Living Mannequins on London’s Carnaby Street in 1966

Lady Jane was the first women’s fashion boutique on London’s Carnaby Street. It was opened by Henry Moss and his partner Harry Fox in April 1966.

On May 11, 1966, Fox had a pair of models take part in a risqué publicity stunt in the boutique’s window. The two models, Diane James and Jina Baker, became living mannequins by changing in the shop window for three days.

The shop gained great publicity from the national press, and attracted the attention of crowds of potential customers by having models changing in the shop window for three days. Henry Moss was quoted as saying “Then I got arrested. I thought it was for indecency, although the girls were wearing underwear. I was tried at Gt. Marlborough Street Court and fined £2 for obstructing the highway.” A visit by Jayne Mansfield garnered further publicity.

Take a look at the publicity stunt through these vintage pictures below:

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Flashback to the Glory Days of American Malls in the 1980s

In the winter of 1989, 20-year-old photographer Michael Galinsky began driving across the country to document the seismic change in shopping malls, which at the time were central to American culture. They represented suburban consumerism in its most basic form and provided a place for families and teens to shop and socialize.

These pictures lay forgotten until Galinsky revisited his work in 2010. Initially posted online, the interest in his photos suddenly exploded. After a successful Kickstarter campaign, Galinsky’s selected work was published in the book Malls Across America by the renowned publisher Steidl in 2013.

In 2018, Galinsky decided to revisit his archive once more, aware that there was still a strong appetite for the project. “That book is now very expensive, and it didn’t include all the work by any means. So this summer I did a Kickstarter to raise funds to print an entirely new book with no repeat images.” Galinsky described his book The Decline of Mall Civilization. “It’s a very different book in that it is almost entirely double page spreads where the pictures play off of each other. I’m so happy that people keep finding meaning in the work. (and themselves!)”

Take a look back at the glory days of shopping malls and the style of shoppers that defined a generation through these 35 fascinating color pictures taken by Galinsky in 1989:

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Fascinating Vintage Photos of People Shopping For Christmas in 1962

Take a look at people shopping for Christmas season at Saks Fifth Avenue in 1962 through 14 fascinating vintage photographs taken by LIFE photographer Yale Joel:

 

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Vintage Photographs of the Biggest Holiday Shopping Season at Macy’s in 1948

Even though the term Black Friday did not come into wide use until the 1980s, images of rowdy stampedes of eager shoppers have become typical on the day after Thanksgiving. Such a major event on the American retail calendar, the buzzing atmosphere of the biggest holiday shopping season was vividly shown through images of preparations at Macy’s – then the world’s biggest department store – for the 1948 occasion, which involved 14,000 employees to get 400,000 items ready for 250,000 anxious customers.

“Planning entailed both logistical and motivational efforts. At a giant pep rally, the morale of staff members was lifted by a harmonious rendition of ‘Jingle Bells.’ Telephone operators prepared to respond to as many as six questions per minute. Plainclothes employee detectives trained to spot shoplifters from among the hordes. And clerks readied themselves to handle fluid pricing on that year’s hottest items from striped pajamas to ‘simulated’ pearls to Macy’s house-brand Scotch which fluctuated as many as five times per day as reports of competitors’ pricing came in,” is how LIFE magazine describe the 1948 season at the store. 

Take a look through 18 black and white photographs taken by LIFE photographer Nina Leen:

An employee clearing the package chute with his body.

An employee plowing through a pile of costume pearl necklaces that she will sell.

Scene outside Macy's during the biggest holiday shopping season.

People gathering in the entrance.

Shoppers waiting to be allowed on the floor.

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What It Costs to Be a Well-Dressed Clubman in 1926

Just about anyone loves to sigh over that elegant ’20s evening wear, from the silk top hats to the dresses dripping with pearls. Here’s a breakdown on how much it took for your average male movie star to look like the Toast of the Town:

The male of the species is prone to tear his hair, moan in a loud tone of voice and otherwise register grief in large quantities when his wife’s bills for millinery and evening gowns come rolling in about the first of the month.

Yet, when the masculine fashion plate steps forth correctly attired for an evening at the opera or other formal functions, the combined cost of the various parts of his costume will easily equal the price tag on a new flivver coupé.

Ramon Novarro is noted in Hollywood for being correctly garbed on every conceivable occasion. It costs the star about $430 (about $6,100 in today money) to be outfitted as he is here––and the end is far from reached. Studs and links remain to be secured to complete the costume. The exact cost of these is a matter of individual preference ranging from a possible minimum of $25 or $50 to well into the thousands.

