Photo Friday: Small Frys Edition

Good morning!

Matthew had a show last night at the High Watt and LORD AM I BEAT. On six hours sleep, with a nine hour work day, and two hours of evening classes, I managed to make it through his set, the second out of three bands, and an additional ten or fifteen minutes of breaking down the equipment before I was insisting that if I didn't go to sleep in the next thirty minutes, I would have to crawl out of a grave the following morning to make it in to work. Because even in my undead afterlife, I would apparently still feel compelled to go to work.

At any rate! It is nevertheless Photo Friday and what we have for you today are the nieces and nephews of Doris and Ray. With four sisters and I think two brothers, Doris had a lot of little guys besides Sonny running around her house and her relatives' houses in the fifties' and sixties'! Think about what Christmas must have been like.

Here, a little baby is bottle fed by Doris on a 1940's-ish print couch with Ray close by. See Doris's mother of pearl or maybe iridescent clear plastic necklace and earring set and her pretty red dress? See Ray's square tie? I'm always perplexed by these matching jewlery sets (though it never stops me from buying them) because most of my dresses are either black or wild print-- it seems like you would need a less "statement" outfit to go with a bold necklace choice. I have practically a drawerful of pieces like ones Doris is wearing and yet the only ones I ever wear are three necklaces of black jet glass beads...I have to amend that situation soon!

Here's Doris's mother with a different grand baby. Doesn't she always look so angular, tiny, and tough in her pictures? There aren't any in the whole archive of her as a young girl or newlywed (unless she's in one of the super old pictures I shared before and I didn't recognize her without her hornrims...but I think these pictures just probably went to another of the sister's), so all the pictures I have to reference Mrs. Alex Haynes are of her grandma period. See the Stay-Puft cushions on the back of the sofa and how LOW the back of it is slung. What's the deal?

More baby. He's so tiny!

In what could be an album cover if you just added some semi automatics (see The Lemonheads' Hate Your Friends...I had this poster but not this album when I was in high school), three little nephews stand in their Sunday best on the front steps of their house. Let's examine. Kids One and Two have matching buzz cuts, red ties, and tie clips. Kid Two has his shirt half untucked and is making a weird "SO WHEN ARE WE GETTING IN THE CAR?" face. Kid Three is what really interests me though...full head of hair and US Army kids outfit. YES! VICTORY! And the hands on the hips. And the red sneakers. He is the coolest of the three.

This family has a thing for matching outfits! Here, two escapees from Christmastown on their brand new trikes. Don't you love peering into the backgrounds of the picture to see what kind of details are lurking behind the subjects of the photos? I love the gift wrapping detritus flotsamming around the floor to the right, and the metronome on the piano (someone was taking lessons!).

Last but not least, this little bean man is wearing a PRETTY cool Mondrian influence jumper (ahead of the curve!), wieling what may be a tennis racket (...?), and standing just feet away from both a turquoise toy jeep and a GREAT tv. Did we mention the indoor cactus, paneled room, green carpet, and fireplace? Junior, put down that raquet!

Which little tyke do you think is the cutest? Are there any details in the background that you noticed which I may have missed? Do tell!

That's all for the week...you guys have a great weekend, and I'll see you on the other side!

The Babys & John Waite (1977-1979)

Good morning!

Look! On Burt Sugarman's The Midnight Special! Is it Ziggy Stardust's younger sibling? A lost member of the New York Dolls? No! It's.....JOHN WAITE?!?!

I've been obsessed with two singles by the Babys for about a year now, but five years from now, ten years from now, I don't think I'll ever get over the initial shock of realizing that the front man with the henna'd hair, earring, and swank seventies' glam clothes is the same guy that sings "I Ain't Missin' You At All".  I mean, yes, the voice is the same but....but....it's hard for me to wrap my head around the idea that this (left) is the same as that (right). Not that he doesn't look cute as a button in either one-- but how do you go from emulating David Bowie to looking like a drug dealer on Miami Vice? HOW!

