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| That incredibly helpful hint narrows it down to a 60 year period. |
I spotted this great remnant from the Cold War at a local antique mall. I had to do a little Wikipedia and web searching to determine the make of these bombers. These B-47s predated the B-52. The result of early post-WWII research, they were designed to drop atomic bombs on Russia.
The societal and economic impact of defense operations on small cities is significant. But finding a phone book with this cover art surprised me.
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| There wasn't much in Topeka, Kansas in 1963. Forbes Field was formerly a Strategic Air Command base and later home to horizontal silo ICBMs. I love this action shot. Good to know that our nuclear bombers could be scrambled in a hurry. I'm glad they were never used for their intended purpose. |
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| Up in the air over Wichita, Kansas. Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons. |
Having grown up in the era of Mutually Assured Destruction, I have an odd fascination with the mechanics behind the Cold War and still love aviation history. My wife's cousin interned at the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum while working on his Doctorate in the history of technology. I was more than a little jealous.
The B-47 was produced in Wichita, Kansas. Up until last month, Boeing was a major presence in Kansas. It recently repaid the efforts of our Congressional delegation and the Brownback administration to land a lucrative refueling tanker deal by announcing their departure next year. Basically, the politicians were pwned by the corporation.
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| B-47s on the Flight Line. Courtesy of Wikipedia Commons. |
Editorial Comment: Done well, vintage black and white film photography was just gorgeous!
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| Wrong era, but I still love this graphic from Jordanoff's Illustrated Aviation Dictionary |
Nice B-47s.
ReplyDeleteSo did every phone book have a unique cover art?
I grew up in a metro area and later in the country at a home with a party telephone line. The White Pages phone book was residence oriented with limited business information. The Yellow Pages was, and still is, dedicated to business contacts.
DeleteI recall phone books with regional photos on front and some with little adornment. It's rare that I see an old one in the wild. I found Ralph's comments below to be very interesting.
I've always been fascinated by aircraft and the USAF had so many different kind throughout their history. Interesting post. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteAviation history is fascinating to me. Airplanes tend to be on the leading edge of technology development. That all trickles down through the broader economy.
DeleteBeen nearly a decade since I saw a White Pages; the only tomes that land on the doorstep are Yellow Pages of dubious value...businesses either already out of business, or moved, or the phone books all in Spanish and not really vying for my business. The old White Pages were fun, however, because you could look up Perry Mason (lived in El Cajon) or James Bond (a few places) or Sherlock Holmes (he remained elusive, so still on Baker Street, I guess).
ReplyDeleteThe REALLY old White Pages (actually, White & Yellow were in one book) were even more interesting...not only could you find out my dad's name, address and phone number (GRidley 7 exchange), but his work place (Convair), his profession (tech), and family information (names). Funny how what was normal generations ago becomes inappropriate.
I remember looking up famous names for fun in phone books when I was a kid. Thanks for jogging my memory.
DeleteThanks for the information on old, old phone books. It sounds very much like IBM culture.
The amount of information available at the time went out of vogue. Today, much of that information is once again available through Facebook, LinkedIn and the many web companies that aggregate information on us. At least I don't have banner ads following me around pitching the latest and greatest in typewriter technology :)
Judging by that exclamation point, I'm guessing either a Smith-Corona or a Royal, both from the mid l940s.
ReplyDeleteTeeritz: Just letting you know that I received a notification on your comment, but it did not appear here. Very strange. Blogspot was glitchy last night.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, you made some good guesses on the identity of the mystery machine. It is the Remington Noiseless 8 featured on an ITAM special that went live today.
Yeah, I noticed that it didn't show. All this technology and yet...
ReplyDeleteFunny about the Remington Noiseless. Both my '46 Smith-Corona Sterling and my '45 Royal QDeL have this 'delayed' full stop below the apostrophe when writing an exclamation mark. Could have been a precursor to today's computer viruses?
That makes as much sense as anything else. Considering all of the mechanical wear and tear, I am amazed when these machines keep putting letters down in the same way every time.
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