Mickey Mouse Club

Fun Fact:

On this day in 1955 The Mickey Mouse Club made its original debut on the American Broadcasting Company (ABC).  The show originally aired from 1955-1959.

(Photo source)

Opening Day

Last year I posted about the history of Silver Dollar City.  I love history {obviously} and love SDC, so when I saw this pic on the SDC facebook page I thought it was really cool.

This was the poster used for the grand opening of Silver Dollar City back in May 1960.

I love the style of the poster; it's a design style they still use all over the park in their signs.

Stretching the Food Budget

Quick Fun Fact -

My husband loves meatloaf, so when I heard this fact I found it very interesting.

Did you know that during the Great Depression cooking meatloaf was a way for families to stretch their food budget?  They would use inexpensive meat and mix in egg, crushed cereal or crackers, veggies, and spices to make an easy, delicious, and low-budget dinner.

Where Is Oz?

Quick Fun Fact:

The name 'Oz' in The Wizard of Oz came from within L. Frank Baum's filing cabinet.  Baum couldn't decide on the perfect name for the imaginative city Dorothy and her gang of friends ended up in during the book.  He looked over at his three-drawer filing cabinet and saw the labels on each drawer.  A-G, G-N, and O-Z.  Oz was then born (or stored?).

In the 113 years since the book was originally published readers have continued to fall in love with Dorothy and Toto as they make friends and travel to see the Wizard.


**I learned this fact thanks to NPR's All Things Considered.  To hear the original recording CLICK HERE.**

From a Hole in the Ground

Doesn't it seem like those “hole in the wall” type places are always the best? Such as that “hole in a wall” diner that sells the best burgers in the county. Well what about a “hole in the ground”? I know of a hole in the ground that has become my favorite place on Earth.

It just so happens that Silver Dollar City got its start as a literal hole in the ground- a cave attraction. The cave, Marvel Cave, was discovered in the 1500s by the Osage Indians. In the 1880s adventure seekers began exploring the cave by lowering themselves down the 200 feet, by rope, into the main chamber. In the early 1900s regular cave tours began. By the 1920s Marvel Cave was a well-established attraction.

The Herschend family visited the cave in 1946 and fell in love with it. Then in 1950 they took over the management and tours of the cave. In 1954 a traveling salesman's story planted the idea in Hugo Herschend's mind to recreate an 1880s mining town.

In 1960 Silver Dollar City opened. It was named after a promotional idea of giving visitors silver dollars as change. Little money was spent on advertising, but the word of mouth was tremendous.

Each employee at the city is not called an employee, but a citizen and dresses in a 1880s costume. In the first year SDC brought in more then 125,000 visitors; four times more then the cave was drawing.

In the first 50 years Silver Dollar City has won several awards and has had 65 million guests from all over the world.

"From natural wonder to international attraction, it all started with a hole in the ground."

*To read more about Silver Dollar City's history please click here*

Won't You Be My New Neighbor

I was watching History Detectives reruns today and noticed an ad on the side for a new show called Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood. What really drew me to the ad was the font.  It is the same font that was used for Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood.

I decided to check the show out and learned that it is an animated spin off featuring Daniel Tiger, son of Daniel Striped Tiger.  Other characters from Make-Believe will appear all grown older.

Like many my age and older, I have a love for Mr. Rogers. We even discussed him in one of my media classes because of his efforts to get VHS promoted over BETA for home use. He wanted parents to be able to record his show, and other educational programs, to watch together with their children.

(I found a video on youTube a while back showing Fred Rogers speaking about VHS, but it's no longer up. I'll try to find it again.)

I'm so thankful from Fred Rogers and all the work he did for educational and public television. He was a very upstanding and honorable person. I can't imagine the world without Fred Rogers and Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood.

