Post Boys and Girls – 74 Years Later
“I have been a reader/subscriber to the Post since the 1930’s,” wrote Maxine Trevethen of Torrance, California. Okay, we love her already. Then Maxine sent us a photo of her and her grandmother from 1936. Maxine is nine in the photo and clutching a Shirley Temple doll.
In 1935, The Saturday Evening Post was offering a Shirley Temple doll to anyone who would send in a certain number of new subscriptions for the magazine. “I really wanted that doll,” Maxine writes. “I lived in Seattle and I can remember trudging around in the rain knocking on neighbors’ doors, trying to get new subscriptions. Finally, I succeeded and sent in the required new subscriptions. To my delight, I received the ‘authentic Shirley Temple doll’ as promised.”
Courtesy of George Crotts.
We’re happy to share the photo of Maxine today, prettier than ever, with that same beloved Shirley Temple doll. Thank you for sharing your story, Maxine. We’ll put a bug in the Editor’s ear about this method of increasing circulation.
But we have an even older photo to share, sent in by George Crotts, Jr. of North Bend, Washington. This is a remarkably good photo for 1910 and shows Lester Bishop, a cousin to George’s mother, standing in the rear to your right. Young Lester, born in 1899, had an early and sad ending, we’re sorry to say. A mere eight years after this newsboy photo, Lester died from wounds received at the battle of Chateau-Thierry, France in World War I.
George included some photos of Les with family and friends before shipping out to France. Included was this one of Les and his parents in a fancy automobile. “Lester was honored,” George writes, “along with another young man as being the first two killed in action from Sutter-Yuba Counties in California” when VFW Post 948 in Marysville was named for them.
Courtesy of George Crotts.
Too many wars, too many young lives taken too soon. We’re proud to publish these fine photos in Lester Bishop’s memory.