VINTAGE LINKS
ContentsThis is Vintage Now Artists
VINTAGE MUSIC:
VINTAGE LIFESTYLE: |
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Awwww...who can resist a little gratuitous cuteness from Polish model Paulie Paulette? More about her in the Vintage Models section. |
This is Vintage Now Artists:
Big Jay McNeely Official Site is run by Big Jay’s Dutch management, Stichting Boogie Promotions,who also put on Holland’s International Boogie Woogie Festival, a well-established annual event that features many of the greats in the Jump Blues and Boogie Woogie genres. The site features a bio on The Man Himself and photos of Big Jay from back in the day and from recently amongst other tidbits.
This is Vintage Now artist Ilana Charnelle performing "Two Little Girls From Little Rock," from the Marilyn Monroe/Jane Russell movie Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953). There's much more to hear at Ilana Chernelle's official YouTube Channel. |
Caro Emerald Official Site Caro Emerald has done more to kick down the doors for Vintage Music than any other recent artist. Her official website is a great repository of information on all her recent adventures. They have a fantastic, top-notch cache of Vintage-style Caro Emerald merchandise for sale, including 7” and 12” vinyl, t-shirts, postcards, tin wall adverts, sheet music, and even a replica of her trademark flower hairpiece!
Ilana Charnelle on YouTube This is Ilana Charnelle Central. Here you can look at all of this talented singer's alternately adorable and sultry videos. A few of our favourite videos include “Two Little Girls From Little Rock”, her version of "Why Don't You Do Right" (which she calls a "Jessica Rabbit cover" :) ), a clever cover of Cyndi Lauper’s “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun”, and of course her channel opener where she poses and looks cute to the tune of her original song “Sailor Boy”.
The Waitiki 7 Official Site is set up blog style. It features a bio on the band themselves and on each of the individual band members, and a write-up on each of the albums in their discography. An essential part of the site is the Tiki 101 Section, which will take you through a crash course on Tiki culture, its official soundtrack, Exotica music, and its intricate drink mixology. Also check out their The Cocktail Journal blog, which features new Tiki drink recipes and discusses Tiki mixology in further detail.
Carole Creveling with the dreamy, romantic "Star Eyes." From her only LP, Here Comes Carole Creveling, Vol. 1 (1955). |
Carole Creveling Blog entries by Bill Reed: Carole Creveling is one of the most notorious artists in Vocal Jazz’s One-Shot Wonder subgenre for both her collectability and her seeming disappearance from the face of the earth. Who was she and what became of her? Jazz historian Bill Reed traces this mysterious story in the original liner notes of the CD reissue of Here Comes Carole Creveling, Vol. 1, which was still not completely solved at the time of the album’s release. After the album was released, the great reviews started pouring in while the search for Ms. Creveling was still on. Finally, the search was over—Reed tracked her down through a lead that turned out to be Ms. Creveling’s sister. He then had an opportunity to speak with Carole Creveling herself on the phone. Will Carole Creveling come out of retirement, or release a follow-up Here Comes Carole Creveling, Vol. 2? There may still be hope.
Blake Jones & the Trike Shop Official Site Blake Jones & the Trike Shop are a group with two separate entities, a Beatles/XTC-style power pop side and a Vintage/experimental side, which both go under the same name; both entities are represented in this site. Blake Jones & the Trike Shop’s site is set up to resemble an electrical wiring diagram, with basic info on the group, a look at their varied and fascinating discography, a blog from band frontman Blake Jones, and some other oddities.
More Current Vintage-Style Artists We Like:
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Tiki Joe's Ocean's Under the Midnight Sun (2010), a modern Exotica classic that deservedly won the Best Exotica Album award in the 2011 Hawaii Music Awards. |
Tiki Joe’s Ocean is an outrageously brilliant current Exotica group that NAILS the Exotica sound whilst re-engineering it subtly in true Vintage Now style. Their music works equally well as party background music or as engaging close-listening music. The Tiki Joe’s Ocean album Under The Midnight Sun (2010) won the Hawaii Music Awards’ Best Exotica Album Award for 2011, and rightly so. Can Exotica and Bachelor Pad Music be successfully revived and improved upon? The answer is right here—and the answer is YES! Check out the streaming samples of the album on Tiki Joe’s Ocean’s website to see what we mean.
Onřdej Havelka and His Melody Makers are a Czech big band that do 1930’s and 1940’s-style big band music right; the atmosphere, the class, the excitement, and the energy are all here in no uncertain terms. Their frontman, Ondřej (pronounced like “Andre”) Havelka, plays ukulele and has coke-bottle glasses and a fun-loving but still commanding personality. Although they are popular in Eastern Europe (they are even signed to the Czech division of EMI), their music is unfortunately rather tough to get in the Anglo-American world at the moment. With the growing popularity of Vintage Music, that may change before we know it.
Waitiki: This is Vintage Now artist The Waitiki 7 is actually an expanded, seven-piece version of Waitiki, a scaled-down four-piece version of the group that predates the Waitiki 7 by a few years. This site features expanded info on the Waitiki quartet, complete with a slightly different Tiki 101 section.
