Uranium 1955

It’s not often that an opportunity like this comes along but readers of the Saturday Evening Post in 1955 were offered the chance to prospect for Uranium deposits and, if successful, establish their own extractive industry and become fabulously rich with the sort of wealth that enables you to assemble a collection of Renaissance altar pieces and set up your own charitable foundation in support of right wing causes. Sadly most purchasers of the El-Tronics Geiger or Scintillation Counter would have to be content with the promised fun and excitement to be enjoyed in the pursuit of elusive deposits of heavy metal. For the recreational Uranium hunter the best buy would be the Three Range Portable device at $99.95, bringing a sense of purpose to family outings and country rambles. A pocket-size version at only $21.95 was available to those with only a casual interest. At the top end the serious prospector could stagger into the great outdoors, equipped with the Master Scintillation device - just a nickel shy of $1000. There’s no way of knowing just how many readers were persuaded to purchase these devices but some of them must have survived - long enough perhaps to become collectors’ items for Cold War connoisseurs and turn up for valuation on PBS Antiques Roadshow.

James R Bingham, Illustrator of Fiction

The illustrations of James Bingham (1917-71) in Saturday Evening Post are not among the most highly regarded. It’s easy to see why – there’s no flashy brushwork, no painterly flourishes and no crowd-pleasing caricatures. The flat and undifferentiated surfaces are not especially inviting and the use of colour can appear garish at times. But Bingham was a consummate professional and his understanding of composition and ability to organise and combine form on the printed page never failed him. There was a strong cinematic element in his images, often suggesting the asymmetric dynamics of Hollywood film noir where dramatic slanting beams of light contrasted with deep pools of shadow to enhance the sense of unease. At his best in images like the erotic encounter between doctor and nurse or the femme fatale stealing from a suitcase outside a motel he captures a deep sense of foreboding that events are going out of control and all will end badly. Plunging perspectives and a preference for a low eye-level all played a part. His talent for visualising criminal behaviour made him the first choice to illustrate Earl Stanley Gardner’s “Perry Mason” stories whenever they appeared in Saturday Evening Post. Only once, for the issue dated 22 December 1945 did Bingham paint a cover for Saturday Evening Post but he produced an enormous volume of illustration for advertising which will feature in a future post.