The Year Was 1930: Need a Coupe? Got the Croup?

In 1930 Herbert Clark Hoover was president. Mickey Mouse first appeared in a comic strip. Astronomer Clyde Tombaugh confirmed the existence of Pluto, considered a planet until demoted in 2006 to the status of dwarf planet. Astronauts Buzz Aldrin, Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins, Charles Conrad, James Irwin, and Edward Higgins White were born.

And readers of the Star-Telegram were reading these ads:

car adsYou could buy a like-new 1930 Chevy coupe from Ernest Allen for $475 or a 1929 Oakland coupe from Webb-Kent Motor Company for $635. Sanford Webb, like Frank Kent, was an early auto dealer in Fort Worth. In 1953 Kent would open his Cadillac franchise on Lancaster at Main. (Once Upon a Flivver Fever.)

pinoleumThe “cold fighter” Pinoleum contained oil derived from pine needles.

dr pepperIf you were more a pepper than a piner, a dose of Dr. Pepper at 10, 2, and 4 was “good for life.”

patternsHome seamstresses could get these patterns for “15 cents in U.S. coins or stamps . . . coins preferred.”

theater 1 majesticWill Rogers starred in the “talking picture” Lightnin’ at the Majestic Theater at 10th and Commerce streets. The Majestic also offered vaudeville, such as the “debonair gallant Count Berni-Vici and his famous Symphonic Girls” (“a merry melody riot”).

brownWFAA’s “Brownbilt Footliters” radio program was sponsored by the Brown Shoe Company, whose corporate spokesdog, of course, was Buster Brown’s Tige.

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