Follow the Arrow

Modern Phoenix presents a swell gallery of retro neon signage around town. I know lots of this stuff pretty well. The coffee cup sign from Pat's Family Restaurant is a short walk from our house. Back when it had animated lights in the arrow, it was filmed for the opening credits of the TV sitcom Alice. Cool, huh?

I've also driven by the City Center Motel often and marveled at its angular, pastel-colored beauty. Like many other Googie-era buildings around here, however, it hasn't been well-maintained. Hopefully someone will get in there and renovate places like this before it's too late.

Mom, Can I Have a Quarter?

An outstanding Flickr photo set of vintage gaming arcades, via MetaFilter. Nice concept art, too.

Fantasyland? Right There between Dirtland and Vacant Lotland

Photographs of a model of Disneyland on its opening day in 1955, currently on display in the park (via The Disney Blog). It's fascinating how much real estate was just empty lots with maybe a few trees.

On a related note, Christopher and I watched the original live broadcast of DLand's opening, Dateline: Disneyland, over the weekend. Told ya we saw a ton of TV! What struck me the most (besides the abundant clumsiness on display) was how many of the celebrities in attendance that day were members of Hollywood's politically conservative community. Ronald Reagan, George Murphy, Irene Dunne, Art Linkletter, Disney himself - all famous Republicans. Hedda Hopper was strangely absent, however.

They Don't Call Him Grimace for Nothing

Scrubbles pal Tim Harrod explores freaky-ass old McDonald's commercials in a hilarious Stay Free magazine article (via Adfreak.com). Those little spindly-legged french fry guys always creeped me out.

Wonderland in Chrome

Design for Dreaming might be the goofiest industrial film ever made. In it, a woman dreams that a masked stranger floats her to an auto show to see the gleaming General Motors product line for 1956. Lovely! For some reason, she's then transported a space-age kitchen to make a cake. Then she performs a rhythmic "dance to the future" which I'm sure had Bob Fosse quaking in his boots. More cars follow. In the end, Mr. Mask whisks her away to a barren, futuristic highway. My heart belongs to the pixie-haired lead actress and how she reacts to everything.

Mystery Science Theater 3000 did a mock-up of this short, but the regular version housed at The Prelinger Archives is almost as hilarous.

Don't Be Startled, It's Only a Commercial

A long time ago (1977) in a galaxy far, far away ... A Small Victory presents five vintage Star Wars radio ads (via Cinematical). Silly but fun.

So Cute You Could Just Puke

In our neighborhood, we have this Asian-owned dollar store stocked full of cool/freaky/interesting Japanese products. Sometimes we go just to browse the shelves of products, most of which are tiny, ingenious and cute (we couldn't resist the plastic scorpion-shaped hooks). The array of kids school items alone is mind boggling, stuff from old standbys like Hello Kitty, Peanuts and Disney as well as newcomers like Yu-Gi-Oh. Many sport characters that either appeared fleetingly in the U.S. (Hamtaro) or never made it here at all (Nohohohon Park, a family of zoo creatures drawn in childlike fashion). Yesterday I bought a note pad featuring a bunny named Milky Rabi chan, a poor girl's Hello Kitty. The packaging explains that Milky is "for lovely cute girls.. There are anything you likes!" How charming.

Just Beat It

A gallery showing Michael Jackson dolls in various compromising positions. I'd love to see one where he's babysitting the Heart Family children. Recently I sold one of those MJ dolls on eBay for $7.50. It had the original box, the sunglasses, the silver glove. Guess Michael isn't too popular right now.

Little Nemo in Disneyland

For months I heard about plans to re-open Disneyland's Submarine Lagoon as a Finding Nemo-themed attraction. That should be interesting. Apparently the lagoon is now drained and work is starting for a projected 2006 opening. Jim Hill Media has the details.

Going to Dizzyland

Talk about frustrating. Boing Boing linked to a page containing downloads for all of the massive fan-generated 13 disc collection of old and new Disneyland audio (which I wrote about last August). Only it's not working, probably due to high bandwidth. Guess I'll have to wait a little longer to hear that elusive narration from the Wizard of Bras shop on Main Street!

