Description: Danzig is the self-titled debut album from Glenn Danzig's bluesy hard rock band that was released in August of 1988. The album was the first release on producer Rick Rubin's new label, Def American, and was slower, harder, heavier, cleaner, and more sonically spacious than anything Danzig had recorded with his previous bands. The album was reissued in the United States and the United Kingdom in 1998 and it remains the band's best-selling album to date, having been certified Gold in the U.S. in 1994, and having since been certified Platinum. Danzig promoted the album with a successful world tour in 1988–1989. Although the record sounds like a lot of classic hard rock today, Danzig seemed almost unclassifiable at the time.
Description: Creepshow is a 1982 anthology film in which five tales of terror from the 1950s comic book series of the same name are presented. The first deals with a demented old man returning from the grave to get the Father’s Day cake his murdering daughter never gave him. The second is about a not-too-bright farmer discovering a meteor that turns everything into plant life. The third is about a vengeful husband burying his wife and her lover up to their necks on the beach. The fourth is about a creature that resides in a crate under the steps of a college. The final story is about an ultrarich businessman who gets his comeuppance from cockroaches.
Description: The plan was simple – take Yamaguchi’s lightweight trail bike, the Scrambler, and make it better. PABATCO designed and engineered the motorcycles from their Athena, Oregon headquarters, and Hodaka was responsible for the engines, manufacturing, and assembly in Japan. This resulted in Hodaka’s first model, the Ace 90, which arrived in the U.S. in 1964 and became an instant success thanks to its low cost and durability and depending on who you ask, laid the groundwork for America’s trail bike craze. Hodaka continued to improve upon their original design releasing about 18 variant models until a combination of events led to the demise of Hodaka in 1978.
Description: For nearly 50 years, the no-frills, all-business boozing destination in the heart of San Francisco's Tenderloin neighborhood has been a watering hole for all kinds of drinkers. From the topless portrait of the previous owner’s grandmother behind the bar and the doodled on dollar bill-covered walls to the stiff but cheap drinks and funky restrooms, High Tide Cocktails was a dive bar in every sense of the term. While the establishment changed hands over the years, the name and the divey ambiance remained, as did the revolving cast of mostly female Korean bartenders.
Description: Chico and the Man is an American sitcom series that aired for four seasons from September 13, 1974, to July 21, 1978. It starred Jack Albertson as Ed Brown (the Man), the cantankerous owner of a run-down garage in an East Los Angeles barrio, and Freddie Prinze (until Prinze's suicide in the third season) as Chico Rodriguez, an upbeat, optimistic young Chicano who comes in looking for a job. It was the first U.S. television series set in a Mexican-American neighborhood. The show's synopsis went something like this: A hard-drinking Anglo widower, Ed stubbornly refuses to fit in with the changing East L.A. neighborhood and has alienated most of the people who live around him, but after hiring Chico, things start to turn around for Ed's garage.
Description: Glenn Danzig originally planned Samhain as a side project with Eerie Von, though after the Misfits' contentious 1983 dissolution, Samhain became Danzig's full-time band. Samhain is the least-celebrated of Danzig's major musical outlets and catalogs a transitional period in his musical career, bridging the gap between the punk rock of the Misfits and the dark, heavy metal, and blues-influenced sound of Danzig.
Description: "Knight Rider, a shadowy flight into the dangerous world of a man who does not exist. Michael Knight, a young loner on a crusade to champion the cause of the innocent, the helpless, the powerless in a world of criminals who operate above the law." That was the narration that opened the 1982 TV drama, Knight Rider. While that gives a pretty good general overview, a more detailed synopsis goes something like this: Reborn, so to speak, after getting shot in the face, Knight dedicates his life to fighting for justice. Billionaire Wilton Knight hires Michael to be the lead field agent in his Knight Foundation's public justice organization, part of which includes the development of KITT, a superpowered, intelligent souped-up Pontiac Trans-Am.
Description: Willy's Wonderland was a once-successful family entertainment center in the remote desert town of Hayesville, Nevada. Following the '80s era Showbiz model of greasy pizza, arcade games, and animatronic characters who perform musical numbers at regular intervals, Willy's felt plenty familiar to locals and tourists alike. Of course, the animatronic characters at Willy's Wonderland had a secret... original owner, Jerry Robert Willis, a notorious serial killer, and his psychotic partners, who often murdered unsuspecting families for their own twisted enjoyment, performed a satanic ritual to transfer their souls into the animatronic characters giving Willy's something the other places definitely didn't have!
