Fads
What Was 'Jonathan Livingston Seagull' And Why Was It S...
January 7, 2021
Richard Bach's Jonathan Livingston Seagull, published in 1970, was a novella -- about, yes, a seagull -- than became a bestseller and one of the defining boo...
G.I. Joe: History Of The 12-Inch Action Soldier Toy
December 13, 2020
Mid-'60s lineup of G.I. Joe action figures. Image courtesy of the Victoria & Albert Museum of Childhood: vam.ac.uk/moc Hasbro’s revolutionary action figure G.I. Joe ...
The Kecksburg Incident: Mysterious UFO Crash Of The '60...
December 10, 2020
The Kecksburg UFO incident that occurred on December 9, 1965, may have happened over Kecksburg, Pennsylvania, but it was seen by people across North America....
'Emmanuelle' Starring Sylvia Kristel And The 'Skinemax'...
December 3, 2020
Set of "Good -bye, Emmanuelle" with Silvia Kristel In Seychelles In April, 1977 - Ian McCone, Silvia Kristel. (Photo by Daniel SIMON/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Image...
8-Track Tape History: The Portable Music Format's Rise ...
November 29, 2020
Today the 8-track tape is the ultimate in obsolete technology, but it was once a revolution in music. Music in your car, and not just any music -- you had th...
Patrick Nagel: Duran Duran's 'Rio' Artist And That '80s...
November 25, 2020
Patrick Nagel's style is instantly recognizable. His cool, seductive graphics, seen in Playboy magazine and on the cover of Duran Duran's Rio album, capture ...
What is LSD? Albert Hofmann's Invention, Explained
November 16, 2020
A man with LSD sign on May 5, 1967 in New York, New York. (Photo by Santi Visalli/Getty Images) LSD (Lysergic acid diethylamide, or acid) permeates '60s and '70s pop ...
1966: Buzz Aldrin Invents The 'Space Selfie' On Gemini ...
November 12, 2020
Taking the first "space selfie" in 1966 isn't Astronaut Buzz Aldrin's only claim to fame (he did walk on the Moon, after all), but it's an ever more relevant...
Gloria Steinem Got Her Start As An Undercover Playboy B...
September 30, 2020
Gloria Steinem on the job as a Playboy Bunny. Source: Getty Images / Bettmann / Contributor In 1963, Gloria Steinem's expose "A Bunny's Tale," was published i...
Chariots Of The Gods: Sketchy Tales Of Ancient Aliens B...
September 22, 2020
Erich Von Däniken's Chariots of the Gods told us that aliens were responsible for everything from the pyramids at Giza to the statues of Easter Island. The b...
The Star Wars Toy Empire Launched With An Empty Box
September 2, 2020
New Star Wars toys, particularly action figures, are inevitable with the release of each film in the 40-plus year-old movie franchise. But when the very first Star ...
Hula Hoop: When Wham-O Pulled Off The All-Time Toy Fad ...
July 5, 2020
Dick Clark watches a guest demonstrate the most popular toy in America on American Bandstand in 1958. (Photo by Walt Disney Television via Getty Images Photo Ar...
Barbie: Doll Of Empowerment, Or Oppression? Biography A...
June 26, 2020
Barbie dolls dressed in a variety of costumes are part of the huge inventory at KittyÕs Collectables in Laguna Beach. Owner Kitty Stuart is one of the largest v...
Why The Bermuda Triangle Craze Of The '70s? The Hoax An...
May 31, 2020
The Bermuda Triangle, that plane- and ship-swallowing mystery zone in the Atlantic, fascinated us in the '60s and '70s. Magazine articles, books and TV shows...
Schwinn Sting-Ray: History Of The Chopper-Inspired Bike...
May 29, 2020
With its banana seat and "ape hanger" handlebars, Schwinn's Sting-Ray bicycle looks a bit dorky today, but if you were a kid in the '60s and '70s it was the ...
Smell-O-Vision: Who Remembers It? History Of The April ...
