Tag Archives: 1960s

All Alone at the ’64 World’s Fair

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The Unisphere at the 1964 World's Fair from Wiki Commons

The Unisphere at the 1964 World’s Fair (from Wiki Commons)

There’s a line in the They Might Be Giants song “Ana Ng” that goes “all alone at the ’64 World’s Fair, 80 dolls yelling ‘small girl after all’. Who was at the DuPont Pavilion? Why was the bench still warm? Who had been there?” That line plays in my mind sometimes (okay, a lot of the time) and it sparked my interest in finding out more about the 1964 World’s Fair.

World's Fair charm bracelet from Unrehearsed Kickline

World’s Fair souvenir charm bracelet from Unrehearsed Kickline

The fair opened in Flushing Meadows, Queens, New York in April, 1964 and ran through October, 1965 with a break during the winter months. This was the third World’s Fair to be hosted by New York City and had the dual theme of “peace through understanding” and “Man’s achievement on a shrinking globe in an expanding universe.” The Unisphere, a 12 story high sculpture of the earth that still stands today, represented this idea. In reality, “man’s achievement” was largely represented by corporations with their own pavilions to showcase their products and revel in the optimistic future of the space age. I’ll admit that’s one of the many reasons I love the idea of the fair. The relationship between consumers and corporations has changed dramatically in the years since the fair and I love the idea of getting excited to go to a corporation’s pavilion to see its upcoming products and hear how my life would be improved by owning them. It’s a form of advertising that doesn’t exist in the same way anymore, and things like that always catch my interest.

New York World's Fair Dinosaur

Who wouldn’t love visiting a fair with a big dinosaur? (from Gorillas Don’t Blog)

The name “World’s Fair” is a bit of a misnomer since many countries chose not to participate in the event for reasons you can easily look up elsewhere. Still, there was a legitimate international element to the fair as a handfull of nations like Japan, Ireland, Spain, and Austria had a presence in both exhibits and concessions. Some of the more fun exhibitions from the United States included a dolphin show from Florida, a scale model of New York City, and the world’s largest cheese which was, of course, provided by Wisconsin. The commercially run pavilion to gross the most money during the fair’s run was, believe it or not, the Gay New Orleans Night Club which put on a show headlined by Go-Go dancer Candy Johnson (who would become the subject of the Strangelove’s song “I Want Candy” and who is also known for appearing in ’60s Beach Party movies).

A scene from Disney's Carousel of Progress

A scene from Disney’s Carousel of Progress (source)

A notable influence at the fair was none other than Walt Disney. Many of what are now considered classic experiences at Disneyland were created for the 1964 World’s Fair, including the Carousel of Progress, Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln, and the infamous It’s a Small World ride. The audio animatronics perfected for the fair would later contribute to the development of other popular rides at Disneyland, like the Haunted Mansion and Pirates of the Caribbean. Walt showcased his company’s exhibits at the fair in a broadcast called “Disneyland Goes to the World’s Fair.” If you want to see that, some kind soul has uploaded it online for your enjoyment:

And now, to bring things to a fun end, here’s Miss Perpetual Motion herself Candy Johnson dancing during the closing credits of Beach Party to give you an idea of why her appearance brought in so much money. Damn that girl can dance:

How to Do Mad Men Women’s Hair and Makeup

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The new season of Mad Men is premiering this weekend (hooray!!!) and whether you’re going to a viewing party or just want to dress the part at home here are some tutorials to help you do your hair and makeup for this Sunday! P.S.– this post is for the ladies, but if you’re looking to get your Don Draper style on check out this guide from ManMade.

The Hair

If you’re going for Joan’s bouffant style here’s an easy to follow tutorial:

If you’re more in the mood for an easy curl like Betty has this tutorial will show you how:

This video will give you the instructions you need to replicate Peggy Olson’s bouffant and flip:

The Makeup

Megan Draper’s bold makeup is fabulous and this youtube video does a great job showing how it’s done:

Interested in a more classic look? Here’s a tutorial inspired by Joan’s 5th season makeup:

And the song of the moment is…

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Daily Nightly by The Monkees

I’m a green wool hat owning fan of The Monkees so it was bound to happen sooner or later that one of their songs would be the song of the moment under the “music” tab at the top of this blog. It was hard to narrow it down, believe me!

