Platform Shoes Since the 70's? Think Again!

Remember those platform shoes from the 1970's? Did you know that the platform shoes actually go far back to the 15th Century?! Heck, check out the horrendous ones from the 1600's.

http://www.geocities.com/FashionAvenue/1495/1970.html

Old Modern Mechanix Magazines

I don't know how to describe this one. There is so much info about the past in so many topics. Mainly through their ads. It could take hours to browse through. It's really fun if you like advertising and nostalgia. These magazines go as far back to the 1920's..

Don't forget to check the "cover" section. It's pretty cool.

http://blog.modernmechanix.com/

Don't Panic!

In the 1950's the government wanted the civilians to be prepared in case of a nuclear event. To reduce a mass hysteria in such an event, the government sponsored this quiz on August 21, 1953 in a magazine called Collier's.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/bomb/sfeature/panicquiz.html

Predictions... predictions...

It's amazing how many of these predictions actually happened. One of my favorite prediction is #11 in which the author says that the mosquitoes, flies, and roaches will have been pretty much exterminated. Gee, I wish! No more repellents and window screens! No more flies partying on my food.

http://www.yorktownhistory.org/homepages/1900_predictions.htm


ROADSIDE AMERICA
You'll find many odd road attractions to stop by and visit. Such as the Kool-Aid Museum in Nebraska. How about the world's largest tire in Allen Park, Michigan or the Tree Caricatures in Blanca, Colorado?

*Note: You might want to start with the "what's new" section.

http://www.roadsideamerica.com/


SPACE AGE ART AT FLICKR
Another wonderful gallery of space-age art in Flickr.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/60585948@N00/sets/1499940/

Advertising Icon Museum

This museum is located in Kansas City and will be opened in 2008. You can see many familiar toys on their site, such as Bert and Harry Piel, Sprout Green Giant, Mr. Bubbles, Frankenberry, Squirt, Mr. Zip, Fred Fossil and many more old and present toys.

It appears that this site is "at work"

http://www.advertisingiconmuseum.com/main.html


PAINSTICK'S PLAYHOUSE
Another trip to the cereal world. Old cereal boxes designs are fun, aren't they? I really love the way Tony Tiger was back then.

http://www.painstick.com/cereal_box_gallery.htm


FLEISCHER POPEYE TRIBUTE
Like Scrappy, this site is also designed in (moslty) black and white, true to the original Popeye cartoon. Did you know that Popeye was born in 1929?! According to the site he was even more popular than Mickey in mid-1930's.

http://www.calmapro.com/popeye/index.php?current=index

MY BAD - I LOST MY POST!

*As you may have noticed the September 13, 2007 post disappeared by accident, I had a partial copy of it, but with only two links. I do not remember what the third link was. I'd love it if anyone happen to know what it was. If you do, please shoot me an email or a comment. Thanks.

One of my favorite places to visit is Flickr. It's a site where you can post photos. Sort of like a MySpace concept. If you can find pretty cool stuff there. The following flickr link has images from a book called "Krazy Kids". I have the book myself and I love it. So if you like these things as well, I recommend buying the book.

Krazy Kids
http://www.flickr.com/photos/60585948@N00/sets/1499962/


There is plenty of info about events that happened since the 1950's to present. It a nice site, but the navigation is a bit odd. I am a Mac user and use both Safari and Mozilla Firefox. In Safari, if you'll click on one of the dates on this site, it'll lead you to another page. In Firefox, a PDF (an Acrobat file) pop up will ask you if you would like to download the document.

Mr. Pop Culture
http://www.mrpopculture.com/

September 14, 2007

THE MUSHROOM HOUSE
"Visiting" this house made me feel like one of those Keebler's elves... It made me feel like I was in a Tolkien house somewhere out there in Hobbitland. When you go visit, pay close attention to the navigation map.

http://www.themushroomhouse.com
Update 1/3/10: link expired


SCRAPPYLAND
According to the site's FAQ, Scrappy was a star of a cartoon series from 1931-1941. Unlike most cartoons back then, he was a human boy. The cartoon was produced by Charles Mintz studio and released by Columbia. The website is designed in black and white.

http://www.scrappyland.com/


HOW TO BE A GOOD WIFE
Ah.. what can I say? After all, this info is from a Home Economics High School Text Book in 1954.

http://jade.ccccd.edu/grooms/goodwife.htm

September 12, 2007

Yesterday I was too busy to post. But here are three new links.

