Travel posters can make lovely puzzles. This one was cut by Pastime cutter #754, Parker Brothers, Salem, MA 1950c. Plywood, interlocking, cut partially along color lines with 34 figure pieces. Picture Puzzle Mart, was operated by Miss Josephine Flood out of her store on Park Avenue in New York City from the 1930's to the 1950's. She sold and rented hand-cut puzzles to the more affluent people living in her area. However, she did not cut the puzzles, but rather ordered them, mostly, from Parker Brothers in Salem, MA. The story (undocumented) is that Miss Flood personally selected artwork, trained up to Boston and then was chauffeured by car to the Parker Brothers’ plant in Salem where she would select the best Pastime cutters to make her puzzles. The quality of Picture Puzzle Mart puzzles supports this story. She marketed the puzzles in sturdy blue boxes with large labels on the cover top promoting her puzzles as “Pastime and Diversion for Weary Readers, Invalids, Tired Business People, Stay at Homes, Seagoers and Travelers, The Weatherbound, Young and Old, City Entertainment, Country Pleasure, Jaded Bridge Players”, with her as “Director”. Another label inside represented “This Puzzle has been specially manufactured for the exclusive service of The Picture Puzzle Mart, a charitable enterprise”.
Artist is Robert Falcucci (1900-1989), a French illustrator.