Map: Greetings from Michigan

China Stamp Agency

This is a card (not a postcard) commemorating the opening of the China Stamp Agency in North America in 1981. The attached stamp is titled "Amphora with Apricot Blossom." It is one in a series of six Chinese Ceramics stamps issued April 15, 1981.

The China Stamp Agency in North America is now found at  http://www.stampagencies.com/, along with stamp agencies for some other countries.

This stamp is the most colorful one in the series:

source: postbeeld

This is a post for Sunday Stamps at Viridian's Postcard Blog

GGIE: Peacemakers Mural

In the Court of Pacifica is the Statue dotted Fountain of Western Waters. The small statues symbolize the races of the Pacific Basin. In the background is the great carved mural — "Peacemakers", flanked by the names of the world's boldest explorers.

CELEBRATE THE 75TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE 1939-40 WORLD'S FAIRS
Look for more World's Fair Postcards on the Postcardy Blog on Fridays.
To view past World's Fair posts, click here or on the exposition label.

Stage Door Canteen

 

 

These three postcards advertise The American Theatre Wing Stage Door Canteen and its radio show sponsored by Corn Products Refining Company, producers of dextrose sugar. The artwork is by Barney Tobey, a longtime New Yorker Magazine cartoonist

The original Stage Door Canteen was opened in New York in 1942 by the American Theatre Wing as a center for military personnel to socialize with, be entertained and served by theatrical celebrities. It was staffed by Broadway performers and was in the in the basement of the 44th Street Theatre. The Stage Door Canteen operated for three and a half years and inspired a weekly radio show on the Columbia Network, a 1943 musical film, and a popular song called "I Left My Heart at the Stage Door Canteen." Similar canteens were also established in other cities.

The advertising on the backs of these postcards is shown below. One card has the first ad, and two cards have the second ad.

Dextrose sugar is a sweetener derived  from corn starch. During the World War II years it was promoted as All-American. Dextrose: All-American Corn Sugar shows several Life Magazine ads promoting dextrose and describes the promotion effort as follows:

The problem in the 1940s is: how is the corn refining industry going to transform their cheap sugar substitute, something that food processors don’t even want consumers to know they are using, into a desirable commodity? Answer: by using advertising to rebrand Dextrose as the patriotic, scientific, nurturing alternative to that other sweet stuff.

The first video below is a movie clip, and the second is a recording of the song "I Left My Heart at the Stage Door Canteen."

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Map: Nevada, One Sound State

Girl Scout Camp Tents

These are the fronts and backs of some official Girl Scout Camp Post Cards showing tents. These postcards date from the 1940s. Two of them have messages written by campers. The first one was sent from Buffalo, Minnesota in 1942. There was a Camp Greenwood at Buffalo which had been there since 1925 and was mentioned as closing in a 2010 article Waving Goodbye to Girl Scout Camps. This was one of many Girl Scout camps that have closed in recent years.

The third postcard was sent from Bovey, Minnesota in 1947. Bovey is a small city in northern Minnesota. I was not able to find any references to a Girl Scout camp there.

The tents shown on the postcards are platform tents. They appear to be like the ones that my old Girl Scout troop used for overnight camping. The photo below shows one of those tents.

 

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New York World's Fair: Zucca's Restaurant

Zucca's Italian Garden was a popular restaurant located at 116-118-120 West 49th Street in New York's Midtown district. Rita Zucca, the Italian-American daughter of the restaurant's owner, became famous for broadcasting Axis propaganda from Italy to Allied troops in Italy and North Africa during World War II.

CELEBRATE THE 75TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE 1939-40 WORLD'S FAIRS
Look for more World's Fair Postcards on the Postcardy Blog on Fridays.
To view past World's Fair posts, click here or on the exposition label.

Map: Bahama Islands

This map gives the tourists to the Bahamas a comprehensive idea of the hundreds of small islands that make up the Bahama group. The New Providence Island while not the largest, is the most populated and visited by thousands yearly, because of quaint, beautiful Nassau.

Early Postal Motor Vehicles

This stamp shows one of the first official gasoline-powered vehicle used by the United States Post Office Department for the collection of mail from street letterboxes. The stamp is one of four 25-cent Classic Mail Transportation commemorative stamps issued November 19, 1989. All four stamps were shown on a previous post on maximum cards issued by the USPS here.

This Maximum card is ©1989 The Maximum Card Collection, A Division of Unicover Corporation. Another early postal vehicle, a mail wagon of the 1920s, is shown on the maximum card.

