Elektro, the “Westinghouse Motor Man” filmed inside the Westinghouse Pavillion at the 1939 World’s Fair in New York. Elektro can not only smoke, he also has a giant ego. User commands are given through a telephone with some kind of a voice recognition system. The whole presentation might look like a kitschy hoax from our eyes, but for the folks back in 1939 this technology...
Decorate your dwellings this year by kitting your kitchen out diner-style. With a few wise purchases and a couple of classic bar stools, you can turn your home into a retro heaven. Junk stores and sites like eBay are veritable treasure troves when it comes to sourcing retro treats. From vintage neon letters to authentic art work, they’ve got the lot – and usually at...
Ever wonder how early computer animations was created? This video from 1971, complete with spacey synthetic music, demonstrates not only one of the first interactive computer systems for animation, one used for production, it was also an outstanding example of early user-centered design, including one of the first computer mice. The system was developed by Marceli Wein and Nestor Burtnyk, both of whom won Academy...
The city of Los Angeles, late 1940s. A place of glamour, fame, and wealth, but also where crime, vice, and corruption are rife. Film noir and neo noir movies such as Sunset Boulevard, L.A. Confidential and Double Indemnity help to set stark contrasts. However, here is some old stock footage that was shot in color and still holds up very well. It is rare to...
Photographer Brittany McLaren sends us “South for Winter” with this Mad Men’esque inspired 1960s styled photo shoot. I love the melancholy and somewhat cold feeling this set gives me, not reminiscent of Mad Man Don Draper’s relationship with his ex-wife Betty. Or maybe it’s just that semi-sad 1960s nostalgia that’s shining through. Either way, I love the photos. What do you think?...
After Playboy magazine made its mark in the early 1950s, imitators of all kinds sprang up with titles like Sir, Knight, and Gent. In 1957, one publisher took a devilish bent and called its new magazine Satan. Satan was little more than a Playboy clone. Both magazines had pin-ups, articles on the urban bachelor lifestyle, a jokes page, and an iconic anthropomorphic mascot. But maybe...
From Flickr user Arbyreed comes these wonderful photographs that captures the everyday life and style of “Swinging London” in the late 1960s. From Carnaby Street, to Picadilly Circus to a stylish Heathrow airport. Arbyreed explains: I lived in Oxford, England in the late 1960s and this collection contains some of the sights I took time to photograph. I wish I had taken more and more...
