35 Funny Old Newspaper Ads Of People “Looking For Love”
Looking for love in the modern world usually involves getting on the dating apps or sending social media DMs. But before the introduction of digital technology, people who didn’t feel comfortable with face-to-face interactions resorted to placing ads in personals columns in newspapers. When folks felt a need for a connection with someone special, they wrote little snippets about themselves and what they were looking for before sending it out to the publications.
Our team recently stumbled on a dedicated Instagram page called Long Lost Personals that’s home to some of the quirkiest and funniest “lonely hearts ads” as they were referred to back then. If you’re ready, let’s get on the love train and choo-choo through a few of our top favourites shared in the gallery below.
#1 1965. These are from a teen beat magazine from 1965 where adolescents and young adults are seeking pen pals (and some flirtation, from the looks of it). We are wishing Joy the best of luck in her collecting endeavors.
#2 1967. For your Sunday morning This is the closest I could find to the Sister Act soundtrack version. Now I feel like watching Sister Act.
#3 1981. Time to face your fears.
#4 1976. According to Wikipedia, the first insulin pump was manufactured two years before this ad, in 1974. I wonder if this nudist colony ever got off the ground.
#5 1995. The whole town freaked, even the horse.
#6 1983. At least she got around to placing this ad.
#7 Late 1980s-ish. A couple more personals from the bedsheets! I found an awesome set of vintage bedsheets with personal ads from New York magazine printed on them. Unfortunately they are twin size, so I can’t sleep in them unless I get a twin bed.
#8 2004. Fun to throw a missed connection into the mix every now and then.
#9 1995. Detroit vampires always trying to glamour you with their long letters.
#10 1976. Finally, someone who sees the virtue in vice.
#11 1984. From Bay Windows, New England’s largest gay and lesbian newspaper.
#12 1967. An early sapiosexual.
#13 Date unknown. She’s just after your Dalmatians.
#14 1995. Crawl out of that dumpster and find a pen.
#15 1967. Your daily reminder to love yourself.
#16 1989. I feel like this ad is just seeking Oscar Wilde.
#17 1974. You’re getting sleepy. Very sleepy.
#18 1972. Time to go see Nosferatu.
#19 1966. I believe this is the earliest overt lesbian ad I’ve run across in my collection so far.
#20 1977. Do you ever feel like you’re being watched?
#21 1971. Spell time.
#22 1984. I am not a dream boy.
#23 1972. Free ASL lessons.
#24 1972. I can dig it.
#25 1967. I think this one actually might be CIA code. Published in a New York City counterculture weekly.
#26 1979. The misadventures of Mouse & Loser.
#27 1966. I knew there was an answer. RIP Brian, one of the great American composers.
#28 1972. Beep beep. This is what the horn plays.
#29 1972. Taking a brief intermission from the personals section to feature some other types of entertaining classifieds. I very badly want to meet the person responding to the description “reliable, sensible freak person.”
#30 1996. Welp guess I’m gonna get mauled.
#31 1994. Seeking love in the pages of a weekly in Providence, RI.
#32 1968. For those who are lonely.
#33 1968. How are you getting to Mexico? Bike with Craig, aeroplane, or via Las Vegas by car with Al?
#34 1970. The extra “very” is a nice touch.
#35 1944. Susie wants love during wartime
Shanilou Perera
Shanilou has always loved reading and learning about the world we live in. While she enjoys fictional books and stories just as much, since childhood she was especially fascinated by encyclopaedias and strangely enough, self-help books. As a kid, she spent most of her time consuming as much knowledge as she could get her hands on and could always be found at the library. Now, she still enjoys finding out about all the amazing things that surround us in our day-to-day lives and is blessed to be able to write about them to share with the whole world as a profession.
