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July 1941. "The newsstand in the waiting room. National Airport near Washington, D.C." Acetate negative by Jack Delano for the Farm Security Administration. View full size.
Click here for a version with color issues (as far as I could find them). Below the ones I could find.
Agfa had become part of IG Farben in Germany in 1925. In 1939, their US business merged with another company and became General Aniline and Film (GAF), but still used the Agfa brand name in the US, as seen here.
In either late 1941 or early 1942, GAF was seized as enemy property by the US government, and wasn't privatized again until the mid-1960s. This is the same GAF that is known for making roofing shingles today.
Oh no! They put the Look magazines in the Ladies Home Journal rack! Now I'm totally confused. Or maybe that's the daring new tank top they're talking about.
Not one single comic book in sight. There is probably thousands of dollars worth of magazines - if they survived to today - but nothing from the solid gold world of comics. They were probably on a revolving rack, out of camera frame.
I can't wait to see a colorized version with historically accurate colors of this image. Hint: That's a challenge to all!
P.S. I love the ceiling light fixtures!
Turn around look on the bottom shelf -- Amazing Stories, Fantastic, maybe an Astounding -- they will change your life! They did for me 20 years later.
Next to bottom shelf, behind the man. September 1941 issue.
I'll take a pack of Camels and a copy of Physical Culture, ma'am!
Seeing the big three -- Camels, Luckies and Chesterfield -- on the shelf reminds of when I started smoking at the age of 12 in 1944. At the time you could get a pack in a machine for 15 cents. With today's prices I couldn't afford it. I had the habit for over 30 years before I wised up and quit.
According to these folks, that's actress, dancer and all-around healthy woman Priscilla Lane on the cover of Physical Culture.
You’ll have to wait a while to find Mad Magazine on those racks.
Passion murder of the doomed beauty.
The closer the patron got to the cashier, there is what appears to be Wrigley gum. Closer yet are the cigarettes. I could make out the Camel logo. And finally, a cornucopia of cigars. Nothing like tobacco and gum for that plane ride, eh?
At a local grocery store that I patronize, there are gum, breath mints, soft drinks in a cold cabinet, tabloid magazines, the latest DVDs, and finally candy bars right below where you swipe your card.
Nothing has changed.
That kid is looking at girly magazines!
Looking at the larger image, it's amazing to see how many of those magazines are still in print, like Vogue, Variety, and Better Homes and Gardens, but what *really* amazed me was that I couldn't find LIFE magazine anywhere! There was Look, Saturday Evening Post, and Popular Mechanics, but no LIFE. Must have been sold out. LOL
[Or it's one of the big stacks on the bottom shelf. - Dave]
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