Boom Pop!

Rock 'em Sock 'em Real Steel

2012-01-27T08:34:00.000-05:00

Boxing robots are by no means a new concept. The roots of this particular science fiction trope extend back into the mid-20th century popular culture that we celebrate here at Boom Pop! As early as 1933, Mickey Mouse trained a pugilist automaton in the cartoon short Mickey's Mechanical Man, and Rock 'em Sock 'em Robots were pretty much a staple of every boy boomer's toy collection throughout the 1960s and early 1970s. Therefore, it is no great surprise that the film Real Steel, arriving in home entertainment venues this week, while possessing all the underpinnings of a typically slick 21st century digital effects popcorn flick, it is in fact a more retro-celebratory return to those earlier era sensibilities. While not without some flaws (albeit certainly minor ones), it is a fun and very entertaining film.

The more direct inspiration for Real Steel also carries a mid-20th century pedigree. The film's story was very loosely based on the 1956 short story Steel by Richard Matheson, which the author later adapted into a popular episode of The Twilight Zone in 1964. Although over sized battling robots are certainly the centerpiece of the production, the focus of the film is the relationship between washed-up boxer and robot trainer Charlie Kenton and his estranged son Max. Max revives an old junkyard sparring robot named Atom, and with his father's initially reluctant help, makes a Rocky-inspired run for the Word Championship title. Hugh Jackman brings his usual leading man charm and machismo to the role of Charlie, while Dakota Goyo slightly overacts the part of Max, but thankfully to no great detriment.

The real charm of Real Steel lies in its homage to that aforementioned 20th century pop culture. Director Shawn Levy opted for more old fashioned and nostalgic settings such as fairgrounds, old boxing gyms and most especially the roadside Parkway Motel with its very distinct 1950s-era architecture. The film also possesses a Disney-esque sentimentality which it combines with some extraordinary (and now Oscar-nominated) animatronic and motion-capture effects for results both engaging and often visually stunning.

The Blu-ray edition of Real Steel is a well-packaged affair with a notable amount of bonus features, most especially Second Screen feature that has been previously included with a number of Disney Blu-ray releases. Second Screen is an additional interactive platform that provides supplemental content that is synchronized to the actual presentation of the film. Two such platforms are currently available, either an Apple iPad or a laptop computer. Second Screen comes to the iPad by way of a free application downloaded via the App Store. For the Mac or PC, it is a Flash-based interface streamed through Disney's web site.

Cinema Redux: Putting on the Ritz

2011-09-08T19:26:00.000-04:00

I have a passion for finding and photographing old and abandoned movie theaters. It is a subject I've been intending to feature here at Boom Pop! for quite some time. I have only recently started to actively pursue the matter, due in large part to the recent advances in technology as represented by Google Maps and its ever so resourceful street-view function.

I live just outside of Winston-Salem, North Carolina, a city almost completely bereft of its historical theaters. Even the Stevens Center for the Arts bears little resemblance to the Carolina Theatre, its original incarnation. But in the course of my research I did stumble upon a still standing vintage theater quite photogenic in its currently decaying state.

The Ritz is located in the northeast section of the city, near the intersection of Patterson Avenue and Greenway Avenue. It opened in 1968 and was likely a second-run, B-movie house; it debuted with a double feature of Duel at Diablo and Goliath and the Vampires.

Inset photo from Digital Forsyth collection.

Photo Retro! - The Central Hotel

2011-09-05T00:02:00.003-04:00

The Central Hotel occupied the upper floors of the John B. Ray Building in downtown Leaksville. Leaksville was one of three small towns that were combined to become the greater metropolitan area of Eden, located in central North Carolina just south of the Virginia border. Its now age-worn and broken neon sign could have been a set piece in a classic Hollywood film noir.

A vintage postcard shows the whole of the building; the entrance to the Central Hotel can be seen at the rear corner. The sign featured above remains hanging above that entrance, however the artist chose not to include it in the postcard rendering. The vertical HOTEL sign at the front also survives, albeit in equally poor condition.

Freeze Frame! - The Fate of the Venture

2011-04-04T00:00:00.000-04:00

Here at Boom Pop! we consider Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow to be a modern classic. Masterfully realized and distinctly underrated, it is a loving homage to pulp, movie serials and golden age comic book heroes. I decided to seek out one of its notable but not altogether obvious Easter Eggs, one that pays subtle tribute to a very famous film classic.

When Sky Captain navigates an underwater landscape on approach to Dr. Totenkopf's island, he passes by a sunken vessel identified on its hull as the Venture. The S.S. Venture was the tramp steamer used to travel to Skull Island in the original King Kong and its sequel Son of Kong. Peter Jackson recreated the Venture in his 2005 King Kong remake. Totenkopf is in fact the German word for "skull," and Totenkopf's island is not so coincidentally populated with prehistoric-type creatures.

Snap! Crackle! and Pop! (Culture)

2011-03-28T20:17:00.001-04:00

They have been a part of our popular culture for over seven decades; three energetic gnomes who are likely the most famous of cereal pitchmen. Snap!, Crackle! and Pop! were created by prolific and well known commercial artist Vernon Grant, who provided illustrations to countless books and magazines throughout much of the 20th century. He first created Snap! for Kellogg's in 1933. Crackle! and Pop! were added in 1939 as seen in the above vintage advertisement.

Vintage Headlines: Adult Cartoons circa 1960

2011-03-25T00:00:00.000-04:00

Lest you think that The Simpsons and Family Guy were groundbreaking in regard to being animated fare targeted at grownups, realize that over fifty years ago, a certain stone-age family was initially targeted to an adult-based demographic. The Flintstones debuted in prime time in September of 1960, and then television reporter Ray McConnell made these interesting observations in response to the show's premiere:

SUBURBIA IN THE STONE AGE: A thousand years from today "The Flintstones" may be evidence of history, goofed-up, or of science fiction, also goofed-up but an eerie, prophetic caricature of life after The Bomb fell. TV fans will get a chance to make their own guess about this tonight when "The Flintstones" comes on ABC-TV and Channel 7 as a weekly cartoon comedy designed for adult viewing. It is television's first animated assault, outside the commercials, on adult funnybones. The cartoon series has been created by Bill Hanna and Joe Barbera, who tailored "Huckleberry Hound," "Quick Draw McGraw" and "Rough 'n Ready" for the TV tube. These were kid cartoons, primarily. The Flintstones are something else. Their fanciful out-of-kilter world is the Hanna-Barbera answer to what they believe is an adult demand for an adult cartoon. (Who demanded this? I didn't).

It goes something like this: With their pals, Barney and Betty Rubble, Fred and Wilma Flintstone bumble through life in Bedrock (Pop. 2500), the seat of Cobblestone County. They are average couples, with the same problems, foibles, ambitions and frustrations of any couples anywhere, anytime. The difference is that the Flintstones and Rubbles live in hollow boulders and wear bearskin kilts. .It's a version of Suburbia in the stone age; a homily of life among cave dwellers — in the light of some modern improvements. But whether the time is 25,000 years ago, or a couple of hundred years hence, is your guess as much as anyone's.

Another article from the same time quoted both Bill Hanna and Joe Barbera on the show's intended adult appeal:

"We had so much success our other cartoon characters —'Quick-Draw McGraw" and 'Huckleberry Hound' — and there was so much adult public reaction and acceptance that we decided to try an adult cartoon series." says Joe Barbera.

"Older people just took a liking to 'Quickdraw' and 'Huck'." Bill Hanna asserted. "Joe and I thought that possibly a cartoon series with an adult approach might be something that would please the oldsters."

Freeze Frame! - Claude Smith Proprietor

2011-03-23T00:00:00.002-04:00

He was the proprietor of the General Merchandise store in the 1945 Droopy cartoon Wild and Wolfy. But just who was Claude Smith in real life?

Claude Smith was already a veteran of the animation industry when Wild and Wolfy was released in 1945. He began working at the Walt Disney Studios as early as 1933. He was a casualty of the fallout from the Disney Studio strike in 1941, but quickly landed at MGM where he did character layouts for Tex Avery for a number of years and assisted Avery specifically on Wild and Wolfy. Smith ultimately became well known as a cartoonist, publishing predominantly in Playboy and New Yorker magazines well into the 1970s.

A Claude Smith cartoon from New Yorker, published May 15, 1948.

Greetings from the Rockets at Kennywood

2011-03-21T00:00:00.000-04:00

Kennywood Park in West Mifflin, Pennsylvania is a distinct landmark of my boomer youth, as it is to many Pittsburgh natives of my generation. The Rockets debuted at the park in 1940 and were likely inspired by the popular Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers movie serials of that era. The circle swing ride mechanics actually dated back to 1925 when the attraction was located in a different area of the park and featured seaplanes as the ride vehicles. The Rockets circled above the Kennywood Lagoon for the last time in 1978.

The postcard dates from the early 1950s. The back-side description reads:

"The Nation's Greatest Picnic Park" One of the largest and finest amusement parks in the United States. A wonderland of pleasure for the entire family with every kind of outdoor amusement device including a mammoth crystal clear swimming pool and beach. Not to visit Kennywood is not to know Pittsburgh.

Windows to the Past: The Smiling Irishman

2011-03-16T08:38:00.000-04:00

We couldn't resist posting this particular Window to the Past as we fast approach this week's Saint Patrick's Day Holiday. The photograph dates from 1946 and showcases a Los Angeles entrepreneur know as the Smiling Irishman. The image is from the UCLA Library Digital collections.

We Are Experiencing Technical Difficulties

2011-03-14T06:03:00.000-04:00

Please stand by.

Our primary computer is undergoing repairs. We hope to return to our normal publishing schedule later this week. Our apologies for the inconvenience and our thanks for your continued readership and support.

$50,000 Guaranteed!

2011-03-11T00:00:00.000-05:00

The 1958 film It! The Terror from Beyond Space is a generally well regarded piece of science fiction cinema. It was the inspiration for Ridley Scott's original 1979 Alien film and has even been the basis for a new series of comic books in recent months.

Its movie poster, pictured above, is a classic example of 1950s B-movie publicity. To quote: "$50,000 GUARANTEED BY A WORLD-RENOWNED INSURANCE COMPANY TO THE FIRST PERSON WHO CAN PROVE "IT" IS NOT ON MARS NOW!"

I am imagining a young Carl Sagan attempting to collect the $50,000 while earning his doctorate of philosophy in astronomy and astrophysics at the University of Chicago.

The Very First Death of Superman

2011-03-09T00:00:00.000-05:00

Comic book confessional: Although I consider myself reasonably well read and diversified in regard to classic superhero comics, my bright memories of youth tend to favor DC Comics, and most notably Superman. In my tween years especially, I was a Superman aficionado, haunting yard sales and flea markets for old comic books that featured the Man of Steel. Among the most coveted of prizes found on those expeditions were DC's specially branded Imaginary Stories, and Superman tended to be the star of the lion's share of those particular tales.

One of the very best Imaginary Stories, and a classic Superman story in and of itself, is The Death of Superman, originally published in Superman #149 from November 1961. The story, written by Superman co-creator Jerry Siegel and illustrated by Curt Swan was an emotionally charged and rather serious affair, and not the usual kiddie fare that then Superman editor Mort Weisinger typically had his talent produce.

