Pee-Wee Herman Fan Club Membership Kit (1983)

It was likely on the strength of his first TV appearances on the Letterman show that I jumped at the chance to see Pee-Wee Herman perform live in
San Francisco in 1983.

After that I was sold on P.W., and soon became a proud card-carrying member of the fan club.

I suppose I was already among the faithful when the movies and and the TV show came along.

Here are some scans of the swag that came with the membership...

I framed the autographed photo, and it's been on display ever since. →









Now it can be revealed!
The 'secret' club membership card masquerades as an ordinary business card you can carry in your wallet.

← CLICK on the card to 'unfold' and reveal the club I.D.

(for reasons of club security I've photoshopped out my personal info)

This issue of the 'Pee-Wee Press' newsletter ↓ included appearances from the cast of 'The Pee-Wee Herman Show' stage production, and was the only one I received. Don't know if there were later issues. This one mentions concepts for 'Big Adventure' and 'Pee-Wee's Playhouse' being shopped around, so perhaps things got too busy soon after...

(Follow the link to my recent post: The Pee Wee Herman Show Original Cast Recording)

(Click on newsletter pages to ENLARGE text in a new window ⬇)






(Click on newsletter pages to ENLARGE text in a new window ⬆)

See also: The 'In The News' section above mentions the 'Likely Stories' anthology TV series.
Click here to watch 'School, Girls & You' at YouTube, featuring Paul Reubens in the role of Wally Bile.

Bop Glasses: classified advertisement, 1953

Here's a scan from a page of classified ads that ran in Downbeat magazine on April 22nd, 1953.

(click on images to ENLARGE)

Heck, if I thought they could make me look as cool as Diz, I'd happily shell out $2.25 for a pair (C.O.D.)!

Love for a Lava lamp, and the box it came in, too.

Even as a kid, I had an eye for beauty and sophistication.

When I began to notice the decorative Lava lamps appearing in shop window displays and such back in the latter half of the 1960's, I remember hoping that one day I'd be cool enough to own one.

That my parents didn't recognize the allure led me to believe I was on the right track, but I agreed with them that I wasn't yet ready for a Lava lamp.

I'd wait till I was a grown-up.
I could put it in the swingin' bachelor pad I'd surely have - -
- - near the beaded curtain, the Zenith *color* TV with the big
'Space Command' remote control, and the shelf where I'd keep my 'Hai Karate' aftershave.

In the next few years, my resolve was only strengthened when I'd be 'over to play' at some friend's house, and see that they were lucky enough to have a Lava lamp in their own home.

"Cool!!" I'd say, "Turn it on, let's check it out!"

"Naah..." was invariably the response. "It's boring. And besides, it takes, like, forever for the gunk inside to heat up and start doing stuff."

Occasionally their reason would be that it didn't work right anymore, from that one time when it got left on for a week. "See? It's all messed up and cloudy..."

'That settles it', I'd say to myself. 'These fools are taking their Lava lamps for granted. They don't get it, and they can't even take proper care of it.'

'I'll have one some day, and treasure it and care for it like the exquisite showpiece it is.'

I never quite forgot about it, but as the '70's wore on, there were certainly other distractions.

By the end of the decade, Lava lamps were 'out'. They were relics.
That didn't bother me, but as I began to think that maybe I was finally ready, I noticed that it seemed you couldn't find them anywhere.
Such is life, or so I thought...

Cut to the early '80's. I'm fresh out of high school, working, I'm making my own money.

For some reason I find myself one day in a tiny, cramped neighborhood hardware store in the Richmond district of San Francisco.
Honestly, I can't remember what brought me in or what I was looking for.

What I did find on a dusty shelf was an old Lava lamp, still in the carton, looking just like I remembered as a kid.

My time had finally arrived.

According to Oozing Goo, The Lava Lamps Syndicate website, what I'd found was an original Century model 102 (Red lava, yellowish liquid, gold base). Nothing exotic, but rather the classic standard, in production beginning in 1963.

As it turned out, my Lava lamp purchase seemed to occur about five minutes before they began to make a comeback as a kitschy 'retro' item. ('Remember those '70's?')
The comeback also meant that lots of new designs and colors and 'knockoffs' were appearing, which made me all the happier that I wound up with the exact style I'd remembered so fondly.

My Lava lamp has been proudly on display ever since.
(No Zenith, no 'Hai Karate', no beaded curtain - - yet.)

