Times Have Changed - Magazines

1957 magazine cover                                           Image:Marie Vonow

I like reading magazines, especially if the print isn't too small. (Recently I have come across some modern magazines with such interesting content but the print is so small. Is it a sign of increasing age that this bothers me?) Anyway, magazines. I am fascinated with the ways in which magazines have changed over the last sixty plus years.

I have a few Australian Home Journal magazines from the nineteen fifties and early sixties. Incidentally, the print is small throughout! There are many differences from modern magazines but that is to be expected as times have changed. Times have changed a lot.

These magazines have a cover and a page here and there in colour but they are predominately black and white. I have a 1960 Womens Weekly which has a few more coloured pages but is still mostly black and white.

Australian Home Journal October 1960        Image:Marie Vonow

Most pages were black and white    Home Journal 1954  Image:M Vonow

 The advertisements reflect a time when most women stayed at home after having their children and devoted their time to being homemakers. Ah the pride at getting a noticeably whiter wash this Monday!

The proud homemaker may have embroidered that cloth herself                        Image:Marie Vonow

I noted there were a lot of advertisements. I have come across adverts for -

• electrical appliances
• hair care products such as shampoo, home perm kits
• toothpaste
• laxatives
• aspirin and other painkillers
• slimming tablets
• Andrews Liver Salt
• 'tonics'
• skin care creams and lotions
• perfume
• Max factor pan-cake make-up 
• ways to make extra money by sewing from home
• fabrics such as bri-nylon
• buttons
• fashion gloves
• tinned baby foods
• 'birth regulation the natural way'
• kerosene operated bath heater
• adjustable home dressmakers model
• Prestige stockings
• Dulux paint
• Maggi chicken and beef cubes
• Sunshine Full Cream Powdered Milk
• milk arrowroot biscuits
• Keens mustard and curry
• Sanitarium Weetbix
• gelatine
• correspondence courses including shorthand, typing, freelance journalism, bookkeeping, English, arithmetic, handwriting, dairy farming, draftsmanship and amateur radio. One course in a list from Stott's Correspondence College was 'Backward Adults Intermediate Certificate', yes language used in reference to people with 'challenges' has changed since 1954.

Some of the products advertised are still around today but many are no longer available. Both ideas and knowledge have changed over the years and when it comes to health, these days people are encouraged to consult their doctor or medical professional rather than self medicate.

I hadn't heard of this product before.  Ideas about health have changed.       Image:M.Vonow

The Home Journal included dressmaking patterns for the thrifty woman to use to make clothes for herself and her family. The styles are different from modern fashion but vintage clothing is collected by some women these days. Back then women often cut down adult clothing to make clothes for children as a way of saving money.

Crochet and knitting patterns were frequently included in women's magazines. As well as patterns for crocheted garments there are some for doilies and a trolley cloth.

There were plenty of recipes, including-

• New England Boiled Dinner
• Onion and Kidney Pudding
• Savoury Mutton
• Rice and Tomato Kedgeree
• Date Turnovers
• Vinegar Cake
• Chocolate Marble Cake
• Butterscotch Banana Snow

(I have to admit New England Boiled Dinner doesn't sound very exciting. It's the 'boiled dinner' bit that sounds uninspiring to me.) In addition readers were invited to send in their favourite recipe.  The prize for the best recipe each month was one guinea ($2.10) and other recipes published received 5 shillings (50c).

Food was different back then. There is so much more variety now and more use is made of convenience foods. Cooking programs promote gourmet style recipes.

I noticed there was an emphasis on being thrifty and saving money throughout these Home Journal magazines. An advert for NEOLITE soles claims they would 'Cut kiddies' shoe repair bills by half!' People often repaired things including shoes rather than throwing them away. Another ad encourages women to buy a do-it-yourself home perm and save 'a packet of pounds'. Yes, those were the days of pounds, shillings and pence. And recipes were in lbs and ozs.

Recipes and food products were promoted as 'economical' and ways to make extra money or increase your savings account were included. 

Some articles and adverts remind us of things that were happening at that time. The last polio epidemic in Australia was in 1956, the year that the polio vaccine was introduced here. The following ad for fly wire screens was published in 1960.  

.    Image:M Vonow

Home Journal also had -

• answers to personal problems, 'Heart to Heart'. Similar columns can be found in some women's publications today and some of the problems are much the same.
• short stories
• horoscope
• home decorating information (no mention of flat pack furniture)
• information about plays
• film reviews
• coupons to post away for recipes and other information. These days you would find a URL to go to. 

I find magazines from yesteryear of great interest, even if the print is so small I need a magnifying glass to read it!