Before They Were Stars

The cover states 'Lilliput is a man's magazine' - and it certainly is.

There's nothing within the pages that could possibly interest the woman of 1956 - and pictorially little that would interest the man of 2007.

Founded in 1937, the British magazine at this time featured a single two page photo spread of its featured starlet, cover girl Jill Ireland, and but two other exceedingly demure photos of attractive up and comers in the film world.

Ms Ireland went on to a successful acting career in film and television and married actor David McCallum the year after this magazine was published. They were divorced in 1967 and she wed actor Charles Bronson the following year. The Internet Movie Database reports that McCallum had introduced his wife to Bronson when the two men were co-starring in 1963's The Great Escape.

Ireland died in 1990 of breast cancer, having undergone a mastectomy in 1984. Her death left husband Bronson bereft and he did not remarry for eight years, an eternity in Hollywood terms. Bronson passed away in 2003.

Whether Lilliput generally had the inside dope on just who was going 'to make it' amongst the filmland hopefuls they featured is unknown but they certainly scored a hat-trick with this edition.

Judi Boutin was a young Ice Follies star who turned to acting after a series of accidents - including breaking her back - forced her out of skating. She went on to success on a series of TV shows under the name Judi Meredith. She's still alive but her last acting role appears to have been in 1973.

Sara Shane was hardly a young starlet in 1956 - she was already 30 and had bit parts in Easter Parade (1948), Neptune's Daughter (1949), Sign of the Pagan (1954) and Magnificent Obsession (1954). When featured in Lillput, she was working on The King and Four Queens with Clark Gable and her film career peaked with the Jane-like role opposite Gordon Scott in Tarzan's Greatest Adventure (1959). She moved into TV after that but retired from acting in her late 30s. IMDB reports:

She turned to writing and began to devote herself to the study of pharmaceuticals. She wrote two books "Zulma" and "Take Control of Your Health and Escape the Sickness Industry," the first one a work of fiction and the second a book promoting healthy living. She eventually moved to Australia to avoid the Los Angeles pollution and, at age 80, still lives happily...and healthily...on her 5 acres of land.

The rest of the magazine devotes itself to such men's issues as
'Improve Your Control' with hints on dribbling and ball handling but not in the realm one might expect from later titles - it's a pictorial 'how to' on soccer featuring Fulham FC Captain and England international star Johnny Haynes.

Otherwise, the magazine is repleat with war and adventure stories, articles on the right raincoat to wear to the races and ads for cigarettes, electric shavers and such indispensible after-market auto accessories as Smith's Car Heaters.

Wikipedia notes that Lilliput was merged in August 1960 with Men Only magazine 'which only later became pornographic'. Certainly in 1956, the Jill Ireland centrespread contains nothing to offend anyone but ones prudish maiden aunt and the hint of negligee in the picture of Judi Boutin is offset by the friendly domesticity of her expression - more the young wife suggesting hubby stop reading 'The Blag At The Bailey' and come to the marital bed than the hussy revving up for a romp. Indeed, the only place you'll see a bare breast or bottom is in the cartoons.

Nonetheless, it's a fair bet a chap didn't read Lilliput outside the privacy of his own home or perhaps down the shed.

A mere 14 years later, in 1970, the first topless 'Page 3 Girl' (Wikipedia entry) appeared in British newspaper The Sun and within a few years were openly ogled on the buses.

-- Nick

Cindy Insulted, Gets Nightie In A Knot

When we saw Cindy the sales girl last week, she was in fact at the climax of a very bad day at work in which a customer throws a dress at her.

So how did that day begin? Yep you guessed it - one of these tiresome people who can't make up her mind and then walks out with nothing.

Oh, boy.. GREAT!... But my mother would never let me wear it!... I'd better forget the whole deal!

What? Where were you planning to wear such a negligee young lady? And if the question should be 'For whom are you planning to wear such a negligee?' Surely you'd do what other young women have been doing since time in memoriam - not tell your mother you bought it and sneak out the house.

Yet alas for poor Cindy, her day's not getting any better. Witness - your awkward customer:

Panel 1: Are you kidding? I'd be ashamed to go out in this thing
Panel 2: Maybe I COULD wear this one out -- but WHERE?
Panel 3: I'll remember THIS one when I want to startle someone!

Now answer me this.

This is supposed to be a fashion featurette, showing these 'Mad, Mad Moderns' what's hip, cool, trippy and happening.

So why would you insult the clothing? Particularly in contradiction to the captions in the panel below.

Could it be the wordsmith got the roughs back from the artist and said yeech?

Take a look at her hands - perhaps they're telling the real story...

