Billboards of the Past by Randy & Sharon Littlefield

Table of Contents

Take a trip through time, along the highways of yesteryear, as you view striking billboard ads from 1945 through 1967, captured here in over 450 beautiful color photos. Among the ads, you will see Jack Benny and Betty Grable selling Mercury automobiles, Arthur Godfrey and Joe Dimaggio hawking Chesterfield cigarettes, and Edgar Bergen, Charley McCarthy, and Santa Claus promoting Coca Cola. Billboard ads for everything from appliances to tractors and beer to war bonds are displayed. The artwork of many recognized lithographic artists is captured here, including the work of Howard Scott, Morice Logan, Jerome Razen, Stu Graves, and even Charles Schultz of Peanuts*R comic strip fame.

This is a treasure trove of American advertising gathered from actual billboards that were carefully stored in their boxes for several decades, before being assembled and photographed for this book. The informative text provides useful instructions on assembling, displaying, and safely storing vintage billboards. Values are provided in the captions.