70 Years of Marvel - 1949

In 1942, Lev Gleason Publications had started publishing Crime Does Not Pay, ushering in a new genre of crime fiction. Naturally, Martin Goodman, Marvel-Timely's publisher, wasn't slow in picking up on the potential of the brand, and barely 5 years later, Official True Crime Cases was launched, becoming in time All-True Crime, in which blondes lured unsuspecting car drivers to their doom. Although seeing as the driver above doesn't seem to have noticed the cop hanging off the side of his car, I'm amazed he noticed the femme fatale at all.

At the movies, Orson Welles was talking about cuckoo clocks in The Third Man, and Mighty Joe Young was the terror of Hollywood. Meanwhile, up in the Highlands of Scotland, a boat was running aground, and the locals were enjoying Whisky Galore. On television, Clayton Moore was starring as the Lone Ranger, and the BBC was launching Come Dancing, which has, in one way or another, lasted forever. In the world of books, Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four was out, as was Nevil Shute's A Town Called Alice. And on stage, Death Of A Salesman was premiering. What a year!