Designed for Success by Janet Borgerson & Jonathan Schroeder

Author:Janet Borgerson & Jonathan Schroeder [Borgerson, Janet & Schroeder, Jonathan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: advice; album cover art; collecting; graphic design; midcentury; motivation; nostalgia; retro; self-help; self-improvement; success; vintage exercise advice; vinyl
Publisher: MIT Press
Published: 2024-04-05T00:00:00+00:00

Figure 8.1

Personal Golf Instructions from Driver thru Putter, Arnold Palmer, Sports Champions SCI 32, pressed by Decca; art director, Kae Jones; photographer, Hank Chachowski, 1962.

Figure 8.2

Learn Tennis with Arthur Ashe, Manhattan Recording Company, LT-10, 1974.

Crabbe won a gold medal in the four-hundred-meter freestyle at the 1932 Los Angeles Olympics and went on to enjoy a successful film and television career. He specialized in heroes—he played a terrific trio of Tarzan, Flash Gordon, and Buck Rogers. In the illustration, a well-muscled cartoon man emerges from the pool, positioned similarly to Crabbe’s inset photo. His beaming, slender, bikini-clad wife is seated at an outdoor table, sipping a cold drink, shaded by a red-and-white umbrella. (Where’s his drink? His chair? Perhaps this guy is a friendly neighbor, trying out the Capri model he’s had his eye on—or the pool boy, testing the chlorine levels).

Crabbe’s dedication reads: swimming “gives you a wonderful feeling of relaxation and well-being, and at the same time, it tones up all the important muscles of your body. Some exercising is work. Swimming is fun! Learning to enjoy swimming, both for pleasure and good health, is important to you and your family.” Crabbe proclaims that “the secret to good swimming is learning to r-e-l-a-x in the water.” The liner notes include small graphics depicting the Dead Man’s Float, Dog Paddle, and the American Crawl.

Part 1, “Learn to Swim,” opens up with a stagey spoken-word scenario, as if the listener is eavesdropping on a pool party at Crabbe’s home. One couple remarks, “Ever since we got our Cascade pool, we’ve had a ball at our house. We got so popular, we’re never alone to argue anymore.” The rest of the side presents Crabbe’s earnest yet sophisticated instructions, interspersed with commentary from his “students” and with gushing accolades about pool-owning benefits: “A Cascade pool makes a house a home!” and “What could be better than having the children at home with their friends?” Part 2, “Music to Swim By,” provides an easy-listening soundtrack, clearly not meant for either teenage pool parties or Olympic record-setting.

A shiny black bowling ball dominates the cover of 7 Days to Better Bowling, with ten pins looming and a neighboring lane’s pins shown at the moment of impact. Graphically, the ball splits the cover into two parts: the photographic depiction of the wooden lane paired with an emotionally evocative red with uneven, subtly animated typography. Together these express the record’s focus—the physical and mental aspects of bowling: “The degree to which you master the ‘mental side’ will determine whether your score is higher or lower than bowlers of equal mechanical ability.” The $5.95 price is prominently featured, along with a caution: “This recording is for right handed bowlers only. It is unique in its field, and should be not be played until you have read the instructions carefully on the reversed side of the jacket.”

The album promises “A new approach to the ‘mental side’ of Bowling which improves your game by developing • relaxation • confidence • concentration • coordination.

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