My first encounter with Marilyn Monroe was when I was eight or nine years old and the babysitter had allowed my brothers and I to stay up late to watch The Misfits (1961) on our little Black and White TV. I remember clearly a scene of Marilyn sitting in between two men, an ethereal foil for the beat up looking cowboys played by Clark Gable...
It’s Friday and the weekend is around the corner. So what could be better than taking a weekend trip to a vintage flavored past-time London with its vibrant and bustling city scenes? Join Ultra Swank as we take in the sights of 1960s London – grabbing coffee at one of the Moka Bars, checking in at a prestigious Hotel, trying our luck at the casino and to finish it...
I remember as a child, the huge propeller driven airliners starting up at the Cleveland Airport. In the dark blue December twilight, clouds of fire and smoke bellowed from those huge radial engines as they cranked over. Machines as living creatures. Angry tethered dragons. With names like Douglas, Constellation, Viscount and Convair. These were the brothers of the thundering machines that had rained bombs on Hitler’s Germany...
Do you ever think that things were better decades ago? Do you feel nostalgic looking at vintage postcards depicting city life with happy-go-lucky people, a shopping mall with a orange and brown color scheme or the latest and greatest town monument? Here are eight Swedish postcards from the golden era of urban-living that does just that for me. The 1960s and 1970s in Sweden were...
Here’s a interesting video capturing the midst of a sunny 1960s Los Angeles. Let’s take a cruise down famous, Sunset Strip with a up-beat rock & roll surf tune blasting out from the radio. Look at the beautiful and colorful signage advertising everything from restaurants, liquor and mortgages and not forgetting the parade of Chryslers, Oldsmobiles, Chevrolets that look like they just drove out of the car dealer lot....
Spend anytime on the internet and you will find lots of vintage advertising with ironic witticism tagged on the picture as the blogger marvels at the sexism of vintage advertising. Perhaps it’s Mad Men that has led us to devour anything that seems vaguely retro but for some reason ads from the midcentury continue to be a source of amusement for those who think that...
Christmas is around the corner and to celebrate this magical holiday we are featuring a few samples of holiday related advertisements and imagery from 1946 and 1964, courtesy of Roger Wilkerson’s collection. To me, the hand drawn illustrations and images in mid-century advertisements are the epitome of style and warmth. They really show-off how talented advertising America were some 50-60 years ago. That fine attention to design and pseudo-realism really grabs...
