The Retro Blog

After watching Eisenhower’s joyous we like Ike Disney ad, this offering from Kennedy is a touch disappointing. It’s not so much animation as it is a series of pictures strung together by an overworked editor.

Like the Ike ad, though, it takes the view that the best way to get the voter to punch the right [...]

Now through August 17th you can check out an exhibit called Birth of the Cool: California Art, Design, and Culture at Midcentury at the Oakland Museum of California. It features just about everything cool about the 1950’s, from jazz to animation to architecture. The exhibit focuses on postwar southern California, and has pictures by architectural photographer [...]

Here’s an interesting job for you young ladies out there: put on a fish tail an stay underwater for an hour and wave and flirt with tourists. That’s the job description of the mermaids of Weeki Wachi Springs in Florida.

In 1946 a former navy trainer named Newton Perry invented a system by which air was [...]

Everybody’s favorite furniture designers, Charles and Ray Eames, produced this film to help people learn about computers called “A Computer Glossary: Or Coming to Terms with the Data Processing Machine.” It looks like an episode of Schoolhouse Rock that’s been to art school for layout design.

[via laughing squid]

Dwight Eisenhower was the first president to embrace the televised political advertisement. Says the Sociological Images Blog, “Eisenhower was skeptical about using television and his opponent, Stevenson, wouldn’
t appear on television because he thought it demeaning to a man ascending to the presidency. Eisenhower won.” Of course, we know that Stevenson learned his lesson, producing [...]

Ok, so maybe it’s a little late to be getting a 2008 calendar, but hey, they’re free and they feature some nice mid-century designs. While there you can check out other Blue Ant Studio products like posters featuring retro furniture silhouettes. [via apartment therapy]

I think the best anti acid advertisement my generation has is Ozzy Osbourne. But back in the 60’s Ozzy wasn’t yet the frazzled Tolkein creature-esque mess he is today, so to keep kids off LSD they had to turn to other means. Turns out those means were really weird movies about chicks eatings hot dogs.

In the 60’s, Cambodia saw a rise in singers performing a new genre of music that mixed the traditional Khmer sound with Western style blues, pop, and rock and roll.
The undisputed king of the Phnom Penh rock and roll scene was Sinn Sisamouth. Incredibly prolific, it’s claimed that Sisamouth wrote nearly a song a day [...]

I must say that “test pilot” has never been an appealing sounding job to me. In the 50’s, though, it seems as though there were plenty of people quite happy to perform the task. Have a look at this gallery of all the exciting and dangerous looking toys these test pilots got to play with. [...]

Want to spend double what you would on a new big screen plasma on a small screened bulky set? Then Brionvega televisions are for you! These aren’t so much TV’s as they are museum pieces. I guess they’re really just for arty New York types who want to be able to say “well I wouldn’t [...]

Road trips are starting to seem a little pointless. These days it seems like you can go to pretty much any small to medium sized American town along a highway and it’s the same as the last one. Main Street USA consists of a bunch of chain restaurants and gas stations, and it has been [...]

If you want to see stylish retro fabric, you can always count on barkcloth to look fabulous. Here’s a little history on the material.

I’ve already expressed my strong admiration for Wall E, but it seems that a large number of conservative parents aren’t to pleased with the cute little ‘bot. Seems they don’t want their kids to get any crazy ideas in their heads that maybe producing copious amounts of waste and consuming with no thoughts toward the [...]

If you go to film school you will sit through Triumph of the Will at least once. You will have a lengthy debate over whether or not it’s ok to appreciate the film despite the fact that it’s blatant Nazi propaganda. The token class feminist will bemoan the fact that this is the only film [...]

I’m not really what you’d call a “gamer.” Real geeks tend to laugh in my face when I tell them the only modern system I own is a Wii. As such, I don’t really pay attention to the release of new games, but this clever little ad caught my attention. It’s a trailer for a [...]

