We’ve been sent this lovely sample product: Kimberly Clark’s Shine to Go Shoe Polishers. The Mad Men tie-in is that MM fashion is influential, people are dressier, and of course they want shiny shoes just like Don Draper.
The rep describes it as “An on-the-go polisher about the size of a credit card that’s perfect for a wallet, purse or pocket. With people dressing up these days, it’s a great accessory for busy individuals without time for a professional shine.”
Anyway, here’s the deal. We have ten of these that will go to lucky winners.
We also have (drum roll please…) a Sterling Cooper magnet! I love this thing. It is the coolest of the cool.
First prize will receive the magnet plus the shoe polisher package. Nine runners-up will receive the shoe polishers, and use your own darn magnets.
To Enter: Name your favorite piece of pop culture from 1960-62, either from within the show or otherwise. Movies, TV, songs, or fashion are allowed. Post your entry in comments. Contest will run until October 1, 2008.
To Win: Winning will be by random drawing. The winners will be contacted for shipping information after the contest closes.
Restrictions: No Lipp Sisters or BoK writers are eligible. Rich Sommer can enter, though.
Enjoy!
87 Responses to “The first Basket of Kisses CONTEST!”
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"What's My Line?" ran from 1950 – 1967. This would be a constant.
Jello. Red flavor.
Blue Hawaii was released in 1961 — gotta love the King!!
On May 5, 1961 as I sat slack jawed in my 6th Grade classroom, we listened over a crackly PA system in Pleasant Run Elementary in Lancaster, Texas, to the entire 15 minute flight of Mercury 1 and Navy pilot Alan Shepard, becoming the first American in space, and launching me into a state of mind that has never left me in the 46 years since that day. Is this a Pop Culture Event? Perhaps not, but no one could argue that it launched several industries of Pop, that goes on into this millennium.
My favorite Christmas-morning picture shows a 3-year-old me holding my "Kissy" doll made by Ideal toys. It was taken Christmas morning 1962. I doubt if it will resonate with anyone, but it was the best Christmas of my life because I actually got something they advertised on television, and she really kissed me!
Farnham, I was exactly one day old on that day, and much as I would like to lie and say it was 46 years ago, it was in fact, 47.
"An Evening with Mike Nichols & Elaine May," Mercury records, 1960
“Lolita”. Love those Kubrick movies.
I know it’s right at the end of ’62, but how’s about Lawerence of Arabia?
Looking over at Wikipedia, I just had to share this MadMen connected 1962 invention: The Interrobang.
American Martin K. Speckter invented the interrobang in 1962. As the head of an advertising agency, Speckter believed that advertisements would look better if copywriters conveyed surprised rhetorical questions using a single mark. He proposed the concept of a single punctuation mark in an article in the magazine TYPEtalks. Speckter solicited possible names for the new character from readers. Contenders included rhet, exclarotive, and exclamaquest, but he settled on interrobang. He chose the name to reference the punctuation marks that inspired it: interrogatio is Latin for “a rhetorical question” or “cross-examination”;[2] bang is printers’ slang for the exclamation point. Graphic treatments for the new mark were also submitted in response to the article.
Sounds like something Cooper would do!
The 1962 Seattle World’s Fair. Introduced the Space Needle and had Elvis rocking in Seattle. (Plus my husband still has the t-shirt.)
Bob Dylan's first album… 1962.
Plus this secret NASA landing on Mars happened in 1962. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dnKg8SD1LQ4
I LOVED the Dick Van Dyke show (reruns) as a kid! Thanks.
Hm, well, I wasn’t around yet to remember a favorite, but in pop culture, Andy Warhol did his first set of Marilyn Monroe silk screens in 1962. I’d count that as fairly momentous in both the art and pop culture worlds.
From Mad Men, I’m going to choose the featuring of the song “Lollipops and Roses” at the end of an episode this season. It’s my parent’s wedding song, and I didn’t know anyone else in the world was familiar with it anymore. It was a nice surprise to hear it.
I believe I'll steal the mention of "Lover Come Back". I love old Rock Hudson/Doris Day movies. And when you throw in Tony Randall — you are talking about hilarity ensuing.
Moving my entry to the proper post:
How about the red plaid Skotch Koolers? They began production in the 1950s, but our family was still buying and using them into the ’60s. There were also the matching plaid thermoses and plaid-and-pleather sandwich carriers, one of which I believe Don’s head is resting on at their picnic.
http://www.murketing.com/journal/?p=221
I myself would vote for either the Barbie Doll (classic!) or Telstar (the satellite and the song) entry; that song haunts me to this day, of magical times gone by. :-}
Marvel comics. Stan Lee and Jack Kirby changed the concept of the superhero from the soulless saccharine action figure to real human beings with human problems. I forget the dates, but Fantastic Four debuted in 1961, the Hulk and Spider-Man in 1962.
Around 1964/65, each cover had the label "Another Marvel Pop-Art Production", a cheeky claim that comics weren't just for kids with paper routes. But it all started in '61.
[...] our contest by naming any favorite pop culture from 1960-62 in this linked thread. Fun favorites recently mentioned include Barbie Dolls, Marvel Comics (the “Silver Age” [...]
Since someone has already mentioned Nureyev, I think I am safe in naming Joan Sutherland, the great Australian opera diva with the voice of the century — she's really more high culture, but her appearances on the Ed Sullivan show brought her recognition beyond the world of opera. She sang Lucia di Lammermoor on opera stages around the world beginning around 1960 and became an international star.
