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