American Classic 1939 Aviator ‘Sky Pilot’ Unisex
The Metal version of the Ray-Ban Aviator was patented by Bausch & Lomb in1939. It was developed to replace the antiquated flight goggles which were bulky and had problems fogging up, which reduced visibility at high altitude. The newly designed Aviator style was a lighter, thinner design than previous flight goggles and allowed air flow behind the lenses to reduce fogging. This was accomplished by adding a Brow bar to maintain airspace between the wearers face and eyeglass. In combination with the new frame design, a new lens was developed to reduce the bright glare encountered by Pilots in flight without obscuring their vision.
In 1953 Baush & Lomb introduced G-15 tempered glass lenses. These neutral gray/green lenses transmit 15% of incoming visible light while providing 'true' color and contrast.
As with other popular eyeglass styles, many frame manufacturers adopted their own Aviator frame styles with minor modifications. Popularity of the Military brow bar version prompted manufacturers to produce a civilian version of the Aviator sans brow bar. Both remain American Classics.
Worn by General MacArthur, Jim Morrison, Freddy Mercury, President Joseph Biden and Jerry Garcia, Leslie West many, many others.
American Classic 1931 P-3 FUL-VUE (Military Specs) Unisex
In their “Gold Filled Frames and Mountings catalog, Fall and Winter 1931” American Optical Company debuted their FUL-VUE line of frames and mountings and advertised them as “The most advanced style change in glasses in a generation.” As they say, “The rest is History.”
The Ful-Vue style relocated the joint connection of the temple to the frame front from the midsection of the lens eye wire to the upper portion of the lens eye wire, enabling the wearer to look to the side without the temple obstructing peripheral vision. This advancement set the standard in frame style that continues to this day. The improvement it seems, was for the person viewing the glasses wearer. The wearer appearing more attractive to the viewer, their eyes unobstructed by the eyeglass frame.The first advertised FUL-VUE style was the P-3. It was popular enough for the US Military to adopt it as a designated eyeglass for for soldiers requiring vision correction.
Worn by US Presidents Franklin Delano Roosevelt & Harry Truman, John Denver, Mash’s “Radar O’Reilly” and most famously by John Lennon. This style is often referred to as “John Lennon” glasses.
American Classic 1947 Combination Frame. Unisex
One of the more significant frame designs of the 20th century, the Browline Ronsir was the first ever combination frame featuring plastic tops on metal rims with plastic temples. This combination frame style developed in 1947 by Jack Rohrbach of Shuron Optical Company became a run-away best seller. It started a design trend copied by many other frame manufacturers and accounted for almost half of all frames sold during the 1950’s. Worn by US Presidents, Movie Stars and Mobsters this style is a True American Classic. Today this style continues to remain extremely popular, being worn by both men and women of all age groups.