Bring back some good or bad memories


June 28, 2019

Cool Pics Show Bowling Advertisements From the 1960s

Here is a small set of cool pictures that shows bowling ads from Belle-Aire Lanes in West Caldwell, New Jersey from 1963-64.

Billy 'G' Checks Follow-Through

'Bowling Still Looks Like More Fun!'

Champion Bowler

Champion Doris Porter on the Line

Curve Ball in the Strike Path





Frances Farmer: Talented But Tragic Beauty Who Has Inspired Music and Cinema

The life of actress Frances Farmer has been subject to dramatic fictionalization. But the truth of her life is much darker.

Born in 1913, a native of Seattle, Washington, Farmer began acting in stage productions while a student at the University of Washington. After graduating, she began performing in stock theater before signing a film contract with Paramount Pictures on her twenty-second birthday in September 1935.

Farmer made her film debut in the B film Too Many Parents (1936), followed by another B picture, Border Flight, before being given the lead role opposite Bing Crosby in the musical western, Rhythm on the Range (1936).


Unhappy with the opportunities given to her by the studio, Farmer returned to stock theater in 1937 before being cast in the original Broadway production of Clifford Odets's Golden Boy, staged by New York City's Group Theatre. She followed this with two Broadway productions directed by Elia Kazan in 1939, but a battle with depression and binge drinking caused her to drop out of a subsequent Ernest Hemingway stage adaptation.

Farmer returned to Los Angeles, earning supporting roles in the comedy World Premiere (1941) and the film noir Among the Living (1941). In 1942, publicity of her reportedly erratic behavior began to surface, and after several arrests and committals to psychiatric institutions, Farmer was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia. At the request of her family, particularly her mother, she was relocated to an institution in her home state of Washington, where she remained a patient until 1950.

Farmer attempted an acting comeback, mainly appearing as a television host in Indianapolis on her own series, Frances Farmer Presents. Her final film role was in the 1958 drama The Party Crashers, after which she spent the majority of the 1960s occasionally performing in local theater productions staged by Purdue University.

In the spring of 1970, she was diagnosed with esophageal cancer, of which she died several months later, aged 56.

Farmer has been the subject of various works, including two feature films and several books, many of which focus heavily on her time spent institutionalized, during which she claimed to have been subject to various systemic abuses.

In 1982, Jessica Lange portrayed Farmer in the feature film Frances; the film depicts Farmer undergoing a lobotomy, the validity of which has been disputed in subsequent years. The following year, a television adaptation of Farmer's autobiography, Will There Really Be a Morning, was released with Susan Blakely portraying her. Another feature film based on her life, Committed, was produced in 1984.

In music, she is portrayed in the songs "Ugly Little Dreams" (1985) by Everything but the Girl, "Frances Farmer Will Have Her Revenge on Seattle" (1993) by Nirvana, and "Frances Farmer" by Patterson Hood. Additionally she is mentioned in "Lobotomy Gets Them Home" (1989) on the Silvertown album by The Men They Couldn't Hang. She was also the subject of a stage play by Sally Clark titled Saint Frances of Hollywood (1996).

Take a look at these glamorous photos to see the beauty of young Frances Farmer in the 1930s and 1940s.










Brooke Shields’ 1980 Calvin Klein Commercials

At 15-years-old, Brooke Shields had already risen to stardom as a young actress and model in the 1980s. But, when she was recruited by designer Calvin Klein to appear in a series of overtly sexy print and television ads (shot by Richard Avedon) for his new line of super-tight jeans, she became infamous for uttering the flirtatious line: “Do you know what comes between me and my Calvins? Nothing.”


Unfortunately, a scandalized America didn’t consider Shields’ appearance in the ads, looking much more mature than a mere 15-year-old “nothing”. In fact, the ads caused a public uproar, making negative publicity as much a part of the marketing effort as the ads themselves. Though the commercial was banned by ABC and CBS in New York, Klein himself didn’t back down from his choice.



The buzz around the first-ever high-fashion designer denim collection only boosted sales for the brand. It also landed Brooke Shields more fame and fortune. In 1981 alone, she was on the cover of over 30 magazines.