Description: The Facts of Life is an American television sitcom that ran from August 24, 1979, to May 7, 1988, making it one of the longest-running sitcoms of the '80s. The series was a spin-off of Diff'rent Strokes, the series featured the Drummonds' former housekeeper Edna Garrett becoming the housemother of a dormitory at Eastland School, a private all-girls school in Peekskill, New York.
Description: Formed in 1987 under the moniker Katzenjammer, Kyuss would go on to be the coolest band during their lifetime. With scorching-hot riffs, serpentine grooves, and no rush to get anywhere faster than absolutely necessary, they truly encapsulated the vastness of the California desert from which they hailed, which makes their unique cult following all the easier to understand.
Description: Hodaka introduced the Wombat in 1972, then later introduced the racing model, the Combat Wombat, in 1973. The Hodaka Combat Wombat became a tough competitor in it's day, giving the increasing number of Japanese bikes a run for their money in the 125cc class. Powered by a 125cc two-stroke engine that wound up to 8,400 rpm, the Combat Wombat also featured a five-speed transmission and a left side shifter. This nimble little motocrosser weighed around 192 pounds with a wheelbase of 53 inches. At this time in the motocross bike market, things were developing quickly and all of the manufacturers were releasing “new and improved” bikes each year, so Hodaka had to stay on that same path and released the Super Combat in '74.
Description: The Dreadnoks are a fictional biker gang from the G.I. Joe universe who are affiliated with Cobra as shock troops, offering their mercenary services as subordinates of their leader, Zartan. All Dreadnoks are uncouth and violent, and usually engage their enemies with unconventional and creative (many times crude) weaponry. Most, if not all, have shown a particular taste for chocolate-covered donuts and grape soda. The Dreadnoks also make a habit of torturing captured enemies, usually in bizarre ways such as exposure to pain-inducing laughing gas or tossing victims into pools of man-eating piranhas. Their headquarters is a compound hidden somewhere in the Florida Everglades.
Description: Thin Lizzy's Nightlife is an underrated gem of a record, while also a complete anomaly within their catalog. Subdued, soulful, and smooth in ways that Thin Lizzy never were before and rarely were afterwards. Of course, this hard rock band still included plenty of moments of the style of primal rock 'n' roll they were known for, though still managed to make it more enigmatic, sincere, and philosophically complex than their other material and certainly more so than their contemporaries at the time.
Description: This Pennsylvania-based performance legend started out as a maker of motor mounts for engine swaps and floor-shifters back in 1958, but they steadily expanded their product line through the 1960s. Hurst wheels, Line/Loc, and Swifter Shifter gloves were developed among other items, and later, Airheart Brakes and the Schiefer Manufacturing Company, which made clutches and other driveline components, were acquired. Hurst Performance floor-shifters were skillfully engineered, reliable and stirring in appearance, plus, their marketing was in tune with the times, catering to the flourishing muscle car movement of the 1960s. Their shifters infiltrated the drag racing, stock car racing, off-road racing and many other areas of motorsports.
Description: In Big Trouble in Little China, Jack Burton is the owner/operator of Jack Burton Trucking. His truck is named Pork-Chop Express, as he primarily hauls pigs to the slaughterhouse. It's an '85 Freightliner FLC-120 with the iconic 'mudflap girl' on the front grill, along with the words 'Haulin' Ass.'
Description: Founded in Middletown, Connecticut in 1920, Bailey's Express got their start hauling loads of 40-quart milk canisters to New Haven. They eventually stopped delivering milk and would later diversify, building up a varied customer list with regional businesses of all sizes from a myriad of industries and providing them with a suite of comprehensive freight forwarding services. Bailey's picked up freight in Connecticut, Massachusetts and Rhode Island and brought it back to their Middletown terminal where goods were repackaged nightly into larger loads and shipped out to their final destination via over-the-road line haul trucking companies. The Middletown terminal operated 20 hours per day and handled 500 loads every night.