The Babys were a  English rock band signed by Chrysalis records late seventies' and had pretty decent success with two songs I am nuts about, "Isn't It Time" and "Everytime I Think of You" (I'm just now noticing the use of "time" in both those titles...nice work, boys). There USED to be an exhaustive, comprehensive website on their history called The Babys Archives, but it has apparently gone the way of Geocities and vanished into cyberspace (thought it's still referenced on several other sites as to how much information there was at one point on that site...CURSES). I went to my trusty Google Books, which contains Billboard archives back to the forties (no joke!), and came up with the following clippings with regard to John Waite's glam days:

I get such a kick out of reading old trade magazines from the seventies' because you can just hear the desperation in some of the new band pitches, or the jubilation when a label has major success with an act and wants e-v-e-ry-b-o-d-y to know about it, and the insider-ness of copy (names of engineers, producers, label exec's only the industry people reading the magazine would be super familiar with). There was an issue from around this same period where Steve Martin had no less than four color advertisements touting his major comedy album domination of the charts...four! And don't get me started on Donna Summer coverage in the issues covering 1977-1980. Above, a profile of the president of Chrysalis Records, Terry Ellis, includes a group picture of the Babys hanging out in his office. Another observation: seventies' casual band pictures bear no resemblance to modern casual band pictures-- do any one of these gentleman look like they know they're having their picture taken or that they care? I feel like 99% of bands you will even see a photo of are hypersensitive to whether or not their sartorial choices would land them in Spin. Also, check out the weird fuzzy chair Waite is sitting in and the earth mother seventies' wall hanging in the background.

So. Much. Hair. In this photo. I get so nostalgic about what "radio" and "DJs" and "on air personalities" used to mean that I could spit.

Look at the Joan Jett looking guy on the far right! Can we get his number, please? Thanks.

Sorry about the scan cutting  that one guy's face off. Read this little snippet and see what I mean about industry trade papers writing for industry trade people. Isn't it funny how John Waite on the left looks like a high school newspaper editor who wandered into this Mod rockers photo? He has such clean cut good looks! Which would serve him well in his eighties' super solo career.

Here are some reviews from their live shows in California and New York. Can I change my name to "Legs Diamond"?

And some adorable clip art accompanying a review of their record:

Last but not least, you know you want to hear what I'm talking about! I'm always a sucker for epic-without-being-silly production (think of what Meatloaf's Bat Out of Hell would be like if it was clocked back about three notches so I could love it unshamefacedly), so you can see where these tunes would appeal to me. And good God, the singing! John Waite, sing on, you future mainstream success, you!

                           

                            

Do you remember this band or Tom Waite from his later incarnation as a AM Lite superstar? Where do you stand on late seventies', non-Pitchfork approved corporate rock? How do you like the two Babys songs posted? Do tell.

That's all for today...see you guys tomorrow for Photo Friday!

POSTSCRIPT ((Five minutes after hitting "publish")): I SOMEHOW FORGOT ABOUT WHEN JOHN WAITE WAS IN BAD ENGLISH. HOW DID I FORGET ABOUT WHEN JOHN WAITE WAS IN BAD ENGLISH?

((this picture really deserves its own post, but instead, why don't you listen to "When I See You Smile", and compare it to "Isn't It Time" and "I Ain't Missin' You At All" and think about how many crazy different turns the career of a professional musician can take...I don't even know what to think now....))

Easy Crafts by Ellsworth Jaeger (1947)

Good morning!

I was lurking in the Fine Arts section of the library the other day, looking for books on...well, the things I usually look for books on (McCoy vases, Halston dresses, forties' interior design, spooky horror comics...my patron account information is SO PREDICTABLE and a lot of it is in the 700-799 Dewey range), when the faded spine of this book called to me like a lighthouse. Crafts? Older looking book? Sign me up!