In the tale, a seemingly reformed Lex Luthor discovers a cure for cancer and a very forgiving and all too trusting Superman lets his guard down with ultimately fatal results. The villainous Luthor betrays the Man of Steel and slowly poisons him to death with kryptonite radiation, and takes sadistic pleasure in forcing Lois Lane, Jimmy Olsen and Perry White to view the execution firsthand. Supergirl quickly emerges from hiding (she was Superman's secret weapon for a short time before being presented to the public) and brings Luthor to justice before a Kyrptonian court in the bottled city of Kandor. Luthor is exiled forever to the Phantom Zone and Supergirl assumes her late cousin's mantle as earth's protector.

Although filled with the usual simplistic dialog and exaggerated melodrama that characterized the Superman comics of that era, The Death of Superman had moments of atypical intensity that could prove disturbing to both children and adults alike. Superman's death scene is stretched over twelve panels, his agony prolonged through tortured kryptonite exposure while a gleefully sadistic Lex Luthor chews scenery with his boastful taunting and gloating. A subsequent panel that shows a shocked Lois Lane kneeling over Superman's now cape-enshrouded head and torso is unsettling to say the least.

Unlike most comic book canon where the death of a central character is almost always a laughably transparent plot device that simply leads to resurrection, Imaginary Stories, and the degree of permanence they could impart, allowed for some weightier and more serious storytelling. The Death of Superman is perhaps the best early example of such a dynamic and it certainly laid the groundwork for such future concepts as Marvel's What If? series and DC's own Elseworlds line.

Just Watched: Nobody Lives Forever

2011-03-07T00:00:00.002-05:00

This 1946 noir gem has remained largely in the shadows but is a great showcase for John Garfield, cast as Nick Blake, a career confidence man returning from service in World War II and lured into a scheme by a number of former associates. He unintentionally falls for his mark, a wealthy widow played by Geraldine Fitzgerald. An excellent supporting cast includes George Tobias, Walter Brennen and Faye Emerson. Los Angeles is the backdrop by way of some nice stock shots and atmospheric set pieces, especially the low-end Hotel Eldorado and the run-down, fog enshrouded pier where the story reaches it climax. Rumor was that Bogart turned down the Blake part and that Garfield wasn't overly enthusiastic about taking on the role. Any such indifference was certainly not reflected in his performance.

Nobody Lives Forever was produced in 1944 but Warner Bros. kept in on the shelf for two years, possibly as a means of extending their association with Garfield whose departure from the studio was at that time perceived to be fairly imminent.

Greetings from the AMF Monorail

2011-03-04T11:09:00.000-05:00

We recently featured a post that showcased Archie's comic book adventures at the 1964-65 New York World's Fair. Prominent in that article was a panel excerpt that showed Archie and the gang riding the AMF Monorail, one of the Fair's best remembered icons. This postcard features an artist's rendition of the Monorail and included the following caption on the back side:

THE AMF MONORAIL
New York World's Fair 1964-65
''Peace through Understanding."

The AMF Monorail ride at the New York World's Fair provides every member of the family with an enjoyable new experience aboard the transportation of the future. While riding in silent air-conditioned comfort three stories above ground, passengers see and can photograph many scenic Fair sights during the eight minute trip. Many riders return for a night time view of the Fair. Shown is one of seven two-car trains which transport passengers to and from the spectacular eighty-foot high station.

The History and Mythology of Gower Gulch

2011-03-02T00:01:00.001-05:00

It is Hollywood pop culture rooted in both history and folklore, born out of poverty row studios, aspiring movie cowboys, and a drugstore famous for its soda fountain and newsstand. Its geographical center was the intersection of Sunset Boulevard and Gower Street, but the area, and what it represents, has become better known by its somewhat less than glamorous nickname--Gower Gulch.

This location was central to a number of well known movie studios, including Columbia, Paramount, RKO and Republic Pictures. Located at the southeast corner of Gower and Sunset was the Columbia Drug Co., famous for both its soda fountain and newsstand. Both Columbia and Republic specialized in westerns during this time period, and aspiring actors, many of whom were actual working cowboys, would congregate in and around the drugstore, hoping to be selected by the studio casting agents who would frequent the area. Many of these hopefuls would come to Gower Gulch fully outfitted in their cowboy clothing and gear, and thus the moniker "drugstore cowboy" was born.

Gower Gulch as seen in Thank Your Lucky Stars

The area was idealized in the 1943 Warner Bros. film Thank Your Lucky Stars as a rustic colony of aspiring actors and entertainers, living in discarded movie sets. Eddie Cantor, Joan Leslie and Dennis Morgan portray three of Gower Gulch's resident hopefuls, with Morgan's character noting that he lives in the former jail set used in James Cagney's 1939 film The Roaring Twenties. Despite conjecture otherwise (specifically a citation-less Wikipedia entry), this fanciful interpretation appears to have had no factual basis; I could not find any documentation of an actual Hollywood community consisting of individuals living in thrown away set pieces.

But Gower Gulch was in fact a community of sorts, as Time magazine described in their review of Thank Your Lucky Stars, published in October of 1943. The writer noted, "Gower Gulch is not a fiction. Although nothing like Warner Bros. moonlit version, it is one of Hollywood's minor but more durable institutions."

While the Columbia Drug Co. has received the lion's share of the historical attention relating to Gower Gulch, it was in fact another nearby establishment that was considered to be the heart and soul of this community of drugstore cowboys. The Time article identified a small Sunset Boulevard watering hole called Brewer's as the focal point for Gulch citizenry. It was run by woman named Eleanor Lathrop, who was known as the "little mother of Gower Gulch." In addition, the article provided this background:

For ten years Brewer's has been the official gathering place for Western extras and bit men, whiskery old boys who are still vicariously chasing aborigines with General Custer, discarded circus clowns and weary stuntmen who congregate to drink beer and to execute competitive embroideries on the small glories of a past day. Demigods like Gene Autry, Bob Steele and Rex Bell drop in now and then. Nearly all the Western stars have been reflected in the booze there at one time or another, but the roster of names which have been most conspicuous and most chronic during the past decade includes Handlebar Hank Bell, Bear Valley Charley, Vinegar Roan, Tex Cooper, Foxy Callaghan, Curley Rucker.

Most of these men started as genuine cowboys. All of them fill the wide-open spaces between the horses in horse operas with masculine strength and silence. Many of them get an occasional line. Perhaps the most prosperous is Handlebar Hank, who owes his modest fortune as well as his name to his mustache. More often than not, these men and others like them are picked up by studios making Westerns without working through Central Casting —a dubious practice known as "casting off the street."

"Blackjack" Jerome Moore

Gower Gulch gained headlines and notoriety in 1939 when a disagreement between two of its citizens ended in an alleged murder. "Blackjack" Jerome Moore was accused of chasing fellow cowboy Johnny Tykes out of Brewer's and shooting him to death in a nearby parking lot. Ward was acquitted when witnesses testified that his actions were committed in self defense. According to one report, "Movie cowboys testified that Tyke was 'pizen mean' and that somebody 'had to shoot him.'"

The Gower Gulch locals elected their own mayor for the first time in 1939, It was a closely watched contest at Brewer's, where a purchase would earn you a vote. Veteran movie cowboy Jack Evans edged out his nearest competitor, a much loved pet dog named Tramp, by a slim margin of just 26 votes.

Gower Gulch is made reference to in a number of classic-era cartoons. It is the name of a town in the 1950 Looney Tunes short All Abir-r-r-d. A year later in Drip Along Daffy, Porky Pig sings a song entitled "The Flower of Gower Gulch." And in the 1943 Disney cartoon Victory Vehicles, Goofy, dressed in drugstore cowboy finery, stands near the Gower Gulch Pharmacy. A grade B western entitled The Kid from Gower Gulch was released in 1949, but bore no relation to the Hollywood locale.

Today, a small strip center located at the intersection of Sunset and Gower retains the Gower Gulch name. It is the only tangible reminder left of the area's history and of the drugstore cowboys who were once the stuff of Hollywood history and legend.

Explore 2719 Hyperion:
Disney's Hollywood: Gower Gulch and the Drugstore Cowboy

Windows to the Past: Teddy the Wrestling Bear

2011-02-28T00:00:00.001-05:00

A carnival barker takes a moment to quench his thirst in this photograph from September of 1941. A mere five cents granted admission to any number of wonders, including a 32 feet long, 618 lb. snake and the ever popular Teddy the Wrestling Bear. This particular attraction was located on the midway of the Vermont State Fair in Rutland. Photographer Jack Delano snapped the photo and it is part of the FSA-OWI collection at the Library of Congress.

The World's Safest Front Seat!

2011-02-25T00:00:00.000-05:00

Last week we were introduced to mid-20th century industrialist Henry J. Kaiser by way of a World War II-era Warner Bros. cartoon. Beyond his notoriety as a proficient and speedy ship builder, Kaiser also dabbled in automobile design and manufacturing in the postwar era, as demonstrated by this brochure found amidst other vintage car ephemera in Tony's Attic. It appears that Tony attended a auto show sometime in 1951 and was potentially intrigued by the up and coming Kaiser models.

The highlight that year was "the first truly safety-engineered automobile--the Kaiser Manhattan--with the World's Safest Front Seat." Kaiser himself is quoted as saying that, "the '52 Kaiser's new front seat protection represents the greatest safety-engineering advance in 30 years."

Kaiser stopped manufacturing passenger vehicles in 1955, and instead focused on utility vehicles such as the Jeep brand, which it had purchased in 1953.

Scientists of the World of Tomorrow

2011-02-23T00:00:00.002-05:00

The Middleton Family has returned to Boom-Pop! They were the wholly fictitious family created by Westinghouse Electric to promote its pavilion at the 1939 New York World's Fair. The family's primary showcase was the fifty-five minute film The Middleton Family at the New York World's Fair, but their celluloid adventures were mirrored in a series of magazine advertisements published throughout the Fair's first season in 1939. This particular ad was featured in the August 7, 1939 issue of Life magazine and chronicled young Bud Middleton as he visited the Junior Science Laboratories, one of the attractions inside the Westinghouse Electric Pavilion.

The text shown on the right side of the ad is as follows:

The Junior Science Laboratories at the Westinghouse Building leave a deep impression with the Middleton family — especially Bud, who has now decided to abandon his ambitions to lead a swing band in favor of an electrical engineering career. You, too, will enjoy seeing and talking with these scientists of the future. They are school children, 12 to 18 years old, whose projects in varied branches of science are carried on with the help of the American Institute of the City of New York. Don't miss this feature of the Westinghouse exhibit in the World of Tomorrow.

Yes, indeed! One visit to the Westinghouse exhibits and Bud quickly abandoned his dream of a career in music in favor of electrical engineering. The corresponding scene from the film features actors Jimmy Lydon (Bud), Harry Shannon (Mr. Middleton) and Douglas Stark (Jim Treadway). The Treadway character is not identified by name in the advertisement; in the film he is portrayed as a passionate advocate for free market capitalism and ultimately wins the affection of the beautiful Babs Middleton who was being lead astray by Nicholas Makaroff. The Makaroff character is presented as an embittered and frustrated socialist who despises the Fair and everything it represents.

