Joe Bonomo: Accentuating the Positive
Text & photos by Donald-Brian Johnson
You probably have a “how-to” book or two in your I’ll-read-it-when-I-get-around-to-it library. From “How To Build A Better Birdhouse” to “How To Grow Gigantic Geraniums,” the list goes on and on, and they all sound … well … kinda boring.
So how about these? “How To Develop A Successful Personality” … “How To Become Lovelier After 40” … “How To Find Your Man, Win Him, And Hold Him.”
Ah, now we’re talkin’!
Those titles (and a shopping-cartful more) fall into the category of “purse pamphlets.” These mini-booklets, staples at every grocery’s checkout counter from the 1940s well into the 1970s, were the brainchildren of possibly the most positive person of the mid-20th century, Joe Bonomo.
“The Strongman” tells all!
Front cover of Joe Bonomo’s autobiography, 1968.
When it came to a career, Joe played the field—and pretty successfully, too. He was a strongman. A stuntman. A candy maker and an entrepreneur. Bonomo was born in Coney Island in 1901; his parents, Turkish immigrants, ran a candy and ice cream store on the boardwalk. Despite all the tempting treats close at hand, Joe was a scrawny kid nicknamed “Toothpicks.”
Just like a Charles Atlas ad, all that changed when Joe met up with Polish strongman Ladislaw, one of Coney Island’s star performers. With Ladislaw’s encouragement, “Toothpicks” bulked up, becoming a high school athletic star. After graduation, an ad for a “Mr. Apollo” contest caught his eye. Joe entered and won, beating out 5,000 other brawny competitors. The prize: a movie contract!
“The Hercules Of The Screen,”
as promoted by Universal Pictures.
Gorilla Joe goes ape over Sally Rand
in The Sign of the Cross, 1932.
Silent movies made full use of Joe’s athleticism. As a stuntman, he appeared in countless films, doubling for Lon Chaney in the first Hunchback of Notre Dame, and, in a gorilla outfit, menacing luscious Sally Rand in The Sign of the Cross. It was a great career until the advent of sound. Bonomo was considered for roles like “Tarzan,” but while his muscular physique was just right, his Brooklyn accent wasn’t. No matter. With an ever-positive attitude and seemingly unflagging energy, Joe Bonomo was soon on his way to other careers.
Candy promoter, for instance. “Bonomo Turkish Taffy” had been a hit with the crowds at his parents’ Coney Island shop, and soon super-salesman Joe was marketing the rubbery treat nationwide. He was also kept busy answering fan mail from still-scrawny young moviegoers, wondering how they too could beef up. Joe soon created a mail-order “how-to” pamphlet to answer all those inquiries, helping everyday folks just like he’d once been helped. And if he could solve muscle problems, what else could he help out with? Hmmm.
The first official Bonomo purse pamphlet, How To Beautify Your Figure, with photos by “Bruno of Hollywood” (including a cover shot of as-yet-unknown actress June Havoc), debuted in 1939. As with all the booklets, this one opened with Bonomo’s “Pull Up A Chair and Let’s Talk” column. Here’s his preview of what was in store: “Stay young and beautiful, charming and glamorous, full of pep from morning to night! The proper care of your body is not a wearisome, monotonous business. Once you get into its routine, you will not be able to get enough of it!”
Beautify Your Figure, the first of the Bonomo booklets. Just 25 cents when first released, purse pamphlets now go for $5–10 each.
Evidently, buyers agreed, since the first printing of 10,000 copies quickly sold out. Bonomo’s same encouraging tone carried through each pamphlet that followed over the next 30 years, often the same text with updated covers. Among them: How To Develop A More Successful Personality (“The 7 Magic Keys to Success and Popularity”); How To Become Lovelier After 40 (“The Golden Forties Are Your Best Years!”); and the not-to-be-missed How To Find Your Man (“What Are Your Chances? The Ten Steps to the Altar!”).
“For a Winning & Magnetic ‘You’!”
How To Develop A More Successful Personality.
How To Become Lovelier After Forty included “makeup hints for the first wrinkle.”
“Must You Put On An Act?”
How To Find Your Man.
And what better guarantee of success than Joe’s closing promise: “In your hands right now, you have a handy pocket manual that holds the answer … the golden key … for you and your future. It will tell you how and when, where and Who!”
Did the “International Authority on Health, Diet, and Beauty, Author of Many Books” actually write all those pamphlets? Certainly, they carry Joe’s byline, although such topics as A Special Guide for Brides-To-Be and A Healthier Start in Life For Your Baby seem a bit out of his wheelhouse; there’s usually a “consultant” credited somewhere in tiny print. Still, there’s no denying the indefatigable Bonomo brand of optimism that pervades every page. Nowadays, we may chuckle over the “advice” offered, but in their heyday, forking over a quarter for 64 pages of sunny optimism was money well spent. No wonder those magazine racks had to be restocked so often.
Get started with the basic dozen: “The Bonomo Library of Handy Pocket Manuals” from the “Bonomo Cultural Institute.” (“At All Leading Chain Drug, 5 & 10s, Book & Department Stores.”)
Photo Associate: Hank Kuhlmann
Donald-Brian Johnson is the co-author of numerous books on design and collectibles, including Postwar Pop, a collection of his columns. His favorite Bonomo booklet:
“What I Know About Women.” Every page is blank. Please address inquiries to:
donaldbrian@msn.com
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