Panel 1: He promised me it was this long
Panel 2: But in the end it was this small
Panel 3: I'm bitterly disappointed

Love And Devotion

History is funny.

Things you take for granted take on a new allure when you stop to take the time to look at them closely.

For example, take a look at this 1946 souvenir pin dish of the Southport Pier:


Any clearer?

So what you might say.

It's an average example of its type. Not in perfect condition - the paint surrounding the photographic image has worn away, the glass itself has air bubbles from its manufacture.

And besides, who's to say that it was made in 1946 anyway?

Maybe you need a closer look:


Still not sure?

No, we don't blame you.

It look several minutes of squinting through a high intensity thread counter magnifying glass to provide the vital clue to this piece of ephemera's date.

And so you'll just have to take Nick and Nora's word for it.

On the billboard outside the Southport Pier theatre is a poster for the underappreciated classic Devotion.


And what's not to love? The luscious Ida Lupino, the darling Olivia de Havilland, the man whose voice could give you gravel rash Sydney Greenstreet.

The movie alas plays to mixed reviews, the tortured love triangle of 19th century literary heroines Emily (Lupino) and Charlotte (de Havilland) Bronte and the rector they both loved... ah, more melodrama than drama.

Charlotte: I know nothing. I understand nothing. And yet, I have dared to write 200,000 words about life! [tosses manuscript on floor]

After which she died, Charlotte that is - Olivia turns 91 on Monday, July 1.

And yet, no one dies in a movie quite as well as Olivia de Havilland - witness her Oscar nominated turn in Gone With The Wind.



Devotion, hopefully less melodramatic but no less entertaining, to preserving our local history, like the Southport Pier, is part of our aim here at Nifty Knick-Knacks.

We hope you continue to enjoy.

Rock N Roller Coaster

It's interesting how clothing fashion goes in cycles - mini skirts are in one year, out the next, mullets were in and now they're out (thankfully!).

Just as interesting is how home furnishing and homewares go through trends too. Currently it's an emphasis on natural colours and interesting textures. Ten years ago it was a Mexican/Santa Fe
look - strong primary colours and high gloss glazed tiles - particularly in kitchen and homewares. The 1980s was about sleek two-pac high gloss finishes inspired no doubt by Dallas and Dynasty. and the 1970s tapped into deep earthy colours - just look at Elvis' kitchen.

Which brings us back to the 1960s where pretty pastels reigned supreme and this Tupperware Wagon Wheel Coasters were produced.

A little bit of research finds that a complete set - a white 'cradle' containing coasters in pink, blue, green, apricot, yellow and white - is relatively rare. A quick frolic through ebay discovers that 'metric sets' of five and made-up sets are common.

A complete, original set sells between $U5 and $US15 on ebay and other collectible sites.

What is particularly fun about this particular Tupperware product is its innovation. Sandwiched between the colourful perforated tops and white bases is a wafer of foam to soak up the the condensate from frosty drinks or cocktails like the Manhattan, on hot days. How thoughtful!

Jean Genie

The American jeans that never were are the subject of this week's Monday matchbook.

Amco, ubiquitous denim wear of the 1970s had (according to the only real reference I could find - the corporate web site), its origins as an Australian brand of the late 1950s.

And, in this country at least, gave big brand names like Wrangler and Levis a run for their money.

But alas denim took a nosedive, along with a lot of Australian manufacturing industries, in the early 1980s and the Amco label disappeared.

That is until two years ago when the label's owners realised that there was a whole market of young men who didn't want to pay $250 for a pair of jeans.


The homage to the home of denim jeans, the US, is obvious in this label from a 1970s book of matches and continues with the use of this contemporaneous brand found on a New Zealand retailer's web site (pictured right) and this intriguing unpopulated site - note the very obvious 'stars and stripes'.

Pier-less

Inspired by this (possibly early 1950s) sandwich plate, Nick and Nora wondered what happened to cause the Southport Pier and Theatre to go from the first image taken in the 1920s (below) in which the theatre and associated swimming baths were located right over the water...

... to the colour picture below taken in the late 1960s (the theatre is at the bottom left of the shot, next to the newly built Southport Olympic Pool).


As an aside Nora chuckles today at her childhood reasoning in which she believed that one had to have hosted an Olympic Games in order to have an Olympic pool. It is very safe to assume that neither Southport, nor the Gold Coast has hosted an Olympic Games. A Formula One Grand Prix on the other hand? Well that's another (true) story for later.

Scroll a bit further for another photograph with detail of the sandwich plate design, a transfer print and possibly machine applied colouration, certainly more sophisticated and subtle than the early hand-coloured tint on the china cup and saucer featured last week.


