Description: The Right to Rock is the second studio album by American rock band Keel released in 1986 on Gold Mountain Records. Led off by the title track that would bust down the doors to music video rotation and rock radio play, Right to Rock would ultimately endure as their biggest hit. The irrepressibly anthemic track was perfectly tailored to the emerging pop-metal market, landing Keel in full-page spreads in rock magazines and making them a popular opening act for numerous metal and hard rock bands of the era.
Description: During the early 1880s, William Thum, a druggist in a Grand Rapids, Michigan, tasked his four sons with developing a better flypaper. The brothers developed a sticky formula based on castor oil, resins, and wax, that resulted in a much longer shelf life, and didn't saturate the backing. The Thum's launched a new company called Tanglefoot Flypaper to market their new and improved solution to a major nuisance in an era when horse drawn carriages were the norm. While several other companies produced flypaper, none were as well-known or popular as Tanglefoot, whose formula was patented in 1887, and was well known to consumers as the better mouse, er, fly trap.
Description: Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling (also known by its initials as GLOW or G.L.O.W.) was a women's professional wrestling promotion that began in 1986 and continued in various forms after it left television. Featuring colorful characters, strong women, and over-the-top comedy sketches, this mix was integral to the series' success. Most of the performers were actresses, models, dancers or stunt women hoping to enter show business. The syndicated GLOW TV show was produced for four seasons (1986–1990). Seasons 1 and 2 were shot at the Riviera on Saturday afternoons with a casino crowd, and seasons 3 and 4 were filmed at a warehouse approximately three miles east of the Riviera with a bused in crowd.
Description: Founded in 1929 by David Gillian, Gillian's Wonderland Pier was a historic amusement park in Ocean City, New Jersey. Located near the beginning of the commercial boardwalk on 6th street. Gillian's was generally considered to be an institution of Ocean City, with grand openings and pre-season sales for the location historically having drawn crowds multiple blocks long. The park was famous for its 144-foot Giant Wheel, one of the largest Ferris wheels on the east coast, as well as being a place of employment for local teens during the summer months.
Description: Kissing to Be Clever is the debut album by the British new wave band Culture Club, released on October 8, 1982. It includes Culture Club's international breakthrough hit single, "Do You Really Want to Hurt Me," which reached number one in the UK and the top 10 of many charts around the world. This record and the band themselves emerged from London's New Romantic scene and are both considered highly representative of the '80s and new wave subculture.
Description: Comiskey Park was a ballpark in Chicago, Illinois, located at 324 West 35th Street in the Armour Square neighborhood on the near-southwest side of the city. Known as "The Baseball Palace of the World," the stadium stood from 1910 until 1991 when it was demolished and replaced by a new ballpark built just to the south. Built by Charles Comiskey and designed by Zachary Taylor Davis, Comiskey Park was very modern for its time. It was the third concrete-and-steel stadium in the major leagues to be built since 1909 and as originally built, seated nearly 32,000, a record at the time. All told, Comiskey hosted more than 6,000 baseball games as well as many professional boxing matches.
Description: As a Daleville, Indiana junior high school teacher, Jeff Stoops got into the trucking business in 1971 to earn extra money during his summer breaks, and five years later, he launched his own trucking company. By 1981, Stoops was 34, and his company had a fleet of 137 trucks, a four-year growth rate of 9,372 percent, and $15 million in revenue. To say Stoops Express was successful would be a massive understatement. Stoops ran his thriving company until 1986, when he sold it to a Seattle railroad operator after reaching a record $45 million in revenue.
Description: The Little Red Wagon was an exhibition drag racing truck introduced in 1965. It was the first wheelstanding truck and as well as the world's fastest truck at the time. Builders Jim Schaeffer and John Collier performed extensive modifications to the A100 in order to fit a 426 Hemi engine and TorqueFlite automatic transmission in a mid engine position in the truck bed, within a welded steel subframe. The Little Red Wagon's first dragstrip run netted a mid-11 second quarter mile at 120 mph. The vehicle was not originally intended to perform wheelstands, but the rearward weight bias caused the nose to lift in the air for nearly the entire quarter-mile run, quickly becoming a fan favorite at the track.
