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» Forum Category: PT Boats of WWII
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» Forum Name: PT Boats - General
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» Topic:
Pat's PT Ads: The Return! sort of...
http://www.ptboatforum.com/cgi-bin/MB2/netboardr.cgi?cid=101&fid=102&tid=2514
Many of you may remember Pat's PT Ads, a site I had on the old Yahoo Geocities site... in it, I posted small images of hundreds of PT boat related ads from WW2 magazines... it was amazing to me just how popular the PTs were then-- obviously so, as so many advertisers wanted to use the PT image and/or show their part in building the boats.
Geocities closed down a few years back, and I never moved the site elsewhere. But I kept collecting these images, and finally decided to put them in a book. Two books actually... they are done with the print on demand process, which is fairly economical for short run B&W books... but cost like the devil for color. The process basically uses industrial laser printers, and the color prints are just about as dear as getting color copies at Kinkos.
So I did a big book- 200 pages!- with most all of the ads in B&W. And a shorter supplemental color volume, only 36 pages, for some of the best color ads. The books are now available through the printer, Lulu:
http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/patmat2350
>> click the link to see the books and brief inside previews
Eventually, they'll be on Amazon, and sometimes I'll have some on ebay... or if interested, contact me directly for the best price!
Edit: Now on Amazon
200pp B&W Collection: [url]http://www.amazon.com/Fighting-Boats-For-Navy-Advertisements/dp/1105448754/[/url]
36pp Color Supplement: [url]http://www.amazon.com/Fighting-Boats-For-Navy-Advertisements/dp/1105445879/[/url]
I'm pleased to say that they will also soon be in stock at the National WW2 Museum's book store in New Orleans and with luck, at other museums as well.
It's been fun collecting these over the last decade... I know there are a few more yet to be rounded up! So I'll keep looking...
Thanks,
Patrick Matthews
http://matthewsmodelmarine.wordpress.com
Posted By: Pat Matthews | Posted on: Mar 1, 2012 - 3:36pm
Total Posts: 89 | Joined: Jan 7, 2012 - 5:41pm
Pat
I wish you the best on the sale of the books. I also have collected roughly 200 of these ads over the years, and will begin matting all of them for future Exhibits. I love the themes for these ads, and when you study them, you really get a feel for the artists of the times. Over the years I have tried to locate original art work from these ads, but that's like finding PT-109 in a vast Ocean. In general the WWII ads ( not just PT Boats) are really something. Much time and energy was devoted to the war effort in these ads........
Posted By: Frank J Andruss Sr | Posted on: Mar 1, 2012 - 4:32pm
Total Posts: 3497 | Joined: Oct 9, 2006 - 6:09am
Thanks Frank... I too enjoy just showing these around ... Believe me, there's no money in it, even at the price I have on them... Print on demand does not compete with printing books by the thousands in China.
"Fighting Boats for a Fighting Navy" is printed in the USA!
Posted By: Pat Matthews | Posted on: Mar 1, 2012 - 5:01pm
Total Posts: 89 | Joined: Jan 7, 2012 - 5:41pm
And what a deal! As Frank must know, these ads go from $5 to $15 each on eBay... Times 200! And years of looking for them too. So here's a nice book full of them, for the price of 2 or 3 original ads.
Posted By: Pat Matthews | Posted on: Mar 1, 2012 - 5:49pm
Total Posts: 89 | Joined: Jan 7, 2012 - 5:41pm
Pat, would you believe geocities Samoa still has your page up? Check it out: [url]http://www.geocities.ws/ptboatads/index.htm[/url]. I'm sure the books have new and much better images, I've got them on my want list.
Posted By: Jeff D | Posted on: Mar 1, 2012 - 8:05pm
Total Posts: 2200 | Joined: Dec 21, 2006 - 1:30am
Yes I saw that! It's basically a pirate copy, they hope we old Geocities folks will sign up with them and reclaim our pages... Still debating...
Posted By: Pat Matthews | Posted on: Mar 2, 2012 - 6:29am
Total Posts: 89 | Joined: Jan 7, 2012 - 5:41pm
Even better now! With the favorable pricing structure at the printer, Lulu, I can knock 20% off there... when they go online at Amazon, Amazon will charge the full retail.
B&W Collection
Color Edition
EDIT: Back to normal pricing now. (02 June 2012)
Posted By: Pat Matthews | Posted on: Mar 4, 2012 - 7:59am
Total Posts: 89 | Joined: Jan 7, 2012 - 5:41pm
So the search continues for PT boat ads. Found two more, from 1943 issues of the music magazine The Metronome. Band instrument maker CONN converted from coronets to compasses, making Observer Compasses.
Not sure what this is! The ads mention making binnacles too... but was this the main compass, in the binnacle? Or a hand-held back-up?
Got these too late to put in the book, so here they are for you viewing pleasure!
