The Sugar Bears

Hello Dumpster Divers,

Yes, it's been a while since I've last posted. I really haven't felt very inspired lately. The depression spells have hit quite hard in recent weeks. But the fog appears to be breaking up. So I'll start fresh.

It seems like the late '60s/early '70s were filled with cartoon pop acts; The Banana Splits, Josie & The Pussycats, The Archies, et al. But The Sugar Bears appeared to be the first act directly tied to a commercial product mascot (Sugar Bear of Super Sugar Crisp cereal.) They were promoted through a short-lived cartoon series and cut out records on the boxes of Super Sugar Crisp cereal.

  

Presenting The Sugar Bears was one of the earliest releases on the fledgling Big Tree Records label, which would be the '70s record label home of Lobo, Hot Chocolate, Brownsville Station and most notably, England Dan & John Ford Coley.

The Sugar Bears was another stop in the career of Kim Carnes, who joined shortly after leaving The New Christy Minstrels. She wrote some of the songs and sings on this album (as "Honey Bear".) Another former Christy and member of Kenny Roger's First Edition, Mike Settle, also writes and sings on this album.

Sony Music Pops Cassettes

1985 was the year cassette players got colourful. The Sharp QT-50 was a hot item, neon and pastel colours got a comeback.

So as Warner/Reprise dumped the old staid white or beige cassette shell for the sleek clear shells of their then-new commercially released cassette tapes and Teac unveiled their reel to reel look, Sony gave us the Music Pops cassettes.

The Seattle Bubbleator

This was the Seattle Center Bubbleator. A hydraulically driven clear glass "bubble" that illustrated in 1962 how elevators would be driven in "the future".

And having personally rode the "Bubbleator" several times from the 1970s and early '80s, for the LEAST, I can say I was disappointed when this legendary ride of the 1962 Seattle World's Fair ended up as a greenhouse in some rich yuppie's yard.

It was heartbreaking really. You just DON'T throw away HISTORY like THIS. 

The Coon Chicken Inn: The WORST Restaurant Chain In History

Uh-oh, we now see the shameful side of Seattle's otherwise awesome culinary history.

It's hard to believe a place with a name like The Coon Chicken Inn would ever have existed in polite, politically correct Seattle. But in the pre-Civil Rights era, such things were not uncommon anywhere. Including Portland, OR and Salt Lake City, UT, when The Coon Chicken Inn had other locations.

And this place made Sambo's look modest.

They opened in 1925 and within a few years, drew the wrath of the Seattle NAACP, who threatened to sue for defamation and libel. It's mascot was a grotesque, ugly caricature of a black porter (and perhaps the first ever mascot used by a restaurant chain, paving the way for Ronald McDonald four decades later.) And like Ronald McDonald at McDonalds, the porter mascot was everywhere at this place.

They actually made hand fans for kids (with menus on the back) in derogatory caricatures of African-Americans.

The porter caricature appeared on everything inside and out of the place. Including matchbooks, the dinnerware, silverware and even soap bars. They even made spare tire covers with the caricature on them.

Coast to Coast?....Er, no. They wish. But this chain never grew beyond a few locations in the Western half of the US.

  
From "AW HELL NO!!" to "W.....T......F???!!!" This was their actual Seattle location, circa 1939...

Image: BlackPast.org

Now look behind the labour union protesters (another problem with The Coon Chicken Inn.), behind that car to the caricature's mouth. Yes, this was the actual entryway. Every location had a similar entryway.

The Seattle and Portland locations closed in 1949, due to changing tastes and a shrinking customer base (one should hope so!) The Salt Lake City location carried on until 1957.

More on this place:
BlackPast.org
Wikipedia
University of Washington

If The Bomb Falls: A Recorded Guide to Survival (Tops/PRI, 1961)

If a nuclear holocaust were to happen in 1961, you will need two albums. The Sam Sacks album I mentioned yesterday and this one.

Just kidding about the Sam Sacks album (or AM I?) This album was a cash-in from budget record label Tops (a subsidiary of geiger counter manufacturer Precision Radiation Instruments Inc.) for a nervous nation. But it covered all the basics. 

Audio at the bottom of the post.

It also included several government printed brochures and pamphlets.

Enjoy!