Comet Atomic
Author's posts
Dec 02 2024
Frosty’s Winter Wonderland: A Nostalgic Trip Down Memory Lane with Rankin & Bass
Frosty the Snowman had already discovered the magic of coming to life, befriended a group of children, survived a dangerously warm greenhouse, and headed north before he melted when Rankin/Bass decided that his next television adventure required a new problem. Frosty was lonely. That simple idea became the heart of Frosty’s Winter Wonderland, the 1976 …
Oct 23 2024
Soviet Film Wednesday: Viy
A frightened seminary student stands alone inside a dark village church. A corpse lies before him. He draws a protective circle around himself and begins to pray, knowing that when night falls the dead young woman may rise from her coffin again. With each passing night, the supernatural attacks grow stranger, the church becomes less …
Sep 23 2024
The Jetsons: Flying Cars, Robot Maids & the Future of 1962
On September 23, 1962, American television viewers met George Jetson, his boy Elroy, daughter Judy, and Jane, his wife. Within minutes, The Jetsons introduced a future filled with flying cars, moving sidewalks, apartment buildings floating high above the ground, video calls, robot servants, push-button meals, and machines designed to remove almost every inconvenience from daily …
Jul 26 2024
Signs of America: The Orange Shop in Citra
Along U.S. Highway 301 in the small community of Citra, Florida, one of the state’s most charming pieces of roadside history still points travelers toward fresh citrus. The sign for The Orange Shop is almost impossible to miss: a giant orange promises FRESH JUICE, while bold orange lettering announces the shop beside an arrow directing …
Jun 19 2024
Dingbat Apartments: Los Angeles’ Quirky Mid-Century Housing
Drive through the older neighborhoods of Los Angeles and eventually you are likely to see one: a low, boxy apartment building hovering above an open row of carports, perhaps decorated with a starburst, mosaic panel, geometric screen, or a name written in swooping script. It might be called the Polynesian, the Capri, the Flamingo, the …
Jun 12 2024
Bob’s Big Boy: Burgers, Googie & California Car Culture
Few restaurants capture mid-century Southern California quite like Bob’s Big Boy. There is the towering neon sign glowing beside the boulevard, the smiling Big Boy mascot holding his double-decker hamburger, the sweeping roofline, the expanses of glass, and the parking lot filled with automobiles. Add a chocolate shake and a plate of fries, and the …
Jun 10 2024
Chemosphere House: John Lautner’s Space Age Masterpiece
Perched high above the Hollywood Hills like a spacecraft that has stopped briefly on its way across Los Angeles, the Chemosphere House is one of the most instantly recognizable homes of the mid-century era. Its octagonal living space appears to float above a steep hillside, balanced improbably on a single narrow concrete column while broad …
May 29 2024
A Desert Oasis: Discover the Best Things to Do in Palm Springs
Palm Springs looks a little like someone dreamed up the perfect mid-century vacation town and then placed it beneath a wall of mountains in the California desert. Tall palms line streets filled with low-slung modernist buildings, swimming pools shimmer behind privacy walls, vintage signs survive beside stylish hotels, and the San Jacinto Mountains rise so …
May 23 2024
The Atomium: Brussels’ Atomic Age Icon
Rising above Brussels like an enormous molecular model dropped into the landscape, the Atomium is one of the most extraordinary survivors of the Atomic Age. Nine gleaming spheres are connected by giant tubes, forming a structure that seems equally suited to a science-fiction movie, a laboratory of the future, or a 1950s vision of life …
May 04 2024
4 Fun Facts About R2-D2 for May the 4th
Few movie robots have as much personality as R2-D2. He does not have a human face, speak a recognizable language, or even have arms in the conventional sense, yet a few whistles, beeps, nervous movements, and turns of his dome are enough to tell us exactly what he is thinking. Since his first appearance in …
