Tag Archives: popular culture

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:

1970s Hair Styles

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I recently got a big stack of vintage Teen magazines from 1970-1976 and as you’d expect they’re a wealth of style inspiration and style warnings. Some of the most interesting fashion tips are in regard to how to do your hair, so without further ado here are some hair styles from the 1970s! Which is your favorite?

1970shair11 1970shair10 1970shair9 1970shair8 1970shair7 1970shair6 1970shair5 1970shair4 1970shair2

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Cult Films: The First Wives Club

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First Wives Club screencap by Saturday's Child Blog

If you squealed like I did when Jennifer Lawrence proclaimed that her new golden globe award had an inscription that said “I beat Meryl” odds are good you are already well acquainted with today’s cult movie. The First Wives Club was released in 1996 and is such a glorious ’90s film that at one point Goldie Hawn brings a cigarette up to her recently collagen-injected lips and actually says:

The movie stars Goldie Hawn as a washed up sexpot actress panicked by being middle aged, Bette Midler as a slightly overweight single mother who works part time for an interior decorator, and Diane Keaton as a neurotic emotional doormat obsessed with the idea that therapy will bring her husband back to her. It’s a pretty grim beginning, even more so when we learn that all three of them have husbands who left them for younger women. After being brought together by the suicide of a college friend, they decide to band together to get revenge on their former spouses.  In the best tradition of late twentieth century chick flicks this involves zany situation set-ups, biting one liners, cringe-worthy misunderstandings, and a good old fashioned sing-along. Damn I love a movie like that!

The thing I love most about this movie is how it teeters (and sometimes…okay, often falls into) stereotypes. Diane Keaton’s on screen daughter is a lesbian who vehemently hates men and through her we get to see the movie version of  a ’90s gay club which, as you might expect, is funny for perhaps not the right reasons. And I can’t help but love that when the characters get their act together and renovate a building to create a space to help women in need it’s in a montage to the song “Sisters Are Doin’ It For Themselves.” I hate to say I expect a certain amount of stereotypical scenes in movies like this but if I check my political correctness meter at the door (not an easy task) I think any possibly cringe-worthy moments are balanced by the sincerity of the characters, the wit of the script, and how much the three main characters care for each other. At the end of the day (which is when I usually need to watch a movie like this) it’s a feel-good “chick flick”, but the absolute best kind because it leaves you with a feeling of hope without killing off any characters or giving anyone cancer. For the most part even the bad guys have happy endings, which is more generous than most movies with a similar theme. And so, to celebrate the ’90s movie idea of feminism, here’s a song to play us out:

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Cult Movies: Clue

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The VHS cover of Clue (source)

It’s an odd idea to translate a board game into a movie and it doesn’t always work (Battleship, anyone?). However, the game Clue (Cluedo if you’re not in North America) benefits from the fact that there’s already a full plot line in the game that needs little more than a bit of character development to turn it into a full fledged film. It was the first movie to be based on a board game and while it didn’t do particularly well at the box office it’s become a cult classic for, among other things, its campy nature, consciously ridiculous plot, and expertly acted characters.

The plot revolves around the idea that all of the film’s characters were brought together because they were being blackmailed by a man named Mr. Boddy. After they’re served dinner, each of them is given a weapon by their blackmailer. Suddenly, the lights go off and when they’re turned back on Mr. Boddy is lying still on the floor and is pronounced dead. This sets off the movie’s events which, as the tagline for the film says, amounts to “seven suspects, six weapons, five bodies, and three endings.”

A title card from the end of Clue

A title card from the end of Clue

One of my favorite things about Clue is that it has three different endings to reflect possible outcomes of the board game. In its initial release, each theater was given a different version of the film so that the ending would be different depending on where you saw the film. In syndication and home video release, however, there’s a version of the film that includes all three endings and shows you how it could have happened a few different ways (which is the version I prefer since it references and makes fun of the movie being based on a game with variable outcomes).

The cast of Clue (source)

The cast of Clue (source)

The casting for this movie is also excellent. Madeline Kahn, Christopher Lloyd, Martin Mull, Tim Curry, everyone fits their roll so well and knows how to make it funny by playing it straight, which is the best way to play it in this kind of movie. And Madeline Khan’s description of jealousy is one of my favorite ad-libs ever:

Flames on the side of my face

Bonus: as I write this in March, 2013 “Clue” is on Netflix, so if you have an account go and watch it!

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.