Explore the Boom-Pop! Archives:
You'll Remember the Westinghouse Building as Long as You Live

Windows to the Past: The Plaza Theatre

2011-02-21T00:00:00.001-05:00

Boom Pop! is dedicated to the memory of my late father-in-law Anthony Mangano, and one of my missions here is to explore the many mementos and ephemera of 20th century popular culture that were found in Tony's attic shortly after his passing in early 2009. Also relating to Tony is this wonderful Window to the Past that gives us a view of the Pittsburgh neighborhood where he grew up.

This photograph was snapped on August 1, 1937 and showcases the Plaza Theatre that was located on Liberty Avenue in Pittsburgh's "Little Italy," better known as Bloomfield. The Plaza Theatre was located less than two blocks from Tony's home, and I have no doubt that he spent many Saturday afternoons there watching cartoons, serials and double features. Tony would have been eight years old at the time of this photograph and I would love to think that he could be among the children pictured in the image.

The photograph is from the Historic Pittsburgh Images Collection and had the following annotation:

The Plaza Theater at 4765 Liberty Avenue, showing children waiting to attend a performance. Movie posters flank the ticket booth with their notices of films featuring "Charlie Chan at the Olympics," "Emperor's Candlesticks" with Luise Ranier and William Powell and Hal Roach's "Nobody's Baby". The theater, built circa 1905, features a Mansard roof, terra cotta tile, and tin ceilings inside.

Here is an earlier view if the Plaza Theatre, predating Tony's birth by twelve years. The photo was taken on October 29, 1917.

Henry J. Kaiser - Out to Launch

2011-02-18T00:00:00.002-05:00

You can learn a lot from cartoons.

Case in point: the 1944 Warner Bros. cartoon The Weakly Reporter. This particular Merrie Melody was a send-up of life on the home front during World War II, and featured numerous situations and references that are near indecipherable to many modern viewers. One must literally reach to the bookshelf or search engine to even be able to understand the meaning and context of many of the short's gags.

The closing sequence of the cartoon pokes fun at the very rapid production of warships at American shipyards at the height of the war. The closing shot of the film zooms in on a small shack in a shipyard. A sign on the door says "HENRY J. KAISER - PRIVATE." A smaller sign, hanging from a nail, proclaims, "BACK IN 2 MINUTES - OUT TO LAUNCH." So of course it begs the question, who is, or was, Henry J. Kaiser?

Kaiser was a very well know American industrialist throughout much of the mid-20th century. Prior to World War II, his construction firm worked on such high profile projects as the Hoover Dam and the Grand Coulee Dam. He began building ships just prior to the war. He became famous in the field for being a master of mass production. According to Wikipedia:

He became most famous for the Kaiser Shipyard in Richmond, California during World War II, adopting production techniques that generated cargo ships on the average of one every 45 days. These ships became known as Liberty ships. He became world renowned when his teams built a ship in 4 days. The keel for the 10,500 ton Robert E. Peary was laid on Sunday, November 8, 1942, and the ship was launched in California from the Richmond Shipyard #2 on Thursday, November 12, four days and 15½ hours later. The previous record had been 10 days for the Liberty ship Joseph M. Teal.

His most famous and lasting legacy is likely Kaiser Permanente, considered to be the first health maintenance organization. Kaiser passed away in 1967.

Life with Archie at the New York World's Fair

2011-02-16T00:00:00.000-05:00

The 1964-1965 New York World's Fair was indeed a popular destination, so much so that it even captured the imaginations of cartoon and comic book creators of that time period. In an earlier post here at Boom-Pop! we showcased the adventures of the Flintstones at the Fair, both in four color format and also on their television program. Another popular contingent of comics characters visited the Fair as well; Archie, Betty, Veronica, Reggie and Jughead made their way to Flushing Meadows in Life with Archie #31, published in the fall of 1964, just as the fair was winding down its first six-month season.

In "Rough, Tough--But Fair Enough," Archie and the gang win a trip to the Fair when Archie is chosen as "the symbol of American youth" in a contest sponsored by the First National Bank of Riverdale. Veteran Archie artist Bob White then quickly transports the group to the Fair by way of a spectacular splash page that highlights the Swiss Sky Ride with numerous fair landmarks in the background.

White faithfully recreated the Fair in clean crisp renderings, minimizing details yet capturing the architectural flair of its many buildings and attractions. The story prominently features the AMF Monorail across a number of panels. But the centerpiece of the adventure is a crazy, pratfall-filled chase involving the Fair's unique cabs or "Escorters" as they were more popularly known. It's up to Archie and Reggie to save the day when the girls are abducted by a speed-crazed Escorter driver.

Released simultaneously with Life with Archie #31 was issue #9 of She's Josie, another Archie Comics publication, which was also set at the Fair. Josie and her friends (in their pre-Pussycats days) set out to win a trip to Flushing Meadows by collecting cereal box tops. When their efforts fall through, wealthy Alexander Cabot finances their trip. Artist Dan DeCarlo prominently featured numerous landmarks across the story, among them the U.S. Royal Tire ferris wheel and Sinclair's Dinoland. DeCarlo also made use of the Escorters as well. Both White and DeCarlo acknowledged the crossover nature of the two stories; Josie and Alex can be seen riding the Monorail in the Life with Archie story, while Archie makes a quick one-panel cameo in She's Josie.

Floating Airports - 1952

2011-02-14T00:00:00.000-05:00

From the December 1952 issue of Mechanix Illustrated:

The main structure resembles an elongated aircraft carrier with an open flight deck above and an enclosed hangar deck below. In the ends of the latter are repair and storage space for planes. Each two-plane compartment is separated from the next by an elevator shaft. Workshops and-service facilities are spotted in projecting arrowhead islands along the entire length of the hangar deck.

The islands also contain sub-surface engine rooms in which powerful diesels are mounted to drive water propellers. These operate automatically to keep the airstrip headed into the wind and are governed by a master wind-vane -on the forward deck. The incoming plane touches down just inside the after end of the flight deck and is halted by arrestor gear at the first island. A deck handling tractor then couples to the nose-wheel gear and tows the plane to the "down" elevator. Painted tracks on this portion of the deck help keep it in alignment.

Descending to the hangar deck, the plane is towed off the elevator and forward into the "depot", area. Here, completely under cover, the passengers deplane or emplane and the ship is serviced. It is then towed forward to the "up" elevator and ascends to the flight deck again. The tractor then tows it clear of the elevator and the plane's undercarriage is engaged to the catapult traveler. A variation of the new British steam catapult accelerates slowly and smoothly and whips the plane into the air for the next leg of its flight.

Adjoining the depot area in a large central island are the passenger accommodations. If the traveler wishes to go directly ashore, he is directed to a door on his right. This leads through a thwartship passage to the taxi waiting room, customs shed, etc. Fast water taxis are tied up to - an open boat landing. In another section, helicopter taxis load in a pair of elevator shafts and are then whisked to the flight deck above to take off for various points in the city. Should the traveler find it necessary to wait for another plane, he turns to his left. Here he finds a spacious and comfortable lounge, flanked by an information booth, airline offices, newsstands, etc.

A city like New York could anchor a whole string of these airports in nearby Long Island Sound, the Lower Bay or even in the Hudson River where landing approaches and take-offs could be made over uninhabited stretches of water. Accessibility would be at least as good as that of the present airports and with helicopter taxi service, it. -would be better. Most of the other great centers of our country are similarly situated. Why don't we build floating airports to make air travel safer and save our cities?

Greetings From Griffith Observatory

2011-02-11T00:00:00.000-05:00

One of southern California's most famous landmarks, Griffith Observatory has served the exploration of science since opening in 1935. Frequently a backdrop or set piece for filmmakers, it has appeared in numerous movies and television programs over the past seven decades. Among its more notable appearances: Rebel Without a Cause, The Rocketeer, The Terminator, Rocky Jones Space Ranger and the 1950s era Adventures of Superman.

The postcard caption:

The splendid view of the Griffith Observatory with its shining copper dome arouses much interest to the residents and tourists in Southern California. The museum and lectures give the layman an insight into the celestial mysteries and some of the "whys" of nature.

Animated Architecture: The Fun Pad

2011-02-09T00:00:00.000-05:00

It was a retro-future spin (pun intended) on a traditional amusement pier and was inspired in just about everything but name. The Fun Pad just seemed too generic for a Jetsons-era entertainment complex. It was one of the destinations of Judy Jetson and Jet Screamer in The Jetsons episode, "A Date with Jet Screamer."

An amusement park is a near perfect subject for a space age-Googie makeover. Rollercoasters, ferris wheels, and spinning rides are easily adapted to "space age designs that depict motion," one of the fundamental components of Googie design as cited in Wikipedia. Hanna Barbera background artists Art Lozzi, Bob Abrams and Lee Branscome effectively brought those concepts to a successful realization. I especially like the the very practical lower level parking decks.

The Fun Pad had a real life counterpart of sorts. Astro Land, located on New York's famed Coney Island, was advertised as the nation's first "space age" amusement park when it opened in 1962. The Jetsons, coincidentally, debuted on television that very same year.

The Mystery of the Missing Space Station

2011-02-07T00:00:00.000-05:00

My Mom still pleads ignorance on this particular subject.

At some undetermined point in my youth, likely prior to my tenth birthday, my Major Matt Mason Space Station vanished. I'm sure I didn't notice it immediately. I was the type of kid that cycled through my toys. I would focus on Johnny West for a couple of weeks at a time, dust off the Strange Change Machine about once a month, go on a board game kick for a few days, not to mention heading down the street and working my way through my best friend's inventory as needed. So the date and time of this crime will forever remain a mystery.

Again, the item in question, as pictured here--the Major Matt Mason Space Station. Yes indeed, the holy grail of the Major Matt Mason toys. This was the top of the line. Your Mom or Dad didn't let you casually toss this one into the shopping cart in say, May or September. A toy of this caliber, this level of cost, this degree of complexity, required a prerequisite special occasion. Either your birthday or Christmas. I landed mine on the latter. And bear in mind, this wasn't just any Christmas present, this was the main event. The Major Matt Mason Space Station was, allegorically speaking, my official Red Ryder, carbine action, two-hundred shot range model air rifle. Collector Keith Meyer christened his Major Matt Mason website The Space Station and noted on its history page, "The Space Station was perhaps the most impressive toy of the entire collection. It stood just over two feet tall, with towering girders and impressive 'Solar Shields". Many a youngster fell asleep in a darkened room, lit only by the purple glow of the Station beacon."

Major Matt Mason was introduced to the world in 1966, and proved popular until Mattel retired the line in the mid-1970s. His tenure in the toy chest coincided with much of NASA's peak years, epitomized by the first lunar landing in 1969. It was quite likely that there was a MMM toy nearby in my bedroom when my Dad woke me up to watch Neil Armstrong take those famous first steps.

The standard MMM figures were notorious for their lack of durability. Made of rubber, their internal wire skeletons were prone to breaking at the joints, leaving Matt and his crew with sadly dangling arms and legs. Your average young MMM enthusiast typically had a box full of "crippled" astronauts and a disgruntled parent tired of driving to K-Mart to purchase replacements. I have often wondered if this in fact was the potential motive behind the aforementioned Space Station crime.