The pincurled girl, the suitably weird early twentieth century author's name, and the pretty little piece of pottery on the front cover sold me in a big way. Plus, it's the library-- I could check out another twenty-four items with no affect upon my pocketbook! Working here everyday has REALLY spoiled me (and decreased my entertainment budget by at least half). I checked the book out and it languished on my kitchen table under some books-on-CD before I finally unearthed it last night, a few days short of its due date, so I could share the contents with you guys. Was I surprised when I read the table of contents!

While you would think most of the crafts dreamed up by a guy lugging around a moniker like "Ellsworth Jaeger" would be Tyrolean in nature, you would be wrong! Jaeger wrote a number of camp (in the tents-sense, as opposed to the John Waters sense) classics in the forties', including the titles Council Fires, Wildwood Wisdom, and Tracks and Trailcraft. Easy Crafts may look deceptively general on the outside, but on the inside there's just about everything you would expect to make in the Arts Pavilion of your favorite midcentury summer camp establishment. YES WE CAN, says the twelve year old craftist in me. Let's take a look at some of the nature and Indian-inspired handicrafts Jaeger teaches us in this book. Don't forget to click on any image for a larger image because some of us don't have our reading glasses on (raises hand).

"Fungus Funnies" is disappointing to me because while I love the whimsical designs, I have absolutely no intention of carving cutie little shapes out of fungus to display in my home. Since a long-ago Living section feature of the Tennessean about a Davidson County resident who faced severe (and terrifying) medical repercussions from clearing out mold under his house while suffering from pneumonia, I have been afraid to so much as touch a mildewed towel for fear of suffering his same fate (I can't even find the article online and in truth I DO NOT WANT TO). Bad things happened. I've seen plenty of cute dried fungus crafts with googly eyes and acorn caps attached to make them more adorable, but I just don't know how I feel about having them in my house! Am I crazy?

Potato block prints are much more reasonable:

I see this method used all the time on design blogs to stamp everything from circle skirts to pillow cases-- have any of you actually tried this? Does it work as well as it does in the perfect world of craft blogging? I also like that the rotund little spud at top is helping to maim his fellow vegetable. You can just hear the bisected one hissing: "You're supposed to be on our side!"


This one might be a little complicated, but I am just nuts over the Arts-and-Crafts style bear and lettering. Wouldn't this be cute to any kind of animal and a greeting card or plaque outside your door bearing your family name type thing? This is a simplified/elementary school version of the block prints that always look so stark and interesting from the WPA era, and I have to say, owing to my beginner's beginner level, I am a fan!

I could put these Indian designs on like everything I own. I know I've seen t-shirts and bags going back to that woven, Southwestern, early nineties' look lately, but how cute would it be to have a shirt or a sweater or a bag with a weird message on it that only you could discern? Like "Lightning Dead Men" (the name of my new band) or "Conversation Skunk" (the name of my other band). You be the judge.

Now, if you want to stand out of a Friday night at the bar, better than even a Mohawk (passé) would be a full on Acoma or Seneca Indian head covering. I really, REALLY want to make one of these, and then sit at home waiting for the perfect costume party opportunity to wear it in all its glory. The yarn cap at bottom right might be my favorite.

Do you think it's really this simple? I have a feeling making these cornhusk sandals would be like the paper shoes you used to make in grade school...two steps and they're toast. Maybe if I were more diligent at the needle? I'll have to investigate and get back to you.

I love how simple this craft is and how COOL the Wampum designs are. If you find macaroni in my carpet at the next soirée, you know the why and the wherefore.

Last but not least, decorated bathing trunks. Look at the elephants! Look at the bears! Look at the rabbits! The text reads: "The designs of primitive people such as the Indians, the South Sea Islanders, and Africans are excellent for decorating bathing trunks." Who knew?! Which gives me the very intriguing idea of trying to do some kind of printed fabric get-up with the cave drawings at Lascaux...HOW AMAZING WOULD THAT BE. Once I get my skill level up, I'll let you know (I am dead serious).