Unfortunately we can't find any detail on the plate's manufacture, except that it is, according to its stamp 'Opaline Glazed China Made In Japan'.

However, all that aside, the answer to the mystery of the disappearing water posed above is that 'tide and time wait for no man'.

And in the case of Southport it's literally true.

The township, established in 1875 was founded close to where the Nerang River emptied into an estuary now known as the Broadwater.

On its eastern side it was protected from the Coral Sea by a thin sand bar, known as The Spit, now home to international hotels, shops and international renowned marine conservation and research attraction and theme park Sea World.


The photograph at the left was taken in 1937. Compare with the photograph at the bottom right taken 70 years later. Now thick coastal vegetation covers 'The Spit' and land reclamation on the western of the Broadwater has created the Broadwater Parklands, providing a buffer from the occasional cyclone which has been known to menace the Gold Coast.

The old photographs are sourced from the Gold Coast City Council's outstanding Local History Library. If you're interested in knowing more check out the link and click on the pictures to your heart's content.

A New Dimension

The person who would challenge and push the boundaries of what is considered 'decent' by the mores of the day had best not hope to live too long afterwards lest they are disappointed when someone else, following their example, pushes those boundaries further to the point where even the first challenger considers the situation 'indecent'.

Thus was the case for the remarkable Horace Roye-Narbeth (1906 - 2002), better known simply as Roye.

As his London Times obituary noted:

As a noted photographer of nudes, he successfully contested the prudish obscenity laws of his day, paving the way for others to publish work that Roye himself considered to be pornographic.

Featured for your enjoyment on this Saucy Saturday is No.6 in the Roye-Vala Stereo-Glamour Series. Purchased by Nick at the annual Gold Coast Antiques Fair some years ago for $AU15, it's probably 'about its money', as David Dickinson would say, although this edition's cover is somewhat scuffed and further marred by damage apparently from a later price sticker placed over the original cover price of 3/- (that's shillings to you).

No.3 in this series is the really collectable one, featuring British glamour model and actress Diana Dors, which currently asks between GBP50 and GBP99 on eBay.

The Stereo-Glamour Series series appears to have been published in the late 1940s or early '50s (probably the latter). If anyone can clear up the publication date, we'd be grateful.

The booklets appear to use a different method to the standard double exposure 3D photo set-up (which uses 2 images taken from slightly different angles) and, frankly, it doesn't work that well. Perhaps that's why the studio offered a more traditional stereoscope viewer and photo sets on the final page.

The inside back cover features a die-cut to keep your handheld 3D glasses - or rather 'Roye-Vala-Scope' - safe from loss, although spares are available for 6d each, post free, from the discreetly named Camera Studies Club.

Despite being 24 pages plus cover, edition No.6 features only eight pages of 3D nudes with each facing page blank, but the appreciator of the female form was nonetheless compensated with numerous other photos scattered throughout the publication and several pages of illustrated advertisements for other publications.

Noteworthy of this edition is it includes a photo from the 'Tarot' session, an original shot from which is featured on the painfully arty Roye Retrospective web site. However, where the Stereo-Glamour Series 3D photo has been strategically airbrushed, the photo on the Retrospective site includes the model's, ahem, 'landing strip' pubic hair.

Earlier refusal to self-censor landed Roye in court:

Roye, who claimed to have seen more than 10,000 naked women through the lens, always helped the police when they were investigating obscene pictures, but he was himself prosecuted when he refused to airbrush out pubic hair - the convention of the time - from the image of a model called Desiree in his Unique Edition collection. He successfully defended himself in court, arguing that the representation of beauty should be untrammelled by prudery.

The British photographer's life - and death - contained more drama than 10,000 nudes and a day in the Old Bailey, however.

Fired from his job as trainee draper for 'going to work in his evening suit after a drunken night on the tiles' he left London for South Africa - and was later expelled from the country for diamond smuggling.

By 1938, he was back in London with his own studio and about to create controversy with Tomorrow's Crucifixion, a photo of nude woman in a gasmask crucified. The Retrospective site describes the reaction:

This startling picture was published in the North London Recorder in August 1938 to a predictably mixed response. Those who might have reacted with outrage in normal circumstances were forced to concede that Roye's photograph summed up the threat of Nazi chemical warfare better than any run-of-the-mill propaganda shot taken before or during the Munich Crisis. Roye had taken a bet of £100 with the proprietor of the newspaper: could Roye create an image that would result in the paper being reprinted within hours of its publication? Tomorrow's Crucifixion, the best of a series of photos taken in a North London cinema after an all-night shoot, was the result. Roye won his bet, and also succeeded in creating what has now proved to be, on its rediscovery in the archive, one of the key pre-war photographic images of the century.

