Anita O'Day at the 1958 Newport Jazz Festival

Here's an amazing performance by Anita O'Day from the documentary Jazz on a Summer's Day by Bert Stern. This is a great performance of Sweet Georgia Brown and Tea for Two by Anita O'Day and the shots of the stylish jazz fans in the audience (check out those fabulous duds!) are incredible! Could the 50s have been any cooler? I don't think so.

More clips from Jazz on a Summer's Day can be found at Youtube. The DVD can also be rented from Netflix or bought "wherever DVDs are sold."

Summer Camp: Images of Vacations Past

While researching historical information for a project at work, I found two wonderful things. One, this photograph and, two, that there are some great photographs and postcards of the old camps and inns in the local mountains around California that have been digitized for our viewing pleasure.

Today, people go camping. They sit around in uncomfortable chairs, swill beer, sleep on rocky ground, and cook indigestible food. Occasionally, they leave their parking space sized camp site for a hike or a swim. But in the first half of the twentieth century, people Camped. They went to wonderful places like Camp Baldy and stayed in little bungalows and hiked and fished and went swimming and had campfires complete with songs sung by women like this very stylish cowgirl here. They roughed it without being macho about it. They slept in beds. They let others cook for them. They went horseback riding and probably engaged in homey handicraft activities. It was vacation, for God's sake.

Being addicted to local history and in love with the charmingly dorky vacation spots of the past, since my recent discovery I have spent too many potentially profitable hours imagining what it would be like to vacation in the local mountains at a camp with a 1940s country/western theme or the ever popular Alpine theme. Here's something I wished I'd experienced firsthand:
The Mountain Home Inn must have been something. I can almost hear yodeling and the sounds of Swiss bell ringers.

Today, if you go hiking into the local mountains you can often see what's left of the old mountain camps and inns, but they are no more. In an attempt to partly satisfy your wanderlust (regrettably, I can do nothing about the space/time continuum) you can go to Calisphere's extensive collection of photographs and postcards of all aspects of California history and life. Just type in mountain inns or mountain camps or the names of specific places or camps and the Pomona Public Library has a collection of old postcards of Southern California mountains and camps taken by local photographer Burton Frasher.

Francoise Hardy: Tous les garcons et les filles

I just thought I would share a video for one of my favorite Francoise Hardy songs. I've seen two videos for this one, both of them wonderful, but I think the whole melancholic "girls on carnival rides in winter" thing got me. If you like this you should check out some of the other Hardy videos posted on Youtube. I would suggest: Le temps de l'amour, Mon amie la rose, All over the world, Ma jeunesse fout l'camp, La maison ou j'ai grandi as well as the other version of Tous les garcons et les filles. Enjoy!

I Remember Television on KVCR

If you live in the Southern California area you may be unaware that there are other PBS stations besides KCET. Obviously less monied than KCET and significantly less sophisticated as a result, San Bernardino County's KVCR has an interesting program line-up, one that seems almost curiously well suited to the media eccentric. Like all second (or even third) tier PBS stations, KVCR seems to specialize in television from the recent past, airing with charming regularity the BBC hits from ten years ago alongside current PBS staples like Charlie Rose and American Experience. Sadly, they also show all the typical musical schlock that PBS seems to specialize in as well. Recent developments in PBS musical programming seem to suggest that they have thrown over campy cappellmeister Andre Rieu for Shanghai's 12 Girls Band. The result is just as painful as ever, but I digress.

Amongst this random collection of PBS detritus is a charmingly eccentric homespun retro-focused show called I Remember Television. Hosted by "broadcast historian" Ed Rothhaar, I Remember Television features old game shows, sitcoms, and variety shows from the 1940s and 1950s, regularly showing episodes of The Dinah Shore Show and What's My Line? as well as sitcoms like My Friend Irma and specials like Four Star Playhouse. I've spent many a happy hour watching Boris Karloff dance with proto-goth-beatniks to the Chevrolet jingle "See the USA in your Chevrolet" at the closing of a special Halloween episode of Dinah Shore or Bennett Cerf breaking into the middle of an episode of What's My Line? to light up an impromptu (read heavily staged) cigarette in order to advertise Chesterfields. TV was different then and here's your chance to experience it.

Though the KVCR website has everything you ever wanted in the way of CHP traffic reports, USGS earthquake monitoring, and National Weather Service reports, they are amazingly short on scheduling information and background promotional information on their own programming. Mr. Rothhaar does maintain a single page listing his programs for the coming month, however, and I urge you to take a peek at it. A final word, beware the crazy stargazing guy who comes on immediately after the show. He worries me. I'm not sure he should be out walking around.