Snowboy and the Latin Section is a British Afro-Cuban jazz combo fronted by percussionist Mark “Snowboy” Cotgrove. The group is very established in the UK, with a long list of credits and albums to their name. Snowboy is the curator of The Vintage Festival’s onsite club venue The Torch Club, and is an in-demand session player, producer and radio programmer who has a weekly DJ residency at the famous Soho club Madame Jojos every Friday night. Snowboy has an immense knowledge of black music from the 1960’s and 1970’s, and has written the book From Jazz Funk and Fusion to Acid Jazz, which is now on the required reading list at Yale University. He’s a busy and well-rounded fellow to say the least!
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Honorary Bakersfield cowboys The Altar Billies. Left to right: Mike Stand, guitar; Chuck Cummings, drums; and Johnny X, upright bass. |
The Altar Billies on ReverbNation The Altar Billies are rather unusual in that they are a reinvention of the new wave/rock band The Altar Boys, an Orange County, CA-based Christian rock group that was popular in the 1980’s. After many years of inactivity, frontman Mike Stand (best stage name ever!) began working with bassist Johnny X. Johnny X noticed that many of The Altar Boys’ songs work surprisingly well in a rockabilly context. With session musician Chuck Cummings added on drums, this trio has turned into a Vintage-style rebuild of their previous entity. Frontman Stand’s lovable Bakersfield personality (“Jus’ call me Michael W.—‘W’ stands for ‘Wilbur’...and a couple ’a other things too”) brings a memorable stamp to their down-to-earth but often hard-hitting performances, which fill a void somewhere between Reverend Horton Heat-style rockabilly and Johnny Cash-style gospel country.
Vintage Music:
Vocal Jazz:
Pinky Winters' lovely rendition of "These Foolish Things," from the jazz collector's Holy Grail album Pinky (1954). |
Julie London – The Ultimate Fan Site lives up to its claim of “assembl[ing] the best and most complete information on Julie London’s music, movies, photographs and articles with links to other key web sites.” This incredibly loaded site features two discography pages; material covering her many film and TV appearances, including Quicktime videos of her Marlboro cigarettes commercials and her 1964 Japanese TV show The Julie London Show; and photo galleries galore, including one of Julie wearing opera gloves and a funny one called “PETA Hates Julie” (click to find out why).
Pinky Winters is a living jazz legend with an extremely active career as a lady jazz vocalist. She also joins Carole Creveling as one of jazz’s most collectible artists, with her albums Pinky (Vantage Records, 1954) and Lonely One (Argo Records, 1958) being highly prized and expensive collectibles. Pinky left show business to raise a family, but returned in the early 1980’s, releasing the album Let’s Be Buddies in 1985. She has released another seven albums and counting in the last twenty years, and regularly plays to appreciative audiences in Japan and in the USA, making her one of a handful of original jazz performers whose later career actually eclipsed her early career.
Audrey Morris is another living jazz legend. This Chicago-based singer/pianist of Italian ancestry released two LP’s during the 1950’s heyday of lady jazz vocalists: Bistro Ballads (“X” Records, 1954) and The Voice of Audrey Morris (Bethlehem Records, 1956), the latter of which was orchestrated by Marty Paich. She had to struggle against the tide for much of her career, first choosing to play classy ballads and deep cut numbers instead of playing up the party music and the sex appeal, and then later choosing to stay with jazz instead of going along with rock and roll. Audrey also knew and performed alongside Beverly Kenney while the Beverly was still with us. Like her contemporary Pinky Winters, Audrey retired from show business to raise a family, only to return in the 1980’s with the album Afterthoughts (1984). She has released three more albums since then and continues perform in the Chicago area to this day.
Two songs about being blue from singer/actress Linda Lawson, both taken from her only full-length LP Introducing Linda Lawson (1960). Orchestra conducted by Marty Paich. |
Linda Lawson on MySpace Singer/actress Linda Lawson is another part of One-Shot Wonder pantheon. Her discography consists of two late 1950’s non-LP singles on Verve Records orchestrated my Henry Mancini, and a lone LP, Introducing Linda Lawson (1960), orchestrated by Marty Paich. Much of her career was spent in television and the movies, with appearances in Peter Gunn, Mr. Lucky, Maverick, Sea Hunt, Bonanza, and Alfred Hitchcock Presents to her name. Her best-known movie role today was as leading lady to a young Dennis Hopper in the fantastic American International-distributed thriller Night Tide (1961), in which she played the creepy mermaid-girl Mora. Introducing Linda Lawson managed to get a CD reissue from Spain-based Fresh Sounds Records in 1989. It was then featured prominently in Digital Compact Classics’ Music For a Bachelor’s Den compilation series, making Volume 1; Volume 8, Sex Kittens in Hi-Fi – The Brunettes; and the unofficial Vol. 9, Betty Boop Musical Cabaret. This bit of late exposure in particular has helped to make her one of more notable performers in the One-Shot Wonder genre. Linda married well and lives in Beverly Hills today.
