The Retro Blog

I’m headed to Japan for two weeks (w00t) so no posts for a while. In the meantime, enjoy this glut of retro Japan posts.

You’ve heard of Frank Capra, right? Director of the sugary sweet It’s a Wonderful Life? His movies are just so heartwarming and uplifting. Well… we’ll just ignore some of those movies he made for the government. Like this one called “Know Your Enemy: Japan.” The film starts with a disclaimer that this film isn’t about [...]

I’ve always adored animated commercials from the 50’s and 60’s. Their abstract backgrounds and jazzy soundtracks combined with fun, simple, line art characters that follow the music perfectly make me swoon. It seems to be the opposite of what we think of when we hear “Japanese animation,” but these Suntory Whiskey commercials show that the [...]

Ambassador Magma was one of the first “righteous guy that turns into a big spaceship to fight evil” Japanese tv shows. Airing from 1966 through 1967, 52 episodes were made.

I remember as a child finding “Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers” to be an odd show. The stuff with the teenagers in high school always seemed [...]

Are you a fan of H. R. Pufnstuf, but often find yourself thinking “this makes too much sense”? Then “Gimme Gimme Octopus” is for you! This early 1970’s Japanese children’s show seems like a Pufnstuf ripoff, but with more child…erm octopus… abuse!

The Japanese are known for frequently picking a subculture and getting fanatical about it. One such subculture is Rockabilly. Every Sunday in Yoyogi park in Tokyo, a bunch of middle aged guys get together and dance to 1950’s American music. Like a lot of Japanese subcultures, they seem like a parody of the real [...]

Propaganda is always a dirty word, but after a certain number of years, propaganda gets kind of entertaining. Let’s look at it from the cartoon front.
This is a racist little Looney Toons film that takes a “funny” look at our enemy in the Pacific. They’re so silly and dumb. Don’t forget short, too. Oh, and [...]

 
Why take diet pills when you can enjoy Ayds? Ayds comes in a variety of flavors like chocolate, chocolate mint, butterscotch, caramel, and peanut butter. Ayds sounds delicious. Watch a 1970’s commercial for this unfortunately named product below:

Ayds first appeared in 1944, but the company sold off the rights to the name in 1981. Hmmm, [...]

I have a hard time advising anyone to visit an online store that has an entire section devoted to clothes for burning man, but they have enough retro clothes that I can’t dismiss Babygirl Boutique entirely. Their Rockabilly and pin-up section is worth a look. It’s a lot like Daddy-O’s, but it’s got some better [...]

Ever wanted to speak ‘hip’? This hilarious 1958 record will teach you to be cool like a beatnik or juvenile delinquent. Modeled like a foreign language record, it’s quite informative, dig? The square instructor (John Brent) and the native hipster (Del Close) often stray from matters of vocabulary, such as when the square asks, “a [...]

At some point in your life you thought it’d be awesome to live in a spaceship. Some people are living the dream.

This is a spaceship home located in Pensacola Beach, Fl. You might be able to rent it, although the link to do so is broken.

If you’ve seen Woody Allen’s Sleeper, you’ll recognize this Denver [...]

Most modern novelty phones are out of the realm of this blog. They’re typically a bit tacky. Go to most “retro” stores and you’ll find loads of Coke phones and cats with swinging tale phones. This Marilyn Monroe phone, however goes beyond just the usual flavor of tacky to extreme tacky, and therefore I will [...]

Maybe one of the reasons I look to the postwar era with so much admiration is that everything you hear about it gives you a sense that when you reached your twenties they pretty much handed you a house. Now, as a 22 year old in San Francisco, I’ve pretty much come to accept that [...]

Ladies and Gentlemen: I bring you “Italian Spiderman,” allegedly a recently rediscovered film from 1968. This Spiderman seems a million times more entertaining than the Tobey McGuire incarnation. It seems a lot bloodier, too. And with a lot more zooms. One of the first things they teach you in film school is that zooms are [...]

Here’s a complete video of a 1958 special called “The Easter Parade.” This special claims to include all of the components of Easter like “fashion, food, celebrities, and flowers.” The most disappointing thing about this “Easter Parade” special is the complete lack of a parade. They keep hyping their camera pointed down “the most famous [...]

I love my digital camera to death, but modern cameras, like a lot of things, lack the design flair that cameras of the past had. Enter new Rolleiflex MiniDigi. The camera is a tiny, 5 megapixel version of the 1929 original. It still takes pictures in the square format and the crank now acts to [...]

I’m constantly finding myself at junk stores, thrift shops, and garage sales looking at broken bits of things and thinking about how I might use them in some kind of decorating or animation project. Guy Robot makes for a great source of inspiration. The artist crafts retro junk into the cutest little robots you’ve ever [...]

Oh boy, how the people of the past loved their cigarettes. Back when smokers were celebrated rather than shunned and forced to huddle together in cold, stinky alleys behind bars, creative inventors loved to keep the nicotine flowing. Modern Mechanix posted a wonderful little roundup of such devices. Marvel at the clever methods people used [...]