Hey guys, remember tennis for two? Now you can build your own! [via boing boing]

Despite Academy Award nomination rumors and multiple 4 star reviews, I have absolutely no desire to see the new Batman film The Dark Knight. Sorry, modern super heroes just really do nothing for me. I’ll stick with the old school Batman, thank you very much.
There are a few actors for whom it seems the original [...]

 
[via vintage ads]

Here’s a gallery of some interesting vintage exercise equipment. It all looks quite heavy and perhaps painful. I’d like to see some late night infomercials with Chuck Norris trying to sell these things.

Say you’re watching a little HGTV. The couple on screen is walking through a fairly non descript little suburban home. You’re about ready to switch up to the travel channel when you see it: a gorgeous, untouched, pink 1950’s bathroom. The lights brighten, the angels sing, etc. Then the designer says “well, this has to [...]

“MTV Cribs” has gotten really tiresome. At first it was a nice little guilty pleasure to go through some one hit wonder rapper’s McMansion and see how much money he’s already blown on a white grand piano he’ll never play and can’t actually afford because his record company is sucking up 99% of the profits [...]

My friends and I often look back at the parks of our youth fondly. We can wax poetic for hours over the old Pioneer Park in Novato. It’s almost mythical at this point. It had a giant spinning octopus, dozens of swings without safety belts, and several super tall firemen’s poles. At the center of [...]

It’s impossible to look cool on a Segway. I’m pretty sure those things were designed specifically to make the user look like a dork. They could definitely use some retro flare. Check out this 1965 “Mono-Scoot” design concept. If Segways looked like this I would actually have believed the inventor’s claims that in the future [...]

On July 9, 1957, Dick Clark took over hosting duties on American Bandstand. He swept the job out from under the feet of Bob Horn, who got in a bit of trouble with the show’s producers after a drunk driving arrest. Horn was pretty much ruined, and a tad bitter I imagine. Horn died of [...]

Two vintage items that always look awesome: guns and cameras. Why not combine them? Here’s a whole gallery of cameras that look like guns.

Ok, so you’re a tv producer. Some soul singer is about to come on your show and sing a slow, inspirational tune. What do you do to keep the audience’s attention? You get a couple of go-go dancers to gyrate behind him at a tempo three times as fast at the actual song. That’s not [...]

If you’re like me you love old industrial films. The actors are goofy and overreact to every little situation in a generally hilarious way. I can see how it might get a little old making these things. Apparently to entertain themselves the filmmakers occasionally had a little fun with the whole idea of industrial films. [...]

The term pin up girl was invented to describe scantily clad women in magazine photos that men could cut out and pin up to their walls. As time went by you were almost as likely to see a retro looking pin up model on somebody’s body as on a soldier’s locker. Pin up girls are [...]

Happy 4th of July. Today marks the 61st anniversary of the Hollister riot. The Hollister riot wasn’t really a riot at all. Basically a bunch of bikers showed up for a rally in Hollister, California. A few of them got drunk and started driving recklessly. With gang names like “The Boozefighters” and “The Pissed-Off Bastards” [...]

With rising gas prices, car dealerships are having a hard time selling SUV’s. Small cars are king again. Newseek has a slideshow of very small retro cars. Some are even micro. They’re very cute and I imagine they get pretty good mileage. Might give you a neck cramp, though.

Speaking of bullet planters, Apartment Therapy has pointed out that Hip Haven is having a sale on their retro reproduction plant holders. Enter the code “HIPHAVENPLANTER” at checkout now through July 7th to save 15%

The Mattel Sonic Blaster was a 60’s air cannon toy that could barely push over a piece of cardboard but produced a military grade weapon sound. While the novelty of shooting weak bursts of air might wear off pretty quickly I learned from a message board for gun nuts that some creative kids thought of [...]

Do you find yourself walking through the front door of your home only to immediately begin screaming at your wife? Do you find yourself wanting to beat the crap out of those kids playing near your front yard? Anacin has the answer:

Too bad Anacin is really just aspirin with some caffeine mixed in, but hey, [...]