The Retro Blog

Rube Goldberg is rare among cartoonists in that just about everybody knows his name. Rube Goldberg machines are a complicated series of contraptions that work together to perform an exceedingly simple task. The idea is so popular that “Rube Goldberg Machine” has its own entry in Webster’s dictionary.
Rube Goldberg loved drawing from a young age, [...]

Sometimes writing a classic that’s required reading in thousands of schools just isn’t enough to pay the bills. Here’s science fiction author Ray Bradbury acting as Big Brother to a bunch of folks in the future. At least the ad is funny.

[via neatorama]

A few weeks ago I had a discussion with my friends in which I set forth plans that when we’re ancient we’re going to get a big one story house with rattan furniture and live exactly like The Golden Girls. We soon began determining our Golden Girl counterparts (I’m the Bea Arthur) and then we [...]

 
If I remember correctly, the recipe for Kool-Aid is one packet Kool-Aid, one quart water, and 27 cups of sugar. That’s why it makes me happy to know that in the 50’s it was considered “pure and good” for kids by Parents Magazine. As a child of the 80’s, though, the most striking thing about [...]

Flying today is pretty miserable. Rude passengers treat the cabin like their living room. You have to wait for two hours to get patted down by an unfriendly security guard. On a flight home from Japan I was randomly selected to get a thorough going over at the security gate. The guard was the tallest, manliest Japanese [...]

The Hep Stars were a Swedish pop group formed in 1963. Like a lot of bands they figured out that you have to sing in English to get international attention. Here they are performing “Sunny Girl”. The song sounds perfectly pleasant and pop chart friendly, but if you pay attention to the lyrics you realize that most [...]

Recently the Muppets have been making entertaining videos for youtube. (Warning: clicking on the first link will result in several hours of the phrase ‘bork bork bork bork’ circulating through your head). They’re so much fun, you might want a Muppet of your own. That’s what Ideal Toys figured way back in the 60’s. Here’s [...]

“Mars and Beyond” is a 1957 episode of “Disneyland” the tv series in which the folks at Disneyland contemplate life on other planets and man’s quest for understanding of the world around him. I like to think of it as Mickey Mouse’s 2001: A Space Odyssey. The episode is introduced by Walt himself with his personal [...]

This post is not for the faint of heart. A while back educational filmmakers figured out that the best way to get people’s attention was to show ‘em blood. These films take it to the extreme, showing people just what can go wrong if you don’t follow the rules.
“Signal 30″ is the most infamous of the [...]

This Jello commercial seems to be more of an endorsement of spoons than the jiggly dessert, but it just goes to show you that 60’s ad execs thought you could sell just about everything through the wonders of racial stereotypes.

I live in on the far SW side of San Francisco, which is practically Daly City. Most people think Daly City is decidedly uncool, but I beg to differ. On my occasional trips to Trader Joe’s I’m always finding myself wondering what people hate so much about Daly City. It has far more awesome retro houses than [...]

If the winner of The Cold War was going to be determined by who had the most awesome looking new technology, I think the Ruskies would have been miles ahead of us. You know Sputnik looked sweet, but what about this lesser known project, EPIK. This flying saucer like aircraft was being designed in secret [...]

Carousels, giant animatronic robots, and elephants have about as much to do with “Green Tambourine” by The Lemon Pipers as they do with one another and yet all three elements appear in this video.

The band didn’t much care for the song, but after its success their record label demanded more like it. The result was “Rice [...]

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you one of the best songs of the 60’s, “Tighten Up” by Archie Bell & The Drells.
 
Just as the song gained the band some popularity, Bell was drafted to fight in Vietnam. The line “we dance just as good as we talk” became a bit ironic when Bell suffered a [...]

A lot of people like Bette Davis, but I am in the special Bette Davis fan sub group consisting of people who like old, sagging Bette Davis. There are more of us than you’d think.

Bette was always quite clever. When her career first began Universal Pictures attempted to change her name to “Bettina Dawes.” Bette [...]

