The following information is classified TOP SECRET… It’s 1976. Your TV show board game is The Bionic Woman. Girlie colors. Kickass bionic powers. And maybe a big hairy sasquatch…
Object: Assist Jaimie Sommers with her Top Secret Assignment. Highest score wins.
Jaimie was an inspiration to America’s girls, who refused to hold it against her even when she revealed her bionic powers to that evil hairdresser. She had to get her hairs did so she’d look hot for Col. Steve Austin, for gawds sake!
Exactly 14 years ago today, the huz and I shared our first smooch in the parking lot of the long-gone Silver Top Diner. One year later, in January of ’98, I convinced my good friend Jennifer Uhrhane to commemorate the spot in a photo. I have vivid memories of holding the tripod steady in a wicked Arctic wind. It was just after midnight and 10 degrees. Jen was a trooper…
The photo turned out great (considerably better than my craptastic photo of it, reflecting everything in the room). It was my Valentine’s Day gift to David to mark our one year anniversary.
After the Silver Top was forced out in March 2002, David and our friend John nabbed several signs for my birthday. Such nice boys…
Too bad about the diner. It was crowded on a regular basis. According to the Providence Preservation Society…
The Silver Top Diner was built by Kullman Diner Company of Harrison, New Jersy in 1937. At the height of its activity, the Silver Top was one of several small restaurants and one of only two dining cars flourishing amidst the then vibrant industry of Harris Avenue and the surrounding downtown. Open 24 hours a day, the diner catered to local factory workers who frequented its counter on their way home from the exhausting third shift.
Thanks for the awesome memories, Jen! btw, you should see Jen’s photography. Beautiful, beautiful stuff. Happy Valentine’s Day, everyone!
Hello, Friday! Hello, nuther ’70s TV show board game! This time, it’s badass left coast detectives in a testosterone-fueled Ford Gran Torino. Yes, my friend, the original Starsky & Hutch…
The car, aka The Striped Tomato, was a star in its own right.
Object: Be the first to stop the mad bomber by collecting all four matching cards.
Did I mention I haven’t even ripped the cellophane open yet? I just can’t bring myself to do it! This game is mint with a capital PEPPA.
Leather jackets. Double denim. Macrame plant hangers. A streetwise informant named Huggy Bear. What didn’t this show have? Other than a short man in a white jacket yelling “De plane! De plane!”, I mean.
Watch the first episode. Sing along to David Soul’s big hit from 1976. Geek out in an S&H car of your own. That’s right, live the dream. Why not? It’s Friday.
I feel like I should apologize for a string of entries about things, but they’re the easiest to post about when there’s a sumo wrestler sitting on your sinuses.
So check out what I just pulled out of the closet that hasn’t seen the light of day for three years: our framed, uncut sheet of Wacky Packages stickers (1st Series 1979 Rerun Sheet)…
You’ve seen Wacky Packs, right? Made by Topps, they included six stickers and a pack of gum. The stickers spoofed the products of the day and were illustrated by cartoonists like Art Spiegelman. Pretty silly stuff…
We thought the back was pretty awesome, too, so we had the sheet framed in glass so we could flip it over and look at it…
Now that you’re saying to yourself, “that’s so cool!”, let me tell you the backstory behind this particular sheet.
Picked this up at a Manhattan flea market 11 or 12 years ago for $30. Curiously cheap. We figured it was cool enough to hang up whether it was legit or not. Wackypackages.org claims it’s not counterfeit, however…
This is the infamous 1979 rerun sheet. Tens of thousands of these suddenly showed up in 1999, before that they would sell for around $150 each, now they can be obtained for about $20 (at one point you could get them for under $10), certainly the cheapest sheet at this time. There has been a lot of speculation as to why so many showed up.
It came out that these sheets were part of a planned promotion for Bond Bread around 1985. Bond Bread was apparently going to use them like Wonder Bread had. They were printed in the same factory in Philadelphia that the rest of the wackys were printed at. This was around 1985… They were printed and die-cut, and yet they were never shipped, due to some sort of cease and desist or perhaps due to a change of plans on the corporate level, we are not sure. So there they sat on a pallet for 15 years, with the “stop shipment order” stuck on top. Eventually the factory went out of business and went abandoned… There the sheets sat, until they were found sometime in 1999.
… It appears there were on the order of 100,000 of these sheets.
So there ya go. Our sheet will likely never be worth anything but that’s not really why we bought it. Wacky Packs rule.
Sorry I missed yesterday’s post. Battling a germ of some sort and germ is winning. Stupid germ.
Unearthing all sorts of things I’d completely forgotten about while they were stashed away for the last several years. Here’s one of them: an awesomely mint Narragansett Lager & Ale drink tray designed by Dr. Seuss, belying his advertising roots (click to biggify)…
The Christies auction site and the Narragansett site say it was made in the early 1940s right here in Rhody where Narragansett was (and is again) brewed.
Love that. Okay, now to make a safe place for it amidst the chaos.
I’m really digging this Friday ’70s TV show board games theme. So fun to peek at them again after having them packed away for the last three years. Dial your Way Back Machine to 1971, kids! How ridic is this Partridge Family game?
