(from farbror-sid.se via DarkRoasedtBlend)
This morning my apartment was filled with movers. For the last few months, my husband and I have been making do with no more than a table, bed, armoire and a few chairs. It was kind of both heaven and hell to have such few things. All that changed today when my husband’s furniture arrived from Spain. To be honest, I hardly noticed the parade of boxes and Spanish commands being shouted back and forth and the piles of emptied cardboard boxes and balls of used tape flying through the place like tumble weeds. Why? I had fallen into the rabbit hole that is radioshackcatalogs.com. The owner of this site has painstakingly documented RadioShack catalogs, photos, history, and then some. Do you love RadioShack? Neither do I. And yet, I was transfixed by this love letter to the company (which was started out as a Boston store for leftover Army equipment in 1921. Its founders were two brothers, Theodore and Milton Shack. I mean, Theodore and Milton Deutschmann).
This is a very rich little site. The above videos are just some of the riches it has to offer.
(Thanks to Retro Vintage Modern Hi-Fi for directing me to this RadioShack wonderland)
Reasons why I wish I had this phone now:
1. It’s so big that I’d never leave the house with it, which would mean that…
2. I wouldn’t have to answer the phone if it rang. Because it would be home. And I’d be out.
3. It’d be kind of like if I only had a home phone.
4. I miss only having a home phone.
5. It probably doesn’t have voicemail. I hate voicemail.
6. It’d be awesome to have a cell phone with a cord.
Retro Commercial - Radio Shack Cell Phones - 1990
(via alligatorjuice)
![Kit Eaton of Gizmodo on RCA’s The Two Thousand:
“Back in 1969 RCA made an attempt at a high-end TV that was a vision of the sets of the year 2000. The Two Thousand was even made in a limited run of 2,000 and cost $2,000. That’s around $12,000 in today’s money, but for that price you got a 23-inch Hi-Lite tube that had ‘such a vivid, detailed picture’ you could ‘even watch it in a brightly-lit room.’ There were even ‘computer-like memory circuits’ that stored your fave channels, and preserved settings for volume and picture control. That must’ve seemed like the future indeed in an era of dial-twiddle-tuning to find the right VHF channel. The full advert page makes fascinating reading.
“‘No motors, no noise and no moving parts to wear out,’ just computer-designed ‘electronic memories‘… fabulous, especially since I remember hunkering down before our old TV to swirl the dial. My Dad used to get me to change the channels, as a kind of intelligent remote control. Nowadays my cat brushes past the touch-controls on my flat-screen LCD TV and does that job for me.”
[Paleofuture via Boing Boing Gadgets]
RCA’s 1969 Two Thousand TV Was Computerized Vision of Future, for $2,000 - Gizmodo](http://30.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_kuapa8YtbG1qzktyvo1_400.jpg)
Kit Eaton of Gizmodo on RCA’s The Two Thousand:
“Back in 1969 RCA made an attempt at a high-end TV that was a vision of the sets of the year 2000. The Two Thousand was even made in a limited run of 2,000 and cost $2,000. That’s around $12,000 in today’s money, but for that price you got a 23-inch Hi-Lite tube that had ‘such a vivid, detailed picture’ you could ‘even watch it in a brightly-lit room.’ There were even ‘computer-like memory circuits’ that stored your fave channels, and preserved settings for volume and picture control. That must’ve seemed like the future indeed in an era of dial-twiddle-tuning to find the right VHF channel. The full advert page makes fascinating reading.
“‘No motors, no noise and no moving parts to wear out,’ just computer-designed ‘electronic memories‘… fabulous, especially since I remember hunkering down before our old TV to swirl the dial. My Dad used to get me to change the channels, as a kind of intelligent remote control. Nowadays my cat brushes past the touch-controls on my flat-screen LCD TV and does that job for me.”
[Paleofuture via Boing Boing Gadgets]
RCA’s 1969 Two Thousand TV Was Computerized Vision of Future, for $2,000 - Gizmodo
Reader Martin Kalfatovic directed me to the Smithsonian Institution Libraries Galaxy of Images, which is full of weird wonders of yesteryear. I’ve only started poking around in it. I was excited to come across these pages from Hoover: The Story of a Crusade, 1926. Personally, I find the “least fatiguing way” of vacuuming is to ask someone else to do it. Anyone want to do me that favor? If you’re nice, I’ll also let you whitewash my fence.
(via collections.si.edu)
This thing is really cool! Why didn’t it ever catch on? Maybe because it could only be used if you had the hand of a tyrannosaurus?
Retro Selectro: Card Callmaker Ad (1973)
(via BoingBoing)
They go great with a glass of milk! You can buy your own here for a mere $500. (via Ben Sisario)
I’ve never been into cigarettes. I spent so much of my childhood scheming to get my dad to stop smoking that by the time I was at all interested in smoking myself, I felt I’d be too much of a hypocrite if I started. Right this moment, however, I want a cigarette.
Why? Well, maybe because I was just reading a magazine from 1972. It’s a copy of LIFE I bought at a thrift store some months ago. One of the most noticeable things in it is the fact that there’s a cigarette ad on almost every other page. Print cigarette ads were curbed the following year and completely ceased to exist in 1995. And you know what? Thank god! Because, if they started rerunning some of these old ads, I’d be a goner.
(NB: The scanner I’m using is too small for the pages and I’m just not up to scanning twice, cutting pasting, etc. So just deal. Please.)
Here’s the first one I saw:
Indeed, it is good! Is it wrong that this looks so good to me? Nice looking male hand? I like male hands! Ooh, I also like coffee. And Julie Christie-cum-Cleopatra eye makeup. And the turtleneck! Yes! Gimme! This ad is surely suggesting that women are subordinate to men: that we are on a lower level. And that that’s a level that’s a good height for…now I really am I reading too much into this. Maybe it’s the cup. It’s a great looking cup.
This is pretty much how I look when I’m at my desk and realize it’s already 5pm and I’ve only responded to four emails.
I really like the text on the side:
Electronic Mail is a term that’s been bandied about data processing circles for years. Simply put, it means high-speed information transportation. One of the most advanced methods is terminals talking to one another. Your mailbox is the terminal on your desk. Punch a key and today’s correspondence and messages are displayed instantly. Need to notify people immediately of a fast-breaking development? Have your messages delivered to their terminal mailboxes electronically, across the hall or around the world.
(retrospace via boinboing via buzzfeed)
![[via intweetion via Vintage Ads]](http://i577.photobucket.com/albums/ss213/myvintagevogue/vintage%20ads/Motorola1950s.jpg)
MEET THE AUTHOR
Anna Grossman is writing this bio in the third person. She is a New York-based freelance writer specializing in lifestyle and entertainment features. She is 5'7" and has been described as "nice." Su esposo, Jesus, enseñandola Espanol. Email her if you feel like it: GrossmanAJ@Gmail.com
MEET THE ILLUSTRATOR
James Gulliver Hancock is an internationally acclaimed artist who crosses as many mediums as he does borders. James is constantly on the move, having been involved in artist projects and residencies in Indonesia, Austria, France, the U.K. and America. He is currently located in Los Angeles and works on projects in Europe, America and Australia. His work is as varied as his travels, encompassing editorial illustration for magazines, commissions for music group artwork and animations, work with disabled children on logo designs, creating gigantic set illustrations for performances and TV.
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