Description: Cablevision was a cable system founded in suburban Long Island in 1973. The company expanded rapidly by acquiring smaller established providers, and soon dominated Long Island. Cablevision proceeded to build systems throughout the New York metro area including New York City, New Jersey, Westchester County, and Connecticut. In the '80s, Cablevision expanded into the Chicago, Boston, and Cleveland markets. By the mid-90s Cablevision had 2.9 million subscribers in 19 states, but decided to consolidate systems into New York, Cleveland, and Boston. Despite reducing service areas, they were able to bring subscribers to 3.5 million through acquisitions in their core markets.
Description: Tom Mix Flying School was opened in Aspen, Colorado back in 1971 by friends Paul Klingeman and David Schmidt. Anyone hoping to get flying lessons there was out of luck, as Tom Mix Flying School was an upscale casual clothing store, that may or may not have been named after one of Hollywood's first Western movie stars. Tom Mix as it was known by locals, was in business for over three decades, and served as an alternative to the heavily ski centric shops that were around at the time.
Description: While The Flame of Ann Arbor, Michigan may be one of America's oldest and most storied gay bars, it was never 'officially' a gay bar at all. It started in 1949 as 'The Cupid,' a bar aimed at the local college crowd. In the early '50s, the bar was renamed The Flame, but it still wasn't a gay hangout. Across the street was Town Bar, which was owned by a two gay men, and as such, attracted a largely gay clientele. Town Bar added live music, which changed the scene and brought in a more diverse crowd, so their gay patrons began hanging out at The Flame. This was the beginning of The Flame's life as a gay dive bar that would run until 1998 when the owner retired.
Description: Whammyburger, sometimes spelled Whammy Burger, is a fictional fast food restaurant from the 1993 film Falling Down. The burger joint features a flamboyant, almost circus-like theme in its red and yellow interior and exterior. The restaurant's interior decor is decidedly '80s in appearance and has multiple placements of their anthropomorphic hamburger boxer mascot. The exterior of the restaurant has statues of their mascot, a large burger sculpture on its roof, and street art of a burger in the parking lot. Whammyburger's menu selections follow a standard naming scheme where every food item's name includes "Wham" or "Whammy," like their signature Whammyburger, Whammy Fries, and Choco-Wham Shake.
Description: If you lived in New England region, odds are that you made the trip to Halloween Costume World (HCW) in Fitchburg, Massachusetts at least once. The shop opened in 1989, and despite the name, was open year round. Whether you needed a random mascot getup for a promotional event, period correct wardrobe for a movie production, or just something fun to wear on Halloween, HCW had you covered with over 25,000 costumes, and many times that in props and accessories, all for rental or purchase.
Description: If you live anywhere near the border town of El Paso, Texas, then you've probably heard of Loco Kustoms, or at least seen a few of their rides cruising the boulevard or representing at car meets. Founded in 1983 Loco specialized in traditional American lowriders, though certainly wasn't the extent of their playbook. This garage turned out plenty of custom muscle cars, lead sleds, rat rods, and even tricked out street vans over the years, all of which were over the top crazy with Loco Kustoms' signature West Texas style.
Description: Outside of rural Preston, Idaho locals, not many folks were familiar with Preston High School, but thanks to the 2004 independent coming-of-age film Napoleon Dynamite, it became a permanent entry in pop culture consciousness. Napolean and his classmates all wore P.H.S. Physical Education shirts during P.E., utilizing the provided blank to write their names. Based on screen used references, this P.H.S. Physical Education design is cool for casual fans and those looking for an easy Halloween costume. Excessive sweat and permanent marker not included ;)
Description: Straight Between the Eyes is the sixth studio album by the British-American heavy metal band Rainbow that was released on April 14, 1982. With a slightly altered lineup and a more mainstream sound, this album was moderately successful, though it without question alienated Rainbow’s longtime fans from the band. This newfound direction was a decidedly commercial effort made it difficult for the band to go back, so the final two Rainbow albums that followed continued to follow suit, and were increasingly more unsuccessful.
Description: Maitland Hardware is a fictional hardware store in the equally fictional small town of Winter River, Connecticut that is owned by Adam and Barbara Maitland. The traditional rural hardware store is a freestanding two story building that also houses Old Bill's Barber Shop in what appears to be an addition off to the left of the main store. It seems to be a pretty successful business as the Maitland's are able to afford extensive renovations on their large house.