• High silk hat, familiarly known as a “topper,” $10
• Custom-tailored suit of black broadcloth, including trousers and swallow-tailed coat, $175
• Vest, or waistcoat, of white silk material, $25
• Gloves, also of white silk, $5
• Patent leather pumps, $15
• Opera top coat, of black broadcloth, $75
• White silk tie and bat-wing collar, $2.50
• Stiff-bosom shirt, of linen, $5
• White silk handker-chief, $3
• Socks, plain black and of heavy silk, $2.50
• Walking stick, $12
Total cost of outfit, minus studs and links is $430

(The image is extracted from a 1926 issue of Motion Picture Classic, via Silent-ology)

Supermarkets in the Mid-20th Century Through Fascinating Vintage Photos

In the middle of the century, supermarkets began to dominate the task of supplying food to the nation's consumers and that affected farmers and consumers in both good and bad ways.

Supermarkets had actually begun in the 1930s but the Depression and World War II had slowed their growth somewhat. By the 50s, all of the elements to produce dominance came together.

By the 1950s, supermarket chains brought in about 35 percent of the food-retailing dollar – and food retailing was the America's largest business. By the 1960s, that market share jumped to 70 percent of the food retail business.

Supermarkets were also spending huge sums on advertising. Between 1950 and 1964, advertising for food quadrupled, a much greater increase than any other industry. One advertising practice came in for particular criticism, contests and trading stamp programs. By the end of the decade, those programs were suspended at most chains.

Take a look at these fascinating black and white photos to see what supermarkets looked like in the 1950s and 1960s.

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Inside the Dayton's Grand Forks in the Early 1980s Through Amazing Pics

Columbia Mall (Grand Forks) is an enclosed regional shopping mall in Grand Forks, North Dakota located at the intersection of 32nd Avenue South and Columbia Road. The mall opened in 1978, and was developed by the Dayton Hudson Corporation (now Target Corporation) at a cost of roughly $20 million.

It is the largest mall within 70 miles (110 km). Located 80 miles (128.7 km) from the Canada–US border and 140 miles (225 km) from Winnipeg, the mall draws a significant number of customers from Canada.

Today, Columbia Mall houses two department stores (JCPenney and Scheels), a 430-seat food court, and more than 70 specialty merchant spaces. GK Development, Inc. of Barrington, Illinois, is the current owner of the mall.

These amazing color pics from Craig Gustafson captured inside the Dayton's Grand Forks in 1983.

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April 10, 1633: Bananas Went on Display in Thomas Johnson's Shop in London, It Was the First Time the Fruit Was Seen

The British today love bananas: annual per capita consumption is 12kg, which equates to two bananas per person per week. We spend more on bananas than on any other item from supermarket shelves. Yet until refrigerated ships were available they were little known in this country, their wide commercialization dating from the early 20th century.

England got its first glimpse of the banana when herbalist, botanist and merchant Thomas Johnson displayed a bunch in his shop in Holborn, in the City of London, on April 10, 1633. He included a woodcut of a large bunch of the fruit in his 1633 edition of John Gerard ’s The Herball or Generall Historie of Plantes. It is believed that Johnson’s bananas came from Bermuda, though how they managed to reach this country in a fit state for display is not known.

Johnson was an interesting figure, highly esteemed as a herbalist and physician, who died as a result of wounds he received during the siege of Basing House during the Civil War .

Thomas Johnson’s illustration of his banana plant from The Herball or Generall Historie of Plantes.

Page 1516 of the Johnson edition of The Herball or Generall Historie of Plantes.

A recent find by archaeologists excavating a pit in London makes in intriguing addendum to Johnson’s commercializing of the banana. A banana skin, dated at about 1500 was unearthed, tossed into what seems to have been a fish pond. The date probably means it came from West Africa, as the plant was only being introduced into the Caribbean at that time.

(via Information Britain)

Rocket Express Ride: Vintage Photos of Department Store Monorail for Kids in the U.S From the 1940s and 1950s

These monorails sized for kids, called the Rocket Express, that travel around and above the entire toy department (Toyland) from 1946 to 1984, along with the camera, piano and organ departments. Kids rode these monorails slowly around the toy department in view of all the toys. Adults would be hard-pressed to fit inside the enclosed cars that the children sat in as the ride operated.

It has been speculated that the original monorail was retired because it could not be maintained as a viable and safe children's ride. The ride was removed in 1984 and was saved from the salvage heap by a foresighted worker who called the curator of the Please Touch Museum located in the Centennial District of Philadelphia (Fairmount Park), where the ride now resides.

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Inside the Tom Thumb Supermarket in 1966 Through Vintage Snaps

Founded in 1948, Tom Thumb is a chain of supermarkets in the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex. It operates under the name Tom Thumb for traditional grocery stores and Flagship Tom Thumb for higher end stores in affluent areas.

The supermarket makes up part of the Southern division of Albertsons. When combined with sister chains Albertsons and Market Street, it is (as of May 2015) the number two supermarket group in the competitive Dallas/Fort Worth area (in terms of market share) behind Walmart.

The chain's distribution center is in Roanoke, Texas.

