Tampons and Crime Thrived in the 1930s in Chicago
I'm not saying there was necessarily any connection, but many early
tampons did originate on that shore of Lake Michigan at the beginning of
the Depression.
Even before Tampax started selling tampons with applicators in 1936,
companies in Chicago were making Nunap, Moderne Women and fax, none
of which had tube delivery systems, and all of which had suspicious ties
to one another.
Their products either bore the same street address, used the same ad
copy, or showed the same illustration. Or combinations of all three. Were
the makers the same person(s), friends of one another, or did they steal
each others' products? Few things seem to have been patented or copyrighted.
There are no dates on the instructions or boxes.
Spend 30 minutes of your time reading these documents
and my clever dissection of what I call . . . Tampon
Turmoil!
After you book your flight to Chicago to find out for yourself, and
file a report to your MUM, possibly winning
two fat prizes of $249.99 each - think of it! - please read "The Dickinson Report," an influential article that Consumer Report published in 1945, encouraging
women to use tampons, not pads. It's a great cultural vignette of the America
of 50 years ago, and much of the reasoning is valid today. The Tambrands
Corporation donated the report and the urtampons
mentioned above to your MUM - a fantastic gift, part of a much
larger one.
Oh, also look at a series of covers of the menstrual
education booklets published by Personal Products, Growing
Up and Liking It, also donated by Tambrands. You might wax nostalgic
or nauseous, depending on your world view. And read Lynn Peril's articles about these and similar booklets.
And, oh, of course, read about the sad
case of Prof. Mack C. Padd, the Distinguished Institutional Wallace
C. Meyer Memorial Pouncer at the Museum of Menstruation, and the national
problem of tenure!
So enjoy this issue, er, edition, er, whatever, of your
MUM!
Buy Trinkets at the MUM
and Pop Store!
The moment you've all been waiting for is . . . not quite yet here!
Probably next week, or maybe the week after, you may visit the MUM and Pop Store - you grasp the allusion to Mom
and Pop Store, don't you? - on this Web site, where initially you can buy
- well, I'm not going to tell you, you'll have to see for yourself!
Squirm in your seat for a week or two, or until I get around to it!
Letters, Etc., from This Week . . .
appear next week!
© 1998 Harry Finley. It is illegal to
reproduce or distribute any of the work on this Web site in any manner or
medium without written permission of the author. Please report suspected
violations to hfinley@mum.org