Roye retired to Portugal in 1959 but was forced to flee the country following the 1974 revolution because of his 'right-wing views and support for the dictatorship'.

A life punctuated by action came to a full stop in a dramatic manner. Roye had successfully defended his Lisbon villa against Leftists in the 1970s by brandishing a shotgun but he was murdered in Morocco in 2002, 'said to have been involved in a struggle with a painter who allegedly broke into his bedroom and stabbed him 14 times with the knife that Roye kept beneath his pillow'.

Robbery 'gone wrong' or a jealous husband? Who knows?

Mad, Mad Modes For Moderns

Bare your back and brave the sun!
The fastest trip to the groovy moonlight scene!

No it's not a long forgotten Beatles hit - it's the vaguely incomprehensible caption on the back page fashion page on edition 74 of Magic Moment Romances.


The copy was written for 'Pretty girls (who) should been seen - and now there's lots more spots to be pretty in! Take a peak!' but probably written by a middle aged man scratching his sweating brow, "What words are those kids using? Trip? Groovy? Scene? Sounds good. Let's use them in two nonsensical sentences, they'll never notice the difference."

Note the grossly unflattering balloon-bottomed play suit on the left - was there ever an outfit that demanded the question, 'does my bottom look big in this?' - no wonder our model looks bereft.

As for the other two, they wear rather nice outfits, but rather disturbing expressions, a cross between abject misery and confusion, sadly a trend that continues with catwalk models today.

Inspired by the mod scene of the mid-1960s, these fashions blended textured fabrics with striking patterns.


Summing the era up nicely is this essay from Fashion-Era.com

...dresses and skirts are A-line and flare away from the body at the hips. Keyholes and cut outs at the neckline or waistline or bodice were often seen on sixties and seventies dresses. The cutaway armholes were popular for a decade and this led to a demand for the correct underwear such as halter neck bras.

Note the belt on this suit. With the exception of the gloves and the hat, this stylish outfit wouldn't look out of place in 2007.

So, to celebrate Fashion Friday, Nick and Nora are delighted to offer you this, the first installment of a 'groovy, trippy, ginchy and happening fashion featurette', Cindy The Salesgirl.

Enjoy. Cindy will be back next week.

Light Amplification

'Bond's Back In Action!' boasts the back cover of this 1965 20th edition of Ian Fleming's novel Goldfinger, echoing the tagline of the previous year's film poster.

The novel was first published in 1959 - the year of Nick's birth - and became the third Bond film in 1964. Nick considers it most remarkable that he clearly remembers seeing the film at the cinema on its first release.

He was only five years old at the time (recalling that his first cinema experience was but a year earlier - Cliff Richard in Summer Holiday) and is surprised not so much that he remembers the opening sequence, the scene of Jill Masterton painted head to toe in gold paint and the laser scene but that his introduction to Bond - and admission (with mother) to the cinema - was so young.

Shirley Bassey's Goldfinger (lyrics co-written by former Mr Joan Collins Anthony Newley, who originally recorded the song, and produced by The Beatles' George Martin) is probably the definitive Bond film theme song. The best Bond theme ever not recorded for a film is Moby's track from his album I Love To Score which, among various dodgy samples, includes the classic Goldfinger exchange:

Bond (to Auric Goldfinger): "Do you expect me to talk?"
Goldfinger (laughing): "No, Mr Bond - I expect you to die!"

At this stage in the film, Bond is strapped, legs spread, to a lead bench with an industrial laser inching upwards towards his greatest assets. In the novel, it is a somewhat less modern circular saw. It's said the laser wasn't chosen for the sake of modernity but that the saw was too melodramatic. More The Perils of Pauline than hi-tech 1964.

It's one of the more widely known bits of Bond trivia that Gert Frobe, the German actor who played the movie's eponymous villain, spoke little English and was dubbed by another actor. Frobe, incidentally, was concerned by Goldfinger having Fort Knox guards killed with nerve gas vecause of public sentiment about Nazi gas chambers - no wonder. As Wikipedia notes:

While Fröbe was a member of the Nazi Party before and during World War II, he aided German Jews by hiding them from the Gestapo before 1945. Owing to his connection to the Nazi Party, the film Goldfinger was banned in Israel until he was publicly thanked by a Jewish family.

Published by Pan, Nick's Goldfinger paperback is hardly worth more than a few dollars but it's worth it's weight in, well, gold, at least to him.

