Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)The product description above will give an idea of what the book is about and I can add to it by saying these pages are a visual treat about everyone's favorite card company. The ten chapters cover the history and as it's privately owned by the Hall family they obviously feature strongly throughout the pages, sort of like a family photo album at times.
One of the nice things about the book are the spreads devoted to various artists who created all those wonderful cards, like: Saul Steinberg; Mary Hamilton; Betsy Clark; Charles Schultz; Gail Flores; Alice Ann Biggerstaff; Majolein Bastin, John Wagner (the Maxine man) and especially Vivian Trillow Smith (she was the first artist to add a signature to her work). The names might not be familiar to you but when you look at their artwork you'll maybe remember receiving or sending a card of theirs.
Each chapter starts with a delightful collage spread then a page or two with some background to the times (the Thirties has a page about the Dust Bowl and Kansas City jazz) followed by plenty of cards, other products and how the Hall family ran the company. Everywhere there are sidebars about specific themes like printing techniques, Hallmark International Art Awards, Shoebox cards, Hallmark Keepsake ornaments and more.
Chapter seven looks at the Hall of Fame radio and television output, which was very successful over the years and eventually inspired the family oriented cable channel and TV movies. When I got the book I was surprised to find a DVD inside the back cover with 'The magic of ordinary days', a typical Hallmark production from 2005 (the movie lasts just over ninety-seven minutes) and also on the disc two Hallmark commercials from 1982 and 1995.
The company seems a conspicuous American success story which the USPS thought worth celebrating this year by issuing a 44 cent stamp in their Love series and showing part of Hallmark's biggest seller: the Mother's Day pansy basket, painted by Dorothy Maienschein in 1939. So far an amazing thirty million sold.
Like their cards the book is handsome production, but there really should have been an index. Plenty of cards are shown but if you want a more thorough coverage have a look at Ellen Stern's excellent The Very Best from Hallmark: Greeting Cards Through the Years, with 750 shown in color in a lovely looking book.
***SEE SOME INSIDE PAGES by clicking 'customer images' under the cover.
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