It operates every day, on a timer, thank you very much, for about six hours or so (no overheating), and is still going strong, 20+ years later.

Comes on around the dinner hour, is in full swing by mid-evening, clicks off when it's about time for bed. Perfect.
It makes me feel cool, even if I'm still not quite yet a grown-up.

Came across its carton the other day. (Of course I still have it. Why wouldn't I? What better to store it in if I should move?)

(click on images to ENLARGE)

The graphic design on the box is pretty special.

I love the exotic 'Arabic' font.

- - And yes, the motion inside the lamp does indeed soothe, intrigue, fascinate and entertain.

Of course, the best has to be the practical images showing common uses for the lamp...

(see detail below)

- Executives know that it adds a bit of style to the decor of a busy office.
Very 'feng shui'.

- The perfect device to pacify a client in the dentist's chair. Bring on the root canal!

- The lonely days seem to fly by now that Grandma has her lamp to keep her company.

- And what better to put young lovers in the mood than basking in the wet glow of the undulating goo?

But seriously - - Regarding these original Lava lamps, this is an instance where time, fashion and circumstance never swayed my opinion. It was cool when I first spotted one close to forty years ago, and it's cool now.

Fashions come and go - - and then come back again, but elegance and beauty never go out of style.

Ben-Wa Products Wholesale Order Form, 1989

Back in the 1980's I worked for about a year in a huge warehouse for an adult novelties mail-order catalog.

(click on form to engorge on a new page)



Every day I'd help unload truckloads of the various rubber, plastic and vinyl toys and appliances, lotions, cheap sexy lingerie, adult books and videos and other sundries that appeared in the glossy pages of the company's quarterly catalog.

I'd help unpack the cartons, sort, bag, apply barcodes, and place them in their warehouse locations while the order pickers would deplete the stock almost as fast as I could replenish it.

It had been a Fortune 500 company for several years running
(before their ill-advised relocation to California).

(click on either form scans or page numbers to enlarge)

Page 1
Page 2
Page 3
Page 4
Page 5
Page 6

For most of my time working there, it was one of the most enjoyable jobs I've ever had. Lots of funny and colorful stories...

It was hard work, but down on the warehouse floor, among the products and the hive of folks working there, it was difficult to take anything too seriously.

This wholesale list from one of the catalog's suppliers is sadly the only souvenir I have from those days.

Really it's just like any dry and boring order form, but something about the flavor of the product names make it sound at times almost like poetry.

Maybe it'd be the same for any catalog, if you arranged the items correctly...

Ben-Wa is of course still in business, and of course has a website, where many of the items still exist in one form or another.
Some things never go out of style.
Check it out if you (are of age and) have a need to 'place the faces to the names'.

The Yuk Yuk Clown Doll versus Big Loo: Pure Evil ??

The other day, 'I'm Learning To Share' visitor Joshua Turner sent these photos along to share with you.

He postulates that the doll is 'pure evil', and says, "I couldnt tell you what year this is from, but it's good stuff. You press his belly, you get a maniacal laugh... good stuff."

I replied to Josh that the *vibe* I received from the Yuk-Yuk doll (not it's design) reminded me of the 'Big Loo' toy that my next-door neighbors had when I was a little kid.

My older sister was best-friends with their daughter. I'd tag along on her visits and ask to see 'The Witch Robot' again, even though the thing kind of terrified me.


It was creepy but fascinating, especially in the array of functions it had.

Now, as is often the way, I discover that when Marx Toys released it back in 1963 it was in a limited run of only 5000.
Creepy, fascinating, and very rare.

The neighbors would dress it up on Halloween and set it out by the front door with their jack o'lanterns.

See also:
Big Loo at The Marx Museum

Big Loo, with box and instructions at a RobotNut gallery

A vintage Big Loo TV commercial over at YouTube

(click for links)

The Yuk-Yuk clown is actually probably the more evil of the two.

Big Loo the Moon Robot can't help his appearance, but he's your friend. Even ready to 'fight for you'.

Yuk-Yuk's agenda is a bit more mysterious. Is he laughing with you or at you...?

Memories of Gus Somera and the Old-School Yo-Yo

I still have the Yo-Yo Champion patch awarded to me by the legendary Gus Somera.

