Gold Coast history: Sex hygiene films, irons and radios dominant

Sex hygiene films, development booms and Grafton larger. The Gold Coast of the 1950s was an exciting place to be. The advertising of the era reveals incredible things.

THE mid-1950s was a time of enormous prosperity and growth for the Gold Coast as the city experienced its first development boom.

The first towers were rising in Surfers Paradise and Broadbeach while thousands of people moved to the once sleepy seaside villages.

Gold Coast advertising. Gold Coast Bulletin, 1955

Elements of the city of the past remained, with Theodore’s Cafe in Southport still trading after more than 25 years and farming businesses still featuring prominently in the pages of the South Coast Bulletin.

Gold Coast’s best advertising - 1955

VIEW GALLERY

PART ONE: BEST GOLD COAST ADVERTISING 1975

PART TWO: BEST GOLD COAST ADVERTISING 1985

PART THREE: BEST GOLD COAST ADVERTISING 1995

PART FOUR: BEST GOLD COAST ADVERTISING 1930

PART FIVE: BEST GOLD COAST ADVERTISING 1945

But the future beckoned, with much of the advertising featuring in the newspaper through the period focusing on new domestic technologies, including washing machines, steam irons and car radios.

Gold Coast advertising. Gold Coast Bulletin, 1955

Grafton Lager was a popular drink of choice for Gold Coast and Northern Rivers residents, while local shop Penneys advertised Austrian cigarette lighters, “long flight” golf balls and “tropical” pyjamas.

Gold Coast advertising. Gold Coast Bulletin, 1955

Most curiously, the Southport Pier cinema hosted a screening of Male and Female, a “sex hygiene film”.

Advertisements warned audiences to “come prepared to see something never shown before on any screen” and warned the film would be screened with segregated audiences for men and women.