[image]http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7068/6831320182_e7e310702c_z.jpg[/image]
[image]http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7038/6977448243_e6f0de0be9_z.jpg[/image]
Posted By: Pat Matthews | Posted on: Mar 12, 2012 - 3:35pm
Total Posts: 89 | Joined: Jan 7, 2012 - 5:41pm
OK, just read my own ad! "...a portable compass equipped with flashlight"...
Posted By: Pat Matthews | Posted on: Mar 12, 2012 - 3:42pm
Total Posts: 89 | Joined: Jan 7, 2012 - 5:41pm
I mentioned above that the books are available thru the printer, Lulu, and sometime soon at Amazon. But I'd be happiest yet if folks would buy copies from deserving stores that now stock them... Such as:
The National WW2 Museum in New Orleans
B&W
Color
And soon I hope at Save the PT Boat (not listed yet- contact them!)
Save the PT's store
Posted By: Pat Matthews | Posted on: Mar 26, 2012 - 7:33pm
Total Posts: 89 | Joined: Jan 7, 2012 - 5:41pm
Hi Pat,
Yes we just received our order of your excellent books. Wally, our webmaster will be placing them for sale online in our "Ships Store" in the near future.
Thanks again for your help. Jerry PT658 Portland
Jerry Gilmartin
Posted By: Jerry Gilmartin | Posted on: Mar 27, 2012 - 11:12am
Total Posts: 1472 | Joined: Oct 8, 2006 - 11:16pm
Just for fun, I'll occasionally post some of the more rare ads here for your enjoyment.
Here's one from Ethyl Corporation... they make tetra-ethyl lead, the additive for gasoline which raises the octane level... PTs required 100-octane av-gas.
Pat M
p.s.: Trivia time! "High octane gas" is not more volatile or explosive than low... it is LESS volatile. That's why it fights knocking (pre-ignition) in high compression and boosted engines. It costs more because it's harder to make- it uses a higher proportion of certain fractions of the petroleum feed stock. And also because it goes into expensive engines!
[image]http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7242/7320365128_9477a85ecc_c.jpg[/image]
Posted By: Pat Matthews | Posted on: Jun 2, 2012 - 7:38am
Total Posts: 89 | Joined: Jan 7, 2012 - 5:41pm
I really love these ads. As Pat knows, I have several hundred that I have collected, but they really never see the light of day as I keep them in 2 Museum boxes. I wish I could use them in some capacity, but they take up too much room in one of my Exhibits. I just love the WWII Theme and art work that they carry. I thought about buying Mat board for them and have an exhibit just for the ads, but not sure how well that would go...............
Posted By: Frank J Andruss Sr | Posted on: Jun 2, 2012 - 8:36am
Total Posts: 3497 | Joined: Oct 9, 2006 - 6:09am
Frank-
I store mine in a 12x15 album from Pioneer. You can get lots of refill packs of the clear holders and stack them to make a very thick book.
[image]http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8012/7321047992_483fc3b4ab_c.jpg[/image]
Or, just put out a copy of my B&W book! They're ordered in a way that you can follow the tone of the overall message, from hopeful action accounts of the dark early days, through to final victory and the renewed availability of all these consumer goods.
Posted By: Pat Matthews | Posted on: Jun 2, 2012 - 8:54am
Total Posts: 89 | Joined: Jan 7, 2012 - 5:41pm
Great idea Pat, but I want to physically be able to use them in the Exhibit. I'll figure it out one day, right now I need to put all my effort's into my upcoming exhibit in January 2013..............I do like the book idea.
Posted By: Frank J Andruss Sr | Posted on: Jun 2, 2012 - 11:27am
Total Posts: 3497 | Joined: Oct 9, 2006 - 6:09am
Here is rare pair (at least the first one is hard to find). A Packard ad showing their engines in famous applications through recent history. First published mid-1940 (I believe) with PT-3 in one image... then updated for Life in December 1940, now showing PT-10: The new breed of PTs.
[image]http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7231/7323069566_f67aa283a3_c.jpg[/image]
[image]http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7233/7323067860_7f28e97d69_c.jpg[/image]
Posted By: Pat Matthews | Posted on: Jun 2, 2012 - 2:56pm
Total Posts: 89 | Joined: Jan 7, 2012 - 5:41pm
The first one is harder to come by, I do have them both. I think the one with PT-3 was one of my first ones purchased.............
Posted By: Frank J Andruss Sr | Posted on: Jun 2, 2012 - 3:02pm
Total Posts: 3497 | Joined: Oct 9, 2006 - 6:09am
Sorry I missed posting this on the D-Day anniversary!
While much of the PTs' work was in the Pacific, many served in the Channel and the Med too. PTs were there at D-Day, escorting mine sweepers in the early hours... led by none other than then Lt. Commander Bulkeley.