Daily Nightly is from the 1967 album Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn, & Jones Ltd. and was written by Mike Nesmith. The music video above was created for their TV series and was shown at the end of the episodes “Monkees Blow Their Minds” and “Fairy Tale.” It’s thought to be the first use of a Moog synthesizer in a pop song, which is not surprising since Mickey Dolenz was one of the first people to own a Moog. Below are the lyrics, which wikipedia plausibly suggests are inspired by the Sunset Strip curfew riot of 1966.

Dark and rolling figures move through prisms of no color.
Hand in hand, they walk the night,
But never know each other.
Passion cast in neon lights light up the jeweled traveler
Who, lost in scenes of smoke filled dreams,
Find questions, but no answers.

Startled eyes that sometimes see phantasmagoric splendor
Pirouette down palsied paths
With pennies for the vendor.
Salvation’s yours for just the time it takes to pay the dancer.
And once again such anxious men
Find questions, but no answers.

The night has gone and taken it’s infractions,
While deadened eyes hope there will be a next one.

Terror signs look down upon a world that glitters glibly.
And mountain sides put arms around
The unsuspecting city.
Second hands that minds have slowed are moving even faster
Toward bringing down someone who’s found
The questions, but no answers.

 

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Three ways to lose weight in the 1960s

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The pressure for people to lose weight is timeless, but the methods people use to do it vary from decade to decade and from the reasonable to the ridiculous. Here are three of my favorite methods for weight-loss from the decade that gave us Twiggy, sauna suits, and amphetamine fetishism.

The sleep cure

This is a favorite of mine because it plays a minor part of the plot of one of my favorite novels, Valley of the Dolls. The idea behind the treatment is that you’re given drugs to sedate you into a deep sleep that lasts a week, during which time you’re given enough food to sustain you but not enough to cause you to gain weight. At the end of the week you’re meant to awake refreshed and a little bit lighter. In Valley of the Dolls, Jennifer North undergoes the sleep cure and loses 12 pounds over the course of 8 days.

The Trim Twist

Do you like dancing? Do you want to lose weight? You might think you can simply combine your love of dance with your desire to shed a few pounds but you’d be wrong! This is the 1960s and you have to wear a cute outfit, do your hair, and use a special piece of exercise equipment to do the twist. Trust us, you need this 10″x9″ piece of pastel styrene or you won’t get anything done.

Diet food

This is a bit of a cheat because diet food isn’t limited to the 1960s, but the decade did have an influx of specially marketed diet food that I find quite interesting. For example, sacharine, an artificial sweetener discovered in the 1800s, began showing up in everything during this time, particularly diet soft drinks. The forerunner of the SlimFast shake, known as the Metrecal Diet Shake, also hit the market in the early 1960s and in Betty Friedan’s 1963 book The Feminine Mystique she notes that “[women] ate a chalk called Metrecal, instead of food, to shrink to the size of thin young models.” Sounds delicious.

Mixed Sensory Sunday: The Monkees and Andy Warhol

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The Monkees’ feature film Head is strange and although I personally love the movie I acknowledge that there are perhaps more layers to it than I recognize. I had read somewhere that Andy Warhol had attended the gala for the premier of Head and I wondered if, considering Warhol’s own films, there were any references in the Monkees’ movie. I had counted two possible references, myself, one of which has been widely noted elsewhere. Of course, I mean the connection between the title and advertising of Head (1968) and Warhol’s film Blowjob (1963). For those who don’t know about that, the film Blowjob focuses on the facial expressions of a man who is, well, receiving a blowjob. Part of the advertisement for Head has a similar look (around 49 seconds in the clip below):

The one thing I couldn’t find any information about (and perhaps I was just looking in the wrong places) was the silver mylar balloons from Mike’s birthday scene:

Mylar balloons head scene (via In the Usual Way)

The balloons looked familiar to me but I couldn’t place it until I went looking for similar ones for my birthday and re-discovered the same helium filled mylar pillows in this picture:

Andy Warhol Silver Clouds, 1966

Andy Warhol – Silver Clouds, 1966

As I said, I couldn’t find any information about the connection (if you have some, please point me in the direction of it in the comments!) but for now it’s just another layer of the movie to appreciate. The Silver Clouds installation is recreated at The Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh if you’d like to see it in person and you can learn more about the inspiration behind the exhibit at the educational section of their website here.