I have found a couple neato functioning D-Land links, however. The Extinct Attraction Club sells DVD documentaries of classic Disneyland attractions. Don't miss the preview video for the Monsanto House of the Future one, with its earnest filmstrip-narrator extolling the wonders of plastics. And check out these gorgeous Disneyland posters, via Drawn. Next time I go there (this fall, hopefully) for our once-every-ten-years trip (because Christopher hates Disneyland), I'm making a beeline for the Disney Gallery to buy a poster reproduction.

Pasty Cline

Yeeks. Nerfect guides us through the Country Music Hall of Horrors. Wax museums are so eerie and fascinating. Check out the wax museum pics in my Discards section for more.

America's Skeeviest Home Videos

Wired reports on the Found Footage Festival, a traveling program of bizarre home movies, training videos, public access TV and other such ephemera rescued from thrift store bins. This looks like a scream -- especially the training video demonstrating increasingly intense ways of getting fake-injured on the job. The FFF official site contains a preview.

Westward, Ho!

The Westward Ho in downtown Phoenix is one of those landmarks with a rich and storied past. You might have seen it in Psycho (both the original and remake) as the seedy hotel where Marion Crane has her daytime trysts. John F. Kennedy, Ladybird Johnson, Esther Williams, Elizabeth Taylor and Jack Benny stayed there. It appeared in other movies, too - in Bus Stop, a parade can be seen passing by the hotel's elaborate façade (Marilyn Monroe skipped staying at the 'Ho during filming in favor of the nearby Safari Inn). Parts of the Paul Newman vehicle Pocket Money was filmed in the courtyard. I also recall seeing the building getting blown to smithereens in the corny '70s TV movie A Fire in the Sky. Kewl.

The hotel hit hard times before giving way to low-income housing for the elderly in 1981, which it is to this day. Recently the entire complex underwent an extensive renovation in which the exterior changed color from white to its original buff grey. Me and Christopher took a tour last weekend and C. made a page containing photos and impressions. Only a few years ago, the management constantly turned away curious tourists and history buffs - and now they hold tours. Interesting.

Things Go Better with Pork

Hope everyone had a nice Easter weekend. We made ourselves a nice dinner last night. Instead of the usual ham (too salty), we did a Crock Pot of sliced pork and potatoes in a creamy mushroom and mustard sauce. Delicious. The gaps between my teeth hated it; my tummy liked it. Speaking of food, Matt of Eye of the Goof fame has posted photos and recipes from the Trader Vic's Pacific Island Cookbook. Lots of tropical edibles in queasy color, including the requisite whole roasted pig complete with apple in the mouth.

Hop On Seuss

Lucky San Franciscans. You have the opportunity to see The Dark Side of Dr. Seuss, a touring program of his harder to find short films and art - such as his WWII "Private SNAFU" cartoons. Guess I'll have to cross my fingers and hope it comes to Phoenix.

Private Parking

Hey ... I'm back from vacation and scrubbles.net is back in business. This year, we were planning to go down to Puerto Peñasco, Mexico -- but the U.S. government issued a travel advisory against going there (those pesky drug lords!). Instead, we took a road trip through Southern Arizona and stayed for several days in Bisbee. Bisbee was a prosperous turn-of-the-century copper mining town, then it fell on hard times when the Phelps-Dodge company closed the mine in the mid '70s. It has since been revitalized as a funky artist colony/tourist dive, the community caught halfway between "Hippie" and "Wild Wild West". Since the town is basically wedged into a small canyon, we got a real workout going up and down the sidewalks and roads, exploring the little old houses on the hillsides. Eventually I'll make a real site of our visit, but in the meantime I posted a flickr gallery of some interesting hand-painted signage spotted around the neighborhood. Bisbee residents apparently love their spray paint and stencils.

Homeroom Exercise

Chris Harding's Make Mine Shoebox, an animated short produced for Hallmark, is a letter-perfect parody of creaky vintage instructional films. Those '50s-style white bunnies are so cute! (via Cartoon Brew)

Land of the Rising Tchotchke

A friend recently brought me some toys from Japan. They were made by a company called Megahouse -- and from browsing through the non-English pages at their site, I can gather that they epitomize that country's twin obsessions with American pop culture and exquisitely detailed, tiny objects. Like hipster fave Kubrick, they specialize in plastic figurines and dollhouse-like mini furniture packaged so that which specific item you're getting remains a surprise until opened. Here you see the box from their Kellogg's collection (I ended up with the baseball playing Tony the Tiger one). Note the box's vaguely treatening plea "I WILL GATHER ALL KINDS!!" Arigato, Megahouse, arigato.

