One way to ease into retro fashion is via accessories. You don’t have to commit to a vintage Dior dress (or even a vintage look-alike) to get the look. Don’t worry about making the perfect pin curl or finding the right shade of red lipstick either. If you want a little bit of retro style in your everyday wardrobe, Le Colonel, an accessory design company...
During the early 1950s, the well polished comic team of Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis broke box office records and created a worldwide following. After splitting up in 1956, both men found themselves in successful solo careers. In 1959, Paramount Studios contracted with Jerry Lewis to create 14 films in 7 years for $10 million plus a profit-sharing deal. Released in 1961, The Ladies Man...
It was with reluctance that I took on Ultra Swank’s assignment of a segment on Googie design. I am not an expert. Art historians and critics can be a vicious group. One false move and I could be forever condemned to an underworld of Louis the XIV basement rec. rooms accented with a million velvet Elvis paintings! Oh well, maybe they’ve got some Pepsi in...
Dishwashing liquid commercials vary in their subject matter. Either they take an eco-friendly approach, tug at your heartstrings by demonstrating how they save animals affected by an oil spill, or they show the product’s grease-cutting power. The Palmolive brand has come a long way from its origins as a beauty product. The above ad from the 1950’s pushes Palmolive as a beauty product promising better...
Fellow fans of Ultra Swank are well aware that we are revelers in a cultural period of technology supreme. Be it Hi-Fi or Hydrogen Bomb if it had push buttons and chrome it was an object of desire! Few artists captured this ‘age of the machine’ better than Boris Artzybasheff (1899-1965). Immigrating from Russia to New York City in 1919, Artzybasheff’s career included over 200...
During the late 50’s, a new jazz style and genre evolved from Brazil. Bossa Nova became a mixture of cool jazz and samba, which was particular to Brazilian culture, dance and music. Musical artists such as Antonio Carlo Jobim and Joan Gilberto were known for creating this new style. The 60’s became a catapult for the new popular genre that we now recognize as a...
Dental assistant cum super spy Fathom skydives her way into our hearts via a series of confusing double crosses and eye-pleasing costume changes – 16, in fact. While traveling through Spain with her skydiving team, Fathom Harvill is enlisted by Colonel Campbell, who operates out of a mobile home in Malaga in lieu of a super secret volcano hideaway, to locate the Fire Dragon. We’re...