I won it in competition when I was a kid, (6th grade, perhaps?) one hot afternoon in the parking lot of the local 7-11 store.

Perhaps you recall when the ads would suddenly appear on TV, promoting Duncan Yo-Yos and all the amazing tricks you could do.

Apparently it meant 'Yo-Yo Season' was fast approaching, and Duncan's team of 'Professional Yo-Yo Stars' were on tour, coming soon to YOUR town!

I'd remembered Gus Somera's name from the same crop of ads from previous seasons. Maybe there were other familiar names, but to my mind Gus was clearly 'the man'. And lo and behold, there he was that one afternoon.

I think by 6th grade I was just beginning to think I was too old to get excited by such events, or that it was perhaps uncool to actually participate. (As I recall, in junior high it was uncool to participate in most anything) But Gus was too cool, and I was thrilled to join in.

There's Gus, ⬇ below in a photo I found at Mr. Yo-Yo.Com. Looks like it was taken several years earlier than when I saw him in the mid-1970's. He's demonstrating Duncan tops, which I can't imagine ever sold as well as their yo-yos.



I recall he was very jolly, and really good with all the younger kids. A professional. He wore a yellow blazer that made him look like a real estate agent, and he had dozens of replacement yo-yo strings draped around his neck.

He informed all us kids that we were going to have a contest and there'd be prizes, but first he'd teach us some tricks.

Before he got to that, he stressed the importance of knowing how to take proper care of your strings. You're not going to do any tricks with a messed-up string. He showed us how to replace it, how to loosen it or tighten it, and kept stressing the value of proper yo-yo hygiene. It was sage advice, and I've never forgotten it.

After replacing all our strings, he ran through basic tricks; sleeping, around the world, walk the dog, rock the baby, etc.

One thing he seemed to delight in was a trick I *believe* he may have called the shot-gun.

He'd be doing a trick that involved 'sleeping' the yo-yo, and while we watched, the yo-yo would quickly hop onto a length of string now draped along his forearm, pause a moment, and then suddenly shoot along his arm towards our faces. At the last moment, it would smack loudly into his palm, scant inches from our noses. As we jumped back startled, Mr. Somera would cackle with glee. His laugh sounded like Pat Morita as Arnold at the drive-in on 'Happy Days'.

I didn't know it then, but Gus Somera was just about as big a yo-yo celebrity as you could find in those days.

He was one of the original Filipino
yo-yo demonstrators, going back to the early 1930's when the Duncan company was beginning to promote its new product.

Donald Duncan had purchased the
yo-yo company and the name from Pedro Flores, a Filipino American who'd had better success at popularizing the toy in the U.S. than others who'd gone before.

Flores had grown up with similar toys in the Phillipines, and early marketing of the yo-yo touted it as having originated as a primitive weapon in the Phillipine jungles.

Duncan hired and trained Filipinos to act as product spokesmen and travel the country
demonstrating it.

An interesting career.

Gus' obituary clipping above was swiped from an article appearing at Ausgang.⬆ Lest you think the life of a Yo-Yo Man is all peaches and cream, here's a link to their interview with another who's lived the life.

-And here's a link to further facts about yo-yo history.

That day in the parking lot, when it came time for all the kids to have their yo-yo competition,
Gus Somera was of course the judge. I'll have to say he was very forgiving. I'm sure there were several kids whose skills were better than mine, but I think most everybody received at least a 'champion' patch or a sticker or something.

I can't imagine I could have succesfully accomplished any tricks more advanced than 'walk the dog' or 'rock the baby'. Still, a victory is a victory, right?

-Here's a link to a glossary of modern yo-yo tricks.

Predictably, the world of the yo-yo has changed much since back in my days of competition. (Okay, one day) It's gone 'extreme', like everything else.

It occurs to me that what I remember playing with is akin to the old surfers with the enormous, long and heavy wooden boards. Or the old skateboards with metal wheels. I haven't a clue what differences recent history's innovations in yo-yo technology have made. Clutches? Pre-set sleep mechanisms? Whaaa? These kids today...

But the results are amazing, even to a codger like me.

Check out this completely radical video clip of Grindslave in action, from the Yo-Yo Freaks website.

And here, ⬇ complete with a cheering crowd moved to their feet, is Paul Han at a 2006 chamionship. Yow!!!



Somewhere, I'd like to think that Gus Somera is cackling proudly.