Happy Birthday to the legendary Josephine Baker

Singer, dancer, and jazz age celebrity extraordinaire, Josephine Baker was a true original. Check her out in this clip of her performance of "Haiti" from the 1934 film Zou Zou courtesy of YouTube:



"I wasn't really naked. I simply didn't have any clothes on. "
- Josephine Baker

Infernal Machines Circa 1979: The Speak and Spell

About a month ago I was listening to NPR on the way to school when I was jet-propelled into my childhood by a piece about circuit bending with Speak and Spells, Casio keyboards, and other useless consumer electronics. While the circuit bending was cool (I love learning about people's obsessions and eccentricities - why not wile away the hours cracking open the backs of dead and gone technology in order to make rude noises), the sounds of the Speak and Spell stopped me dead in my tracks. I was instantly transported to a day in the third grade when I was sitting on the couch after school in our blue and brown rustic modern family room testing my spelling skills with the orange and blue machine. My mother had a friend over and while they were talking at the kitchen table not ten feet away the obnoxious computer-generated voice of my Speak and Spell incoherently announced each new spelling challenge. This must have been annoying. While I may not have understood it then, today I am all too familiar with the experience of trying to carry on a rational, adult conversation amidst the chaos of children's electronics. With great patience, my mother very gently suggested that I take my toy into my bedroom where I continued my willing participation in a spelling test conducted by, what sounded like, a elementary school Reading teacher possessed by R2D2. In the days before personal computers we were all thrilled by the seductive glare of fluorescent display screens and incomprehensible computer-generated voices. How green we were.

For those of you too young to remember, the Speak and Spell was a primitive computer toy created by Texas Instruments in the late 1970s that played word and spelling games. Largely a failure either as a toy or an educational tool , the Speak and Spell serves as another example (I collect these!) of how consumer electronics take an otherwise cheap, effective, and largely boring task and fancies it up in order to lure a credulous public. Without the technology, the Speak and Spell was just a 99 cent spelling workbook that any child worth her or his salt would have "lost" the moment their well meaning parent brought it home.

Want to transform your consumer electronics into something more interesting? Here are some links to show you the way:

NPR: The Joys of Circuit-Bending
Online Speak and Spell simulator
Reed Ghazala's Art of Circuit Bending

The Way TV Ought to Be: Vintage Advertising from Classic TV Ads

Oh, it's a kitsch cavalcade out there on the internet and one of my favorite sites for quality time-wasting is Classic TV Ads, repository of vintage advertising from the dawn of television to the early 80s. Organized by subject matter, you can stroll down memory lane watching Pepsi ads from the 80s or Charlie ads from the 70s (I'll never get that jingle out of my head) or watch the dancing sticks of BeechNut gum as they put on a Busby Berkeley extravanganza. Of special delight are the commercials that feature 1950s homemakers as they struggle with the complexities of baking the perfect cake for their husbands or wrestle with the laundry, hosting Tupperware parties in their free time. Yes, TV commercials in the 50s had it all, militias of scotch tape despensers marching down miniature train set towns, dancing German stereotypes hawking Tareyton cigarettes, animated Mr. Clean adding sparkle to a housewife's windows, there's just no end to the fun.

Retro Redheads: What the Well Dressed Kitchen is Wearing

If there's anything I can't resist it's beautiful kitchen junk. I have far more than I need and can only resist buying more by firmly sitting on my hands! Cupboards full of vintage pyrex, Vernonware, Bauer bowls, table linens, and a random assortment of kitchen tools I don't know how to use, I am far better stocked than a person with my cooking ability has any right to be. Into this rather desperate personal crisis enters Retro Redheads, a wonderful store devoted to retro and vintage housewares and, sadly for me and my resolve, it is only a click away. Pyrex, jadite, Harlequin and Fiestaware, novelty salt and pepper shakers, souvenir travel plates, barware, vintage linens, and an assortment of the best in retro repro, Retro Redheads has got it all. So if you've been looking for that Vacationland table cloth or those Santa Barbara Mission kitchen towels to round out your travel-themed kitchen or that special novelty cigarette holder for your otherwise well appointed bar, look no further. Retro Redheads have come to the rescue.

Viewmasters: A Vintage Fun For All

Oh, the glorious Viewmaster! I hadn't looked into one in years, but I could still remember the beauteous claymation fairy tale scenes, the edifying scenes from American history, and, who could forget the wondrous national park series. Occasionally finding myself in toy stores I would look for Viewmaster reels only to find that claymation and kodachrome had been replaced by computer animation and Disney film tie-ins. But the internet is every girl's friend and I've found some wonderful sites online devoted to the Viewmaster and I am happy to report that though few, if any, of the vintage children's reels are being reproduced, they can be had used, pardon me collectible, for a reasonable price. What is being reproduced, however, are the reels originally marketed to adults. If you are a devotee of mid-century modern, for instance, you can buy a series of reels by Charles and Ray Eames or of houses by Bruce Goff and Russel Wright. There are plenty of reels that look pretty enticing. A 3D tour of the solar system, perhaps, or a claymation Story of Easter? Though I just received my shipment of classic tales reels as well as a new black viewmaster, I can hardly restrain myself on that last one. Claymation Jesus rising from the dead? It doesn't get any better than that!