Transcript from a July 3 1944 interview:
[url]http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USN/ships/logs/PT/pt517-Bulkeley.html[/url]
So here is an Elco ad which ran in the October 1944 Yachting and Rudder:
[image]http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7077/7349850894_598af8ce27_c.jpg [/image]
Posted By: Pat Matthews | Posted on: Jun 7, 2012 - 4:49pm
Total Posts: 89 | Joined: Jan 7, 2012 - 5:41pm
But wait, we have more D-Day references!
Packard's marine engines went into many North American built Vospers (and Scott Paines, I think?) as well as the Elcos and Higgins. Here we have an account of an RCN crewman on one such boat.
Also Sterling, whose Vimalert marine engine went into some early Higgins prototypes, as well as Vospers. Many of Sterling's ads actually use images of Elcos, whose business Sterling could only wish for. But in this Invasion ad, Vospers are properly shown.
[image]http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8149/7164674497_2b4850b75d_c.jpg [/image]
[image] http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8152/7164675233_5fbee2ef73_c.jpg[/image]
Posted By: Pat Matthews | Posted on: Jun 7, 2012 - 5:02pm
Total Posts: 89 | Joined: Jan 7, 2012 - 5:41pm
Reward of Victory
Elco was a prolific advertiser... virtually every month in the boating mags (Rudder, Yachting, Motor Boating). Their wartime ads form a major portion of the material in my book. But these were all B&W ads... Elco also pulled out the stops with several full color ads in mainstream magazines like LIFE... I can only suppose they were hoping for a post-war democratization of the boating public and a corresponding surge in consumer buying of yachts...they'd need a lot to keep the shops busy after Uncle Sam took a break!
This ad from about October 1945 was the final such color ad... not seen as often as the others, possibly because it fell outside of the wartime months that ad sellers concentrate on. It reuses the Knights of the Sea artwork, but the dark and threatening sky has turned light, a cabin cruiser is taking the fore, and there's a girl!
Good times just around the corner...
[image]http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7100/7363238546_ff00e31117_c.jpg[/image]
Posted By: Pat Matthews | Posted on: Jun 11, 2012 - 3:07pm
Total Posts: 89 | Joined: Jan 7, 2012 - 5:41pm
I have an original Elco Calender, which is what they call a one piece calender. The top carries this art work, which is very vivid and beautiful, with all the months of the year being on the bottom. From 1945.
Posted By: Frank J Andruss Sr | Posted on: Jun 11, 2012 - 3:56pm
Total Posts: 3497 | Joined: Oct 9, 2006 - 6:09am
Here's a new ad, at least one I never saw before, from Sat Eve Post. Features a nice rendering of an Elco 80. Not in my book, so here's a copy for you!
[image]http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8151/7503495462_bdd63d71cc_c.jpg[/image]
Posted By: Pat Matthews | Posted on: Jul 6, 2012 - 1:28pm
Total Posts: 89 | Joined: Jan 7, 2012 - 5:41pm
Just in time for stuffing your stocking- Amazon knocked a few bucks off the books' prices:
Full Edition, B&W: http://www.amazon.com/Fighting-Boats-For-Navy-Advertisements/dp/1105448754
Smaller Color Edition: http://www.amazon.com/Fighting-Boats-For-Navy-Advertisements/dp/1105445879
Patrick Matthews
Matthews Model Marine
http://matthewsmodelmarine.wordpress.com/
Posted By: Patrick Matthews | Posted on: Dec 9, 2013 - 11:29am
Total Posts: | Joined: Unregistered
So no one got you the set of PT Boat Ads books for Christmas?
I'm clearing out my inventory of Fighting Boats for a Fighting Navy: The World War II PT Boats in Contemporary Advertisements-- several spare copies I have at home. Normally $24.95 EACH on Amazon, but $20 for the PAIR from me, plus postage.
B&W on Amazon (has 200+ ads in B&W):
[url]https://www.amazon.com/Fighting-Boats-Navy-Contemporary-Advertisements/dp/1105448754[/url]
Color Supplement on Amazon (30 of the best color ads):
[url]https://www.amazon.com/Fighting-Boats-Navy-Contemporary-Advertisements/dp/1105445879[/url]
You can find them on ebay while they last, if you prefer:
[url]http://www.ebay.com/itm/302177961562[/url]
or contact me directly before they're gone, patmat2350 @ gmail.com
Patrick Matthews
Matthews Model Marine
http://matthewsmodelmarine.wordpress.com/
Posted By: Patrick Matthews | Posted on: Dec 28, 2016 - 3:25pm
Total Posts: | Joined: Unregistered
That's a great deal Pat, I love those ads! They have actually helped me with my research by identifying manufacturers of certain parts.
Posted By: Jeff D | Posted on: Dec 29, 2016 - 7:42am
Total Posts: 2200 | Joined: Dec 21, 2006 - 1:30am