Oct 19 2026
Imagine a teenager in 1957 walking down the sidewalk with a tiny radio tucked into a shirt pocket. A favorite rock and roll song plays through the miniature speaker, followed by the enthusiastic voice of a local disc jockey announcing the next big hit. The music accompanies the teenager down the street, into the backyard, …
Oct 18 2026
Imagine walking into an American living room in 1950. Against one wall stands a substantial wooden television cabinet, its small black-and-white screen surrounded by polished wood, decorative trim, and a row of mechanical tuning knobs. The set looks almost like a piece of fine furniture, designed to blend into the room rather than draw attention …
Oct 17 2026
Imagine walking into a fashionable American living room in 1959. Against one wall stands a beautiful walnut cabinet supported by slender tapered legs. Its polished wooden surface holds a ceramic lamp, a small vase, or perhaps a decorative bowl. At first glance, it looks like an elegant piece of modern furniture. Then someone lifts the …
Oct 16 2026
Imagine stepping into a fashionable American kitchen in 1957. The refrigerator is a cheerful shade of turquoise, the electric range has gleaming chrome trim, and the countertops are covered in smooth, colorful laminate. Built-in appliances fit neatly into streamlined cabinets, while push buttons and illuminated controls promise to make cooking easier than ever. Everything seems …
Oct 15 2026
Imagine walking into a modern American home in 1958. The kitchen is filled with gleaming appliances in cheerful shades of turquoise, pink, and yellow. An electric range has a neat row of push buttons instead of conventional controls. Across the room, a dishwasher promises to take care of the dirty plates, while an automatic washing …
Sep 14 2026
In his essay of the “Cultures of Tiki,” Scott Lukas noted that in modern presentations of Tiki cultures that had little to do with Tiki of the past like the soft surf culture and the former car culture. These are now becoming a part of the Tiki culture. This is particularly true of surf music, …
Oct 30 2025
In 1958, a strange new magazine appeared on American newsstands. Its pages were filled with vampires, werewolves, giant apes, mad scientists, aliens, mummies, and creatures that seemed to have wandered out of late-night television and directly into the hands of young readers. It was called Famous Monsters of Filmland. Created by publisher James Warren and …
Oct 29 2025
By the early 1960s, American children could surround themselves with monsters. Frankenstein’s monster might appear on television after dark, Dracula could stare from the cover of a magazine at the drugstore, and the Wolf Man might be waiting in the toy aisle. There were model kits to build, masks to wear, games to play, figures …
Oct 28 2025
Long after the neighborhood movie theater had gone dark, another kind of horror show was just beginning. On Friday and Saturday nights during the 1950s and 1960s, television stations across America filled late-night hours with old horror movies, science-fiction pictures and inexpensive thrillers. Dracula might emerge from his castle after the evening news. Frankenstein’s Monster …
Oct 25 2025
Walk into almost any Halloween store and you will find them waiting: a vampire in a black cape, a green-faced monster with bolts in his neck, a bandaged mummy, a furry werewolf, or perhaps a mysterious woman with a towering streak of white hair. These figures feel so naturally connected to Halloween that it is …
