In the 70s you were into Osmond-mania and other TV and music fads and pop heroes including chopper bikes, roller skates, calculators and scalectrix and dance moves at the disco

• 10 Greatest Toys From The 70's
• 12 Movies I Know You Have Never Seen at the Cinema!
• 60s Cracker Jack Candy Commercial
• Agatha Christie
• Alfred Hitchcock and the Three Investigators
• Austin A60 Driving School Car
• Blue Peter TV Series
• Bohemian Rhapsody
• Bottle Tops Of The UK: 60s-70s
• Brick Cell Phones
• Brooke Bond Tea Cards
• Camberwick Green Toothpaste
• Cat and Mouse Ornament
• Children's Television
• Corgi James Bond Aston Martin
• DAF Variomatic 33
• Disneyland memories
• Enid Blyton
• Fashion: Permed hair for men
• Goodies
• Green Cross Code Man
• Green Shield Stamps
• Hillman Imp
• I-SPY
• Janet and John or Alice and Gerry?
• Kelloggs Frosties
• Look-in magazine
• Lyons Maid
• Magpie TV Series
• Mamma Mia - Will Abba get more popular than the Eighties?
• Match boxes
• Metal Detectors
• Mr Men books
• Muppet show Jigsaw Puzzles
• Old Sweet Shops are Making a Return
• Pannini Stickers
• Pencil Tops
• Penguin books
• Pez Dispenser
• Pop Culture in the 70s
• Postcard collecting
• Rubbers or erasers
• Sand castles
• Sandcastle Flags
• The Clangers
• The Peter and Jane Books
• Thunderbirds
• Ultimate Top 3 Pop Culture Urban Legends – unless you know different!
• Vintage memorabilia
• Wacky Races premium car set
• What do People do All Day? Book
• White socks
• Whoopee Cushion
• Wild horses painting
• Z Cars

Related posts:

1. Pop Culture in the 90s
2. Pop Culture in the 80s
3. Pop Culture in the 60s

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For boys, it is the age of cowboys and spacemen: Davy Crockett and Roy Rogers lead the pack of western heroes that share the toy aisles with the out-of-this-world likes of Commando Cody and Tom Corbett, Space Cadet. For girls, it is a doll unlike any they’ve seen before: Barbie comes to town, and things will never be the same again. And for those who like their toys gender-neutral, Wham-O keeps things swinging with Hula Hoops, Frisbees and more.

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1. Toys in the 40s
2. Toys in the 60s
3. Toys in the 70s

Overnight it seemed shell suits went out and fleece were heavily in. Everything fleece was available, vests, jackets, pants, socks, toques. Worn by everyone from little kids to senior citizens to even your pets.
No more coats and jackats, or thick wooly jumpers, life was going to change in the 90′s for all age groups, although the quality of many later fleeces was dubious, some getting heavily ingrained with last weeks meals, made them unattractive as old dressing gowns after one wash.

For all its negatives fleece fashion must be recognised as useful lightweight warm garments, but it’s worth paying a little more for a quality item in a subtle colour that retains its appearance after washing and wearing, rather than the cheap ones made out of recycled plastic bottles.

Fleece Fashion Everywhere You Look

Fleece fashion products are still currently worn by many and look here to stay for many decades to come. Fleece fashion is also on the rise, as the number and types of fleece garments available continue to grow. You can now find fleece clothing, outdoor gear, and fleece accessory items for men, women, young adults, children, and even for your pet!

So the 1990′s has left something with us – a warm alternative to the grey granny knitted pullover of the 1970′s and the cardigan of the 1950′s fashion.

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1. Fashion: Permed hair for men
2. 7 Amazing Vintage Fashion Sites we Follow
3. Fashion in the 40s

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World War II halts the production of metal toys for the first half of the decade, but the post-war years more than make up for it. Chutes and Ladders, Cootie and Candy Land delight the pre-adolescent set, Slinky makes kids crazy over a metal spring, Ertl die-cast toys bring the farm to the city, and the Magic 8 Ball answers all questions with its liquidy, mystical powers.

Related posts:

1. Toys in the 50s
2. Toys in the 60s
3. Toys in the 90s

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It was the age of the atom, and the dawn of Saturday morning as the original Baby Boomers tuned in to see Howdy Doody, Mighty Mouse Playhouse, and Kukla, Fran and Ollie.

Related posts:

1. Saturday in the 60s
2. Saturday in the 80s
3. Saturday in the 70s

Disneyland memories are a joy to remember. How things have changed since this 1950s footage. The Disneyland park is barely recognisable. Disneyland 1950s. it had Fantasyland and Skyway but many parts of the park have expanded considerably since this early footage.

