Careers in PLASTICS, 1947

Anticipating "The Graduate" by 20 years, the January, 1947 ad from Mechanix Illustrated asks, "Have you considered a career in PLASTICS?"

YOU MAKE THINGS-To give you practical experience in working with plastics, we supply handsome, colorful, rods, sheets and tubes of plastics from which you can if you wish, make useful, attractive creations. You cement, saw, buff, form, dye, decorate, cast and laminate various types of plastics. You design plastic articles--develop your own ideas. You may earn money while learning.

START YOUR FUTURE TODAY-Mail the coupon below, now! You will get an interesting, illustrated, free booklet with valuable information about plastics. You will see how, at small cost you can prepare for a bright future in the expanding plastics industry. Clip the coupon and mail it TODAY!

Have you considered a career in PLASTICS? (Jan, 1947)

• [jfrancis]

  By a funny coincidence I caught a glimpse of Dustin Hoffman the other day near where he’s apparently filming a new HBO series.

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p8yOQJ288GQ

• [jfrancis]

  I will now celebrate by listening to Plastic Bertrand

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PITnJAnmjqw

  • [cycle23]

    Good god thank you for that link, cuz it got me to this link, I’ve had as an ear whig for a while without having a complete recording

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZkKK_GZ8qU

• [adamnvillani]

  I love the curved sidewalk taking our protagonist from “PLASTICS MFG. COMPANY” to the middle-class home such a job presumably provides.

• [That Evening Sun]

  “Trained men, who have plastics know-how, will fill the well-paid positions in the industry.”

  No girls allowed!

• [Phikus]

  Ridiculously, copious, use, of, commas.

• [Agies]

  I just want to say one word to you. Just one word.

  • [Pinkerton]

    I hear that Sam Wanwright is the man to work for. HEE HAW and Merry Christmas!

• [bjacques]

  No cribbage for me tonight, Fred. I’m studying to be a streetcar conductor!

• [Jonathan Badger]

  To give you practical experience in working with plastics, we supply handsome, colorful, rods, sheets and tubes of plastics from which you can if you wish, make useful, attractive creations. You cement, saw, buff, form, dye, decorate, cast and laminate various types of plastics.

  Based on this, I’m imagining an alternative-history plastics industry, one not based on mass production and factories, but one based on the creativity of individual craftsmen, perhaps organized as a guild. Atomic Age John Ruskin!

• [nixiebunny]

  Plastics sure is a big industry. Too bad that the type of plastics work described herein (hand-assembled acrylics) is such a small industry.

  I have a nice book from this era that describes plastics engineering, mostly the design of molds to produce millions of widgets such as towel holders and 5-tube radio cases.

  I didn’t see much in that book that wouldn’t be better learned at a 4-year college.

• [beerwhisperer]

  I don’t want to sell anything, buy anything, or process anything as a career. I don’t want to sell anything bought or processed, or buy anything sold or processed, or process anything sold, bought, or processed, or repair anything sold, bought, or processed. You know, as a career, I don’t want to do that

• [Stuart]

  A Google search shows that this was offered by the Technical Crafts Corporation; in the April, 1948 Popular Mechanics, the Technical Crafts Corporation was offering four career fields – plastics was one, but also “Learn Watch Repairing,” “Learn to be an Aircraft Instrument Technician,” and “Learn to be a Diesel Specialist.” For someone looking for a career in 1948, any of these might have worked out.

  Coincidentally, at that very same address, Mustaf Daoud Nissar, “Middle-eastern American”, was death #5 from arson during the Los Angeles riots. I presume that’s the 1992 riots, not Watts.

  http://www.communitywalk.com/la_riots_death_analysis/map/324359#0004;7l

• [GeekMan]

  My father has been a plastics fabricator most of his adult life, working for small-mid size companies. He ends up doing a lot of small-run custom work. When we lived in Toronto, he made a number of display cases for the Royal Ontario Museum. He’s definitely a skilled craftsman with plastics, besides being a gifted woodworker and renovator. Definitely the biggest Maker influence in my life!

• [Anonymous]

  Not surprised, so many plastics were invented and commercialized in the ’40s, ’50s, and ’60s that it probably was a super appealing career.

• [Gilly]

  If you like that, you might also like Plastics at the internet archive—thousands of pages of mid-century goodness!