The novel recalls a Christmas gift of the original classic Corgi James Bond Aston Martin DB5 with pop-out front machine guns, pop-up rear bullet shield and working ejector seat which came with a spare passenger, holding a gun on Bond in the driver's seat. Good job - the first passenger disappeared under or behind the sofa, never to be seen again by 10am on Christmas morning.

The novel also lists on the frontispiece the other James Bond novels available in Pan Books and notes of Thunderball that 'Eon Films are now making the fourth James Bond film, starring Sea Connery as Bond, from this title'.

But Thunderball's a story for another time...

In the meantime click here to enjoy a TV performance of the great Shirley Bassey singing Goldfinger.

Earth Laughs in Flowers

If you thought Tupperware was only about keeping food fresh, then you're sadly mistaken.

In 1962 the Floralier, a happy confluence of plastic and necessity was born.

Measuring 20cm high, 19cm wide and 30cm long, the Floralier straddles that time in history between the days women took pride in such feminine accomplishments of actually making arrangements for flowers and today when we expect the arranging to be ready done by the florist who's done a course at TAFE. Or whereever.

The Floralier - a white three-tiered confection of moulded festoons and of doubious neoclassical parentage - means you can actually pretend you know what you're doing when you stick that purple iris next to the white roses and pink azaleas in time ready for the mother-in-law's white glove inspection.


Alas they've fallen out of favour, despite trendy attempts to revive them.

But those stalwarts at Tupperware still stand behind the lifetime guarantee and still have replacement parts available.

Still not impressed?

Never mind, you can always turn that Floralier into a robot. Seriously.

Earth laughs in flowers. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson, "Hamatreya"

The Cook's Tour

There are matchbooks and then there is the king of matchbooks.

No expense was spared in this example from the Captain Cook Floating Restaurant in Sydney.


The fish is embossed, the print is gold metallic ink and the inner sleeve features a large striker on the back with the matches themselves tipped with gold fleck. From the phone number, we estimate that this matchbook dates back to the mid-1970s.

Imagine cruising Sydney Harbour with a glass chablis in hand, having enjoyed a plateful of fine freshly, cooked seafood relaxing with a smoke as you peruse the dessert menu.

Of course you can't.

Such a thing seems unthinkable now. Finishing dinner and then lighting up for a smoke is now akin to picking your teeth with salad fork at the table. It's just not done.

And quite rightly too. Nothing ruins the delicate flavours of freshly cooked salmon than the overwhelming odor of burning tobacco from the neighbouring table. And yet that port and cigars goes hand in glove is a mystery for the ages.

While the Captain Cook pictured below may no longer exist, Captain Cook Cruises certainly does and they still do a dinner cruise around the Harbour City.

Pier Into The Past

Welcome to Goo-een.

Name doesn't mean anything to you?

Well that's because it's better known to the world as Southport and not its original Aboriginal name.

Now a suburb of the Gold Coast, Southport was once a township in its own right. Established in 1875 as a southern port for the colony of Queensland, it didn't end up doing too much heavy lifting ship wise and instead became a popular fishing and day trip spot for those from Brisbane.


Amongst its long forgotten history is the Pier Theatre which jutted proudly eastwards from the sea wall opposite.

Built in 1927, it survived fire and cyclones for about 40 years before it was torn down completely. The need for a cinema met in 1969 in the biggest and best of these new fangled things from America called 'Shopping Centres'.

At the time the Southport Pier Theatre was the must take-home sourvenir of a trip to Southport.

Over the next few weeks Nick and Nora's Nifty Knick Knacks will profile some of the souvenirs that show off this seaside attraction.

What happened to the Sundale Shopping Centre is a story for another time.


Pictured is a Delphine China cup and saucer made by JH Middleton and Co and produced between (based on the stamp) 1930 and 1941. The image on the cup and saucer is transfer printed and hand coloured.


Take a look at the palm trees in the picture - that's some mighty breeze coming up from the south - positively cyclonic.

Monday Matchbook

As outlined in the profile at left, inspriation for Nick and Nora's Nifty Knick-Knacks has come from US author James Lileks.

So it shouldn't come has any surprise that that we've pinched the idea of Monday Matchbook from Mr Lileks as well.

Well, you do know what they say, imitation is the most sincere for a flattery.

Sunday Drives

Sunday Drives - a rather nostalgic notion really.

It evokes a world that presupposing the one worked a Monday to Friday week, perhaps even went to church on Sunday or at the very least, treated it as a day of rest; housework and yardwork complete for the week.

Indeed it may have been the only time of the week that the family got to spend the whole day together.

That is before driving a car for the frivolous notion of simply driving was demonised as an "envirocrime" - bet you didn't think there was one of those did you?

