Our brains are highly susceptible to associative connections, and advertisers have known that for centuries. That’s how Orenthal James “OJ the Juice” Simpson ended up selling orange juice on TV. And that’s why famous singers from the Victorian era were used to sell sewing machines.
These two trade cards of “Celebrated Singers” come from the R.E. Fleming store in Market Square in downtown Portsmouth, NH. One shows Italo Campanini (845 -1896), a famous Italian operatic tenor who first toured the USA in 1873, in the era before Enrico Caruso.
Another card pictures Christina Nilsson, Countess de Casa Miranda (1843 -1921). She sometimes sang with Campanini. Nilsson was performing to a huge crowd when rumors of a falling building caused a riot, leading to the death of 18 people. She has been linked to the female lead in Phantom of the Opera and is mentioned in novels by Leo Tolstoy and Edith Wharton.
‘The full text from the back of the card reads as follows: “The most celebrated of all “SINGERS” is the Singer Sewing Machine. It sings in every language: Its cheering and thrifty tones are heard in the modest cottages of every land and clime, no less than in the abodes where luxury and wealth abound. This “Singer” is the friend of all women, high and low, rich and poor, learned and unlearned. Great vocalists have sung to thousands, but this great “Singer” is now singing to millions. No one is too rich to be above needing one, and no one is too poor to own one of these untiring helpmeets, which sings sweetly (but not loudly) while it works. Ladies are cordially invited to visit our offices and inspect our new peerless “I. F.” and “V.S.” Machines. No trouble explaining them to collars.–The Singer Manufacturing Company.”
FYI, the VS model stood for vibrating shuttle, while the IF patented model had an integrated feed. (Author’s Collection)
© J Dennis Robinson
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