Lefor Openo

In a nutshell: In 1950, Marie-Claire Lefort and Marie-Francine Oppeneau met in Paris. They studied together for 3 years, to become art professors at Paul Colin School where they met other famous poster designers. Their careers took off when they won the first prize in a poster contest. Their artwork basically covered the 1960's in advertising, political posters and more. Read in more specific details here. Their artwork is worth looking at. I enjoyed some of their posters, such as the one above. However, I am not certain, if their site covers their entire art work.

Lefor-Openo
http://lefor.openo.free.fr/

The Paleo Future Blog

The Paleo-Future blog is all about future predictions from past, through articles, drawing and painting. For example, there is one prediction from the year 1883 for 1952 that shows how the evening fashion will be. Another one from 1882 predicts the year 2000 through some amazing lithographs, oh, how wrong they were! Way too much sci fi. There are quite a few incredible stuff in this blog. Personally, I liked the one from the 1923 prediction for the elimination of alcohol in 2022. I'd love that to happen, but somehow, I doubt it will.

Paleo Future
http://paleo-future.blogspot.com
Update 1/3/10: Link still works, but the site moved to:

http://www.paleofuture.com/

Walter Lantz Cartune Encyclopedia

Walter Lantz is the cartoonist who drew the Woody Woodpecker (1940) cartoons. Even though Woody was his most famous character, he did other characters as well like Chilly Willy and Wally Walrus. This is a comprehensive encyclopedia of every cartoons that he did and produced along with his staff.

The Walter Lantz Cartune Encyclopedia
http://lantz.goldenagecartoons.com/

It That a Hotel?

There are some pretty interesting inns and hotels here. It's really intriguing to see all those unusual hotels from around the world.

Unusual Hotel Of The World
http://www.unusualhotelsoftheworld.com/Home.aspx


The dog inn image above is the "Dog Barking Inn".
http://www.dogbarkparkinn.com/



The train image is from "Fairbanks Alaska Bed & Breakfast"
http://www.fairbanksalaskabedandbreakfast.com/

Toothpaste World

Toothpaste World has a toothpaste collection starting late 1800's. There are also images of tooth powders. Those early toothpastes tubes look like oil paint tubes. I had no idea though, that Colgate and Pepsodent go far back to the early 20th century. There are some really interesting toothpaste names that no longer exist (the Ipana, for example), and toothpastes that mention certain ingredient up front, like the "gardol". There is a toothpaste that was made with raspberry fruit (1900's). Yikes!

Toothpaste World
http://www.toothpasteworld.com

Perky Wilma, Jane and Velma

I just love this Dove Shampoo ad, with Wilma Flintstone, Jane Jetson, and Velma Dinkley. It's hilarious and funny to watch them. It is one of my favorite YouTube videos.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p9XKoapOH5Y

The 109 room Inn

This hotel is nothing like any hotel I've seen. It is located in San Luis Obispo (central California). OK, so I was never inside, but have passed by it many times. There are pictures that show you how "bizarre" some of their rooms are, and they aren't even the same. There are 109 rooms and each has a different theme and a name. They are a mixture of funky, swanky, kitschy, tiki, victorian... Some of their rooms even look like caves. Personally, I'd love to see them in person.

Madonna Inn
http://www.madonnainn.com/

History of Toys & Games

A good place to learn about the history and background of toys and games is at the "History of Toys and Games" site. I counted about 40 of these. You basically learn how their started their "journey" and their milestones. It's a nice looking site as well.

http://www.ideafinder.com/history/category/toys.htm

A Saturday Blog

There are a lot of YouTube videos in "Saturday Morning Blog". There are some cartoon clips that I've never seen before, such as the "Partridge Family 2200 A.D (1973). I would have liked to see that show. Maybe it'll be on the Boomerang channel some day.

Saturday Morning Blog
http://saturdaymorn.blogspot.com/

Morris

Remember Morris the Cat from the "9-Lives Cat Food" commercials? You can read the history of Morris right here:

http://www.kittens-lair.net/history-and-famous-cats/morris-the-cat.html

Are You Mad on MAD?

A blog of a MAD addict, Doug Gilford. If you love MAD, you'll love his site (I think...). The image in the main page, where you see him siting on top of ton of MAD magazines is pretty cool. I like that. Note: The image above is the very first edition of MAD.

Doug Gilford's Mad Cover Site
http://www.collectmad.com/madcoversite/index-wide.html
Update 1/3/10: link expired.

Doug Gilford also recommends to visit "Dick Hanchette's Mad Site". I went there, and was impressed by it as well.

