Looking at My 1965 Christmas List

Translating from six-year-old penmanship:
Mattel's Power Shop
Cat and Mouse Game
Pike's Peak Hill Climb
Secret Sam
Marble Raceway
James Bond 007 Road Race
Jack and the Beanstalk
Duffy's Daredevil
Winnie the Pooh Game
Eldon's Thrill Drivers
Monkeys and Coconuts
Shenanigans
Camp Granada
Daredevil Trick Track
Hamilton's Invaders
Hands Down
Operation
Motorific Torture Track
Fish Bait
Union Station
Time Bomb
Hands Up Harry
Getaway Chase Game
Smackaroo
Gilbert Chem Lab
Rock'em Sock'em Robots
Thingmaker
Bats in Your Belfry
Battle Action
James Bond Set

Mattel's Power Shop
Well, no wonder I didn't get this: sander, drill, lathe, jigsaw. Plus it cost $17.99, a lot of money in those days.

Cat and Mouse Game
"It's magnetic...fun...fast...and tricky. Cat chases mouse around walls and obstacles in enclosed plastic house. Mouse enters 1 of 3 holes to score, cat scores if he nabs him...6 scores win." I didn't get this one either.

Pike's Peak Hill Climb
I didn't get this either. But don't worry--Santa redeems himself later in the list. The catalog page shows what looks like part of a Brady Bunch-type blended family, with each parent having one child who looks just like them and nothing like the other parent. It also looks like Mom's been sharing her makeup with both kids.

Secret Sam
Secret Sam doesn't appear in the 1964 Sears Christmas catalog (which I have on CD) or the 1966 edition (which I have in old-fashioned paper), so it must have been a one-year wonder. There was a Secret Sam attache case, which contained a dismantled gun and other goodies--I assume this is what I was asking for. I didn't get it, but I did get a Secret Sam Sixfinger gun, a hollow plastic finger...well, here, I found a picture online (thanks to whoever's site I got it from):

Marble Raceway
"Line up colorful marbles, watch them pass on curves, collide and race for the lead position. Player whose marble finishes first, wins the game." I didn't get this one either.

James Bond 007 Road Race
This is another item I couldn't find in the 1964 or 1966 catalogs, so thanks again to the Internet for its kindness in providing this picture. $34.95!? Wow. No, I didn't get it.

Jack and the Beanstalk
Another one that I had to search for online. I don't remember it at all, but it looks like something I would like.

Duffy's Daredevils
Another one that apparently only was in the catalog for the one year, and which I didn't get, and which I don't remember, and which I can see why I wanted it...

Winnie the Pooh Game
My sister got this one, which was fine, since I got to play it.

Eldon's Thrill Drivers
It's hard to tell from the box picture, but this was a slot car set. I never had a slot car set (other than Motorific, which isn't quite the same thing), and don't remember ever playing with one at anyone elses's house either.

Monkeys and Coconuts
Your monkey goes around the board and collects coconuts which look more like rabbit pellets. Didn't get this one either.

Shenanigans
Santa brought me this one. It was based on a Saturday morning children's game show, where two child contestants would go around a giant game board and perform stunts at each square they landed on. The show was more interesting than the game, though we played the game a lot.

Camp Granada
This one I played at somebody else's house and fell in love with, though I never had it myself--until a few years back I got it on eBay. Didn't really hold up for me though.

Daredevil Trick Track (actually Daredevil Trik-Trak)
I got this--in fact I had two different Trik-Trak sets. I think the other one was just plain "Trik-Trak" and I probably got that the year before. The car is gear-driven!

Hamilton's Invaders
Those bug/monster things look very familiar. I never got it though.

Hands Down
My sister got this one. Doesn't seem like we played it very much, though.

Operation
Well, everyone knows Operation--I don't see any point in posting a picture of it. My sister had it.

Motorific Torture Track
More specifically, this was the Motorific Giant Detroit Torture Track, one of the varieties of Motorific Torture Track. This is the one I got, and still have. I got a similar Motorific Racerific set later, probably the next Christmas, and even though I had bad luck as far as the cars actually running, I used to set up elaborate layouts, often intersecting with train tracks and other components to make up settings for my sister and me to play with Disneykins, Matchbox cars, Winnie-the-Pooh erasers and various other pieces in a game of make-believe that may have gone on for weeks at a time and involved dozens of characters and their extended-family relationships.

Fish Bait
I got this one. It was the sequel to Mouse Trap and Crazy Clock, both of which I also had. All three were lost in the Great Garage Sale Disaster of '73, but all have been reacquired. Best games ever.

Union Station
I haven't been able to figure out what this was. Some kind of train set, maybe.

Time Bomb
A classic toy. I never had it, but I can remember playing with it at someone's house once. It seems like you wouldn't get much use out of it before it would break...

Hands Up Harry
This looked great in the commercials. If you shot him in the belt his pants fell down. I never got it.

Getaway Chase Game

This and the Rock'em Sock'em Robots were the things I asked for every year but never got. I'm not sure why--I certainly got plenty of other things. It still looks really cool.

