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Friday, October 12, 2012

Underwood's Red and the 150

Before leaving the topic of women's nails, presumably forever, I'm going to share something I learned while looking for nail polish ads for yesterday's post. While some might consider the topic of women's fingernails trivial, obviously companies like Revlon and Max Factor have never shared that attitude.

I was surprised to learn, however, that the Underwood Corporation (later the Underwood Typewriter Company) considered the issue important too. The prosperous 1950s created a need for for office workers, and women in unprecedented numbers began leaving home to fill those jobs. Soon, Underwood was receiving so many complaints from secretaries about chipped nail polish that they decided to come up with a solution, instead of dismissing the feedback as frivolous.

In 1955 the company introduced the Underwood 150. Here is the copy from their ad campaign for the new model:


THE NEW UNDERWOOD 150 IS THE TYPEWRITER DESIGNED TO KEEP YOUR HANDS LOVELY TO LOOK AT

Two important improvements make the new Underwood 150 the typewriter most wanted by the girls who make business hum. Underwood has always been designed with the user in mind. That’s why it’s so good looking and has so many extra features to make turning out crisp, clean work practically automatic. Now, look how Underwood and Underwood alone helps you keep fingernails and hands lovely to look at, lovely to touch!

Exclusive half-moon keys: Formed to fit fingers. Half-moon tops mean fingernails never touch the keys. No more worry about short unfashionable fingernails, chipped nail polish! Exclusive touch tuning: Stubborn typewriter keys often give girls rough, widened fingertips. Underwood’s touch is kitten-soft. 28 easy-to-set touch variations! You choose touch to suit fingertips, always look fresh from the manicurist.


Underwood's ad men may have called the office workers "girls," but they knew they were tapping a new consumer goldmine. In addition to the new half-moon keys, the company made a special chip-resistant nail polish called Underwood's Red, available only to women who wrote in on company letterhead stationery requesting a bottle.

Secretaries were also told in the ad to telephone their "Underwood man" to ask to see the new Underwood 150, so women were allowed to operate them but not sell them. Who would have thought one magazine ad could shed so much light on the complex and changing role of women in the 1950s?


pdxretro.com

12 comments:

  1. Keep digging if this is what you find! Great bit of trivia!

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    1. I would never have guessed that women could have had that kind of influence over the manufacture of typewriters that early in the history of their working outside the home...but I guess they had been the target audience of household product ads for years, so advertising agencies and the companies they represented were quick to pick up on the fact that now they would have their own money to spend and a voice in the offices where they worked.

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  2. Oh Dana,
    I LOVE your posts! (I know I've said that before) but you always catch the 'fifties vibe so perfectly! I always get these little "remembrance" twangs when I've read what you've written. Thanks for everything! I MEAN it! 8-)

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    1. Thanks so much, Crystal. I know what you mean about "remembrance twangs." I got one just the other day reading one of SusieQT's posts. I'm glad I can provide some of those too. :)

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  3. Kitten soft! That's what this GIRL looks for in her office equipment - my kitten loves sleeping on the keyboard! Love the ad!

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    1. Yep, kitten softness..haha That phrase struck me as funny when I read it for the first time too. Women were still being treated as if they had the minds of little girls back then. I believe men truly thought of us that way. They didn't just call us girls to be demeaning.

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  4. Haha- I never in a million year would have thought a post about nail polish could be so interesting. Glad I read it, because I sure am not a manicured type of gal, but I do love those typewriters!

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    1. So glad you enjoyed the post...and I promise that this will be the last nail polish post for the foreseeable future. :)

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  5. Fascinating stuff Dana, you're right about old stuff, it leads you on a path of discovery every time (if you're prepared to put the effort in and poke around a bit)

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    1. Yes, sometimes it just pulls you down a rabbit hole and is a time-killer. But sometimes you strike paydirt!

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  6. "Designed by men, but easy enough for a girl to use." I think thats what is said about the typewriters in season one of Mad Men. How neat, and Who Knew!?

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    1. I had forgotten that line...but that's exactly how many men perceived us back in the 50s and 60s. My first job after college was in an office, and the men referred to us as "the girls in accounting," even though most of the women in the department were older than they were.

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