When Dancing Lady screened in Australian cinemas in 1934, promotional fans were distributed featuring a portrait of the lead actress, Joan Crawford. Serving a similar purpose to the imagery on popcorn buckets today, these fans were intended to generate excitement for new releases. This particular fan was produced and distributed by T. J. Dorgan’s North […]
One lucky customer who shopped at Western Stores, Bathurst was the recipient of this teapot and these jugs, probably given to them by the manager as a show of goodwill for the customer’s support. These may not have been the prettiest pieces of earthenware displayed on that customer’s kitchen dresser, but they were a reminder […]
The Glen Innes Examiner – formerly the Glen Innes Examiner and General Advertiser – has been a source of news for the Glen Innes community of New South Wales for a hundred and fifty years. First established in 1874, the newspaper played an important role in the early days of the town. Spreading information about […]
In 1902, the real estate agency Holmes, Wickham, and Co. received instruction to sell by auction a subdivision belonging to J. E. Spurr in Germanton (now known as Holbrook). On the 14th of March, the day prior to the sale, The Albury Banner and Wodonga Express reported that Germanton was quickly developing, and that this […]
The Berry Central Creamery was built in 1895 and within a few years became the first factory in NSW to adopt pasteurisation technology. Farmers from across the region delivered their milk to the Creamery, then described as ‘the largest and most complete butter factory in the colony.’ This advertisement was printed and distributed in England. […]
Imagine their curiosity, in about 1910, when young sister-spinsters Ada Maud (1888-1970) and Ella Mellshimer of Ulladulla learned that a self-heating fuel iron was available. They had grown up doing the ironing the hard way. Ironing had always been exhausting work, and hot. Maud and Ella had seen how their mother Mary smoothed the wrinkles […]
In a time when algorithms track our search history and directly advertise goods and services to us we may not appreciate that retail advertising at point-of-sale and upon packaging has a long history. Advertising mirrors, such as the one shown here, replaced tin and enamel signs, were produced for pubs, shops and milk bars and […]
A 2015 image created by designer Miranda Heckenberg, with staff and volunteers at the Tamworth Powerstation Museum, this pastiche mimics 1950s and 60s advertising. Using the colour palette, fonts and text to recreate the post-war period this fun image has multiple elements revealing so much about the period if we look. The model, Kathryn Armstrong, […]
The professional signwriter who painted this window used valuable gold paint and three-dimensional lettering, to be sure that his sign would be seen. Probably installed about 1890, this shop window from 148 Swan Street, Morpeth, boldly pronounced the name of T. Maynard to customers and passers-by for over 40 years. The proprietor, Thomas Maynard (1863–1939), […]
Along with ice-cream, advertising has been a mainstay of the cinema experience in Australia. Indeed, as soon as the large movie screen appeared it was used for promotion, and cinema advertising quickly became an important revenue stream for operators. In the 1950s, and before the main feature movie, these colourful, or ‘talkie’, slides were shown […]
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