So if you're not going for your Sunday drive for whatever reason, then you're welcome to join the Charles' for a virtual trip.

You might need a scarf, it gets pretty breezy with the top down on the Lagonda Rapide.

Bottle Blonde

Welcome to the first post for 'Saucy Saturday' - a fairly common piece of 'breweriana', the Brass Nude Bottle Opener.

Nick picked up this licentious lithe lady at a swap meet or fair somewhere for only a few dollars. A-ha! Cheap as well as common. The shame!

You can find your own all over eBay for a few dollars too. There's even a gold-plated version around who plies her trade for around $US30.

As far as we can tell, the original design dates back to the 1920s or '30s though surely it must have been in production for decades, perhaps even still going today.

One might say the old brass holds her age well, though wear or the loss of detail associated with cheap castings on the face of this example has given her a rather ghoulish appearance and she's been retired from active duty since the advent of twist-cap beer bottles.

"That Underground Place"

As everyone knows, Nick and I enjoy a good mystery and we hope you can help us on this one.

Below is a postcard we acquired quite a few years ago.

The image on the front isn't too exciting, it's of Gorleston Harbour. As postcards go, this isn't a terribly good example. The photographic composition seems to lopsided in favour of the pier for instance.

Not as famous as the great British sea-side resorts of Brighton and Blackpool, Gorelston at Norfolk nonetheless still was a popular holiday spot in the late Victorian era.

We assume this postcard was printed and written prior to the World War One.

We base this on:
-- the side-wheel paddlesteamer in shot
-- the pagoda-like structure at the end of the pier which in fact was a lighthouse built in 1887
-- the postage prices (1/2d (halfpenny) for Inland, 1d for foreign postage).
-- the dynamic of the ink on the hand written message, which suggests a pen dip technique rather than fountain pen.

But that is not where the real mystery lies. It is in the message on the back of the card.


It's a hastily hand written affair, not of the 'having a lovely time, wish you were here' holiday boast, but instead hints of something more dark, less pleasant, an eclipse on a sunny seascape.

The writing is difficult to read but Nick and I have managed to glean the following, the sections in brackets are either illegible or we've taken a guess:

Dear Mother,
Dottie is better the others are alright. Have (I) heard from Fred (illegible) is out of the question will send you a 1/- next week and after that Alex doing very little now just our luck. Sorry about Nellie I told you what it would be going back there to that underground place have send you 6 (illegible) if won (?) love from all to all
Loving dau(ghter)
May

We'd love to hear from anyone who can help us shed some light on the rest of the text or has memories of Gorleston to share.

Somewhere Over The Rainbow

This post is for Ann, who recalled the anodysed tumblers that her mum made the family use "when we wanted our Kool-Aid al fresco".

Anodizing, or anodising, is an electrolytic passivation process used to increase the thickness and density of the natural oxide layer on the surface of metal parts.

Well, so says Wikipedia.

But that doesn't go anywhere near explaining the romance and nostalgia that comes from owning andoysed aluminium kitchenalia. For those of us who grew up in the 1960s and 1970s, this was the epitome of chic, style and practicality.

Perhaps someone will feel the same way about 1980s acrylic glasses, but somehow, we don't think so.

Coming in a rainbow of colours, these mugs are the very promise of spring and summer picnics and everyone had 'their' favourite. For Nora's it's lavender.

This set spend the bulk of its life in the glovebox of Nora's grandad's car, just in the right place for an impromptu Sunday drive down to the Northern New South Wales beach town of Hastings Point.

It Sure Is Olly

It's birthday week in the Charles household with Nora's Mum and Nora's Dad celebrating birthdays this week. Many Happy Returns!

Also among other bright stars in the firmament with birthdays this week is Stan Laurel of Laurel and Hardy fame, born on June 16, 1890.

One of the outstanding geniuses of early 20th century comedy and film, Stan Laurel will ever be remembered as the hapless sidekick of Oliver Hardy.

That may have been the on-screen persona, but the reality off-screen was that Stan Laurel was the brains of the outfit, not only as an actor but also as a writer and director.

Once Charlie Chaplin's understudy, Laurel came to the US with Chaplin as part of the Fred Karno troupe.

There are a couple of outstanding web sites that reveal more about the man than celluloid alone will tell you. The first is dedicated to preserving the memories of this wonderful comic duo. The second to preserving his letters, many of which written after the death of his screen partner in 1957.

This cigarette card is dated 1933, the year that one of Laurel and Hardy's greatest films, Sons Of The Desert, hit the silver screen. The back of the card reads:

No 75
This is one of a series of FAMOUS FILM STARS
Laurel and Hardy
Stan Laurel appeared in vaudeville, then entered films where he met Oliver Hardy. These two have done much "team" work in comedies since. Fair hair and blue eyes.

