What are your 4th of July traditions???

Here’s to Chinese fireworks, the USA’s 233rd Birthday and YOU!

Kodachrome first hit the shelves in 1935 in the form of 16mm movie film. 35mm slide film and 8mm “home” movie film came a year later. Ironically it was two musicians, not photographers that invented the miracle medium. Both had the first name of Leopold. After world war two masses of mom and pop photogs embraced Kodachrome and generously documented the colorful cultural explosion of Americana.

Kodachrome is a very luxurious medium to be documented in. When used correctly it lavishes its subjects with depth of light and shadow, clarity and a color spectrum unlike anything known to mankind. But processing the worlds most famous film is no easy task. It takes chemists working with cantankerous machinery to do the job. And, by the way, if you have Kodachrome film that needs to be developed now is the time because there is only one place left that can do it, Dwayne’s Photo in Parsons, Kansas. It’s probably going to take more than an hour.

Kodachrome slides changed my life. It was 1992; I was meandering through a thrift shop, which at the time wasn’t unusual for me, when a blue shoebox marked “Trip across the United States 1957” caught my eye. I opened it up and it was full of slides. I held a few up to the light and knew immediately these orphaned Kodachromes were a treasure with my name on it. I haven’t stopped collecting slides since. I find slides to be little time traveler vehicles providing a quick and easy ride-a-long to another place and time. They are without a doubt my medium of choice when it comes to studying mid-20th century American life and style.

Kodachrome film may be gone but may the slide shows never end.
Have you been documented in Kodachrome?

Here’s to both Leopolds, Kodak, Kodachrome and YOU!

Flaring, wrap around front fenders make this the one of the most spectacular designs ever to roll off a Plymouth assembly line. After five years of Plymouths sporting stylish tailfins the ‘61 model year is the first without. But the fashionable front end makes up for it. And this car is parked to show it off! The Plymouth logo, a gold anodized rocket, is centered on the stamped aluminum grille. The black and yellow California license plate gives scale to the delicate wrap around bumper. Among the cars other odd features are the dash mounted mirror and pushbutton transmission. Push “D” for drive or “R’ for reverse. His sunshade is up; hers is down.

Speaking of he and she, the “folks,” they are both properly dressed for a mid-day drive. She is outstanding in a bright turquoise, short-sleeved dress. He chose a suit of forest green over white finished with a thin tie held in place by a tie bar. He clutches a striped paper bag in one hand and shows off a silver box in the other. Stepping-stones guide them between the Fury and the front door.

Back in the late 80s and early 90s when I was buying and selling late 50s and early 60s American cars on just about a weekly basis, I owned a couple of ‘61 Plymouth Furys. I bought them both out of the local auto trader. One of them came from the estate of a nurse named Wilma White in Tujunga, CA. It was a two-door hardtop, white with a red interior. What a great car! I drove it to work for a while in the late 80s when I was a fashion designer downtown Los Angeles. Wilma White, I always name my cars after the original owner, also provided me with the most unfortunate experience of my early car collecting days. I’ll never forget.

I had just gotten home from work. I parked it, as usual, on the hill in front of my house. Well, I guess I didn’t set the parking brake hard enough. And that’s not a good thing considering these cars are notorious for falling out of park and rolling down hills. And that’s exactly what my 1961 Plymouth Fury did. It rolled backwards pinning my neighbor’s Volvo broadside leaving it accordion pleated up against the curb. Oh well, I had to buy my neighbor a new used Volvo. It was the price I had to pay to see a ’61 Plymouth total a Volvo and drive away unscathed without a scratch. I should’ve taken a picture but I didn’t have my Argus Seventy Five on me.

Here’s to the “folks, the Argus, Wilma White VS. the Volvo and YOU!

The giant little girls are properly dressed alike for TV viewing in matching puffed sleeved blouses and powder blue hair bows. One controls the TV while the other controls the Oreos. They are both about to take a bite out of the Americana sweet treat sensation they are suggesting we switch to.

Oreos are and have always been, hands down, my favorite mass-produced cookie. Apparently, I’m not the only one. The crispy, creamy-dreamy combo of firm yet soft, sweet mystery fatty matter joining two crunchy, munchy, chocolate mini-man manhole covers is considered by cookie connoisseurs to be the number one cookie of all time. Nobody seems to know where the name Oreo came from. In case you are eating one and you forget the name, that’s not a problem. Each Oreo has the name stamped on it and baked right in. This is the cookie that advertises itself all the way to your mouth. What marketing genius thought of that?