Description: Brothers Joe and Tom Hrudka began street racing in the late '50s, though it wasn't until the early '60s that they got serious about it. Runing a '55 210 in the D/Gas Class, the boys refined their ride until winning the '62 Nationals, and along the way, found a need for better exhaust gaskets, as the stock ones were prone to failure. The brothers went about creating an alternative and were soon testing them on their own cars and those of fellow racers, who wanted more of them. Encouraged, they began manufacturing gaskets in their garage. Their enterprise grew, and in 1964, needed a name, and they decided on Mister Gasket. And since it was the '60s, they figured they needed a mascot, so they came up with a hot rodder named Corky.
Description: Cable TV came to Manhattan in the early '70s in an attempt to deal with poor signals around the tall buildings, but cable didn't reach all of New York City until the mid '80s. While there were plenty of early cable companies serving the market, Plaza Cable wasn't one of them. Plaza is a fictional NYC cable company that originated in a '90s sitcom where the cable guy was trying to get into an apartment to turn off premium channels that were mistakenly added to their plan. The resident turns the tables, forcing the cable guy to experience what it's like waiting on them, all while enjoying his premium cable channels.
Description: The Last Rainforest is a 1992 independent animated musical fantasy film set in a picturesque rainforest, called Ferm Gully. The rainforest is inhabited by fairies, including Crysta, who has never seen a human before. In fact, she is told they are extinct. But when a logging company comes near the rainforest, she sees that they do exist, and even accidentally shrinks one of them: a boy named Zak. Now her size, Zak sees the damage that the company does and helps Crysta to stop not only them, but an evil entity named Hexxus, who feeds off pollution.
Description: Ray's Music Exchange is a fictional Chicago pawn shop that specialized in musical instruments in the 1980 film, The Blues Brothers. It's where the guys go to procure new instruments and equipment as they get the band back together, and end up in a performance of “Shake A Tail Feather” that spills into the streets filled with dancers. The actual location of the store was a pawn shop located in the Bronzeville neighborhood at 300 E. 47th St., though the interior shots were all done on a soundstage. The mural on the side of Ray's celebrating black musicians remained for 40 years until vandals set fire to the building in 2020.
Description: Founded in October of 1966 in Oakland, California by Huey Newton and Bobby Seale, the Black Panther Party for Self Defense (BPP) became the most famous black power organization of the late 1960s. Newton and Seale met in 1965 at Merritt College where they were exposed to a burgeoning wave of Black Nationalism, inspired in part by the Afro-American Association, established by Don Warden at the University of California, Berkeley in 1962. The raised fist remains a key part of their symbology, though it’s also evolved to be a symbol of standing up against the man for groups and causes of all races, so whether you’ve got a political cause in mind or are just into power fisting, this one is for you!
Description: Over the Top is a 1987 film that follows Lincoln Hawk, a truck driver and famed arm wrestler, who, for unexplained reasons, walked out on his wife and child years ago. His wife, who is in the hospital, asks Lincoln to pick up their son Michael from his military boarding school to see her before her surgery. At first, Michael and Lincoln are like oil and water, but the pair gradually bond on the road trip home. Upon arrival, however, they learn that mom has died, and his grandfather is fighting for custody, citing Lincoln's inability to provide for the boy. Lincoln decides to put all his money on the line in a Vegas arm wrestling showdown. Hawk Hauling is Lincoln's trucking company, which is really just him and his old, busted truck.
Description: There is no shortage of ways for Christians to share their faith through ministry, but one of the more unique ones that took off in the early '80s involves clowns. Commonly known as Clowning for Christ, these face painted Christians chose to share the word of God with squeaky noses and squirting flowers. So whether you have a fear of clowns or a fear of God, this '80s design from the Clowning for Christ movement is a perfect fit!
Description: The earliest recorded instance of the Halloween 'Trick or Treat' custom in the USA dates back to the 1920s, when the tradition was still in its infancy. Children would dress up in costumes and go door-to-door, asking for candy and other treats. In some cases, they would also perform small pranks or tricks if they didn't receive a treat.
Description: Traditional metal wired braces (also known as "train track braces") are stainless-steel and are sometimes used in combination with titanium. Traditional metal braces are the most common type of braces. These braces have a metal bracket with elastic ties holding the wire onto the metal brackets. The second-most common type of braces is self-ligating braces, which have a built-in system to secure the archwire to the brackets and do not require elastic ties. Instead, the wire goes through the bracket. Often with this type of braces, treatment time is reduced, there is less pain on the teeth, and fewer adjustments are required than with traditional braces.