Oliver Hardy also appreared in vaudeville before his partnership wtih Stan Laurel. Balck Hair and brown eyes. They have appeared in "Jailbirds", "Any Old Port", "Helpmates", "County Hospital"
-- From Who's Who on the Screen. 1933
WD & HO Wills's World Renowned Cigarettes

Fresh Sealed

Nothing epitomises the marvel of the modern age than Tupperware.

The fantastic plastic, first came on the market in 1946 and from the 1960s spread throughout the globe.

Nora confesses to a certain fascination for Tupperware - is it the practical nature of the product? The retro styling from her op-shop finds? She's not yet decided so Nick has asked her to limit purchases to items that have either practical application in the Charles household or which demonstrate a specific style aesthetic.

That Tupperware's styling reveals much about post-War domestic design is part of the charm of collecting.

Pictured is an excellent condition sugar and creamer in a design called Harvest Gold produced in (we think) the 1970s.

Check out the soft, compact curves in the single moulded body of the creamer and sugar container and the deconstructed floral element.

Come back this time next week to see another piece from the Tupper-Tuesday collection.

Ripping Yarns

Browsing a country swap meet we acquired this classic example of late 1960s romance comic books.

Cheaply printed (despite the publisher's name, Colour Comics Pty Ltd, only the front cover is in colour) for magazine distributors Gordon and Gotch, Magic Romances is not exactly the finest of the pen and ink artist's craft, but it's a delight in what it reveals about the tastes and expectations of Nora's mum's generation.

As for the cover story, it's classic Cinderella stuff, Karen Wilder Sommers breaks the heart of her one true love, Dr Greg Marsh, to pursue her dream of being a Hollywood star (like you do). She returns home just as Rita Phillips whom we're reliably informed is... aw, forget it, let us draw you a picture:

So, how does it end? Dunno, it's to be continued and this is the only edition we have.

Another fun find with this comic book is the fashion feature spread which we'll share in future updates.

So what happened to the romance comic. On first appearance it would seem that it outgrew its audience who were having real romances of their own and also moved on to the Mills and Boon type of fiction.

But you'd be wrong. The art of the romance comic book isn't dead, it just moved to the Internet.

Home Sweet Homemaker

The Young Homemaker - just think, somewhere in the world some poor feminist has fallen into a swoon just by reading the title.

Published for the Australian secondary schools in 1971, in the days when many young teenage girls still aspired to happy domesticity instead of aspiring to being, say, Paris Hilton.

Appropriately published by romance printer, Mills and Boon, this text book covers the basics including nutrition, hygiene, laundering, home management and recipes.

It's a written in a simple, no-nonsense style that you can imagine a somewhat austere, 'I know who's boss in the classroom and it's me' teacher delivering. Here's a sample if the text in the picture below isn't readable:

Should Schoolgirls 'Slim'?
If a schoolgirl feels she is unhappily fat she should go and ask her doctor's advice. He won't laugh.

But a sensible schoogirl will always:
1. Eat a good breakfast, dinner and tea.
2. Drink all the milk she can get.
3. Eat all the fruit she can get.
She may
1. Cut down on sweets, biscuits and cakes on her own.
2. Take more greens and other vegetables instead of potatoes.

Certainly a more practical subject than its modern day equivalent, Personal Development, Health and Physical Education where girls go from a (metaphorically speaking) meat and three vege education to fairy floss:

This area of study provides for the intellectual, social, emotional, physical and spiritual development of students. It involves students learning and practising ways of maintaining active, healthy lifestyles and improving health.

Students study aspects of a social view of lifestyles where the principles of diversity, social justice and supportive environments are fundamental aspects. Individual, family and community values and beliefs and the sociocultural and physical environments in which we live will be examined.

Still trying to work out what that means.

Foxy, Fightin', Fast Shootin' Funky Squad

A stranger to Australian shores in the 1990s might be forgiven for thinking that the the country could only support one comedy writing group.

And they'd be about right.

From the sophmoric beginnings as the D-Generation at the beginning of the decade to acclaimed TV and filmakers (The Castle, The Dish) of Working Dog productions at the end of the decade, a core group of members flowed through the humour factory turning out interesting one-off series like Funky Squad (1995).

Screening on the ABC, the series played out like an old Aaron Spelling series with laboured jokes and all. Amongst the most interesting part of the seven episode series is that it contained its own ad breaks featuring genuine TVCs of the late 1960s/early 1970s.