It was named Disneyland when it opened on July 18, 1955. While Walt Disney was watching kids ride a merry-go-round, he came up with an idea of a place where adults and their children could go and have fun together. His dream lay dormant for many years until 1955 Disneyland Park was opened to the public on with 20 attractions

Our Disneyland memories include the Disney castle and main street remain as always where as the early park looks like a brightly colored carnival in comparison to its latest look. During the early days of Disneyland Walt was often focused on color, particularly in Fantasyland and on Main Street.  As with his animated films, he saw color as a key element toward affecting a guest’s emotional experience.

Disneyland memories 1956 footage

Of course many of our Disneyland memories include old and new rides. Notable rides include Space Mountain, Jungle Cruise, the Haunted Mansion, Pirates of the Caribbean, and Walt Disney’s Enchanted Tiki Room.

The original park which is the only theme park to be designed and built under the direct supervision of Walt Disney. In 1998, the theme park was re-branded “Disneyland Park” to distinguish it from the larger Disneyland Resort complex.

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Houseparty from Southern Television was the Loose women of the 1970′s. The Houseparty door would go and ladies would pile into the coffee morning meet up with either a new crochet pattern or news on Albert’s hernia or Aunt Phylis and her Artheritis.

It must of got viewers as it ran for well over a decade. I don’t think men were allowed on the show, it was just ladies and there crafts from my memory. Of course unless you were sick from school you never saw it.

Houseparty Clip

Other episodes of Houseparty included making cucumber sandwiches or a chilli in a big slow cooker. The women all seemed to know each other from various backgrounds. Vera got a new hoover and demonstrated that for the ladies, while Joyce and Betty told them about the new book they had borrowed from the local library.

Houseparty featured the sort of items expected to be found within the covers of a “magazine for women”, such as cooking, knitting, crafts, and general gossip. The studio was arranged so as to resemble a living room and the regular ‘guests’ rang a ‘doorbell’ when they arrived after the programme had started, often bringing items of interest with them. It may have been a rather ‘phoney’ idea but the show was popular; it only ended when Southern stopped broadcasting, though Meridian revived the show for a brief time with the daughters of some of the original cast, in 1993.

The more you think about Houseparty, the more you realise it was actually quite awful, but at the time it was enchanting to see a show presented by women for women. A wide range of topics were discussed and various housekeeping items were demonstrated.

So what happened to the ladies on Houseparty? Cherry Marshall died a few years ago, following long retirement in Frinton On Sea. Lucy Morgan died of breast cancer. Daphne Lee died in France where she had retired. Anne Ladbury occasionally appears on BBC Southern Counties Radio talking about Houseparty. She has some Betamax tapes with editions of Houseparty on. Jean Orba, was the programme organiser of Houseparty and is still around reminiscing on the 70s show.

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Over 30 years of Depeche Mode and they are still going strong. But how about these remixes from a 3 piece band. Not  Dave Gahan, Martin Gore or Andy Fletcher.

They are called the Schrader family and they are something else – I just can’t imagine how many hours rehersal they put into these 3 songs. Worth sharing this for other fans to enjoy I think. Here is there first live session -

Dicken feat. Milah & Korben: “Everything Counts”

Dicken Schrader: 80′s keyboard, xylophone, kazoo, tambourine, Coke bottle and voice.
Milah Schrader: Recorder, rattle, windchime and voice.
Korben Schrader: Toy keyboard, maraca, cheese grater and voice.
Music and lyrics by Martin L. Gore (Depeche Mode)

Dicken feat. Milah & Korben: “Strangelove”

Dicken Schrader: 80′s keyboard, xylophone, tambourine, Coke bottle, baby rattle, Ikea bucket, chocolate mix can and voice.
Milah Schrader: Recorder, Ikea bucket, chocolate mix can and voice.
Korben Schrader: Maraca, egg maraca, Fisher Price racetrack and voice.
Music and lyrics by Martin L. Gore (Depeche Mode)

Finally Dicken feat. Milah & Korben: “Shake The Disease”

Dicken Schrader: 80′s keyboard, xylophone, kazoo, tambourine, Coke bottle, beer can and voice.
Milah Schrader: Scissors and water spray.
Korben Schrader: Chocolate mix can.
Music and lyrics by Martin L. Gore (Depeche Mode)

Finally, how about this for a reunion? The band that was formed right back in 1980 is now going back to its original roots with current band member Martin L. Gore working with Vince Clarke.