I owned numerous other Major Matt Mason toys and accessories. The Space Crawler was the one that received the most playtime. Of the other crew members, I did possess multiple Sgt. Storms, but regrettably, astronauts Doug Davis and Jeff Long never made it into my collection. The oversize Captain Lazer arrived on another Christmas morning accompanied by the Firebolt Space Cannon Super Action Set.

The mystery of the missing Space Station remains unresolved to this day. It was last seen near the laundry area in the basement of my childhood home. My mother, the prime suspect in the case, has never wavered through four decades of questioning. Her typical response: "I have no idea what you're talking about. You expect me to remember a stupid toy from forty years ago? You're crazy, you know that?"

Sure Mom, sure. It's a wonder you can sleep at night.

Windows to the Past: Leslie Brooks at the Hollywood Canteen

2011-02-04T10:27:00.000-05:00

Columbia Studios starlet and pin-up girl Leslie Brooks gets help from a serviceman outside the soon-to-open Hollywood Canteen in this photograph from fall of 1942. The gentleman is Yeoman Seymour Rice of the Coast Guard.

The Hollywood Canteen was located on Cahuenga Boulevard in Hollywood. It operated during the war years from 1942 to 1945 and featured free food and entertainment for servicemen and servicewomen. The Canteen was the brainchild of stars Bette Davis and John Garfield, and they enlisted the entire entertainment industry to donate labor, materials and services to construct and operate the venue. By the time it closed on Thanksgiving Day 1945, it had served nearly three million military personnel. In 1944, Warner Brothers released the film Hollywood Canteen which drew inspiration from the actual nightclub.

Brooks was twenty years old when she signed with Columbia Pictures in 1942. Her career in Hollywood lasted less than a decade. She played secondary roles for Columbia before being leaving the studio in 1948. Her personal life at the time was marred by a troubled marriage to ex-marine and struggling actor Donald Anthony Shay that ended in a divorce and a bitter custody fight over their daughter Leslie Victoria. She would go on to marry land developer Russ Vincent in 1950 and effectively retire from show business.

Fresh Up!

2011-02-03T08:55:00.000-05:00

Two words that were associated with 7-Up adverting campaigns for nearly a decade. It was certainly an odd slogan, though I suppose derivative of the word refreshing that was of course used frequently in soft drink ad copy. The slogan ultimately gave birth to a cartoon mascot named Fresh Up Freddie, a hyperactive bird created by Walt Disney's little known commercials production unit. For more information on Freddie, check out this recent post on our companion site, 2719 Hyperion.

Still 10¢

2010-05-16T11:21:00.001-04:00

Apologies for the lack of content here these past few weeks. As always, real world obligations trump online hobbies. Hopefully we'll get back on track over the next week or so.

I've been rediscovering of late my love of comics from the so-called Silver Age era. Here's an advertisement for DC Comics that reminds us just what a dime would buy in those days.

The Return of Tom Corbett - and More!

2010-04-18T11:53:00.001-04:00

eBooks are quickly becoming fashionable, and more importantly, accessible, thanks to the recent wave of eReader software programs and devices that have become available. While most consumers embracing the various eBook formats are likely to head to Amazon or Barnes & Noble to download the latest Stephen King or Nora Roberts tomes, I have found myself instead exploring the lesser known but still very notable public domain repositories such as Project Gutenburg, ManyBooks.net and epub Books. Their collected resources are quite extensive, and most notably--free.

If you are familiar with these various public domain archives but think they really only house the likes of Jane Austen and Charles Dickens, think again. I recently made a discovery at ManyBooks that was a true Boom Pop! revelation. There, available in eBook editions were all but one of the Tom Corbett Space Cadet series of books published by Grosset & Dunlap during the early 1950s. The books were adapted from the well known Tom Corbett radio and television programs and are shining examples of mid-20th century outer space pop culture. I had over the years managed to collect three of the eight books that were published, so to find four other titles immediately accessible was very exciting.

The Tom Corbett titles available at ManyBooks are:

Stand By for Mars!
Danger in Deep Space
On the Trail of the Space Pirates
The Space Pioneers
The Revolt on Venus
Treachery in Outer Space
Sabotage in Space

The final book in the series, The Robot Rocket, remains under copyright protection and is not yet available in an eBook format.

ManyBooks also has an extensive selection of vintage mid-20th century science fiction novels and stories. You can find some very obscure titles and authors, but also discover material from significant names such as Andre Norton, E. E. Doc Smith, C. M. Kornbluth, Robert E. Howard, Harry Harrison and Lester del Rey, just to name a few.

Weeki Wachee's Biggest Fans

2010-04-14T12:19:00.001-04:00

What to Don Knotts, Roy Rogers and rocket scientist
Wernher Von Braun all have in common?

They appear to have been very enthusiastic fans of one of Florida's most famous pre-Disney tourist attractions: Weeki Wachee. This according to our latest artifact from Tony's Attic, a Weeki Wachee tourist brochure, dating from sometime during the early 1960s. Bob Hope and Arthur Godfrey were among a few other celebrities who also endorsed the Gulf Coast attraction. Godfrey in fact called it " . . . one of the Seven Modern Wonders of the World."

In early 1964, the world premiere of Knott's feature film The Incredible Mr. Limpet was held in the park's famous underwater theater.

Greetings From - Manhattan's Classic Skyscrapers

2010-04-07T06:00:00.000-04:00

It seems that the romance of skyscrapers has diminished greatly over the last few decades. But that romance was certainly alive and well when the Manhattan Post Card Publishing Company showcased these two classic buildings. The small print on the reverse side classifies each image as a "Colourpicture Publication."

The captions:

EMPIRE STATE BUILDING

Empire State Building, the world's tallest structure, located at 5th Avenue and 34th Street, rises 1250 feet above the sidewalk. Observatories are open to the public on the 86th and 102nd floors.

CHRYSLER BUILDING

A modernistic Georgia Marble and Indiana Limestone building which rises 1046 feet above the ground to the top of the steel mast. A truly great achievement of modern architecture.

You'll Remember the Westinghouse Building as Long as You Live

2010-04-04T10:45:00.003-04:00

The Middletons were a wholly fictitious family created by Westinghouse Electric to promote the company and its pavilion at the 1939 New York World's Fair. While their most famous showcase was the fifty-five minute commercial film The Middleton Family at the New York World's Fair, Mother, Father, Grandma, Babs and Bud also featured prominently in a series of magazine advertisements that appeared throughout the spring and summer of 1939. This particular installment comes from the July 10, 1939 issue of Life magazine and features one of the Fair's most popular and iconic attractions--Elektro. A comic strip illustrates A Lesson from Elektro--the Moto-Man.

The text shown on the right side of the advertisement is as follows:

In the Hall of Electrical Living, the Middletons are entertained by Elektro, the amazing Westinghouse Moto-Man. It's lots of fun, especially for Babs and Bud. And the older folks in the family appreciate the serious side, too — how electricity has lightened housekeeping burdens and made more time for living in the modern home. You, too, will enjoy every minute of your visit to the Westinghouse Building at the New York Fair. Be sure to see Elektro, as well as the many other features offered by this "fair within a fair." Don't miss "The Battle of the Centuries," the Microvivarium, the Junior Science Laboratories, and the Television Show. You'll remember the Westinghouse Building as long as you live.

The movie of The Middleton Family at the New York World's Fair is especially significant in that it preserves on film an actual demonstration of Elektro at the Westinghouse pavilion. The film can be found online at the Prelinger Archives at archive.org.

We will feature more adventures of the Middleton Family at the World's Fair on future Boom-Pop! posts.

Can War Marriages Be Made to Work?

2010-04-01T20:51:00.003-04:00

War marriages were very much the stuff of Hollywood romance during World War II. The most shining example would likely be the 1945 MGM classic The Clock, starring Judy Garland and Robert Walker as a young woman and a soldier who meet and fall in love over the course of a few days and quickly rush to the alter (or in their specific case, a New York City Justice of the Peace.)

There was certainly a reality behind these whirlwind movie courtships, so much so that the War Department produced a pamphlet in 1944 urging soldiers to demonstrate caution and good judgment when considering any such hurried decisions involving near spontaneous matrimony. The 32-page booklet was entitled Can War Marriages Be Made to Work? and was classified as War Department Education Manual EM30. It was part of the G.I. Roundtable series, a series of pamphlets that were also designed to be the basis of potential discussion groups attended by servicemen.

The pamphlet quickly poses the question, "Why War Marriages?" The answer:

Many war marriages are hasty marriages. Many are made while men are on leave or furlough. Often the time of the marriage is determined by the approaching end of a short leave.

Military promptness and the speed-up of work in war plants tend to hasten marriage. Entrance into service is an abrupt change Of status. Why not, some argue, make an abrupt change from single to married status? If war can change life overnight, why not make the change more complete by marrying? If the Army is going to snatch you away from civilian life, why not strengthen your ties with that life by leaving a wife behind you? And for many a girl who watches the boys going away from the home town, the "dates" of the hectic hours before they go may seem the last chance for marriage.

Courtship, no matter how disguised, is competition. To the soldier marriage offers, among other advantages, a device to ward off the competition of rivals while he is away.

In war nothing is certain but uncertainty. Even an unwise marriage may give a feeling of certainty for a moment. Unconsciously it may seem to offer an escape from doubts and confusion.

Many war marriages come about through loneliness or fear of loneliness. A soldier returns to his home town on leave; his old friends are gone; many things have changed. Or a girl takes a job away from home and is separated from her family and friends. Both to the girl away from home and to the soldier on leave, marriage is an intimate relationship that seems to offer escape from loneliness. Absence makes the heart grow fonder—if there is nobody else. And there may be nobody else in time to prevent a marriage that might never have taken place under normal conditions.

Though very much rooted in the culture of the 1940s, Can War Marriages Be Made to Work? provides some surprisingly progressive advice by way of its concept of the 50-50 marriage:

The "fifty-fifty" marriage, the kind in which neither husband nor wife orders the other around but in which they share equal authority and parallel responsibility, seems to have the best chance of success. There are persons who like to be bossed and others who enjoy bossing. If such individuals happen to pair off, the marriage may be a success. But in general American women are not by temperament or by training inclined to play the role of door mat in marriage any more than American men.

In fact, a couple's attitude toward equality in marriage relationship may be as important as the actual division of authority and responsibility between them. One recent study showed that husbands opposed to rights for women were somewhat less likely to be happily married than those more tolerant on the subject of equal rights and responsibilities for women. Many happily married couples assert that a "fifty-fifty" meeting is not enough—that each must be ready to go more than half way and provide, -in a "sixty-sixty" arrangement, a wide area for compromise.

The Upside-Down Map

2010-03-30T21:25:00.000-04:00

In this age of GPS, we have lost sight of some of the simple pleasures of highway navigation.

Such as the Upside-Down Map.

