Can You Name That Dog?

I've got one for you to figure out. What famous TV dog was rescued out of the trenches in France during world war one? A war dog kennel was bombed and the mother and five puppies survived. This little pup was only five days old and became one of the only two survivors in the end.
Corporal Lee Duncan took the two pups and named one after a tiny 1" tall French puppet. Hmmm...there's a clue. Duncan worked with these dogs and found out the kennel master in charge of the bombed kennel had been captured by the Americans. Duncan actually visited the kennel master in prison to find out more about this new breed and to let him know about the rescue.
After the war, Duncan took his pups back the the United States to his home in Los Angeles. During the long 15 day journey, the female pup became ill with distemper and finally died.
Duncan took his remaining puppy to dog shows. In 1922, The Novograph Pictures Company asked to film this dog in action.
He knew this dog was special and took him to every film studio he could find. He was always turned down, but would not give up.
Finally after much persistence, the soon to be famous dog got a scene in the movie, " Man From Hells River." Another clue!
This film was a hit and the dog was a sensation. This dog made 26 pictures for Warner Brothers and got 10,000 fan letters a week.
But, in 1932, this famous pup died expectantly, Oh,no! Thank God for the new litter and now the son of _______ took his place. Many people wanted these pups of this famous bloodline, but Duncan was selective as to who they went to.
In 1960, Duncan died, but the bloodline was passed on to a woman in Texas who spent her life training, breeding and caring for these dogs. There have been 10 generations so far.
Ok, now you have the scoop. This dog stared in a TV show from 1950-1955. We all loved this show and the dog. Who was this mystery dog?

Klaatu Barada Nikto! The Day The Earth Stood Still..

Klaatu Barada Nikto is the most famous phrase ever spoken by an extraterrestrial. If anyone can translate this. Let me know.
The Day The Earth Stood Still is one of the most notable science fiction cult classics. It came out in 1951 near the end of the cold war and in the atomic age.
The classic plot is about a space craft landing and an alien tells the people of earth that they must live peacefully or be destroyed because of the danger to other planets. He is accompanied by a humanoid robot named Gort. Now that makes perfect sense and I can actually see that happening now.
Did you know that Frank Loyd Wright was consulted on making the design of the space craft?
Well, Klaatu was of course shot while leaving the craft (how did I know that was going to happen?) and has a gift for the president so he can study life on other planets. Klaatu is then taken to a army hospital where he recovers.
The film starred Michael Rennie (Klaatu), Patricia Neal, Sam Jaffe, and Hugh Marlow.
Most of the photography was shot on 20th Century Fox sound stages and it's studio back lot. Other scenes were done in Washington D.C. but the film stars never traveled there.
The directors wanted to make the film as realistic as possible to state the core message about armed conflict around the world. The aim was to promote a strong United Nations.
It was said that the film inspired Ronald Reagan to discuss uniting against alien invasion when meeting with Mikhail Gorbachev in 1985. He is quoted as saying,"I occasionally think how quickly our differences worldwide would vanish if we were facing an alien threat from outside this world." I would have to agree with Ronnie on that one. Maybe that's what this planet needs to finally be united.

Gort® Die Cast Nickel Edition
Day the Earth Stood Still - 26x38 Movie Poster
The Day the Earth Stood Still & Other Sf Classics

Experiment Today...Become A Scientist Tomorrow!

Remember chemistry sets? Most everyone had one. I had three. I look back and can't understand why my parents let me have not one, but three chemistry sets. I couldn't have my beloved go-cart and I couldn't even have toy trucks and cars to play with.
But, they somehow took the responsibility for me to potentially blow up the house.
These kits were marketed in the early 20th century to department and toy stores. They became the perfect birthday or Christmas gift in hopes to spark a budding chemist.
Some of the manufacturers were A.C. Gilbert, Skilcraft and Chemcraft. By the mid 1950's, there wasn't a kid in the US that didn't have or want one. These companies even made models for girls with pink cases and were labeled "lab technicians." Go figure.
We couldn't be scientists because we were girls, but we could be assistants.
Some of the things found inside these treasure chests were: thermometers, measuring cylinders, magnifying glasses, beakers, and alcohol burners just to name a few.
Common chemical were borax, calcium chloride, ferrous sulfate, powered charcoal, sodium carbonate, and a whole lot more.
There were concerns over the safety of chemistry sets such as the heat sources, breaking glass, flammable chemicals, etc. but mainly, could this be a tool to make illegal drugs? Doubtful.
As it turned out, those chemistry sets were treasure chests of the unknown. It got to the point, my parents wouldn't let me play with it in the house. So, I would set up my little lab table in the yard and go to town.

