50 YEARS AGO: COFFEE 21 CENTS A POUND

Fifty years ago today, a Thursday, the temperature at 8 a.m. was 20 degrees. A banner headline in the Southeast Missourian proclaimed "Allied Fliers Wipe Out 22-Ship Jap Armada."

"The General Died at Dawn," starring Gary Cooper, was showing at the Rialto Theatre on Broadway.

The second big hit was "Enemy Agents Meet Ellery Queen."

America was in the middle of the Second World War, and that fact was to be found everywhere. But life did go on.

The newspaper carried an ad for the Cape Girardeau Symphony, with Frieda Rieck conducting, which planned to give its final concert of the season. The program included works by Brahms, Beethoven and Strauss.

At the Cotton Club in Sikeston Q.D. Miskell and his Southern Collegians were to provide the entertainment of another kind at a Saturday night dance.

The city had other movie theaters. The Broadway, where admission was 10 cents for children and 40 cents for adults, was showing "A Night to Remember," starring Loretta Young and Brian Ahern, and "Seven Sweethearts" with Van Heflin and Katherine Grayson.

At the Orpheum, Don "Red" Barry could be found in "Dead Man's Gulch." The theater also was showing the final chapter of the serial "Junior G-Men."

In Jackson, the Palace had Humphrey Bogart and Mary Astor in "Across the Pacific," and the Plaza in Illmo was showing "The Big Street," starring Henry Fonda and Lucille Ball. The second feature was Walt Disney's "Dumbo."

Many of the city's stores were having spring sales. At Penney's on Main Street, boys' slacks and girls dresses were selling for $1.98 apiece. The store also was selling play and leisure shoes which had been excluded from the nation's rationing program. Customers were promised they wouldn't have to surrender ration coupons.

The Sherwin-Williams store at 529 Broadway was selling Venetian blinds for $1.69.

Siebert's shoe store proclaimed its $6.95 Queen Quality shoes to be a "furlough for your feet." Square toes were very "in."

At the A&P Food Store at 19 N. Spanish St., coffee was 21 cents a pound, cheese 33 cents a pound and donuts 13 cents a dozen.

"Ford" Groves, known for cars these days, was marketing a food storage gadget called "Deepfreeze."

The Buckner-Ragsdale Co. on Main Street offered suits for $20-50, and shorts for $2.50-3.

Almost every male in the ads of the day wore a hat, and Buckner's was selling the felt variety for $5, while reminding customers to "Turn in your old hat to Uncle Sam."

Other stores advertising sales were Gateley's at 19 Main St. and Bartels Mercantile Co.

Musterole was advertised as the cold-relief remedy of choice used by "the Quintuplets." The reference was to the Dionne quintuplets, who were popular primarily for being quintuplets. Little girls bought their coloring books and paper dolls.

A number of bus companies were operating in the city at the time. Greyhound's round trip fare to St. Louis was $3.90.

Apparently, phone numbers still were a recent innovation, and operators did most of the work. The tele~phone company and there was only one back then reminded callers to ask the operators for a person or a business by number instead of name.

"Calling by number saves time," the ad said.

Of course, the phone numbers consisted of only three digits.

Fifty years ago, a business called the Cape Dead Animal Service (telephone number 252) must have had a reason to exist. Its come-on was simple: "We remove dead animals free."

In the classifieds of the day, only one house was for sale: a four-room bungalow going for $50 down and $15 a month.

The Associated Press ran the largest ad on March 4, 1943, a quarter-pager telling the story of a flier shot down in the war. It seems his mother wouldn't believe the cable he sent assuring her he was all right. She was only satisfied when the newspaper reported he was safe.

"She'll believe it if the AP says so," the ad proclaimed.