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High School Yearbook Covers, 1977 – 1979 (Part Two)

Part one is here.

Micronauts Iron-On Transfers (1978)

Via Chuck’s incredible Micro-Oddities set on Flickr. You go, Space Glider!

Winnebago Sales Brochure, 1969: ‘For People Who Love to Live’

Published March 10, 2015 '70s Decor/Design/Fashion Leave a Comment

One of the greatest finds of my internet snooping career is the archive of sales brochures at the Winnebago company site going back to 1969. Talk about a long gaze into the psyche of America. The allure of life on the open road is the allure of the frontier—freedom from neighbors, rent, materialism, stagnation, regulation. The motor home was the family’s answer to the younger generation’s embrace of vanning and motorcycling in the 1970s. It still is the answer, to some. “We’ve got a home that keeps us dry,” they say, “but we’re still on the move, still exploring.”

I’ve included all the major illustrations from the ’69 brochure, including the beautiful cross-section. The full PDF is here. Starting in 1970, illustrations are largely abandoned in favor of photos. Notice how all walks of life are included in the larger Winnebago family: retirees, couples with and without kids, sportsmen, swingers, golfers. A commitment to individualism and a roving spirit are all that’s needed.

Warning: I’ll probably be posting my favorite pages from every brochure up until at least 1980.

Bram Stokes and Diane Lister in Dark They Were and Golden-Eyed Bookshop, Circa 1970

Published March 5, 2015 '70s Decor/Design/Fashion , Book Stores 2 Comments

Stokes is holding the 1970 Dover Occult edition of L. Sprague de Camp‘s Lost Continents. Dark They Were and Golden-Eyed, the place that inspired Sherry Gottlieb to open A Change of Hobbit, was also London’s first comic shop, predating Forbidden Planet by more than 10 years. It closed in or about 1981.

And here’s a store bag from 1978. The artist is James Cawthorn, an illustrator primarily associated with Michael Moorcock who also co-wrote (with Moorcock) one of my favorite movies, 1975’s The Land That Time Forgot.

(Images via Comica Festival and Secret Oranges)

A Change of Hobbit Bookstore, 1974

Published March 5, 2015 '70s Decor/Design/Fashion , Book Stores , Books 3 Comments

A Change of Hobbit, the dream-child of Sherry Gottlieb, opened as an unadvertised, 12-by-15-foot book closet above a coin laundry in Westwood Village in 1972, and closed in 1991 as probably “the largest and oldest science fiction bookshop in the world“—chased out of town by soaring rent and the big book chains. Seen in the postcard above is Hobbit’s second location (there were four in all) on Westwood Boulevard. Gottlieb, the Sylvia Beach of speculative fiction, tells her extraordinary story here.

Years ago I lived in Westwood, and at least once a week I would walk to the Domino’s Pizza on Westwood Blvd., order a small pepperoni, and walk across the street to browse the stacks at Border’s until I was ready to pick up the pizza. The “stacks” were decidedly neat and corporate, but it was the only book store within walking distance, and I am and always will be a book (front cover, back cover, printed paper in between) hound. That Domino’s Pizza (below) sits at the exact same address as A Change of Hobbit as seen in the postcard. I had no idea until I saw the photo.

Now all the bookstores are gone, and some people in high places seriously believe in an eyeless, mindless beast named post-literacy. Have a nice day.

(Postcard image via Jordan Smith/Flickr)

Peter Max Ads (1968 – 1973)

Published February 25, 2015 '60s Decor/Design/Fashion , '70s Decor/Design/Fashion , Ads , Peter Max 2 Comments

College Dorm Life, Circa 1972

Published February 25, 2015 '70s Decor/Design/Fashion , Found Photos 8 Comments

The 1972 Alice Cooper calendar (close-up below) hanging on the door in the seventh photo came inside his 1971 Killer LP. That’s how I nailed down the year. Also, the “Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary” and “Patience My Ass” black light posters are by Art Bevacqua, copyright 1971, and the Dancers of Mali (little poster in third photo) toured the U.S. in ’71 and ’72.

I still haven’t got the location, although I know there’s something here to give it away. There’s a Courier-News clipping in the second to last photo, a New Jersey newspaper. It ain’t Princeton. The accommodations are not nearly posh enough and the kids have too much character. Rutgers? There’s also a Courier-News in Elgin, Illinois. Let me know if you know or have an idea.