We like paranoid Jewish conspiracies around here, right? Does anyone know what "cultural Marxism" is? All it basically means is "All my favorite arts are worse now. Who could be behind this?"
Last week I posted this video and asked people to reflect on the sounds and imagery.
This aesthetic right here is what I'm talking about when I say "Thanksgiving spirit." The spirit as we knew it. And it was just a part of Thanksgiving, it was a spirit that permeated most of the latter half of the year, through Christmas and New Year's. "Norman Rockwell's America," I guess you could call it. More like a "holiday spirit." This holiday aesthetic, somehow and at some point, went away. But when? And why?
Well, most of the images in that video are magazine art, done by Norman Rockwell and people who shoot for his star. So I decided to check the magazine covers for the magazine that Rockwell made famous, the Saturday Evening Post. To see when exactly these Thanksgiving-y pictures stopped circulating.
This is the final Thanksgiving cover for the Saturday Evening Post anyone ever did. "Saying Grace" by Norman Rockwell. Published November 24th, 1951. Sold at auction for $46 million.
And this is the last fall-related cover they did, period. "Tossing the Football" by John Falter. Published in 1956. Now you might be thinking "But surely they had some Christmas covers." And yeah they did, of course they did. But the proof that the vintage holiday spirit is still alive is in continuing to make these Thanksgivingy covers. Christmas is never gonna die. But without this vintage spirit, it's not the same.
So things dropped off around 1956. What happened? What did the spirit become after 1956 then? How did it "evolve?" Well, let's see what they published for the season this same time in 1957.
"Early Guests" by George Hughes, published on the Saturday Evening before Thanksgiving 1957.
What's happening in this picture is, Mom and Dad where expecting guests tonight. But they figured they had time. And Mom and Dad also happen to be a free-swingin' free-dealin' young couple who like to dabble in dalliances. Note the "Hugh Hefner" cocktail party bathrobe Dad is wearing. The suspender pantyhose Mom is wearing. But look who should show up just as Mom is finished wiping the spunk from her asshole? The guests! Oh the confusion and delay, their young son is calling for them! What if he saw his parents post-fucking? Wouldn't that be shocking and hilarious? This mess the parents have gotten themselves into?
This is what America came to idolize instead of the saccharine suburb. As times evolved. As TV and faster, sleeker automobiles became an option.
But it would be naive to say this change was sudden. That things were perfect up until November 1957 and then off things switched like a light. No, change tends to happen after years of gradual browbeating. Maybe it started with Playboy, when they debuted in 1953. Maybe it was the "baby boom," with the war over and all the young invincible soldiers and all the incessantly horny Frank Sinatra fangirls finally able to link up get down to functions. But "Cocktail Party America" was knocking at the door for a few years by this point. When we said goodbye to the Crosbyesque sweaters and smoking pipes that once represented us.
Last week I posted this video and asked people to reflect on the sounds and imagery.
This aesthetic right here is what I'm talking about when I say "Thanksgiving spirit." The spirit as we knew it. And it was just a part of Thanksgiving, it was a spirit that permeated most of the latter half of the year, through Christmas and New Year's. "Norman Rockwell's America," I guess you could call it. More like a "holiday spirit." This holiday aesthetic, somehow and at some point, went away. But when? And why?
Well, most of the images in that video are magazine art, done by Norman Rockwell and people who shoot for his star. So I decided to check the magazine covers for the magazine that Rockwell made famous, the Saturday Evening Post. To see when exactly these Thanksgiving-y pictures stopped circulating.
This is the final Thanksgiving cover for the Saturday Evening Post anyone ever did. "Saying Grace" by Norman Rockwell. Published November 24th, 1951. Sold at auction for $46 million.
So things dropped off around 1956. What happened? What did the spirit become after 1956 then? How did it "evolve?" Well, let's see what they published for the season this same time in 1957.
"Early Guests" by George Hughes, published on the Saturday Evening before Thanksgiving 1957.
What's happening in this picture is, Mom and Dad where expecting guests tonight. But they figured they had time. And Mom and Dad also happen to be a free-swingin' free-dealin' young couple who like to dabble in dalliances. Note the "Hugh Hefner" cocktail party bathrobe Dad is wearing. The suspender pantyhose Mom is wearing. But look who should show up just as Mom is finished wiping the spunk from her asshole? The guests! Oh the confusion and delay, their young son is calling for them! What if he saw his parents post-fucking? Wouldn't that be shocking and hilarious? This mess the parents have gotten themselves into?
This is what America came to idolize instead of the saccharine suburb. As times evolved. As TV and faster, sleeker automobiles became an option.
But it would be naive to say this change was sudden. That things were perfect up until November 1957 and then off things switched like a light. No, change tends to happen after years of gradual browbeating. Maybe it started with Playboy, when they debuted in 1953. Maybe it was the "baby boom," with the war over and all the young invincible soldiers and all the incessantly horny Frank Sinatra fangirls finally able to link up get down to functions. But "Cocktail Party America" was knocking at the door for a few years by this point. When we said goodbye to the Crosbyesque sweaters and smoking pipes that once represented us.
