Friday, March 14, 2014

Two-tone Papermates


[Life, December 12, 1955. Click for a larger view.]

For Pete’s sake: they’re ballpoint pens. Calm down, people, and reattach your heads to the appropriate bodies.

I think of “two-tone” as a phrasal adjective followed by a car. Two-tone cars looked spiffy, at least in my faint childhood remembering. These “tu-tone” pens, not so much. They remind me of the cheap ballpoints dispensed by auto-repair shops and insurance agents. Contrast Parker Jotters of the same era: they still look like great.

The young man on my right — calm down, young man. Young man, I don’t want to have to repeat myself.

comments: 4

Pete said...

I wonder when delivery men stopped wearing white caps.

Michael Leddy said...

I’d like to know what that button on the side of the cap says.

Elaine said...

Did Norman Rockwell illustrate this ad?

Michael Leddy said...

I can’t decipher the signature (under the head of the delivery man), but it’s not Rockwell’s. The art is very Rockwell-like.

Rockwell did several Parker ads. Maybe this ad was a response.