That's about it for what I scanned, though if you want to order this book either through Amazon or your local library, there's a million more (even nonfungal) crafts where that came from!

Which craft would you most like to make? Did you ever make Indian-inspired art in school or at summer camp? Are you already a master at any of these particular crafts? Tell, tell!

See you guys tomorrow!

Black Belt Magazine (late 80's/early 90's)

Good morning! Things you (or I, or my friends and family, or anyone else on the planet) didn't know I was apparently into: vintage martial arts magazines! In my never ending pursuit of Google books to loot and plunder for your entertainment, I happened across Black Belt magazine. While the publication's history stretches back into the sixties' (and some really cool graphic design of samurai-looking dudes totally destroying other samurai looking dudes in stop-motion photography), what really caught my eye was the mullet-dominated field of martial-arts-in-the-80's. Yes, we're talking your Patrick Swayze in Roadhouse, your Jean Claude Van Damme in whatever movies JCVD was in, and most importantly, Chuck Norris pre-Chuck Norris jokes. Lord, the inherent humor.

How will I sell you, the vintage lover, on martial arts training? I wish you would first off look at what brought me down this strange and twisting path in the first place:

STEVIE NICKS.



Things I would like to point out about this picture:

• Stevie Nicks is doing some kind of martial arts.
• Stevie Nicks is doing some kind of martial arts with a guy who looks like an illustration by Bakshi.
• Stevie Nicks is doing some kind of  martial arts with a guy who looks like an illustration by Bakshi WHILE WEARING FIVE INCH PLATFORM BOOTS.

I don't know what more you want from the universe. Maybe the caption "Has her limited martial arts training made her any less appealing?" Ah, yes. That actually did send it over the top (PS Stevie I love you in that way where I kind of want to be you).

When flipping through the same mid eighties' publication, and then checking out issues that went up until the nineties', I was actually bowled over by some of the seminar ads. They may LOOK like things Tony Alamo followers would leave under your windshield wipers, but if you were underwhelmed by the mystical promise of nineties' televangelists, don't lump Grand Master Young Moon Kwon into that category, because he is excitement itself!



No, seriously, take a look at the things that were taught at his March 10, 1990 seminar:



I really need you to read the first twenty or so entries here out-loud to yourself, and tell me they are not the most awesome things you have ever heart in your life. "A piece of burning red steel is broken in half with teeth...burning red charcoals are walked on barefooted...a blowing fan is stopped with one finger...two people spar behind a curtain and their shadows are visible. After the curtain is removed...the people have disappeared". Do think this guy does weddings? Because Bab and I could just skip doing a reception altogether if we got a couple cases of champagne and this guy.

In a similar vein, the hearthrobby video martial arts skills of Paul Vunak, who is pictured with hair beautifully coiffed, biceps on healthy display, and KNIFE IN HAND (sure, normal, whatever), are presented below. Paul Vunak owns the impressive website domain www.fighting.net and is still workin it, though he has not aged too well. Well, tell me how well you'd age if most of your life was murdering people with your bare hands in secluded alleys while Whitesnake plays in the background! Thought not. Check out the descriptions on these tapes:

Please also note how expensive the video cassette training tapes are. Good Lord!