Description: If you lived in the Atlanta area in the 80s and 90s and were an aspiring road racer or enthusiast wanting to really bring it on track days, Victory Vettes was probably on your short list to get your Vette up to snuff. From high RPM racing engines and track tuned suspensions to custom roll cages and performance brakes, Victory was a one-stop shop to get your ride race ready.
Description: Known throughout the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic for their iconic orange and white trucks, Preston Trucking Co. was founded in 1932 in Chesapeake Bay. The company was started by a canned goods wholesaler who had difficulty moving their product in less than truckload quantities, and their accountant suggested the company start its own trucking division. Initially, the company focused on small, irregular loads. These loads would later be known as less-than-truckload, which would be the model for what would come to be known as LTL trucking. Preston would go on to grow and expand, buying up many smaller carriers and by the late '90s, they had just over 5,000 employees, most of whom were drivers before suddenly folding in 1999, citing a lack of s
Description: A decade after the first cars packing automatic transmissions hit the streets, there was an increasing need for mechanics who could repair them and one such shop was Jerry's Auto Service, who opened up shop in 1957. As the story goes, Jerry wasn't just happy with repairing them - he wanted to make them better. From his small shop in the Saugus area of Santa Clarita, California, Jerry developed what many would consider the first aftermarket shift kits to improve the performance of an automatic. Whether you wanted to shave a fraction of a second on the drag strip or just be able to tow with more confidence, Jerry's Auto Service could make it happen.
Description: Rust-eze is a medicated bumper ointment with a specialized rear end formula for cars with rusty bumpers wanting to eradicate rust. Rust-eze was created in 1990 by Rusty and Dusty Rust-eze and quickly grew to become the top-selling bumper ointment in the United States. In 2016, it was sold to a businessman, named Sterling, though he only held on to it for one year before selling it to Dinoco.
Description: Founded in 1930, Dinoco Oil, formerly known as Dinoco Gasoline, is an international gas and oil company of fossil fuel owned by Tex Dinoco, and one of America's most popular and consumed products. The company has covered lots of events, including 2006's Dinoco 400 for the Piston Cup. The company is also Strip "The King" Weathers', Cal Weathers', and Cruz Ramirez's sponsor in the Piston Cup Racing Series.
Description: The Milwaukee Braves were unique among professional sports franchises. When the team moved from Boston to Milwaukee in 1953, the Braves became the first major league ball club to change cities in half a century. The shift initiated a series of westward migrations by teams and provided the impetus for league expansion. Milwaukee fans inherited an array of heroes from handsome young slugger Eddie Mathews, who led the majors in home runs to high-kicking southpaw, Warren Spahn, on his way to the Hall of Fame. They had powerful Joe Adcock, feisty Johnny Logan, speedy Billy Bruton, Wisconsin farm boy Andy Pafko, and then next spring, they added legend-in-the-making, Henry Aaron.
Description: Pizza Planet is a family restaurant frequented by Andy Davis and his toys that is easily identifiable by its unique design employing a space theme. The building is shaped like the planet Saturn with the "Pizza Planet" logo on top, and to the left of the restaurant stands a rocket ship. The stylized rocket logo seen here is utilized everywhere, from employee uniforms and delivery vehicles, to cups and napkins inside the restaurant.
Description: Buy n Large got its start as a small business making frozen yogurt under the name Buy Yogurt. The business eventually acquired Large Industries, a clothier specializing in suits for husky gentlemen. The combined entity became known as an internet marketing service corporation called Buy n' Large (note the apostrophe before the "n" in early usage). The dates of Buy Yogurt's founding and its acquisition of Large Industries are unknown, however, by the year 2057, as shown on the Buy n Large website, the conglomerate became a worldwide leader in the fields of aerospace, agriculture, construction, consumer goods, corporate grooming, earth transport, electronics, energy, engineering... so yeah, pretty much everything. Classic super mega corp.
Description: Al grew up on his father’s farm, spoiled with plenty of toys as a child. As kids, he and Andy Sr. would play together, and Al, a toy collector even in his youth, was jealous of Andy’s rare Woody toy. After Al's father passed away, he inherited his father’s farm and began selling off the land piece by piece. He used the proceeds from the land to purchase his penthouse apartment in the one of the buildings now surrounding the former family farm. Al did however keep the parcel with the barn, and turned it into a toy store, aptly named Al's Toy Barn.