I imagine recumbent bikes start when somebody thought, “well I like riding a bike but I wish it was a little more like sitting in a La-Z-Boy.” I have no idea about the reasoning behind some of these other unique retro bike designs. “I like unicycles, but with a seat they’re just too comfortable and [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

“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 [...]

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 [...]

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. [...]

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” [...]

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, [...]

Last night I saw Wall-E, the latest Pixar film, and I highly recommend it to just about everyone. Pixar has a long tradition of retro influence in their films. Wall-E is a rare exception, but they made up for it with these exquisite posters by artist Eric Tan. Modeled after the old Disney ride [...]

In 1969, Russian writer Boris Zahoder decided little Soviets needed their own Winnie the Pooh. Behold Vinni Puh. The Soviet bear is rather different from his Western counterpart. Most notably, the backgrounds are made to look like brightly colored children’s crayon drawings. I have to admit, I find Vinni Puh a little scary. The Soviets [...]

Keith Moon is famous for a lot of things: his innovative drumming style, his penchant for blowing up toilets with cherry bombs, driving cars into swimming pools, and taking horse tranquilizers. Notice that singing is nowhere to be found in this list. Moon was also well-known for trying to sneak his voice onto Who tracks, [...]

I occasionally have a hard time determining what was cool in the eras I write about. If I wasn’t there it’s hard to know whether or not a certain song or tv show was only liked by losers. I’m going to take a wild guess here, though, and say that the cool kids probably did [...]

Look out everybody! There is some wild teenage dancing in this clip! Actually, this clip from the 1957 Chinese film Man Bon U Lang (aka Mambo Girl) features some cha cha cha–ing with the least amount of hip movement that could be allowed while still calling it a dance. In fact, the scene consists mostly [...]

This Disney Innoventions Dream Home currently in Tomorrow Land reminds me of how there seem to be houses of the future every few years and yet I never see half the stuff in them implemented.
Here’s a look at a kitchen of the future from 1967. Thing is, most of the stuff they showed is very [...]

Here’s a little 60’s go-go styled soul music video by The Mighty Hannibal for a song called Jerkin’ the Dog.

With headwear like that is it any wonder he’s an Obama supporter?????

I kid.

Oh the bumper car. As a child, I looked forward to driving them, thinking of the mini cars as little driving simulators. As I aged though, my goals changed, and they became a method for me to bash and possibly give whip lash to my friends.
The method for making little cars powered by an electric [...]

Want an easy way to write a jingle that’ll get stuck in people’s heads? Just set it to the tune of a well known song people are forced to sing in kindergarten. That seems to be the approach the producers of Roger Ramjet took. Roger Ramjet first aired in 1965. It follows the adventures of [...]

I’m a renter and am thus not allowed to have any pets. The boyfriend and I have decided, though, that if we could have a pet we’d want a basset hound. We think these lazy, short dogs would suit us perfectly. But since we can’t have one, what’s the next best thing? Ideal toys has [...]

“Steampunk” is a phrase the internet rapidly embraced and then turned on. It refers to a retro-future aesthetic in which Victorian looking things perform very futuristic tasks. A lot of people like the look of these objects, but now everybody’s getting pretty sick of all the people slapping some brass plates on an iPod and [...]

I always looked forward to days when we got to watch movies in school. It was like having some sort of unspoken agreement with your teacher: you are lazy, I am lazy. Let’s both relax for awhile.
But what about the poor schools in the 1940’s that couldn’t afford their own 16mm projector? What was a [...]

In 1965 country singer Roger Miller released his signature hit, “King of the Road.” For a song about a dirty hobo, it sure was popular. Here’s a video of Miller singing his song in front of an insanely colored cartoon train.

In the days before rap artists started shooting each other, rivalries between musicians were cute, [...]

Have you ever hear of Froggy the Gremlin? I know I hadn’t until today. The internet is a wonderful thing in that it proves that even the most obscure pop culture figures actually have strongly devoted fans. This deep voiced little scamp seems to exist to torment others, especially Andy Devine, host of the Andy’s [...]

