When I was a kid, I just didn’t understand why Manimal was cancelled.

No celebration of cheesy Irishness is complete without Lucky the Leprechaun:

This is the very first commercial for Lucky Charms. This was done by Bill Melendez — before he started his own studio to produce the Peanuts specials, he did a lot of work on animated commercials. This commercial is from about 1964.

I love this one because it reminds me of Kites Are Fun, by the Free Design:

The Leprechauns’ Christmas Gold [Amazon.com]

The Leprechauns’ Christmas Gold is — and I say this as a massive Rankin/Bass fan — a disappointment. First off, why on earth didn’t Rankin/Bass make this as a St. Patrick’s Day special? Heck, even Groundhog Day got a Rankin/Bass special, but instead they chose to further glut their already overloaded Christmas special catalog with this. Leprechauns belong to St. Patrick’s Day, period. Rankin/Bass had a bad history of cross-polluting their holidays (see: Rudolph & Frosty’s Christmas in July, Rudolph’s Shiny New Year). But this is just a straight out omission. Okay, okay, it’s got the song “Christmas in Kilarney,” which nearly sells me on the concept… but really it’s a stretch.

Despite that, with all its over-the-top stereotypical Irish-like goodness, it’s Rankin/Bass’ sort-of St. Patrick’s Day special. If you squint. And turn the volume down. [and drink! -Hanford] It stars Art Carney as the leprechaun Blarney Kilakilarney, whose clan lives on a remote, fog-cloaked island uninhabited by humans. They share the island with a competing leprechaun clan, including his ex-wife. Along comes a boy looking for a Christmas tree, he takes the one on the island, which was really a trap for the banshee, who’s now on the loose, and wants the leprechauns’ gold, blah blah blah, she’s after me pot o’ gold!, blah blah blah, the end. Unless you’re a Rankin/Bass diehard, go watch Darby O’Gill and the Little People instead.

But, all this talk of “you’re just after me pot o’ gold!” gives me an excuse to post a link to this. Which only makes sense if you have your speakers on. And even then, not really. It just makes me giggle.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

A leprechaun bit us in the butt today, and we’ve got the Saint Patrick’s Day fever but good.

Mmm… Irishy!

We found these in a little grocery store in Downieville, California. Downieville is so small that even the people who live there have never heard of it. Anyway, we spied these sitting in the deli case, and did a spit-take. Because nothing says “Irish” like a cartoon shamrock, a liberal use of “o’”, and “a wee bit o’ garlic!”

Speaking of liberal uses of “o’”, meet Uncle O’Grimacey:

If that doesn’t make you want a Shamrock Shake… you’re in good company.

We’re cooking up our St. Paddy’s plans — Hanford’s 100% Irish, and I’m 0%, so he’s in charge. I’ll just be happy if I can get some corned beef & soda bread. And maybe a Shamrock Shake.

Hang in there ’til the end. Whoa nelly! [via Vintage Ads]

Has your secret dream been to live just like the star of an ’80s daytime soap opera? Well, you’re in luck — because ’80s daytime soap opera star Brenda Dickson’s dream was to help everyone be just like her. In this 1987 relic, she’ll walk you the steps to becoming “very dramatic” — including pointers on fashion, makeup, diet & exercise.

It’s a long video, so it’s been split into two parts. If you’ve ever seen a completely over-the-top ’80s outfit in a thrift store and wondered “who the hell bought that? and did they actually wear it?” — the answer is: Brenda Dickson bought it, and she not only wore it, she hired somebody to videotape her wearing it.

Read the rest of this entry »

A few years ago, PBS aired a documentary by Ken Burns, called Horatio’s Drive, about the first time a car was driven from coast-to-coast across the United States. It’s a pretty charming tale, and fun to consider how very different an undertaking it is today.

Dr. Horatio Nelson Jackson

Bud rode shotgun

When Dr. Horatio Nelson Jackson started out on his trip in early 1903, there were only 150 miles of paved road in all of the United States; he had to drive his car on dirt roads, fields and streams. There were no gas stations along Horatio’s drive, no auto shops to get spare parts, no motels to stay during the night. The horseless carriage was still a novelty, and his car had no roof or windshield; a cross-country trip on a riding lawnmower would be more comfortable (and reliable).

Horatio recruited two companions, the first road buddies: a mechanic, and a dog. The dog, named Bud, was picked up early on in the trip, and turned out to be a great dog: he even wore goggles like a road-tested champ. He was “the one member of [the] trio who used no profanity on the entire trip.”

What drove him to such a mad undertaking? A $50 bet in a San Francisco bar that it couldn’t be done.

[Horatio's Drive at PBS.com]

Horatio’s Drive: America’s First Road Trip

The image on the left is from a rare stop-motion puppet of Jerry Lewis that was built by the Rankin/Bass animation studio for some specials. While I’m not a huge Jerry Lewis fan, I can’t get over how cool it would have been if Rankin/Bass (creators of all the great stop-motion Christmas specials) had gone through and produced these cartoons. The puppet has a look to it that you just don’t see in modern animation. Check out the all the photos of the Jerry Lewis Puppet.

According to the Rankin/Bass Historian, it turns out that Arthur Rankin and Jules Bass were huge Jerry Lewis fans and were working on two projects to being Jerry Lewis to stop-motion world. One was “Punch and Judy” and the other was “The Bellboy”. They never went into full production but there was some work done on them. A song was written called “Hey Bellhop!”, which has been locked away in the Rankin/Bass vaults all these years. A demo recording of the song will be included in the soon-to-be-released soundtrack to the The Daydreamer, a special I’ve never seen. Seeing the image of the Jerry Lewis puppet fills my mind with thoughts of what this might have been.

The wonderful Disney Blog 2719 Hyperion has a great piece on the Man In Space episode of Walt Disney’s Wonderful World Of Color, (the episode turned 52 just a few days ago). The episode is a peek into what the 1950s envisioned the future of space travel to be like. It features both live action lectures by Disney animator Ward Kimball and rocket scientist Wernher von Braun, as well as some animated futurist visuals that are not to be missed. 2719 Hyperion does a better job than I do at really coveying the impact of this midcentury science film:

Perhaps the most interesting footnote about Man in Space is the largely unnoticed impact it had on the development of the U.S. space program. President Eisenhower was so impressed with the program, he requested a print of the film to screen for high-ranking Pentagon officials, which was evidently instrumental in kick starting the country’s space initiatives.

Check out 2719 Hyperion’s post on Man In Space. If you’re nuts about it like I am, be sure to pick up the Tomorrowland DVD, which contains Man In Space along with a few other not-to-be-missed Space Age edutainment shorts from Disney’s timeless TV show.

…and lost 75 pounds (none of it from his head):

[via Defamer]