I am back in 1952, and it was the decade when I crossed from being a baby into a school boy.
That said I don’t remember much of it until well into the 1950s, but these adverts were the backdrop into my growing up.
These four all come from the News of the World’s Household Guide and Almanac and were sent up to me by Debbie Cameron who came across the book and “just had to have it”.
Now on one level there is nothing remarkable about them, all traded on maladies which with varying degrees of seriousness could be experienced by all of us.
And these remedies go back into time and were the staple of magazines, and periodicals in the 19th century while some were traded by quacks on street corners and travelling fairs as the answer to all your medical problems.
In 1919 at the height of the influenza pandemic which killed millions the firm Genatosan Ltd offered up Formamint, their “Germ Killing Throat Tablet” which would ensure “you will be safe from Spanish Influenza and other epidemics" and endorsed by some of Establishment "who had been ordered to take Formamint by their doctors which gave great relief”.*
Now I do not rubbish those who felt the need to resort to such “cures” nor to dismiss the seriousness of their complaints, only to reflect that for the genuine remedy there were and are countless others which at best do nothing and at worst should carry a Government Health Warning.
What is a little surprising is that in1952 in the age of the NHS and the relative cheapness of a prescription from a doctor people could resort to something they could buy from a postal address.
But then in the 21st century across the internet and as an introductory preamble to many a U Tube song there will be a “self-proclaimed expert” extolling everything from a way to cure short sightedness, to the solution the dangers inherent in tap water.
Added to which many of those reading the News of the World’s Household Guide and Almanac would have grown to maturity against an absence of
“free medical care at the point of access” and so would have turned to Mr. Henry J River’s solution to
“Weak Nerves, Worry, Depression, Sleeplessness, Fears, Shyness, and Blushing”, of that promise to
“Calm those jaded Nerves” with “Dr. Niblett’s Nerve Sedative”.And it is easy to forget that for most of the population even the cost of a visit to the doctor was a visit too far.
So, while I can smile at those “’Pick me Up’ Tablets” and sometimes rage at the quackery and exploitation of those who were too poor to expect better, these advertised remedies take us back to a time most of us would not like to see again.
Indeed, the protestations of some who would be happy with a totally privatised health system should be judged as an endorsement of bygone age of privilege and inequality. And they should reflect on the record numbers who in 1948 applied for a pair of NHS spectacles. This was not because they were looking for something on the cheap but because for the first time, they were given the opportunity to correct poor or failing eyesight, banishing the need to visit Woolworths and try on pairs of glasses to till one pair allowed them to see the back wall.
Or in the case of toothache offered a visit to a professionally trained dentist, obviating that old practice of visiting the tooth puller who could be found practicing his skill in town markets across the country.
All of which means that those adverts in Debbie’s 1952 book are a powerful reminder of what we have lost and perhaps a warning about those who think the prevention and cure of ailments and diseases come in neatly packaged pills or the soothing words of a voice from the internet.
Location; 1952
Pictures; adverts from News of the World’s Household Guide and Almanac, 1952, courtesy of Debbie Cameron
*Simpson Andrew Manchester, Remembering 1914-1918, 2017