Bachelor Girl Laughs

I'm guessing these hilarious highlights from my recently acquired collection of risqué lil "Bachelor Girl" cartoons 'n jokes were published sometime in the 1940's. I'm also guessing that the uncredited art is by none other than early days Bill Wenzel --at least it seems like his lushly loose, sexy cute style in the up 'n coming making. A fun mix of frisky females, old maids, and pictures coming to life all add up to one of the better square bound paperback joke collections like this that I've found over the years, and I will definitely be on the look-out for more! See ya's in March!

Bubble Gummers

Found this vintage Bubble Gummers shoe box the other day (didn't buy it), but thought the artwork on it was pretty cute 'n funny and worth snapping a few photos of. I'm not at all familiar with this brand of children's footwear, but apparently Bubble Gummers is still around, though the kooky lil retro kid mascots (and their cat) no longer seem to be part of the marketing. Digging around online I even found a couple of foreign language, animated 80's commercial spots HERE!

The Hires Soda Fountain Barrel

Everyone knows that frosty cold root beer always tastes better from a big 'ol wooden barrel. One of my favorite local haunts, Carl's Drive-in in Maplewood MO, has been serving their homemade version from a wooden barrel since 1975, and if you google "vintage root beer barrels" you'll see all kinds of great examples from a variety of world famous brands. So anyway, the point of this jibber jabber being a few weeks ago I stumbled upon a fun little home edition soda fountain barrel from the 50's or 60's, capitalizing on Hires Root Beer, a brand which I'm not sure I've ever had. Put it all together, and dump your own store bought RB into it, then serve it up to your chums like a true soda jerk. The barrel itself is unfortunately made of cheapo plastic, but the box is at least full of cute illustrations. It's also full of great shout-outs telling us that it "really works!", it's an "unbreakable - true replica!" and that it "won't leak!" I didn't actually buy this thing to test it out, but I hope all of that is true, --cuz we already know that "kids love it!" We adults do too!

"I Hate Me!"

Funny four-pager from the Fall 1947 issue of Blonde Phantom #15, with cute artwork by the always great, Syd Shores. I'm betting those see-thru negligee panels on the last page probably popped a few schoolboy eyeballs back in the day. Meanwhile, Stan Lee effortlessly penned this kind of sensationally silly, sassy super heroine stuff with his eyes closed, haha...

My Mannequin Bride (PART TWO)

In the previous post HERE we saw how I found a 50's mannequin and a 50's wedding dress and combined them together to hopefully create a life-sized likeness of the famously fun, but monstrously murderous ghost bride of Disney's Haunted Mansion dark ride, Constance Hatchaway. All she needed after I added hair, jewelry, stockings, and eyelashes was a veil which was unfortunately missing from the gown I purchased. A quick trip to Hobby Lobby and around $25 for supplies: fake flowers, a headband, and enough tulle to create the veil, and I'd say we (thank you Nana for the assist!) did a pretty good job matching the original worn by the ghastly gal inside the mansion (see her phantasmic photo at the very end of this post!) And so here we see my gal up in my attic, glaring at you from behind her veil of vicious vengeance. Unlike the original bride at Disney, I think I'll add a hatchet to her hand instead of the candle, and I'm still mulling over the various ways to make her eyes glow and to have a beating red heart in her chest --without damaging the mannequin or dress itself, of course. You'll have to come back here to AEET around Halloween time this fall to see the final, frightning version! But for now, heeere comes the briiide...  

My Mannequin Bride (PART ONE)

Earlier this month I posted a mid-century, mini-counter top mannequin display bride HERE, and in the comments on said post, a conversation developed about Constance Hatchaway, aka The Bride from Disney's The Haunted Mansion dark ride (more about her HERE!) And then, as fate would have it, last weekend while out antiquing around, I stumbled upon a lovely vintage DG Williams mannequin (from the 50's or 60's), and despite a few bumps 'n bruises and broken fingers (which we eventually repaired with a simple combination of glue and flesh colored Band-aids), I purchased the mannequin immediately, --with my mind formulating a plan while driving home to turn her into a full size Constance Hatchaway! Remembering just the week before that I had already spotted a beautiful 50's wedding dress at another antique mall which I knew would be perfect for a possible Haunted Mansion inspired costume, I rushed back and feeling very lucky that it was even still there, I grabbed it. I actually purchased two wedding dresses that day, the other one is newer but essential as it had a high lace collar that I knew I wanted her to have that the main dress didn't. So as you look at the photos below you'll see the collar and that's the only thing noticeable from the other wedding dress concealed underneath. The main dress though is a real thing of beauty, over half a century old and in perfect condition, with silk hoop buttons up the back and at the wrists, diamond point sleeves, and layer upon layer of lovely, soft fabrics. A perfect fit too as she immediately looked breathtaking, and at that point all that was needed was some hair, jewelry, stockings, and eyelashes. Quickly finding these items and adding them to the mannequin, my idea of Constance Hatchaway suddenly took a backseat as I had inadvertedly just created the most gorgeous Mamie Van Doren mannequin of all time instead, haha. So okay, if you know anything about wedding dresses, you've probably already noticed the one thing that's missing from our bridal beauty, and that would be a veil... so, be sure to come back for My Mannequin Bride PART TWO HERE, --you will absolutely want to see the one that we made from scratch and how my eventual axe slingin' murder bride now looks (nearly) finished! Stay tombed...