Jan Berenstain

I posted back in January about the Berenstain Bears and the autobiography of Stan & Jan Berenstain I was reading.  The Berestain Bears are very close to my heart, so I'm sad to post that Jan Berenstain passed away Friday, February 24, 2012.  Stan Berenstain passed away in 2005, so the creators of the Berenstain legacy are no longer with us.  But the Berenstains and their Bears will forever live on in the hearts and minds of children and adults. 

Photo source

160 Years of Singer

It's interesting that my last post was about the history of the sewing machine...then today I was reminded that Singer Sewing Machines is celebrating their 160th year.  They came out with The Singer 160 Limited Edition sewing machine to celebrate the anniversary.  The machine is styled after the vintage Singer Featherweight and some of their other machines, but has all the modern functions.

As I said in my last post, vintage solid metal sewing machines will always be my favorite...but the Singer 160 is beautiful!

Singer has created a neat website where you can share your Singer story.  Along the top is a timeline showing important dates and images from Singer history. 

Fun fact from the timeline- The '68 Elvis Presley Comeback Special was solely sponsored by the Singer Brand!

Sewing Machines

If you don’t know already…I love sewing machines!  I have a pretty decent collection of new and used machines ranging from 10-99 years old. 

You can’t use and see as many sewing machines as I have without beginning to think about how sewing machines got started. 

I did a little research and wanted to share a little info about how sewing machines came to be...

Prior to the sewing machine invention all sewing was done by hand.  This took a lot of time and kept pre-made clothes from being anywhere near affordable.   Small items such as double pointed needles were invented in attempts to speed up sewing, but it still wasn’t the breakthrough that was needed.

In 1846 Elias Howe invented and patented the first automatic sewing machine. 

 Photo Source

Eight years later Isaac Singer patented the first home sewing machine. 

 Photo Source

Singer was inspired by Howe’s machine, but as a trained engineer he made multiple improvements on the design.  Singer also invented the foot (or treadle) powered machine which further enhanced his clever design.  However, as you can imagine, Howe found out about Singer’s machines and started some legal trouble.  Several inventors ended up coming together to create the Sewing Machine Combination to share the patents. 

In 1889, machines began to turn electric.  The first electric machines had a small motor strapped to the side as though it wasn’t a real part of the design.  As more and more homes added electricity the motors became an integrated part of the sewing machine casing.

 

After learning all this it’s incredible how little sewing machines have changed in the last 100+ years…and really since 1854.  Improvements have been made, but the basics are all still the same. 

All of my machines have the same type of bobbin, they have variable stich sizes, they also all have feed dogs, presser feet, and foot/knee pedals.  Sure, higher end sewing machines have become a lot more technical and computerized.  However at the end of the day I would rather use a 50-60 year old sewing machine than anything else!

 

The Berenstain Bears Celebrate 50 Years!

If you're like me you grew up reading The Berenstain Bear books!  They are classic and I still read the chapter books on occasion when I want a light read.  I think my favorite ever Berenstain Bear book is No Girls Allowed!  The reason I loved the book so much as because the illustrations showed the clubhouses the boy bears and girl bears played in. (When I was a kid I LOVED anything to do with really cool clubhouses and tree houses...ok, I actually still love treehouses!) 

I opened my email today and there was a News from the Berenstain Bears email in my inbox (yes I'm almost 25 and subscribed to the Berenstain Bear newsletter).  The email announced that 2012 in the 50th anniversary of the Berenstain Bears.  Throughout the entire year Stan and Jan Berenstain will be celebrating the 50th anniversary and sharing fun facts and info about the books. 

Here's some interesting details about Stan and Jan creating the Berenstain Bear concept and writing the first book.

Photo source (also includes some interesting facts)

Vintage Coca-Cola Decor

I've blogged before about how I love vintage Coca-Cola advertising...

Jeremiah and I decided we wanted diner type food on Thursday so we went to a new place (sorry, can't remember what it's called).  We went in and it was full of tons of amazing vintage Coca-Cola decor!  I filmed part of it because it was so awesome and I wanted to show it to my dad :)

Here's the clip...

