Nylo Chocolate Easter?

I wasn't able to find any information about Nylo Chocolates. There are a few other ads online, but not much, and all of them are from around 1914. This means that Nylo Chocolates probably tasted a lot like they sounded...a little like an old sock.

The Nyal Company of Detroit, MI made all sorts of products from alum to bath salts (no, not that kind) and laxatives. Chocolates don't seem like a good fit for the company, which probably is the most likely reason the line never took off. To be honest, a lot of pharma companies of this era had odd, tangential product lines. For a while Eli Lilly of Indianapolis owned Elizabeth Arden cosmetics and workers received a "goodie bag" of cosmetics every holiday season. Eventually the era of "smart-sizing" and market segments came and the time of corporate brickabrack and vanity brands ended.

I do like the artwork, though. It reminds me of the Arrow Shirt ads done by J. C. Leyendecker, images that make me think of The Great Gatsby.

Federal Motor Truck Company

As the 1914 ad above suggests, the Federal Motor Truck Company had a reputation for being the every day truck, there to do the job. Its vehicles were basic, no radical design innovations or experimental motors, just tried and true trucks to do hard work.

The company was founded by Martin Pucher in 1910 and manufactured trucks at its Detroit, MI plant for most of its existence. Unlike many early automotive companies, Federal endured through the Great Depression and produced vehicles up into the 1950's. Eventually it fell on hard times, though, and military contracts weren't enough to keep it alive. The last Federal was produced in 1959.

You can read a much more detailed account of Federal's history by Rolland Jerry here, and I've added a little, PowerPoint-esque video showing some Federal trucks below (hope you don't mind the irritating ad attached to the video).

The Year's First Sighting of the Goodyear Blimp

Just a quick note before heading out this morning, this week I caught the year's first glimpse of the Goodyear Blimp. I haven't seen it doing one of its nighttime advertising passes, but that will come eventually. Here's a nice historic photo of the blimp from 1931. This particular shot was taken over the now defunct Ford Airport in Michigan, but it went well with the era of 500 history I've been touching on lately.

Got any Indy 500 blimp memories? I'd like to hear them.