Kids!
Today's "Anything Goes Saturday" scans are fun images of kids being kids! Like this first one, with two brothers, listening to their "It's a Small World" album while flipping through the full-color illustrated booklet - I had my own copy of that very same album, and listened to it so many times. The comforting narration by Winston Hibler was so great! Perhaps my love of that album is why the endless song from that attraction doesn't drive me crazy.
Notice the model of a Junkers Ju 87 (?) in the corner - my older brother used to build all kinds of plastic models of WWII airplanes (I did too, but I was lame at it), and they hung from our bedroom ceiling in eternal aerial combat.
Here's the cover of the album - how many of you had this one? Unfortunately I sold all of my Disneyland vinyl albums on eBay last year, otherwise I would have scanned the entire interior booklet.
Next up is this fun shot of two girls (sisters?) playing their Barbie dolls, along with their considerable collection of accoutrements - including a shotgun?! The girl in red is making Barbie and Ken (or whoever those dolls are) kiss - typical mushy girl stuff. Besides their impressive assortment of dresses, wigs, hats, and other cool stuff is Barbie's "dream car", introduced in 1962.
Here's a better look at one - it was an Austin-Healy 3000 MKI convertible roadster. There was a bubblegum-pink version, and an "orange-brown" version with a turquoise interior. That's a pretty sweet ride for a stewardess/dentist/fashion model/gymnast!
10 comments:
Major-
If I had my way, Winston Hibler would be my exclusive voice-over artist, and would most-certainly record all my outgoing messages. And speaking of 'mushy girl stuff', that third image certainly fills the bill. I had no idea the fleet of Barbie vehicles included an Austin-Healy and offered in such an assortment of colors-!
Happy Saturday, Major.
Hey Major, I had a bunch of WWII model airplanes hanging from my bedroom ceiling too when I was kid. I'm sure a lot of boys did back in the day. I was actually good at building the plastic models like your brother, but one time when I tried to build a plastic model as an adult, I sucked at it. Lost skills or coordination I guess.
All my sisters hated Barbie. They'd trash their Barbies so quick by pulling out her arms or ripping her head off. What they really wanted was to play with my toys, like my Hot Wheels and trains. They used to tell my parents that girls toys sucked and boys got all the cool stuff to play with. I agreed with them.
Kids! What's the matter with kids today? These are both very cool images. As a child, I had the Small World 45 rpm "single" with the same picture on the cover of the record sleeve, but I didn't buy the album until I was an adult and found it at a collector's "swap meet." After all, "Records are you best entertainment value."
It looks like Barbie had a pet French poodle (laying down behind the car) And that shotgun is odd. Maybe it was for going on dates with G.I. Joe.
Major, that's not just a model of a Stuka, it's the Cox control line .049 powered version!!! I had one, and if I wanted another one (which I do) it will set me back a couple of hundred. Boomer toy prices have gone crazy!
My wife surprised me a couple of years ago with a copy of that iasw album (a mid-'70s "rainbow label" pressing) she'd picked up at a thrift store. It will be going on the turntable momentarily. I never had this as a child, but my younger sister had a different iasw album that got considerable "airplay" at our house.
That rifle may be from a Jane West doll from Marx's Best of the West action figure series. Both Jane West and her male counterpart, Johnny West, came standard with a similar-looking Winchester rifle.
Nanook, hearing Winston Hibler’s voice on those old True Life Adventure shows, along with that Small World album, made him a real part of my childhood.
K. Martinez, I mostly remember building fairly simple models (I was pretty young, under 10), and then my grandparents got me a B-29 or some kind of big bomber. It had all of the seats and stuff inside. Once I glued it all up, I couldn’t get the two halves together. I still cry myself to sleep every night. My sister and her friends liked Barbies, but that just gave us a reason to stick them in the toilet or hang them from tiny nooses.
TokyoMagic!, I thought strippers were the best entertainment value. My mistake. I wondered if that poodle was a Barbie thing, or if it was a toy from some other set.
stu29573, aha, another Disney connection! If only CoxPilot was still with us, he could have had some fun facts to add.
Chuck, I have a digitized version of that album, it’s awesome. I had that other album (the one your sister had) as well, but don’t ever remember playing it! Jane and Johnny West, I don’t remember them at all. You sure know your vintage toys.
Major, I have a decent working knowledge of vintage toys of a certain era, but I'm no expert by any stretch of the imagination.
Our local metropolis' history museum recently hosted the traveling exhibit "Toys of the '50s, '60s and '70's," which was an absolutely amazing experience for vintage toy fans like my wife and me. It's a little weird to see toys you played with behind glass in a museum ("Hey - I'm not that old!), but it was still nice to see so many old friends in the same place. The 1960s living room display area appeared to be based on a full-sized version of Barbie furniture from the era.
For more vintage toys and hobby material, you should check out "Stu's Attic" (and its sister blog, "Shroudlines,", both run by stu29573. His collection of toys, ephemera, and the occasional Disney treasure is fairly extensive and he provides some really good background information to go with them.
I have another LP version of the Small World record and it's from the New York World's Fair. The cover is mostly white with artwork of the Tower of the Four Winds on it. In fact, I believe both versions are the exact same recording. Doesn't this DL version of the record have Hibler commenting about the boats departing from underneath the Tower of the Four Winds? I can't find either one of my albums right now, but I believe the interior photos from the DL version of the record might have actually been taken in the attraction when it was still at the Fair. Someone please correct me if I'm wrong!
Thanks for the shout out, Chuck!
TM!, my mid-'70s copy still has that same narration about the Tower of the Four Winds. In fact, the whole thing looks as though they just took the NYWF version of the souvenir album, slapped a photo of the Disneyland facade on the cover, and called it "done." The copyright date is 1964, there's a map in the center of the booklet featuring the Tower of the Four Winds (copyright 1963!), and the photos of the interior look like they are all from the Fair, too. I wonder how many albums they had left over from the Fair that found their way into Disneyland gift shops?
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