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period eyepatch?

freebird

Practically Family
Messages
755
Location
Oklahoma
Hi guys,
I'm curious as to what a vintage eyepatch would look like. I'm blind in one eye, have to wear glasses (need a monacle lol), and have to use a cane due to disability's. Does anyone have any photo's or information on this?
Tony
 

LizzieMaine

Bartender
Messages
33,076
Location
Where The Tourists Meet The Sea
Here's a great shot of reporter/broadcaster Floyd Gibbons, probably the most famous eyepatch-wearer of the '20s/'30s.

imag0373.jpg


He always wore a white patch, but no doubt they were also available in black.
 

Lucky Strike

A-List Customer
Messages
387
Location
Ultima Thule
There's the man in the Hathaway shirt:

hathaway.jpg


C. F. Hathaway Company was most famous for its "man with an eye patch" advertising campaign, which was created by Ogilvy & Mather in 1951. The man who appeared in the ad was Baron George Wrangell, who was a Russian aristocrat with 20/20 vision.

From Time Magazine, 1952:

As soon as the ad appeared in The New Yorker last fall, all eyes were green in Manhattan's ad alley. "The Man in the Hathaway Shirt" depicted a white-shirted, debonair-looking fellow who was given a peculiar air of distinction by a black patch over his right eye. The ad was the inspiration of British-born David Ogilvy, 41, vice president of Manhattan's Hewitt, Ogilvy, Benson & Mather, Inc. He got the idea from pictures of ex-Ambassador Lewis Douglas, who has worn a patch ever since he lost the sight of one eye in a fishing accident. (The man in the ad is Baron George Wrangell, émigré nephew of a White Russian general, whose eyes are perfectly good).

Last week the Advertising Federation of America named Ogilvy its "Young Advertising Man of the Year." This week Ogilvy received a more sincere form of flattery. Manhattan's James McCreery & Co. department store, advertising its "Silf-Skin girdle," depicted a buoyant, smiling young model clad in nothing but a girdle, a halter and an eyepatch.
 

freebird

Practically Family
Messages
755
Location
Oklahoma
Thank! I appreciate all the help! Although, I do believe I'll leave the halters and girdles to the fairer sex. ;) The one I'm currently wearing was modeled after the one Angelina Jolie wore in "Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow".

SkyCaptain14_1024x768.jpg
 

Teacher

Familiar Face
Messages
91
Location
Grand Forks, ND, USA
Lucky Strike said:
There's the man in the Hathaway shirt:

hathaway.jpg


C. F. Hathaway Company was most famous for its "man with an eye patch" advertising campaign, which was created by Ogilvy & Mather in 1951. The man who appeared in the ad was Baron George Wrangell, who was a Russian aristocrat with 20/20 vision.

From Time Magazine, 1952:

Cool pic. I'd forgotten about those ads. Slight correction, though: he was Belarussian ("White" Russian), not Russian.
 

David Conwill

Call Me a Cab
Messages
2,854
Location
Bennington, VT 05201
Teacher said:
Cool pic. I'd forgotten about those ads. Slight correction, though: he was Belarussian ("White" Russian), not Russian.

Hmm, I think in this context "White" Russian means not one of the Reds. The term was commonly used in the forty or fifty years after the 1917 revolution to identify people who had sided with the Czar or Kerensky.

-Dave
 

Lucky Strike

A-List Customer
Messages
387
Location
Ultima Thule
David Conwill said:
Hmm, I think in this context "White" Russian means not one of the Reds. The term was commonly used in the forty or fifty years after the 1917 revolution to identify people who had sided with the Czar or Kerensky.

-Dave

Yes, the von Wrangels were German/Baltic/Swedish/Russian, but kept mostly to the Northern parts of Russia.
 

Edward

Bartender
Messages
24,799
Location
London, UK
Always loved the look of an eyepatch. I'd love to have a very slick one like Jolie's, though I'd have to have some subtle grille holes in it for depth perception (it being purely theatrical in my case). Could be a fun look for a photoshoot. The cinematic eyepatch that sticks in my mind most is the one one of the men wears during the party in Holly's apartment in Breakfast at Tiffany's. I love how at first pass in that scene all looks very glamourous, then the second pass exposes all the artifice and ungainly superficiality in it. Eyepatch guy lifts his patch up in the heat of debate and exposes that he has two perfectly good eyes.... lol

Do kids nowadays still wear eyepatches to "cure" a lazy eye? I remember there being several kids with the elastoplast type when I was very young (would have been the late 70s), but I've not seen one for a very long time.
 

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