History Detectives

About a month ago I was flipping through the channels on a Monday evening and landed on OETA.  The show was History Detectives.  Each show has 2-4 segments and each one is about a historical object.  Can be an antique musket, a painting, book, or even a Ronald McDonald costume. 


(photo source)
It happened to be the Ronald McDonald story that caught my attention.  I had recently read the book The Man Behind the Nose.  The [auto]biography of Larry Harmon, the man who made Bozo and every modern clown what they are today.  I knew little to nothing about Bozo or Larry when I started the book...but now I love him!  The book was one of the most interesting and well written books I've read in a long time.


Larry started the Bozo television show then franchised Bozo so each television station would have a local Bozo actor.  One of the actors, Willard Scott (who went on to be a Today Show weatherman), used Bozo as the inspiration for the character of Ronald McDonald. 

Ok, back to History Detectives...a lady had a Ronald McDonald costume and thought it might be the original.  The episode followed show researchers as they tracked down clues and information about the costume.  It ended up not being the original, but it was the first Ronald McDonald costume created for national production and for someone other then Willard. 














(photo source)


If you've never seen History Detectives you need to check your local PBS listings!

CBS

Exactly 60 years ago, on October 20th, 1951, CBS debuted their then new eye logo.  If you don't already know...I happen to be a huge fan of CBS! 

*I love many CBS programs including NCIS, CSI, and Big Bang Theory.

*It was Craig Day, a news anchor on our local CBS affiliate, who inspired me to pursue a mass communication degree.  Without said degree I would never have considered starting Whitney Sews.

*To top it off I got to job shadow and intern at that same CBS affiliate station!

I guess you could say CBS and I are pretty tight...so when I found out today was a somewhat historical day for CBS I just had to share the news!

Here is original all seeing CBS eye

Quick video about the eye's history





Here's to many, many more years for CBS!

Vintage Find

Just wanted to quickly share a video I filmed last week at a thrift store showing off some amazing vintage radios!  I didn't buy one at the time and they were all gone when I went back the next day :/

Mark Twain

We've all heard of the guy, right?  You probably know he's that guy who wrote The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.  You might even know that Mark Twain is a pen name for Samuel Clemens. 

I myself have read the condensed versions of both previously mentioned books, seen the Wishbone episodes, and watched the movie Tom and Huck featuring Jonathan Taylor Thomas and Brad Renfro.  I however was not aware that there were four books written about Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn along with at least three more unfinished books.  I happened to buy one of the three yesterday!

The unfinished manuscript for Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer Among the Indians was published in Life Magazine in 1968.  Then college student Lee Nelson read the story.  Then in 2002, while watching a PBS documentary on Mark Twain, he remembered the long forgotten story.  Nelson decided to finish Twain's book...and that is what I bought. 

Nelson chose to leave Twain's work as is, even though it was an unedited rough draft and wrote the book's middle and ending in a style to match Twain's writings.  I'm excited to read the book!  I think it will be interesting to see how the Twain's and Nelson's writing fits together to tell one story.

Wow...It's Been Forever

I mentioned in one of my previous posts that I have a youTube show.  I've been super busy with that and some new opportunities that came my way...hopefully now that things are starting to settle down I can focus more on this blog. 

The way I get inspired for blogging about history is by coming across a random fact (whether in a book, movie, or conversation) then I look up said fact to learn more about it.  If it's something I find interesting I share it.

Since I've been so busy the majority of the reading I've been doing is audio books...juvenile audio books at that.  I think reading (or listening) to a book is fantastic, no matter what type of book it is...but these books have had nothing to spark my curious mind. 

Yesterday, Jeremiah and I went to Borders for their going out of business discounts and I found an interesting looking book and it has inspired a new blog post! (I'll write it in just a moment.)

History of Silver Dollar City

I mentioned my love for Silver Dollar City in my blog introduction.  I was fortunate enough to get to go several times a year from 1996 to 2009 (except 1 year).  I think it's safe to say Silver Dollar City was the first love of my life!