April 1, 2020
Smell-O-Vision was a way to add smell to television -- so said the BBC in a 1965 April Fool's Day report. The broadcaster pranked television audiences in Eng...
Legos: Facts, History And Trivia About The Universal Bu...
January 28, 2020
Legos are everywhere. At this point, several generations of people all over the world have grown up building things out of Lego bricks, and the toys have evo...
Buffalo Twist Ban Of 1962: Not In My Town, Says Bishop ...
January 26, 2020
Was there any stopping the kids from doing the Twist in 1962? A Catholic bishop in Buffalo, New York felt obliged to try. When kids started doing the Twist i...
When Hollywood Became Hollyweed: New Year's Day, 1976
January 1, 2020
The big white block letters of the HOLLYWOOD sign are an emblem of Los Angeles, signifying glamor, celebrity and movie magic -- but for a brief moment on New Year...
Betty Grable: The Young Pinup Queen Who Helped Win Wars
December 18, 2019
Actress Betty Grable's 1943 back shot in a one-piece swimsuit, with that playful over-the-shoulder smile, is the gold standard of pinups. It's not the greatest ...
When Did Jewish Americans Start Eating Chinese Food For...
December 15, 2019
Jewish Americans celebrate a lot of things, but Christmas isn't usually one of them. Even with Santa Claus, Rudolph, and the other secular trappings, a holid...
Gayla Peevey Of 'I Want A Hippopotamus For Christmas' F...
December 14, 2019
“I want a hippopotamus for Christmas, only a hippopotamus will do,” those strange lyrics sung by a cute 10-year-old girl have been stuck in our heads since 1...
'Alice's Restaurant:' Arlo Guthrie's Arrest Spawned Ant...
November 26, 2019
Arlo Guthrie in October 1968. Source: Bettmann / Contributor, via Getty Images Riding the folk-music wave, singer-songwriter Arlo Guthrie found his moment of ...
Nostalgic TV Sitcoms That Would Be Censored Today
November 4, 2019
The Jiggle TV movement took place in an era when television shows were shifting from dealing with women who were buttoned up homemakers to sisters who were doing it for t...
Behind The 'Monster Swim' and Other Halloween Tracks Yo...
October 16, 2019
When Bobby “Boris” Pickett and his group of Halloween-mad studio musicians laid down the “Monster Mash” in 1962 they were just trying to cash in on teen danc...
Nostalgic Vintage Photos That Define The 1970s
October 7, 2019
The 1970s were a time of vast change in the 20th century. Families were moving out the city and into the suburbs. Urban centers were filling with hip, young upstarts, and so...
Classic Photos Of Real Life In The 1980s
October 7, 2019
We may think of the 1980s as the decade of big hair, bright colors, and screamingly loud heavy metal, but the decade was so much more than the excess with which its identified. Ev...
King Tut Fever Of The 1970s Was PR For A Middle East Tr...
October 5, 2019
The exhibition of the tomb of Kink Tutankhamun -- "King Tut" -- in the 1970s was a museum phenomenon unlike any the world had seen. King Tut and the associat...
10 Concept Cars Of The '60s We Wish Had Been Made
October 3, 2019
Concept cars of the 1960s reflected the era's science-fiction inspired futurism, along with real innovation and the mod styling that is appealing even 50 years later....
Why Was Mayonnaise Such A Staple Of The Groovy Era?
September 9, 2019
In Cold War America, "mayonnaise on everything" was the rule. We've seen the t-shirts and memes that advocate "sriracha on everything" -- imagine that sort of ever-...
Modulex: The Short-Lived 1963 LEGO for Architects
September 7, 2019
Shopping the Modulex way. Source: flickr.com/photos/minkowsky/ We've all seen impressive Lego models of buildings and cities, but there was once a name for Lego archit...
How Ninjas, As You Know Them, Only Date Back To The '60...
September 2, 2019
How old are ninjas?Pop culture in the U.S. and Japan has long been fascinated by the ninja, a black-clad assassin practicing ancient Japanese martial arts an...
How '60s And '70s TV And Movies Made Us Scared Of Quick...