Vince Clarke left the band after the release of their 1981 debut album, Speak & Spell, and was replaced by Alan Wilder (keyboards, drums) with Gore taking over songwriting. Wilder left the band in 1995 and since then Gahan, Gore, and Fletcher have continued as a trio.

After 30 years of working on their respective ongoing music projects, Vince Clarke ( Erasure / Yazoo / Depeche Mode ) and Martin L. Gore ( Depeche Mode ) come together for the first time since 1981 as VCMG to release a brand new album on Mute, preceded by a series of EPs.

Depeche Mode Discography

• Speak & Spell (1981)
• A Broken Frame (1982)
• Construction Time Again (1983)
• Some Great Reward (1984)
• Black Celebration (1986)
• Music for the Masses (1987)
• Violator (1990)
• Songs of Faith and Devotion (1993)
• Ultra (1997)
• Exciter (2001)
• Playing the Angel (2005)
• Sounds of the Universe (2009)

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Laurel and Hardy -This is your life was a very special moment as they were beginning to loose the amount of public appearances as the years caught up with them.

Early 1950s Laurel and Hardy took several months off, so they could recuperate. They then traveled to Europe and undertook a successful series of public appearances in short sketches Laurel had written: “A Spot of Trouble” (in 1952) and “Birds of a Feather” (in 1953)

In 1954 on 1st December, they made their only American television appearance, surprised by Ralph Edwards on his live NBC-TV program, This Is Your Life. Lured to the Knickerbocker Hotel as a subterfuge for a business meeting with producer Bernard Delfont, the doors opened to their suite #205, flooding the room with light and the voice of Edwards. The telecast was preserved on a kinescope and later released on home video. Partly due to the positive response from the television broadcast, the pair was renegotiating with Hal Roach Jr. for a series of color NBC Television specials to be called Laurel and Hardy’s Fabulous Fables. However, plans for the specials were shelved, as the aging comedians suffered from declining health.

Laurel and Hardy – This is your life Preserved

Thanks to television, Laurel and Hardy came back into popularity in the 1950’s, shortly before Oliver Hardy’s death in 1957. They have remained in the spotlight ever since, proving that as much as tastes in comedy may change, the sight of a skinny man and a fat man smacking each other around will always be funny.

Worth noting that Ricky Gervais puts a lot of his initial success from studying Laurel and Hardy. The main influence for Gervais was the “camera look”. Hardy said “I had to become exasperated, so I just stared right into the camera and registered my disgust” Gervais implemeted this in main of his fly on the wall mocumentry like The Office.

More Laurel and Hardy links

Laurel and Hardy (series)

This Is Your Life

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2. Movies in the 30s
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On 9.30 saturday Oct 1976 Multi-Coloured Swap Shop was born.

Multi-Coloured Swap Shop was a Saturday morning magazine programme that was screened  for 3 hours. Never had the BBC broadcast a show as long as 3 hours unless it was a sporting advent.

Swapping was often not allowed at school and Ebay wasnt even a concept, so this was in effect a eBay style show of moving on old toys and games for new. A live car boot for kids. With famous people swapping things too it was all very special in its day.

Reminiscent of the American Banana Splits show, this UK programme was a recipe of several mixtures sprinkled with cartoons and pop music and videos.

Saturday Morning Multi-Coloured Swap Shop presenters

Presented by Noel Edmonds along with Keith Chegwin or “Cheggers”, (who later went onto his own 80s show “Cheggers Plays Pop”) Maggie Philbin and John Craven for the News section.

Multi-Coloured Swap Shop was casual light hearted entertainment. Delivered 3 hours every Saturday morning  interviewing pop stars, cartoons, competitions, the unexpected and plenty of spontenaity.

The cornerstone, however, was the Swaporama element, hosted by Cheggers, who was very rarely in the studio. An outside broadcast unit would travel to different locations throughout the country where children could swap their belongings with others. This proved to be one of the most popular aspects of the show, often achieving gatherings of more than 3,000 children.

John craven had some horrific jumpers and swapped them on one swap shop broadcast.
Posh Paws the purple dinosaur (which is the words Swap Shop backwards) also featued heavily on the show.

Swap Shop finished in 1982 and was replaced bt Saturday superstore with Mike
Read. Also like Swap Shop, it was a show accessible to kids via a phone in. But it never quite had the cutting edge that Multi-Coloured Swap Shop brought to our screens in the 70s and 80s

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