BEST CLASSIC CARS ADS
This is a nice and simple site that has photos of old classic car ads. This site is in both German and English with illustrations and real photographs of the cars.

http://www.best-classics.de/

ATOMIC BOMBING BOOKLET
You can see the chapters of this booklet with illustrations. It's interesting that there were people who believed you could survive a nuclear war of such scale.

http://foody.org/atomic/atomic00.html

Update 1/3/10: link expired but main page is active:
http://foody.org/


CESAR SANTANDER
Cesar Santander is an artist who specializes in photorealistic paintings of toys. My favorite painting is of Tom & Jerry. He also has paintings for sale if you are interested in purchasing from him.

http://www.toypaintings.com/

September 10, 2007

Sep 10, 2007

Today I made some changes to the blog's format. I have enabled comments from users. However, I am still unable to figure out why I can't highlight the links. The code I've tried does not work the way I'd like to. So for now, you'll have to use the "copy" and "paste" method, while I'm trying to figure out the problem.

Another change that I've decided to make is not to use a theme for each day. I realized that it will limit me, and won't serve much purpose.

ARTHUR RADENBAUGH
Arthur Radenbaugh (1906-1974) was a top commercial illustrator to highly known companies. He worked in Detroit from the 1930's to the 1960's. He was an incredible futuristic artist. Quite amazing I'd say.

http://www.palaceofculture.org/radebaugh.html
Update 1/3/10: link expired

BAD FADS MUSEUM
Do you remember Rubik's Cube? The Hacky Sack? Pet Rock? Hula Hoop? Op-Yop? I don't see the Banana seat bike here though.

http://www.badfads.com/

DIGITAL DELI
These are the "Golden Era Eateries" that still exist. There is a logo next to the brief history of each restaurant. Plenty of nostalgia even if you are not old enough to reminiscence those days. Even Nathan's is included.

http://www.digitaldeliftp.com/Recommendations/retro07.html

September 9, 2007

This is my second day tweaking this blog. An old friend of mine has suggested that I'll add the RSS feed feature. It is now enabled. There are so many out there on the net, that I'd love to share with you. For now, plan A is, to post 2 or 3 links per day, with a common theme.

Today's theme is "toys":


X-RAY SPECS GLASSES
This toy is originally from the 1950's. But in the 1990's a new version appeared. Here you can see a picture of a modern day "X-Ray Specs" glasses, and an ad for the original one. In addition to all this, according to the author, the precursor for this item is the "Wonder Tube" from the 1940. It is shown as well:

http://www.blamepro.com/how/how4.htm


TOY ADZ
Looking for picture of your favorite toys from the 70's perhaps? Maybe you are trying to remember what your fave toy looked like? Or maybe you have an itch for basking in a nostalgic mood? You might just find it all here. Well, these not exactly pictures of the actual toys. These are ads of toys. It's amazing to see how simplistic these were in those days in comparison to today's toys.

http://www.toyadz.com/toyadz/menu1.html


TOPPS WACKY PACKAGES
I am a big fan of "Topps Wacky Packages" as I still collect those. I vaguely rememeber opening the wraps to find out what's new for today. The excitement. They were so creative don't you think? They are still made today, but they do not have the charm and the creativity of the original ones. The classic ones from the 60's and the 70's were truly the best! I still chuckle when I look at my collection, or just pictures of them on the net. Today, some of these stickers are very hard to find, and so rare. That if it was possible, you could even pay rent in some places with some of these cards! Especially the most eluded ones.

To learn more about this hobby go to this site. Don't forget to check out the "Other Wacky Page" links as well:

http://www.wackypackages.org/index.php