Lucy Ann Polk (pdf) is another fantastic lady jazz vocalist who sounds like a sterling, super-purified Doris Day. She is best known for being a big band vocalist for Les Brown in the early 1950’s; she recorded one album at that time which fetches outrageous prices today. After this, she joined the ranks of small band lady jazz vocalists in the 1950’s lady vocalist heyday, releasing one lone album for the legendary but ill-fated Mode Records entitled Lucky Lucy Ann (1957) that many jazz collectors consider to be one of the most perfect jazz albums ever recorded. She too is still with us and performs occasionally.
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The Japanese edition of Laurie Allyn's only album Paradise, which was recorded in 1957 by the ill-fated Mode Records but not released until 2004. The album cover is made to resemble the covers of the other Mode Records albums that did receive a release initially. |
Laurie Allyn on Koop Kooper's Cocktail Nation Speaking of Mode Records, Vintage Music podcast Koop Kooper's Cocktail Nation recently had the good fortune of interviewing lady jazz vocalist Laurie Allyn, who was the very last artist to be recorded by Mode Records before their premature demise in 1957. Her sole album, Paradise, featured arrangements from Marty Paich and instrumentation courtesy many of the best-known studio musicians of the time. Mode Records went under soon after the album was recorded, and the sessions were initially shelved, only to receive an American CD release and MP3 release in 2004 on VSOP Records, followed by a Japanese CD reissue in 2006. This exclusive audio interview details Ms. Allyn's memories from the period, including a story about a date she had with Tony Bennett that resulted in him hiring her piano player. It also details her recent plans to return to singing and perfroming in the jazz club circuit in the Pacific Northwest where she lives.
Whatever Happened to Paula Castle? (on YouTube) Another One-Shot Wonder who made a mysterious disappearance was Paula Castle. Her only album, the 8-song, 10” LP Lost Love (Bethlehem Records, 1955), was reissued with Audrey Morris’ only Bethlehem LP The Voice of Audrey Morris (Bethlehem, 1956) on the 2-on-1 CD The Girls of Bethlehem, Vol. 1 (Bethlehem, 1992). Like Carole Creveling, Paula’s whereabouts were unknown at the time of the CD’s release. Her song “Why Can’t I” made the compilation CD Music From a Bachelor’s Den, Vol. 7: Sex Kittens in Hi-Fi – The Blondes (Digital Compact Classics, 1996), never mind that she was actually a plump brunette. DCC and Bethlehem had no pictures of her, and didn’t even know what she looked like; on The Girls of Bethlehem, Vol. 1, Bethlehem actually used a second photo of Audrey Morris taken in the 1980’s for her album Afterthoughts to represent Paula. This video gives a brief look at Paula’s days as a club singer in Long Island as presented by her former pianist/organist. The video finds her very much alive and well, living in New York State with dyed black hair, a slight Yankee accent, a feisty personality, and loads of great stories.
Jump Blues:
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This photo of Big Jay McNeely, winner of Jump Blues' "I'm more intense than you" contest ignited by Wynonie Harris in 1948, was taken in 1951. It shows Big Jay whipping a young audience into a mad frenzy four years before the advent of rock and roll. This photo has over time become the iconic representation of the excitement of the Jump Blues era. (Photo courtesy Willoughby Photos.) |
Hoy Hoy! Rock Before Elvis This fantastic site gets into the nitty gritty of Jump Blues a lot more, featuring bios on the artists, samples of the music, and, best of all, a great essay called “The Dawn of Rock”, which answers the question of where Rock n’ Roll came from once and for all. With that mystery cleared, it’s now time for a little jump n’ jive, honky sax, and hoy-hoy!
Louis Prima Official Site Louis Prima’s music, starting with the Sam Butera-arranged The Wildest! (1956), is Italian jump blues in all but name, and has been very influential to many artists. The Louis Prima estate is run by Gia Maione, Prima’s final wife and singing partner, and this is their official site. The real treasures offered by the Prima estate are a series of CD/MP3 reissues of albums from 1963-1975 on the Prima One Magnagroove label (Prima’s private imprint), which all get streamed here. These albums run from the Witnesses’ early 1960’s live pinnacle on Prima Show in the Casbar (1963), to their surprisingly competent coping with the psychedelic era on Blast Off! (1970), to some heavy funk and rock on The Wildest ’75 (1975), Prima’s last album. They also have a downloadable discography that’s not quite complete and a little confusing, but still fantastic (and it’s 94 pages long—gee!)
Bull Moose Jackson is maybe best known today for the double-entendre-filled song “Big Ten Inch Record”, which was covered by Aerosmith on their Toys in the Attic (1975) album, and “Haul Off and Love Me,” which appeared on several 1990’s swing revival compilations. He performed from the late 1940’s through the early 1960’s, when soul music began replacing Jump Blues as the black music of choice. Bull Moose had a career revival in the 1980’s when an R&B revival group called The Flashcats worked with him as his backup band and also recorded with him in the studio. He passed away in 1989. This site, which I believe is run by ex-members of The Flashcats, offers a lot of unique information about this great performer from the Jump Blues era.
