Day 344: 66-Year-Old Newsprint Delights

Many months ago, while cleaning out the rim joist space in the basement to prepare for insulation, we stumbled upon the jackpot of old house ownership. Newspapers stuffed into walls. Newspapers from 1946. We've been told that the family who sold us the home bought it in 1943 from the original owner so these newspapers were stowed not long after they moved in (relative to the total 68 years they lived in the house!). They have been sitting in the basement for months waiting to be documented and appreciated. It must be fate that they got dug out of the workshop debris during Garrett's cleaning spree right around the date they were originally published... 66 years later! There were two fairly intact newspapers: the Kitchener Daily Record of Thursday, December 12, 1946 and the Toronto Daily Star of Saturday, December 14, 1946.

I had a lot of fun going through the articles and took some photos of the more interesting tidbits. Usually our photos are posted at reduced size but these are full resolution... in case you're curious enough to want to open them up and read some 1946 journalism for yourself. The newspapers are in pretty rough shape so please excuse the random fingers and wooden blocks trying to make things legible.

Kitchener Daily Record - December 12, 1946

This newspaper is the predecessor to the current daily Waterloo Region Record and was originally born as the Berlin Daily News, founded in 1878. Interestingly, this was Canada's first bilingual newspaper - English and German! After a series of mergers and takeovers and the city's name change from Berlin to Kitchener during WWI, the Kitchener Daily Record found its way into our house.

Kitchener Daily Record - Thursday, December 12, 1946 - "The THIRD Page"

Note the circulation was 19,496 which has since tripled to 60,435 on weekdays. The headline article about Waterloo College refers to what is now Wilfrid Laurier University, although it's not clear what happened with that Kitchener land bid since I don't know of any Kitchener campus for the university other than its social work school, which opened fairly recently. The front page is in very rough shape - here's the top corner showing us the price (4¢) and the weather forecast for the next day.

For just four cents, you get a vague weather forecast!

Toronto Daily Star - December 14, 1946

Founded in 1892 as The Evening Star, here is the 1946 version of today's Toronto Star.

Toronto Daily Star - Saturday, December 14, 1946

Interestingly, the circulation numbers haven't changed very much. In 2010, the Toronto Star circulated 381,310 copies on weekdays and 546,819 on Saturdays. The average daily copies circulated in November 1946 was 343,155.

Toronto Daily Star - November 1946 circulation

Here are some of the more notable articles from the newspapers. Note that they weren't organized in sections with these heading. (I actually found it a bit difficult to read at times because there were all sorts of little two sentence stories scattered in amongst the longer articles with text wrapping around tight columns.)

International Affairs

Being less than a year after the end of WWII, there are some interesting hints of the war but not too much. Actually, the article most directly related to WWII is in the image just above about "Nazi Germany's five satellite nations" that are forced to pay $1.33 billion to "the nations that they wronged in the second world war." There's a piece summarizing a letter in another newspaper (the Liverpool Post) protesting its portrayal of Canada in writing about "disillusioned brides of Canadian servicemen" returning to the UK. One article features the newfangled concept of an all girl band, started because of the male musician shortage, and gives pointers on "how to train women for orchestra work."

Kitchener Daily Record -
Dislikes Way War Brides'  Return Told

Toronto Daily Star -
Bach and Boogie are No Puzzle to Hagersville's All-Girls' Band

Sports

The Leafs basher in me was pleased to find this article featuring a 25 year-old Maurice "The Rocket" Richard and the six original NHL teams.

Kitchener Daily Record - Montreal Whips Maple Leafs 3-2; Bruins Triumph

Science and Technology

Apparently 1946 was around the time radiant in-floor heating got going. This article is about the National Research Council in Ottawa testing the system that is now touted as an energy efficient choice and often used in passive, net zero, and similar houses. So interesting! No? Just me? Okay... Bonus points to anyone who can explain to me how the "spoon for eating grapefruit" in the "Today's Brilliant Idea" feature is supposed to work...

Kitchener Daily Record - Attempt to Heat Houses With Pipie Laid in Floor

Any article that ends with "the great Skua birds... have attacked Scottish sheep, tearing out their tongues and eyes" must be shared.