Last but not least, there are these merchandise tie-in advertisements for Chuck Norris, when he was just a young dude:

Being a fan of celebrity memoirs of any kind, in this revelatory post, I'll assume you probably didn't know that I have not only Chuck Norris's The Secret of Inner Strength, but also Arnold: The Education of a Bodybuilder. They're both on the same shelf as Richard Simmons's Never Say Diet, and honestly, having read all three, they're pretty inspirational! What impressed me in all three of these weird memoirs were how hard the people worked, just be taken halfway seriously. Chuck Norris is fighting freakin' Bruce Lee at the peak of his career, and working with Elvis, and starting up his own production company, and he's still "just Chuck Norris" outside the martial arts community. I'm glad he at least gets a financial sense of reassurance from these authorized "Chuck Norris brand products", such as the karate suits above, and the "action jeans" below. Action Jeans. "Won't bind your legs". For when you want to dress up for a Friday night at the local honky tonk, but still might have to do some kung fu at some point to defend your Debra Winger looking girlfriend (hint: Chuck Norris, John Travolta, and Patrick Swayze are the only people on earth who have these kinds of problems).

Back to vintage stuff of an earlier era tomorrow, I just couldn't resist! Which Tae Kwon Do feat would you have most like to have seen Young Moon Kwon perform in his 1990 seminar? How proficient do you think Stevie Nicks really is in martial arts? If you're so inclined, I also found this slideshow of celebrities who practice martial arts, and some of the entries may surprise you! Robert Downey Jr?! Ed O'Neil...?! I'm too afraid of breaking my ankle/having my face kicked off to partake, but it does seem to be a kind of neat sport.

See you guys tomorrow!

Cleopatra Costume

Good morning!

After doing my post on Cleopatra Revlon eye makeup, I've been giving a little more thought to dreaming up a Cleopatra costume for Halloween. "Why, Lisa, WHY?" you ask. "When you spent at least two hours stapling, yes, stapling rows of lace to what looked like an old show choir costume for your previous idea of a Betsy Ross costume? Why Cleopatra, when you have no discernible cleavage upon which to base the temptress's plunging decolletage? Why when you only have a month left to prepare?" Well, readers...because it's there! And because I wantonly ordered a really rather cute black braided wig the other day in a fit of jump-on-the-bandwagon fervor for the whole idea.

Since I now have the hair (crucial! Though I may go to Wig Store in Madison and grab some more gold embellishments for it...), I'm going to need:

• A headpiece of some kind (snake? scarab? some kind of Egyptian thing?)
• A dress 
• Themed jewelry

And am I going to the actual costume store for any of this? I think you know the answer is already "no". So it's costume homework time! Let's look at some historical (Hollywood) inspiration for what the clothing should look like.

1) Theda Bara, 1917

The original vamp, you can rearrange the letters in her theatrical name to spell ARAB DEATH (mysteeeeerrrious!) and she played the Queen of the Nile in Fox's 1917 production of  Cleopatra. It's hard for me to even wrap my head the fact that this movie was made ALMOST 100 YEARS AGO, and yet look how saucy some of the costumes were. I didn't even put the one with practically-just-snake-shaped-pasties on here because it was too scandalous-- no kidding, that link is like 98% NSFW, in the year of our Lord 1917.The film itself is "lost"-- it always amazes me, in our digital age of backing up the backup to the backup, that there are entire movies from the silent era that just haven't survived into the twenty-first century due to misadventure or lack of preservation-- but for a few seconds of Miss Bara swaying in one of her barely-there Egyptian get ups. Luckily, many stills and publicity shots, in high resolution, remain. I particularly like the pearl-encrusted belts and loops on the first outfit...do you see her snake-anklet? The vampiness of this appeals to me in that it's way more twenties' than ancient Egypt. I am also not wearing this, FYI. Woman! Where be thine modesty!?

2) Claudette Colbert, 1934

You might not initially associate "temptress" with the onscreen career of Claudette Colbert, who could be kind of a goody-goody in her forties' and fifties' film output. However, you have only to queue up the infamous "milk bath" scene from de Mille's Sign of the Cross to get an idea of how decidedly pre-Code the former Lily Chaucoin could be! In the first photo below, she's wearing a barely there bra-top and Bettie-Page bangs I would like to have myself. Look at her tiny, slipper heel'd foot! While I would like to show up to a party and be rolled out of a rug like the real Cleopatra, I don't  know if this skimpy of a costume would be appropriate for October weather. That said, I'm very into her hornet-looking headpiece at lower left, and that enormous scarab collar covering a down-to-there black bodice. She also has some kind of insect-cuff thing going on which could be interesting.