Louis Jordan and the hard jumpin' "Big Bess", recorded in 1956 and released as a non-LP single with "Cat Scratchin" as its B-side. More about this period of Louis Jardan's career can be found in our Louis Jordan "Rockin' Period " Discography. |
The Louis Jordan Site Man, do people underestimate what a foundational artist Louis Jordan is. He was at the forefront of black music, leading the transition from swing to small-band Jump Blues in the 1940’s, which of course would later become Rock ‘n Roll. Lifting a quote from this Louis Jordan website, "During the eight years that Jordan was 'King of The Jukeboxes', 1943-1950, his songs occupied the #1 spot on the R&B charts for 113 weeks, or, put another way, Jordan had nearly one-third of all of the top black hit records for eight years." To this day, the only artists that have had more #1 hits than Louis Jordan on the American R&B charts are Stevie Wonder and Aretha Franklin (20 apiece); Louis Jordan had 18 #1 R&B hits, which is even more than James Brown or Michael Jackson have had on the R&B charts. James Brown, Ray Charles, and B.B. King were all huge fans of Louis the Jordan. And the man’s music has to be some of the happiest music on record; as Joe Jackson said in the liner notes of his influential Joe Jackson’s Jumpin’ Jive (1981) album, “Everyone needs to have a Louis Jordan album in their medicine cabinet.” This LJ site is unfortunately a ghost site, but it will still fill you in on a lot of info on LJ’s discography (including song lyrics), movies, CD’s (c. 2006 and back), chart positions, and much more.
Bachelor Pad Music:
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The ultra-gorgeous Ultra-Lounge Flash site. Now 47 volumes strong, the Ultra-Lounge compilation series has been the introduction to vintage Bachelor Pad, lounge, and easy listening music for many fans of the genre. The four albums shown here are recent releases that are currently available exclusively as MP3 downloads. |
Ultra-Lounge Compilation Series Back during the initial revival of Lounge and Bachelor Pad Music in the mid-1990’s, Capitol/EMI began releasing a compilation series called Ultra-Lounge that featured many of the sounds and music styles that were popular in the 1950’s and 1960’s. Most of the albums in the series were released in the latter half of the 1990’s, but in 2009, Capitol/EMI revived the Ultra-Lounge franchise, releasing even more editions on MP3 only. As of this writing, they are up to 48 volumes (no kidding!). Check the Ultra-Lounge Wikipedia Entry for a more complete list (the list on the official site is incomplete). (A little side note: Caro Emerald’s producers/songwriters/label cats are big fans of the Ultra-Lounge series.)
The Space Age Pop Music Page “Space Age Pop” is another term coined for Bachelor Pad Music. According to Joseph Lanza’s influential book Elevator Music: A Surreal History of Muzak, Easy-Listening, and Other Moodsong (1994; revised and expanded second edition, 2004), the full original term, “Space Age Bachelor Pad Music”, was coined Hollywood special effects man Byron Werner (p. 124, first edition). The term was also used for an Esquivel compilation released in 1994. The shortened term “Bachelor Pad Music” seems to be what has stuck, but “Space-Age Pop” is another term that has been used for this family tree of Vintage music. This site dates from 1999, so toward the end of the initial revival of interest in the genre. It contains a complete study of its many subgenres, and a massive Who’s Who List of the many artists who performed this type of music back in the day, including their biographies and discographies. Lots and lots of info here that will keep you reading.
Bachelor Pad Music Facebook Page For a lighter and more interactive experience in the world of Bachelor Pad Music, check out the Bachelor Pad Music community page on Facebook, which was founded by This is Vintage Now producer David Gasten. Post songs and album covers, ask questions, and enjoy some great conversation about your favourite Bachelor Pad artists!
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Screenshot of the official Flash site for The Man Himself, Henry Mancini. The little jukebox of 5 popular Mancini songs at the bottom of the screen gives you some music to enjoy while you browse this beautiful and detailed site. |
Henry Mancini Official Site If someone does not know what Bachelor Pad Music is, just mention The Pink Panther or Breakfast at Tiffany’s and they will instantly have a reference point as to what it is. This fantastic-looking Flash site run by Mancini’s surviving family features a discography, some fascinating video clips, a large photo gallery, a list of all Mancini’s movie and TV soundtracks and all of his major awards, info on his surviving family members, and a letter of advice to aspiring musicians. And they give you a little jukebox of five of his best-known songs to listen to as you browse—not to mention a bunch of other samples on another page. Lots of stuff to go through!
Spaced Out: The Enoch Light Site Enoch Light is one of the true entrepreneurs in the Bachelor Pad Music field. He went directly after the Hi-Fi market with his private label Command Records, bypassing radio and record stores and selling his LP’s in the retail market. The most remembered and popular albums he released were Persuasive Percussion and Provocative Percussion (both 1959), which each became a mini-series of LP’s. He also experimented with recording onto 35mm film instead of magnetic tape, releasing numerous albums under a “35mm” series. His albums are lively and fun, and exemplify the anything-can-happen spirit of Bachelor Pad Music at its best.
