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Thursday, June 9, 2011

Beauty advice booklets from the 1960s

Women who wanted beauty advice in 1963 could choose from a huge catalog of 25-cent booklets published by the Bonomo Culture Institute.  The creator of these handy pocket manuals was Joe Bonomo, a body-builder (Mr. Modern Apollo of 1921) and self-proclaimed "International Authority on Beauty, Health, Diet and the Self-Improvement of Face and Figure."

No. 13 in the Bonomo Pocket Manual series was a NEW! Bonomo Beauty Ritual: How to Beautify Your Bust Contour, featuring the home course techniques.  This little 3"x5" book boasts 64 easy-to-follow pages completely illustrated with photographs, diagrams and charts.  It includes 41 separate exercises for building your bust.


Bonomo Handy Pocket Manual #1 was "Make-up -- and LIVE!" which promised Beauty in 10 Easy Steps, including some very interesting facial exercises (scroll down).



The lovely woman who modeled these facial exercises may have developed some new wrinkles after this photo shoot.

An outfit called Happiness Books of Stanford, Connecticut, also published pocket-sized books with beauty hints.  "Hairdo Secrets" cost 25 cents and had 64 pages, just like the Bonomo books.  It's not clear who copied whom.

 

Some classic tips and llustrations from the Hairdos booklet:



The 1960s woman holding a sign might be fun to use on a greeting card or scrapbook layout. If you want edited versions of any of the other images, just let me know in the Comments.



Don't forget to splurge, ladies!

  

7 comments:

Rita A. said...

These are wonderful. Thank you for sharing. Did you ever see the movie "Help" starring the Beatles. There's a scene where Ringo is sitting in a car doing facial exercises like the ones you list. I wonder if they got the idea from one of these.

Bonnie said...

How funny! I hadn't thought of that in years. You know, it's entirely possible! Help! came out in 1965, which means it was filmed in 1964. Thanks for writing! I'll have to re-watch that movie.

Lorraine said...

Thanks Bonnie for the terrific 60's art. I graduated from high school in 63 so I do remember ads like these. I am so excited to start making cards with a retro theme, as well as steampunk/victorian with your wonderful posted pieces, as well as the Graphic 45 papers.

I'll be perusing your site in more detail soon.
Lorraine

Saphira said...

thakn you very much
Saphira (Germany)

Kimberlee said...

Thank you! I would totally love the one with the woman under the hair dryer.

Tea Cottage Pretties said...

Found you through Pinterest. Enjoyed my visit. Hugs, Beverly Tea Cottage Pretties

Rosie's Cottage said...

These are adorable! Thank you for sharing, sending hugs from the UK x