I reside in San Francisco, and should thus thoroughly enjoy Otis Redding’s biggest hit, “(Sittin’ on) the Dock of the Bay,” but this is not so. I’ve always been more of a “Try a Little Tenderness Girl.” It’s the classic slow buildup song. Watch this performance. It’s like a religious celebration.

Even the most die hard of modern cigarette smokers knows that there are certain times when you simply shouldn’t light up. People in the 1950’s, however, were unaware of this, and these commercials prove it.
1. When you’re waterskiing:

2. When you’re a doctor:

3. When you’re in need of a “cold shower”:

4. When you’re under hypnosis:

5. When [...]

We’ve all seen tire commercials that advertise the tires’ ability to keep vehicle occupants safe. It seems that in the 60’s and early 70’s, this marketing was directed entirely toward women. After all, women are horrible drivers. You might think you don’t need a nice set of Goodyear tires, but as this sexist ad attests, [...]

The game where “you make strategic offensive and defensive moves, and then try to bust your opponent’s balls.” I especially like the lazy, drawn out narration. Something makes me think this one didn’t quite make it to production.

“You’re a ball buster!”

Today temperatures soared in the Bay Area. It was not fun. It’s much more fun to hear people sing about extreme heat. Here’s two performances of “(Love Is Like a) Heat Wave.” The first is the most famous version, performed by Martha and the Vandellas. Love that coordinated arm swinging!

The second is a cover by [...]

I was born in an era where one use flashes were a thing of the past, but to the swingin pseudo mods in this Kodak commercial, flashcubes were probably pretty exciting. These nifty little devices were tiny cubes with a one use flash on each side, allowing the photographer to shoot four flash exposures before [...]

A lot of people seem to think of Jayne Mansfield as the poor man’s Marilyn Monroe. Her roles were a little more on the cheesy and spicy side than Miss Monroe, and she might have followed Monroe in to the beds of various Kennedy’s, but I think that’s not to say that Marilyn was better. [...]

Mother’s day is here. How much do you love your mom? Enough to let her chuck machetes at you so she can get on tv? Little Connie Ann allows her mom, knife thrower Louella Gallagher, to toss knives at her for the sake of entertainment in this 50’s newsreel clip.

In keeping with the build up to mother’s day, I bring you the oh so classy trailer for Teenage Mother, a 1967 grindhouse exploitation flick that looks like Juno redone by Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino. It’s directed by Jerry Gross, the man who brought us such memorable films as “I Drink Your Blood and [...]

On May 9, 1960, the FDA approved the world’s first oral contraceptive pill. Too bad for Eileen. It was two years too late for her. In this 1958 educational film, a young lass named Mary finds herself tempted by dreamboat Jeff and she’s afraid of what will happen when they “park.” Luckily for Mary she [...]

If you’re into retro 50’s and 60’s styled art, you’ll probably recognize the work of Shag. Shag is Josh Agle, a 45 year old artist working in the medium of swank. His paintings, typically done in acrylic on wood panels, show a lot of parties you wish you were invited to. Bachelors impress their dates [...]

Osamu Tezuka is best known for Astro Boy, but you might not have heard of his other show, “Galaxy Boy Troop.” Apparently Tezuka turned down a gig as art director on Stanley Kubrick’s 2001 to work on this show. “Galaxy Boy Troop” combines marionettes and animation. And you know you love puppets. The show only [...]

What’s with little girls and hair? They love it. There seems to be something very soothing to children about dragging a brush through lengthy tresses. Luckily there’s always a marketing guy willing to cash in on little girls’ weird obsessions. Ideal toys stepped up to the plate with Crissy, a doll whose hair shrinks with [...]

Have you ever found yourself singing and dancing because you love your kitchen soooo much? Well you live in the future, so you should. Treehugger has a post featuring 1950’s films about kitchens of the future, and they are simply wonderful.
Here’s a sample:

Space Patrol is a prime example of what fun can be had with plastic rayguns and miniatures. The series aired nationwide from 1950-1955. The whole thing was performed live, which makes the “special effects” all the more thrilling. The show followed the adventures of Commander Buzz Corry through space in the 30th century. Strangely, a [...]

