(click to enlarge photos)

We hope that it obvious to readers familiar with this weekly feature that this Sunday we offer another scene pulled from a collection of billboard subjects recorded between the late 1920s and the early 1940s.  The snapping by Foster and Kleiser of its Seattle-based billboards began near the start of the Great Depression and ended when everyone’s preoccupation with World War II was both fresh and alarming.

In the featured photo at the top, the company’s photographer has included three billboards in her or his negative taken from the east curb of 15^th Avenue NW and about twenty yards south of NW 64^th Street. The billboard at the center on the north side of the arterial NW 65^th Street tempts every motorist heading north on 15^th Ave. NW with a dream of conspicuous consumption.   In spite of the

Depression, the billboard flaunts a luxurious Lincoln Zephyr V-12.  That 1937 Lincoln reminds me how as a youngster, I was puzzled that car companies were permitted to sell automobiles, which were newer than new.  (The cars they sold were often dated for the coming year.)  Now I also wonder if it is possible that Seattle’s Lincoln dealers did some “spot advertising” and paid extra for this head-on location since a good fraction of Seattle’s most wealthy one percent commuted via 15^th Avenue NW to their homes in the gated Highlands.

The featured (at the top) billboard negative was exposed on November 1, 1936.  The Seattle Times noted, “Thousands of hunters are swarming into Eastern Washington for the opening of the deer season.”  Even more affecting, it was two days before the country would extend Franklin Delano Roosevelt into his second term as president.  He won 60.8 percent of the popular vote and 98.49 percent of the electoral votes, the highest percentage of any candidate since 1820 when James Monroe, the last candidate of the Revolutionary generation, had no major opponent.

During the 1936 campaign Roosevelt sometimes exuded the populist economics embraced by Bernie Sanders.  At Madison Square Garden, on this first of November night, Roosevelt gave his last broadcasted speech before the votes were cast.   Responding to the oft-repeated theme of his Republican opponent, he “welcomed the hatred of ‘organized money’.”  Roosevelt promised that in his second administration “those forces would meet their master.”

Returning to the pavement – the odd kink in the grid at 15^th Ave. NW and NW 65^th street was the gift of Ballard’s early development with different additions.  I remember while visiting friends in Ballard during the early 1980s, that the city’s Department of Transportation, after tabulating the crashes, promoted this intersection as Seattle’s “most dangerous intersection.”  Slow down and take care.

WEB EXTRAS

Anything to add, pardners?  Jean I think it likely that Ron went to bed early his evening but when he does that he also gets up early in the morning, and so we expect that he will add several more old and relevant features below.   However, he will do it after feeding the wild pets that are well accustomed to his nutritious gifts offered on his deck.

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