Homage to Bad Postcards II

You might think that after twenty-two years of being surrounded by postcards every day that I’d become jaded and postcards would begin to lose their luster. In fact the opposite is true. I’m passionate about postcards and what they reveal about the cultures that produce them. They can be informative, enlightening, historic, profound, disturbing, or hilarious. I often talk about how postcards document the twentieth century and illustrate what we did, how we got there, what we wore, what we bought, what we ate, and who or what we thought was important. I can go on and on extolling the importance of postcards as twentieth century visual documents and I often do when I have an audience. I’ve also looked a hundreds of postcards and thought to myself, “What were they thinking?”

Apparently I’m not the only postcard lover who feels this way. A fellow blogger has a great site called Bad Postcards to which I subscribe so I can get an additional daily fix of postcard wackiness. Bad Postcards is dedicated to vintage chrome postcards from 1950 to 1975, and at the risk of admitting my age, let’s just say that these were my formative years so I have a pretty good handle on the culture. Often the daily image is a Curt Teich postcard that I already know and love. Some are absolutely hilarious because our culture, our technology or our sensibilities have changed so much and the image is caught in a time warp. Others make you shake your head in wonder at who thought this image even made sense. Couldn’t they see that the register was horribly off? Why would looking at this hideous product advertisement make you want to run right out and buy one for yourself? Who in their right mind would want to visit this uninviting place? All these questions and more run through my mind when I enjoy the wacky weirdness of Bad Postcards. Imitation is the highest form of flattery so in homage to my fellow blogger once again I’m presenting a few bad postcards from the Curt Teich Postcard Archives. If you enjoy fun and funky postcards check out Bad Postcards for yourself.


Not your average Christmastime tableau. Who knew mice wore gold lame’ at the holidays? And what about that hovering Christmas bat? Hope everyone had their rabies shots. This delightful “Mouse Fantasy” diorama could be enjoyed at the Woodland Museum in Cooperstown, New York in 1967.

Who wouldn’t want an Umberto Shadeless Lamp created from the fronds of towering Royal Palms? In 1955 tropical décor was the rage, though to me these look like a fifth grade art project that went horribly wrong.

This is an ad for “Elfin Impatiens” which might have been more appealing without the creepy old guy in the elf costume. I’d like to point out that I got a hat exactly like that when I attended the premiere of Peter Pan in California in the early 1950s.

This image is like a precursor to a modern Photoshopped image. However it appears as if some shaggy, red snake-like creature is devouring the “Ilikai on Waikiki Yacht Harbor” and I really don’t want to stay there if I have to worry about being in the middle of a bad sci-fi film.

Come on, I don’t care if this is an advertisement for the Kah-Nee-Ta Vacation Resort on the Warm Springs Indian Reservation, cars should not be parked next to teepees. It’s just wrong.

It doesn’t take long to realize that this is just a model of the hotel. I mean, look at the size of the blades of grass in relation to the structure. It took me a while to figure out why the light blue sheet was stretched out in front of the hotel. Then I read the back of the card that tells me that the Lucerne is “directly on the ocean.” Really, that piece of blue fabric does not look like the ocean. This is not my idea of a vacation paradise.

This ad card for Dave Ellison Studio, Inc. has one of the creepiest spokespersons I’ve ever seen. Makes me wonder if he’s Dave Ellison?

Is it my imagination or does this guy look like Snap, Crackle or Pop on steroids? And what is a “wall pocket” anyway?

This has to be one of my favorite cards. Though I do not consider myself a postcard collector, I have amassed a nice little collection of “people with food on their heads” postcards. An obscure and wacky subject in itself, as you can see there are postcards of this genre out there. This woman is a walking convenient store. Want a little chicken stew or bouillabaisse? She has everything you need for a gourmet feast.

This looks like an adult version of that children’s game where the child can jump into a pit filled with plastic balls, though a rather cheesy version at that. Is she having fun or wincing in pain?

I have always been amazed that there are so many meat postcards in the Teich Archives. I don’t eat meat to begin with so these beef livers are particularly unappetizing even though they are “completely deveined & skinned, molded & cut to exact portions. Molded beef livers, yummmmm.

Planet Coin Bank, An Educational Model of our Planetary Solar System…With Spinaround Orbit Action! I have always loved these ad cards where the subject just hovers in the air. I wonder if this was the inspiration for Harry Potter’s Golden Snitch.

That’s one of the worst birthday cakes I’ve ever seen and I’m certainly not ordering one from “The Gladstone Baker Boy” who sent this postcard because he’s obviously not old enough to be driving a car much less baking a cake.