Godzilla vs. ....

Lee

A healthy alternative to junk food, 1905

Lee

The dangers of smoking weren't known until recently. Hey, wait a minute....

Okay, except for back in 1908.  From the same Home Life issue, Jimmy Fallon (right) makes an appearance:

See more ads from the genteel year of 1908, plus a near-comic strip from 1875, at Lee's Comic Rack.


Lee

Fuzzy and Calvin

X-ray vision update: Glasses, postcard

I spent three dollars, plus postage, for a pair of X-RAY VISION glasses (new in package).  All it produced for me was eye strain, and I don't think Bev fared much better.  To be fair, the things only "work" when you have a strong light source in front of which to position your hand, a pencil, a cellphone, etc.--reading lamps don't do it.  Only, say, a ceiling fluorescent lamp or bright sunshine through an open window.

For some reason, I had better luck with my X-ray postcard, also from eBay (below).  I held my left hand at arm's distance in front of an open dining room window, peered through the postcard, and saw--actually saw!--the "bones" in my hand.  Which is to say, I saw sort of an inner shadow, a shape within a shape.  Not a convincing illusion at all, though mildly interesting.  Enough, however, to keep this gimmick selling for more than a century, though can you actually imagine someone dumb enough to spend money on something like... um... er....

Ohhhh-kay.

X-ray Card Co., Brenham, Texas?  Some company made a living making these?  Anyway, on line I found an announcement in the Oct. 29, 1905 Galveston Daily News that the X-ray Card Co. had moved to Brenham, so we know this card dates to 1905 at the earliest.  At the latest...?  It was in a stack of postcards with postmarks in the 1908-1915 range, so let's make a careless guess of 1910.

Lee