Esso produced this particular map in 1964 and graciously provided this explanation:

"Nearly all road maps point North. But we've found that many travelers turn their maps upside down when going South. It helps them to know whether to turn right or left. Naturally it's hard to read anything upside down. So Esso has designed this special map for the increasing number of drivers who go South each season. Florida-bound motorists need not turn this map upside down — it's pointed the direction they're headed. Town names, route numbers, state names are right side up, easy to read and follow. Your route South is clearly before you. Of course, when you're heading back North you'll want our regular Esso map of Eastern United States, on which this map is based. Before you start, or along your way, pick up a copy. Put it in your glove compartment. Enjoy Yourself."

Photo Retro! - Fill It Up With Regular

2010-03-28T20:50:00.001-04:00

Remnants of old gas stations are becoming rarer and rarer, but a chance glance while driving a North Carolina backroad brought this vintage-era pump to our attention. Though difficult to see, the price per gallon shown on the pump is a mere 33¢. This would date its last activity to sometime during the late 1960s, early 1970s. When I began my short-lived career as pump jockey back in 1977, the price of leaded regular had jumped to around 60¢ a gallon.

Straight Shooting with Tom Mix

2010-03-25T11:10:00.001-04:00

Sometime in 1944, a young Tony Mangano, to whom Boom Pop! is lovingly dedicated, happily opened an envelope from the Ralston Straight Shooters that had been mailed to him from a post office box in St. Louis. Inside the envelope was his very own Tom Mix Ralston Straight Shooters of America Secret Manual. At the time, Tony was a faithful listener of "Radio's Biggest Western Detective Program," aka Tom Mix and His Ralston Straight Shooters, that aired every evening, Monday through Friday, on Pittsburgh-based radio station WCAE.

The real-life Tom Mix had little to do with the radio program beyond licensing his name and image to the Ralston-Purina Company, a breakfast cereal maker. His fictional radio counterpart was portrayed by a number of different actors over the course of the show's seventeen year run. Selling cereal was certainly a key component of the show and listeners such as Tony were encouraged to collect cereal boxtops that would earn various premium items. Radio historian Jack French notes that, "The demand for the radio premiums offered on the program began strong and stayed high for the nearly 20 years the series was on the air. Virtually every type of premium was offered: guns, rings, air planes, books, lariats, coins, bandanas, badges, stationery, cowboy clothes, make-up kits, telegraph sets, periscopes, branding irons, etc. The Ralston boxtops were pouring into St. Louis and truckloads of radio premiums were routed through the postal system into the hands of anxious kiddies."

The Tom Mix Ralston Straight Shooters of America Secret Manual is an amazing little booklet. It is filled with many of the standard fan club components: a pledge of allegiance, secrets (as in handshakes, passwords, salutes, whistles and flashlight signals), theme song, and of course the obligatory "Tell Your Friends About Ralston, the Official Straight Shooters Cereal" advertisement. An almost entirely fictional 17-part biography of Mix is included, but even more interesting (and no-doubt was especially thrilling for any young Straight Shooter of the era) is the detailed diagram of Tom Mix injuries.

The special note included at the bottom of the diagram had me laughing out loud:

Note: Scars from 23 knife wounds are not indicated; nor is it possible to show on diagram the hole 4 inches square that was blown in Tom's back by a dynamite explosion.

But perhaps most compelling was the section entitled "Straight Shooters are Home Front Soldiers." It distinctly spins away from the western fantasy of Tom Mix and reminds us of the realities of being a child on the homefront during World War II.

Straight Shooters have been outstanding in helping to win the war in many ways:
By buying War Stamps regularly. Every ten-cent War Stamp helped to keep some fighting man supplied with food and clothing and medicines and ammunition.
By collecting Waste Paper ... never letting anyone burn old newspapers or wrapping paper. Straight Shooters have collected tons of waste paper for ammunition packing cases and other vital war needs.
By helping mother save tin cans ... by taking off the tops and labels, flattening the cans, and seeing that the boxful of cans was placed on the curb.
By helping mother save waste fats ... reminding-her not to throw away fats and grease no longer useable for cooking, but to save it in a tin container ... and by taking it to the grocery store.
By not talking about the letters their brothers and sisters in the army or navy wrote home. Those letters might have contained information the enemy wanted to know.
By not wasting anything—food, clothing, electricity. By eating everything mother puts on their plates; by taking care of their clothes and by turning off unnecessary lights.
By being careful! Accidents in the home or in the street may mean a trip to the hospital — and hospitals are short of nurses and doctors.

The manual provided one other pointed, though still upbeat reminder of the year 1944:

Straight Shooter Heroes have fought on every battle front

More than five million boys and girls have joined the Tom Mix Ralston Straight Shooters since the organization was founded in 1933. Today, many of those boys and girls are grown-up and have taken their places in Uncle Sam's forces battling for Straight Shooter ideals of freedom and right and honesty all over the world.

While the youthful Tony Mangano did not personalize any of the places in the manual that called for his name or signature, he did faithfully comply with the page 3 instructions to KEEP THIS BOOK IN A SECRETS SPACE! Tony kept the Manual secure, still within its original mailing envelope for well over six decades. His family discovered it shortly after his passing in January of 2009. He was a true Straight Shooter.

Windows to the Past: The Reality of Rosie

2010-03-24T10:47:00.002-04:00

Rosie the Riveter has long been the symbolic icon of women working in American industry during World War II. This stunning color photograph from June 1942 showcases a real life study of that homefront dynamic. The unidentified woman in the picture is working at a North American Aviation, Inc. plant in California. The picture was taken by photographer Alfred T. Palmer who was at the time working for the Farm Security Administration-Office of War Information Collection.

Photo from the Library of Congress Prints and Photograph collection.

Americans! Share the Meat

2010-03-23T09:31:00.002-04:00

In this era of Double Quarter Pounders With Cheese (McDonalds) and 2/3 lb. Monster Thickburgers (Hardees), it's interesting to reflect back on more conscientious and certainly leaner times. This World War II era public service poster was produced in 1942 by the War Information Office and prepared in cooperation with Foods Requirement Committee of the War Production Board.

Image courtesy of Northwestern University Library.

Windows to the Past: A Visit with Santa

2008-12-09T22:38:00.003-05:00

I love this photo.

Taken a few years prior to my arrival into the world, it features my two older brothers on the lap of a department store Santa Claus. A wonderful snapshot of the late 1950s.

Just Watched: The More the Merrier

2008-09-16T14:05:00.005-04:00

What a fun and wonderful film that so strongly echoes a place and time--Washington D.C. at the height of World War II, or at least as filtered through the lenses of Hollywood movie cameras.

In The More the Merrier, one woman and two men share an apartment in the midst of a housing shortage in the capitol city. Jean Arthur, Joel McCrae and Oscar-winner Charles Coburn form the odd trio. Coburn's character, retired millionaire Benjamin Dingle plays cupid to the other two, Arthur's already engaged Connie Milligan and McCrea's soon to be shipped out soldier Joe Carter. It is a very funny film on so many levels, but most especially its frequent and hilariously choreographed pratfall comedy, and it clever, witty and often fast-spoken dialog that touches on much of the era's popular culture.

Two terrific exchanges exemplify that notion. First, Dingle and Carter together recite the parts from a Sunday Dick Tracy comic and then impart:

Dingle: "Gosh, that Dick Tracy is sure playing with dynamite."

Carter: "Sure is."

Milligan: "Is that the best you can do with your time?"

Carter: "Gotta keep up with what's going on."

Dingle: "I missed two Sundays with Superman once, and I've never felt right since."

And an equally funny dialog between Milligan and her young teenage neighbor about a particular American institution:

Morton: "Do I want to join the Boy Scouts or don't I?"

Milligan: "Well of course you do!"

Morton: "But I'm not the camp-craft type! So should I join because I don't like hunting and fishing and hiking and camp-craft, and ought to? Or not join because I don't like hunting and fishing and hiking and camp-craft?"

Milligan: "Well yes, definitely."

Morton : "Some problem. A person should know if he's the camp-craft type."

Washington D.C.'s wartime ratio of eight women to one man is one of the movie's underlying comedic themes and is featured prominently via women whistling at men and nightclub gender imbalances. Set dressings further evoke the era; a war bond poster can be seen near a timeclock, nightclub dancers are costumed in patriotic regalia.

A terrific movie and great snapshot of bygone popular culture.

See the Presidential Race on a Big 20" Picture

2008-09-11T20:34:00.002-04:00

As we approach the dawn of all-digital television, it's sometimes hard to believe that America's love affair with television is just a little over six decades old. The 1952 presidential election was the first to really extend into Americans' homes via television, and Westinghouse used that as an advertising hook as this magazine ad reflects.

Windows to the Past: Fun at the Pier

2008-09-09T14:31:00.003-04:00

Four teenage girls enjoy the midway games on the Newport Beach Pier during the spring of 1954. The photo was taken by a photographer from the Los Angeles Examiner newspaper.

Hello from Alaska

2008-09-07T12:16:00.004-04:00

"World War II changed the ideas of many Americans about Alaska. Americans became interested in the problems of the territory. Opportunities in Alaska today are already vastly improved because of two inventions, the radio and the airplane."

So observes this 1950 publication entitled Hello from Alaska, created to promote the then United States territory and sponsored by the National Dairy Council. As Alaska has recently been in the headlines due to media surrounding presidential election politics, I thought it would be fun to visit its vast northern landscape as it was perceived over a half century ago. The small booklet used a two-page map to illustrate the area's resource-rich geography:

"With the airplane, radio, and new highways, as well as a vigorous, intelligent people, tomorrow in Alaska promises a new kind of pioneering."

A Quick Note

2008-09-06T08:46:00.001-04:00

Apologies for the shortage of content this week at both 2719 Hyperion and Boom-Pop! We got caught up in some extensive home remodeling that was long overdue but is now happily completed. We will return to our regular schedule of posting next week. Thanks as always for your continued interest and encouragement!

Windows to the Past: Celebrating Victory

2008-09-02T10:56:00.003-04:00

Here is the Victory they were all gardening for.

Teenagers in Salem, Oregon celebrate the end of World War II during August of 1945. The picture was taken at the intersection of State and High Streets in downtown Salem. Gas rationing also ended the day the photograph was taken, August 15, and likely influenced the celebrants mode of transportation. The picture is from the Oregon State Archives.

Gardening for Victory!

2008-08-31T20:00:00.004-04:00

"Every town, city and suburban family with a plot of sunny, open space of suitable soil, or access to a community or allotment garden, can make an important contribution to our national food program and our war effort by growing a victory garden."

So declared then Secretary of Agriculture Claude R. Wickard in early 1943. Thus, the Victory Garden became not just a means of supplementing food supplies and alleviating the need for extensive food rationing, but also emerged as one of the more pronounced aspects of World War II era popular culture. In the same statement, Wickard went on to say:

"This year we need more food than ever before in history. We need it for our men at the battlefronts, and those in training. We need it to keep the folks at home healthy and strong.

"Farmers broke all records in food production last year for the third time in succession. They are ready to do their level best to produce even more this year. All they can possibly produce of most foods will be needed. In many cases, more than can be produced on our farms will be needed. We simply can't get too much of some kinds of food. Every farm family, of course, will be expected to have a garden for home use and, if possible, to provide extra supplies of vegetables for nearby markets.

