If ‘Pan Am’ Takes a Nosedive, It Won’t Be For a Lack of Authentic, Vintage Props

When the 2011 fall television season made its noisy debut in September, two shows stood out for their potential to generate the same level of retro-cool buzz as “Mad Men.” One was NBC’s “The Playboy Club,” which explored the lives of Playboy bunnies in 1960s Chicago—it was quickly cancelled. The other was ABC’s “Pan Am,” which followed four stewardesses based in New York City … (continue reading)

Occupy Boardwalk: How Games Got Greedy

In case you missed it, there’s a tremendous public debate roiling in the U.S. about whether bankers and Wall Street financiers profited from the current economic downturn after being bailed out by taxpayers. Certain politicians and talking heads have admonished the Occupy Wall Street protestors for engaging in “class warfare,” but populist rage against “fat cats” is not new.
“George S. Parker was bored by moralistic games.”
Cast-iron … (continue reading)

Taxidermy Comes Alive! On the Web, the Silver Screen, and in Your Living Room

“Taxidermy is never a mundane science,” Rachel Poliquin wrote in her 2009 essay, “Immortal Beauties,” on photographer Mary Frey’s ongoing taxidermy ambrotype project “Imagining Fauna.” “It is the queasy art of seeing what would not, should not, be seen. It is the art of extending animal form beyond its natural lifespan.”

Poliquin, a life-long taxidermy connoisseur and scholar from Vancouver, taps into the peculiar yearning … (continue reading)

Digging Up the Weirdest Old Books and Comics From the Thrift-Store Bargain Bins

When we first encountered Alan Scherstuhl’s “Studies in Crap” column over at the “SF Weekly,” we knew he was one of us. Every week, he goes digging around thrift stores and flea markets looking for that special book that speaks to him. Sometimes its a Kool-Aid Man comic book where the oversize beverage pitcher busts into orbiting … (continue reading)

The Inside Scoop on Fake Barf

Have you ever stopped to contemplate the existence of rubber barf? It opens up enough philosophical quandaries to make your head spin. Who would ever think of such a thing? Why would he feel the need to manufacture it?
Fortunately, Stan and Mardi Timm, the foremost experts on famed novelty company H. Fishlove & Co., have the answers to these vexing questions. The couple even got a … (continue reading)

When Being a Lesbian Was Profitable, For Men

The times they are a-changing: Last weekend, lesbian couple Kitty Lambert and Cheryle Rudd made history, exchanging the first gay-marriage nuptials in New York State. Just a few days before, President Obama certified the repeal of the “don’t ask don’t tell” policy in the U.S. military. But homosexuality has not always been so understood and accepted in U.S. society. In fact, in mid-century America, being a lesbian was seen as aberrant and morally corrupt, and because of its social stigma, authors … (continue reading)

Cyanide, Uranium, and Ammonium Nitrate: When Kids Really Had Fun With Science

Here we are, in 2011, a.k.a. “The Future.” We’ve made leaps and bounds in science that we couldn’t even imagine 50 years ago. You’d think the science toys of our age would be mind-bending in their ability to awe and inspire young chemists and biologists. Instead, kids today are being protected within an inch of their lives, while adults apparently live in dread of unsupervised children running amuck with the … (continue reading)

Found Photos: When Rock Lost Its Innocence

On February 26, 1955, a Cleveland deejay named Tommy Edwards became the first music promoter to book a Southern singing sensation named Elvis Presley north of the Mason-Dixon line. The event was the Hillbilly Jamboree at Cleveland’s Circle Theater. That fall, Edwards brought Presley back to the Cleveland area for several more shows, including one on October 20, 1955, at Brooklyn High School. On … (continue reading)

Girlie Glasses: A Peep Show With Your Beer

A beer is served in a glass with a pretty woman on the front. As you drink, something catches your eye—inside your glass you can see the bare butt cheeks of the same glamour girl presented fully dressed on the outside. Maybe you’re a little startled; maybe it makes you smile.

“The earliest peek-a-boo glasses feature a cartoonish woman with a freakishly big head and eyes, … (continue reading)

How Snake Oil Got a Bad Rap (Hint: It Wasn’t The Snakes’ Fault)

These days, “snake oil” is synonymous with quackery, the phoniest of phony medicines. A “snake oil salesman” promises you the world, takes your money, and is long gone by the time you realize the product in your hands is completely worthless. But get this: The original snake oil actually worked. Save this one for the next cocktail party; it will blow your friends’ minds.

In the 1860s, Chinese laborers immigrated to the United States to work on … (continue reading)

How Science Made Your Dino Toys Extinct

Remember when you were a kid how dinosaurs were the coolest ever? In particular, the stories of Big Three—the brontosaurus, the triceratops, and the Tyrannosaurus rex—dominated children’s books, coloring books, cartoons, games, and figurines. Plus, these great beasts weren’t just some mythological creatures like dragons; no, we had the fossils, and everything we learned about them was based on science.
Well, information unearthed during … (continue reading)

The Woman Behind Bettie Page

From 1952 to 1957, a not-so-shy model and camera-club girl named Bettie Page worked for a New York City men’s magazine publisher named Irving Klaw. His younger sister Paula was the photographer and director of the black-haired beauty, who posed for the bondage and fetish photography market that Irving helped create.

Though mostly tame by 21st century standards, many of the Page images would be considered very disturbing even today. Little wonder, then, that along with comic … (continue reading)

Lady Gaga, Innovator or Copycat? We Dissect “Born This Way”

Lady Gaga has a reputation as a wildly original trendsetter. But based on the evidence we found in “Born This Way,” she’s also a mega recycler of pop-culture history.

Being connoisseurs of cool old stuff, we noticed that even her most outlandish imagery in the head-spinning video for “Born This Way” owes a great debt not only to Madonna’s “Express Yourself,” but also to works of science fiction, movie history, famous artworks, … (continue reading)

Should Record Store Day Exclude Online Shops?

Vinyl record geeks and turntable enthusiasts all over the blogosphere have been digging in their couches for coins all month to save up for tomorrow. Why? Well, it’s Record Store Day. Musical artists of every stripe—rock, hip-hop, soul, country, jazz, punk, and metal—are releasing special limited-edition albums, mostly vinyl LPs and 45s, for this event, now … (continue reading)

Lost and Found: John Lennon Granny Glasses

Today’s guest blogger is Helen Hall, an expert in entertainment memorabilia and the director of Dig Gallery in London.

You have no idea how many pairs of John Lennon “Granny” glasses I researched when I was the Head of Entertainment Memorabilia at Christie’s in London. Most of them could be dismissed fairly quickly—the prescription was wrong or the provenance was not strong enough. But every so often, a pair came along that made me stop and think…. (continue reading)