Are you still doing the Hawaiian hula dance from our last post? If so, let's keep the South Seas mindset and check in with our gorgeous G.I. Janes out there doin' their duty to serve and protect our country and make things a much more beautiful place for all to live-- with arousin' art by Roppe.
From the August 1955 issue of T.N.T. #5
I had no idea what I was in store for when I picked up this interesting little box at an antique mall recently. One side of the postcard sized cardboard packaging stated: "An animated souvenir", while the other side notes: "An animated greeting." Being a cartoon nut, the word "animated" will of course always get my attention! So I carefully opened the side tab, and gently slid out what appeared to be a blank, small flat tray within. Flipping it over I almost gasped, as this was clearly the best 1952 souvenir ever-- a tiny, carded, rubber hula girl that moves, (one very similar to the other kitsch dancers I've posted about here previously.) And while those had little wire hand cranks underneath each to turn, and thus creating the hip swaying motion, this one simply has a tiny little metal hoop knob that you thumb back and forth repeatedly. On top of the hypnotic animated bit, the backing card is detailed with some really fun midcentury style, cartoony island art as well! This was such a great find, and I hope the video below works for you...
I was once again digging around a box of paper goods / ephemera this afternoon at an antique mall and stumbled upon yet another neat item. At first it was just an intriguing envelope with lil Tinkerbell doin' her thang, but then this envelope produced a beautiful, single-sided letter folded up inside, --and what's this? No signature on the letter? Oh wait... closer inspection and this is something else pre-manufactured altogether, --and unused even! So here's the question: Is getting a letter from Disneyland better than a touristy postcard? ANSWER: YES! Especially when it's a picturesque pre-made one covered in fun artwork and it has all the words already thought up and written out so you don't have to. Seriously, all you have to do is sign your name to it, lick a stamp, toss it in the mailbox, and then get your butt back on some rides! Oh, also it's from 1955, --the very same year that Disneyland first opened to the general public! If you look closely at the bottom left hand corner under the castle you'll also see that it says "Bob Dickey Humorized Products", which suddenly adds another whole collectable kitsch factor to this wonderful Disneyana find.
Speaking of mannequins (see our previous post), here's a sexy little 4-page article and photo lay-out from an early 60's issue of Monsieur, "the magazine for the man of the world", detailing Sweden's Vaxdockan, aka The Doll (1962), plus a few other adult foreign films in production from that era about mannequins that come to life. It's hard to tell what type of mannequins these are as the photographer seems to have clearly and deliberately shot them looking away from the camera. Anyway, I've never seen any of the films mentioned in the article either, but will definitely be adding them to my find / watch list ASAP.
I typically shy away from sharing images from other web sources, but having recently stumbled upon an incredible Facebook group called Purfex Mannequins, I just had to change my rules a bit, --especially when seeing the catalog pages of the beautiful, vintage "Profile Collection" girls by Decter! By now, most people that follow this blog also know that I collect vintage mannequins, and I actually have a few Decters in my collection as well. In fact, I believe one of mine may be a combination of Style 477 and L708 shown below! But wow, I really love the way they dressed the mannequins for these brochure / catalog pages, and the lovely make-up and wigs-- it's all just simple, breathtaking purfexion to me. This is the way I remember mannequins looking when I was a kid, not like the faceless, blank, lifeless, all white / headless travesties haunting department stores these days. This was totally how you sold fashion at one time too: dynamic, unique human characters modeling the items in highly attractive, very eye pleasing ways. Many arguments can be made for why shopping malls across the US are slowing closing down and dying altogether. I would be quick to add the lack of gorgeous, and realistic mannequins to that argument list...
We're officially halfway to Halloween 2022, and who says we have to wait until October to celebrate the fun? Not when your 'ol pal, Mr. Karswell, has a stack of late 60's / early 70's Pack-O-Fun craft mags loaded with great ideas to add a little bit o' Halloween trickery 'n witchery to this day! So let's take a look at a few things we can boo, errr, do: We can set up a spook house in our garage or basement! We can hang a witch! (later we can burn her in a bonfire too, just sayin'...), --and nothing on earth is more terrifying than-- PAPER BAG WIGS!!! I'll save a few more of these fun things to do when we enter a more fearful, Fall setting. So as always, stay tuned right here to AEET (and THOIA) for lots more...
With Walpurgisnacht, aka "The Night of Witches" just a few days away, we're celebrating our (almost) Halfway to Halloween calendar status over at THOIA by looking at tales of 100% weirrrrd witchcraft! And so now today here at AEET it's a double Charlton fright feature as well, with two creepy classics from two very different eras of Charlton comics, highlighted by two very different types of witches! Our first is from the May 1969 issue of Strange Suspense Stories #7, followed by one from the November 1959 issue of Strange Suspense Stories #44! And as mentioned, don't forget to tomb in over at THE HORRORS OF IT ALL for non-stop horror comics all year long!