"The entire national food situation will be tremendously helped, and our total food needs more easily supplied, if those who have suitable ground will grow all the vegetables required for the family. Special attention should be given to green and leafy vegetables, yellow vegetables and tomatoes, because these kinds bring valuable vitamins and minerals right to the family table."

Shortly after the Secretary made his pronouncement, Time Magazine noted:

"This year Victory gardens have the Agriculture Department's blessing: Secretary Claude Wickard wants 12,000,000 in cities, 6,000,000 more on farms. The Department has arranged for production of a special Victory Garden Fertilizer and is ready with all kinds of free advice and pamphlets. Seed companies have keyed their advertising to Agriculture's campaign. From almost any catalogue, neophyte gardeners can choose a victory garden combination ($1 and up) with full instructions how, when and where to plant it. With a little luck and work, they will have fresh vegetables on their tables all summer. With a normal dose of inexperience, they will also waste a lot of seed and fertilizer.

"If Claude Wickard gets his 18,000,000 Victory gardens, food rationing will have much less sting this summer. The Agriculture Department estimates that every city garden will produce at least $10 worth of vegetables, every farm garden at least $50. At these figures, Victory gardens should yield a $420,000,000 crop."

Americans rose to the call. Nearly 20 million Victory Gardens were planted and tended in 1943. They grew out of farm plots, back yards, vacant lots and building rooftops. It was estimated that those gardens produced closed to 40% of the country's food supply that year. The initiative was so successful that public figures worried that a restored food supply would cause complacency among the new found Victory Gardeners and they would lay down the shovels and hoes the following season. Hence a "Dig More in '44" campaign was launched to insure continued participation and bounty. An article in the April 1944 issue of Modern Mechanix noted:

"Canned goods have recently been so plentiful that a few people, watching the points go down, have, like the grasshopper in the fable, questioned whether they should work a garden this summer or not.

"The answer to these slightly disillusioned persons is that they mustn't be fooled by any temporary signs of a food surplus, for this is more apparent than real. Food officials in Washington and authorities everywhere are really concerned about the needs for food that lie just ahead. after the invasion starts.

"The prudent householder will, therefore, garden this year as ardently as in 1943 and on as extensive a scale as his facilities, time and energy permit."

The Department of Agriculture produced numerous materials to promote Victory Gardens. Posters, pamphlets and extensive instruction manuals were readily available to an eager populace. Seed companies and hardware vendors were quick to also promote the effort for commercial as well as patriotic reasons. A booklet entitled ABC of Victory Gardens and sponsored by the Paragon Oil Company of New York, proclaimed to its readers:

YOU MUST HAVE A GARDEN THIS SUMMER!

You may not be able to carry a gun or drive a tank, but you can grow food for Victory! The scarcity of food is no longer something that may happen--it is here RIGHT NOW! Canned, dried and frozen vegetables have been rationed. Some experts estimate that we will receive about 70% of the amount that we had last year. WHY NOT RAISE YOUR OWN? Have as many of them as you want! Have the finest tasting vegetables a king could have, gathered fresh from your own garden.

Numerous Hollywood movies and cartoons made reference to V-Gardens. Eddie "Rochester" Anderson cultivated one in the movie What's Buzzin' Cousin? Numerous cartoons released in 1943 featured Victory Garden storylines. Popeye grew a beanstalk out of his Victory Garden in Ration for the Duration. He climbed it, only to encounter a giant who was hoarding not treasure, but valuable war rations. Both MGM's Barney Bear and Walter Lantz's Andy Panda starred in Victory Garden cartoons, and a Victory Garden was employed as a gag in the Warner Brothers short A Tale of Two Kitties.

When the war ended in 1945, Victory Gardeners prematurely abandoned their vegetable plots, causing some food shortages well into the following year. In the post war years, Victory Gardens became little more than memories of home front resourcefulness and patriotism.

Be sure to visit 2719 Hyperion to discover Disney's Victory Gardens.

Windows to the Past: Hot Rod Reality

2008-08-29T15:02:00.003-04:00

Hollywood has often glamorized illicit hot rodding by teenagers, notably in films such as Grease and American Graffiti. The reality of that dynamic is pictured in this photograph from 1954. This teenagers were arrested for racing on Artesia Street in South Compton, California. A photographer from the Los Angles Examiner captured this window to the past.

It's Easy Fred, Once You Get the Hang of It

2008-08-26T18:22:00.003-04:00

Though I don't doubt for a minute that there are youthful taxidermists out there in the world, I have never encountered one in my many years on the planet. So I was more than surprised when I found this advertisement for the Northwestern School of Taxidermy in a 1957 issue of Boys Life magazine. The ad poses some interesting questions:

Can you really learn taxidermy by mail in your spare time?

Is there really a market for stuffed and mounted pigeons?

Do taxidermists actually make frog clocks like the one pictured in the ad?

Ah, if we could only get our hands on the FREE BOOK with 48 pages and a hundred highly interesting pictures . . .

The Reception Committee

2008-08-24T18:40:00.003-04:00

World War II veterans returning home were greeted by numerous post-war archetypes, so much so that many of these characterizations became part of the popular culture of the era. Numerous movies employed such characterizations, most notably the 1946 Oscar-winning The Best Years of Our Lives. This magazine advertisement from 1945, produced by War Advertising Council and sponsored by Bristol-Myers, satirically described the various types of personalities returning soldiers were likely to encounter.

THE GREETER. He's a one-man brass and when it comes to welcoming a veteran. "Nothing's too good for Our Boys!" he always says. And that's exactly what he gives them. Nothing, except a big hello and empty words. Help? That's the Government's job. "Don't vets have bonuses?" he asks, "Pensions? Job agencies?"

THE CLUTCH. One like her in every town. Always leaping to help some disabled veteran over a pebble. Practically blubbers at him while she's doing it. Succeeds in making the veteran feel as if he's ruined for any normal life. Or career.

THE BLOODHOUND. "It's OK, Sailor, you won't shock me!" This shock-proof stalwart is after the details. How does it feel to be bombed? Ever knife a Jap? The War's just one big adventure to him. But it hasn't been for the sailor. He wants to forget it— fast. Not talk about it.

THE PATRIOT. He's practically winning the war single-handed. Always talking about all the things he goes without, all the War Bonds he buys. Talks as if he were doing the Government a favor, when he's really making the best investment in the world. Veterans (who've been buying plenty of Bonds themselves) love this kind of talk. Makes them wonder whether we had the right people in the front lines.

THE ROCK. He's nerveless. The Iron Man. War hasn't affected him. Can't understand why discharged veterans are allowed 90 days to relax before going back to their old jobs. Can't understand why they should need time to get over the War. He doesn't. Combat Officers would love to have this type in their care for a while.

BLUE RIBBON CITIZEN. Like all good people, she asks no questions, weeps no tears, doesn't stare at disabilities. To her, a returned veteran is an abler, more aggressive and resourceful citizen than the boy who went away. She's proud of him, proud to know him. Anxious to be of real help to him. She's the kind of person we should all be.

Windows to the Past: Window Shopping 1936

2008-08-23T17:36:00.003-04:00

Newsboys in 1936 window shop at a sporting goods store in Jackson, Ohio. Thoughts of hawking newspapers are lost amidst dreams of fishing reels and other assorted pieces of angling equipment. The scene was captured by photographer Theordor Jung. The photograph is part of the FSA-OSI Collection at the Library of Congress.

Science, Sputniks, Space

2008-08-21T18:35:00.003-04:00

The state of American education as observed in the 1959 World Book Annual Supplement:

EDUCATION won an economic "shot in the arm" in August, 1958, that will affect education from the elementary school to the most advanced college level. Congress passed the $861,000,000 National Defense Education Act, a sweeping four-year program that makes federal grants to deserving students and schools. In this way the law seeks to promote science, mathematics, and foreign-language instruction. It also tries to improve testing, guidance, and counseling; to extend audio-visual techniques; to broaden vocational education; and to finance fellowships and loans for needy college students. But it allows no funds for teacher salaries or school construction.

The plan's cost for the first year is estimated at $200,000,000. Congress authorized $661,000,000 to be spent from 1959 to 1962. The loans will be administered by various colleges, and the rest of the plan will be managed by state departments of education.

Soviet Impact. The technological success of the U.S.S.R. continued to challenge the interest of American educators. A delegation led by U.S. Commissioner of Education Lawrence G. Derthick spent 3o days visiting Soviet schools. After returning to the U.S., Derthick said, "What we have seen has amazed us ... everywhere we went we saw indication after indication of a ... total commitment to education."

The impact of Soviet educational progress prompted educators to strengthen mathematics, science, and foreign-language instruction further. Some school systems decided to cut out "nonessential" courses, such as driver-education courses, and tighten school discipline. Perhaps the most visible effect was the increase of Russian-language teaching in high schools and colleges. Early in the year, only 18 high schools in the nation were known to offer Russian. By the end of the year, the number of high schools teaching Russian had tripled, and universities were adding Slavic studies as fast as the supply of instructors and textbooks permitted.

Sincerely, Superman

2008-08-20T16:35:00.003-04:00

This very cool war-era Superman postcard dates from 1944 and is currently up for auction at Hakes.

Windows to the Past: Ernest Debs' Comic Book Collection

2008-08-18T00:05:00.001-04:00

I would say that it is very unlikely that Los Angeles City Councilman Ernest Debs is showing off his personal collection of EC Comics in this photograph. The picture was snapped in 1954 and was likely connected to the outcry over comic book content that was incited by the publication of the book Seduction of the Innocent by Frederic Wertham. That outcry ultimately led to to Senate Subcommittee hearings during the spring of 1954 that examined closely comic book content, especially within the crime and horror genres. As a result, the comic book industry voluntarily adopted the Comics Code Authority.

The Architecture of Las Venus

2008-08-17T13:47:00.007-04:00

Las Venus represented an over-the-top interpretation of Las Vegas when it appeared on an episode of The Jetsons in 1962. The show featured three different casino-hotel resorts:

The Supersonic Sands.

The Flamoongo.

And the Las Venus Venus (whose headline act was Dean Martian.)

Though retaining some of the Googie characteristics of other Jetsons architecture, the Las Venus resorts were more in the nature of programmatic design, with the buildings taking on the forms of oversize gambling props such as poker chips, dice and a roulette wheel. The Supersonic Sands and the Flamoongo were send-ups of actual Las Vegas establishments: the Sands and the Flamingo.

Wake Up Wichita! Before It's Too Late!

2008-08-15T22:29:00.001-04:00

Cold War paranoia could also be fun and entertaining! Employees of the Orpheum Theater in Wichita, Kansas, pose in costume to promote the release of the 1953 movie Invasion U.S.A.

Invasion U.S.A. opened at the Orpheum on February 26, 1953. The theater borrowed one of Wichita's air raid sirens to display in the lobby. The accompanying display warned "Wake Up Wichita! Before It's Too Late!" The theater's management took the advice of exhibitor's promotional material which encouraged them to "Work out if possible, a 'siren' opening of your film--a test 'alert' for civilian defense workers." They also arranged for a Civil Defense Rescue Service truck to be parked in front of the theater's entrance. An exterior promotional display indicated that Invasion U.S.A. was shown at the Orpheum on the same bill with Walt Disney's Color Cartoon Revue. Just imagine, Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck followed by the atomic annihilation of the United States.

