Little Ads, almost exclusively just for grownups.

Here's a tiny two-inch ad from the back pages of a 1957 issue of LIFE magazine. Not having been issued myself at the time, until I saw this ad, I didn't know the history of the Tropicana. Turns out it was in Cuba, and that means that in the fifties, this was THE place to be. '57 would have been the height of the swinginest period for the Tropicana, making it just about the coolest place on Earth at the time. Imagine who you could have seen walking around at the Tropicana in '57.

Is the Tropicana still there? Oh, yeah. Still rocking it.

Knowing all this, it's kind of surprising that the Tropicana club needed to advertise. Knowing that they DID advertise, it's surprising that this weensy ad is so pathetic. I picture a full page ad in color. But, then again, maybe they didn't really need to try that hard to bring in the tourists?

Not far from the Tropicana ad was this one for Sonjay Mills, (then some other word that we can't read - probably "inc"). Where's Sonjay located? Bangalore? Nope. New York. Anyway, this is all secondary to the two languid babes draped over each other in their small clothes. What the hell gives? Checking the cover to make sure this is LIFE magazine, a family publication. Yep. "Party Time" lingerie? Holy smokes.

Ship & Shore apparently made adorable nautically-themed blouses for noseless children. The look for spring was "blouses as fresh as a scrubbed-shiny face". I'll say. Their faces are certainly uncontaminated by noses. This must be was Lord Voldermort bought for his little girls.

"Nothing's too good for my girlsssss!"

This rather graphic illustration may have been a welcome sight to corn sufferers, but more likely they found it as grody as the rest of us. Thanks, Dr. Scholl's. We could do without the picture. Maybe show us a picture of the pad? Nope. Better include a fully rendered illustration of someone tweezing out some growths, leaving little corny sockets behind. Eew. Maybe I can get The Ship & Shore guys to just sand my feet off and be done with it, like they did to those girls' noses.