The Garfield Telephone

1986 ad for the Tyco Garfield Telephone

 

The 1986 Tyco Garfield telephone perhaps would have been another '80s pop culture relic were it not for a phenomena happening to this day halfway around the world.

The phone itself was a conventional working telephone molded as Garfield. It's eyes opened when you lifted the receiver. It was targeted to kids lucky enough to have phone lines in their bedrooms (which was becoming a regular feature in homes in the 1980s.) It was foreign manufactured for Tyco (best known for their model trains and slot racers.)   

It even had a toll-free number kids could call and "talk" to Garfield.

And the phone was successful in America, from the numbers of them seen in thrift shops and on eBay.

But they aren't so popular in Iroise, Brittany on the French coast. Because since the 1980s, Garfield phones and parts have been washing up on the beaches of France and for many years, locals didn't know from where until a missing shipping container was found, completely loaded with unpackaged Garfield phones. But since the container is in a sea cave, it's extremely dangerous to access. So it's presumed Garfield phones will keep washing up for many more decades, possibly centuries as the plastic they are made of does not degrade very easily in the elements.

The Ben Cooper Pac Man Halloween Costume (1982)

One kid in a mask like this is alarming.

An army of kids in masks like this is nightmare fuel.

Portable And Car Audio Demonstration Cassettes

In the early days of portable cassette machines, late 1960s and early 1970s cassette decks often came with demonstration tapes. These were mostly public domain songs, such as "Little Brown Jug" and "Michael Row The Boat Ashore" or specially composed material, often with the second side blank for the customer or purchaser to test the recorder with. But several manufacturers from National/Panasonic, Sanyo and Sony made these cassettes.

Listen here

Below is a later '70s version, featuring a disco rendition of Mozart's 40th Symphony.

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Most Sanyo as well as other makes of portables had cheap top control mechanisms, which required the cassette to be loaded upside down. So Sanyo issued their '70s demonstration cassettes with upside down labels, a practice rarely used outside of children's tapes (the Fisher Price, Superscope Storyteller and Teddy Ruxpin cassettes all had upside down labels.)

Listen here

Listen here All images above: Internet Archive

By the 1980s, the focus shifted from '60s J-Pop renditions of "Red River Valley" to exciting ambient stereo sound with personal cassette players like the Sony Walkman.



As the 1980s rolled on, fewer electronics manufacturers were including demonstration cassettes with their portable decks. But there was one sector of the electronics market that not only embraced the demonstration cassette, but almost made it a science; The car stereo sector.

The GM Delco/Bose car audio systems were especially ambitious. They were the gold standard of 1980s car audio and their demonstration cassettes often came on premium normal or chrome tape. The music selections were varied, but mostly non-rock.

These auto demonstration cassettes were also made by Ford for their car stereos. The heyday of the car stereo demonstration cassette ended as CDs had began to become the audiophile standard and the last car stereo demonstration cassettes were made in the 1990s.

1992 Chrysler Audio System. Image:: eBay

The Star Wars Holiday TV Special

Watch here.

Children's Disco Musical Stories (Venus, 1988)

It's not every day you run into disco versions of children's stories, especially South Asian ones. And one made eight years after disco fizzled out in America. But this cassette really exists. 


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Chipmunk Punk (Excelsior/Pickwick, 1980)

In the late 1970s, it seemed like The Chipmunks franchise was all but dead.

Ross Bagdasarian Sr., the Chipmunks creator had passed away in 1972 and aside from various licensed holiday repackagings for budget labels such as Mistletoe/Springboard, there was no new Chipmunks music in that cold, lonely decade.

Liberty Records had folded into United Artists in 1968 and UA wasn't as fond of these rodents as Liberty.

The '70s were a real low point for the Chipmunks. And to add insult to sad loss, a religious producer/musician named Floyd Robinson created something called Charlie The Hamster. A smug, born-again knockoff that served no other purpose other than to remind us of how much we really missed the actual Chipmunks.

 Charlie The Hamster Sings The Ten Commandments (Singcord, 1977) is a headache inducing Christian market knockoff of the Chipmunks franchise. Somehow, Robinson and his hamster forgot about Commandment #8.....   

But by 1980, the Chipmunks really needed a makeover and it was up to Ross Bagdasarian Jr. to carry the Chipmunks torch into the '80s. So he created Chipmunk Punk. And yes, even Yours Truly owned a copy.

Chipmunk Punk wasn't actual punk rock music per se. If you came here looking for some hysterical Chipmunk versions of The Sex Pistols, Anti-Nowhere League, The Ramones or The Dead Boys, you better move on.

But you did get Chipmunk covers of rock songs from The Knack (three songs were Knack covers!), Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers, Blondie, The Cars, Billy Joel, Linda Ronstadt and Queen. Sanitized of course (The Knack's "Good Girls Don't" was cleaned up - this is a kids record after all.)

The album was a surprising success and went Gold (the first Chipmunks album to do so.) The album was inspired by a DJ from Los Angeles rock station KMET-FM who played Blondie's "Call Me" at twice normal speed and jokingly called it "the new Chipmunks record".

Chipmunk Punk reintroduced the Chipmunks to a new generation and led to several follow up albums and a new Saturday morning cartoon series in the '80s and they're still active today.

Back To School: Vintage School Supplies

K-Tel's Bigfoot Snowshoes

The Elves And The Shoemaker (Scholastic Records, 1975)

More on the Scholastic Book Club.  

Red Goose Shoes

Vintage 1930 Pre-Filled Mesh Christmas Stocking