As for the movie itself, according to the web site CONELRAD--

Shot in seven days in April of 1952 on a budget of $127,000.00, veteran director Alfred E. Green (THE JOLSON STORY) managed to combine a number of wildly disparate elements into this 74-minute tour de force of "atomic" filmmaking. The formula for Invasion U.S.A as accurately as can be determined is 30% stock footage, 20% staged newscasts to explain the stock footage, 30% intense and mostly nonsensical propaganda and 20% inappropriate romantic melodrama. Blended together the movie plays like a Joseph McCarthy fever dream.

Photos courtesy of Wichita Photo Archives.

Windows to the Past: Get in the Picture

2008-08-15T06:20:00.001-04:00

Children gather around an elaborate display promoting the 3D movie The Charge at Feather River at the Alabama Theatre in Birmingham during the summer of 1953. Posters nearby also advertise the Robert Mitchum-Susan Hayward thriller White Witch Doctor. The photo is from the archive of the Birmingham Public Library.

The Future of the Family - 1946

2008-08-14T17:52:00.004-04:00

The hopeful idealism of of post-World War II America can be seen in this 1946 U.S. Treasury poster promoting U.S. Saving Bonds. The parents and children depicted are together a perfect example of the family archetype that would come to symbolize post-war society and the beginnings of the Baby Boom. A classic image from a classic time.

Fair-Going Flintstones

2008-08-13T15:54:00.013-04:00

Though Walt Disney has quite famous connections to the 1964-65 New York World's Fair, rival cartoon makers Hanna-Barbera also made their presence felt by way of their then very popular Flintstones characters. The stone-age family was featured in an Official World's Fair Comic Souvenir titled The Flintstones at the New York World's Fair. The stories in the book featured cameo appearances by other Hanna-Barbera cartoon stars including the Jetsons, Yogi Bear, Top Cat, Snagglepuss and Huckleberry Hound. The stories took place throughout the fairgrounds at Flushing Meadows and many of the Fair's more famous landmarks were highlighted:

The U.S. Royal tire-themed ferris wheel.

The Tower of the Four Winds sculpture at the Pepsi-Cola pavilion.
The pavilion also played host to the Disney-created it's a small world attraction.

And appropriately enough, Sinclair's Dinoland.

The Fair was also featured in episode of The Flintstones television program that aired during the show's fifth season. Originally broadcast on January 15, 1965, the episode "Time Machine" preceded the Fair's 1965 season. In the episode, Fred, Wilma, Betty and Barney attend the Bedrock World's Fair where they discover, appropriately and amusingly, an empty Hall of Science. The building's only occupant, an eccentric bespectacled inventor sends the two couples into the future by way of his newly invented time machine. After a series of adventures through time, the four end up at the 1964-65 New York World's Fair.

Windows to the Past: Star Trek Fans 1968

2008-08-11T14:22:00.004-04:00

Trekkies sure looked different in the early days. Identified as students from Caltech, these fans of the original Star Trek television show staged a protest of the program's rumored cancellation in January of 1968 outside of NBC Studios. The photo is part of the UCLA Digital Archives and was originally published by the Los Angeles Times.

Hey, Got a Nickel, Mack?

2008-08-10T16:31:00.007-04:00

A Hare Grows in Manhattan - 1947

"It was once the world’s largest restaurant chain, serving 800,000 people a day. It was Horn & Hardart, and its cavernous, waiterless establishments represented a combination of fast-food, vending and cafeteria-style eateries. These restaurants, with their chrome-and-glass coin-operated machines, brought high-tech, inexpensive eating to a low-tech era. Making their debut in Philadelphia in 1902, just up the street from Independence Hall, and reaching Manhattan in 1912, Horn & Hardart Automats became an American icon, celebrated in song and humor. With their uniform recipes and centralized commissary system of supplying their restaurants, the Automats were America’s first major fast-food chain."

Carolyn Hughes Crowley

Smithsonian Magazine, August 2001

"Horn and Hardart believed that the cafeteria-like eatery would be a success if they could provide quality food inexpensively and conveniently. Customers could drop a nickel into a slot next to chrome and glass displays, choosing a hot meal for five cents. The company instructed employees to be especially friendly—anyone, despite the amount of money they spent, was welcome in an automat and could stay as long as they wanted. Some customers, unable to afford the nickel meals, were welcome to make tomato soup out of hot water and ketchup for free. In the 1930s automats appealed to both the working class because of their prices and to the upper class for their quality food. During the Depression, the automats flourished with their inviting atmosphere, excellent food, and bargain prices."

Catherine Finn

Preservation Magazine, Jaunuary 2007

"A kiss may be grand, but it won't pay the rental on your humble flat,

or help you at the automat."

-from the song Diamonds Are a Girls Best Friend,

as performed by Marilyn Monroe in the film
Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.

Windows to the Past: A Fun Evening in 1949

2008-08-09T00:10:00.000-04:00

Eight southern California teenagers gather for a "television party" in March of 1949. The photo is part of the UCLA Digital Archives and was originally published by the Los Angeles Times.

Building the World of the Jetsons

2008-08-08T15:44:00.006-04:00

There is little in mid-20th century popular culture that epitomizes happy retro-futurism more than the original twenty-four episodes of television series The Jetsons. One of the defining characteristics that creators Hanna-Barbera infused in the show was an architectural style heavily influenced by the Googie designs of countless commercial buildings and establishments that were popular throughout the 1950s and early 1960s.

According to Wikipedia, "Features of Googie include upswept roofs, curvaceous, geometric shapes, and bold use of glass, steel and neon. Googie was also characterized by space-age designs that depict motion, such as boomerangs, flying saucers, atoms and parabolas, and free-form designs such as "soft" parallelograms and the ubiquitous artist's-palette motif. These stylistic conventions reflected American society's emphasis on futuristic designs and fascination with Space Age themes." Two of the most prominent surviving examples of Googie are the Seattle Space Needle and the Theme Building at Los Angeles International Airport. The designs of those two structures in particular inspired much of the background architecture found in The Jetsons.

As an ongoing feature here at Boom Pop!, we are going to showcase many of the clever and fun retro-future designs found in those original episodes of The Jetsons that aired during the 1962-1963 television season. First up, two buildings representing the business side of television itself.

Asteroid TV Productions appeared in the episode "Elroy's TV Show."

The home of station KLMN was featured in the episode "Elroy's Pal."

Both structures have a base drawn very directly from the aforementioned Theme Building. The sign for KLMN is distinctly reminiscent of Googie-style signs used frequently by shopping centers, motels, restaurants and bowling alleys.

Greetings From Grauman's Chinese Theater

2008-08-07T11:32:00.009-04:00

Here are two vintage postcard views of the now iconic Grauman's Chinese Theatre during its golden age of Hollywood heyday. Showman Sid Grauman built this elaborate movie palace with the help of investors Douglas Fairbanks, Mary Pickford and Howard Schenck. It opened on May 18, 1927 with the premiere of the Cecil B.DeMille film The King of Kings. Grauman had previously built the equally elaborate but less famous Egyptian Theatre a few years earlier.

Grauman's Chinese Theater has achieved its legendary status primarily due to its well known forecourt where movie stars and Hollywood celebrities have long been immortalized via cement block footprints, handprints and signatures. Grauman explained how he literally stumbled upon the idea for his Walk of Fame on a Lux Radio Theatre program in 1937. "I walked right into it. While we were building the theatre, I accidentally happened to step in some soft concrete. And there it was. So, I went to Mary Pickford immediately. Mary put her foot into it." Partner Douglas Fairbanks quickly followed suit and thus the famous Hollywood tradition was born.

Jump over to 2719 Hyperion where we document all the Hollywood personalities that appeared in the Mickey Mouse cartoon Mickey's Gala Premier. The 1933 short took place at Grauman's Chinese Theatre and features a caricature of Sid Grauman.

Windows to the Past: Gasoline Prices 1938

2008-08-04T06:20:00.001-04:00

Seventy years ago this month, renowned Depression-era photographer Dorothea Lange took note of gasoline prices at a service station in Santa Fe, New Mexico. The photograph is part of the FSA-OSI Collection at the Library of Congress.

Freeze Frame! - Henry and Leon

2008-08-03T16:40:00.002-04:00

Over forty Hollywood personalities were featured in the 1941 Warner Brothers cartoon Hollywood Steps Out. Among the celebrities caricatured in that particular Looney Tunes short were Bing Crosby, Cary Grant, Edward G. Robinson, James Cagney, Humphrey Bogart and Mickey Rooney, just to name a few. Sitting at a reserved table in the then famous Ciro's nightclub however, were two gentlemen who would have likely gone unrecognized by audiences even back in 1941. The two individuals (left to right) are Henry Binder and Leon Schlesinger. Schlesinger of course was the producer of the Looney Tunes and Merry Melodies cartoons. Binder, less well know, served as Schlesinger's assistant.

Windows to the Past: We Are Ready - What About You?

2008-08-02T20:58:00.002-04:00

The second world war was very far away from these young men in rural Texas. Yet reminders were always ever close as reflected in the poster on the wall behind them. This moment in time was captured by photographer John Vachon at a school in San Augustine County in 1944. It is part of the FSA-OSI Collection at the Library of Congress.

Special thanks to Viewliner Ltd. for pointing us to the collection.

The World of Tomorrow: The Heinz Dome

2008-08-01T22:32:00.001-04:00

We will be touring the 1939-1940 New York World's Fair here at Boom Pop on a regular basis. Our first stop will be in the Food Zone to explore the Heinz Dome. Our handy Official Guide Book provides the following description:

H. J. HEINZ COMPANY: Inside the Heinz Dome, a sculptured group symbolizes "perfection" and the securing of food from all over the world. The interior (Skidmore & Owings and John Moss, designers) contains displays representative of the company. In a scientific laboratory, tomatoes growing on vines ten feet high derive nourishment from a chemical solution containing nutritive elements ordinarily found in the soil. The animated Heinz figure, the "Aristocrat Tomato Man," sings, nods his tomato head, smacks his lips, etc., and a series of six plaques depicts the company's progress in the preparation of its food products since grandmother's time.

AT RAINBOW AVENUE AND THE ESPLANADE!

Heinz Dome is centrally located on Constitution Mall at the intersection of the Esplanade and Rainbow Avenue. Decorating the exterior of the 100 foot high Dome is the Mural of Harvest done in relief by the well-known master, Domenico Mortellito. One side of the mural depicts the gathering of raw materials and winnowing of spices in the eastern hemisphere. The other side dramatizes agricultural activities of the western world.

Through the Looking Glass

Part of the interior may be viewed through invisible glass windows and part through an ingenious system of preiscopic mirrors.

STOP AND TASTE HEINZ 57 VARIETIES

At the Sampling Stations within Heinz Dome you meet old favorites, make new friends among Heinz 57 Varieties. Attractively uniformed Home Economists serve free samples of many different kinds of Heinz Homestyle Soups, Oven Baked Beans, Spaghetti, and Macaroni—all piping hot; also Pickles, Spreads and chilled Tomato Juice.

