No man ever went broke overestimating the ignorance of the American public.
P. T. Barnum
By crashryan
What I found surprising was that even in 1944 the listings are full of weasel words and qualifying phrases, presumably to avoid legal action. A book "purports to reveal." The names of sachet powders "are not indicative of any power they may possess, but act as distinguishing trade names." I had thought these sorts of disclaimers were products of 1960s-1970s consumer protection laws. I guess they were around much earlier. I'd be interested to know when the tide changed. Similar ads from the 1910s came right out and said "the book reveals."
By dwilt
Page 13: "Genuine Myrrh. A precious substance, often mentioned in the Bible that most of you are acquainted with." Hmm...Bible, Bible...? No, I don't think I've ever heard of that one.
By a a
Gypsy Witch Dream Book and Policy Players Guide.
For those who need to up their luck.
I would love to find out how many people actually bought any of this.
By markseifert
Spending a few minutes looking into this item sent me down an entertaining rabbit hole. As to crashryan's question about the "legal language" stuff, it appears that in 1949/50 the Postmaster of Chicago (Standard O & B's location) returned catalog orders to sender marked "fraudulent" rather than delivering the orders to the company. It seems the owner of Standard O&B ran numerous similar businesses as well. Said owner sued the Postmaster over this, but the suit failed and the govt proved to the satisfaction of the court that several items involved were fraudulent under postal regulations. At a glance, it appears that such rules were bolstered during the WW1 era, as Postmasters were given greater regulatory authority (most notably, at this time, cartoonists and staff of a socialist mag called The Masses were blocked from mailing it by the Postmaster and ultimately put on trial under the Espionage Act).
By markseifert
There's a couple interesting links out there for such items. Many such catelogs feature extremely comic-like art, it looks like. Here's one good one: https://ds-exhibits.swarthmore.edu/con-am/items/browse?collection=3
By ghmcleod
Thank You
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