History's Dumpster = GLORIOUS trash! Kitsch, music, fashion, food, history, ephemera, and other memorable and forgotten, famous and infamous pop culture junk and oddities of yesterday and today. Saved from the landfill of time...
Is it just me or did EVERY family have a set of these in the '60s and '70s? They were EVERYWHERE. And STILL easy to find today on eBay and in most second hand stores. They sold nearly a billion sets. from 1953 to 1983 when they discontinued this iconic pattern.
In 1968, RCA Records made some radical changes to the then 70 year old record label/electronics manufacturer.
His Master's Voice, the iconic dog and gramophone image that appeared on
every RCA record and phonograph since 1900 was retired. In it's place
were the letters "RCA" in modern block lettering.
This outraged many collectors. Nipper was being replaced by an ugly bland orange label! How could RCA do this?
Next to the even bigger howl from music fans when RCA's infamous Dynaflex vinyl was unveiled in 1971 (a super thin lightweight vinyl record which RCA claimed to be "the record of tomorrow"), RCA was constantly criticized for their corporate-heavy cheapness and questionable product.
To me, Dynaflex had it's good and bad. It WAS quieter. Even after 40 years, many of my old Dynaflex albums still have very little surface noise. But sonically, it was also quieter too, so you had to turn up the volume. And the ugly by-product of that; Because it was so thin, it tended to pick up any rumble from older turntable motors more acutely. Many automatic record changers some people used often dropped two Dynaflex records if they were played on them
But I consider this period to be RCA's most unique. RCA had established a series of sub-labels, all with different colours. I want to create a rainbow mosaic of all of them because they simply look cool when you put them all together.
Here's a small sample of these '70s colour labels from the US and from around the world.
The US:
Beginning in 1968, this label replaced the iconic black "Nipper" label. This was used for RCA's main rock/pop and country line
Silver: To my knowledge, this metallic silver label was only used for this album.
RCA Red Seal was their Classical/Opera label
RCA Camden was used mostly for non-rock back catalog releases. It was ended in 1974 when RCA briefly transferred it's Camden line for distribution through Pickwick Records briefly until 1977.
RCA Victrola was used for back catalog classical and opera reissues
RCA Pure Gold was another reissue label for special low budget compilations
RCA Quardradisc was used for special Quadraphonic albums
RCA Educational was used for schools and music education. It's actually one of the harder to find labels of this era
RCA Special Products was used for TV-offer albums and special releases
White RCA Promo labels were used for radio stations
Tan RCA Victor labels were used initially for their Special Products line, but in 1975-76 they were a "transitional" label they used before returning to a modernized black label with Nipper. Which they would use until 1988.
From Around The World:
RCA Lineatre was used in Europe for special releases
RCA Lineatres: From Portugal
RCA Vik labels have been seen from many countries around the world, but none from the US. I've usually seen these labels on Mexican and Australian releases
RCA Italiana: Label for the Italian market. Mostly of Italian artists with a few international stars
This was a single label used for international releases in some countries
RCA Australia: For Australian recording artists
RCA Arc: Another Italian subsidiary
RCA International: European imprint, similar to Camden
German Black label
British RCA Gold Seal
I've seen other colours, including purple, maroon and dark brown (from Asia), but I can't find any either in my own collection or online to add here. But here's one more
I used to be curious about the Musicor's '70s label almost creepy similarity to the RCA label of the time. It reminded me of another little copycat label
But as it turned out, RCA DID manufacture Musicor during the '70s until 1977......
Saturday nights are the dead zone of prime time TV nights. Usually, most people are out doing better things than watching TV on Saturday night. So the networks and most cable channels dump the shows nobody else wants to watch on Saturday nights.
It's been that way as long as I can remember.
One demographic who never seemed to mind staying home watching TV on Saturday night was the elderly. Usually because they simply can't/don't want to leave the house. But more in fact, one particular show was their only excitement for the week. Hosted and produced by a graying former accordionist with a funny German accent who LOOKED like them.
His name was Lawrence Welk.
The Lawrence Welk Show was a staple of Saturday evenings over most ABC affiliated TV stations from 1955 to 1971 and in syndication until 1982.
The show was a sort of throwback to the musical variety show of the '50s, where you can see/hear everything from polka music, ragtime, lounge, big band, waltzes, some religious hymns, dressed-up country and Irish ballads. Lots of dancing and costumes. But absolutely NO rock n' roll or current music in ANY form.
(VERY bizarre exceptions were made sometimes.....)
(Yes, Myron Floren, we "knew" that was just a frog in your throat.....)
Welk, and his frequent sideman, Myron Floren knew his target audience. Staid, conservative (back when that word meant something TOTALLY different than what it means today.) Whiter than a percale sheet. And as square as the screens of the TV sets his show was beamed into.
These were people who still grumbled about the Beatles (One of the most surreal moments of my life came while visiting an elderly neighbor who regularly watched Lawrence Welk and she complained how music to her went south since the Beatles came "Why can't they make nice music anymore. like this?....." The song they were singing on the show was "Yesterday".)
That was the Lawrence Welk crowd.
And all between pitches for Rose Milk hand lotion, a regular sponsor of the show (which Welk confessed to using too.)
"It's vun-derful"
This show was everything I, a kid of the '70s HATED. I wanted to see the cars get smashed (like on CHiPs and Dukes of Hazzard) and foxy babes. But something my mom, who came of age in the late '40s/early '50s when this kind of entertainment was your average network TV fare, watched RELIGIOUSLY.
Between the bubble machine (which accented his music description as "champagne music"), the campy acts and the hand lotion pitches, gay America secretly also LOVED this show as much as the Geritol drinkers.
But it all came to an end when Welk's syndicator cancelled the show for good. Welk went into semi-retirement, moving his old shows to PBS where they ran for decades to this day as a "best-of" series.
Lawrence Welk himself passed away in 1992. But the show continues to run on some PBS stations with various former cast members hosting the performance segments.....
It was once EVERYWHERE. But IMPOSSIBLE to find at virtually every supermarket today. And it is a question I get asked a lot. And as an authority on forgotten junk, I've had a hard time trying to answer this one (especially with a straight face.) But here goes:
Whatever happened to the coloured toilet paper of the '60s and '70s?
Well, the simplest answer would be look at the most common colours of toilet paper back then themselves. Pink, Green and Powder Blue.
Northern and Scott were ubiquitous in EVERY home with coloured bathrooms
In the '50s and '60s, many new homes were manufactured with bathroom sinks, tubs and toilets in matching colours of - of course, Pink, Green and Powder Blue. Women of that day expected a perfectly matching colour scheme in the bathroom.
Another place was the kitchen. Where appliances, countertops/cabinetry and fixtures also had to PERFECTLY match (Avocado Green anyone?)
But by the late '70s, fewer homes were made with such creepy colour matches. What looked good for one time rarely looked good in another and "colour neutral" became the trend in the '80s and '90s. And what could be more colour neutral than no colour at all?
A second answer is the environment. Although coloured and printed toilet paper began disappearing in the late '80s, it's long been said the dyes and perfumes used in coloured toilet paper then were harmful to the environment. But not a single iota of actual PROOF of this has ever been established.
In reality, the first answer is the most logical one. Times and popular taste had simply changed. Many of these old homes from the '50s and '60s underwent massive remodeling in the '80s to today and one of the first things to go was the old bathroom and kitchen fixtures.
But ironically, coloured bathroom and kitchen fixtures are making a comeback. In wilder colours than ever. And, in spite of all environmental claims about it, there's even a demand for matching coloured toilet paper again.
