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Made of spun spaghetti metal, this poodle is one of the most popular pets I’ve ever owned. I almost didn’t buy it because poodles, like flamingos, harlequins and other icons of the 1950s, are over-popularized, repro’s belched out at an alarming rate in wrong colors and materials, enough to drive any collector of the real thing mad. But this poodle is a stellar example of the lengths to which style, convenience and innovation were earmarks of 1950s Atomic design.

2 feet long, 22 inches tall and 14 inches wide, it and its mate – yes, I found TWO of them! – sit on either side of my fluffy-pink-covered-in-plastic-as-any-great-50’s-couch-would-be couch and are endless conversation pieces for those exposed to the pets for the first time.

Today’s reading materials feature a Bat and Bar Mitzvah resources catalog and a “TVs Greatest Hits” book that includes the Friends theme song that I co-wrote and which partially funded the buying of these two precious pooches.

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Made of spun spaghetti metal, this poodle is one of the most popular pets I’ve ever owned. I almost didn’t buy it because poodles, like flamingos, harlequins and other icons of the 1950s, are over-popularized, repro’s belched out at an alarming rate in wrong colors and materials, enough to drive any collector of the real thing mad. But this poodle – I actually own a pair of them – is a stellar example of the lengths to which style, convenience and innovation were earmarks of 1950s Atomic design. 2 feet long, 22 inches tall and 14 inches wide it and its mate – yes, i found TWO of them! – sit on either side of my fluffy-pink-covered-in-plastic-as-any-great-50’s-couch-would-be couch and are endless conversations pieces for those exposed to the pets for the first time.
Today’s reading materials feature a Bat and Bar Mitzvah resources catalog and a “TVs Greatest Hits” book that includes the Friends theme song that I co-wrote and which partially funded the buying of these two precious pooches.

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Though mostly a craze associated with the 1950’s and 60’s, animal families as ashtrays and sculptures will never go out of style. This one has four pups following their boxer-ish mom around the rim of an Atomic shaped ashtray with a 70’s style crazed paint job. Not only are they cute but the puppies, earless mounds of clay that the artist apparently rushed through compared to the detail he/she gave to mom, provide excellent crevices in which to rest cigarettes and other smokables, keeping them ash free until crushed out in the doggie’s playground.

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If it’s vintage and involves a Poodle there’s a 90% chance it qualifies as pure Kitsch. In the 1950’s and 60’s there were as many Poodle pitchers and vases as real dogs. The more textured, flocked or pink the canine, the better the pedigree. The perfectly-postioned-for-Kitsch-fluff balls at the end of their appendages qualified Poodles as instant icons for the Kitsch driven Age of Atomic and Mod.

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In the 1970’s, more owls lived on wood paneled walls than in trees. The owl is clearly the National Bird in the state of Kitsch as flocks of them thrive in burnt metal, ceramic and the all important Hi Art of Kitsch, String Paintings. This one is especially fancy, incorporating mohair yarn as feathers and a driftwood perch.

String art kits are still available.

Here’s an especially slap happy string art guy.

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I especially love Poodle Boy’s Liza Minelli dayGlo green hair, his little paw hands and the way his angora-on-speed sweater reflects on his eyelids. Poodle Girl’s excellent 60’s Russ Meyer meets Charo hair, Angelyne lookalike vibe and dayGlo harlequin top more than make up for the fact that she’s painted so low on the canvas she has no hands, paws or whatever you call that body part on such a species. Not sure what the inspiration was for these weeping canine twinged youth but the fact that these velvet paintings are slightly common didn’t deter me from popping down the $1.25 it took to own the set as a great Kitsch collector should never pass up human subjects with snouts and whiskers.