These vintage color snapshots show what the inside of the Tom Thumb supermarket looked like in 1966.

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Dec. 30, 1953: The First Compatible Color TV Sets Go on Sale for $1,000 (Around $9,500 Today)

On June 25, 1951, CBS broadcast the very first commercial color TV program. Unfortunately, nearly no one could watch it since most people had only black-and-white televisions.

In 1950, there were two companies vying to be the first to create color TVs –– CBS and RCA. When the FCC tested the two systems, the CBS system was approved, while the RCA system failed to pass because of low picture quality.

With the approval from the FCC on October 11, 1950, CBS hoped that manufacturers would start producing their new color TVs only to find nearly all of them resisting production. The more CBS pushed for production, the more hostile the manufacturers became.

RCA, on the other hand, was working on a system that would be compatible with black-and-white sets, they just needed more time to perfect their rotating-disk technology. In an aggressive move, RCA sent out 25,000 letters to television dealers condemning any of them that might sell CBS’s “incompatible, degraded” televisions. RCA also sued CBS, slowing down CBS’s advancement in the sale of color TVs.

In the meantime, CBS started “Operation Rainbow,” where they tried to popularize color television (preferably their color televisions). They placed color televisions in department stores and other places where large groups of people might gather. They also talked about manufacturing their televisions, if they had to.

On May 28, 1951, the Supreme Court upheld the FCC’s decision. But while CBS may have won the battle, it lost the color war. During the seven-month court battle, publicity from the case made consumers aware of CBS’ system incompatibility, while RCA increased its TV market share by 50 percent and was able to refine its color system. On December 17, 1953, the FCC reversed itself and announced a new NTSC color standard — essentially, the RCA system.

Two weeks later, RCA rushed out 200 prototype 15-inch Model 5 sets to its top dealers around the country for viewing parties of the upcoming New Year’s Day Rose Bowl Parade. NBC was broadcasting the parade in living color, the first nationwide color broadcast. The Model 5, which can be seen and watched at the Early TV Museum in Hilliard, OH, would become the factory-produced CT-100 priced at $1,000 (around $9,500 today) when it went on sale the following spring. Admiral also started selling its 15-inch C1617A color set the same day for $1,175 (around $11,000 today).

The RCA CT-100, introduced in March 1954, was the first mass-produced all-electronic color TV receiver. It's $1,000 price tag would be equivalent to about $9,500 in today’s dollars.

TIME magazine proclaimed color TV to be “the most resounding industrial flop of 1956.” It wasn’t until 1968 that most prime time shows on the three major networks were broadcast in color, and not until 1972 that sales of color TVs surpass those of black-and-white models.

A Man Sold His VHS Player on eBay and Got a Heartwarming Letter Back From the 86-Year-Old Buyer

They say one man’s trash is another man’s treasure. One 31-year-old St. Louis man learned that in the sweetest way.

In February 2019, a guy in Phoenix named Matt Shoukry sold a used VCR on eBay for 40 bucks. And the 86-year-old guy who bought it sent a hand-written thank-you note.

His first name is Don, and he’d never bought anything on eBay before. So he probably didn’t know you can leave feedback online.

In the letter, he explained that he’d recently found a bunch of old tapes, but didn’t have any way to watch them. So he thanked Matt for the prompt delivery... said the VCR was like new... and talked about all the videos he watched.

He said there was footage from his retirement party 25 years ago, which he’d never seen before. Adding, “Jeez, we were young.” And he was also able to watch his wedding video, and see a bunch of friends and family who are no longer with us. Some of his other tapes showed vacations and skiing trips with his kids. So he got to see them growing up.

Matt was so blown away by the letter, he’s framing it. He’s also writing Don back to say thank you. And he’s offering to digitize all his tapes for him, so they’re easier to watch.

I’m going to frame (the letter) and put it next to my desk in the house because it means a lot to me,” he told FOX 2. “I’m going to offer to digitize his videos so he doesn’t have to worry about his tapes degrading.

Here’s the transcript of the letter:

I found many old VHS tapes recently and wanted to see what is on them and realized I had no player. So I went to EBay for the first time and discovered your offer.

I bought your VHS and you shipped it within a few days. The VHS looks new and unused. Amazing. I had some issues getting it going which were mine and not the player. I am 86 and perhaps not up to my game, but I do get there eventually. And I did, and discovered the VHS works perfectly.

Thank you so much for your care, your efforts, and your promptness.

I watched tapes of my retirement party from 25 years ago which I had never seen before. Jeez, were we young. Then a tape of my wedding with all the family and friends, many of which are no longer around. Then skiing trips, kids growing up, travels, and most importantly the gentle maturing of my family. Each one more fun than the last. All thanks to your generous selling of the VHS player.

I thought you would appreciate how much someone has enjoyed your offer.

(via reddit)