Edit: Here is a film of the Silver Clouds in motion with music that’s similar to the scene where the mylar pillows appear in Head (around 59 minutes into the movie). I love connections like this!

Vintage style: big 1960s hairstyles

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Dolly Parton

Dolly Parton (source)

I have been watching every 1960s popular television show I can get my hands on to gain inspiration from their wardrobe and along the way have also gained admiration for their hair styles. Although the simple bouffant is my favorite, I absolutely adore the ladies who rock a bouffant that’s just a bit bigger or a beehive that you could store your purse in.

early 1960s beehive

early 1960s beehive (source)

The Marvelettes

The Marvelettes (source)

Priscilla Presley

Priscilla Presley (source)

Ronnie Spector

Ronnie Spector (source)

Dusty Springfield

Dusty Springfield (source)

Barbara Parkins

Barbara Parkins (source)

Patty Duke

Patty Duke (source)

Mugshot, 1967

Mugshot, 1967 (source)

Incidentally, how awesome are women in vintage mug shots? Somehow the look of utter apathy and disgust seems classier when your hair is neatly formed and your dress is stylish as hell.

Mixed Sensory Sunday: Screaming Lord Sutch

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Screaming Lord Sutch (whose full title was Screaming Lord Sutch, 3rd Earl of Harrow) was an English musician whose music and stage show were built on the idea of theatrical horror. Lord Sutch’s most popular song was “Jack the Ripper,” a character he often dressed as on stage. Below is a performance of “Jack the Ripper” from 1964:

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Screaming Lord Sutch (whose real name was David Edward Sutch) was active in politics beginning in the 1960s. He stood as a representative in parliamentary elections first for the National Teenage Party and later for the Official Monster Raving Looney Party, which he founded in 1983. He paid for his campaigns by performing concerts and contested more than 40 elections in all (though predictably without major results).

Screaming Lord Sutch in his political garb

Screaming Lord Sutch in his political garb (source)

Vintage Style: 1960s hair styles

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My friend and I are skipping the Halloween parties today in favor of watching a triple feature of Poltergeist, Beyond the Valley of the Dolls, and House on Haunted Hill. This will be my friend’s first time seeing Beyond the Valley of the Dolls so I’ve been been looking up 1960s hairstyles to help me dress up for the occasion! Here are some of my favorites:

Short mod hairstyles (via In the Usual Way)

Twiggy, Mary Quant, Edie Sedgwick, and Mia Farrow (source: 1, 2, 3, 4)

I’m rocking this look at the moment so I can’t help but list it first. This short cropped and often asymmetrically parted hair style gained popularity in the mod scene thanks to the legendary British hairdresser Vidal Sassoon. His haircuts emphasized a low maintenance approach to styling so if you’re going for the short mod look you’re really going for a sort of neatly parted bed head style. When I do this style I wash and blowdry my hair the night before and when I wake up I brush it straight and then add the “bed head” effect by tousling the hair from the roots up with my fingertips. It’s easy and adorable and a perfect summer/early fall style.

