Tag: Retro & Vintage

Happy New Year’s Eve 2024 – End of Year Playlist

The end of a long year deserves a playlist to bring in the new one, and just as we did a mere twelve months ago, here’s a compilation of songs that buzzed my earballs in 2024.

Set 1 – January, February, March & April

Set 2 – May, June, July & August

Set 3 – September, October, November & December

[I omitted most of the tunes from the Halloween playlist, but you can hear them all here.]

And one more thing: Happy New Year!

[Caveat: I don’t own the copyrights to any of these recordings. They are presented here for entertainment purposes only.]

The Night Before Christmas

The Night Before Christmas – Arthur Rackham 1931.

[Found here.]

The RenuLife Violet Ray ca.1917

James Henry Eastman, a Detroit inventor who held several patents for violet ray machines, established the RenuLife Electric Co., in Detroit, in 1917. The device was a hand-held Tesla coil with glass tubes to (theoretically) protect the user:

“Treatment with a violet ray machine involved attaching one of a various set of evacuated glass tubes to a handle, holding it to whatever part of your body was troublesome, and then switching it on. This caused a high voltage, high frequency, low electrical current to run through the body. Similar technology is actually still used today in TENS machines that zap low currents into a targeted area of the body to relieve pain through nerve stimulation, though modern machines are safer and their use is monitored by trained professionals who use them only for specific types of pain. A violet ray machine, on the other hand, was capable of creating a powerful electric arc that could cause serious skin burns.”

[History and images found here.]

Stereoballs

The Project G stereo, produced by Canadian company Clairtone from 1964 to 1967, was a design marvel with its rosewood cabinet and rotating “sound globe” speakers. Famous owners like Hugh Hefner and Frank Sinatra showcased it as a symbol of sophistication. Despite its $2,000 price tag (around $20,000 today) limiting its market, fewer than 400 units were sold. The Project G has since become a collectible icon, epitomizing the sleek 1960s Jet Age style. Pictured here is Jazz pianist Oscar Peterson and an unknown model. Photographer unknown, circa 1964.

[Images are of different models of the same series, found here, on the Clairtone website and elsewhere.]

18 Songs that have nothing to do with Thanksgiving

Songs above are somewhat ordered from oldest to newest, all have been posted previously; more playlists here. Image at top found here.

[Caveat: No copyright infringement is intended; songs posted here are for entertainment purposes only.]

Living in the Retro Future

[Artwork by El Gato Gomez found here.]

Thanksgiving ca. 1923

I presume the families are of Irish ancestry, dates and locations unknown.
The images are leftovers from messing with Xwitter’s Grok AI generator (click to enlarge).

Let’s Ventriloquise!

‘Ventriloquism’ With 5 Famous Comics Talking Figures – This 1930s book contained four thin cardboard talking figures: Dick Tracy, Little Orphan Annie, Smitty, Moon Mullins and Lillums.

[Found here.]

Mickey’s Dreamy Spuds

fluckyducky – 23 August 2018
“This isn’t from 1960, I made it this morning while I drank my coffee. I posted it on my facebook page at about 10:45am, which was a couple of minutes after I finished making it. That’s my watermark, ‘Clarington Shpoo Imagification’, next to the french fries. It’s a joke, a parody.”

[Spotted on Xwitter, found on Reddit.]

School Colour Palettes of Britain 1930

Illustrations from The Function of Colour in Factories, Schools & Hospitals, Jenson & Nicholson Ltd., 1930, found here.