Description
Black and white 10″ x 13 1/2″ ad with a photo of the battle on Mt. Suribachi in the background and, in the foreground, we can see the initialed lighter used by Joe Rosenthal during World War II. The headline below this picture identifies this as “Joe Rosenthal, famous war photographer, used this Zippo on Iwo Jima in 1945. It still works today”. Then the ad claims that “No matter how old it is, if your Zippo ever fails to work, we’ll fix it free”. The story indicates that after Pearl Harbor Joe tried to get the Army, Navy or the Marines but was turned down by all since he wore thick glasses. Joe looked around and found a job with Associated Press as a war photographer. He made his claim to fame with his photographs of soldiers raising the flag on top of Mount Suribachi. The lighters shown in this ad are the Lossproof Zippo for $5.00, the new Zippo Slim Lighter for $4.75, the Regular Zippo for $3.50, the Gold-filled Zippo for $20.00, the Engine-turned Zippo for $5.75 and the new Zippo Slim Lighter which could be had for $6.00.
Source: October 13, 1961 Life magazine.