Toronto Daily Star - Killer Dogs, Killer Birds, Too Play Havoc with U.K. Mutton

Comics

I'm sure you've all wondered in your spare time about comic strips of the 1940s. Were they action-packed? Were they completely bizarre? The answers, of course, are yes and yes. The coolest finds are an original Donald Duck comic by Walt Disney himself...

Kitchener Daily Record - Donald Duck by Walt Disney

...and an original Superman by Jerry Siegel and (Canadian) Joe Shuster.

Toronto Daily Star - Superman by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster and Dr. Bobbs by Elliott and McArdle

Nothing like some friendly competition between Clark Kent and Lois Lane. Garrett reckons the use of the word "needn't" is what makes this one awesome. But I'm more interested in the absurd "Dr. Bobbs" comic right above the Superman one. Perhaps some context is missing?? The same is likely true for this racy one and the Li'l Abner one below...

Toronto Daily Star - Abbie and Slats by Raeburn Van Buren and Li'l Abner by Al Capp

Classifieds and Ads

Here are some snippets from the classifieds sections and advertising scattered throughout the papers. This help wanted ad is seeking "single girls" for "interesting work" at the Merchants Rubber Factor. The building it occupied, not far from our house, is now part of the Breithaupt Block adaptive reuse project to turn the old factories and warehouses into office space.

Kitchener Daily Record - Help Wanted at Merchants Rubber Factory

While comparing prices, I was curious about how much incomes have changed since then. In 1946, the average weekly wages and salaries in Ontario was $32.59, so the average annual salary would have been $1,695. In 2011, the average weekly earnings in Ontario was $894.78 or $46,529 annually... 27 times more than in 1946. For context, the Bank of Canada's inflation calculator tells us that a basket of goods that cost $1 in 1946 would cost $12.50 in 2011.

In 1946, Eaton's was offering an "Eatonia" hammer with the following description: Forged steel 1-lb. head, hickory handle. 13 1/2" overall. Value, each $1. A 1-lb wood handled hammer at Home Depot is selling today for $7. Not a huge jump in price - unlike glass cutters, whose prices went up 24-fold from 25¢ in 1946 to $6 today.

Toronto Daily Star - Full-page Eaton's Christmas advert

Here are some comparisons we can all relate to. Food. Having spent the past two years thinking and talking and writing about produce prices, I was pretty jazzed to find this list of quotations from the Ontario Produce Company. And here's a few comparisons with the data I've been working with:

• Carrots, dozen for 40¢ to 50¢ in 1946 - $1.20/lb in 2010 (random guess: maybe 6 carrots in 1 lb)
• Tomatoes, hothouse, 20¢ to 30¢/lb - $1.97/lb in 2010 grocery store hothouse tomatoes
• Apples, 6 quarts 50¢ to 60¢ - $1.90/quart or $11.40 for 6 quarts in 2010

Toronto Daily Star - Produce Markets: Ontario Produce Co. Quotations

I found a reference to the motherland when my eyes fell on this "flats wanted" ad: IMMEDIATE POSSESSION. 3-room self-contained, furnished flat in residential district for better-class English couple, recently from S. Africa; will pay $200 monthly. "Better-class" indeed... $200 rent a month sounds like a pretty good deal these days but that was 50% more than the average monthly salary at the time!

Toronto Daily Star - Flats wanted

I forgot to take a photo of the house and property listings (but if you're curious, I'm happy to oblige... future me would probably appreciate it too :). While the size of a house these days is often in terms of number of bedrooms or square footage, apparently houses were judged by overall number of rooms in 1946. Our house has 7 rooms, not counting the basement, so I found somewhat comparable listing:
$9,500 - Lawrence Ave.-Mount Pleasant area, 7 bright rooms, square plan, detached, newly decorated, hardwood trim, side drive, very deep lot, fixtures, screens, coal in. Outstanding value. Move in before Christmas. Substantial down payment required.

Finally, here's a public service announcement that shows us somethings never change. Electricity conserving actions haven't changed much in 66 years, have they?

Of all the funny comparisons we can find, one thing that stands out are the similarities. We're still talking about gas taxes and the Maple Leafs losing and employment rates and the cost of living and we still get pretty excited hearing stories about animals doing bizarre things to other animals... and I doubt we'll ever stop.