"How can you help?" Write for a booklet!Sometime when I have nothing better to do I'll count them up, but it seems at least 2/3 of the car cards in the 319 are these public service ads, for which Chicago Car Advertising didn't get paid. How did they ever make any money?
I originally thought the large number of PSA car cards was a byproduct of the preservation era, in that these are just the cards that survived. However, I've noticed from looking at photos of the cars in service that they had about the same ratio of PSA to "paying" car cards.
ReplyDeleteOne nice thing about the Brookins cars is that they have most or all of their car cards undisturbed and in good condition. Each car has nearly the same selection, which makes sense. Many in the 308 were damaged by water, and in the 309 by fire.
ReplyDeleteIt makes one's job so much easier if you have the original car cards. I've been charged with getting a set made for our St. Louis Pubic Service Car at MOT, and I'm having to rely heavily on Bruce Wells' techniques.
ReplyDeleteThe problem is compounded by the fact that the set of repro cards available from ARM are from an older era, the 1920s or 1930s.
Of course, every time I come to IRM and see the inside of a CA&E car, I get a craving to go eat at one of Hardings 12 Loop area eateries.
ReplyDeleteHere's a possible explanation as to why there might be more PSA type car cards in existence than the paid advertising ones....
ReplyDeleteOne would presume that after whatever time period the paid advertising card's window had expired, it would be removed (likely destroyed ?)Just makes sense from a business standpoint, if you're charging for x-amount of advertising, keeping it up and supplying "free" advertising defeats your business model
John C
Could be...could also be that by 1957 fewer and fewer advertisers were interested in a dying property like the CA&E, and Chicago Car Advertising preferred to concentrate their efforts on a going concern like the CTA.
ReplyDeleteIn any event, these cars have material that could be reproduced for our later-era "L" cars like the 6000s, and whatever wood cars/4000s we may one day choose to preserve in a mid-late 50s configuration.
Back when I first moved to Jeff Park in the early 00's, there was a neighborhood antique store that had an old car card for Mil-not whipping cream in their window, with an added subtext for a cooking program on WBBM radio. I wanted so bad to buy that card for the Museum, but they were never open when I walked by...and then one day the store was gone.
I remember that store, I used to work a few blocks east down Montrose Ave. I often found an "excuse" to spend a lunch hour or two per week at the old Stanton Hobby down the street....all gone, all victims of "gentrification"
ReplyDeleteJohn C