As I Blog While Starving (And A Chicken Is Baking In My Oven And Our Whole House Smells Like Lemony Garlicky Deliciousness)

And as my stomach growls...

Boy howdy, this blog is going to be a favorite of mine.  I can just tell.

I've been toying with the notion of actually making some of the vintage recipes that cross my path, kind of like what I did with The Salad of '75 (remember?).

Then I would photograph the results and give you my review.

What do you think?

I love the condescending quotation marks.  Isn't that cute of that homemaker, to actually think that she's a chef?  Whatever will her pretty little head think up next?

From 1957 and 1958: TWA Jetstream

1957

The TWA Jetstream was a common site in movies in the 1950s.  Two films that immediately come to mind are Funny Face and Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?  In the latter, you see Jayne Mansfield languishing in one of 
the Jetstream's luxurious sleeper beds.

1958

I always love Trans World's colorful, eye-catching advertising from this era.  Many of their travel advertisements could have doubled as art for the home, and often did.

Be sure to double-click each ad so that you can read 
all of the text!

Currently Occupying My Time

Retronaut

Seriously, folks...this is the coolest website I have ever seen. -Laura Beth

Sounds Good To Me

Please tell me that that is not a white-gloved Black Man serving cocktails to Mr. and Mrs. Whitey as their little brat languishes on Santa's lap.  And was Santa auditioning for a Thomas Dolby video?  "Science!"

FANTASTIC Post Over At Retrospace

I simply cannot get enough of this post.

From 1984: Thank Goodness For Chef Boyardee

The ultimate in canned comfort food, in my opinion. I love the ravioli so much. The taste takes me right back to my childhood, finding this in my official Roy and Johnny thermos from my Emergency! lunch box.

Papá Noel adora tetas grandes!

"Christmas with the dog lunatic...just for adults"

¡Ai yi yi! Put the kids to bed and put some cocktails in the shaker, because the dog lunatic awaits with some sophisticated holiday fun! ¡Las Pascua de Navidad atractivas para todos!

From my new favorite blog ever, LP Cover Lover.

Happy November: A Housewife Who Finds Her Own Personal Zen In Her Ability To Make Coffee For Her Ever-Lovin' Hubby, Harvey

This 1960s housewife is dismayed to learn that The Girls At The Office make better coffee for her Harvey than she does (on their "hot plates," no less)!



"If I could just make a decent cup of coffee, I could relax!"

From 1958: When Mental Illness Manifests Itself Through Skincare Rituals

Jean is crazy...crazy about beautiful skin, that is!

From 1963: Smoking Hot!

It's hard to come up with a humorous caption for an advertisement
that is this wonderful in and of itself.

From 1952: Fried Chicken! Oh Boy!

Trans World Airlines
1952
(notice the classic TWA logos on the little ramekins!)

Announcing A Touch Of Tuesday Weld's Weeklong Tribute To Girls In Curlers!

Ladies' Home Journal

December 1963

About a month ago, I got a new haircut. Eschewing my locks that I had grown to look just like Grace Slick's at Monterey Pop, I now have a layered cut that, I must admit, looks much much better and has a great deal more bounce and movement. And it is fun to have bouncy hair again; so much fun, in fact, that I am blonder again. My head feels lighter, my mood feels the same.

I've also taken a renewed interest in styling my bouncier, blonder tresses. Instead of letting it just hang loose or throwing it up in a clip, I have been straightening my hair, waving it...and setting it on hot rollers.

I'm in love with my hot rollers, actually. And I've gotten quite adept at doing a roller set on my hair, and I am thrilled with the results. It's a pain in the butt to roll my hair every day after I shampoo, but I am getting better at it each time, and it goes a little faster each time.

There's also something so lovely, so feminine, so retro about a roller set. For me, it harkens back to the days where housewives would spend hours at the beauty salon being worked upon by a "beauty operator" named Roz in a light pink smock at Monsieur George's House Of Coiffures. As I roll up my hair, I feel very Jackie Kennedy, very Laura Petrie. It makes me want to grab Ken and do the Twizzle.