Smackaroo
I don't remember this at all. It looks confusing. But you can play baseball, bowling, smack-it, and many other wonderful games.

Gilbert Chem Lab
I couldn't find a picture of this specific chemistry set, but needless to say I didn't get it.

Rock'em Sock'em Robots
As I said above, this was a perennial on my lists. I probably asked for it for my birthdays as well. They brought it back in the 80s in a larger size and I bought it then. Several years ago I saw that it was back again, smaller this time.

Thingmaker
The Thingmaker was the heating unit, and there were various sets of molds that went with it. I got the Creepy Crawlers set, and later I got Fright Factory and Mini-Dragons. Plastigoop was the liquid you poured into the molds.

Bats in Your Belfry
I don't remember this one, but I'm not at all surprised I wanted it.

Battle Action
Apparently Ideal had an entire line of Battle Action playsets, usually with something that blew up, like a bridge or a tank. I don't think I ever had one.

James Bond Set
There were a number of James Bond sets--I'm guessing this is the one I had in mind.


Here we have my sister on Christmas morning, 1965--I'm not sure what she's doing. At left is her new toy range, front left is my Motorific Torture Track, and next to her is a Trik Trak set. (Behind her is Dad's chair, with a towel draped over it to protect it from his Brylcreem.) The item at far right says "Teeny Tiny Tales," but I'm not sure what it is.


And here I am playing with Fish Bait, with my sister's Bash game and my box of Lincoln Logs nearby. I don't know why there's an alarm clock on the end table--maybe Dad slept on the couch, with the alarm set to wake him up to put out the presents.

Looking at My 1964 Christmas List

This has to be from 1964, when I was five--I don't think it could have been any earlier, and the subsequent ones are accounted for. Even then I wanted records. I can't imagine what "horsefilm" referred to. "Play cat"? "Ball ball"? "Dragon gun puppet"--is that one item, or two, or three?

Here are the Uncle Wiggily and Red Riding Hood games (neither of which Santa elected to bring me):

And here's Odd Ogg, which I didn't get either:
And here's the aftermath of that Christmas morning:
That's our new puppy, Jill, in the center of the picture. My High Gear game is on the coffee table, along with a book that seems to be called "Fun With Paper and Pencil"--I don't remember it, but it must have been mine, since my sister was two years old. Also on the table is what looks like a cement mixer truck. I can't tell what the open box on the couch is. Other photos show that I got a King of the Hill game and my sister got a toy iron and ironing board.

Looking at a Page From the Seattle P-I Entertainment Section, 5-12-67

At the Rod & Reel, now appearing at the piano table nightly, fantastic ballad singer Ted Dore.
At the Sounds Cellar, the newest "18 and over" night club, 2 top bands every Friday and Saturday.
At the New Warling's, where your hosts are Jim Anas and Geo. Serpanos, coming Monday is Janie Tucker, with Woody Drake at the piano (Wonderful duo! Don't miss this!).
At Mr. Mike's Steak House, live Dixie nightly, with Dug Davis and the Uncalled Four.
At the Marine Room at the Olympic Hotel, island mood music from Sterling Mossman and Company, plus Ronnie Eastman.
At the Golden Door Restaurant, the continuous entertainment nightly includes, every Friday and Saturday, two fabulous shows from Tani and the South Sea Islanders.
At the Wharf, at Fisherman's Terminal, Suzie and Franc are playing their last two nights, to be followed by Ukie Sherin.
At Casa Villa, in their charming dining room, now playing is the Bob Winn Quartet featuring Patti Summers.
At the Avalon Ballroom, there's dancing every Sunday with Charlie Cannon's Music.
At the Meet & Mix Dance, held Wednesday, Friday and Saturday at an unnamed building at 1512 6th Avenue, there's a 5-piece orchestra.
At Piccadilly Corner at the Olympic Hotel, if you're not interested in the island mood music in the Marine Room, Percy Franks holds forth nightly with a repertoire of old favorites.
And at the Islander on Mercer Island, Charlie Ross, the well known organist, is now appearing nightly.
I don't really have any comments about any of this, except to say: I wonder what these people sounded like? All those musical acts, all presumably lost to posterity--I don't imagine that video, or even audio, exists of any of them (nowadays they'd all be on YouTube). What did well known organist Charlie Ross sound like? What was in Percy Franks' repertoire of old favorites? What the hell did Ukie Sherin do? (Did he play the ukulele?) What top bands played at the Sounds Cellar? I hate that I don't know...

Looking at a Page From the Seattle P-I Entertainment Section, 9-9-66

Years ago I made copies of a large number of KJR playlists from microfilm of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, which had published them in its entertainment section from 1964-74. Almost as interesting to me, though, as the playlists are the other items on the pages. In this example, we see an ad for "Mike and Brian," now playing at the Bavarian Haus in the heart of Seattle--I wonder what their act was? Did they sing? Play twin pianos? Were they comedians? Their performances lasted 5 hours, 4 on Saturdays--what did they do for that long? Was there anything Bavarian about it?

