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Pageant often took on such existential horrors, as in the April 1951 Cold War piece "What If We Lose?" It also dared to address the pressing issues in American homelife:The reason American wives were so lousy, according to author Helen Lawrenson:
"Although the foreign wife raises more children, takes care of large homes, and serves bigger meals, it would never enter her head to expect her husband to help her with any of this."Also, what do you think that cover model felt when she saw her face paired with that headline?
Month after month, Pageant would take on a serious fear of white middle America ...
... beneath a swipe at American women. (This one's from 1962.)
Back in the '50s, Pageant sometimes strayed from attacking women on its covers, but still its editors held to two fundamentals: beauty and death.
Speaking of women, here are the jobs they were known to hold in '51:
Today's hardworking women, of course, have bested their ancestry by taking more than one of these. Perhaps you (or some woman you know) can achieve a Bingo!
Next: A completely awesome bonus image of American cities destroyed that may or may not contain a secret message.