It was 1912 when the original Oreo came out of the oven at the Nabisco factory in New York City. In the beginning, according to the legend, they were shaped like mounds. It wasn’t until 1952 that Oreos were styled and flavored as we know them so well today. If you want Oreos fresh out of the oven these days you will have to go to the Nabisco factory in Richmond, Virginia, aka Oreocity! Oreos are produced there in huge batches and cooked in special 300-foot long Oreo ovens. I haven’t had the pleasure of touring Richmond, VA yet but when I do, I’m going to start whiffing and sniffing the moment I cross city limits to find my way to the Oreo factory. Long may the sweet scent of Oreos waft in the winds and breezes of Richmond.

I discovered this incredible Slide of the Week hanging on the wall of legendary Los Angeles photographer, Gary Leonard’s new photo gallery called Take My Picture. It’s downtown LA located at 9th and Broadway next to the Orpheum Theater. I couldn’t believe my Kodachrome loving eyes when I walked through the door of the gallery. I stood there in awe before a whole wall hung with thirty framed photos printed from Kodachrome slides of billboard scenes taken in SoCal in the 50s and 60s. The assortment of ad subjects and colorful graphics inspired my imagination and made my spirit soar!

For more info about the Gary Leonard’s spectacular Billboard Show in LA click here.

Here’s to Oreos, Gary Leonard’s Billboard Show and YOU!

A fur trader printed the first edition of the Milwaukee Sentinel in 1837. News was printed above and below that name for 158 years until 1995, when the morning paper merged with its evening competitor the Milwaukee Journal to become the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. As of today it’s still operating. Ironically, The Seattle Post Intelligencer closed shortly after I featured its iconic building-top globe in the Slide-of-the-Week a few weeks ago. Saving the globe is now a preservation issue. And, of course, that globe definitely needs to be saved!!!

Anyway, recently I was in my hometown of Ontario CA, and I picked up a copy of the local paper. I guess I, like many people these days, haven’t picked up a newspaper for a while. I get my news (and exercise) these days moving a mouse around a mouse pad because I can find all the news I need and more on the good ‘ol www. Then I stared noticing other newspapers and they’ve lost weight too. Its been a long time since they were as wide as the one in this slide. But I had no idea newspapers have recently gotten even skinnier.

Here’s to skinny newspapers, color harmony between a human and a kitchen and YOU!

Speaking of olives, YOU ARE INVITED to the historic Graber Olive House in my hometown of Ontario, California Saturday, May 9, 2009 from 1 to 3pm. I’m celebrating the 10 year anniversary of my first book, Cruising the Pomona Valley, 1930 -1970. Free tours of the curing and canning facilities will be given; iced tea and cookies (and olive samples) will be served.

Graber Olives are the greatest source of my hometown town pride. Seasoned with years of tradition The Graber Olive House is without a doubt one of the most charming and unique destinations in all of Southern California. The Graber family has been curing and canning olives there the old fashioned way with secret family recipe since 1894. By today’s standards this AMAZING place is a living museum. I call it Graberoliveland! In the two quaint early California ranch style shops, you will discover their complete line of Graber sweets and savories all perfectly packaged in classic prize winning gift boxes printed with artwork done by local artist Rex Brant in 1953. There is also a fascinating display of local history, Graber memorabilia, vintage machinery and a collection of mid-century paintings and mosaics. This place is AMAZING! I hope you can join me there tomorrow! Your imagination will be inspired and your spirit will soar!

What: Book Signing and Anniversary Party
When: Saturday, May 9, 2009, 1 – 3pm
Where: Graver Olives, 315 East 4th St. Ontario, CA, 91764
DIRECTIONS:
10 Freeway to Euclid Avenue, South to 4th Street, East 1-1/2 blocks to 315 East 4th Street. 800-996-5483

Here’s to Graber Olive Headquarters, the Graber family, the olives and YOU!

This weeks “slide” is a picture I took last week of a framed photo hanging in the hall across from the men’s room of a very special KFC in Salt Lake City. I was in town to do a show. Ordinarily I wouldn’t stop at a KFC when traveling but because this KFC was in the shadow of a big vintage neon sign that said HARMAN CAFÉ with a huge image of Colonel Sanders I sensed something might be special about this location. So I stopped. Half way between the parking lot and the main entrance I was graciously greeted by a life-like, full body bronze of the Colonel standing shoulder to shoulder with another man wearing the same western bow-tie. I looked down and read “Pete Harman.”

When I walked in the door I zeroed in on the fist thing I saw, a big 60s briefcase with a decal of the Colonels face on it. I looked around in awe. Old photos, graphics, menus and other choice Kentucky Fried Chicken memorabilia was everywhere. I couldn’t believe my eyes. Quickly I learned in 1952 the Colonel was passing trough Salt Lake City and dropped in at Harman’s diner, then called the Dew Drop Inn. With his progressive pressure cooker and not-yet-legendary “eleven secret herbs and spices” recipe in hand Colonel Sanders convinced Harman to add his special “Kentucky” fried chicken to the menu. The customers loved it. Harman was the first KFC franchisee and the man that launched the Kentucky Colonel and his fried chicken into the stratosphere of Americana superstardom. Harman was also the marketing genius that came up with the iconic Kentucky Fried Chicken “to-go” bucket and the unforgettable slogan, “it’s finger-likin good!”