Bouffant style (via In the Usual Way)

Dolly Read, Julie Newmar, Ronnie Spector, Jacqueline Kennedy (source: 1, 2, 3, 4)

A bouffant is a style that has the hair piled high at the back and hanging down on the sides. The bouffant was stylish in the 1960s to the point that even First Lady of the United States wore her hair that way. This was also a favorite hairstyle of the girl groups of the 1960s, which inspired Amy Winehouse’s signature look. There are a few different ways to achieve a bouffant. One involves using padding that’s the same color as your hair to give you a lift (it really depends on how big you want the bouffant to be. There devices like this one that provide just a bit of lift but you can also get “hair rats,” which are basically sponges in netting and you can buy them at a beauty supply store like Sally Beauty). The traditional way, though, is to tease your hair. If you do choose this method, remember to carefully brush out and condition your hair afterward because this is, as you’d expect, not the healthiest thing to do to your hair. There’s a great, easy video tutorial by Cherry Dollface here that shows you how to do a Ronnettes style bouffant with a side ponytail, and you can get a good video tutorial on how to cheat a bouffant hairstyle here (I use this method when I do a bouffant but I tease my hair before I put in the elastic).

Flat iron and fringe hairstyles from the '60s (via In the Usual Way)

Cher, Nico, Grace Slick, and Marianne Faithful (source: 1, 2, 3, 4)

This is the most simple style on the list. As you can see it’s been worn by some awesome women in the past and to create it in the present all you need is a hair straightener and some bangs. What could be easier?

Honorable mention: The Beehive. Totally not my style so I tend to avoid it, but the Beehive is undeniably a 1960s hairdo. If you want a good tutorial about how to create a beehive without destroying your hair try this one from A Beautiful Mess.

If you’re curious as to what I chose for my style of the evening I went with the last style with the help of a wig from Dorothy’s Boutique in Boston.

Aubin 1960s dress-up (In the Usual Way)

1960s singer or 2012 hipster?

Vintage Style: Boots

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At a party recently I was wearing a vintage dress that I’d paired with some white pleather knee-high boots. While I received many compliments about the dress it was the boots I heard the most about– there’s just something about knee-high boots (and white boots specifically) that scream 1960s fashion in the best way. In honor of that, here are some pictures of my favorite 1960s boot wearing ladies!

Cass Elliot in white boots

Cass Elliot

Yoko Ono in black knee-high boots

Yoko Ono

 

Mary Quant in white boots

Mary Quant

Phyllis Nesmith in white boots (from Psycho Jello)

Phyllis Nesmith

Nico in white boots

Nico

The Shangri-Las wearing boots

The Shangri-Las

Marianne Faithfull wearing boots

Marianne Faithfull

Image credits: Cass Elliot, Yoko Ono, Mary Quant, Phyllis Nesmith,  Nico, The Shangri-Las, Marianne Faithfull

Mixed Sensory Sunday: Fontella Bass

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It always surprises me and leaves me slightly embarrassed when I realize I’ve been singing the wrong lyrics to songs, mixing up dates, or saying someone’s name wrong. At the same time, it’s a good opportunity to share my “fail” with everyone so they can learn from it too. Recently, I discovered that a song I loved and thought had been sung by Aretha Franklin (and in fact I had an Aretha Franklin compilation that said so) was not actually performed by her. The song “Rescue Me,” which many think of as one of Aretha Franklin’s greatest hits, was actually co-written and sung by a woman named Fontella Bass. While Aretha Franklin has done a version of the song, the original was sung by Fontella Bass three years before Aretha Franklin had her first big hit.

Fontella Bass performing “Rescue Me” on the show “Shindig!” in November, 1965

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In 1989, a jukebox owned by John Lennon was sold at Christie’s. The jukebox was purchased by John in 1965 and included some older songs, but also notable songs of the period. “Rescue Me” by Fontella Bass was the only song by a woman included in the jukebox’s playlist. You can read a full list fo the 45s in the jukebox by clicking here.

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“Rescue Me” was Fontella Bass’s only hit. She recorded and released music with little success before entering semi-retirement from the industry in the 1970s. In 1990, Fontella heard “Rescue Me” being used in an American Express commercial and was motivated to look into getting the money she was owed not only as the performer of the song but as the co-writer. She successfully sued American Express and others and was awarded $50,000 and punitive damages as well as gaining the rights to the song that had made her famous.

I couldn’t find many good quality photos of Fontella Bass, so enjoy this awesome picture of her from darkjive.com