Description: If you were a hot rodder or street racer back in the late '60s, you probably remember seeing more than a few of these 'Weirdos, Freaks, Wackos, and Creeps Anti-Social Club' stickers on the back of cars at races and meets. It was kind of like the official unofficial club for those that didn't quite fit into the more organized groups. Our updated version still includes Mr. Cyclops, but fresh typesetting and a nice set of crossbones to add a little attitude. Get your freak on!
Description: Ghosts 'n Goblins, known in Japan as Makaimura (Japanese: 魔界村, lit. "Demon World Village"), is a run-and-gun platform video game series. The first entry in the series was Ghosts 'n Goblins, released in arcades on July 7, 1985. The series has subsequently been ported to and released on a variety of personal computers, game consoles, and mobile platforms and spawned several sequels and spin-offs. The main series focuses on the knight Arthur's quest to save princess Prin-Prin from the demon king Astaroth. In most of the main series, once completing the game, the player is forced to re-play the game's stages at a higher difficulty level in order to receive the game's "true" ending.
Description: Short track racing is where stock car racing got its start after leaving the back road events behind in favor of organized and regulated competition. Unlike the larger tracks, short-track events offer fans and competitors close racing, where the bodies of the cars actually rub against one another on oval tracks of less than one mile in length. Known as the 'minor leagues' of racing, this is where aspiring drivers, mechanics, and tuners can get into racing on a budget, and have a ton of fun doing it. Most professional drivers gets started short trackin' before making their way from these rural bullrings to the superspeedways.
Description: The Pixie Kitchen opened its doors on May 21, 1953, in the coastal town of Oceanlake, Oregon, which is now the northern part of Lincoln City. Owners Jerry and Lu Parks wanted to create a restaurant where families could enjoy an affordable meal and be transported to a magical fairy tale land. With decor centered around elf-like pixie characters, including animatronics, and fun house style mirrors and murals, The Pixie Kitchen quickly became a tourist destination. Of course, a theme can only take a restaurant so far, but thankfully for The Pixie Kitchen, their food was top-notch home cooking that never had anyone second guessing their slogan: “Heavenly Food on the Oregon Coast.”
Description: Smitty's was an Arizona supermarket chain founded in 1964 by Clyde Smith. Smitty's stores were 100,000+ square foot marketplace style stores that combined grocery stores with many offerings of traditional department stores, something that is now known as 'hypermarkets' in the retail trade. Smith grew Smitty's steadily to 28 locations by the mid-'90s – 25 in the greater Phoenix area, and three in Tucson. In 1996, Smitty's was purchased by Smith's, a Utah supermarket chain that also sold a wide variety of non-grocery products. The sale was the end of the Smitty's name, as stores were rebranded as Smith's, though many locals continued to refer to the stores as Smitty's for years to come.
Description: $5 cover, no backstage, no alcohol, coffee for a $1, and all-ages all the time is Jabberjaw Cafe in a nutshell. Located at 3711 Pico Boulevard in Los Angeles, Jabberjaw opened in 1989 as a coffee bar and morphed into a legendary music venue when a low stage that you almost tripped over as you entered was added. Things started out with some acoustic acts, but after the first electric act performed, the coffee bar quickly became more of a live music venue. Jabberjaw was the space to play for bands that did not want to participate in L.A.'s pay-to-play scene, and with a standing rule of no corporate rock, only the coolest indie bands were booked, helping Jabberjaw create a scene of its own, far away from the Sunset Strip.
Description: Cleopatra Jones is a 1973 blaxploitation film that has been described as primarily as an action movie, but also partially a comedy with a spoof tone. The story centers on Cleopatra "Cleo" Jones, who uses her overseas modeling gigs as a cover for her real job as an undercover agent with power and influence. She drives a hot sports car equipped with automatic weapons, has killer martial arts skills, and is sexy as hell.
Description: "It took more than a hero to tame the wildest territory in the galaxy. It took a legend." BraveStarr: The Legend is a feature film released just after the BraveStarr space western animated series TV series was concluding in 1988. The film serves as an origin story for Marshal BraveStarr and the realization of his powers, as well as Tex Hex and his gang. Like most of Filmation's works, some of the animation is recycled from the series, but the movie has great action, utilizes the series voice actors, and all told, just really works well with the series.
Description: The Great Seattle Fire destroyed the entire central business district of Seattle, Washington on June 6, 1889. Rising from the ashes like a phoenix on September 25, 1889, Washington Mutual was a sign of strength and resolve in a time of destruction and uncertainty. In 2007, a combination of subprime loans bundled as securities and sold on Wall Street to hungry investors, opaque financial derivatives that posed a systemic threat, an unsustainable housing boom, banking executives pulling fat bonuses to take on ever-more risk created the perfect recipe for disaster. By 2008, the Federal Reserve and the Treasury Department were pressuring WaMu to find a buyer to avoid an FDIC takeover, but WaMu pushed on, ultimately failing in September of 2008.