To the left of that ad is one for the Trade Winds Restaurant at 1st and Wall, offering breakfast, lunch and dinner "at popular prices," and "cocktails of course." Nightly from 8 PM they have Cor Du Mee, "a real 'show stopper,'" "entertaining nightly in the Continental manner at the piano table"--with go-go girls. To the left of that, partially cut off by the scanner, is an ad for Nisco's, which "presents the lyrical piano styling of Jack Brownlow." What did he sound like? How was he different from Cor Du Mee? Apparently he was less Continental, and didn't have go-go girls.

Just above the Nisco's ad you can see the tail end of the following news blurb:

Silent Film Star Dies at Age of 90
MIDDLETOWN, Conn.--(UPI)--Mrs. Anna Zadina, star of the early silent film here, died Tuesday night at the age of 90.
Mrs. Zadina, billed as "the emotional Bohemian actress" by a Czech theater prior to her screen career, turned to pictures in 1910.

I don't know what her name was before she got married, but I got nowhere searching for "Anna Zadina."

Getting back to Seattle lounges, 1966, the bottom right shows that Harry Taylor, "America's smartest supper club star," was playing the Legend Room at the Bon Marche at the Northgate Mall--I was wondering if his act consisted of solving differential equations, but a Google search tells me that he was a risque humorist. Above that we see that at the Drift Inn at 5th and Pike you could "dance to Western Music by Leo Ball and the Fireballs featuring Mary Regis." Above that is an ad for Seattle's Finest Ballroom, the Encore Ballroom at 1214 East Pike, where you could "hear the Grandiose Orchestra under the leadership of Alice Nadine Morrison the famous composer." (Another internet search reveals that Alice did have some successful songs going back to 1920, and that in 1966 she was in her mid-70s.) The ad goes on to say that admission was $1, "same program as usual." Sounds like they were in a bit of a rut.

Just to the left of the Encore Ballroom ad is an ad for the Penthouse at 1st and Cherry, where they actually had some big-time jazz artists: Shelly Manne and His Men, plus Ruth Price, with Ahmad Jamal due in September 22. But my favorite piece on the page is just up and to the right, a short announcement whose headline is partially cut off, leaving only the last two words: "Spastic Children." The text reads:

The Magnolia Kiwanis Club will hold its sixth annual spastic children's fishing derby on Sunday at the Canyon Park Trout Farm, north of Bothell, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Club members will provide transportation for 35 handicapped youngsters and their parents, then will help the youngsters fish. After the fishing is over there will be entertainment and refreshments.

Well. Now, I'm not exactly sure how to translate this into 21st century English--was that a catch-all term referring to anyone with a physical handicap, or did it refer to a specific condition that we now call something different? And do people still take them fishing?

Looking at the Best TV Cartoon Theme Songs

I know what you’re thinking, that you can’t look at a song unless you’ve got the sheet music or you’re on LSD, but I’m going to provide videos for you, so stop your whining. By a strange coincidence, all the best TV cartoon theme songs are from the 60s, when I was a kid.

10.Spider-Man
“Is he strong? Listen, bud, he’s got radioactive blood.” Yeah, but is he STRONG?



9.The Beagles
This is a show that I used to feel like nobody but me remembered, but I found a copy of the soundtrack LP in the 80s so I knew I hadn’t imagined it. It was one of my favorite shows while it lasted.



8.Super Chicken
This was always my favorite segment of the George of the Jungle show.



7.Beany & Cecil
One of my earliest TV memories. It was many years later that I learned it had originally been a puppet show. Egomaniacal Bob Clampett had himself written into the song and depicted in the animation. “Lovable, gullible, armless, harmless, ten foot tall and wet.”



6.Jonny Quest
The only instrumental in the countdown. Here are the opening and closing versions.





5.Linus the Lionhearted
This had separate opening and closing themes and they were both great. Linus appeared on boxes of Crispy Critters cereal, and the other cartoon segments on the show were also cereal tie-ins, most notably Sugar Bear. Linus is not to be confused with King Leonardo from “The King and Odie”—which was a better cartoon but didn’t have as cool a song. (The video here includes the opening and closing themes, but has some other segments in between.)



4.The New Casper Cartoon Show
I’ve discussed this here before, but this is not “Casper, the friendly ghost, the friendliest ghost you know” from the 1950s theatrical cartoons. This is a new song (actually two new songs, opening and closing, again both great) that was written for the television show.





3.The Mighty Hercules
“With the strength of ten ordinary men.” “Softness in his eyes, iron in his thighs.” Written and sung by Johnny Nash.



2.The Bugs Bunny Show
Also used for “The Bugs Bunny Road Runner Hour,” “The Bugs Bunny and Tweety Show,” and possibly other combinations. What could be more rousing than “Overture, curtain, lights, this is it, our night of nights” and then the march of the cast across the stage? (For this one I had to go with a link rather than an imbedded video.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YdVseljx2UU

1.Underdog
“When criminals in this world appear and break the laws that they should fear and frighten all who see or hear the call goes out both far and near for Underdog!” “Speed of lightning, roar of thunder, fighting all who rob or plunder, Underdog!” Other than some well-used “oohs,” that’s all the words they needed. So concise it’s like haiku!