doris-day-ashtray_4947

This promotional ashtray was put out by Columbia Records in 1956 for their big star, Doris Day, and her big hit, “Que Sera, Sera (Whatever Will Be, Will Be)”. It has an exalted place in my Kitsch kollection because the title is printed backwards: “Whatever Will Be, Will Be (Que Sera, Sera)”. Whether the record sharks felt the foreign language was above the audience’s head or the manufacturer, Ceramicraft, goofed remains something only Doris or her dogs might know the answer to.

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This ashtray was one of the first things I found when I first started seriously collecting in the early 1970’s and I decided to start collecting pop music memorabilia as a result of finding it. It came as a set with “Sixteen Tons” by Tennessee Ernie Ford.
I love this ashtray not only for the Kitsch title scramble but for the sentimental fact that my first job out of college was at Columbia Records, though long after Doris’s day had passed. 

This ashtray was one of the first things I found when I first started seriously collecting in the early 1970’s and I decided to start collecting pop music memorabilia as a result of finding it. It came as a set with “Sixteen Tons” by Tennessee Ernie Ford.

I love this ashtray not only for the Kitsch title scramble but for the sentimental fact that my first job out of college was at Columbia Records, though long after Doris’s day had passed. 

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candy-corn-magnet_7988

I went to a lot of parties this weekend and the candy corn, the official candy of the season, was laid out in style. A big mound of it at one affair, tasteful scatterings of it around a jello mold at another – yes, many of my friends have the same kitschy eating habits as I do! I’ve had this refrigerator magnet trapping my favorite candy in resin on my frig for about 20 years. I’m not the refrigerator magnet type but candy corn is so at the top of my list I decided to stick it on the freezer door in ’88 and and see what happens as things like sunlight and feather dusters hit it .
I thought it would crumble long before this but, in fact, it has aged gracefully. Its highly saturated, screaming loud Halloween orange has dimmed some but the street lines yellow still shines bright and the white tips have faded the same way teeth start to gray over the years. I can see the sugar or whatever the main substance of this foodstuff is start to coagulate but otherwise the corns look perfect in their Esther Williams synchronized swimming formation, preserved forever.

I went to a lot of parties this weekend and the candy corn, the official candy of the season, was laid out in style. A big mound of it at one affair, tasteful scatterings of it around a jello mold at another – yes, many of my friends have the same kitschy eating habits as I do! I’ve had this refrigerator magnet trapping my favorite candy in resin on my frig for about 20 years. I’m not the refrigerator magnet type but candy corn is so at the top of my list I decided to stick it on the freezer door in 1988 and and see what happens as things like sunlight and feather dusters hit it .

I thought it would crumble long before this but, in fact, it has aged gracefully. Its highly saturated, screaming loud Halloween orange has dimmed some but the street lines yellow still shines bright and the white tips have faded the same way teeth start to gray over the years. I can see the sugar or whatever the main substance of this foodstuff is start to coagulate but otherwise the corns look perfect in their Esther Williams synchronized swimming formation, preserved forever here in my kitschen.

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jello-molds_0515

I love Jell-O! I love all colors. I love it plain or with things floating inside except when people suspend stuff like little sprigs of broccoli or carrots in it that interrupt the smooth chew. I especially love Jell-O when it comes from a little individual mold. This vintage set of six is the real deal made by the Jell-O company itself. Made of aluminum, the all-ruling metal of the 1950’s, the scalloped sides make for an impressive sculptural mound of Jell-O but I wish the Jell-O name on the bottom (or top depending on which way you look at it) was embossed on the inside as opposed to the outside so that the brand name was gouged into the mound when it popped out. I know I’m not the only one who would eat around everything and leave the Jell-O logo until last. 

I’ve actually made Jell-O birthday cakes using these molds by pouring different colors of the gelatinous stuff into each cup and unloading them around a giant peak of whipped cream with shredded coconut scaling down the sides. They look like futuristic condominiums surrounding a snow-covered volcano.

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grape-lamp-1_4921

Resin grapes were a huge thing in the late 1960s/ early ’70s but none so succulent or popular as those that were fashioned into pineapple table lamps. I have the red one pictured here as well as a yellow one and a purple one. It’s a bitch to change the bulb though. I always have to call my electrician when one burns out. If I were the inventor of these I would have had one easily decipherable grape that popped out for an easy change. But for all I know these lamps have that feature because as adventurous as I am in my life and career that’s how unadventurous I am when it comes to figuring out anything mechanical or that involves following detailed instructions of any kind. Lucky for me,these grapes look fantastic whether they’re turned on or off.

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I’ve collected four of these porcelain pitchers from the late 1960s over the years. I’ve only seen this particular style with the casual, beaming Afro-endowed hostess on the front, never the matching male, so perhaps Canadian Club was making a pitch to the swingin’ middle-class lady set that things other than water and lemonade should be pouring out of their petite white pitchers. 