Description: Overman Tire Company began business in the late 1890 manufacturing OEM bicycle tires for bike manufacturers. Overman changed with the times, expanding their line to include the manufacturing of the solid rubber tires used on trucks in their early years, and later heavy duty tubed tires that were extremely popular with fleet owners. Marketed as "the world's best tire," Overman's were known for being tough as nails and were standard equipment on most fire trucks. This is where their devil mascot originated, showing that their tires were tough enough to dance with the devil in the flames of fire fighting.
Description: The simple Stuyvesant Physical Ed. Leader t-shirt that became famous overnight after appearing in the Beastie Boy's 1986 video for (You Gotta) Fight For Your Right (To Party) video when worn by none other than Ad-Rock himself. This lead to rumors that he had attended the school, when, in fact, it was original Beasties drummer Kate Schellenbach (as Mike D would reveal in Time Magazine years later) who had attended Stuyvesant High School, more commonly known simply as Stuy.
Description: The running boom of the 1970s occurred in high- and middle-income countries. It was particularly pronounced in the United States and occurred in other countries including the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand and in Europe. The boom was primarily a ‘jogging’ movement, in which running was generally limited to personal physical activity and often pursued alone for recreation and fitness. It was also associated with a growth in public participation in competitive road running during the decade, particularly in the United States, which spread to other countries in the following decade, including the United Kingdom. It is estimated that 25 million Americans took up some aspect of running in the 1970s and 1980s.
Description: Sanibel Island, Florida is located along the Gulf of Mexico, just a short drive from Fort Myers. While this tropical paradise justly famed for its sunsets, lighthouse, resorts, and sea shelling (it is known as the 'Seashell Capital of the World'), for about 30 years, there was another, slightly more unique attraction -The Sanibel Island Hippo Gardens. What started as a private estate with a couple of pet hippos in the '50s, ended up being somewhat of a roadside attraction with a dozen hippopotamus in the '60s. As the story goes, when the owners passed away, they left their estate to their only son, who eventually began operating somewhat of a private zoo amidst the property's extensive tropical gardens.
Description: Back in the mid '60s, some enterprising folks got together and convinced the small farm community of Lake Elsinore, California to host a dirt bike race through town and around the dusty hills surrounding it. Some say it was meant to be the successor to the legendary Catalina Grand Prix, which ran from 1951-58 on the island off the coast until the logistics and its own success killed it. The Elsinore races were also killed by their own success, and the crowds of rowdy bikers who attended well into the late 1970s. 1972 was the fifth annual Elsinore Grand Prix, and this one replicates the official design that was used to mark the event by way of posters and t-shirts.
Description: When movies get released in different markets, they frequently get regional marketing treatments that differ from the original stateside release. The Halloween 6 launch in Italy is a perfect example of this. The Italian market got a version of the poster art that was reversed left to right, and then a nude blonde was added in, sticking out of the eyeholes of Michael Myers' mask for some inexplicable reason.
Description: Buffalo Springfield was a rock band formed in Los Angeles in 1966, taking their name from an old Buffalo Springfield steamroller parked outside their house. The group, widely known for the song 'For What It's Worth,' which became a US top 10 hit and a counterculture anthem, released three albums and several singles between 1966 and 1968. Their music combined elements of folk and country with British Invasion and psychedelic rock influences. They were key to the early development of folk rock. Their second album, Buffalo Springfield Again, marked their progression to psychedelia and hard rock. After several drug arrests and line-up changes, the group disbanded in 1968, and their final album, Last Time Around, was released post dissolution.
Description: Back in the mid '40s, racers and hot rodders Red Wilson and Tony Capana joined forces to start a speed shop in Los Angeles. They called it WILCAP – the first three letters of their last names – and before too long, their shop was well known by gear heads in So Cal and beyond thanks to their innovative products and extensive mail order catalog. In addition to distributing a wide array of speed parts, WILCAP was probably best known for their machining their own line of custom flywheels, transmission adapters, and engine hardware. Eventually, WILCAP was also the place to get nitromethane and alcohol fuels. They made their own custom blends and sold them by the gallon and by the barrel, making getting out to the track that much easier.
Description: New England Motor Freight (NEMF) began in 1918, hauling products for commercial bakeries in New Jersey. Over the next 100 years, the LTL carrier continued to expand, eventually building up to a fleet of 1,550 power units, 40 company terminals and, 3,700 employees, all while becoming a favorite among businesses in the northeast. Despite NEMF's size and reach, their fortunes took a turn in 2018, and amidst a downward spiral, New England Motor Freight filed for bankruptcy protection in 2019, ending what can only be described as a heck of a run.