If it wasn't for SDC I would have zero interest in music.  I would not be as interested in photography.  Nor would I have as much love for history.  In other words Silver Dollar City has made me who I am. 

Today I was looking up some info about Disneyland which lead into some research pertaining to SDC and I came across THIS page.  It's a great timeline detailing the history of not only SDC but of the land it sits on...all the way back to the Osage tribe.  It's really neat to see how much the park has changed, even in just the 15 years I've known it. 


Silver Dollar City calls it's employees citizens.  I'd like to think that I'm an honorary citizen of the City.

Television Time Capsules

In case you're wondering... no, I haven't forgotten about this blog.  I've been busy with work, life, Whitney Sews, and other things. 

This afternoon I was watching the Lawrence Welk Show on OETA like I do every week.  I love how the show is a time capsule of fashion, music, beauty, and etiquette!  I don't think there is a single modern show that can be compared to the Lawrence Welk show in any way.

Another show I used to watch every week was the Ed Sullivan Show.  The reruns came on every Saturday night after Lawrence Welk for several years.  It exposed me to tons of singers, bands, comedians, and acts from the past.  The show hasn't been aired on OETA in the past few years, so I was excited when I saw a promo last week for AugustFest. They are bringing Ed Sullivan back, at least for Festival! 

Coca Cola Girls

I checked a book out of the library last week called Coca-Cola Girls- An Advertising Art History.  It's stuffed full of beautiful photos of vintage Coca-Cola advertisements with the 'Coca-Cola girls'.  I haven't had a chance to read the book yet, but I'm looking forward to it.

In the meantime I wanted to share some of the vintage ads.  Here's several made for overseas advertising.

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Coca-Cola has done some ad campaigns lately mixing vintage with modern.  Here's an example of a Cola-Cola ad with Taylor Swift dressed to look like a Coca-Cola girl.

[source]

Another thing they have done is using the actual vintage ads to digitally create a 're-mix'. 

[source]

I think this is a fun way to integrate history with modern advertising techniques.  I can't wait to see what else they come out with!

Never Give Up

I've been reading the biography of Pearl Carter Scott (the Chickasaw aviator I mentioned last week) non-stop for the past two days.  I've already seen the movie about her life...so I know about Pearl.  However this is just another reminder to myself of why I love [auto]biographies so much.  They contain little nuggets of extra info that not even a mini-series worth of movies could cover.

For example- the movie told about Pearl's father, George, going blind as a teen.  While harvesting broom corn (used to make broom bristles until synthetic brooms came about) the dust got in his and his two brother's eyes.  However the movie didn't mention that it wasn't the dust that cause George and one brother to become permanently blind...it was the eye drops the doctor put in.  The drops caused their eyes to bleed and lose sight.  The other brother hid while the doctor was at the house and his eyesight recovered.

This could seem unimportant to most, but if this event had not occurred Pearl would never have become an aviator.  Let alone the first licensed Chickasaw pilot or the youngest. 

Pearl was 12 years old when famous aviator Wiley Post landed in the field next to her house.  A quick connection was made between Wiley and George because of Wiley's blindness in one eye and George's in both.  George became Wiley's first passenger and Pearl his second after her expressed interest in flying.  It was that very moment Pearl realized flying was for her!

If things had been different when George was young and he hadn't lost his sight, that day in 1927 would have gone much differently for Wiley, George, and Pearl.

Another thing Pearl learned from her father's blindness is the phrase Never Give Up (the title of the biography).  George was a firm believer that anyone could do anything they wanted if they would never give up and put in some hard work.  Pearl went on to live her life by that motto.

That was a rambling road of thoughts...but I learn a long time ago to just keep running with my thoughts when they take off.  It's just crazy how one seemingly tragic event can become a positive thing in so many lives!  Well I'm headed back to my reading :)

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