For whatever reason — and nobody’s around from the 1940 Exponent staff to ask — the Feb. 23 issue featured numerous pages of ads giving thanks to various people and organizations.
A best guess is that there was some sort of advertising promotion that week, as most of the ads are the same size and format, although there are wording differences.
For example, on page 6, W.H. Burns Co. and Paul Christos, Jr. — both of whom were clothing dyers — offered “Best Wishes to the Frankford Jewish Community.” Meantime, on the same page, Williams Bros. Corp. (printers and stationers) and N.W. Steele (used textile machinery) gave “Best Wishes to the Jewish Community of Frankford.”
The ads provide a snapshot of Philadelphia’s status then as “Workshop of the World.” Manufacturers giving thanks included coal companies, launderers, fish smokeries, toolmakers, foundries, lumber yards, painters, shoe polish manufacturers and soap makers.
Elsewhere, an ad for the Boyd and Earle theaters noted that Gone With the Wind was showing for the sixth consecutive week, while Motel der Operator, the “first Yiddish talkie by the celebrated star Chaim Tauber,” was screening at the Cinema Art Theatre.