I’ve collected four of these porcelain pitchers from the late 1960s over the years. I’ve only seen this particular style with the casual, beaming Afro-endowed hostess on the front, never the matching male, so perhaps Canadian Club was making a pitch to the swingin’ middle-class lady set that things other than water and lemonade should be pouring out of their petite white pitchers. 
I always liked that the blouse they chose for this hostess was so bold yet conservative, picking up enough of what they perceived as a ‘Right On/ That’s Soul, Baby!’ feeling but still looking like it could have been bought at any department store in the white suburban malls. 5-1/2″ high by 3-1/2″ high and made in the USA, at least Canadian Club’s sprang for printing the image on both sides of the pitcher. Nothing bothers me more in household accessories, especially things like glasses and pitchers where how you pick them up depends on whether you’re right or left-handed, when the image is only stamped on one side. Nothing less expressive for this the happy hostess who writes this blog then drinking out of something that is blank on the side exposed to the public. I’ve collected four of these porcelain pitchers from the late 1960s over the years. I’ve only seen this particular style with the casual, beaming Afro-endowed hostess on the front, never the matching male, so perhaps Canadian Club was making a pitch to the swingin’ middle-class lady set that things other than water and lemonade should be pouring out of their petite white pitchers. 

I always liked that the blouse they chose for this hostess was so bold yet conservative, picking up enough of what they perceived as a ‘Right On/ That’s Soul, Baby!’ feeling but still looking like it could have been bought at any department store in the white suburban malls.

5-1/2″ high by 3-1/2″ wide  and made in the USA, at least Canadian Club sprang for printing the image on both sides of the pitcher. Nothing bothers me more in household accessories, especially things like glasses and pitchers where how you pick them up depends on whether you’re right or left-handed, when the image is only stamped on one side. Nothing less expressive for the happy hostess who writes this blog then drinking out of something that is blank on the side exposed to the public.

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This is one of the first things I found when I started collecting vintage accessories. I also collected matching TVs, real ones like Predictas, Halo-Visions, hanging spheres and the like. I LOVE television and televisions. So this ‘Tiny-TV’ S&P set has been the main condiment carrier at my place for years.

The S&P containers raise up and down by turning the gold ‘on/off’ knob. It’s also theoretically a photo holder. You’re supposed to be able to push the screen in and slide in a photo. But this part of the TV is completely ill-conceived as the plastic, as I’m sure it was even back in its day, is unbelievably brittle so the slightest bit of pressure shatters the screen. And even if you could get the photo in there to be a real TV it ought to be behind the screen and not in front of it where grease and everything else going into your body can spatter it. Despite its shortcomings, this, one of five I’ve collected over the years, is still one of my favorite S&Ps.

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This is one of the first things I found when I started collecting vintage accessories. I also collected matching TVs, real ones like Predictas, Halo-Visions, hanging spheres and the like. I LOVE television and televisions. So this ‘Tiny-TV’ S&P set has been the main condiment carrier at my place for years. The S&P containers raise up and down by turning the gold ‘on/off knob. It’s also theoretically a photo holder. You’re supposed to be able to push the screen in and slide in a photo. But this part of the TV is completely ill-conceived as the plastic, as I’m sure it was even back in its day, is unbelievably brittle so the slightest bit of pressure shatters the screen. And even if you could get the photo in there to be a real TV it ought to be behind the screen and not in front of it where grease and everything else going into your body can spatter it. Despite its shortcomings, this, one of five I’ve collected over the years, is still one of my favorite S&Ps.

girl-scout-cup_7814

When I was a Girl Scout this was my favorite piece of gear.  Only 2-1/2″ tall at full stature (1″ collapsed), I used to load this baby up with Faygo Red Pop and a teaspoon plop of Sealtest vanilla ice cream and start dipping in my Thin Mints. I loved the sound the cup made as I shuffled the thin layers of collapsible tin like a deck of cards or accordion.

Though this isn’t my actual cup, this one’s adult life has been dedicated to serving as an excellent horse hoof sound effect in my recording studio.

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When I was a Girl Scout this was my favorite piece of gear. I loved the sound it made as I shuffled the thin layers of collapsible tin like a deck of cards or accordion. Though this isn’t my actual cup, this one’s adult life has been dedicated to serving as an excellent horse hoof sound effect in my recording studio.
Only 2-1/2″ tall at full stature (1″ collapsed), I used to load this baby up with Faygo Red Pop and a teaspoon plop of Sealtest vanilla ice cream and start dipping in my Thin mints.

poodle-magazine-rack_9886

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.

mr-pnut-cupB_9865

The way that pink colored plastic glowed PINK in the 1950’s, baked in super saturated, makes this Mr. Peanut cup my favorite over the red, blue, mint green, beige and yellow ones I also own. Not that this is the rarest piece of Mr. Peanut memorabilia but it always reminds me of weekends as a kid when I was allowed to change the water it held during the week to Kool-Aid or double shot Bosco spiked milk. I’m going to toast my youth now.

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plastered-plumber_multi

I’m not a drinker but I love vintage bar accessories and drag the best of them out when I entertain on weekends. Nothing is more popular than these pipes that hug a bottle and through which the liquid drains when it’s tipped.

Made in 1961 by Poynter Products Inc. Cincinnati, Ohio, Plastered Plumbers’ slogan is “The whiskey goes ’round and round and round and r…”. This scores an extra notch on the Kitsch belt not only for excellence in concept and slogan but because the the first ’round has an apostrophe in front of it while the rest of them remain bare. Not to mention that the first roun is missing a D. Perhaps diminished capacity on the part of the art director after sampling the product accounts for the diminished punctuation.

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