Then I turned around and what to my wondering eyes should appear, in a plexi case, but a genuine original Colonel Sanders suit with all the trimmings. I basked in the glow of his presence. I was on holy Americana ground. The place that got the world hooked on Kentucky Fried Chicken. I was overwhelmed with deep fried Americana joy.

Pete Harman was to Colonel Sanders what Colonel Tom Parker was to Elvis. Today the Colonel is the second most recognizable face of any person born before 1900. Jesus comes in first place.

Here’s to Pete Harman, the Colonel, the chicken, “Kentucky” Fried Utah and YOU!

His shooting vehicle is space age all the way. The dashing stainless side trim and warm green tinted wraparound glass are among the many stylish design features that make the ‘58 Sport Suburban one of my favorite wagons of all time. And you know I love those taillight housings that look like cartoon rabbit ears.

Boys love to play with toy guns. That has been proven generation after generation. The craze was born when civil war ended and gun factories began manufacturing the first authentic looking cap guns and BB guns for children. Over the next several decades having a well-rounded arsenal of western and or army style faux firepower became the norm for most boys growing up in America. Bang, bang you’re dead!

By the late 60s toy gun control had gotten out of hand. In 1968 Sears, the granddaddy of all American retailers took a stand by removing toy guns from their catalogs. That same year Mattel, the Southern California based toy company extraordinaire that brought us Barbie nine years before, introduced Hot Wheels and the boys toy market hasn’t been the same since.

Here’s to 1958 Plymouths, toy guns and Hot Wheels!

This slide is about what’s appropriately up front and center. A white frosted cake baked in the shape of a little lamb. Those eyes, those ears and those noses. This is no ordinary little lamb cake. He has so much curiosity in his eyes. Does he realize he’s about to be desert? Would it be more painful to him, or less, if leg-of-lamb was served for Easter dinner?

I love little lamb cakes at Easter. Almost as much as I love bright dyed eggs and molded milk chocolate bunnies. But unlike the bunnies and eggs the little lamb cakes are nearly extinct. When was the last time you ate one? Where, oh where, have all the lamb cakes gone?

But, it’s not to late for them to be reintroduced on Easter dinner tabletops across America. You, yes, you can play your part in restoring this traditional Easter sweet treat by baking a lamb cake this year. The molds are easily available on online. If you are feeling extra ambitions perhaps you will finish your lamb cake with shredded coconut for that extra wooly look. If you like your lambs in color you can easily tint the cake, frosting and coconut with the food coloring of your choice. And last but not least if you are feeling a bit rebellious make a chocolate lamb cake and call it the baa baa black sheep lamb cake.

Here’s to the glory of Easter, making many lamb cakes and YOU!

HAPPY EASTER!

A man and a woman pose together beside the flying nun- shaped awning shading the entrance to this outer space-age, science fiction style house of money. By any architectural standards before or since this is extreme. The design is simple. Part igloo and part flying squirrel. Really this giant steel, concrete and glass construction is as much a sculpture as it is a building. The two relaxed arched beams crisscrossing over the top remind me of the icing on a delicious hot cross bun or a cross stitch on a handmade patchwork quilt.

Spirit and pride beam from this sure-footed sculptural structure. It’s unfathomable for us today to appreciate just how much of a contrast it was when it was new to the far more traditional mid-century suburbia that was blossoming around it in every direction. But what defines its true greatness is the fact that it still looks futuristic more than fifty years after it was created.

All that is a tribute to the man who designed it, Mr. Wenceslaus Sarmiento, one of the world’s great champions of architecture as art and art as architecture. (And don’t we love the name Wenceslaus!) He was born in Peru in 1922 and studied with the granddaddy of South American modernism, Oscar Neimeyer.

From 1951 through 1961 Sarmineto was the head designer for the Bank Building Corporation of America. Over the course of his three-decade plus career he designed hundreds of one-of-a-kind, out-of-this-world bank buildings. He retired form his St. Louis based architectural firm in 1980. In the realm of architects working when he did, in an era when banks were both able and inclined to showcase their egos in the form of creative architecture, he had one of the greatest gigs an architect could ever have.

Today he lives in Santa Monica, California not far from the site where this building still stands. I wonder if he’s driven by it lately. “…Mr. Sarmineto, wanna go for a ride?”

Here’s to Van Nuys Savings, space age style, Mr. Sarmineto and YOU!