The Enoch Light page began as a typical information site, but the original webmaster essentially dropped from exhaustion and decided to sell off the site. The new owner transformed the site into a user-updated Wikipedia-style site so that the information on the literally hundreds of Enoch Light-related albums could be crowdsourced into a useful compendium. This process is still underway and far from complete.
Yma Sumac Official Site and Sunvirgin.com (unofficial Yma Sumac site) The Queen of Exotica, Peru’s most famous entertainment export, and one of the most over-the-top singers to ever achieve international fame this side of Nina Hagen, the great Yma Sumac was still signing autographs and idolized by a devoted fan base right up to her death in 2008. These two sites feature a many photos of the talented songstress, information galore, exclusive Yma memorabilia, and private-issue CD releases that are unavailable elsewhere.
Note: Beware Sunvirgin.com's ridiculously expensive "limited edition" version of Yma's psychedelic album Miracles (1971) that is entitled Yma Rocks! There is an updated CD edition of this album with the original artwork and even more bonus tracks that you can get for half the price at Amazon.com.
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"Meet 1950's Cheesecake Singer Kathy Barr" on the well-read Nostalgia blog Nostalgia and Now. The picture is of Kathy Barr's debut LP Follow Me (1957), which receives a review in this article. |
Kathy Barr on Nostalgia and Now Entitled “Meet 1950's Cheesecake Singer Kathy Barr”, this article is a full intro to this sexy red-haired chanteuse. Written by This is Vintage Now producer David Gasten, the article features a link to a 1958 Armed Forces Radio interview with Kathy, a review of her debut album Follow Me (1957), a discography, and some other tidbits as well.
The Official Les Baxter Site Martin Denny, Arthur Lyman, and Les Baxter are the Big Three Artists of Exotica Music. Whereas Denny and Lyman were small-band combo leaders, Les Baxter was more like Henry Mancini’s drive-in equivalent, employing larger band and orchestras and doing many of the scores for American International Pictures whilst releasing album after album of large-band Exotica. This site has a rather strange design, but it’s fun; it features a full biography, an album cover gallery, and samples of Baxter’s music to listen to.
Club Velvet presents The Exotic World of Les Baxter Works as a great supplement to the official Les Baxter site, offering a selective (read “incomplete”) discography, a lengthy interview with the Man Himself conducted in his home in Palm Springs, liner notes to reissues of a couple of his albums, and a Variety obituary (he passed away January 15, 1996 at the age of 73).
"The Song Is You, " a track from the great Bachelor Pad album Mmm...Nice! (1959) by Bob Thompson. That's Sandy Warner, cover model for fourteen of Martin Denny's Exotica albums, on the cover here. |
Bob Thompson Official Site Bob Thompson is probably best known for the album Mmm…Nice! (1960), a fantastic and highly recommended bachelor pad album that shows up in thrift stores in the States all the time, not because it was a bad album, but because the record company overestimated the demand and printed way too many of them. Mmm…Nice! catches Thompson melding the the sexy and the stereo-testing together in a way that both a circa 1960 hi-fi cat AND his girlfriend could enjoy equally. This official site gives a snappy overview of this great Bachelor Pad artist, complete with descriptions and samples of his four officially-released albums, a bio, and—get this—a complete download of a fifth album called That Agency Thing (unknown date but probably c. 1963), which is a promo-only and VERY rare industrial musical! (Note: We have an in-depth review of a CD Reissue of Bob Thompson's first three LP's that you can read here.)
WFMU: Bob Thompson and The Sound of Style This is a really good blog entry in New Jersey-based community radio station WFMU’s “Beware of the Blog”, which documents a LOT of rare and forgotten music. This blog entry gives a full history on Bob Thompson and his career, and offers authorized downloads of rare Thompson material for you to download at will.
The Three Suns Universe This detailed site examines the story and music of The Three Suns, a pop combo from the 1940's that turned to the exploratory world of hi-fi tester music in the late 50's after rock and roll started to edge them out. Because of this, they ended up going from being decent-to-mediocre (but popular) dinner music to being one of the most experimental and varied Bachelor Pad Music groups of the 1950's. The site features a detailed bio and discography, as well as a list of recommended listening to help newbies in geting into The Three Suns' music.
Lenny Dee at TheatreOrgans.com One of the great things about Bachelor Pad music is its extremely diverse instrumentation. Saxophones, brass, woodwinds, percussion instruments of literally all types, piano, vibes, harpsichord, and organ all get an opportunity to shine. Bachelor Pad Music’s most remembered organist was Lenny Dee, and this page features a bio on him, along with photos, memories about him from readers of the site, and more.