ADDENDUM, 1.13.09: Hey! There's Gus now, below ▼ in a video clip of a Duncan Yo-Yo TV ad from 1976!

1950's Record Rack from Downbeat Magazine

From a 1957 issue of Downbeat; order a subscription, get a free record rack.

I dig the staggered 'split-level' look to it.

Looks like it maybe could have tended towards being top-heavy and perhaps a bit teetery, just like so many other wire rack record holders...

Dork Decor (flickr link)

Shocking, the way some seemingly grown men choose to live...

I debated about this, whether or not I was comfortable sharing my sad and poorly lit photos of the junk and other treasures around my house.

"People are going to think I'm insane. Or that I'm creepy. Or worse, that I'm trying to show off. I *think* I'm just sustaining my mood to share... Is it vain to think anyone would be interested? Or am I being too obsessive about my obsessions...?"

"Okay - - Everything you just mentioned? They all sound exactly like all the things that are the most fun about the internet. Get over yourself. Just share. What else is there in life?"

"Yeah... okay. Good point."




Please link to my flickr set: Dork Decor

Enjoy!

(link:) Make your own record, cassette, ticket stub, church sign...

Last night I found the link to Says-It.Com while taking a peek at All About Nothing.

Just way too much fun!

Put your message on an image of a 45 label (or 78), cassettes, ticket stubs, church signs, etc.

I'm certain there are some perfectly useful and practical applications for these, but - - wheee! - - good silly free kicks, sez I.

- - And they let you futz with design elements, colors and styles, and so forth.

Oh, okay, practical: Take your finished jpeg for free, or there are options to pay to have it transfered on to a fridge magnet or sticker.



























Be sure to also check out their links page for other similarly fun generators out there. Headstone, anyone? Street Sign?

Link to: Says-It.Com, record label generators and more

(link:) 1969 Corgi Toys Catalogue

The memories come flooding back; The fetish objects of my youth.

Funny, since I 'grew up', I've never been particularly interested in fancy cars. Too much hassle, and ultimately it's just a car.
A tool, like a hammer.

(Besides, clearly I have plenty of fetish objects)

But still, just like as a kid, I'll drool over those old Corgis. I remember the big display case at the toy store, yep, sure, my breath steaming up the glass...

The images come courtesy of the Corgi & Dinky Toy page, an adjunct to the blog, The Cartoonist. Be sure to check it out as well. There's lots to see...

...BUT FOR NOW, go check out that Corgi Toys 1969 Catalogue! (click on link)

So cool! I had that one, an' that one... Oooh, I remember that one...!

- - and at the bottom of the page you can navigate to other Corgi & Dinky catalogues from a few other years.

Yeah, I remember the Dinky cars, too. I don't think I had any. As a kid, they seemed more elegant, too exotic. Perhaps a bit staid? Matchbox cars were beautiful and sturdy, but a little sedate.

Hot Wheels were groovy, and as sexy as anyone could want, but for me they didn't offer the play that a good Corgi did. Too small. No opening doors & stuff. No rubbery tires you could remove. No James Bond car, no Monkeemobile. Corgi's had a good weight, too. A nice heft to them. Solid.

It'd be easy enough to start examining the reasons behind wanting to hang onto the things of our past, why those things give us comfort, how we make time for our obsessions... but not now. Not here...

Oh! There's that Benz - - the one where the only features were passenger windows that lowered, and working windshield wipers. How exciting was that? Whoa! Look, it's the orange bubble car!!!

I still have just a very few of my old Corgis. Most of them are showing their age, as am I...








Man, I Ioved that souped-up Mustang. Whatever happened to it?

Deceptive Packaging

(Click on image to see inside the box)

I don't know its origins, but I came upon this little wind-up toy probably around the first half of the '90's, sitting by itself on a shelf at the astonishing Kimono My House in Emeryville, CA.

I haven't been there in several years (I recommend you make the pilgrimage, if you haven't been), but it used to be that along with all their fabulous anime- and kaiju-related toys you'd occasionally find such oddball items. My guess was that amidst the usual stuff on buying trips to Japan there would be bits and pieces of old warehouse stock that'd been languishing for some time.

I have to think that there was some repackaging involved in whatever marketing had gone into this toy. It had been one idea, it became another. It makes me wonder what was motivating the choices, who made them, and why.

It doesn't keep me up at night, but it's kinda - - y'know - - curious.