HEINZ LOOKS TO THE FUTURE ... Scientists of the House of Heinz are constantly searching for new and better ways to prepare fine foods for your table. At the Heinz Dome, visitors can view interesting experiments in chemiculture—the growing of experimental tomato plants in chemically-treated water and in pure white sand. These plants grow more than seven feet tall, producing four crops per year. Heinz "aristocrat" tomatoes are not at present grown in this manner. But experiments of this type offer valuable information as to the ways in which nature and science may combine for constant improvement in types and flavor of tomatoes as they are grown on the farm.

HE IS THE HEINZ "ARISTOCRAT" THE PRIDE OF HIS WHOLE FAMILY

Heinz animated Aristocrat Tomato Man does a singing-talking act which is one of the most popular features of the Fair—especially with the youngsters. He tells his own story in his own way—with gestures.

MOTHER AND CHILDREN STOP HERE

One whole section of the Heinz exhibit is devoted to the youngest generation. Here one can obtain latest scientific information on special Heinz foods for children. On a large plaque depicting a Day with junior, is an animated show-within-a-show telling the story of Heinz Strained Foods and Heinz Junior Foods, and a 24 inch "snowstorm" ball in which is enclosed a replica of the little home in Sharpsburg where the House of Heinz began.

THE HOUSE OF HEINZ PRESENTS SPECTACULAR EXHIBIT

The interior of the Heinz Dome is spectacular, spacious and impressive with notable examples of sculpture, interesting murals done in a modern manner, a great center fountain and dramatic lighting effects. Here are 20,000 square feet of exhibit space, providing many different types of entertainment for the visitor.

The Largest Sculptured Group at the World's Fair

In the center of the Dome rises a gigantic column 65 feet tall—the work of Sculptor Raymond Barger. The column is crowned by the Goddess of Perfection, a large allegorical figure in a kneeling position who holds in her hand a luminous sphere—symbol of perfection. Twenty-two golden sculptured figures encircling the column represent the contributions of various lands to the making of Heinz famous 57 Varieties. This tremendous sculptured group rises from a sunken pool and emerges from an overhead waterfall which flows over a glass saucer measuring 36 feet in diameter. Visitors may walk beneath the waterfall and view the Goddess through a mirage of colored lights. This is one of the most unusual and interesting sights of the World's Fair.

The Grasshopper - 1958

2008-07-31T07:02:00.000-04:00

From The World Book Encyclopedia 1959 Annual:

ANTIGRAVITY BELT, a jet device that turns men into human grasshoppers, was unveiled by a New Jersey chemical company in 1958. It promises to be useful to soldiers, construction workers, policemen, and fire fighters. The 55-pound rocket belt, strapped around a man's waist, holds two small nitrogen gas tanks and jet nozzles. When the wearer pushes a button, gas escapes and thrusts him into the air.

Company testers, dressed as army infantrymen and wearing the belt, ran 35 mph without tiring, jumped Over 2o-foot trenches, and soared over cliffs and walls. The company said it planned smaller, lighter models, and expected to perfect a model simple and cheap enough for general troop use within two years. The belt, similar to that worn by the comic strip character Buck Rogers, was called "Buck Rogers," "The Grasshopper," and "Jump Belt."

Just Watched: Three Came Home

2008-07-30T06:01:00.001-04:00

Upon rising each day and counting my blessings of family, health and home, I frequently also take a moment to give thanks for Turner Classic Movies. I have been a fan of vintage and classic films since my youth, but TCM almost daily exposes me to both high profile films I've long managed to miss and low profile gems I was never aware of.

Three Came Home would most certainly fit in the latter category though it was generally well received upon its release in 1950. It was based on the true story of American writer Agnes Newton Keith who, while living in Borneo during World War II, is captured by the invading Japanese and interned in a POW camp until the end of the war. Claudette Colbert portrayed Keith through her three and a half years of often harsh and brutal imprisonment.

Considering its postwar Hollywood pedigree, Three Came Home is often surprisingly forthright with its depiction of the conditions and treatment endured by Keith and her fellow prisoners. Beatings of women are frequently depicted and Colbert's character at one point survives an attempted rape by a guard, only to be later tortured for refusing to disavow the incident. She does find some degree of sympathy from the American-educated camp commander Lieutenant-Colonel Suga, who prior to the war was familiar with Keith's previously published book. Suga was played by Sessue Hayakawa, who would go on to be Oscar-nominated for a similar role in the 1957 film Bridge Over the River Kwai. Curiously, the film depicts the character of Suga somewhat sympathetically, portraying him as somewhat ignorant of the conditions around him. In reality, Tatsuji Suga, though documented by Keith and others as displaying a compassionate nature at times, oversaw prisoner camps notorious for torture, abuse and death. His legacy includes the infamous Sandakan Death Marches among other atrocities. He would likely have been executed for war crimes had he not commit suicide five days after his capture.

Agnes Newton Keith's book Three Came Home, from which the film was adapted, is no longer in print, but used copies are available through various online retailers. A 1947 Time Magazine review of the book observed:

Three Came Home doesn't try to tap tear ducts or beg reader sympathy. Mrs. Keith's story is full of suffering but singularly free of resentment. In a prefatory note that reads like a considered epilogue she rises above personal bitterness: "The Japanese in this book are as war made them, not as God did, and the same is true of the rest of us. We are not pleasant people here, for the story of war is always the story of hate; it makes no difference with whom one fights. The hate destroys you spiritually as the fighting destroys you bodily."

A profound observation on the part of Keith, that in many ways the movie adaptation manages to communicate.

Three Came Home is frequently shown on both Turner Classic Movies and the Fox Movie Channel.

Greetings From - Taylor Allderdice High School

2008-07-29T06:06:00.003-04:00

Postcards are magical things. Small windows into the past. If you aren't careful, you can sometimes fall into them and have a hard time finding your way back.

It's been quite some time since my high school days, but this postcard extends even further back into the past, likely predating my graduation by three decades. In this particular rendering, Taylor Allderdice High School, located in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, looks pretty much as it did when I attended classes there in the mid-1970s. A later expansion saw a building placed directly in front of the school's main entrance, greatly diminishing the building's grand and stately architectural aesthetics. The large smokestack that towers behind the building was appropriately enough the common location for between-class cigarette breaks.

This next postcard displays part of the route I took when traveling from the Pittsburgh neighborhood of Lincoln Place to Taylor Allderdice. The Homestead High Level Bridge crossed the Monongahela River, connecting Squirrel Hill to the steel town of Homestead.

Photo Retro! - Playground Apocalypse

2008-07-28T09:05:00.000-04:00

Space age playground equipment was quite the rage during the 1960s and 1970s. Slides and climbing gyms themed as retro-style rockets were especially popular and red always seemed to be the dominant color of such structures. Safety concerns ultimately grounded much of the era's imaginative designs and equipment. This particular playground rocket is located within an abandoned radar base far off the beaten path in rural North Carolina.

Travels with Dennis: Hawaii

2008-07-27T11:22:00.000-04:00

Among my lost childhood treasures that I have spent my recent adult years attempting to retrieve are Dennis the Menace comic books. Non-superhero comics have in the last few decades diminished to the point of near extinction, and while Dennis the Menace still enjoys a successful career on newspaper funny pages around the world, his four color adventures exist now mainly as collectibles and, at least for me, very happy memories.

In the late 1950s and 1960s, Dennis the Menace became quite the world traveler. His journeys around the globe were chronicled in a series of giant 25¢ comic books that proved so popular, many were reprinted multiple times over the next two decades. One of the best and most significant of these comics was Dennis the Menace in Hawaii, originally published during the summer of 1958.

The romance of Hawaii had become a staple of post-war American popular culture, and with statehood looming, Dennis-creator Hank Ketcham decided to send his pint-sized headliner across the Pacific. Ketcham visited the islands in 1956, and the following year sent writer Fred Toole and artist Al Wiseman on a research junket with the aim of producing a giant 100-page comic book featuring Dennis and his parents on a Hawaiian vacation. Toole and Wiseman had been producing the Dennis the Menace comic books since 1953. The Honolulu Star-Bulletin, in an article entitled "Dennis the Menace to Try Isle Imping," revealed that Ketcham surprised the pair with round trip tickets. It went on to report that both men and their respective wives were staying at the Hawaiian Village resort, just one of many island locations that would ultimately appear in their finished story.

In an era when comic book talent was rarely given any visible credit, Toole and Wiseman were featured in photographs on the book's inside front cover and a message from the publisher stated, "This book is the result of a special trip to the Hawaiian Islands by artist Al Wiseman and writer Fred Toole. Their on-the-spot sketches, photos and notes enabled them to draw and write this book as could only be done by people who had actually visited the islands."

Wiseman has long been held in high regard by comics aficionados and his work on the Dennis the Menace books is especially well respected. His talent can be seen throughout the Hawaii comic in his spartan but still very effective renderings of the sights of the islands. His art displays a remarkable attention to detail; in one instance he reproduces the menu from the famed Queen's Surf Luau.

Perhaps most memorable about the book is the sequence in which Dennis and his parents visit Peal Harbor. In an unusual move for a comic book, Toole and Wiseman related the events of December 7, 1941 via printed text and an accompanying detailed map-illustration. The sequence ends with a surprisingly emotional moment at the U.S.S. Arizona Memorial.

Dennis the Menace in Hawaii was reprinted a number of times subsequent to its initial publication. An abridged edition was released in 1969.

Welcome to Boom Pop!

2008-07-26T21:43:00.000-04:00

"Do you like anything other than Disney?"

Why yes, as a matter of fact I do . . .

Welcome to Boom Pop! It is quite likely you have arrived here by way of 2719 Hyperion, the address that has been my primary online residence for close to two years. My passion for Disney history and entertainment has been showcased there these many months, but 2719 Hyperion has also in many ways created the perception that my interests are exclusive to the likes of Mickey Mouse and Walt Disney World. In reality, my baby boomer roots have long inspired an interest in 20th century popular culture that extends well beyond the creations of the Walt Disney Company.

The most important rule I established for 2719 Hyperion was to keep it true to its subject--Disney entertainment. Other Disney online journalists and bloggers often extend beyond these boundaries. (A popular and established Disney blog recently published a review of Hellboy II for example.) I must admit, I too have felt similarly inclined at times to take 2719 outside of its original symbolic Hyperion Avenue thematic address. Wouldn't it be cool to do a Freeze Frame! featuring a Looney Tunes cartoon? Discuss World's Fair attractions unrelated to Walt Disney? Celebrate my love for classic Hollywood motion pictures? But such considerations always ended up bumping into that pesky Addressing the Many Worlds of Disney Entertainment mission statement that I attached to my online identity.

Of course, the solution was relatively simple. Thus, Boom Pop! was born.

Boom Pop! will be in fact very similar to 2719 Hyperion in format and design. It's a comfortable fit for me and I'm a firm believer in the Keep It Simple, Stupid philosophy. Many 2719 Hyperion staples will be reinvented here--Snapshot!, Freeze Frame! and What a Character! just to name a few.

As the content for Boom Pop! emerges over the next few weeks, please let me know what you think, either via the comments sections or by direct email. Your feedback is always welcome and very much appreciated.

Enjoy!