Wasn't the Future Wonderful

By Tim Onosko

Book Overview

No Synopsis Available.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0525475516
• ISBN13: 9780525475514
• Release Date: April 1979
• Publisher: Plume
• Length: 188 Pages
• Weight: 1.35 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 7.0" x 5.0"

Customer Reviews

Looking backwards

Darn! The future just never seemed to arrive even though the covers of Modern Mechanix, every month and in color, too, predicted a fascinating cornucopia of inventions just waiting round the corner. There's a wonderful sixteen page section in this book with covers from the magazine and I thought it interesting that so many of them feature transport. The ideal subject, of course, because it involves speed, streamline shapes and these vehicles just burst out of the covers and no doubt easily persuaded males of any age to put down their 15c for the latest issue. The intro explains that most of the reproduced pages in the book come from Modern Mechanix (changed in 1938 to Mechanix Illustrated and in 1984 to Home Mechanix and finally closing in 2001 when it was called Today's Homeowner) with similar titles, like Popular Science and Popular Mechanics, using futuristic art on their covers but with these two the inside editorial focused more on home workshop and building articles. Though the Modern Mechanix covers featured fantasy, with a related feature on many of the inside pages, I noticed looking through the book that frequently there were photos of inventions that actually got as far as prototypes but did the world really need an Auto Chair for Crippled Vets (page 84) Outboard Bike Used in Water Polo (page 169) or a Build Yourself a Wrist-Watch Radio (page 89)? The magazine pages reproduced in the book originally appeared from 1930 to 1937 and a nice touch was including some ads, too. Many of the illustrations were by Norman Saunders who seemed to have a knack of turning a simple (though totally impractical) idea into a very convincing credible illustration for some future product. In later years he created hundreds of covers for down-market men's adventure magazines (bizarrely known in the trade as `armpit slicks'). Tim Onosko has put together a book of quirky editorial future promises that, in the Depression thirties, probably seemed very possible. As with most magazines the covers really sell the product and I'm surprised that someone hasn't put out a book featuring the covers to these magazines from the thirties to the fifties. ***LOOK AT SOME INSIDE PAGES by clicking 'customer images' under the cover.