McCalls
June 1963
(for gals who want to wear their curlers on the beach!)

September 1963
(You, too, can go a whole week without shampooing!)

By the way, I'm implementing my new policy at ATOTW: if it isn't an OUTSTANDING double-clicker with tons of readable detail, it ain't on the blog!

Vintage Sick Rooms: Ah, To Have Been Ill In The Olden Days

It's actually a bit of gallows humor, here...I am very sick. I have a pretty serious lung infection. The thing is, I didn't even realize it. I went to the doctor this morning about my sinuses and an expedient x-ray exposed the real problem. A cough had been bugging me for a while now, but I didn't think it was anything so...drastic.

I'm on bedrest until Saturday and swallowing antibiotics like mad. If the infection isn't cleared up by next week, I have to go in the hospital until it clears. Yes, it's that bad. I cannot stress this enough, folks: I had no idea that I was this sick.

Anyway, back to the vintage.

Oh, to have been sick back in the more elegant days of 23 Skiddoo and pole sitting! Doctors really knew how to hook their patients up back then. Now, I have a prescription bottle of codeine cough medicine sitting on my vanity table that is the only good thing out of this whole business of the Streptococcus Pneumoniae Construction Company building little paramecia condos in my lungs. But did you catch the bit about Cosadein syrup having a Healthy Helping of the sweet, sweet leaf? Can you imagine how delightful a spoonful of that viscous delicacy must have been? Forget the scientific name of Cosedein. They should have just called it what it actually was: Heaven's Nectar.

Also, in modern medicine, I was given just an itty-bitty bottle of the codeine syrup. Addictions must be prevented, after all, although you still see a new episode of Intervention every week. I digress. Did I read that right...Cosadein was served up in GALLON jugs for cough-suppressing enjoyment? Pardon me while I ponder how wonderful life would be if I could carry around my own gallon jug of codeine goodness with me at all times. I would even deck it out like Granny did for her hooch on The Beverly Hillbillies, with the "XXX" on the front, instead of the label. People in the olden days got it right. Cough bothering you? Take a healthy swig from your gallon flask of codeine mixed with ganja. You might still cough, but you no longer mind, and suddenly you feel more charitable toward your mother-in-law.

Thirty Years Ago Today: Carol Burnett's Kid On Ludes, Shelly Hack, Club Med For Kids, Barbara Eden's Legs, And Pia Zadora

From 1948: The One And Only

Saint Joan of Crawford, posing by some sort of urn that I am quite sure that Helga forgot to dust under. Not that I would ever fault Joan for being mad at the dirt...she's La Joan, after all. It's her right, no, her duty to get mad at whatever or whoever she wants.

In 1982, Vegetables Were Considered To Be Edible Only If They Were Drenched In Processed Cheese Sauce And Flash-Frozen In A "Flavor Pouch"

People

March 22, 1982

Vintage Hoarders: Now With 100% More Myocardial Infarctions, 100% More Hilarity

By the way, this theme song, which is the absolute definition of Funky, was written and recorded by Rashida Jones' dad, Quincy.

p.s. LOVE Rashida Jones.

From 1978: The Most Beautiful Woman Who Ever Lived

You don't need to speak a word of French to understand how great this movie is.

This is my favorite scene, where Miss Deneuve eats potato chips and rides in a convertible through Paris at night with her lover, Antoine.

From 1968, La Chamade (The Heartbeat)

For Doug: A Good Friend In A Graceless Age

December 11, 1976

Which means that Joe just dumped her, in what might have been the single most traumatic event in my childhood. I still get too upset to watch those scenes in one sitting.

Video Killed The Radio Star

April 17, 1982

Scott Baio and Erin Moran look like they just returned from a busy day of campaigning for John Anderson. So much for the Fifties, I guess.