Vintage Discography Archives:
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This is our very favourite page in the massive Both Sides Now Discography Archive: the page about Time-Life Records' best selling album series The Swing Era. This series of LP box sets features hjigh-quality, high-fidelity rerecordings of popular songs from the 1930's-1950's, with a focus on Swing's late 1930's/early 1940's heyday. |
Both Sides Now Discography Archive Unbelievable. This discography site tells the stories of many of the record labels in recorded music’s history (from all genres), AND has pages upon pages upon pages of listings of the albums released by each label, arranged in numerical order. Many of these pages are complete or nearly complete. This site is about as close to exhaustive as it gets.
The Jazz Discography Project Features even more exhaustive info, but, as the name says, it largely focuses on jazz labels. Bethlehem, Blue Note, Contemporary, Fantasy, Impulse, Mercury, and Verve Records all get covered here.
Discogs.com is a user-updated site that contains a discography info on thousands of artists, much of which is unavailable elsewhere. One word of warning is that the information in this site is far from complete, so always take their discography information on an artist with a grain of salt and check it against other sources.
Record Labels and Mail-Order Outlets:
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This clever image of Fred Astaire with an iPod was designed to promote Past Perfect Records' pre-loaded iPods and flash drives, which contain the entire Past Perfect catalogue on one convenient digital device. |
Past Perfect Records UK are leading the way in bringing the music of the 1920’s, 1930’s and 1940’s to today with outstanding mastering of the original recordings that transcends the sonic limitations of the pre- hi-fi period and brings their sound quality up to current expectations. Many of their albums are themed compilations featuring various artists, but they also have artist-specific compilations featuring names like Glenn Miller, Jimmy Lunceford, The Andrews Sisters, The Ink Spots, and Billie Holiday. If you’re not for sure where to start, check out their £5.97 sampler album; or, if you want to make the big plunge, check out their pre-loaded iPods and Flash Drives that have the whole Past Perfect catalogue pre-loaded onto them!
(Interesting factoid: Past Perfect Records and This is Vintage Now have very similar Twitter handles: Past Perfect Records is @vintagemusic; This is Vintage Now is @vintagemusicnow.)
Bear Family Records (Germany) have a long-running international reputation for releasing massive box sets that cover every facet of a Vintage artist’s catalog. For instance, they have box sets of the complete Louis Prima, Keely Smith and Sam Butera Capitol Records recordings, the complete Louis Jordan Decca recordings, and a series of Dean Martin and Doris Day box sets that literally catch everything these artists have done, bar none. I’ve read so many reviews of these box sets that say, “Well, this is a little obsessive”, but to people who are mad about these artists and want everything, these outrageously well-researched box sets with impeccable sound quality are just what the doctor ordered.
Proper Records (UK) are the budget version of Bear Family, offering similarly obsessive, discography-spanning box sets at rock-bottom prices. The music is often taken from slightly poorer sources and the albums are not nearly as impeccably engineered as Bear Family, but who cares; they obsessively collect rare music from yesteryear and make it available at prices so low, you almost can’t afford not to own them! :-D There’s a Wynonie Harris box set that covers the artist’s early career from 1946-1950, a collection of jump blues Honkers and Screamers called The Big Horn (named after a vintage Sam Butera album and featuring the Big Jay McNeely photo above on the cover), a really good five-disc Louis Jordan collection, a Slim Gaillard box set spanning 1937 to 1952, and much more.
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Screenshot of SSJ Records' official site. Here you can see their mini-LP CD reissues of Audrey Morris' Afterthoughts (1984, top left) and Pinky Winters' Pinky (1954, top right). We have a little more info about those two lady vocalists in our vocal jazz section on this very page. |
SSJ Records (Japan) (Japanese language site) are the good folks that released Carole Creveling’s Here Comes Carole Creveling, Vol. 1 (1955) and Beverly Kenney’s Snuggled On our Shoulder (2006) on mini-LP CD. They have released many more One-Shot Wonder and Vocal Jazz classics to fan excitement and critical acclaim, including the best version of the highly-collectible Pinky (1954) by Pinky Winters, and two more volumes of unreleased Beverly Kenney material in Lonely and Blue (2007) and What Is There To Say? (2009).
CD Banq (Taiwan) specializes in selling Japanese CD releases to American, British, and European customers via Paypal; they are true professionals and great to do business with. They have a HUGE selection of jazz mini-LP CD reissues; of particular interest, they carry many releases from the elusive LP Time Records label. Check out their Beverly Kenney, Pinky Winters, and SSJ Records titles, and LP Time offerings from Kathy Barr, Fran Jeffries (the girl who sings the Italian “Meglio Stasera” in The Pink Panther), Ann Gilbert, Jaye P. Morgan, and many others.
Eastwind Import (USA) is a California, USA-based importer that specialized in high-fidelity Japanese CD’s and high-end audio gear. They too are fantastic to do business with. They carry Beverly Kenney and Pinky Winters CD’s, many titles from the SSJ Records catalog, and other Japanese-import jazz and classical titles. They have a great sale section to browse too, with a lot of great Japanese imports and audiophile treasures that are priced to sell. For American jazz fans, they are the first place to check because their prices tend to be a little more reasonable; they also tend to be a little more selective about what they choose to stock, in part because of their focus on hi-fi customers.
