Vintage 1970s Bustline Beauty Book Femme Bureau Unique Exercise Ephemera History for Sale

Vintage 1970s Bustline Beauty Book Femme Bureau Unique Exercise Ephemera History For Sale

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Vintage 1970s Bustline Beauty Book Femme Bureau Unique Exercise Ephemera History:
$56.29

Hi there,I'm selling a truly fascinating piece of social history.This an incredibly rare, 12-page vintage softcover course booklet titled "Bustline Beauty", published by the completely anonymous "Femme Bureau" from the late 1960s to early 1970s.If you love unique social history, mid-century design, or the quirky world of vintage fitness anomalies, you are looking at an absolute gem.A thorough archive check shows no other copies, digital records, or mentions of this specific booklet exist online — making this a completely undocumented, possibly unique, survivor from the era of the exercise mail-order boom.To understand this booklet, we have to travel back to the mid-20th century, an era dominated by mail-order "glamour courses" advertised in the back pages of pulp magazines and tabloids.Let go of your "modern" ideas of social and sexual equality.This was from a "different" time.In a time before strict regulations, anonymous companies like the "Femme Bureau" would spring up overnight, offering secret methods for physical perfection.Because making medical claims via the mail could land you in deep water with postal anti-fraud laws, the creators cleverly omitted all publisher or printer details.If investigators came knocking, the "Bureau" would simply vanish, only to restart under a new name a week later!What makes this booklet so brilliant to read today is just how it completely blends structurally sound fitness advice with total marketing theater across its 12 consecutive pages:
Surprisingly, the physical exercises in here are completely sound and willl work, to a certain extent.The booklet outlines a five-movement routine including Door Pushes, Hand Pushes, Floor Dips (push-ups), Reverse Flying, and Straight Arm Pull-Overs.It explicitly credits the legendary physical culture authority **Robert Kennedy** (who later founded the massive *MuscleMag International* publishing empire).While bodyweight calisthenics cannot alter actual breast anatomy, strengthening these pectoral and back muscles dramatically improves posture, lifting the structural chest wall and pulling the shoulders back to create an immediate, confident visual lift.To convince the reader they were experiencing magical, overnight changes, the book recommends a few hilarious placebos.Step Six advises bathing the skin in a mixture of alum and water (an astringent that makes skin tingle and swell temporarily), while Step Eight suggests alternating boiling hot and ice-cold hydrotherapy compresses to cause localized skin plumping.There is even a cheeky Step Ten suggesting "gentle fondling by a spouse" as a structural aid!It's wrapped up on Page 12 with fashion advice, recommending cowls, ruffles, and high necklines to "compliment and conceal.Every great vintage pamphlet had an upsell.Page 10 plays on the reader's anxieties about "nutritional starvation" and seamlessly points them toward a high-priced mail-order supplement.It explicitly directs buyers to purchase Choline tablets from 5033 Rosewood Ave. in Los Angeles—the famous estate of the controversial Hollywood celebrity nutrition guru Rheo H. Blair.For a softcover, staple-bound pamphlet of over 50 years old, it's in amazing condition.All 12 pages are present and sequential and the graphics are intact, beautifully clean, crisp, and incredibly clear to read.But it has been kept in a damp enviroment at some stage, the central staples show a little rust discolouration.And a cheeky bookworm has had a quick bite or two.
Please see all the photos and please don't hesitate to ask any questions and send me a message.
This is a magnificent crossover collectible.It is the perfect conversation piece for anyone collecting vintage feminine ephemera, 1970s bodybuilding history (Robert Kennedy & Rheo H. Blair collectors), weird medical quackery/curiosities, or just beautifully obscure, mid-century print culture.I will pack it very carefully for travel.
Thanksfor looking, and i'm always open to reasonable offers.Do please checkout my other items and response.
I'm very happy to combine postage where possible Related Items: