Retro Reminiscing Video and Pictures – Do You Remember
online community focused on sharing and reminiscing about video, audio, and images that stir our memories of the past – old television, theme songs, commercials, print advertisements, the sights and sounds you remember
Oh, there was magic and dreams in this book! The hours I’d spend putting together my wish list for Christmas and birthday. With the ease of online shopping I don’t there there is as good a collection put together as the Sears catalog was! I remember this cover like it was yesterfday!
What special memories does it bring to you?
Some interesting interviews of the 20th century are now streaming on various online services. Johnny Carson, Dick Cavett, and Merv Griffin all interviewed the headliners of our time.
One such episode was on August 26, 1965 The Merv Griffin Show had two interesting figures of World War II.
Mitsuo Fuchida was the commander of the Japanese attack force during the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. He explained to Merv and the audience that there were no plans to occupy Pearl Harbor or the mainland USA, just diminish the naval capacity by destroying the ships docked there.
Frederick Ayer Jr was also a guest on the show. Ayer in 1941 was a young FBI agent who was following the traffic of the rumblings of war with Japan. General George Patton was Ayer’s uncle.
The thing I found most fascinating about the interview was how Ayer and Merv discussed how on the night of the invasion how there was a huge traffic jam in San Francisco going to the beach to watch the Japanese arrival!
Captain Fuchida agreed that dropping nuclear weapons saved lives. After the Japanese surrender during General MacArthur’s occupation, Fuchida met a street minister and turned his life over to Jesus Christ. Fuchida spent the rest of his life as a minister and as an author writing about the war. Fuchida died in 1976.
I did not link this interview because it will change to and from various streaming services. This was season 2 episode 79.
A different theme to Flipper and a cameo appearance by Burt Reynolds in a yellow submarine? Yes in season 2 on Flipper!
I’ve had this clip for over ten years and finally decided to post it. I found the intro to the show Flipper very unusual, one I never heard before. Turns out the theme of Flipper changed in the second season for the first 5 episodes. Frankie Randall sang the new lyrics but they switched back for the rest of the seasons. He even sang for the closing credits which to me was almost sacrilegious! Especially the ending which sounded like the end of a Disney production.
Prior to posting this, I noticed Burt Reynolds in the credit. This was season 2 episode 2 which would have been 1965. Burt was already an accomplished actor but I was six years old when this first aired so I never noticed Burt or the new theme.
Flipper was known as the aquatic version of Lassie and if you watch this episode you can see why. Flipper lasted for three seasons losing out to the Jackie Gleason Show in 1967. Burt Reynolds appeared in a yellow submarine four years before the Beatles’ famed song!
You can watch this episode here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oH74r1Lgbcs along with other Flipper Episodes, Addams Family, Green Acres, The Outer Limits, and other great shows on YouTube at TV Rerun Club by MGM
Before there was Grumpy Cat or cat memes we only had Nine Live Morris The Cat commercials to look forward to. Morris the Cat was the mascot for Nine Lives from the ’70s through the ’80s. Known to be the “world’s most finicky cat” with snarky voice-over comments.
The first Morris The Cat was discovered by Bob Martwick in 1968 at the Hindsale Humane Society in the Chicago area. Martwick worked at the Leo Burnett advertising company where Morris was featured in 58 television commercials from 1968 to 1978. Morris was Martwick’s family pet.
John Erin was the voice for Morris and also He-Man in He-Man and the Masters of the Universe.
The original Morris died in 1978. Since then there have been 2 other Morris cats, all were rescue cats.
Now, this is funny!
Not all memories are happy ones. I remember as a kid thinking to myself that if McDonald’s was mostly for kids, why did they have smoking in the restaurants? I hated when they were at a table we were at or near! The glass ones were really old school with the tin ones taking over in the 80’s. Smoking was banned in 1994.
According to TMZ, the Grammy Award-winning lead singer of The Delfonics Will Heart passed away on Thursday, July 15, 2002 after complications of surgery. He was 77. The former barber from Philadelphia formed the Delfonics with his brother Wilbert. In 1975 after a number of hits the brothers split into two Delfonics groups. A judge ruled both brothers could use the name Delfonics if they properly informed the audience of the distinction between the two groups, so Will became Will Heart and the Delfonics.
Hart’s lead vocal led to hits like “La – La – Means I Love You,” “Didn’t I (Blow Your Mind This Time)” and “Ready or Not Here I Come (Can’t Hide From Love).”
![The Delfonics - Didn't I (Blow Your Mind This Time) [Restored]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/qYNjpZ3NAGE/hqdefault.jpg)
Most of the things you use today Nick Holonyak Jr. had a hand in it. We all know Thomas Edison invented the light bulb, but who invented the LED light bulb? Nick Holonyak Jr. is receiving the credit for that energy saving device. Your TV, computer and phone screen are more than likely LED. Although the LED was around for a while, Holonyak made the first visible light from and LED and credited as the father of the LED light.
Holonyak won two Nobel Prizes. The first for co-inventing the transistor and the second one for explaining superconductivity (Google that one). He holds 30 patents. “His work is responsible for the technology used to develop red lasers in CD and DVD players, the ability to transmit information over the Internet, and applications in replacing conventional lighting with LEDs. Holonyak also created the basic electronic element of household light dimmer switches” (see https://www.invent.org/inductees/nick-holonyak-jr).
At the time of this writing (May 2022) he is still with us and enjoying retirement at the age of 93.
To learn more about his of course Google him or see:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nick_Holonyak
https://mntl.illinois.edu/ssdl
https://mntl.illinois.edu/ssdl
Ain’t that the truth!! Who thought robots would be calling you about your car’s extended warrantee or better credit card rates? How many calls a day do you get?
