Cough?

Several celebrities endorsed Mac antiseptic throat sweets in the 1950s, including singer Alma Cogan and comic actor Norman Wisdom. Here are two from Picture Post, featuring another comic actor, Terry Thomas and radio ventriloquist (probably not the hardest job in show business), Peter Brough.

Eamonn Andrews and GEC

The Irish-born TV and radio broadcaster Eamonn Andrews was the face of GEC television sets during the 1950s, his adverts popping up in various magazines during this period. Here are a quartet of scans from the pages of Picture Post, Lilliput and Everybody's Weekly.All feature the 14in size model, the price increasing by 5gn (£5.5s) during the period. The first one looks particularly creepy.....................

Senior Service Satisfy

As a non-smoker, I can't say whether it does satisfy or not, but it was a very popular brand of cigarette. My mother smoked Guards until she gave up, whilst my father's tobacco of choice was Old Holborn. I was regularly sent to the local shop, three doors down, for "Half an ounce of Old Holborn and a packet of green", the green being Rizla cigarette papers. Rolling your own appeared to be very economical smoke, with very little wastage, There would always be 'dog ends' lying around our house, waiting for their last puffs. A girl I knew back in the 1970s rolled her own too, as did her mother, I recall. Heaven forbid that I should condone smoking, but I did raise a smile when I saw a girl student on a bus recently, painstakingly constructing a cigarette from the contents of a battered old pouch so as to be ready on the completion of her journey.

Many adverts for Senior Service had a nautical theme, understandable as that was also the nickname for the Royal Navy.

The two colourful adverts depicting naval scenes heading this post were painted by Harold Wylie and appeared in Punch magazines in1960/61, and that with the red background from a 1960s theatre programme. The three black & white illustrations were found in various editions of Picture Post of the early 1950s. Lastly, the photograph above was taken in 2010 of an old shop front in Margate, now a cafe, but retaining the old sign-age above the lovely curved windows. The owner did give me a funny look though! The brand was first manufactured in 1925 and is still sold today.

Lemon Hart Rum

Having posted a little tribute to Ronald Searle a few days ago, I came across this advert in Picture Post for 19 September 1954. Lemon Hart Rum as a trading name has been around since 1804, although it's import by the Hart family goes further back into the previous century. It soon became an official supplier to The Royal Navy, later taking some 100,000 gallons per year.

I had not realised that Ronald Searle had drawn so many adverts for the company between 1951 and 1962, a fine selection of which can be seen here.

Fry's Chocolate Cream

Fry's Chocolate Cream must be regarded as an elder statesman of the chocolate bar, being first manufactured at the Bristol factory in 1866. This advert appeared in the 9 July 1955 issue of Picture Post.