I can't tell you what an impact she had beginning in the early 1960s. She was La Stupenda.
My choice: The Christian Dior New York coat. It was important for several reasons. Christian Dior had died by then, and his collection was being designed by Marc Bohan, who thought it was important for French designers to have a New York presence. The coat was sold at Bonwit Teller, and instantly snapped up and copied at every price point. It was the coat we think of when we think of the early 1960s — a little boxy, three-quarter sleeves so that you could wear bracelet-length gloves, with big buttons down the front, a slight sweep to the skirt, and a belt in the back. Every model, every socialite and eventually every mom had this coat.
http://coutureallure.blogspot.com/2008/09/1961-ch…
Town Without Pity, a movie from 1961 starring Kirk Douglas, E. G. Marshall, and Robert Blake, about the rape of a German girl by U.S. soldiers that blew me away when I saw it as a kid. It was probably the first "serious" movie about an almost taboo subject that I'd seen.
And of course, there's the great song of that same name, sung by Gene Pitney, from the movie. Check out the song on http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A7BRraVMZzc
Subliminal Advertising… While the idea first sparked life in the late fifties, it wasn't until 1962 that the creator of the famous 'movie and popcorn test', James Vicary, admitted his test was myth and in fact a marketing ploy in and of itself. BTW – This confession was made to an advertising trade publication… Perhaps Cooper got a chuckle?… In any event, while you tend to forget about it, subliminal advertising does seem to grab each new generation's interests, particularly the early teens, in much the same way that dinosaurs will always fascinate children… It's provocative and sexy and often involves cigs and drink… sort of like Mad Men now that I think about it…
Tony the Pony–a heavy, unwieldy ride-on toy made by Marx that I LOVED! Look up the 1962 commercial on retroload and see if you remember the jingle….
Saturday morning children’s television shows, especially cartoons – to be watched while eating cereals being advertised during commercials, of course. And if I recall correctly (I was 8 in 1960) not all kiddie cartoons were on Saturday morning, e.g. THE BUGS BUNNY SHOW (1960 ABC), THE BULLWINKLE SHOW (1961) and TOP CAT (1961 ABC). Sigh…. where did all the (subversive) humor go?
I was 5 in 1962. That year I remember getting both Chatty Cathy, the Mattel talking doll, and the new Midge (Barbie's best friend). Chatty Cathy was later the inspiration for a rather creepy Twilight Zone featuring Telly Savalas and "Talking Tina." Never knew anyone else named Midge until last year – anyone else make that connection?
I also was in love with Fizzies and (a year later) Tab.
Great to see all the young posters on here – hope we can all enjoy this show (and each other) for another 10 years….
There was also Moose and Midge of the Archies… who I just alluded to yesterday, in reference to the fact that I am talking to a guy online who is 6'4". Y'know, potentially next to my 5'2".
Is Midge short for Margaret? I think?
Ernest Hemingway dies July 2, 1961. =( One of my favorite authors.
Mad Men is like a loving tribute to Alfred Hitchcock every week. The influence of his 1960 film Psycho can't, to my mind, be underestimated. A whole generation of women switched from showers to baths, or kept the bathroom door firmly locked!
Hitchcock tricked the audience into sympathizing with the murderer Bates in much the same way Weiner tricks his into sympathizing with con man Draper. And what fun it is to be tricked by such skillful storytelling!
The first Mercury space launches, which they let us watch on TVs in our CLASSROOMS!!
The second most memorable event, which told me we were ALL entering a new age, was when someone from Bell Telephone labs brought in a LASER, and demonstrated it, telling us of future uses (such as medicine!). It was such an awe inspiring moment, that, later, I could almost believe those flying cars from the World’s Fair could become part of our everyday lives, too!
The 1961 Chevrolet Biscayne…my first car.
The Pillbox Hat….The Cassini Suit….Jackie’s preferred designs are showing up more, and more, in the Mad Men wardrobe….
Everybody took my faves
Breakfast at Tiffany's was my first thought. Wonderful Eames era items (though those aren't specific to the early 60s of course). One not taken: 1962, Tony Bennett, I Left my Heart in San Francisco. Did someone mention Johnny Carson and the Tonight Show? I think 1962 was his first year. And then, my parents were married in December 1962, not a pop culture fact but still important to me, ha! I looked at a poster I made for them for their 25th wedding anniversary, detailing pop culture items from the time, but you guys hit most of the high points, ha!
1961 was the year of the film version of West Side Story, featuring the greatest score in all of musical theater. I love every note, and evey second of that movie, even though Rita Moreno can't stop grabbing her dress! I used to only be able to do my high-school US History homework with the West Side Story album on (yes, the film soundtrack, not the original cast recording). It's an incredibly meaningful movie for me, as it was my first love in the world of musical theater, and I now teach musical theater. I know it must have had an impact in the pop culture of the time: my parents used the song "One Hand, One Heart" for their wedding song in 1964.
Debra, not to mention the opening credits sequence by the oft-mentioned-at-BoK Saul Bass.
Despite being born in 1964, I have two things…
1. My parents had those first two Bob Newhart albums. He is my favorite comedian. I only found out much later how big a deal those records were back then.
2. The movie "Last Year at Marienbad" was released in 1962. Make sure you see this movie on a big screen.
My new entry is:
1962 – "The Day of the Triffids"!!
[...] first contest was a big success, with 86 entries and lots of discussion of early 60s pop [...]