3) Vivien Leigh, 1945

My beloved Vivien Leigh played Cleopatra in a film adaptation of the Shaw play Caesar and Cleopatra, which I always forget is in color because 90% of the stills you ever see from it are in black and white. LOOK. HOW. GORGEOUS. I really like the deep cat's eye but with no additional eye-shadow look that's going on here and could see myself just winging out my normal makeup and adding white pencil eyeliner on the lower, inner lid to get this party started. The turquoise and gold palette is also something I'm into, plus we lo-o-o-o-ove the dress with the bird's wing swooping up to the neckline. I will definitely be re-watching this one to make some sketches. One thing I really want to avoid is the whole "toga" look...I'd want the dress to be a little more fancy/done-up than a white, Grecian column type dress that I've seen a lot of Halloween Cleopatras use.

4) Elizabeth Taylor, 1963

I secretly like Liz's hair the best and will try to add some Bo Derek like gold baubles to my existing wig for maximum oomph. The down-to-there necklines in her costumes are my least favorite (besides not being able to fill one out like this myself, I just think it looks weird?), but her dark brows and corally lipstick are a pretty  great. She wears beautiful jewelry throughout the production, too, which might help with the accessorizing part. What do you guys think about the makeup? After seeing Vivien Leigh's less eye-shadow look, I'm kind of sold on only doing the liner, but I can't decide. Also, doesn't the head-piece plus dress on the upper left hand corner photo make the tiny Taylor look weirdly linebacker-like? Remember to avoid sequined shoulder paddding at all costs.

Last but not least, Marilyn Monroe was photographed by Richard Avendon for a 1957 issue of Life. See how inspired by Theda Bara's brief costumes in the aforementioned 1917 production of Cleopatra the shot was? You can hardly recognize her, but doesn't she look AMAZING.

Which Cleopatra do you like best? Where do you stand on the eyeliner issue? Should I dress Matthew up as Mark Antony or should he be the asp? I can't decide!

Have a great Monday...I'll see you tomorrow!

Photo Friday: Doris and the Deer Edition

Well, folks, here I am! Just got in from two sales out in West Meade with Eartha and Rae, and boy were they doozies! We'll have to talk some more about the finds (yours, mine, and ours) on Monday because I am tiiiiired and need both lunch and a medicinal dose of Hulu to  round out my afternoon. However, what would a Friday be without a (albeit brief) word from Doris and Ray?

I found these in with some vacation photos, each neatly labeled in Doris's handwriting "Stephen Foster Park, GA March 72":

Isn't that cute? I wish a deer would let ME feed him something he probably doesn't natively eat, but is willing to ingest out of curiosity. I think in the middle one she may be holding the food in her teeth, an entirely bad idea, but please be aware of the deer's expression in said photo:

"Say WHAT?!"

Too cute. Actually can't get over it.

Anyway, I'm off to lunch! Have a great weekend, and I'll see you guys on Monday!

Guest Post by Matthew: Paint Humor

 Hi everyone!  Its me, Bab!  

You may have noticed my brief appearances and mentions in Lisa's blog!  I am a small man who like to play video games and eat ravioli.  Lisa is super busy today, so she asked if I might make a special guest appearance to comment on some of her pictures.  Naturally I jumped at the chance!  Not very high mind you, because my legs are short and not very flexible.  I am built like a Welsh Corgi.  Anyhoo, Lisa and I have a very particular shared sense of humor, and Lisa's artwork provides a window into our bizarre inner world.