Description: Carter Carburetor Company in St. Louis, Missouri, was established in 1909 by William Carter, who started experimenting with carburetors while running a successful bicycle shop. His first cast brass carb could meter and deliver fuel more accurately than many competing units, and easily found a place in the market. Carter became a major OEM supplier to Detroit. In 1971, they introduced the ThermoQuad four barrel. It was available in two sizes, rated according to air flow – 850 and 1000 CFM. The higher flow model was the largest street carburetor in terms of air flow when released, and was a factory part on many of the muscle cars of the era. Gear heads have a love/hate relationship with ThermoQuads, in that they either love or hate them.
Description: Lacey, Washington, was originally called Woodland after settlers Isaac and Catherine Wood, who claimed land there in 1853. When the railroad came through in 1891, residents decided it was time to apply for a post office. The request was denied because there was already a town called Woodland on the Columbia River. They decided to call the city Lacey and got a post office, though the city of wasn't officially incorporated until 1966. One year later, The Loose Caboose Tavern opened in Lacey, and quickly became a popular watering hole for the locals, many of which commuted to Olympia, Fort Lewis, and to some extent, Tacoma, for work, but came how every night to tie one on at their favorite tavern,
Description: Kozmik Krooz'r is a shoot 'em up video game released in arcades in 1982. The spaceship, a core element of the gameplay, is not an in-game graphic, but a physical plastic model. A series of mirrors projects the mothership just above the game's monitor. Players guide Kapt. Krooz'r to a rotating mothership at the top of the playfield, one which can only be entered when its tractor beam is operational. Players can also shoot enemies in one of eight directions and deflect firepower during their journey. Every fifth round, there is a bonus level where Kapt. Krooz'r must pick up space junk, but otherwise this game suffers from being exactly the same on every single level.
Description: El Chavo del Ocho (The Kid from number Eight), later known as just El Chavo, is a Mexican television sitcom that premiered on April 27, 1972. The show follows the adventures and tribulations of the title character—a poor orphan nicknamed El Chavo and his friends, which often cause conflict, of a comedic nature, between the other inhabitants of a fictional low-income housing complex, or, as called in Mexico, vecindad. The series gained enormous popularity in Hispanic America, Brazil, Spain and other Spanish-speaking countries, and ended on June 12, 1992 after 7 seasons and 311 episodes.
Description: If you travelled Route 66 between Amarillo, Texas and Albuquerque, New Mexico at some point between 1949 and 2000, you probably at least thought about pulling off at the Westerner Drive-Inn in Tucumcari, New Mexico. Located at 1001 West Route 66 Boulevard, it was the only thing around on this particular stretch and was pretty hard to miss, and frequent travelers have undoubtedly knew it was the place to get a great meal. Operating as an old school drive in for just over five decades, the Westerner specialized in big burgers, golden fries, and traditional sodas, even offering a full breakfast menu to weary travelers.
Description: Mona's 440 Club was the first lesbian bar to open in San Francisco, California in 1936. It continued to draw a lesbian clientele into the 1950s. Mona and Jimmie Sargeant, a married couple, opened Mona's in 1934 on Union Street, taking advantage of San Francisco's liberal attitudes, endless supply of tourists, and the end of prohibition. In 1936, the couple moved the bar to a basement location on Columbus Avenue, but due to its exploding popularity and growth in patronage, the bar moved to 440 Broadway Street and was subsequently renamed Mona's 440 Club. One of the biggest draws to Mona's was their large variety of in house entertainment. Kay Scott and Babe Scott were part of the original group of entertainers to perform at Mona's 440 Club.
Description: Can-a-blis was a product of San Francisco Tobacco Co. in the '60s that claimed to be a cannabis infused tobacco. Marketed as being "guaranteed not to bite the tongue, and to give pleasure," the tobacco seemed to be more marketing spin than anything, as the level of cannabis present in the product allowed it to be sold openly in head shops and tobacco stores.
Description: Egghead Software was a hardware, software, and computer accessories store located in Bellevue, Washington, that eventually grew to a chain of over 200 locations. Egghead was founded by Victor D. Alhadeff in 1984 after he observed that the computer store experience was far too daunting for average consumers, His goal from the start was to make the experience less intimidating and more engaging. With its quirky cartoon mascot, Professor Egghead, and well-trained staff that could explain products in simple terms, Egghead was a hit with consumers. The company continued to expand with new locations throughout the '90s as part of the dot-com bubble, but when the bubble burst in 2000, things came crashing down and by 2001, it was all over.