When the average person thinks about the history of video games, Pong typically springs to mind. But what came before? All the way back in 1958, a select group of nerds were getting very excited about a game called Tennis for Two. The game was invented by physicist William Higinbotham to entertain visitors at the [...]

Making a “fluffer nutter” sounds a little dirty to me, but if you want to give it a try, here are some simple instructions given by an adorable bouncing head and a disembodied hand.

I am alternately intrigued and horrified by the concept of a peanut butter and marshmallow sandwich. I’d probably try it.

This clip features some of the most awesome retro songs of 1960’s Indian film. This is when Bollywood got obsessed with American culture. Think of them as Frankie and Annette movies in Hindi. All the fun with the added bonus of incomprehensibility. Also, Indian actors in blackface for some reason. This is merely the first [...]

Speaking of typewriters, did you know that today in 1952 marked the first ever National Secretary’s Day? To celebrate, let’s watch “Office Courtesy: Meeting the Public,” a 1952 film in which a secretary who hates everybody decides to quit her job. She then has a horrific nightmare in which she sees the worst secretary in [...]

If you were one of those people who were offended by Speedy Gonzalez, you might want to think again before indulging in everybody’s favorite deep-fried corn chip. From 1967 to 1971, the official cartoon mascot for Fritos was The Frito Bandito. Picture Speedy Gonzalez but subtract the running fast part and add a penchant for [...]

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, [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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

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, [...]

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 [...]

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. [...]

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 [...]

You probably suspected that Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis had crude senses of humor and filthy mouths. Now here’s your proof. In this video, Martin and Lewis are recording voice over for the trailer for the film The Caddy. Needless to say, it quickly descends into shouting and dick jokes. 

This brilliant 1953 Tex Avery cartoon parodies industrial films about TV’s of the future. While it mostly has fun with outlandish predictions about where television is headed, eerily, some of its predictions aren’t that far off. [via boing boing gadgets]

I can think of no city symbol more awesome than the Seattle Space Needle. It’s not the tallest structure. It doesn’t even really do anything. Except be awesome. You can just picture a bunch of grown men in a meeting gleefully shouting,
“Yeah, yeah, it’s gonna look like a huge flying saucer!”
“And it’ll spin around!”
“Can we [...]

Here’s a short video of a man going on a quick jetpack ride over Tomorrowland at Disneyland. Why don’t we all have jetpacks in the 21st century? I guess there’s the whole thing about them being extremely inefficient. And judging by the pained faces of the kids in the video covering their ears hard enough [...]

After that Pez post, I think I’ll balance the blog out with some useful information about the dangers of tooth decay. It’s doled out by frantically animated clay teeth having a hoe-down. The Retro Blog doesn’t put a lot of emphasis on the 70’s, so this video’s special. Enjoy Munchers: A Fable Tale

Oh Disney… You used to be so damn interesting. Nowadays all you hear about are the various corporate blunders and slumps at the box office. Let’s ignore all that and have a look at the good old days. Not only did Disney help our soldiers out in WWII, but they helped young ladies fight an [...]

&Check out this sweet commercial for Pie Face, a game whose title describes it all. Yes, this is a game where you steal whipped cream from the fridge, apply it to a sponge, and wait for a machine to smash it into your face.
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To me, Pleo looks like a sad modern attempt to make [...]

While most people are abuzz with rumors about the upcoming Batman film, there are some of us who still prefer our dark knight with Adam West and more than a touch of camp. I can’t really picture Christian Bale saying “let’s go, Robin. We’ve set another youth on the road to a brighter tomorrow,” which [...]

So Super Tuesday’s over and you might get a short break from all the annoying political commercials, but here’s one last ad for your enjoyment. It might just trick you into thinking there was a time when politics were a little less malicious and a little more delicious. (This catchy number puts me in a [...]

This is an odd little 16mm film designed to help the film technicians of 1966 calibrate color. The colors themselves are wonderfully saturated, but the content is a bit…odd. Nobody seems particularly happy to be in this film. In fact I’m pretty sure none of them have any idea why they need to be there [...]