FP Ads in the Tech Part VII: 1960-today.. (last)

[antoniosz]

As a medicine for the paranoia of the last few days, I sat down to complete this series of articles, which was derived from the advertisements that appeared in the MIT student newspaper the Tech.

 

A technical note and a question: The MIT students have a nice setup of the archive - PDFs of each and every page and Optical Character Recognition (OCR) of each page. The OCR results are garbled to a large extent, and by themselves are not really readable. They do provide, however, a collection of quasi-keywords that "tag" the PDFs and allow easy searching. For example the Google search Esterbrook pen site:www-tech.mit.edu seaches the archives for references to Esterbrook pens. For each page there is a PDF and a TXT file. They have made the PDF file to appear when a keyword exists in the corresponding TXT file. If you know who to do this (is it just HTML or more coding is involved?), I would like to hear from you.

 

I hope that you enjoyed this series.  It surely was a blast for me. Half of the pleasure for making it and half for sharing it with all of you.

Please let me know if there are any corrections.

 

AntoniosZ.

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1960-today

 

---

 

 

The end is near"  was the writing on the wall for fountain pens in the 60s.

 

Despite this we get a fresh breath of air with a set of

wonderful advertisements for Esterbrook pens.

 

They are my favorite from all ads that I posted in the series (maybe with the

Parker nail test second ).

 

The ads are witty and sassy.  The Ransom, the extraterrestrial  and

the bear are enjoyable to the max.

 

They only appear during 1960. In terms of pens that appear in these ads,we see

the 101, the

M2 pens

 

and perhaps (I might be imagining) in the "Ransom" and the "Octapus" something

that looks like a J or a icicle.

 

 

 

April

19604/26/60

 

 4/12/1960

4/8/60

 

 3/4/60 

12/2/1960

 

10/14/60

and 11/18/60

11/10/1960

 

11/4/60

11/30/60

 

5/30/60

There is a passing reference made to one of the loveliest pens

(IMHO) of that period is made in an ad for mother's day gifts.

 

The

Lady Sheaffer Skripsert line comprised of a great range of enamel models

some of which cost more than the PFM of that era.

 

I am still looking for the 14K Lady Skriptsert (if you ever see it, please let

me know).  

 4/26/1960

There is only a single other ad for a Sheaffer's  school pen during this

period.

 

10/3/1962

 

 

While Sheaffer has essentially disappeared,  Parker ads keep strong during

the 60s.   The 45 at $5 is probably the most attractive to the student

clientele that read the newspaper.

   1961 

 1962

 1963

1964

 

The free spirit of the sixties is just barely showing off in this ad below.

 

 

The motorbike is the award for a sweepstake - common practice of Parker Pen Co

 

 (Incidentally the motorbikes never caught up in the US but go to Europe to

see how popular they are today).

 

1965

 

The next two ads are interested because of a reference to the Parker 75 and

the Parker VP

 

19671962

 

Of course a streetwise company as Parker continued to prosper because it

embraced the innovations of the era.

 

The ads below show a Jotter and Touche (a fiber tip pen)

 

196119671976

 

Similarly to earlier ads, Parker continues using popular personalities in

their promotion.

 

Here a local sportwriter George Sullivan with a Parker 75. (Hmm from 

 

A set of 3 ads shown below advertise the presence of a Parker pen doctor on

campus who gives free checkup to older parker pens.

 

Mr. Art Roy head of the service department visited the campus at least 3 times

during 196X and 196X.

 

  

1966

 

1966

 

 

Who knows that Scriptos?  I dont - but there is a single ad for them 

in the Tech

 

1962

 

A very brief reference to some lesser  unknown Eversharp models are made

in

 

Eversharp Envoy (one of the late Eversharp pens, with gold fill cap and body,

often found with a flex nib)

 

and Eversharp Pockette (a 40-50s model that stayed unsold in the Stationery

store till the 60s).

1965

From 1966 to 1968 a bunch of advertisements for what FP lovers affectionately

call today the "BIC stick" appear in the TECH.

 

Interesting is the fact that it is offered by the WATERMAN-BIC corporation. Yes

"that" Waterman, almost a year later from the development of the FPs

 

their day of extinction is near. Or is it?

 

1966-196811/68

 

In 1974, this Pelikan 120 ad proclaims itself as the "Fountain pen that never

went out of style".

 

1974

In 1976 4 ads of a platignum italic FP sets makes a brief appearance.  

 

The finale of the swan songs is played in the early 80s. In 1981 we see a

brief appearance of a reference to Mont Blanc Diplomat Pen.  Very few

similar references are also made in the later issues and the signify the

transition of the FP from a writer's tool to a jewelry item.

 

Edited July 10, 2007 by antoniosz

[BobR]

Thanks so much for the advertisements, they bring back some memories. I was just entering adolesence during the earlier years but was always interested in pens. I remember my friend and I playing around with the Esterbrooks, sheaffer school pen and the Scripto as well as several ballpoints. Throughout my four college years however, I used a trusty Parker T-Ball Jotter(as pictured) to take class notes. That pen is still going.

 

For a short time in the late '60's I handled "national" advertising for our university newspaper, and I don't remember any writing instruments being advertised. Most people were already using Bics.

[weepstah]

Antonios,

 

Thanks again for pulling this together. They must have had a talented cartoonist on the Esterbrook advertising staff, looks like drawings from the same person. The ads are full of personality, and certainly not the "utilitarian" motif I would have expected. I wonder if anyone has anymore information on Art Roy, the Parker tech featured in one of the ads? Might have to do some looking around myself....

[antoniosz]

I have now corrected the format that got screwed up when the software upgrade of the board occured in the spring.

This applies to all the posts of this series.

[rhr]

Apparently the Parker 45 tries to make "ugly look beautiful", but it doesn't really succeed. ;~)

 

George Kovalenko.

 

 

[Gerry]

Apparently the Parker 45 tries to make "ugly look beautiful", but it doesn't really succeed. ;~)

 

George Kovalenko.

 

 

C'mon George. The 45 Flighter is one of my favorite pens. Beautiful lines. Even prettier than the Esterbrooks I have...

 

Gerry

[Ed Palumbo]

Thank you for posting these. I must admit, the prices brought a smile to my face.

Ed

[ajha1970]

Thanx for nice post about Pen history , It is quiet informative and interesting

Thanks so much for the advertisements, they bring back some memories. I was just entering adolesence during the earlier years but was always interested in pens. I remember my friend and I playing around with the Esterbrooks, sheaffer school pen and the Scripto as well as several ballpoints. Throughout my four college years however, I used a trusty Parker T-Ball Jotter(as pictured) to take class notes. That pen is still going.

 

For a short time in the late '60's I handled "national" advertising for our university newspaper, and I don't remember any writing instruments being advertised. Most people were already using Bics.

[welch]

This is a great series.

 

I wonder if the New Yorker carried FP ads. I remember an article that gushed about the Mont Blanc, and they used to carry advertising, in the '80s, for a Japanese ceramic-tip pen.

[sexauerw]

Boy does this thread bring back memories! I was a student at MIT in the early '60s and was a staff photographer for the Tech. Cruising the archives now that they are online is a blast. I was also on the freshman sailing team:

http://i77.photobucket.com/albums/j66/sexauerw/sailingatMIT.jpg

[welch]

Boy does this thread bring back memories! I was a student at MIT in the early '60s and was a staff photographer for the Tech. Cruising the archives now that they are online is a blast. I was also on the freshman sailing team:

http://i77.photobucket.com/albums/j66/sexauerw/sailingatMIT.jpg

 

There you are...a part of history!