One of the classics in VSOP's catalogue is Lucky Lucy Ann (1957) by former Les Brown vocalist Lucy Ann Polk. this is "Dontcha Go Away Mad", the final track on the album. There is a lot more greatness where this come from in the VSOP catalogue. |
VSOP Records (USA) (owners of the Mode Records and Tampa Records catalogues) Mode Records existed briefly in 1957, recording albums at the famous Radio Recorders recording studio in Los Angeles from June through October of 1957 before running out of money and not being able to pay for the sessions of their own recordings or even pay their session musicians. One musician tipped them off to the local musicians union, an act which effectively snuffed their ability to record anything more. The Mode masters were bought out by Tampa Records, who were able to sell the Mode albums as budget albums in department stores. Mode’s and Tampa’s catalogues were then bought out by a record pressing plant that went bankrupt in the early 1980’s. By this time, word had gotten out on the high quality of the music in these labels' catalogues, and they landed in good hands—those of VSOP Records, an independent label who jumped at the opportunity to market these esteemed albums to the jazz collector audience. VSOP have steadily kept the Mode and Tampa albums in stock over the years, and have done excellent mastering work on them that makes them sound like they were recorded yesterday. Lucy Ann Polk’s Lucky Lucy Ann is one of these albums; other classics include Delightful Doris Drew, Joy Bryan Sings, and The Richie Kamuca Quartet (all 1957). Check out VSOP’s eMusic listings for album covers and music samples.
Bethlehem Records It's great to see 1950's jazz label Bethlehem Records back up and running again! Bethlehem Records' vast catalogue includes such names as Nina Simone, John Coltrane, Nat "King" Cole, Julie London, Art Blakeley, Duke Ellington, Chris Connor, Carmen McRae, Eddie "Cleanhead" Vinson, Johnny Hartman, Helen Carr, Audrey Morris, and one-shot wonder Paula Castle to name just a few. Their new owners, Verse Music Group, acquired the rights to the catalogue in 2010. Verse Music Group are giving the Bethlehem catalogue respectful red-carpet treatment that shows a genuine love for this classic material and a desire to maintain the spirit of the period as they re-introduce the catalogue to 21st century music listeners.
Bethlehem Records Interviews This page contains a brief bio and raw original research on the now-resurrected 1950’s jazz label conducted by visual artist Tyler Alpern. According to Alpern, “By trusting its staff and artists to make their own creative decisions, to experiment, and thus to flourish, Bethlehem actively helped create, not just document, a whole and diverse era of Jazz music.” One of the things that Bethlehem distinguished themselves with was with album covers that were true works of art—this is something that took on a life of its own in the hippy era and has pretty much been a given ever since, but was a relatively novel concept in the 1950’s. Burt Goldblatt, Bethlehem Records’ late album art designer, is interviewed in depth about his album art for Bethlehem and about other album cover art that he did at the time.
Vintage Lifestyle:
Vintage Models:
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The stunning Vintage model Paulie Paulette giving Rosie the Riveter and Flo from Progressive Insurance a serious run for their money! |
Paulie Paulette Polish model Paulie Paulette is a current Vintage-style model with a certain 1950’s-style look that you’ll probably recognize right away. She does a distilled version of that look that is just powerful in its sterling beauty. Paulie came to Vintage modeling through watching old movies at home with her mother, who also has this general look. In person, she is completely, to-the-core lovable, and seems largely unaware of just how beautiful she is.
(Note: Since this was published, Paulie has decided to stop pursuing modeling and instead concentrate on her work as an artist and photographer under the name Paulie Polka, which is where the above link will take you. It's sad to see her go, but we truly appreciate her allowing us to keep these two beautiful shots from her brief but stellar career up on the page.)
Delia Von Meyer Pacheco—the last Sun-Maid Raisin Girl This is a Squidoo page built and maintained by Delia Von Meyer Pacheco, who posed for one of the most iconic American advertising trademarks of the last 100 years—the girl in the bonnet carrying the basket of raisins in the Sun-Maid Raisins logo. (Sun-Maid Raisins acknowledges Pacheco as the woman who posed for the current version of their logo on their official website.) The current Sun-Maid Raisins design dates from 1970, but Ms. Pacheco actually posed for it in 1961. Her page is presented in typical Squidoo potpourri style, presenting the story of the Sun-Maid Raisins trademark, along with a romp through a bunch of vintage and current Sun-Maid Raisins memorabilia. Then—at the very end of the line—we get to see some gorgeous shots of Ms. Pacheco’s other modeling from the 1960’s (+ one from 1970). She has a Greta Garbo-like body (long and slender but still somewhat curvaceous), with angular facial features and piercing, ravishing eyes. Today she lives in Wisconsin and works as an equine artist.
