This week in Universal News, the 1967 Fall fashion preview, featuring an outfit for the fashionable highway robber and "wearable" butterfly decals that are "up-to-the-minute but not gimmicky." http://youtu.be/Grz5MJKDNhs?t=4m6s From the release sheet: FASHIONS London designers show Fall Fashions. Included: capes, high collars, highway-robber outfits, complete with mask and two flint-guns. More practical: black tunics … Continue reading This Week in Universal News: Fall Fashion Preview, 1967
In 1955, after years of research and testing, the polio vaccine created by Jonas Salk was declared safe and effective. The devastating virus is nearly eradicated in the United States today. In 1946, however, two years before Jonas Salk first began his research, the city of San Antonio, Texas tried to prevent the spread of … Continue reading This Week in Universal News: Spraying DDT to Prevent Polio, 1946
Let’s suppose you have a child, and that child loves puppet shows. You might decide to introduce your child to The Muppets Take Manhattan or the Thunderbirds television series. Or, you could introduce them to something much darker: a 1952 United States Information Agency (USIA) production titled Tomas and the Huks. Marionettes were fairly popular … Continue reading With Strings Attached: Rice, Murder, and Awkward Communist Puppets
This week, we have a performance from Elmer Trudgen, who created a one-man band with an impressive eleven different instruments. And yet Trudgen was not content to stop at that achievement--according to a 1939 newspaper article, he added a banjo to bring the grand total to fourteen instruments. http://youtu.be/Z6eDRCdg9bc From the Release Sheet: Elmer’s A … Continue reading This Week in Universal News: Elmer Trudgen’s One-Man Band, 1937.
The photographs featured this week are just a tiny sampling of the basketball and hockey related photos in our holdings. The overwhelming majority of our NBA, NHL and NCAA images have possible copyright restrictions, which limits online access. Local Identifier: 306-PSF-86-2445, “Dr. James Naismith (Wearing Suit), a Springfield College instructor and basketball’s inventor. He is … Continue reading Images of the Week: Basketball and Hockey
When I first encountered A Day in the Death of Donny B. (1969), it seemed like the perfect counterpoint to the hilarious and beautiful Curious Alice (1971). Unlike Curious Alice, which misfires so completely that it makes drugs look like they might be fun, Donny B. is a scary documentary-style portrait of a heroin addict … Continue reading “Bottle cap livin’, bottle cap dead”: A Day in the Death of Donny B.
Did you enjoy a mint julep over the weekend in honor of the Kentucky Derby? This week, we look back to the sixty-fourth running of the Kentucky Derby, held on May 7th, 1938. The winner was long-shot Lawrin, the only Kansas-bred horse ever to win the race. Lawrin was buried beside his sire, Inisco, in his … Continue reading This Week in Universal News: The 64th Running of the Kentucky Derby, 1938
This week's post features the documentary photography of Lewis Hine. Local Identifier: 102-LH-523, “Some doffer boys. Macon, Ga., 01/1909”, Photograph by Lewis Hine Local Identifier: 102-LH-136, “Young Driver in Mine. Has been driving one year. 7 A.M. to 5:30 P.M. daily [at] Brown Mine, Brown W. Va. [West Virginia]”, Photograph by Lewis Hine Local Identifier: … Continue reading Images of the Week: Lewis Hine
The 1939 New York World's Fair opened 75 years ago this week. The international exposition was partly a trade show where companies like General Motors and Westinghouse showcased their newest technology, like the latest car models or home appliances, and partly a venue for sixty foreign governments to display their national art, culture, and industry. … Continue reading The World of Tomorrow: The 1939 New York World’s Fair
This week in Universal News, the All-American Girl Baseball League plays a pre-season game in Alexandria, Virginia. The league operated from 1943 to 1954, and was created to fill stadiums that were left empty when professional baseball players went to war. You probably know about these women baseball players from the 1992 film A League of … Continue reading This Week in Universal News: The All-American Girl Baseball League, 1951
