Fables from the Golden Age for Modern Dry Cleaners

Abstract

This twelve-page pamphlet has nothing to do with fables. In it, Pittsburgh Plate Glass Company's Chemical Division advertises its product Perchlor to dry cleaners. Each of its pages presents a black-and-white photograph of a classical piece of sculpture, a quip by the subject of the sculpture, and a rhyming quatrain making the point, usually about Perchlor. Sometimes the point is about good salesmanship or other aspects of dry cleaning. Thus the quip for a picture of a caryatid is "If it falls off this time, Aphrodite can take her old Charm School and ..." The quatrain is "So much of her charm/Most every girl knows/Comes from dry-cleaning/Of her finest clothes." Hercules holds out his lion-skin and says "Look, Bud. The sign says 'one hour.' Now, either you have this suit ready or ..." The quatrain here reads "Fast cleaning action,/Economy,too/Are yours when Perchlor/Is used by your crew." Now, this is a piece of ephemera!