!

Looking at this ad you can tell it's staged. I'm not talking about the obviously drawn in firecrackers, I'm talking about the model they chose. Something about this woman says she's never lit a firecracker in her life. Maybe it's the hobble-skirt. Being an old hand at pyrotechnics of the unofficial variety, I know rule number one is be ready to run for your life. Dressed like she is, this woman would burn to the ground before she took three steps.

It's striking to see a flour manufacturer touting using their product to make sandwiches, fresh fruit pies, short cakes, and biscuits for the Fourth. It's not a holiday that, to modern sensibility, goes with baking. But in 1910 when Scribner's Magazine ran this ad, most people baked their own bread. Makes you appreciate some of the conveniences we have today, and (hopefully) question others.

Swift's Ham and Seiler's 1775 House

What does the Fourth of July really need? Not fireworks or parades, it needs salad molds or what we would call aspic! I'm not exactly sure what aspic has to do with Swift's Ham or the independence of our country, but there it is spelling out July 4 in glistening, slimy, colors that don't appear in nature.

"The 1775 House" mentioned in the ad is Sieler's 1775 House, a restaurant that was located on old Route 2 in Massachusetts, however I had little luck identifying where it actually was located. According to the tiny, detail-less map on the back of the 1930's era postcard shown below it should have been on a farm just east of the intersection of Route 2 and Route 123. The problem is these two roads don't intersect. In fact they both run east-west and diverge from the Boston area. 

The Full Buck Moon

Ah, July, one of my favorite months. It’s the month of thunderstorms and fireworks. Thunder in the sky and thunder on the earth! I can remember many a July 4^th sweating in the July heat and returning to the blessing of air conditioning smelling like sulfur and black powder. There’s nothing like a good hot dog and some salty chips after you’ve spent an hour lighting up the night in honor of your country.

Though we didn’t have a full moon for fireworks this year, here’s a little on the Full Buck Moon, July’s full moon (caution, I had to go through some acrobatics to get this one embedded - you may get Old Farmer's Almanac's whole video play list from YouTube).
 

Happy 4th of July

Celebrating the 4th of July with the 1931 cover of Boys' Life. Here's hoping your holiday is safe and fun!