A kid's BIRTHDAY NIGHTMARE!

Sometimes I just don't understand home economists. How do they come up with some of the crazy recipes you find in cookbooks and magazines? Do they think nobody will notice that they've completely come off the rails? Do they have any idea what a kid's face would look like if on their birthday they were served a bowl of cream of mushroom soup with a candle floating atop a piece of toast stuck in place with peanut butter? Do they think this kid would ever get another kid to come to one of their birthday parties again?


Click on image to see it larger.

This page is from Cooking with Soup published by Campbell's in probably the 1960s or '70s.

Looking for something to serve the kiddies before the unveiling of the Cream of Birthday soup? How about creamed corn with bologna? Mmmm mmmmm good!

I won't even comment about "swirly soups" being exciting. Nor will I ever cut a piece of cheese to look like an animal.

This is why I only took one year of Home Economics in high school. I was just too snarky for it.

FLYING FISH RECORDS founder BRUCE KAPLAN

This vintage post card came in a birthday package along with many more cards and a few dozen vernacular photographs. Each little piece of paper has its own history, but most not as interesting as this.

The fellow on the front of this card is Bruce Kaplan, founder of Flying Fish Records. He started Flying Fish in 1974. He died of viral meningitis at age 47 in 1992.

Never heard of Flying Fish Records? Hopefully you'll be familiar with some of the artists he recorded:

John Hartford, Sweet Honey in the Rock, Doc Watson, Pete Seeger, Tom Paxton, Bonnie Koloc, Stephane Grappelli and New Grass Revival

From Wikipedia:

Flying Fish played a major role in bringing traditionally oriented American music to a wider audience in the 1970s. At the time Kaplan started the label, most similarly oriented companies produced albums with decidedly "homemade" packaging (e.g. cover art, etc.) and marketed the albums to a relatively narrow audience of aficionados. Kaplan realized that music of this sort had the potential to reach a wider audience, but needed to be packaged in a professional manner; people not already devotees were unlikely to take a chance on something that did not look like it came from a "real" record company. Kaplan also invested in broader promotion of the music (wide provision of albums to radio; targeted advertising to back up tours). Essentially, he located a niche between the hit-based promotion model of the major labels and the faith of the small independents that the music would find its own audience. (SOURCE: Wikipedia)

To read more about Bruce Kaplan click here and on the Wikipedia link above.

Anyone out there ever order one of the posters or shirts?

IF A DOG POOPS ON A RUG IN VEGAS does it stay there?

I don't understand Vegas. I don't understand the lure of Vegas. I don't understand the marketing of Vegas. I never will. It seems to be a Jekyll and Hyde sort of place. Bring the kids; don't bring the kids. Pirate ships and fine art; hookers and cheap buffets.

"What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas" leaves me shaking my head. That said...

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On the back:

At Systems, Math, Computers All, I’ve been considered apt. But then I laid my money down and what do you know “I crapped”!

The Golden Gate Hotel & Casino:

...opened in 1906 as the Hotel Nevada. In 1907 it was assigned Las Vegas' first telephone with the number 1. In 1931, with gambling being re-legalized in Nevada, the Hotel Nevada was expanded and renamed Sal Sagev (Las Vegas spelled backwards.)

The hotel gained its current name in 1955 when a group of Italian-Americans from San Francisco Bay Area started the Golden Gate Casino. The 106-room, four-story hotel was renovated in 2005.

The Golden Gate was the first to serve a fifty cent shrimp cocktail in 1959, now a Las Vegas cliché. Called the "Original Shrimp Cocktail" on the menu, has become a mainstay of the San Francisco Shrimp Bar and Deli and is a favorite of both locals and tourists. It is what the Golden Gate is best known for. The idea came from owner Italo Ghelfi, who based it on Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco.

The Original Shrimp Cocktail consists of a regular-sized sundae glass filled with small salad shrimp and topped with a dollop of cocktail sauce. In 1991, the price was raised from 50¢ to 99¢. The price was raised in 2008 to $1.99. Unlike many other Las Vegas establishments that offer a 99-cent shrimp cocktail, the glass is not padded with lettuce or other fillers, which is often cited as the reason for the Original Shrimp Cocktail's popularity. (SOURCE: Wikipedia)

Dogs, shrimp, crap, and gambling. I just don't get it.

HOME FROM SCHOOL on Sept. 10, 1974

Okay, so you've managed to con your mom into believing you're not feeling well so that you don't have to go to school. How will you while away your hours? With television of course. And you know I Love Lucy will be on at 9 am. I swear all over the country she was on at 9 am. But what else is on?

The world before cable. Make sure to take a look at the stuff that was on for the early risers who were trying to get their act together and get out the door to work. I'm sure there were a lot of people who got in late because they were enraptured by the 6:30 showing of "Superintendent of Schools Annual Report"* or perhaps "Group Therapy with Dr. Irene Kassorla." I don't even want to know what "Across the Fence" was.

Okay, by 1974 I was already one of those poor souls already out the door by a little after 6 for my two hour drive to work.

*Please note that should you not make the first viewing of "Superintendent of Schools Annual Report" you can catch it again at 10 am. Remember this is pre-VCR days so you could not tape it to watch later. Pity, huh?