August 31, 2019
Why were we afraid of quicksand? On TV shows and in movies of the '60s and '70s, quicksand was a go-to plot twist that could be inserted virtually anywhere f...
Why Were Blacklight Posters So Popular In The '70s?
August 28, 2019
Few wall adornments are so quintessentially '70s as the blacklight poster, depicting Marvel superheroes, noble warriors, R. Crumb cartoons or drug imagery. Througho...
Nudie Suits: Flashy Rodeo Fashion Of Rock And Country S...
August 15, 2019
Left: Country-rocker Gram Parsons in his famous custom Nudie Suit circa 1969. Right: Robert Redford in the Nudie suit he wore in 'The Electric Horseman,' (1979)...
While He Created Dungeons & Dragons, Gary Gygax's Wife ...
July 28, 2019
In 1974, wizard Gary Gygax brought Dungeons & Dragons to the masses, and role-playing games have been a massive phenomenon in the decades since. Gygax (and h...
Disco Demolition Night, 1979: When Fed-Up Rock Fans Exp...
July 12, 2019
Steve Dahl waves to the crowd during an anti-disco promotion at Comiskey Park, Chicago, Illinois, July 12, 1979. (Photo by Paul Natkin/Getty Images) Right: A 'D...
Teen Magazines Of The '60s and '70s: Mad About The Boys...
June 7, 2019
Mickey Dolenz catches up on his reading with 'Tiger Beat's Official Monkee Spectacular' on the set of the television show 'The Monkees' in May 1967 in Los Angel...
The Collar Over The Lapel Was So '70s. What Was Up With...
June 4, 2019
It's the '70s men's fashion look that no one is talking about: the shirt collar worn over or outside the lapels of a jacket. Today we tackle this old style h...
What Was Swinging London? Mods, Miniskirts & Music In '...
May 22, 2019
Left: Michael Caine during the filming of 'Alfie,' a promotional image from the 2017 documentary 'My Generation.' Right: Pete Townshend of The Who sporting a Un...
The View-Master Slide Show: What 'Click To View' Used T...
May 18, 2019
With reels taken from Disney shows, TV series and locations around the world, the View-Master was a simple hand-held device for viewing 3-D scenes that becam...
The Sexy Stewardess Stories of 'Coffee, Tea Or Me?' Wou...
May 4, 2019
A book like Coffee, Tea or Me? could only happen in 1967. We've lost something in the evolution of the flight attendant, from the servile stewardess: sex app...
Philippe Petit: High-Wire Walking Notre Dame And The Wo...
April 26, 2019
You've heard of the daredevil who walked a wire between the towers of New York's World Trade Center: Philippe Petit. But Notre Dame de Paris, the cathedral t...
The Waterbed Isn't Dead: Inventor Wants Us To Sleep Gro...
April 25, 2019
Invented by Charles Hall in 1967, the Summer of Love, the waterbed is making a comeback in the Millennial generation. Just when you thought nothing from the ...
Spandex History: How It Became The Fabric Of Our '80s L...
February 21, 2019
Model Christie Brinkley in a pink spandex unitard and leg warmers, 1982. Source: (Bettmann/Getty images) While we're all aware of the look of the wonder fabri...
The Futuro House's Spaceship Chic: A Sci-Fi Pad Of One'...
February 20, 2019
A Futuro II photographed on the grounds of the Philadelphia International Airport in 1970. Source: Bettmann/Getty Images) This bulbous round structure is not ...
Go-Go Boots: A History Of The Footwear That Ruled The 1...
February 19, 2019
Go-go boots were mod; they were space-age; they appealed to hippies and Motown divas and high-street fashionistas alike. They were a little bit cutesy and a ...
Lyndon Johnson Had An Amphibious Car, Didn't You?
February 18, 2019
Do we need an amphibious car? Lyndon Johnson thought so. President Lyndon B. Johnson was one of a relatively few people who owned an Amphicar, a seaworthy automobile ...
