Dr. Berry's Freckle Cream

[Ric Gillespie]

From what TIGHAR know about the coastguards, how likely is it?

About as likely as Terry-the-Transvestite to explain the gender-specifc artifacts.

[JNev]

Ooops...

Ric, I keep an old compact mirror in my guitar shop tool kit... not sure then just what your comment might suggest about me...  ;D

[Ric Gillespie]

Ric, I keep an old compact mirror in my guitar shop tool kit... not sure then just what your comment might suggest about me...  ;D

We also found cosmetic. Do you also keep some rouge in the tool kit?  The Seven Site as guitar shop ... I'll admit it's not an alternative hypothesis that we've considered.

[Ric Gillespie]

About as likely as Terry-the-Transvestite to explain the gender-specifc artifacts

Lets not open that debate up again please  ;D

Agreed!

[Mark Pearce]

Gentlemen, there is still a huge problem identifying the Campana's Italian Balm bottle as "gender specific", as pointed out earlier by me, Diego Vásquez, and John Kada.  From the time the product was first marketed in Canada in the 1920's and until it started to fade away around the late 1950's, it's sales pitch was directed to both sexes.  The company's newspaper ads included lines such as- 

"...Men like its soothing "after-shave" effects."

"...Men like it after shaving....

"...Men use a drop on the brush when shaving.

"...Relives all irritations and soreness caused by sunburn and perspiration.  Good for every member of the family."

"...Soon the children will be coming home with red rough hands...Campana's Italian Balm... — excellent for men and women too...

"...The bottle should be kept in the bathroom- handy for the entire family...  Every youth should have a bottle in his room as a fixer for the hair."

"...Every Member Of The Family Can Use It for Their Hands

"...The Commander had ordered the men to stay clean-shaven and protect their faces and hands by using (Campana Italian Balm)

"...A Fluid Skin Softener used by millions of men and women is known as Campana Italian Balm. Ask for it..."

Sorry, but I don't see how TIGHAR"S claim, "Campana Italian Balm, and hand lotions in general at the time, were marketed solely to women," holds up under scrutiny.

[Ric Gillespie]

Gentlemen, there is still a huge problem identifying the Campana's Italian Balm bottle as "gender specific"

Point taken.  Campana Italian Balm, although undoubtedly popular with women, also appears to have been marketed to men.  The small bottle found at the Seven Site therefore should not be considered to be gender-specific in the same way as, for example, the compact mirror and cosmetic.

Sorry, but I don't see how TIGHAR"S claim, "Campana Italian Balm, and hand lotions in general at the time, were marketed solely to women," holds up under scrutiny.

I don't know who said that. You haven't provided a source.  I speak for TIGHAR on matters of evidence, either by my own writings or by approving the publication of the writings of others on the TIGHAR website or in press releases. 

TIGHAR's is an on-going investigation.  We report the results of our research as we go along.  Sometimes further research brings in new information that allows us to correct previous impressions that were not correct.  We're grateful when that happens.  When new research appears to be legitimate we happily incorporate it into our understanding and interpretation of the evidence.  We do it all the time.  But language like, "Sorry, but I don't see how TIGHAR"S claim...holds up under scrutiny." is hostile and accusatory in tone.  It is detrimental to the maintenance of this forum as a place for reasoned discussion and research.

[Joe Cerniglia]

Wow, nice piece of research, Alan. 

Ric, the quotation Alan references is from the Research Bulletin I wrote in February.  True, the source should have been cited.

Still, an excellent piece of cultural research.  I did not catch these ads, nor did the EPAC.  You did.  Based on your earlier research, I am impressed but not surprised.  I've seen your tenacity in earlier posts.

In the spirit of a defense of my claim Campana's focus was women, which I hope you will not mind me making - and is in no way meant to undermine your research - in America of the 1930s, the Campana story may have been far different.  The U.S. 1930s ads I've seen include nude female silhouettes, women sponsors, and women's narratives.  Their factory entrance featured an art deco mural of stylized women in various depictions.  The radio ads I've heard from the First Nighter Program are all aimed at women. (I will provide links and files when I get back to the laptop.)

Granted, you have one 1959 Boston Globe ad that pitches to men and women, but this date is 26 years after the date code on the bottle itself, which is 1933. By then the product, which had experienced drastic sales declines, could well have tried a new advertising approach.

I have a question in to Bill Lockhart as to whether a U.S. to Canada bottle supply chain may have existed for Canadian versions of Campana. (The artifact is stamped with a Bridgeton, New Jersey factory stamp.) To my knowledge, there was a  sizable Toronto base of operations.

If you can find a U.S. ad from the 1930s that specifically mentions men, you've got something even more interesting, but I would still say that a random sampling of the U.S. ads would show a target market for women, and that U.S. hand lotions in the 1930s followed this trend.

But who knows?  It would be a balanced approach as well, if you find something, to mention whether you ran into any of the kinds of ads that I saw.  Give us your impression of the ratios encountered.

Still, nice work.

Joe Cerniglia
TIGHAR #3078CER

[Alan Harris]

Wow, nice piece of research, Alan. 

Ric, the quotation Alan references is from the Research Bulletin I wrote in February.  True, the source should have been cited.

Joe, I appreciate any and all credit (and accept blame) when it is due, however, in this case the person you should be responding to is Mark Pearce, it was his post.

[Jeff Carter]

Potentially silly question, but if one never asks, one never learns...  I did not find the answer in any Google searches of tighar.org.

