eBay Highlights: The Mystery of Grand Hotel

eBay listing

I love kitsch. In fact, I would describe this entire blog as a love letter to kitsch. The kitschier the better. I love pin-ups and roadside attractions and cheesy throwbacks to things I didn't get to experience. (I am living proof that youth is wasted on the young.) So when I find something as kitschy as vintage issues of Grand Hotel, I want to know everything about it. Sadly, there doesn't seem to be a lot of information. Which is why I am dedicating this post to The Mystery of Grand Hotel. (Which sounds like a Nancy Drew novel...another kitschy thing I love.)

I first encountered Grand Hotel while looking for vintage fashion magazines on the Italian eBay site. There were magazines like Grazia and...Grazia, but Grand Hotel instantly caught my attention with its insane cover illustrations. (Click for details, obviously. The links are to the eBay listings and go from left to right. All the covers are from the 1950s to 1962.)

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I've seen a lot of pulp. I used to hang around the vintage perv Tumblrs (you know the ones), but I'd never seen anything like this. First of all, I couldn't figure out what audience the publishers had targeted. Nearly all the men in the illustrations seem vaguely predatory, if not outright terrifying (hello 7). So if the magazine was targeted towards women, were the messages of submissiveness that overt? Was it specific to Italy or the Mediterranean? And if the magazine was directed towards men–whoa, I know about machismo, but the illustrations seem to take it a bit far!

On the other hand, other covers from the same period seem to be pretty pedestrian. Or about as pedestrian as you can get with a donkey-cart.

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I did a bit of investigation and discovered Grand Hotel was first published in 1946. I'm still not 100% sure if it started off as a fotoromanzi or if it evolved to be one, but the brothers behind it got their start in comics if Google Translate is correct, so pairing illustrations–and later photos–with text probably seemed pretty natural. I don't have any covers from 1946, but there are a few currently on eBay.

By the mid-60s the covers started to be less creepy (though the baby doll in 2 and the cover-within-a-cover on 4 aren't helping):

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But I wouldn't say it went away entirely (I have to admit my mistake here:  I thought the girl in the middle had just seen like, a dead body, but nope:  she's just reading "Carlo ama la Giovanna". Her adorable sweater-dress reads Luisa, just to drive the point home). I'm mega-creeped out by the images on the left and right:

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By the 1970s it seems to have evolved into a fotoromanzi-gossip mag, though issues occasionally contained knitting/crochet patterns, horoscopes, and puppies. Do you recognize any celebrities? (Is that John Kerry?)

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These days Grand Hotel is essentially a gossip magazine, which you can subscribe to here.

If you want more information, there's an excellent (and much more informed!) write-up from Niamh Cullen here. Italian Ways also has a small selection of photos featuring moda e motori, and Salon has a general article on fumetti.

What do you think about Grand Hotel? Have you ever read an issue? Do you think social history is an important realm of study, or are comic books and other ephemera best forgotten? 

XOXO,

Annie Belle

eBay highlights: French magazine edition!

As you may have guessed from my last post, I spend a lot of time on eBay. (Not usually buying, just browsing.) Even if I can't buy everything I want, I figure I can share with you guys so maybe you can get some cool stuff!

My new favorite thing is looking at different European eBay listings. Surrrrrrre you can find some cool stuff on American eBay, but you can also find some of that stuff at antique stores. I've been looking at vintage things from the US for so long they're losing their charm. What about other places? (I haven't looked elsewhere yet because I figure one can count on "mode" for fashion for a while.)

Oh, if you want to buy these, I think most of them ship internationally or near-internationally. And PLEASE make sure to share scans/photos if you do–I would love to see them!

Without further ado...

Fémina Nöel 

This one is way out of my price range at 69 Euro, but it is SO GORGEOUS and would make a beautiful gift for a vintage fashion or illustration enthusiast. The first and third designs above are by Heim and the second and fourth are by Patou. 

The catalogue/magazine (?) also contains beautiful advertisements, including one illustrated by the amazing Rene Gruau:

So beautiful. I don't know what I would do with it...do you? It feels almost blasphemous to to leave the pages in the magazine and away from view, but I can't imagine ripping them out, either, even if they were all lovingly framed.

Elle and Elle

Unlike some of the other magazines I've highlighted that I have no idea about, everyone knows and loves Elle, though this version is quite different from the English version on supermarket shelves. (Then again, most titles from the 1950s that survived to the present are not the same at all today.) Loved seeing Suzy Parker on the issue on the left–she's definitely one of my favorite models from the period.

Le Miroir des Modes

Le Miroir des Modes was basically the French equivalent of The Delineator, a magazine published by Butterick. However, it's in French, so it is instantly way more fashion-y than any old American magazine. (I genuinely do love America and American fashion, but you can't argue with the fact that Paris is and always has been one of the international hubs of fashion design.) I really love the look of the late 1910s–that decade was such an interesting transition period for women, and while the 1920s gets all the attention, it's interesting to trace those changes back to the 1910s. No patterns in this one, but it's still lovely to look at. 

La Mode

I don't know a lot about this magazine. It seems to be separate from La Mode Illustrée. The issue for sale in the above link is from 1911. Very interesting two compare the evolution of styles--and in just six years!

Tricotons pour eux and Tricots pour vous

I'm pretty sure these are not by the same publisher, but at some point a knitting pattern is a knitting pattern, and honestly, I picked the image on the left because of the dog. 

Plus these GEMS

Femme Pratique

Femme Pratique

The longer I look at the two of them, the more I am horrified. What is going on in these photos!? I thought France was supposed to be a gastronomist's paradise, WHY IS SHE WEARING A FOOD DRESS!? I seldom agree with cats, but they seem to be in the right mind about this whole ordeal.

What interesting things have you found on eBay lately? (Don't worry, I won't buy them. Maybe.)

xoxo,

Annie Belle