The period jokes continued with the publishing of The Funky Squad Annual. Although a quintessential English tradition, the Annual, released either for summer or Christmas, was filled with short stories, comics and puzzles to last the youngster through to the next TV season.

I Asked You Not To Tell Me That

Although not in the best conditions, this 1969 reprint of Get Smart fiction, stands as another example of TV product tie-in.

"Is not limousine," Boris said. "Is sight-seeing bus. I was on sight-seeing tour and I got separated from the group."

"I see," Max said. "That explains why you're down here in this hole." He turned to Blossom. "That explains everyting. Know what we've blundered into? A tourist trap!"

Even in print, you can still hear Don Adam's delivery accompanied by the de rigeur laugh track.

Get Smart (1965-1970), remains an outstanding television series which doesn't fail to hold its appeal in the more than 35 years since Max hung up his shoe phone.

For Nora, Get Smart has always existed as reruns and evokes memories of Sunday afternoon television on Channel 7 where two episodes would be shown back-to-back. It became such a regular event that she now boasts being able to recall plot and guest stars within two minutes of watching any episode.

Nick recalls the series first hand (just) and remembers reading the Get Smart comic strip found weekly in the innovative Gerry Anderson comic book enterprise TV Century 21. In the US, Max got eight full-length comics of his own.

Although Get Smart was developed in response to pop culture phenomenon James Bond, it also exists in the pantheon of greats in its own right thanks to the outstanding comic ability of Buck Henry and Mel Brooks.

One of the classic episodes The Groovy Guru, guest starring F-Troop's Larry Storch, what a guy - he even has his own My Space site) inspired moderately successful Australian band, The Sacred Cowboys.

Here's an extract from Get Smart and The Groovy Gurus and we dare you not to sing "Kill Kill Kill Thrill Thrill Thrill" by the end of it:

Like, Groovy

In decades before the Internet and fanfic you had to buy the official stuff.

None of this, write your own stories malarky, who do you think you are?

Anarchist. Hippy.

You're just the viewer and if you don't like our character development, well that's just too bad.

Read the cover daddy-o, it's like the 'Authorized Edition' man.

No great literary shakes here but an interesting use of character description shorthand as not to distract from the impending action:

The man with the machine gun was tall and bony and had the face of Bing Crosby beneath the cloth brim of his work cap. As the man with the crowbar went past, the driver saw that he had the face of Raymond Burr.

Raymond Burr might have wanted it back - he was playing Ironside at the time.

Here's a glimpse of the series:

All In The Wash

We still don't understand the connection between matches and washing powder, especially one that is also a 'germicide cleanser' like New Vim but we are assured that it is fresher and more powerful.

Vim, once made by Unilever, seems to have fallen out of favour as a brand, but I guess so too has a 'vim' as a word.

Perhaps the place where old words, like spry and frisky go retire.

Also fascinated by Vim is some software boffin who has a lovely page of other things other than his product called Vim.

Light My Fire

Now, I ask you, what better way to promote your brand new soap opera set in a fire station, than by giving entertainment writers the means to create their own conflagration.

The short lived (1995-1996) series ran on the Seven Network and while not very extinguished, sorry distinguished, it's notable for the appearance of Mrs Hugh Jackman (Deborra-Lee Furness) as Dolores and fellow thespian Liddy Clark.

Clark gave up acting to become a Queensland Labor Party politician and quickly got her fingers burnt as Indigenous Affairs Minister over the Winegate affair.

Band Box

Ah, the heady 1980s where anyone with a perm and stonewashed jeans could become a star.

For about 2.5 nano-seconds at least.

Local Aussie band Gotham City didn't exactly set the world alight (chuckle appreciatively here) with their debut album Radioactive.

The only thing apart from the matchbook which lives on is a Google cache from the web site Vicious Sloth which seems to specialise in collectable records.

So in the interests of posterity here is all that's known of Gotham City:

GOTHAM CITY, Radio Active, (AUS L.P. BOULEVARD / EMI Label YPRX-1970 w.Insert. Obscure Early 80's Rock.)

Diamonds Aren't Forever

Despite the invitation, this late 1960s dolly bird with her fetching hardhat, hint of clevage and comehither smile, was probably not a typical sight at The Diamond Drill Restaurant and Bar.

The restaurant appears to have been the hang-out of the hardworking mining types who found themselves in the big smoke of Brisbane. The location, as far as we can guess, is Mineral House which indeed still stands on the corner of George and Margaret Streets.

Mineral House remains Government offices and it seems likely that the location of The Drill could now be the much less interesting Go Print's George Street Copy Centre.

How times have changed.