Charlie Low's Forbidden City

Found this really great "jumbo" sized post card yesterday while scavangin' through a massive pile of old paper stuff at the antique mall. Charlie Low's Forbidden City was a Chinese nightclub and cabaret that opened in San Francisco, CA in the late 30's. And seriously, it has such an incredible amount of fascinating pop-culture related background information, not to mention all the historic Chinese-American firsts attributed to it, it would just be easier if you clicked this wiki link HERE and read about everything instead of me re-typing it all out. Also, google photos has a huge assortment of dynamite images of dancers and other random performers, ads, menus, etc...





I'll have another vintage nightclub post up next!

70's Stuffed Cap'n Crunch

My big post-pandemic return to my favorite antique mall happened this weekend (wearing my mask, of course, and yes, I realize it's not over) and what do I find, you ask? Why, it's a stuffed Cap'n Crunch from the 70's! I love Cap'n Crunch cereal, and all of the various flavors too. Collecting the prize premiums over the years, and revisiting the wonderful Jay Ward animated commercials of the 60's and 70's is still something I do practically weekly, so it was quite the treasure to discover 'ol Cap waiting for me, in not only perfect condition-- but for only $3 to boot!





Did I mention he's over a foot tall? The date seems to vary depending on what tag you're looking at here, the original colorful paper Animal Fair, Inc. tag (yes, STILL attached to his arm) clearly says 1976, while the backside of fabric tag sewn to his leg says 1978.

Hip-Pocket Tommy James

A friend of mine who owns his own record store recently bought a huge vinyl collection from someone, and amongst the mountainous mix of classics was a small stack of Hip-Pocket flexi disc records from the 60's. Despite an early career in record retail that spanned some 10+ years myself, I was a bit unfamiliar with these neatly packaged mini 45's that could be carried around easily in your hip pants pocket. I looked through the stack and, though it's unfortunately damaged, I immediately grabbed the one which contains two of my all time favorite Tommy James songs. Discogs' description is as follows: Hip Pocket Records were 3 7/8 inch flexi-discs manufactured from 1967 to 1969 by Philco, and came in colorful packaging that was about 6 1/4 inches tall by 5 inches wide, simply listing the two tracks with a photo of the artist or band. 







SIDE ONE: I Think We're Alone Now

SIDE TWO: Mirage

The Robots Take Over

It's another two-page magazine comedy spread, and edited together for your added excitement and enjoyment! And if you saw the recent "zany" post over at THOIA (be sure to CLICK HERE for it if you've missed it), then here's another extra bonus from the December 1958 issue of Zany #2, featuring one of Mr. Karswell's favorite subjects-- ROBOTS! The writing is a bit dated, but the artwork is "fun, fun, fun til the robots come and take you awaaaaaaay..."

Stay-At-Home Amusement Park

Driving passed a Six Flags the other day, it occurred to me that one of the saddest things in the world is a theme park closed due to an unfortunate, world crisis pandemic. Hopefully, it's only temporary, but in the meantime, never fear-- that's why AEET and the April 1978 issue of National Lampoon Magazine #97 is here-- as clearly there's tons'o thrilling razzle dazzle to still be had in the comfort of your own home! Why, I've already visited Kitchen Land a half dozen times today alone!


(CLICK TO ENLARGE!)

Just Look in the Phone Book

I've been using this nifty 1951 telephone book card / calendar for a few years now as a bookmark, and looking at it again and thinking about how weird the idea of a big floppy book filled with thousands of phone numbers and ads really is in our current modern way of living. In fact, just yesterday I found the new phone book wrapped in plastic, and lying at the end of my driveway, the pitiful 2020 edition still struggling to be relevant, and definitely struggling to reach even 100 pages long anymore. In the age of nearly all information instantly available at your fingertips via smartphone, does anyone really still use a phone book? I honestly don't think I've cracked one out of the plastic wrapping in over a decade, though I do have some from the 70's still because they're full of great advertising art and memories of fave childhood business long gone. (I even did a post about it in 2010, just CLICK HERE for it!) So, in the meantime, enjoy the attractive girl art on this card, she's looking tempted to call information-- but no, she's letting her fingers do the walking instead!

Road Runner Puzzle '79

Man, I am so terrible at these type of sliding tile puzzle games, but god I love 'em just the same! And yeah, you can call me a quitter, as this is about as good as I can get it-- but quarantined Karswell (Quarswell?) gave it his best, and after giving up all hope on getting that white border completed, ultimately settled for just getting the 'ol Meeper fully assembled instead, *MEEP! MEEP! From 1979, and clearly made by ACME as this "genius" will remain forever stumped and beaten to a pulp by these confounded contraptions.



PS: And yes, I am fully aware of the cheater walk-thrus on youtube! ;)