Let's begin with the most recent.  This picture, which I will call "Lizard Office" provides a visual interpretation of what Lisa and I discussed before going to work this morning.  We were joking about a little office building populated by lizards (one of our favorite creatures) and bats (one of our other favorite creatures.)  Can't you just feel the office culture?  Look at their stylish little outfits.  Its really the ties that get me.  When I suggested that the bat offices would be oriented upside-down, Lisa admonished that lizards love to be upside down and I shouldn't act like I know.  Also, the office is set up for a medium to small lizard and bat workforce, but the president of the company is a huge monitor lizard, presumably with a bit of a chip on his shoulder from his struggle to "fit in", literally and otherwise.

Ah, there's nothing quite like a Gila massage.  Today's working man should remember to treat himself every now and then!  Those tiny feet are able to provide deep tissue stimulation that really makes you feel refreshed and ready to take on your busy day.

Lisa and I were really into watching Hotel Hell, and when I asked Lisa how she would make her hotel stand out, she naturally responded "Complementary Gila massage."  As per usual, what I enjoyed most were the details which followed, which included the following.

• You can select hot or cold Gilas.
• The Gilas can be fed before or after per your request.
• Hungry Gilas tend to be more active.

Look at their little feet.  Its the feet that do it.  Also, look at the sunglasses on my cutie.

 

This one was a delightful surprise.  A picture of me eating chips from our favorite getaway, Las Maracas, was put to its best possible use.  Don't I look like I'm having a really great time?  I have a godzilla body, which is rad, and I'm holding a fancy beverage, so you know this party is for true gentlemen.  Also, this picture includes another key element of Lisa's aesthetic, which is a little skeleton guy.  Look at him.  Go hard or go home. 

Well, it's been a delight filling in for my betrothed!  I hope you all enjoyed it as much as I did.  Now keep reading every day!  And comment too!  That's her favorite!

Now its taco time.

Love Always,

Bab

Koroseal (1947-1951)

Good morning!

Sometimes, looking at old ads is way more fun for what they're not advertising as much as they are! Have you ever noticed? I was bowled over by these late forties'/early fifties' Koroseal ads for the stop-you-in-your-tracks mid centuriness of it all, and still couldn't care a whit for the variety of high quality rubber goods that company still makes to this day. What really rates in the photos below is the time capsule factor, just as wonderfully dated as an old Victor Mature movie (SO. FORTIES). As I sit at my cubicle and try not to feel anxious about a dicey parking situation I was buffalo'd into this morning (we HATE parking downtown, oh how we hate it, and yet are compelled to park downtown most weekdays!), let's keep my mind off it with looking through some of the top notch products and life situations of which the Koroseal brand was making its consumer public aware.

How could I not start out with this raincoat? My lid actually flipped the first thing after I saw it.The pale but snappy green color! The nipped waist and almost mutton sleeved arms? OR COULD IT BE THE WWII STYLE CAP? Oh yes, I think we all know what it is now. The usual  feels-like-a-cheap-plastic-tablecloth misgivings I have about semi-disposal raincoats are brushed away by the serious cuteness of this coat. In fact, the raincoat was so nice, they used it twice! Look at the next ad:

I know we're supposed to be checking out the gentleman's overcoat as well, but the heck with that....there's that green coat again! Notice the styling here...her grey Persian lamb hat, red umbrella, neckerchief, and contrast black gloves. I wouldn't think to wear the gloves unless the belt of the coat was also black, but maybe her shoes or overshoes are black? Vinyl and plastic coats are sadly one of those thing I never seem to see predating the 80's at the thrift stores...people seem to have a habit of putting them up still wet some in the mid seventies' and allowing mildew to take dominion over what would otherwise be an indestructible coat.

Side note: if I could say three things to clothes owners in the seventies' and before?

1. Stop smoking in your best clothes; I keep finding wild, gorgeous print evening dresses with cigarette burns the size of nickels! It ain't fair!
2. Stop eating mustard hot dogs/chili/whatever in the name of God you have stained this polyester dress with, just in the front, a little down from the collar, where everyone can see it and a brooch can't hide it, or start using pre-soak detergent. And-
3. What I said before about mildew and clothes goes TWICE for you. Take care of the daddurn things so that I can wear them in good health!