Here’s a video from the 1930’s the predicts the future of fashion, all the way forward to the year 2000. So what will we wear in the future…erm, past? Some interesting outfits indeed. The hair on the girl wearing the net dress is brilliant. It’s like a stylist from the 30’s doing a 60’s beehive [...]

Here’s a retro ad.

Yeah, I didn’t know that about Lysol either. Here’s a few more ads. If you have some twisted desire to learn more on this subject, the wikipedia entry is actually quite informative. Ummm, yeah…

I always prefer old ads to new, but what about old ads featuring the new? Worth 1000 recently hosted a contest in which entrants photoshopped new products into retro ads, and the results are a lot of fun.

When going to a fair or amusement park in the first half of the twentieth century, you had many options for entertainment. You might go on the swings, or a thrilling ride on the wooden roller coaster, or maybe you would just stare at some tiny babies in glass bubbles. Modeled after similar devices used [...]

Want a retro tv fix? Hulu.com just launched and it’s here to help. Sadly, it’s ad supported, so it’s completely legal but you’ll have to sit through the occasional commercial. Thankfully, these commercial breaks are all under thirty seconds.
Hulu has allowed me to repeatedly watch the Bewitched opening animation. As a child, I used to [...]

Need tips on giving your home some mid-century flare? The folks over at Populuxe Books are here to help. They’ve been collecting 1950’s and 60’s interior design, architecture, art, and DIY books from thrift stores. I’m sure they put in long, hard hours digging through the dreck at Goodwill so you don’t have to. They’ve [...]

Want to travel the world from the comfort of your chair? Just have a seat with a stack of books by Czech illustrator Miroslav Sasek. Between 1959 and 1974, Sasek wrote 18 books in his “This is…” series. Each book contains gorgeous drawings of the tourist spots, fashions, and transportation methods of the city of [...]

I’m sick. Thankfully, this 1948 short has some advice for me….or I could just use a tissue.

Having recently made my opinions about Design Within Reach known, I went looking for alternatives. One of the easiest ways to make yourself some instant mid-century cred is to stick some of these hair pin legs on just about anything. Any coffee table, side table, sofa, or credenza gets an instant 50’s restyling simply [...]

Looking to score your next 50’s B horror inspired movie? Better get yourself a Theremin for the soundtrack. Invented by a Russian in the 20’s, the Theremin became the go to instrument for creating creepy alien sounds in the 50’s. Made famous by such films as The Day the Earth Stood Still and The Thing, [...]

Design Within Reach, eh? Kind of a misnomer. I like mid century furniture, and I know it’s nice to support designers and all that stuff, but hey, they’re dead. I’m not spending $9600 on a chair. Yes, one chair. And that’s the sale price. Ikea rips off pretty much all these designers anyway, so you [...]

Like a lot of great inventions, Silly Putty was a complete accident. Researchers were attempting to invent a new rubber substitute because of a shortage during World War II. Instead they found a fun way to squash and stretch images from the funny pages. Marketed as a toy since 1950, Silly Putty is still adored [...]

Etsy is a site where people can sell their handmade crafts and vintage finds. Think of it like a smaller, friendlier ebay. Without the bidding. Ok so it’s not like ebay, but there’s a lot of good finds on there. Here are some recent retro inclined listings:

Vintage Photograph Album - August 1955 $9 (has 9 [...]

Cracked.com has a very amusing new article up that counts down the 7 most terrifying corporate mascots of all time. Shudder in horror at these creepy commercials of the past.

The other night I was watching 60 Minutes when this lovely little segment appeared:

Two thoughts came to my mind:
1. When did 60 Minutes become Jackass with a budget?
2. Why isn’t that ray-gun more awesome looking?
I’ll address only issue two here. This thing looks like a giant black tray with a hole in it stuck on [...]

I’ve always wanted a sidecar. I’ve never had much interest in motorcycles, but sidecars, that’s a whole other story. It’s just too bad I can’t have the sidecar without the motorcycle. Whereas motorcycles have been updated to modern design styles, sidecars still retain the beauty of their pre-1950’s heyday. I think I’m a sucker for [...]

When you think space age, Mexico City probably isn’t the first place that comes to mind, but Mexico City produced Juan Garcia Esquivel, inventor of quintessential bachelor pad music. Have a listen and hear what I mean.
It’s best to listen to Esquivel in stereo while sipping a cocktail, snapping your fingers, and impressing a lady-friend. [...]

This might be a follow up response to the 1943 guide to hiring women I just posted.

[image: sombersigh]

Contrariwise ramblings has posted a scan of tips for hiring women written in 1943. Here are my favorites:8. Give every girl an adequate number of rest periods during the day. You have to make some allowances for feminine psychology. A girl has more confidence and is more efficient if she can keep her hair tidied, [...]

The narrator of this video is on the lookout for scenes of “swinging London” among all the “fat cats.” It’s hilarious how the filmmakers seem to be mocking the idea of the 60’s fashion scene while simultaneously actively searching for evidence of it. They try to understand why young people are “conforming to the non-comformist [...]