This is a post for Sunday Stamps at Viridian's Postcard Blog

GGIE: Railway Express Agency

 

RAILWAY EXPRESS AGENCY

An outstanding example of the use of fluorescent paint and black light in depicting a "Century of Service" in vacationland at the Golden Gate International Exposition.

CELEBRATE THE 75TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE 1939-40 WORLD'S FAIRS
Look for more World's Fair Postcards on the Postcardy Blog on Fridays.
To view past World's Fair posts, click here or on the exposition label.

Prohibition in the United States and Canada

Prohibition in the United States was a nationwide Constitutional ban on the sale, production, importation, and transportation of alcoholic beverages that remained in place from 1920 to 1933. It was promoted by "dry" crusaders movement, led by rural Protestants and social Progressives in the Democratic and Republican parties, and was coordinated by the Anti-Saloon League. Prohibition was mandated under the Eighteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution … Nationwide Prohibition ended with the ratification of the Twenty-first Amendment, which repealed the Eighteenth Amendment, on December 5, 1933. (Source: Wikipedia)

The next two postcards offer a humorous view of the prohibition era in the United States.

The next two postcards are from the time (circa 1929-1930) when prohibition was still in effect throughout the United States, but had ended in most Canadian provinces.

Prohibition in Canada was not as long-lasting or widespread as it was in the U. S. National prohibition was part of the War Measures Act in 1918. After the war, alcohol regulations were primarily a provincial responsibility. The provinces repealed their prohibition laws at different times, mostly during the 1920s. The table below shows the dates that prohibition was in effect in the different provinces of Canada. (Source: Wikipedia)

Note: The Sepia Saturday prompt image this week is a photograph taken in Alberta 1916--the same year that prohibition was enacted in Alberta.

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Map: Budapest - Frankfort - Paris

 

MAGYAR LÉGIKÖZLEKEDÉSI VÁLLALAT

HUNGARIAN AIR TRANSPORT

BUDAPEST

St. Louis Zoo Chimpanzee Show

This postcard is probably the first postcard that I ever saved. I received it before I started my first postcard collection and wasn't concerned with keeping it in nice condition. It has two big nail holes because I used it to decorate the wall of a neighborhood scrap lumber "fort" that I played in one summer. The card was sent to me by my Aunt Genevieve and my cousin Patty in 1955.

My Aunt Genevieve was my mother's sister. They also had an Aunt Genevieve, the Aunt Gen referred to in the postcard message. My mother's family was originally from St. Louis, and most of their relatives still lived there. My Aunt Genevieve took her children to visit St. Louis the summer before they turned five, and were still young enough for free train travel. Patty was my oldest cousin.

The year (1958) that my youngest cousin was taken to St. Louis, I accompanied them. One of the things we did there was visit the zoo and watch the Chimpanzee Show (also known as the Monkey Show). By that time, I had started my first postcard collection, so I bought a bunch of postcards at the zoo, including the next one of the chimps in the show.
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I have a couple of other postcards of the chimpanzees in the show that I bought for my collection many years later. The one of the chimps performing on the piano was mailed in 1943. The one of the chimps in the car is from the early 1950s.

The St. Louis Zoo Chimpanzee show was a popular attraction for many years. The chimpanzees were dressed in cute costumes and performed a variety of stunts, including riding ponies and bicycles. The show was phased out in 1982, after zoological attitudes shifted toward displaying animals in more naturalistic habitats. Now the emphasis is on conservation, education, and research.

The first video below is rather long, but is entertaining. It is an Animal Kingdom TV show from 1963. The second video is an "educational" documentary movie from 1951.

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New York World's Fair: Chase & Sanborn

The Standard Brands Marionette Show is one of the outstanding features of The New York World's Fair. The cast is made up of Marionettes of Edgar Bergen, Charlie McCarthy, Rudy Vallee, Don
Ameche and Dorothy Lamour., supported with a girls chorus, circus performers. animals and others. All of the Puppets were made by the world famous puppeteer, Miss Sue Hastings.

CELEBRATE THE 75TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE 1939-40 WORLD'S FAIRS
Look for more World's Fair Postcards on the Postcardy Blog on Fridays.
To view past World's Fair posts, click here or on the exposition label.

Map: Minnesota State Fair Art

The artwork on the postcard above is a watercolor interpretation of The Great Minnesota Get-Together by St. Paul artist Emily L. Taylor. It is the  11th in a series of original art created exclusively for the State Fair. this piece supports the mission of the Minnesota State Fair Foundation to preserve and improve State Fair buildings.

The postcard below is one of several new souvenir postcards sold at the Minnesota State Fair this year. It uses a portion (upper left) of the complete artwork.