THE B SIDE .....

left regular early cotton cloth shell ,on the right the EZ twill version

Just like sometimes with a good old 45Rpm record,the B side is more exiting than the A one .I'd say this is the case with today's post .Featured today,alongside a 1944 issued B-15 is a newly acquired beauty, that'll get a place of choice in the "Riveted vault"

This jacket by METRO SPORTSWEAR of NY ,was made of the most desirable "EZ twill clothe" .EZ stands for: end zone twill ,a fabric made off 100% cotton and 100% rayon with a shiny appearance .This twill was created by Hirsch-Werner, Inc. and was formerly used in the manufacturing of football pants because of its extreme durability and strength. When the B-15 was introduced, 9 months after the B-10,at the beginning the EZ Twill was only used as a trim on stress and heavy-wear areas of the lining.As the original cotton twill used on the former B-10 and the newly issued B-15 ,revealed to be too weak and fragile,METRO, alongside few other manufacturers, received contracts for some of their entire production of B-15 to be made completely of End-Zone Twill.

today's jacket is one of them and was issued to a pilot or crew of a B29 flying fortress part of the  357th bomb squadron very heavy part of the 331st bomber group 20th AF.Mission of the squadron was the strategic bombardment of the Japanese Home Islands. the squadron based on Guam entered  combat on 16 June 1945 with a bombing raid against an airfield on Mo en. Flew first mission against the Japanese home islands on 26 June 1945 and afterwards operated principally against the enemy's petroleum industry. Flew primarily low-level, fast attacks at night using a mixture of high-explosive and incendiary bombs to attack targets.

Flew last combat mission on 15 August 1945, later flew in "Show of Force" mission on 2 September 1945 over Tokyo Bay during formal Japanese Surrender. Inactivated on Guam 15 April 1946, personnel returned to the United States and aircraft sent to storage in Southwest United States.

Some copies of original specifications of the B-15 sent to the manufacturers .....................

A MAD MAN'S SWEATSHIRT from the famous © 1962 Beethoven series

Howard Luck Gossage [1917-1969] was one of the original "MAD MEN"

H.L Gossage's agency was based in a repurposed firehouse in San Francisco, in the late 1950s/60's. HLG was frequently referred to, as "The Socrates of San Francisco,"He never did a TV commercial in his life; and sometimes turned down business in order to keep his staff under 13 people.

At the time, many of his peers regarded him as an oddity ,but HLG, was a natural and active fundraiser, He helped launch the environmental movement and left a legacy of brilliant communication campaigns, which for the first time showed that advertising isn’t just about selling a product, it can be used to change the world.

 When dying from leukemia in July 1969, he lamented: ‘I’ve never done anything that means anything to anyone in this world except maybe inventing the Beethoven sweatshirt.

And for those of you who'd like to go a little further with this post ,here's a court report dating from April 1962 regarding  copyright infringement on the famous sweatshirt line :plaintiff the Weiner&Gossage company who created the original sweatshirts back in 1961 ....

 

The Ramsey Lewis trio sporting the Bach version of the sweatshirt