Dick Hanchette's Mad Site
http://www.collectmad.com/collectibles/

A Short Note From Me

A few weeks ago I wrote that I was going to publish a new blog about cartoons. After debating with myself for awhile, I finally decided against it. See, I have plenty of links. However, once I am out of them, I'll be in a "deep ditch". It will be hard to find new ones on a regular basis. The blog will end up with YouTube clips way too often... This is not what I had in mind.

So, I figured, I'll just continue to post the cartoons links here. It makes sense to me. After all, those 1970's Saturday mornings cartoons were the best ever!

OK gotta crash now! It's will be 2AM soon... the dog is already asleep by my feet......

The Linkster

Ads Here and Ads Over There in Mom's Basement

I am having so much fun browsing this awesome blog, especially the "Inadvertently Hysterical Vintage Advertising" section. There are some crazy and outrageous ads. Would you believe that there once was this food called "chicken dinner candy"? Gross, eh? The two images above are from that section. It's amazing! Had a few laughs. As I am posting this.. I am still surfing this site.. A lot to look at.

Found in Mom's Basement
http://pzrservices.typepad.com/vintageadvertising/

I Love Those Decades

Cool retro stuff from BBC from past decades. The navigation can be a bit of tricky when you are in a sub page though.

BBC
http://www.bbc.co.uk/cult/ilove/years/1982/

The Glass Junkie

Thank you, Cathy, for sending me this store's link. You'll see a collection of glasses with characters and images on them. There is a even a set of cartoon characters glasses from 1934. I had no idea these kind of glasses went this far back! Pretty neat, eh?

http://www.theglassjunkie.com/GJ-ourcollection.htm

http://www.theglassjunkie.com/GJ-cartoonglasses.htm

Billy Galaxy

If you like retro and vintage toys and cartoon stuff, you'll probably like this store. When I was in Portland, OR, I visited it and liked it. It's somewhat expensive though, but I still had a good time just looking around. I only bought one item -- a tiny Snork figure for a friend.

http://www.billy-galaxy.com
Update 1/9/10: link expired.

Whatever Happened to Channel 1?

Ever wonder why we have "channel 1", even though it's useless? Newsflash: It was actually used during the very early years of tv. Here is the scoop!

Television History - The First 75 Years
http://www.tvhistory.tv/1946%20RCA%20630TS%20TV.htm


By the way...Did you know that the first toy tv commercial was 'Mr. Potato Head' baxk in 1952?!

FAQ - First TV Commercial
http://www.tvhistory.tv/other_stuff2.htm



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hDSnstJxIJ8

Woodies & Orange-Peel House

Paige Bridges - an artist who paints trailers. She also has a variety of themes like the 'Christmas Trailers' which I like the most. She also does painting for the Parkinson's Research.

Vintage Travel Trailer Art
http://www.vintagetraveltrailerart.com/VintageTravelTrailerArt.htm




I love this site. It has practically anything that is relating to those woody cars and trucks. I hardly see any "woodie" cars passing by these days anymore. There are some really weird woody campers pictures. I always knew of the Woodie cars, but not Old Woodies

Old Woodies
http://www.oldwoodies.com/gallery-trailers.htm




From Modern Mechanix. See an ad from 1955,for "Orange-Peel House" for Campers Fits on Small Trailer". This is definitely something from "outre space"! You'll see the image's actual size a the Modern Mechanix's site. Did they have weirder vehicles back those days or what?

Modern Mechanix
http://blog.modernmechanix.com/2006/03/22/orange-peel-house-for-campers-fits-on-small-trailer/

Pin Back Buttons

It seems that it's hard to find pin back buttons sites on the internet! Even on Flickr... You'd think there would be plenty of them (not self made) pins.. I couldn't even find political pins on the net.. so far.. I saw a few here and a few there. Nothing worth posting here.

A collection of pin back buttons from www.timepassagesnostalgia.com. I know someone who shops there. There are 40 pages of pin button images! I had to snip the url address though. It's a pretty long url.

http://snipurl.com/1t3z6

Mark Lansdown has really some remarkable cool pin buttons!

Mark Lansdown - Cartoon pin back buttons
http://www.marklansdown.com/pinbacks/

Flickr: joviek's
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jvk/sets/705772/

Time Passage Nostalgia

You can buy plenty of nostalgia related items here. I know someone who often buys from this site. Even if you don't buy anything, just browsing through is fun.

http://www.timepassagesnostalgia.com/

Neatocoolville

Great blog about nostalgia, retro and other stuff. Check his flickr page.
http://neatocoolville.blogspot.com/

Flickr : Neato Coolville
http://www.flickr.com/photos/neatocoolville/sets/