The classic diner is an icon of the American roadside. As cars were mass-produced, so were these aluminum gems, whose metal bodies and neon signs came to characterize modernity in the mid-twentieth century. From the 1920s to the 1950s, these eye-catching eateries promoted themselves on many giveaway matchcovers and postcards. Today, these highly collectible pieces of ephemera provide a colorful visual record of diners from all over the country. Nearly 450 examples are included here, along with a history of the diner and related information about postcards and matchcovers of the era. Enjoy a nostalgic, state-by-state tour of architecturally unique, vintage American diners.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Nostalgic nosh,
This review is from: Classic American Diners: Collectible Postcards and Matchcovers (Schiffer Book) (Hardcover)
A rich selection of diner postcards and matchbooks though it must be said one diner postcard is not too different from another but when you see more than 270 all in one go they become quite fascinating. The rest of the 450 pictures in the book are matchbooks. All the material is from Don Preziosi's collection but he left out color glossy photographic postcards. I agree with his reason: these cards, though obviously an exact record of what a diner looked like yet they lack the exuberant color and period feel of the illustrative diner postcard.
There is an interesting few pages near the front of the book that covers postcards and matches from diner makers. The O'Mahony, Silk City, Kullman, Paramount, Fodero, Manno and DeLuxe get a look in with black and white photographic postcards though they have a retouched look to put the best gloss on the units. The matchbooks use illustrations. The diner makers didn't miss a trick by going for a streamline look, suggesting modernity and cleanliness, so many of these diners use the curves, glass bricks and lightweight metals associated with streamline design. There is a nice feature on page 132: four cards and a matchbook for the Ideal/New Diner on Route 40, Aberdeen, Maryland. Preziosi writes a bit about the background to the changes to this diner over the years. There are also a few cards where owners used the Dinor rather than Diner spelling. Wonderful though all these postcards are I was disappointed with the book's production. There are so many pages with two or three items that just don't fill the space even though they are angled and frequently a bit of one overlaps another. I suppose the problem was having a book of too many pages for too little material. To break up the editorial flow of white pages a few use blown-up card images as a background with the proper cards printed on top of the picture but even here crude white oblongs are arbitrarily cut into the background for the short captions. The imprint, contents, acknowledgements, intro and the few text pages are uniformly dull with unimaginative typography. The author's text is set in a large type to fill out as many pages as possible. The one concession to a contemporary look is a nice drop shadow on all the illustrations. The front cover, with twenty postcards, all the same size and butted together looks stunning but how frustrating to see these lovely period graphics wasted on the inside pages because of poor editorial design. For the price I really expected something better looking. ***FOR A LOOK AT OTHER DINER BOOKS click 'customer images' under the cover.
0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The classic American diner is an image embodying American culture,
By Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Classic American Diners: Collectible Postcards and Matchcovers (Schiffer Book) (Hardcover)
The classic American diner is an image embodying American culture, and here matchcovers and postcards which captured these images and were giveaway promotional items are presented in a collection which could've been featured in our Collector's Corner, but deserves a spot here for artistic and historical significance. Over 400 examples in color are included, along with a history of the diners and details on postcards and period matchcovers. Perfect for both collector's libraries and for art and American history holdings.
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