The Milwaukee Road Olympian was named after the Olympic Mountains of northwest Washington, but in 1932 a very different Olympics were held in Los Angeles. This Milwaukee brochure takes advantage of this to compare the railroad’s premiere train with the champions of the Olympics.
Click image to download a 3.0-MB PDF of this brochure.
“Comparable to the champion of Olympic champions is America’s premier transcontinental train,” says the brochure, “which fittingly takes its name from the same mythology.” This was true only in the sense that the Olympic Mountains were based on the same mythology. The International Olympic Committee, which was created in 1894, must not have been as vigorous about protecting its brand identity in 1932 as it is today, as there is no indication in this brochure that the Milwaukee Road was a sponsor of the Olympics or otherwise had paid to be able to mention the Olympics in this advertisement.
The cover illustration is signed “H. Dyer,” and this artist presumably did the drawings on the other pages as well. There were several artists named H. Dyer in the early 20th century, but none were located in or near Illinois, where an artist for a publication like this would be likely to live. As the back cover notes, this brochure was “printed by Charles A. Lawes Co., Chicago, Ill.”
As interesting as the artwork is, the printing of the backgrounds in which light blue faded into orange that faded into bright yellow is more striking. A close-up view indicates that this would not printed with the four-color method, so the printer somehow used inks that graded into one another, which must have been quite an accomplishment in 1932.
Santa Fe, Union Pacific, Rock Island, and Southern Pacific could legitimately question the Milwaukee’s claim that the Olympian was “America’s premiere transcontinental train.” Those railroads all offered Pullman-only trains to the West Coast in 1932, whereas the Olympian was sullied with coach and tourist-class passengers.
Similarly, the Rio Grande and Western Pacific could challenge the statement that “The Olympian is by far the most spectacular and picturesque routing” to the West Coast as the views seen from the Milwaukee were pretty sedate, except in a few spots, compared with the hundreds of miles of spectacular scenery visible to passengers on the Scenic Limited and Royal Gorge. But the Milwaukee certainly had some of the most picturesque advertisements.