Fads
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 The 1960s Made Us Scared Of Quicksand
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 for a jolt of susp...
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 While we're all aware of the look of the wonder fabric known a...
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
June 10, 2004 in Fairfield, California. The late former U.S. President Ronald Reagan was known for his fondness for jelly beans during his political career and ...
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...
“Where The Boys Are”: The Novel, The Movie, And The Son...
October 2, 2018
Prior to 1960, few college students used their week off from school in the springtime, typically around Easter, to travel to warm, sunny beaches to party...
'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...
The Charm of the 1970s Roller Rink
May 18, 2018
Oh, how much fun it would be to travel back in time to the 70’s. The counterculture was an unsettling time in the United States for many reasons. There were many social, moral, ec...
Who would have guessed this was anime from the 70s?
May 15, 2018
Anime today has gone mainstream, but they have the classic anime shows and movies of the past to thank for that. You could say that today’s anime stands of the shou...
The Best Slang Word of the 70s
May 11, 2018
The 1970’s was a crazy and exciting time in the United States. Change was taking over America in leaps and bounds. Changes included just about everything like the economy (can y...
The Most Perfect Costumes For Your Next 70s Party!
May 10, 2018
Deciding on your perfect 70s costumeNo doubt, the 1970s were a decade filled with some wild and crazy fashions. Costumes from the 70s run the gamut from tit-dye and ...
Just How Big Were Earth Shoes In The '70s?
April 24, 2018
The Earth Shoe was developed and surfaced as a particularly peculiar style of shoe in the 1970’s. They were the creation of a Danish yoga instructor and shoe designer name...
What You Need To Know About The Ferrari And Lamborghini...
April 10, 2018
Mauro Forghieri, Alex Soler-Roig, Niki Lauda and Jocken Mass at Zandvoort, (1972). Forghieri designed cars and engines for Ferrari and is best known for the 312...
We All Wish Our Parents Bought Us These Valuable Vintag...
April 6, 2018
For years and years kids have loved their toys. Very early children’s toys were made of metal or wood and were heavy and clunky. Many toys were homemade in...
Cars Of The 1950s: Space-Age Fins And Chrome Everything
April 3, 2018
1957 Ford Thunderbird. (Photo by National Motor Museum/Heritage Images/Getty Images) In 1950, there were about 40 million cars on the road, nationwide. By the e...
Here Comes The Judge, And More Groovy Cars from the '60...
March 28, 2018
The names command reverence now: Mustang, Chevelle, Charger, GTO, Corvette. In the 1960s, American car buyers fell in love with speed and power. Manufacturer...
What Kinds Of Toys Were Kids Playing With In The 1960s?
March 27, 2018
Dad on the floor playing w. his 3-yr-old son who is sitting in the middle of circular toy railroad track, watching an electric train go around in living room at th...
Roller Disco was the Groovy Combination of Skating and ...
March 19, 2018
February 5th,1979: An acrobatic dancer doing the splits in mid-air at a roller disco. (Photo by Chris Moorhouse/Evening Standard/Getty Images) The 1970’s was q...
The Groovy Style Of The Post-Hippie 1970's
March 10, 2018
Double Dose 24th March 1971: Twins Barbara and Elaine Rogers, wearing the latest hot pants fashion craze, are both students at the London College of Fashion. (Photo by Central ...
Star Trek and Captain Kirk Inspired Mobile Phone Invent...
March 6, 2018
Star Trek...LOS ANGELES - DECEMBER 29: William Shatner as Captain James T. Kirk. Original Air Date: 29 December 1967. (Photo by CBS via Getty Images)Star Tr...
Those Brilliant TV Batman Villians: Catwoman, Riddler, ...
February 8, 2018
When Batman came to TV in 1966, the caped crusader was played by Adam West, and his teenage sidekick Robin was played by Burt Ward. But what really made the ...
The "ART" of Tie-Dye: A Brief History
February 3, 2018
(Photo by the Blank Archives/Getty Images) Most Americans tend to associate tie-dyeing with hippies and the counterculture era. From our standpoint, that makes perfect sense sinc...
Blue Jeans As A Fashion Statement
February 1, 2018
A young man and woman, wearing rolled up jeans, smile while washing the car in a driveway in the 1950's. (Photo by FPG/Getty Images) Blue jeans have been around for 200 plus years, si...
Bozo The Clown: What Did He Do And What Was His Legacy?
January 29, 2018
Larry Harmon (left), the original Bozo the clown, and the current Bozo (right) pose with aspiring Bozo's at a Hollywood audition. (Photo by © Steve Starr/CORBIS/Co...
The Lava Lamp: Any Truly Groovy '60s Pad Had One. Did Y...
January 19, 2018
Left: detail of a 1980 publicity photo of the B-52s, in which singer Kate Pierson holds a lava lamp. Photo by Lynn Goldsmith/Corbis/VCG via Getty Images. Right:...
Sam Walton Changed the Way America Shopped
January 17, 2018
Sam Walton should be pretty well-known in America but for those of you who can’t place the name, he is the founder of the first Walmart store in the United States. Altho...
“Planet of the Apes” - 1968
January 15, 2018
Charlton Heston hears his fate being decided by a council of apes in a scene from the film 'Planet Of The Apes', 1968. (Photo by 20th-Century Fox/Getty Images) Up until the late 1960s, ...
Why Did Andy Kaufman Wrestle 400 Women?
January 12, 2018
1983: Caitlin Clarke inflicts pain on Andy Kaufman while Debbie Harry looks on. The three were involved in a wrestling-themed play called 'Teaneck Tansi.' (Photo by The LIFE Pictu...
Remember When Smoking Was Sexy?
January 4, 2018
'Hit Parade' Cigarettes Billboard (Photo by Robert Landau/CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images) For years and years, smoking cigarettes was overly sensationalized. Smoking was considere...
Smiling Through The '60s And '70s: The Smiley Face's St...
January 4, 2018
The smiley face -- that grinning, noseless, circular yellow visage you've seen a million times, dates to 1963. Though we might associate the smiley face with...
The Bigfoot Craze Of The 1970s
January 3, 2018
During the 1970s a hairy, “man-ape” like creature had the world frozen in fear. The beast was referred to as Bigfoot and/or Sasquatch. Bigfoot was by no means a new discovery during tha...
Remember Pocket Transistor Radios?
December 29, 2017
12/15/1953-New York: Tiny, new transistors, which take the place of conventional tubes, mark a new step in the progress of experimental pocket-sized radios. (Getty Images) Amer...
Bikinis - Then and Now
December 28, 2017
Circa 1962: A woman wearing a polka-dot bikini smiles while laying stomach-down on an inflatable raft, floating in the water. (Photo by Harold M. Lambert/Lambert/Getty Images) Swimsuits, in gene...
The Royal Guardsmen – Remember the “Snoopy Themed” Song...
December 26, 2017
Royal Guardsmen, portrait, United States, circa 1966. (Photo by GAB Archive/Redferns) Have you ever turned on the radio and had a blast from the past? O...
That Time Bewitched's Elizabeth Montgomery Played An Ax...
December 18, 2017
In 1975, Elizabeth Montgomery of Bewitched fame starred in The Legend of Lizzie Borden, a historical mystery made-for-TV movie on ABC. The program chronicled...
Mom’s 1957 Chevy
December 18, 2017
UNITED STATES - OCTOBER 30: Brand new 1957 Chevrolet photographed at a new car dealer across the street from Petersen Publishing Company for Car Craft's Restyle department. (Photo by Bob D'Olivo/The E...