Bubbling Up In The Hot '70s: Jacuzzis, The Untold Story
February 16, 2019
Turn the lights down low and fire up the jets -- it's Jacuzzi time in the '70s. Jacuzzis and hot tubs proliferated in the decade of disco, with these relaxing a...
Woodstock Fashion: Photos Of Hippie Chicks And What The...
February 5, 2019
Left: A couple attending the Woodstock Music Festival smiles while standing outside the shelter they've built during the concert, Bethel, NY, August 1969. Sourc...
1970s Disco Fashion: Bell-Bottoms And Boogie Shoes
January 25, 2019
When the disco craze hit in the 1970s, disco fashion was its sexy and outrageous look -- big shoes, bell bottoms, chest hair, and sparkles galore. To this day, it re...
'80s Workout Video Stars: Where Are They Now?
January 18, 2019
Raquel Welch released 'Total Beauty And Fitness' in 1984; Heather Lockler's 'Your Personal Workout' came out in 1990. Sources: Photo by Tony Kent/Sygma via Getty Images; eBa...
TV Show Lunchboxes That All The Cool Kids Had
December 21, 2018
Child's lunchbox with painting of characters from the TV series 'Welcome Back Kotter' featuring Travolta, Hegyes, Palillo, Jacobs, & Kaplan. (Photo by Henry Groskinsky/The L...
The UFO Craze Of The '60s and '70s
November 30, 2018
UFOs sightings happen fairly frequently (at least according to UFO sighting witnesses), but in the 1960s and '70s, alien crafts were spotted almost every week throughout America and the...
Groovy Nuances From The Modern ‘70s Home
November 30, 2018
Cake Making - A woman baking cakes in a fitted kitchen, circa 1975. (Photo by f8 Imaging/Hulton Archive/Getty Images) For many Americans owning a home is all part of the Amer...
Groovy, Sexy Waterbeds
November 27, 2018
Model lying atop the 'Pleasure Island' waterbed in 1971 designed by Aaron Donner. (Photo by Heinz Kluetmeier/The LIFE Images Collection/Getty Images) Throughout the 1970s, many swinging singles ...
The Most Popular Must-Have Accessories From The Groovy ...
November 19, 2018
Vogue 1970 Charlotte Rampling, British actress, wearing a matching knit sweater and skirt, a wide brimmed hat by Halston and shiny boots by Charles Jourdan. (Ph...
The '70s Bean Bag Chair: For Serious Rec Room Lounging
November 7, 2018
Bean bag chairs were standard furniture during the 1970s, and can still be found in many a rec room to this day. In the era of non-conformity, bean bag chairs co...
If You Were Born In The GROOVY Era Then You Will Rememb...
November 1, 2018
Diverse First Grade Classroom ST. LOUIS-03/17/67- A junior United Nations is present in the classes of Frazier School, Brentwood, Mo. where seventeen countries ...
Remember These Freebies From The Groovy Era? Definitely...
October 29, 2018
The '60s and '70s weren’t called the groovy era for nothing! Although it is an era remembered for being a time of social unrest in the United States, there w...
Remember These Shampoo Brands of the 1970s?
October 11, 2018
Farrah Fawcett’s famous hair made her a natural for promoting her own brand of shampoo in the 1970s, Farrah Fawcett Shampoo. (Photo by ABC Photo Archives/ABC via Getty Images)...
The Sweet: 10 Candies Of The '70s You Ate Way Too Much ...
October 9, 2018
Reese's Pieces, Pop Rocks, Jelly Bellies -- for kids prowling the candy aisle at the local 7-Eleven or Circle-K in the 1970s, there was a constant stream of ...
The Charm Of The Jukebox… Keep An Eye Out Because They ...
October 6, 2018
Stephen Lapekas Student Stephen Lapekas (2R) playing a song on a juke box. (Photo by Stan Wayman/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images) Jukeboxes have be...
How 'Where The Boys Are' Created Spring Break As We Kno...
October 2, 2018
Where The Boys Are, a 1960 book by Glendon Swarthout that became a hit movie starring Connie Francis, Dolores Hart, Yvette Mimieux, and Paula Prentiss, chang...
