Sizzlin' By the Shore: New year's Edition

With many parts of the country are locked in Winter's deep freeze, now maybe a good time to dream of summer warmer shores....

 Pam, Kathy and an unknown model certainly could melt teh wintertime blues with some sizzlin swin wear from JCPenney.

A, B, C, and D!!  Yep, I fell like summer is just around the corner already!!

Happy New Year everyone!!

K Club Special: Jayne Modean!!

I sincerely pray that all of my loyal readers had a wonderful Christmas.  I know that I'll be moving a bit more slowly this morning (someone just HAD to bring that eggnog??)  So as a late Christmas gift to one reader.....

Yep, I try to honor readers requests when I can.  So a big shout out to everyone and please have a Happy New Year!!

When Life Was Groovy: Last Minute Gift Ideas for Christmas!!

Dear readers, hopefully you have already wrapped up your Christmas gift shopping, but if not maybe some retro gift ideas from the past will help fill Santa's bag!!

I'm in Disco overload here!!!  I'm not sure which is groovier, the starlite action mood light, the halogen mood light, or the black light poster set??  I want them all for Christmas!!

Forget the Peloton, this sturdy, well built equipment is for serious fitness fanatics only!!  In particular I like the pedal thingy where you lie down on your back.

Speaking of extreme fitness training....

Why do the work yourself, when you can just let the magic belt do the work???  A sun lamp from Aldens, what could possibly go wrong with that idea?!?!?

Well, that's great but what about last minute gift ideas for the tech oriented you ask???

Forget Pong, go with the latest in video games from the early 80s!!  I think that dad is enjoying this more than the kid.

If D. Mundt says that this AM/FM/Clock? dual tape player is a good buy, then what more do you need!!  Snatch this value before they're gone!!

And how to preserve all of those cherished Christmas day memories???

On Super 8 mm reel to reel tapes of course.  Where the tapes with those precious memories will be stored forever, in a box, in the attic, until 30 years later when they are thrown out.  Gee, isn't modern technology wonderful!!

Merry Christmas everyone!!  Oh, I'm really hoping that Santa brings me that lava lamp this year!!

Random Goodness: New From Italy!!

A rare find, some more pics from various Italian catalogs of the 70s....

 And just in time for Christmas....sweaters!!

Some very nice minis from Vestro!!

Hey, is there a pic of Kathy in this one???

Yep, it's small but just good!!

Random Goodness: Gad Abouts!!!

I'm not sure what a "gad about" is exactly....

 ...but they sure look 70s style groovy!!!

Super nice close up of Kathy!!

40 Movies for Christmas?!?!?!

Gentle readers, as you know, this blog focuses on the groove-tastic fashions of the 70s with some spillover into the late 60s and early 80s.  However, I have recently discovered a modern cultural phenomena that I simply must post about.

Christmas movies.  Specifically the tsunami of made-for-TV Christmas movies that come out this time of year.

I got clued into this sub-current of modern culture while in a doctor's waiting room.  The TV had one of these movies showing and a number of ladies were COMPLETELY enraptured by it.  So naturally my curiosity was aroused and I had to check it out.  What I found COMPLETELY blew my mind.

Hallmark alone is unveiling 40 new Christmas movies this year!!!  40!!!!  How is that even possible????  And then there's Lifetime and some other channels that have gotten into the game.  I would list them all but I don't have the patience.  The titles range from "Christmas at Dollywood" to "Check Inn for Christmas."

So I decided to watch one these, er, movies.  The first task was locating the Hallmark channel on my TV.  Imagine my surprise when I discovered that my cable bill was supporting not just one but THREE Hallmark channels!!!

I was going to do an in depth critic of a movie, but I really couldn't watch one all the way through.  So instead I watched bits and pieces of several to get an idea of the general flow.  These are formula movies (how else could one make 40 of them in one year??) so one is pretty much like the rest.  Some observations:

Apparently they are all made on the same set located somewhere in Quebec.

Interchangeable Hallmark movie set.

Our heroine somehow is forced to leave the Big, Bad city (normally Chicago for some reason) and return to her home town.

Interchangeable Hallmark actress getting ready to leave the Big, Bad city.  Hey wasn't she a Mean Girl??

Once back in her hometown, interchangeable Hallmark actress bumps (literally bumps) into her old flame.

Hallmark Hottie with her interchangeable Hallmark Hot boyfriend, who's probably a single dad for good measure.

Interchangeable Hallmark Hot actor who happens to be a single dad.

They go through some standard boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl back type of script (except the roles are reversed.)  Blah, blah, blah.

