Fortune Ate My Clan
A couple summers ago, on a trip to Cooperstown, NY to deliver paintings, I stopped by my favorite antiquarian bookstore to seek substrate for new work. Sometimes one can spot a deal on a book or old prints whose paper lends itself good enough to paint on. Success! For five bucks I purchased an October 1939 Fortune Magazine in good condition. 148 pages of skewed primary source history from the perspective of the 1% during the sunset of the Great Depression and a month into the Second World War. There is so much meat in these pages—from Monsanto® advertisements telling Fortune readers that unnamed herbicides and pesticides will save the world, to a two page gush about dextrose, and why nine out of ten doctors prescribe America to eat more sugar! An article about Nazi Germany explains why Hitler should be praised for turning a Weimar bummer nation into an aggressive economic powerhouse. There’s even a picture of the Führer giving a speech behind a futuristic Volkswagen® that looks a lot like a monochrome Herbie the Love Bug.
What an alternate reality to what 99.99% of the world was experiencing at the time!
I decided to turn the pages of Fortune Magazine into my own hind-sighted interpretation. I could tell a more accurate story about the times and how they set the stage for whatever you or I find out of whack in the present. See what you think. What happened then that makes us suffer today?
Below some pages refurbished.
Thanks for taking a look!
Ron
Definitely prefer your "Refurbished" versions of the publication @ronthroop :D and will add that I really do enjoy your creative mind!
It is actually laughable the things that used to be featured in such publications and people just ate it up - though, I suppose - not much has actually changed in the grand scheme of things, except a few more open eyes.
Oh, the future will be laughing at us a whole lot, lot. That is, if there is one. Six years after publication the world entered the atomic age. Better living through chemicals feels like wistful dreaming:(
Thank you for the kind words and support!
"If there is one" - food for thought indeed @ronthroop :D
True story!
Always a pleasure! Hope you have a great Wednesday!
You too, and I will. The sun is bright and trees are green:)
Perfect x
TEAM 5
Thank you! I am very glad to have readers, and dedicated curators to get the word out:)