The people of the present thank you, people of the vintage era, for the clothes you DID take care of and which hold places of honor in my closet and daily wardrobe choices (end rant).

A high school hunk in the mold of Cornel Wilde sticks his big, be-loafered feet up on the den sofa. Luckily, Koroseal rubber "can be washed, never seems to scuff nor wear thin, and always looks as new and novel as it is". Well, that's good to know! I also want to point out that the book the boy is reading is entitled "FENCING". Just so you know.

Here, women from different walks of life show off the many products made of Koroseal. The rubber hose seemed to be one of their best selling products, as it is featured prominently in several ads. I'm more interested in this gal's middie-and-skirt combo with white slide sandals. Want those. In the middle, a cleaning woman wipes down a salmon colored office chair, and at left, a bathing beauty shows off her shower cap and novelty shell shower curtain. We love it all! Since putting the new couch in, I swear I am becoming more and more interested in that grandma's-couch idea of plasticizing the whole thing. Before, the couch I had was dramatic but kind of dingy after years of use...I never felt bad eating a nacho while sitting on it, whereas I don't like to look at my new couch set while eating for fear something bad will happen to it. I hope this will wear off eventually-- I can so see myself chasing my guests around with coasters and drop napkins at the next shin-dig I throw, terrified that a spare pizza roll will plop its greasy, cheese and sauce fecund crust on one of the spotless couch cushions. I must avoid this dark vision of the future!

This next ad features an unbelievably chic woman in black, whose shoes and hat are just out of the park, and a housewife in a blue shift dress, both of whom are looking over curtains. I don't know how I feel about rubber curtains outside of the shower-variety-- they seem like something I might see in an estate sale setting where they'd been clean at one point, many moons ago, but are now covered in the sticky grease residue of fifty years in service. I can't keep the exterior of my refrigerator clean for more than a week, and it's not like we're running a Kentucky Fried Chicken franchise out of my kitchen, but it seems unavoidable! I'm giving a gentle "no" to these curtains.

THESE on the other hand, I don't even care if they're rubber, I CAN GET BEHIND THESE CURTAINS. Literally and metaphorically, it seems. Novelty print on a novelty material? Sign me up.

I think we're supposed to be looking at the floor, but I am too nuts over the slingbacks to do much but gape and stare. Especially the ones on the left. Lord! I need to find some good reproductions for my size-a-million feet.

Check the hatstand in the closet on the left, and natty ensemble on the woman at the right. My grandma had garment bags like this in her closet, but my mine's too shamefully stuffed full as it is to protect the goods in this manner.

I stand unconvinced that even this sweet faced dog could hop on a rubber chair without somehow clawing it into unusability. Have you seen a dog's paws? Toenails alone would have made mincemeat out of this one. I like that the seat on the bus here IS scuffed and you can see exactly why...little Timmy's leaned over the back of the seat to make eyes/faces/whatever at the redhead in the picture hat. See  her heartthrob worthy brother to the the girl's right, and the complete inattentiveness of his mother. Below that set, the Koroseal logo in all its glory, and the most high waisted of all high waisted pants. I STILL think he looks nice!

Koroseal still exists! Developed in the thirties' by the improbably named Waldo Semon, who first invented vinyl (thanks!), they make floor coverings and wall coverings and other sorts of rubberized needs to this day.

Do you own any vintage novelty plastic housewares (curtains, linoleum, aprons...even raincoats)? Which one of these pictures would you most like to jump inside of to ransack them of some of their midcentury goods? I'm torn between the raincoat and the black shoes...and the curtains! What would you tell midcentury people about proper care of wardrobe if given the chance?

That's all for today, folks...see ya tomorrow! Keep your fingers crossed my car's still there when I get off work! :)