Pulp International - Swift’s+Space+Travel+Guide

Dec 12 2009

Meat company helped U.S. kids beef up their scientific knowledge.

Because America’s food conglomerates have a rock solid foundation in planetary physics, in 1958 Swift’s Premium—which was a company that sold pre-packaged dried beef among other products—issued this handy Space Travel Guide to educate kids about the solar system. You just turned the wheel and it gave information on each planet, such as its astronomical sign, and its period of revolution around the sun, while of course touting Swift's supersonically quick dried beef recipes. Yum! It’s an udderly wonderful little gadget. We just wish it explained that whole cow jumping over the moon thing.

Swift’s Space Travel Guide

The headlines that mattered yesteryear.

1924—Leopold and Loeb Murder Bobby Franks

Two wealthy University of Chicago students named Richard Loeb and Nathan Leopold, Jr. murder 14-year-old Bobby Franks, motivated by no other reason than to prove their intellectual superiority by committing a perfect crime. But the duo are caught and sentenced to life in prison. Their crime becomes known as a "thrill killing", and their story later inspires various works of art, including the 1929 play Rope by Patrick Hamilton, and Alfred Hitchcock's 1948 film of the same name.

1916—Rockwell's First Post Cover Appears

The Saturday Evening Post publishes Norman Rockwell's painting "Boy with Baby Carriage", marking the first time his work appears on the cover of that magazine. Rockwell would go to paint many covers for the Post, becoming indelibly linked with the publication. During his long career Rockwell would eventually paint more than four thousand pieces, the vast majority of which are not on public display due to private ownership and destruction by fire.

1962—Marilyn Monroe Sings to John F. Kennedy

A birthday salute to U.S. President John F. Kennedy takes place at Madison Square Garden, in New York City. The highlight is Marilyn Monroe's breathy rendition of "Happy Birthday," which does more to fuel speculation that the two were sexually involved than any actual evidence.

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