Ads from the Orient!

Well, not so much from the Orient as using the ‘Orient’ to sell things. Mostly perfume. These ads are all from Volume 24-25 of Photoplay (July-December 1923), found, as usual, on the Internet Archive.

First, you knew we couldn’t escape Valentino:

Made of lava, I presume?

See the ad.

The illustration probably refers to Valentino’s role in the film Blood and Sand (1922), which was not a sheik film but a film about a Spanish matador (Valentino) who is married to a virtuous woman and has an affair with a seductive widow, Doña Sol. 

Inside reference alert: in Court of the Veils, Duane Hunter refers to Isabela (the opera singer) as Doña Sol. Everything sheik connects to everything else sheik!

Anyway, the ad is for a face cream recommended to Valentino by his wife Winifred Hudnut (seen in this previous post). Apparently it builds up the facial muscles! And for only $2.00 (plus $1.50 for the Face Finish).  About $26.00 in today’s money, according to a random inflation calculator. So, pricey? Not pricey? I don't buy many face creams...

If you like that, you might like Vantine’s Temple Incense:

Lie back and relax...

See the ad in zoom-able format.

This incense promises to bring you “all the mystery, the beauty and the lure of Eastern Romance”. And from the look of the woman in the illustration, it’s pretty alluring…

And then we have an advertisement for Sax Rohmer’s ‘Masterpieces of Oriental Mystery’:

Adventure, Romance, Sorcery, Secrets!

As usual, for a bigger picture...

Sax Rohmer wrote a lot of ‘Oriental’ Mysteries (he’s best known for his mysteries featuring Dr. Fu Manchu). These ads are very common in movie magazines. This one encourages you to buy now, because this edition is at a special low price due to “a fortunate purchase of paper and other materials made at just the psychological moment”. The ads really capitalize on an image of the East (which includes a wide wide range of places in this case - China, India, Saudi Arabia, etc.) where women are bought and sold by mysterious (and probably unsavory) men.

See also, the Mountain Goats song “Sax Rohmer #1”.

And, finally, this one has nothing to do with sheik movies or romantic Orientalism, but I just love it:

The Great Servant Electricity!

The ad.

“Millions of American women voted for President in 1920 and are finding the time to take active interest in civic affairs.” Maybe that is because we, GE, give them electrical appliances? We’re just saying…

Movie magazines are a treasure trove of quirky old ads.  I'm sure I will be posting more of them in the future.

Next up, part two of Immortal Flower.