How is the Date Code "3" on the bottom of the Campana jar known to represent "1933" and not "1943".  I did find some debate online of when Owens-Illinois switched from 1-digit Date Code to 2-digit Date Code, but did not find a definitive answer to the question for 1933/1943 years.
http://tighar.org/Projects/Earhart/Archives/Research/Bulletins/62_LotionBottle/62_LotionBottle.htm
http://tighar.org/Projects/Earhart/Archives/Research/Bulletins/62_LotionBottle/03bottlebottom.jpg

Thanks in advance.

[Ric Gillespie]

How is the Date Code "3" on the bottom of the Campana jar known to represent "1933" and not "1943".

Not a silly question at all. Thanks for paying such close attention.  A paper on the Society for Historical Archaeology website by bottle guru Bill Lockhart explains:

"At some point in 1940, someone in the Owens Illinois Glass Co. seems to have realized that a zero could indicate either 1930 or 1940, so a new code needed to be
developed.  The answer was to add a period indicating a manufacture of 1940 or later."

Our bottle has no period after the 3.  The bottle was therefore manufactured in 1933.

[Jeff Victor Hayden]

Potentially silly question, but if one never asks, one never learns...  I did not find the answer in any Google searches of tighar.org.
How is the Date Code "3" on the bottom of the Campana jar known to represent "1933" and not "1943".  I did find some debate online of when Owens-Illinois switched from 1-digit Date Code to 2-digit Date Code, but did not find a definitive answer to the question for 1933/1943 years.
http://tighar.org/Projects/Earhart/Archives/Research/Bulletins/62_LotionBottle/62_LotionBottle.htm

http://tighar.org/Projects/Earhart/Archives/Research/Bulletins/62_LotionBottle/03bottlebottom.jpg

Thanks in advance.

This may help Jeff
http://www.sha.org/research/owens-Illinois_article.cfm 

[Joe Cerniglia]

My apologies to Mark.  I'm still getting acquainted with names here, and typing quickly as I do.  Congratulations to Mark Pearce.

Here's a link to a radio spot for Campana from 1944 from the First Nighter, a coast-to-coast radio program. One can hypothesize a Coast Guard connection to the Campana Italian Balm bottle, but one also must assume that the Coast Guardsman had been exposed to these stateside ads:

Link:
www.vstreff.org/Scripts/Chinese_Gong.pdf

Announcer:
Everywhere you go, women are doing extra work subjecting their hands to
extra punishment. Yet, have you noticed how some women keep those busy
hands well groomed? Soft and youthful looking?

Woman:
You can do it too, by choosing Original Campana Balm when work and
weather threaten to make your hands look coarse and unlovely. Beginning
tomorrow, use Original Campana Balm before you start work. It's
protection against dirt and grime. And be sure to use it every time after
your hands have been in water, also, to help bring back the adorable
smoothness that your [skin] loses when you scrub frequently with soap and water.
Original Campana Balm acts so quickly and with such positive results, that
you too will soon be calling it the before and after lotion. Remember that
smooth, protected, un-chapped hands add to your efficiency, bolster your
morale, and please the man who holds them.

Announcer:   
Lack of certain basic ingredients, for a while, caused a shortage of Original
Campana Balm. We're happy to say that these ingredients are again
available, and your dealer can now obtain supplies of Original Campana
Balm. If he does not have it, ask him to order it from his wholesaler.

Woman:
If you prefer a lighter lotion, ask for the new Campana Cream Balm, the
creamy lotion with Lanolin.

Announcer: Be sure you get either the Original Campana Balm in the green and white
carton or the new Campana Cream Balm in the yellow and white carton.
###

I see evidence, too, however, that there were various angled pitches aimed at those worried about sun protection.  Clearly, they weren't trying to exclude men.  Maybe the Company was even trying to pick up a male clientele, while all the while maintaining the customer base of females. 

I'd also say that the context of other artifacts found nearby - the possible compact case piece, the mirror, the rouge, the feminine-styled ointment pot - establish a contextual point of reference that help establish plausibility that this was a hand lotion, belonging to a woman. It would have been handy as a powder base or a sunscreen.

But...Mark Pearce's analysis once again makes clear why establishing a single smoking gun artifact, or even excluding whole segments of the population from such an artifact indisputably, is fraught with difficulty.  The patterns of evidence will always make the stronger case.


Joe Cerniglia
#3078CER

Joe Cerniglia
TIGHAR #3078CER

[Jeff Victor Hayden]

Would it be likely then that one of  the coastguards at the Loran station in 1944 brought with him a 1933 bottle of Campana Balm? The contents of the 11 year old bottle of balm must have been used even more sparingly than the freckle cream.

[Jeff Carter]

In googling for other bottles manufactured under Design Patent 85925:

• Some Skat WWII Insect Repellant bottles carry that number.  WWII reenactors use Skat in their various military first aid kits during WWII, and Skat (unclear to me whether powder or liquid or both) was issued to Merchant Marines, see http://www.usmm.org/medicine.html
  http://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/ww-2-insect-repellent-skol-co-case-of-36-2-oz
  http://grantandkarainsaipan.blogspot.com/2011_09_01_archive.html
  http://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-glass-bottle-insect-SKAT-MILITARY-KIT-New-York-NY-USA-3-4-Mosquito-/300787349179
  
• 
  Other bottles with that des. pat. # are at a 1944 airplane crash site: 
  http://www.warbirdinformationexchange.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=41624&start=0
  
• 
  And way off topic, here is a weird one:
  http://www.ebay.com/itm/1950-VINTAGE-DUNKLER-CANCER-DIAGNOSIS-KIT-WOOD-CASE-BOTTLES-QUACK-MEDICINE-/280751459434
  

[richie conroy]

is this jar the same one Tighar purchased a while back ?

http://www.junkwhat.com/antique%20vintage/6204n5%20lot%20of%205%20pcs.htm