Monday, September 28, 2009

“Sound-testing a MONGOL”


[Life, May 6, 1940.]

Some may believe this advertisement to be mere gimmickry, but I believe every word. My Mongols purr-r as the ad promises. They even speak the occasional Mkgnao!, like Leopold and Molly Bloom’s cat in Ulysses. Cheap, nondescript pencils? They just cough and sputter everywhere. It’s a mess.

See the Brooklyn address? Forgotten NY reports that Eberhard Faber was in Greenpoint (“Greenpernt”) from 1872 to 1956. FNY has photographs of Eberhard Faber buildings on Greenpoint Avenue and Franklin Street (scroll about a quarter of the way down the page). Mongol fans: note the Diamond Star in the second photograph.

A related post
Mongol No. 2 3/8

comments: 2

Anonymous said...

That ad reminds me of a classmate in high school who couldn't stand the grating sound of pencil on paper, and insisted that everyone who sat around her work in pen. Perhaps algebra would have been easier if we'd known about Mongols . . .

Slywy said...

I find it amazing that pencils were once advertised. Not now.