Description: Released on June 16, 1986, The Queen Is Dead is the third studio album by English indie rockers The Smiths. The album title is taken from American writer Hubert Selby Jr.'s 1964 novel, Last Exit to Brooklyn, and the cover art features an image of the French actor Alain Delon from the 1964 film L'Insoumis. The album spent 22 weeks on the UK charts, reaching the number two position, and reached number 70 on the US charts. The Queen Is Dead received widespread critical acclaim and today, is often considered one of the greatest records of all time.
Description: Wanna get high? It’s why most people use marijuana. The primary psychoactive ingredient, THC, stimulates the part of your brain that responds to pleasure, like food and sex. That unleashes a chemical called dopamine, which gives you a euphoric, relaxed feeling. Depending on the strain and the amount used, the high could range anywhere from mildly euphoric and straight up flip your lid tripping, and this '70s headshop style design celebrates that latter end of the spectrum.
Description: Quick Draw McGraw is a fictional anthropomorphic horse and the protagonist of an animated cartoon of the same name. He is depicted as wearing a red cowboy hat and light blue bandanna in all 45 of his cartoons that originally aired between 1959 and 1961, along with his donkey sidekick, Baba Looey. Yeehaw!
Description: Founded in 1931 with just two old trucks, Blue Ridge Transfer's reach grew far beyond their hometown of in Galax, Virginia to become one of the largest over the road trucking companies in America. Blue Ridge originally focused exclusively on hauling furniture from manufacturers in North Carolina, but after deregulation, they expanded across the 48 contiguous states, hauling furniture outbound and appliances and other goods on the return trip. By the mid '80s, Blue Ridge had over 700 employees, 300 tractors, and more than twice as many trailers. the privately owned company was sold in 1997, and within a few years, was rebranded by the new owners and merged into their existing operations.
Description: Whether its Gulf shores or Atlantic coastlines, Florida’s 825 miles of sun-soaked sandy beaches are easily one of the state's biggest attractions. Well known as a snorkeling paradise, the Sunshine State is a great place to get up close and personal with all kinds of sea life, including one of the oceans more unique creatures, seahorses. Seahorses can be any of 46 species of small marine bony fish in the genus Hippocampus, which comes from the Ancient Greek hippókampos, itself from híppos meaning "horse" and kámpos meaning "sea monster." Odds are if you visited Florida in the '80s, you or someone in your family would have come home with a souvenir shirt similar to this design.
Description: Cabooses, also referred to as 'hacks' in railroad jargon, are one of the more enduring symbols of railroads. With a viewing cupola on the roof, the main role of these cars was so that the crew could watch the train as it moved and ensure there were no issues or disconnects. At one point, railroad crews consisted of up to five men, so the caboose also served as a rolling hotel. Equipped with bunks, a stove, and a bathroom, these cars were home away from home. Like many things, the caboose and her crew were eventually replaced by technology, and train crews launched the 'Trains Are Safer With a Caboose' campaign to save them (and their jobs). Obviously, we know how that turned out, as it's rare sight these days, but they are still around!
Description: The Angola Pigman is an urban legend based in the village of Angola in Western New York. Angola's Holland Road gained the nickname 'Pigman Road' from the legend of a local butcher who began placing the heads of pigs on stakes along the road in the '50s. Rumors said that the butcher was also a serial killer, with various tales of townsfolk going missing over the years. When the butcher's rural house burned down in the early '60s, he was presumed to have died in the fire as he himself went missing. In the years after the fire, locals began reporting sightings of a mysterious figure lurking in the area at night. Some said he wore a severed pig head as a mask, while others claim he wore a hood and a pig snout, but who knows ...?
Description: Il mondo di Yor is a 1983 Italian science fiction fantasy film that follows a prehistoric warrior named Yor who comes to question his origins, particularly with regard to a mysterious medallion he wears. When he learns of a desert goddess who supposedly wears the same medallion, Yor decides that he must find her and learn his true identity. Along the way, he encounters ape-men, dinosaurs, and a strange futuristic society. The film was originally made as a four-part miniseries for Italian TV, but was given a worldwide theatrical release, where, despite less than stellar reviews, did very well in box office sales.
Description: Davidson Military Academy is a fictional boarding school that played a key role in the 1978 horror movie, Damien: Omen II. It was a prestigious military academy for boys which numerous boys in the Thorn family attended. Scenes at Davidson Military Academy were filmed at Northwestern Military Academy in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. The school was founded in 1988 by Harlan Page Davidson, and is presumably where the fictional school got its name.
