Category: Retro

Saturday Matinee – Pathé Luxury, Leon Redbone, Tuba Skinny, Kelly Finnigan & The Atonements

From Wiki:
The Pathé Brothers of France went into the photographic business in 1896. In the early 1900s, Pathé became the world’s largest film equipment and production company, as well as a major producer of phonograph records. In 1908, Pathé invented the newsreel that was shown in cinemas before a feature film.
[The future of the past found here.]

Leon Redbone could scat-sing better than almost anyone, and there’s proof with his cover of Tommy McClennan’s Bottle Up And Go (aka Step It Up And Go recorded by Blind Boy Fuller and many others). If someone in the audience pulled out a camera to take his photo, when the flash went off, he’d stop the song, jump for his camera and take a shot of them. He’d wait as the Polaroid image developed, (“Hmmm. Not a bad likeness”) and pick up the song right where he left it. He kept those photos, too.

Tuba Skinny plays Blind Boy Fuller‘s Untrue Blues.

Kelly Finnigan & The Atonements resurrect the ghost of Otis Redding. Great soul R&B.

Tomorrow is only two days from yesterday, so we’ll see you back here then. Have a great  weekend and stuff.

 

The .Gif Post No. 701 – 1965 Headbangers, Bollard Checkmate & Making a Bowl

[Top .gif from the intro to this; 2nd & 3rd found  here and here.]

Saturday Matinee – Babylon Bee, Rag’n’Bone Man & Sonny and his Wild Cows

The Babylon Bee stings again!

Don’t ask my opinion, don’t ask me to lie, then beg for forgiveness for making you cry.
Rag’n’Bone Man does heavy duty soul.

Live from Budapest, Sonny and his Wild Cows rock it. A popular band in Hungary (and across Europe) they cover 40s & 50s American blues, R&B, rock & roll, rockabilly, swing and country. Free music download at their awesome website, too.

Well looky here. It’s the weekend. Have a great one, and we’ll see y’all back here tomorrow, rain or shine.

Saturday Matinee – The Ides of March, Lucky Chops & GA-20

“This is really a monster song; no matter which dial you punch on that radio, you’ll hear this one.”
I don’t know about punching dials, but The Ides of March helped bring the horns back into rock with Vehicle (1970).

Lucky you. It’s Pizza Day via Lucky Chops.

Nice cover of Mel London‘s Cut You A-Loose.
GA-20 came onto my radar relatively recently, and they definitely got the sound.

Looks like it’s gonna be a nice weekend despite what everyone says. See you back here tomorrow.

Glass’ & Reed’s Contribution to the World

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:
Mr. Machine is a once popular children’s mechanical toy originally manufactured by the Ideal Toy Company in 1960. Mr. Machine was a robot-like mechanical man wearing a top hat. The body had a giant windup key at the back. When the toy was wound up it would “walk”, swinging its arms and repeatedly ringing a bell mounted on its front; and after every few steps emit a mechanical “Ah!”, as if it were speaking. The toy stood about 18 inches tall (roughly 46 cm).

The gimmick of Mr. Machine was that one could not only see all of his mechanical “innards” through his clear plastic body, but one could also take the toy apart and put it back together, over and over, like a Lego toy or a jigsaw puzzle.

Mr. Machine was one of Ideal’s most popular toys. The company reissued it in 1978, but with some alterations: it could no longer be taken apart (owing to the tendency of very young children to put small pieces in their mouths which could be accidentally swallowed or present a choking hazard), and instead of ringing a bell and making the “Ah” sound, it now whistled “This Old Man”.

This later version of Mr. Machine was brought back once more in the 1980s. In 2004, the Poof-Slinky Company remanufactured the original 1960 version (using the actual Ideal molds whenever possible), which made the original sounds and could be disassembled, and with the intention of being marketed to nostalgic adults as a collectible.

[U.S. Patent image found here. Unfortunately it’s only a single page, but it refers to related patents. Description and more found here.]

King’s Pawn Takes Rhino

Elvis and the rhinoceros appear daily at 10am.
Top image from Google Maps Street View. The faces were blurred out, so I had to take a closer look, and it’s more awesome than I imagined. (The note on Elvis’ guitar reads “Neck is broke don’t bother stealing.” I checked, and the King’s neck is intact.)

Lampyridine Hot Links

The Closer You Are, The Channels (1956) Despite numerous recordings, The Channels never had a nationwide hit due to lack of promotion, but they were popular on the east coast. The Closer You Are was a regional hit in New York and was covered by Frank Zappa in 1984.

LolFeds spotted.

Looks like a Stoner trap.

Teak dinghy rudder for sale.

The Impatient Trucker Dance.

The Concept of Pixel F%$#*&%g.

Fearless Grandmothers mean well.

Weather forecast: It’s gonna be trippy.

Next time you’re at Walmart ask for Bob’s Scribble Pads.

This 1891 German ”Weltrekord” Ratchet Screwdriver restoration probably lowered its value as an antique, but it’s a cool gadget.

“The easiest way to be at the top of your field is to choose a really small field.” – Simone Giertz

[Top image: Cropped image of un-photoshopped image of this photo-shopped Southern Elephant Seal that went viral.]

From the Archives: 1 year ago. 5 years ago. 10 years ago.

Just Push The Red Button

SALESMATE
New Portable Audio-Visual Selling tool.
Automatic Sound Slidefilm Viewer in an Attache Case. Self-Winding, Self-Contained, Ready to Use. Just:
1) Open the screen
2) Plug it in
3) Push the red button, and The Show is On!

The 1961 Beseler Salesmate Projector included a built in cassette player for sales presentations. The Charles Beseler Co. was founded in 1869 in Germany as a manufacturer of a variety of products including inhalers, magic lanterns with oil lamps and stereopticons.

[Postcard with caption found here.]