Life Magazine

February 28, 1949 

Several weeks ago, I wrote about a Saturday Evening Post magazine from 1944. Glancing through that magazine, I noticed the overall sense of war time frugality permeating the articles and advertisements.

Looking through this Life magazine from 1949, I can see how much the attitudes had changed in just 5 years. Now, instead of encouraging people to make their cars last longer, advertisements are telling the reader that bigger and newer is better. The Dodge ad states, “When Army physical exams revealed that our wartime generation was far bigger, taller, and more active, Dodge engineers started planning this great new car!” While you’re at it, you may as well get a new Kelvinator refrigerator. “You never saw such room. It’s cold clear to the floor.” You can now shop ahead – buy more – all that excess food will stay fresh!

One article in this magazine really emphasized the new feeling of abundance and wealth. Potato Chippers Have a Convention details the Chicago meeting of leaders in the fast-growing business which had grown to $300 million a year. Home economist Florence La Ganke Harris gave dramatic rebuttals against the slander that potato chips are fattening, while also giving new ideas for adding chips to your diet. Crumble them into meat loves and cookies – all for better health, apparently. From the photos, we can see that the convention was definitely not all work! The convention queen sported a bra made from potato chips, for which she was paid $30 a day. 

From extreme frugality to frivolous excess in five years.  I wonder what people 50 years from now, when looking at a 2017 magazine, will be thinking about the American culture of today.