LET'S EAT OUT: Part 4...with Kojak

I wish I had a bunch of history to share about eating at the Sheraton-Universal Hotel, but I don't. I do have memories which most will find boring. And I can tell you that the restaurants shown no longer exist.

I will briefly say that in 1972 two friends and I drove down to Los Angeles for vacation. We stayed at the Sheraton-Universal because, well...it was right on the grounds of a movie studio! We were hunting for movie stars! We were in search of our own "I Love Lucy" William Holden episode. Alas, we did not find it on that trip.

Click on either image to see it larger.

In 5 years I returned to the hotel with one of the friends and we did have a wonderfully awkward moment worthy of Lucy but with Telly "Kojak" Savalas. Kojak lived in the hotel so it was hard to miss him. And I can tell you it involved me kicking a friend under the table at breakfast as Kojak came up behind her to get to a coffee pot. I was subtly pointing and whispering "Kojak" over and over again only to have my friend turn around hesitantly to see what was going on and end up face to face with Kojak. She did a slow motion turn back to me, her eyes bugging out. By now I was in my best Ethel mode trying to smile and act like all of this behavior was normal.

As to the images on this card...I never saw the Four Stages Restaurant, but I can confirm that the Circus Room was just as 1970s tacky as it appears here.

One night upon returning to the hotel from whatever escapade we'd been on we decided to go to the top floor and see what the Circus Room looked like. We figured there would be some sort of an entrance, we could get off the elevator, then go and look in the lounge. Unfortunately that wasn't how it panned out. When the elevator door opened on the packed room we were IN the Circus Room. The door opened, we three numbskulls stuck our heads out, in unison we said "ohhhhhhhhhhh," the door shut, and we rode back down to our floor. We still laugh about how stupid we were. We were not cut out for the Circus Room.

A few years later I went back to LA and got to eat at the Universal Studios dining room. Now THAT was an experience. Dining with one of the top execs at the studio. People turned to stare at us figuring we had to be someone. What a disappoint we were, but I did see quite a few stars including one I had a big crush on. Wish I had a postcard of that place. Cool, very cool.

In 1977 I moved to LA and lived right over the hill from the hotel and never visited it again.

Now as to what the heck a "poolside Portuguese lounge" is....

Should you wish to visit the Sheraton-Universal now you'll find the garish colors of the 1970s gone. It's all subtle hues and mood lighting.

EARL STANLEY GARDNER and Perry Mason Through the Years

Since I was moving things, specifically Perry Mason books, around on a bookcase I thought it time to do another post about the small collection I have. I have written about this collection twice in the past:

She'd Only Read PERRY MASON

What do you do with A STUTTERING BISHOP?

I haven't added anything to the collection in quite awhile because I haven't seen any from the time periods I like. This leads me into this post. Marketing a specific author in a specific time period.

It's fun to see how as decades passed covers changed to reflect what the publishers hoped was their market. The covers I like are from the 1940s and early to mid-1950s. They start to loose me in the late 60s, loose me completely in the 70s, and then barely redeem themselves in the 90s.

As I've said in past posts, I used to collect these books for my landlady who died in 1997. The two covers below were from editions that were on the shelf in bookstores in the 90s. They are simple, mainly typographic, with images that are all but forgotten. At the time there were a lot of vintage mystery authors being sold that had really nice covers. Earl Stanley Gardner was not one of them. They were boring. The publisher was obviously choosing safe colors, type style, and a boring image to attract readers. They all looked the same because the illustration was so secondary and pointless. It was sort of rote mystery buying. Mind you, they were only publishing a small selection of Gardner's work. I believe they were counting on Gardner fans to be their market and were not looking to attract new fans. Within a few years I never again saw a newly printed Perry Mason on any bookstore shelves.

The cover on the left is from 1995, the one on the right from 1989.

So let's go back to the 1970s when marketing was obviously geared mainly towards men who wanted to think all women were sexy babes. Many of the covers had what I would call "sex kittens" as their image. Graphically they are very 70s and pretty silly. I can't help but think of Laugh-In when I look at them. Okay, they also look a bit like ads you'd see these days for sex phone lines. The women look a bit stupid, slightly sexy, and the type who would have hung out (so to speak) at Hefner's house.

The cover on the left is from 1970, the one on the right from 1971.

Now, let's try Bond, James Bond. Well of course these aren't Ian Fleming novels, but they certainly do seem to be putting the idea of Bond girls on the covers. These date from the late 1960s. I don't collect these. Nor do I collect the ones from the 1970 through the 90s. They're all just so boring and stupid.

The cover on the left is from 1969, the one on the right from 1968.

The next post will deal with some of the images from the early 1960s and 1950s. For me these are interesting with a point of view that makes some sense to both men and women.

Now, the good and bad news. Some of Gardner's books are again in print. The bad news is that they are POD (print on demand) and have very uninteresting covers. The publisher is House of Stratus in the UK. Okay, I think the covers are pointless and poorly done which is often the case with POD books. I will leave it to you to decide if you think any of these books make you want to read them or if they in any way project the idea of Perry Mason. I give the company credit for getting Gardner out to a new audience, but these anemic covers would have me looking elsewhere for Gardner books. Namely used bookstores.