Before her iconic – and scandalous – Calvin Klein ad campaign, Shields was no stranger to controversy. She played a 12-year-old prostitute in Pretty Baby (1978) and was nude in 1980’s The Blue Lagoon. She went on to star in 1981’s Endless Love, but put a hold on her acting career to attend Princeton University in 1988. In 1996 Shields landed a hit television show, “Suddenly Susan,” in 1996 and has continued to act and model.






June 27, 2019

30 Extraordinary Hiroshi Nagai Paintings That Define the Visual Language of ’80s City Pop

Japanese painter Hiroshi Nagai started his career in King Terry’s studio and made a name for himself in the early ’80s. His depictions of West Coast America during the ’50s worked wonders during Japan’s economic boom from the 80s. There was also a new genre to tie it all together: City Pop.


The easiest way to explain City Pop is to imagine soft rock meeting soft pop with sunshine and swimming pools. And sprinkle a bit of the 80s as a garnish. Metaphors aside, the genre was very popular in Japan and Nagai’s poolside paintings were the perfect visual aid.

Some of his influences include Rene Magritte and Salvador Dali, but pop art also had a significant effect on his art.

“Without American pop art I would not have to start painting the way I did,” said Hiroshi Nagai. “This experience made me paint my summer skies as deep blues from that point on. That said, surrealism was also a big influence, and of course hyper-realism.”










20 Beautiful Photos of Rick James and Linda Blair in Their Early Dating Days in 1982

In a 1982 interview accompanying a topless pictorial in Oui magazine, actress Linda Blair, 23, revealed that she found Rick James "very sexy." James, who was shown the piece by a member of his retinue, returned the compliment through an intermediary.

James contacted her and spent time getting to know the actress during a short stint living at the Chateau Marmont in Hollywood. They dated for two years from 1982 to 1984.

James wrote his hit song "Cold Blooded" about her. Speaking on their relationship in his book Glow: The Autobiography of Rick James, he says “Linda was incredible. A free spirit. A beautiful mind. A mind-blowing body. She liked getting high and getting down as much as I did. It was about how Linda could freeze my blood. We posed topless for a photograph that showed up everywhere. We didn't care. We were doing our own thing our own way. It was a love affair that I hope would last. It didn't.”

James revealed that he found Blair had been pregnant by him and had an abortion without his knowledge.

Here below is a photo set that shows beautiful moments of Rick James and Linda Blair in 1982, the first year they dated.










Vintage Mobile Home Kitchen Designs From the Late 1950s and 1960s

The late 1950s and early 1960s was a successful time for mobile homes. Record sales were broken year after year, and waiting lists for buyers were a common occurrence.


There are several reasons why the manufacturers enjoyed high sales and record profits during this time. One of the main reasons was the countries healthy economy. The nation was experiencing a dramatic growth – the big wars were over, the factories were hiring and the middle class was thriving. Two generations were leading the sales; retirees and young couples that had just enough credit to buy a new mobile home. Each group wanted the latest trends and modern conveniences but at an affordable price and mobile homes gave them exactly what they wanted.

The builders also played a large role in their own success. They focused on offering the consumers the latest trends and endless options. There were so many mobile home builders in the nation that the competitive market required the companies to continuously offer bigger and better homes just to stay in business. They had to offer new and improved, year after year and before their competitors did. ‘Cutthroat’ was one industry insider’s word to describe it. Fortunately, most of them met the demand with unique designs and original floor plans. Every year a completely new design or style was added to the lineup. If one builder released a new floor plan, three other builders would offer the same within the year. It was a cutthroat industry, but it was all-American, and the designs that came from that era are still popular more than half a century later.


The Standard Straight Line Mobile Home Kitchen

The inline or straight line kitchen was the most typical design found in mobile homes since the first modern home was wheeled out of the factory. It was situated close to the middle of the home and often separated the living room from the sleeping quarters. It had the entire kitchen on one side of the home so that the other side could be used for dining. The front door was often positioned close.

Below are several straight line kitchens from 1955 to 1959. A small dining area usually set on one side and a continuous kitchen on the other side. A small built-in cabinet usually separated the kitchen from the living room.

Silver Star Mobile Home Kitchen, 1955

Straight Line Kitchen – American Mobile Home Corporation, 1955

American Coach Kitchen – American President Model

Straight Line Kitchen in an Anderson Mobile Home, 1959

VIP by General Mobile Home Kitchen, 1959








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