Description: Pawnee, Indiana is a fictional town located in south central Indiana, 90 miles from Indianapolis and 35 miles past Bloomington. In 1812, Reverend Luther Howell of Terre Haute traveled over 100 miles by pushcart and planted a flag in the ground. That soil, formerly inhabited by the Wamapoke Indian tribe, was to become Pawnee. Rev. Howell was soon dispatched by the tribe, but not before consecrating the town's first church, Pawnee Lutheran, which still stands today, though it was deconsecrated in 1974 and is currently a wholesale linen outlet. Legend has it, Reverend Howell chose "Pawnee" as the name for the town accidentally. As a functional illiterate, he tried to write "Paradise" on the city charter, and his scrawls were misinterpreted.
Description: Houston's new baseball team was named the "Colt .45s" after a "Name The Team" contest was held, and the selected team colors were blue and orange. The first team was a collection of cast-offs stocked primarily through an expansion draft held after the 1961 season. 1962 was the first season in franchise history with Harry Craft as their first manager. The .45s finished eighth among the National League's ten teams with a record of 64–96, 36½ games behind the league champion.
Description: Disco Inferno is a song by American disco band the Trammps from their 1976 fourth studio album of the same name. With two other cuts by the group, it reached number-one on the US Dance Club Charts in early '77, but had limited mainstream success until 1978, after being included on the soundtrack to the 1977 film Saturday Night Fever.
Description: In 1938, the Swedish government founded Svenska Aeroplan Aktie Bolag (SAAB) for the purpose of the manufacturing of bomber and fighter aircraft for the Royal Swedish Air Force. They grew to be a very successful production company during the war, and post-war, the company began manufacturing civilian aircraft as well. Still looking for new products to start manufacturing, Saab decided to jump feet first into making automobiles. Needless to say, not everything they did was a hit, but eventually they got it right, leading to a long run of highly recognizable cars with an almost cult-like following of fans and enthusiasts. This design is based on the 1965 logo design employed by Saab which still played off their aerospace history.
Description: Vehicle Engineering and Manufacturing Company (VEMCO) was born in Fort Wayne, Indiana in 1976, when the company began performing 4x4 conversions on full size vans utilizing the Dana developed V-Drive 4x4 system. Built using a Twin I-Beam front suspension, V-Drive added the equivalent of a Dana 30 differential to each beam. Calling their conversions VX4, Vemco four-wheel drive vans had the plush suspension setup that was previously only afforded to passenger cars, and the 4x4 capability reserved for rugged off-roaders, but sadly, only 250 of these conversions were done, so they are rare to say the least.
Description: Like most Chinese fireworks, Red Devil Super Firecrackers were manufactured in Macau and while all firecracker brands say they were the loudest, Red Devil brand was actually known for their extra loud bang. First manufactured in 1948 for the Chinese market and distributed worldwide by 1950, they were first imported for American consumers by V. J. Tovatt Co. of Los Angeles.
Description: The Red Barn restaurant was a fast-food restaurant chain founded in 1961 in Springfield, Ohio. Originally, the Red Barn restaurants were in the shape of barns with a glass front and limited seating, while later buildings had the familiar fast-food style mansard roof which allowed them to comply to more local building codes. They were known for their signature "Big Barney" and "Barnbuster" burgers and the chain was quite forward-looking with their menu and were actually the first chain to have self-service salad bars. At its peak, Red Barn had 300–400 restaurants in 19 states, as well as outlets in southern Ontario, elsewhere in Canada, and Australia.
Description: The Fiat 124 Sport Spider is a convertible sports car marketed by Fiat for model years 1966-1985. Designed by and manufactured at the Italian carrozzeria Pininfarina factory, the monocoque, front-engine, rear drive Sport Spider debuted at the November 1966 Turin Auto Show with styling by Tom Tjaarda. Fiat later marketed the car as the Spider 2000 (1979-1982). After being retired by FIAT, Pininfarina continued the production of the model under his own brand as Pininfarina Spider Azzura for the North American market and Pininfarina Spidereuropa for the European market for three more years, from August 1982 until 1985.