Reefer Madness And The Reefer Man

I just watched a show on Sundance Channel called "Grass." I couldn't resist writing a post. When it got to the 1960's era, I was about ready to jump off the couch,slit my jeans and make bell bottoms out of them and yell, "Hell No We Won't Go!"
It was a tremendous show. So, I did a search for the term "reefer." I found out that it is a slang term for marijuana. Duhh...
But, it came from a movie called Reefer Madness which came out in the 1930's. This anti cannabis propaganda film played a key role in scaring the public to make marijuana illegal.
The movie was about a man who smokes the stuff and goes insane killing his whole family. Interestingly enough, the producers tried to make a quick buck, but violated the motion picture code of the 1930's. The code forbid the portrayal of immoral acts like drug use.
I also found a few quotes of interest:
~Ronald Reagan 1974: "Permanent brain damage is one of the inevitable results of the use of marijuana."
~White House Drug Czar, Carlton Turner: "Marijuana leads to homosexuality and therefore aids."
~President Candidate Bill Clinton: "I don't inhale."
There you have it, a few personal opinions about a plant the grows on the planet which has the capabilities of curing some diseases and by making it legal, raise the economy. That's just my opinion.
So, in closing I dug up this very cool video of Cab Calloway singing, "The Reefer Man." Enjoy!

Veg-All Quick And Easy Pie Plate Salad

I ran across this vintage ad and just had to share it with you. Looking at it brought back the memories of food when I was a kid. As I have said in my earlier food posts, the baby boomer generation really was stuck with some pretty awful food by today's standards.
I really never had fresh vegetables growing up except corn on the cob and iceberg lettuce. I saw my first brussel sprout when I was 19 and thought it was a mutated cabbage.
This ad really took the wind out of my sails and I am having trouble trying to figure out exactly what it is. Bottom line, some mother fed it to her family and felt really good about it. To be honest with you, when you click on the picture and you can see the recipe, it's pretty discusting.
Well, enough said, I'm going to the kitchen and making myself a salad.

Woolworth's Lunch Counter

Remember the Woolworth lunch counter? I'm not talking about grilled cheese and fries.
I am talking about the famous protest on February 1, 1960.
In Greensboro, North Carolina. Four African American college students sat down at the whites only lunch counter to order food. They were refused and asked to leave. The students remained in their seats which forced the store to close early. That event started a youth-led movement in the South against racial inequality.
That protest was effective due to the fact that the students were non-violent, respectful, and dressed in their Sunday clothes. As the protests became larger, some students even brought their books to study at the lunch counter.
Hundreds of students in Greensboro, churches and community members joined together for a 6 month long protest. These protests led to the desegregation of the F.W. Woolworth lunch counter on July 25,1960.
Protests such as these led to the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 which outlawed racial segregation in public accommodations.
Geneva Tisdale was working that day. After the desegregation of the lunch counter, Geneva and 2 co-workers were chosen to be the first African Americans to eat lunch at the counter. Thirty years later, Geneva was still behind that counter until the day that Woolworth closed.
A small section of this lunch counter was donated to the Smithsonian Museum of American History.

Take Me Out To The Ball Game. Buy Me Some Peanuts And Cracker Jacks...

Remember eating Cracker Jacks as a kid and digging down inside the box to get the prize? Well, my grandfather figured it out. He would open the box on the bottom and get his prize first. I still have a big jar filled with his treasures.
Frederick William Rueckheim and his brother Louis were German immigrants. Frederick came to Chicago in 1872 to clean up after the famous Chicago fire. He also worked selling popcorn from a cart. The two brothers made the first Cracker Jack, but it was called candied popcorn and peanuts. The original was popcorn, peanuts and molasses. A sample was given to a salesman and after eating it he exclaimed, "That's a cracker jack!" Hence the name.
The problem with the mix was that it all stuck together. In 1866 a process was discovered to prevent this. It is still a secret to this day.
The song , "Take me out to the ballgame," was written by Jack Norworth. Cracker Jack was immortalized by the third line, "Buy me some peanuts and Cracker Jack."
A prize in every box was introduced in 1912. Since then more than 23 billion prizes were given out. Some of these prizes are valued at more than $7,000. Now they have been replaced by paper jokes and riddles. I remember once, my grandmother found a beautiful hand painted Chinese bowl in her Cracker Jack box. It was quite astounding and no one could figure out how it got in there. If you are interested in learning about these toys, you can go to The Cracker Jack Collectors Association
So, march on down to the store and grab a box with sailor Jack and his dog, Bingo on the front and have a memorable journey. Maybe you will be lucky enough to get a Chinese bowl, too.

