Disclaimer

Artists rendering, actual product my not appear exactly as shown. Thats a disclaimer that could be applied to many postcards I come across in my collecting. Usually its minor changes made for aesthetic purposes: Hotels magically moved closer to the beach, neighboring buildings disappearing, power poles and other street clutter cleared away. But sometimes you need to advertise something thats just not ready yet. In a digital world the turnaround on artwork for a product can be almost instantaneous, so its easy to forget that the process was slightly more complicated in the 30s and 40s.

This postcard lept out at me while browsing through a stack at the antique market last weekend for just such a reason. This is a postcard advertising the opening of Chicago's first subway line in 1943, with its futuristic new rolling stock. The only problem? This model never ran in Chicago. As a Subway buff I instantly recognized this as one of new york city's infamous Bluebird subway cars.

photo taken from nycsubway.org

Built in 1938 for the BMT they were a sleek, stylish, deco departure from the old equipment currently on the system. On top of technological upgrades like rubber spring suspension and enclosed passageways between cars, they also featured creature comforts like mohair upholstered seats and makeup mirrors for female passengers. In 1940 the city took over the BMT and scuttled the rest of the order, leaving only a handful of sets delivered. While they ultimately failed in new york, they were a huge inspiration to the Chicago officials shopping around for new trains. Attempts were made to purchase Bluebirds for Chicago, but the war effort ultimately delayed the then canceled the purchase. Chicago wound up creating its 5000-series cars starting in 1947, based heavily on the bluebirds but with many more modifications and updates.

Before all that came to pass, Chicago had identified the bluebirds as the cars to be used on the new subway, so all press from that time including a publicity newsreel the city comissioned depicts the new bluebirds. This Curteich postcard would be no exception.