Each movie has several Must Have elements:

They are forced to be together for reasons out of their control (weather, car wreck, work, etc)

Once back in her hometown, our heroine rediscovers the magic of Christmas, realizes that her boyfriend back in the Big, Bad city is a total douche, realizes that she still has feelings for Hallmark Hot guy, decides to stay in the small hometown where everyone is happy and smiling all the time, nobody has an actual real job, and well, that pretty much is the sum total of the plot.

In the penultimate scene, they end up buying a Christmas tree together.

Interchangeable Christmas tree lot set.

Interchangeable Hallmark Hot guy buying a Christmas tree next to an open fire??? Maybe that's not such a good idea around a bunch of dead trees!

There's Christmas decorations in every, single shot of every, single scene...

I kid you not!! At first I thought about trying to make a drinking game out of this fact, but when I saw Christmas decorations in a closet, in one scene I realized that his was done deliberately. FYI, I's still trying to work up a drinking game for these movies.

Every single shot.

Of every single scene.

Hallmark Hot guy moving in for the kill shot.

The final scene is always in the town square, in front of a big Christmas tree, where they kiss.

And live Happily Ever After!!

And that's pretty much it.  It's easy to make fun of these movies, but they have a rather refreshing innocence to them which I believe is the secret to their popularity.  They represent a bastion of what we all want Christmas to be and I for one hope that they don't screw up their successfully formula anytime soon.

So grab a cup of eggnog and sit back and enjoy one the dozens of Christmas movies this year!!

And if anyone comes up a good drinking game for these movies, please let me know!!

Oh wait, someone has already done it!!!

If you choose to play these games, you probably will need to stock up on the eggnog first!!

When Life Was Groovy: Tweeds, Corduroy, and Gaberdine, Oh My!!

What's better than one groovy 70s style, try three!! And all courtesy of our neighbors in the Great White North....

We'll start this off with some tawny tweeds.  And what better way to look cool, er, warm on those chilly northern days.

 Next up are some cool corduroys. Hey are they posing for this picture in a parking lot????

Finally everyone's favorite: groovy gabardines.  Well, I'm not sure they're Favorites per se. But, hey wait one minute, are Kathy and Karen in the same parking lot?!?!?!?  I'm sure that this photo shoot was the best that parking lot ever looked (unless it's photo shopped, entirely possible)!!!

When Life Was Groovy: 70s Jumpsuits!!

Nothing, I mean nothing, said 70s quite like jumpsuits!!

You can almost hear the disco music and see that mirror ball spinning with these outfits!!

More 70s disco grooviness!!

I'm not too sure about the scarf with the jumpsuit combination here.

Lots of 70s action going on here!! Kay and Karen are not in jumpsuits, but the gal in the middle with that green thing makes up for it!!

Karen finishes our look back at 70s jumpsuits with...uh...some sort of jumpsuit.  But at least she also is sporting those groovy white platform shoes!!

This Thanksgiving: The Secret to Togetherness

Okay, from the title you're probably expecting some sappy, sentimental sobriquet about life and it's deepest meaning just in time for the family gathering at Thanksgiving....

Well, not so fast, we like to keep it on the light side with this blog.  No, the secret to togetherness is.....

His 'n Her lightweight action wear from Penneys!  However these couples seem a bit confused by their togetherness since they are looking skyward at...something (except for the guy in the shades.  He's just too cool for this scene!)

Yep, nothing says So Happy Together than matching green plaid wool shirts!!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!

K Club Special: Kathy and Kay

Two of the stalwarts of the K Club are Kathy and Kay!!!

 And both of them appeared together so many time in the Big Book catalogs of the 70s, like here in JCPenneys.  You gotta love the groovy cap and the gigantic handbag that Kay is sporting!!!

Kathy and Kay again!!  I'm not sure where these pics were taken, but here and the previous pic had some really interesting backgrounds.

Now that's a lot of blue and yellow!!  Aldens apparently went for the starker background look, except for the random basket in the background.

Back to the outdoors again with Kay and Kathy wearing wintertime sweaters!!

K Club Special: Rande Hague, Part 2!!

Rande was one of the "go-to" catalog models in the late 60s and 70s.  And you may remember her for her many appearances in the, uh, "dedicates" sections of those catalogs....

Some great pics, but a big problem is that most of them are in black and white.

See what I mean!!  I don't know what they mean by "flexxtra", better not go there!!

Rande times 8, er, I meant times 4, my bad.  This black and white thing is getting a bit old.

Much better!! A good sampling of your standard undergarments from Penneys.

And from Spiegel too.  Perhaps we've put that black and white trend behind us.

Very nice!!

Oh no, back to the black and white, still a nice pic.  Back then they were called "body briefers."  Now they are know as Spanx.

Well we can't end the post on a black and white pic, that just won't do....

Wow!!  The leopard look cling-a-lings are certainly a colorful way to wrap up this post!!