The flouncy shirts. The flare-leg pants. The shag haircuts. Ah the life of a show-biz family on tour is so exciting! But wait… where’s mom’s tambourine?
Object: The Partridge Family has finished playing at a local arena and must hurry to their bus. The winner is the first member of the family to reach the bus.
Oh, David Cassidy, you’re soooo dreamy. I Think I Love You.
As we finish moving things upstairs in prep for the downstairs remodel, we’re forced to edit our belongings to fit the space. We’re in full-on purge mode and have already sold a ton via Craigslist. But some things I’m just loathe to part with, no matter how much the huz insists they gots to go.
Like the Dondolo rocker I picked up via DWR in anticipation of Bix’s birth. For someone who rarely buys new furniture, this was a real treat…
God I can’t wait to get rid of that nasty carpet. Ugh. So anyway… Not giving this up, sorry. I used to rock the baby to sleep in this!
Originally designed by Luigi Crassevig, Design Within Reach sold this Dondolo Rocker for a short time. No longer available from DWR, I picked up mine more than six years ago. The info I can dig up online about the DWR version claims the design dates to the ’50s:
Behold one of the most fetching of a new (old) wave of reissued rockers, an authorized reproduction of a 1950s Italian stunner. Using original molds, Design Within Reach — noted purveyor of pop-art furnishings — bends hardy beechwood into zoomy curves and laces it with thick saddle leather or heavy cotton canvas. The result? The DONDOLO ROCKER, named as it was back in ’50 when it was penned by designer Luigi Crassevig.
But it’s such a ’70s look, isn’t it? I mean look at that crazy shape…
So I did a little more research and found on Architonic that the original Dondolo actually dates to 1970, not the ’50s. Told ya. In fact, Crassevig itself gives a date of 1970 on its own site and lists the chair among its many current products.
legacy.dondolo.avanti | via crassevig.it
Which obviously means the chair is still in production. So if the Dondolo is still in production and the leather is stamped Made in Italy on the back, does that mean my chair isn’t a reproduction but an actual Crassevig? There’s no Crassevig label on it. Hmmm. Maybe I should ask DWR just to satisfy my curiosity.
Back to my case. What better place for a ’70s rocker than our ’70s house? I should keep it, right? Here, have a seat…
Now that you’re comfortable, I’ll just assume you agree with me. It stays.
What is it? It’s a modernist’s vision of the ideal child’s chair, that much is obvious. What’s not obvious is who made it. There’s no maker’s mark. Figures. It took a surprising amount of sleuthing to discover this chair’s pedigree, but I did it.
Turns out this chair is the work of James W. Leonard for the Education Supply Association (Esavian Ltd) in the UK. The cast-aluminum alloy frame and bent beech-plywood child’s school chair made by Esavian was designed to be stackable. So this is no frou-frou object. It’s a utilitarian piece of furniture designed to stand up to rigorous use — and yet it’s a thing of beauty.
Where did it come from? I happened across it on eBay a few years back via a seller in upstate New York, not the UK. Once I spotted that slung-back aluminum leg, I was hooked. These chairs are tough to find in the states — believe me, I’ve tried since lucking across this one. They do, however, turn up upon occasion on ebay.co.uk.
Circa? Post-war. The design dates to 1948.
Interesting tidbit:
There were also adult-sized chairs, some in molded ply and others vinyl covered…
james w leonard chair for adults | salvonews.com/uk
and a gorgeous stacking table that’s to die for…
james w leonard table for esavian | referencelibrary.blogspot.com
Much to-do has been made about whether Leonard or Jean Prouvé first designed what’s come to be termed as the “compass leg.” As I understand it — from what I’ve read — Leonard’s design predates Prouvé’s by a few years. But what do I know anyway?
Want to see a few other perfect things I’ve dug up while sifting through our premodel mess? I can show you a vintage aluminum clock we hope to have a place to hang someday and a vintage steel sculpture David’s grandfather made that deserves an eventual special spot.
Yay, it’s Friday! That means I’m pulling another 70s TV show board game out of my insanely packed closet to take another whiff of vintage with you. Ready? This week: Welcome Back, Kotter. Breathe it in…
Object: Be your favorite Sweathog and be the first to complete the expression “Up your nose with a rubber hose!”
For those who may not have seen the show (omg), “Up your nose…” was their go-to insult. The game comes with a green hose but no warning to not actually shove this object in your schnoz.
If you’d like to hum the theme song while you scroll, here it is.
I can’t explain how I ended up with all these ’70s TV show board games. They’re cool, sure (and remarkably cheesy), but I have no room for them. Should I keep them? Help me decide! This week: Charlie’s Angels.
Object: Trap the villain with your beautiful team of Angels. After three games, the player with the most points wins.
omg, roller skates!
That’s from the infamous roller derby episode. Here, in all its feathered and bra-less glory.
and this picture, ftw?…
From the outset of the show, they pushed hard for Kelly to be the hottie — she snagged all the best shots, even in this game…
But I think we all know who the real star was…