I Was There!!

Boing Boing points to a delightful gallery of Disneyland souvenirs, arranged year by year. I especially want to point out the button at right. My family just happened to be visiting the park on that day. All of us got buttons like these -- and if I'm lucky, my mom still has one stashed away in a drawer somewhere. I was 11 years old and it was the most fabulous trip to Disneyland ever. Were I to recover this, it would become the crown jewel in my vintage D-land souvenir collection. That or my beloved (now lost) Peoplemover floaty pen.

They Call Me Mister Softee

Basic Hip's Corgi Toys in Pictures. Nice photos. (via Robot Action Boy)

Tomorrow Ain't What It Used to Be

Tomorrowland Then and Now, a photo gallery at SaveDisney.com. If anything, this proves that Disneyland's much ballyhooed "New Tomorrowland" of 1998 was a total bust. Bring back the old "New Tomorrowland" of 1967!

The Toys Are Running the Museum

The National Toy Hall of Fame. This link is brought to you by my neglected partner, Christopher. He discovered it all by his lonesome.

Don't forget the delightful Museum of Advertising Icons, too. Munsingwear Penguin says "Hi!"

Good Grief!

Pictured here is one of the birthday gifts the wonderful Christopher gave me: a complete set of early Peanuts pins! I've seen these individually here and there in antique stores, but never all together like this. They probably date from the late '50s. The newest character here, Pig-Pen, debuted in 1954 while the next major character, Sally, wouldn't appear until 1959.
By the way, the second volume of Fantagraphics' beautifully designed Complete Peanuts hardback books is out now -- and it also makes for a fine gift.

Groovy Ghoulies

A gallery of Halloween makeup kits from the '70s at Tick Tock Toys. I remember this stuff; that funky, hand-drawn packaging inspires this Pavlovian "oh, yeah" response in me. And whadayaknow, the company that made these was based right here in Phoenix. I'm pretty sure I used this Scar Stuf, either for a costume or as a snack. Mmm, Scar Stuf.
On a related note, check out the new Sniplash font - undoubtedly copied from goofy cartoon lettering on late '60s greeting cards. Gotta find a reason to use that one somewhere.

A Hill of Beans

Christopher pointed me to an intruiging article from yesterday's L.A. Times, a history of the Beanie Baby collecting fad. The paper compares the phenomenon to the simultaneous dot-com bubble burst. It came, it went, and now people are left with mountains of useless stuffed toys they thought would pay for their kids' tuitions. (Nelson voice:) "HA ha!"

My Little 3D Friend

The humble View-Master is celebrating its 65th anniversary this year (via things magazine). Mattel is commemorating this with a 65th Anniversary Collectors Set consisting of an old-style viewer and eight reels of vintage imagery. I used to collect the reels - specifically ones involving specially-made dioramas. Back in their pre-Mattel glory years, View-Master's cartoon character reels pictured sculpted figurines set against beautifully lit tableaux. It's odd seeing Donald Duck or Charlie Brown in this way - all in suspended animation and propped up like dead animals in a musem - but they really made an impression on my young mind.
It goes without saying the coolest View-Master reels out now are these architecture and design classics from View*Productions.

I Am Curious, Avocado

Eurobad '74, a collection of pukey interiors (via Coudal). Don't miss the green kitchen/stable combo. Mmm, bet that place smells lovely.

Tiny Cars on Tiny Streets

Parking Spots - photos of toy vehicles placed in environments where they look full sized. Most of them involve compact European cars, toy-like designs in themselves. Via Cardhouse.

Blythe and Christina Ricci: Separated At Birth?

Funny Blythe Celebrity Gallery from the This Is Blythe site. My faves are the Marilyn calendar pose and the Brady girls. Blythe has really taken off in Japan, probably due to her anime-like looks. The Japanese company Takara reissued the dolls to great success, and now Kubrick put out Blythe action figures in four different outfits. The 1972 originals sell for hundreds on eBay.