Cracker Jack*r Toys

What Are Those Things? Alien Space Ships?

No, Sorry to say, these are not space craft that landed on earth from some unknown galaxy. If you are a baby boomer, you know what they are. If you are under 30, these things are called television sets. That's what we had. That was our only choice.
Did we complain about loosing the remote control? No, we didn't because there weren't any. You had to get up off the chair and actually change the station by turning the dial. I think the term couch potato came into our vocabulary when remotes were invented.
Yes, those were the days. Television was next to going to church. It was the o holy one. The whole family gathered around it to watch wholesome family, comedy and musical shows. I really don't think there was anything on back then that would allow for parental discretion.
Did you notice the size of the screens? Did we ever complain? Not really. There wasn't anything else made to compare it to. Actually, at that time, mothers would take their kids to the doctor complaining about eye problems. I know, because I was one of them. The doctor would say, as I was sitting there with my eyes about crossed, "She is sitting too close to the TV set, that's why her eyes don't look right." Probably most of my generation went through that.
We didn't have antennas, we had rabbit ears. If one of the ears broke off, then dad could hook up a metal coat hanger and it would do the trick.
We only had 2, maybe 3 channels. So, in order to watch the Twin Pines Milkys Party Time with Milky the clown, I would have to go to the neighbors house because they somehow could get the Detroit stations. We didn't complain. All the kids in the neighborhood showed up and it was a weekly social event.
As I was writing my last post about television set test patterns, I visualized what the television sets looked like back then. I was compelled to write this to let people of later generations know that, we didn't have much back then compared to now, but what we had was alot!

TV Test Patterns

Remember the TV test patterns? They came on at night after a formal sign off by the television station and the National Anthem. They were used for adjusting the receiver controls for optimum reception.
In 1949, television programming was only a few hours a night and the test pattern replaced the shows. The most famous design was the "Indian Head." It was designed for RCA by an artist named Brooks in 1939. The original artwork was found in a dumpster by a wrecking crew worker. He saved them for over 30 years and sold the art to a test pattern collector.
The "Indian Head" pattern was built into an RCA monoscope tube which acted as a replacement for a television camera. Many of these tubes were saved as souvenirs and art pieces. But, nearly all of these small, hard to open tubes were junked. The actual cards, on the other hand, were 1.5 feet x 2 feet and saved for wall displays.
There is a great little blurb on Cheech and Chongs album, Big Bambu. Cheech drops by Chongs pad and asks him what he is watching on TV. Chong replies, "I don't know, it's a movie about Indians, but it's really boring." Cheech says, "Hey man, that's not a movie, man. That's a test pattern, man." Chong answers, "Far out!"

Sea Hunt

I loved Sea Hunt! My dad called Lloyd Bridges,"The guy with the rubber underwear."
Duhhh.. I had dreams of being a deep sea diver while watching that show. I had a book that showed the real deep sea divers back then with big huge helmets, puffed up diving suits filled with air and a big giant hose hooked to the boat. It was pretty scary and mysterious. I wanted to do that, but of course, I couldn't. If you read my previous post, Nurse, Teacher, Or Mother, you would know why.
Did you know that Sea Hunt was the first show about sea diving and the most popular TV show in the 1960's? The star of the show, Lloyd Bridges, never had any diving experience before starting the series. He learned quick and became an accomplished diver and treated his viewers with underwater action.
His character, Mike Nelson (ex Navy frogman, turned freelance diver) hunted down criminals from the undersea underworld and tangled with manta rays, sharks, and octopuses. Mike Nelson was the man of the sea, going after treasures and performing rescues.
Danger and excitement were the themes of the shows and at the end of each episode, Lloyd Bridges made a plea to save the oceans. The footage was filmed in many places, but most of all, the action scenes were shot in a huge aquarium in California.
When the series first came out, the diving sequences were short. As the series became more popular, more of the action took place under water and from Mike Nelsons high-tech boat, the Argonaut.
As far as merchandise from the show, Sea Hunt became number one in sales. Everything from flippers, goggles and rubber boats were selling like wild fire.
Here's a bit of trivia from Sea Hunt.
Lloyd Bridges decided to leave the show after four seasons because the producers wanted cops and robbers plots, but Bridges wanted to focus on the environment.
Lloyd complained about the weight of the tanks on the above surface scenes. So, the art director had the tanks made from balsa wood and painted silver.
Isn't that great? Don't you just miss these old TV series? I really can't think of anything quite as good as Sea Hunt.