'Please Don't Squeeze The Charmin:' How Mr. Whipple Mad...
September 18, 2018
"Please don't squeeze the Charmin," said Mr. Whipple, a store manager in a TV commercial. And TV viewers, who probably wouldn't have squeezed the Charmin, fo...
Paper Dresses: A Brief 1966 Fashion Fad
September 6, 2018
In 1966, the Scott Paper Company introduced the world to paper dresses, a type of disposable fad fashion that became a short-lived viral sensation. The Scott Paper Company was ...
Genius Slogans And Jingles From The '60s and '70s
August 29, 2018
Many advertising slogans and jingles of the 1960s and '70s are still with us today, for better or worse. Even if the companies that used them have moved on to other v...
Those Clunky Clogs: A '70s Trend From The Dutch And The...
August 23, 2018
Vogue, 1971: A model wearing a wooly ski jumpsuit by Anne Klein, Calderon belt with Famolare clogs and rabbit fur Gottesman gloves. (Photo by Gianni Penati/Cond...
Every '70s Girl Wanted a Gunne Sax
August 14, 2018
For teens and young women in the 1970s, there was one dress brand that was tops on their list….Gunne Sax! The dress line, owned by designer Jessica McClintock, opened in 1967 in San...
Can You Still Do These 10 Dances From The 1960s?
August 7, 2018
So many great songs of the 1960s inspired their own dances. Teeny-boppers were quick to adopt the dances moves that they observed on television dance shows, like Ameri...
Dorothy Hamill's Hairstyle Was A Gold-Medal 'Do In '76
July 26, 2018
Dorothy Hamill wins the gold medal for the USA in the Women's Figure skating competition at the 1976 Winter Olympics in Innsbruck, Austria. (Photo by Tony Duffy/Get...
'Convoy:' The Song That Made Truckers The Working Class...
July 10, 2018
The chart-topping 1976 hit "Convoy," by C.W. McCall, tapped into America's fascination with CB radios and truckers. The song told a story about a hard-workin...
Floored In The '70s: The Ugly Vinyl And Linoleum Beneat...
July 5, 2018
DIFF'RENT STROKES cast stand in the family's kitchen. Note the ugly linoleum flooring! (Photo by NBC/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images) Remember the linoleum a...
These Cool Photos Give Us A Glimpse Of Life In The '60s
June 28, 2018
A colorful hippie couple dressed in tie-dye and floral prints grin for the camera, California, circa 1969. (Photo by Underwood Archives/Getty Images) The 1960s w...
The Posters We Put On Our Bedroom Walls In The '60s And...
June 19, 2018
Nearly every teen bedroom in the 1960s and 1970s had posters covering all the walls. Teens created shrines to their favorite hot celebrity, favorite band, an...
Punch Buggy! (No Punch Backs!)
June 18, 2018
Beetle Sedan circa 1961: Promotional studio image of a 1962 Volkswagen Beetle Sedan. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images) The Volkswagen (VW) Beetle has been quite a presence in the Un...
Macramé Of The '70s: The Softest, Shaggiest, Most '70s ...
June 15, 2018
It was the crafty craze of the '70s -- macramé! A weaving and knotting technique that made soft, shaggy, volumetric things that could be hung or worn. Macra...
Sexy Stewardesses Of The '60s and '70s: Friendly Skies ...
June 12, 2018
Today they're flight attendants, but a bygone era the servers in the sky -- who were all female -- were called "stewardesses." The golden age of the glamorou...
Skateboarding In 1965: Americans Fall For Sidewalk Surf...
June 1, 2018
Left: Patti McGee, the first Woman's National Skateboard Champion, does a handstand on her skateboard, California, early 1965. Right: Opening sequence of 'Skate...
Tang, The Astronauts' Drink That NASA Didn't Invent
May 22, 2018
There's nothing like a celebrity endorsement to give your brand that cool factor -- just ask the makers of Tang. Astronauts drank it in space in the 1960s, and ever...