All things viewmaster and stereovision can be had at amazon and 3dstereo
Wikipedia has an interesting History of the Viewmaster page
The Viewmaster Ultimate Reel List details every darned reel they ever made anywhere anytime

That Old Time Country Music

For me, there's a huge divide separating the Garth Brooks Christian Conservative NASCAR country of today and the traditional country western of yore. When I think country I think of The Real Thing, ole timey hillbilly, ballads, yodeling, bluegrass, that sorta thing. Starting in the 1920s, country music was a mix of traditional American folk music, Celtic music, gospel, blues, jug bands, and hokum. Today's country can be blamed on the legacy of the Bakersfield sound of the 1970s full of eighteen wheelers and imitation outlaws, but then what can you expect from Bakersfield? Turning their backs on the past, the 70s and 80s brought us a generation of bad "urban" country, but we don't have to listen to it. In case you'd like to hear some of the good stuff, I've put together a list of some of my favorite country CDs, some kitschy, some beautiful, all great.

For Adepts of the Higher Beauty Culture

If you've ever seen the 1955 movie My Sister Eileen you know the scene where Ruth Sherwood (Betty Garrett) undergoes a lengthy bedtime ritual in which she applies an entire jar of cold creme to her face, ties a hankerchief over her head (for the prevention of double chins), and adheres small squares to her forehead and cheeks. I had given this scene the same disparaging laugh I had given Ruth's "toning" efforts, preventing the "spread" of her hips by doing the bump against the wall of a nearby closet. Girls, what are you waiting for? Flatter asses and stomaches for everyone! Of course, it's a comedy and her measures are supposed to be a send up of 1950s beauty culture, but you can imagine my surprise when I noticed "Wrinkies" and "Frownies" for sale in the Vermont Country Store catalog. These things are real? And, what's more, still made?

Apparently, they "work" by training one's facial muscles to relax and for $19.95 you can have 144 nights of facial relaxation leading, no doubt, to a new and improved you. Throwing back the covers, you'll fight your way into a girdle and a lovely grey New Look suit a la Kim Novak in Vertigo to go to work in your Best of Everything office, sleeping your way to a position of power, a career woman in the big city. But don't come running to me when your roommate laughs at your freakish ways and exposes your gullibility to all your friends.

Christian Dior's New Look at Design Museum

Vertigo 1959 Hitchcock film

The Best of Everything - a 1958 novel by Rona Jaffe adapted to film by Jean Negulesco in 1959.

Lulu's Vintage Blog and Store

A perfect marriage of obsessive compulsiveness, consumer culture, and technology, Lulu's Vintage Blog and Store is your one stop guide to what's fabulous in retro fashion and culture. Two sites in one, Lulu's store has vintage clothing and accessories for men and women as well as sewing books, patterns, and fabric. Her blog highlights the wonderful junk being sold out there in the wide, wide suburban shopping center that is the internet: 1960s style coats at Nordstrom's, 1920s bridal and evening wear on ebay, you can always trust her very excellent taste to lead you in the right direction.

Of course, personally, I am most tempted by the amazing and extensive collection of crochet booklets she's selling at her store...I have so many, but maybe just one more.

Cylinder Preservation and Digitization Project

While looking for stuff of interest on Sophie Tucker I found the most amazing thing: The Cylinder Preservation and Digitization Project at UC Santa Barbara. They have MP3s/bit-wavs available of old cylinder recordings of music, humor, speeches, dialect songs (warning: they're offensive), hymns, and many other things I haven't even looked at yet. If you like music from the teens and twenties this is a great site for lesser known recordings that may not have made it to CD. There's also information on the history of cylinder recordings, their project specifically, as well as "cylinder radio" which plays recordings from their collection.

I highly recommend glancing at their links page which has a list of web-accessible early recording collections at other libraries and universities.

A few sites of interest:
History of the Edison Cylinder Phonograph
Ethnographic Wax Cylinders at the British Library Sound Archive
Library of Congress American Memory Project

I Love Oilcloth And I Love All-Pop.Com!

It's functional, garishly colored and almost offensively girly. I love it. Traditionally reserved for kitchen tables and diner booths, oilcloth has come into its own as the perfect material for everything from aprons to purses. My personal favorite is the retro apron, but All-Pop (purveyors of good luck items, retro design, imported kitsch, and kids' stuff) has a whole line of oilcloth products, including baby bibs, shopping bags, and purses.
Retro Apron comes in two colorways: blue and yellow (above) and red and blue, and sells for $22.
Retro Purse sells for $28 and comes in six different colors.

Valentine's Day is almost here and Golden Book has come out with a book of delightful vintage valentines for you to make and send. Originally published in 1954 they'll take you back to the days of exchanging candy Sweethearts and valentines with your friends in elementary school on cold February afternoons. This 12 page booklet contains 28 valentines to punch out and assemble and 8 envelopes to send them in. They can be found at Vermont Country Store or Amazon for about $4.95.

Don't like this style? Dover has some fabulous Victorian valentines you should check out on Amazon:

Old-Fashioned Valentine Postcards depicting children, hearts, flowers, doves, and idyllic scenes of romance with accompanying turn of the century sentiments.

Six Old-Time Valentine Cards featuring cupids, hearts, demure damsels, and heartfelt messages.