Description: Tarkus is the second studio album by English progressive rock band, Emerson, Lake & Palmer, released on June 14, 1971. Following their debut tour across Europe during the second half of 1970, the group paused touring commitments in January 1971 to record a new album at Advision Studios in London. Side one features the 20-minute conceptual title track, and side two contains six individual tracks. Tarkus went to number one on the UK Albums Chart, becoming the only album by the band to do so. It was a top 10 album worldwide, including the US, where it peaked at number 9. The album reached gold certification in the UK and US, the latter for 500,000 copies sold. It has been reissued and remastered several times, including a 5.1 surround edition.
Description: Meatballs is a 1979 Canadian teen comedy film that follows the wacky hi jinks of counselors and campers at a low budget summer camp. The film includes a shy boy named Rudy who arrives at Camp North Star to find it full of rowdy teens. The head counselor is a prank-pulling, girl-seducing, man child named Tripper. Across the lake is a camp for rich kids called Camp Mohawk. They’ve dominated the yearly games through cheating for 12 years straight, and it’s up to Rudy to help change that. Meatballs was well received, and was the highest-grossing Canadian film of all time in the United States and Canada. Who knew?
Description: The first roller coasters utilized wooden track, which consists of running rails made of flat steel strips mounted to laminated wood. Wooden coaster construction became stagnant in the '70s due to the rising popularity of steel roller coaster design, but a few new builds bucked the trend to keep the Golden Age of roller coasters alive. One such example is 'The Beast,' built in 1979 in Mason, Ohio. This was the tallest, fastest, and longest wooden roller coaster in the world at the time of it's opening. Decades later, it is still the longest, spanning 7,361 feet, racing across 35 acres of hilly, wooded terrain. Two lift hills contribute to the ride's duration of more than four minutes, which also ranks as one of the world's longest runtimes.
Description: Taxi driver George Touhouliotis bought Marlena's Tavern in 1983, and proceeded to reshape the joint into a nightclub. He opened his new place, calling it Satyricon after the 1969 Federico Fellini film of the same name. Despite sitting on what was essentially Portland's skid row, Satyricon became a prominent music venue that hosted countless local and touring acts throughout the '80s and '90s. From punk and alt-rock, to hardcore and even some metal, Satyricon played host to them all between 1983 and 2010. It was the longest-running punk venue in the western United States, and has been referred to by journalists and historians as the "CBGB of the West Coast."
Description: Incredible Universe was the name of a chain of consumer electronics stores in the early to mid '90s that were a joint venture between Tandy Corporation and Trans World Entertainment. A typical store was 185,000 square feet of sales floor and warehouse, stocking around 85,000 items. The store's borrowed philosophies from theme parks with retail departments being "scenes," employees were "cast members," customers were "guests,"and so forth. The stores featured a large rotunda area with a stage where sales presentations, product demonstrations, autograph signings, and musical acts could perform. Retail departments (software, music and video, and accessories) were accessible from the rotunda, making it a hub of sorts for the store.
Description: Originally built as a post office in the early '50s, the building at 1014 N. Vine Street in Hollywood was eventually repurposed as a recording studio by Andrew Berliner in 1967. Calling his new venture Crystal Industries Recording Studio, Berliner's innovative acoustic and electrical design has his new studio quickly becoming one of the premier recording facilities in Southern California. The studio was known simply as Crystal Sound, which was both a nickname and a descriptor of the magical tonal qualities the space and its custom-built electronics were known for capturing. The client list is a veritable who's who of artists from the '60s through the '90s. Crystal would change hands in 2000 and become a private studio under a new name.
Description: Bresler's 33 Flavors was an American ice cream chain founded in 1927 by Polish immigrant, William J. Bresler in Chicago, Illinois. By the mid '80s, Bresler's had 300 stores, of which 297 were franchises. The chain was sold in 1987 to a regional dairy in Aurora, Illinois, and shortly afterward, was renamed Bresler's Ice Cream, and added frozen yogurt to its menus to compete with upstart yogurt places entering the market. Two years later, the chain was sold a couple more times, and Bresler's locations underwent a rebranding, with the last five locations taking on their new name in 2007.
Description: The Southern Railway System, formed from the remnants of several failing Virginia lines, was incorporated in Virginia in 1894. By 1894 the Southern Railway was comprised of at least 125 consolidated railroads, with 75,000 freight cars, over 1,400 locomotives, and more than 21,000 employees. The Southern was efficient and innovative, and by the 1950s, it was the first major railroad to convert its entire operation from steam to diesel. This design was part of a campaign in the '70s trying to get more commercial customers by having one of their train engines asking their freight for a date.
Description: Reality TV really went wild in the 2000s, and Flavor of Love is a great example of the kind of crazy they were putting on TV. This reality television dating game show focused on a rapper who was looking for love, and despite the overall kookiness of the show, it was a ratings hit and ended up running for three seasons.