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Entrepreneur Lisa Graystone modeling for her Vintage-style cocktail ring line The Evolution Rewind Collection. (Photography by Hayley Marie Photography) |
Lisa Graystone in Bachelor Pad Music This is a recent set of Vintage-influenced modeling photos from writer, artisan, and entrepreneur Lisa Graystone. Lisa has been her own model in several sets of photoshoots promoting her cocktial ring line The Evolution Rewind Collection and her online Vintage fashion resale shop Evolution Vintage. This is Vintage Now producer David Gasten has been so taken by the arresting, sensual beauty of Lisa's photos that he arranged to publish a few of them in the Bachelor Pad Music Pacebook Page.
Starlets Not Harlots Vintage Modeling Pageant (Facebook page) What a delight to finally find a Vintage-style modeling pageant that we can support and recommend! This modeling pageant had a successful and well-received first run on September 1, 2012 at the Portage County Fairgrounds in Appleton, Wisconsin (USA). It is now slated to be an annual event. Contestants are required to wear true Vintage or handmade items, and are also asked to keep their presentation grounded in beauty instead of narcissism and sexualization. "We are looking for girls who look as though they have just stepped out of the 1945-1962 era. If they didn't do it then, don't do it now. If you like to keep it CLASSY...WE WANT YOU." We're looking forward to experiencing more beauty from this pageant in the future, and we're also looking forward to seeing what modeling/performing careers it may help to launch.
Vintage Lifestyle Magazines:
The Chap Magazine (UK) has been with us since 2007, and covers the Vintage lifestyle from the gentleman’s standpoint, with a focus on an Edwardian through 1940’s-style look and way of doing things. Features book and movie reviews, masculine fashion tips, "gentleman about town" short stories, and an unbelievably stylish layout. (Surprise! Guys like class too!)
Vintage and Nostalgia Blogs:
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Screenshot of Colorado-based Vintage and Retro blog Dad's Dish. This particular blog post is about Motown singer Tammi Terrell. |
Dad’s Dish Retro Blog This particular blog is run by Colorado-based Vintage and Tiki aficionado Darrin Vindiola, Sr. It features a mixture of Tiki and Vintage posts but leans more toward Vintage, hence why we included it here and not in the Tiki Culture section. Darrin does a lot of observational blog entries that look at how things used to be versus how they are now. His general conclusion? Older is Better. And you know, in many ways, he’s right.
Nostalgia and Now This popular nostalgia blog is run by Andrew Godfrey, and as a gentleman who grew up in the 1940’s and 1950’s, he can talk with firsthand authority about how things used to be. Mr. Godfrey does such a fantastic, in-the-spirit-of-the-times coverage of Vintage culture with his nostalgia posts that my personal nickname for this blog is “Nostalgia, And How!” Mr. Godfrey also does a lot of coverage of American Idol in its on-season, which I guess covers the “Now” really well; he watches this and other shows like The Voice through classic-era eyes, so a good perspective on them.
Beth’s Record Blog This blog is run by a gal in her twenties, who states with pride, “My music taste is square.” :-D To us, it’s incredibly hep! Beth is an amazing explorer who manages to find a lot of country and vocal jazz obscurities on vinyl. Many of them are of the lady vocalists and musicians, and many have never been released on digital.
Manly Vintage represents the growing Chicago-area vintage scene, which is largely based around Vintage resale at the moment. The page features all types of vintage finds that guys would dig, many of them being hep furnishings that would look great in any bachelor pad. Also dig their Style Is Not Emasculating exhibits; can I hear an “Amen” from the ladies out there?
Vintage Fashion Blogs:
Fashion diva Sammy Davis demonstrates the Vintage DIY Mix and Match trend in this fascinating video, where she accessorizes a current American Apparel dress to make it work in five different Vintage and Retro fashion periods. |
Sammy Davis Vintage is the online presence of New York-based Vintage fashion diva Sammy Davis (no relation to Sammy Davis Jr., in case you're wondering). Her goal is "to make vintage fashion more accessible to the contemporary woman of New York City," however, we would venture to say that what she's actually done is to make Vintage fashion more accessible to contemporary women all over the Western world. Sammy has a series of YouTube videos where she demonstrates the DIY mix-and-match trend in Vintage fashion. In 2013, Sammy released a fantastic and informative ebook entitled The 100 Best Vintage Shops Online, a survey of online Vintage fashion resellers that also serves as a warm, friendly introduction for the world of Vintage Fashion. Read our review of the ebook and buy it at Lulu.com.
à la Modest is a colorful, classy American blog whose focus is, as the title suggests, on modest but chic fashion. Run by fashion, music, and vintage enthusiast Rachel Dahl, the blog covers her many finds, purchases, and experiments with fashion, as well as some her music discoveries. Vintage and non-Vintage are all mixed together, but there is so much refreshing, airy beauty to enjoy in this blog that is always delightful on all fronts.
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Screenshot of Australian Vintage fashion blog Vintagegrrl.net. |
Vintagegrrl.net is an unusual take on fashion blogging in that it features an Australian girl named Tia who was into the swing dance revival of the late 1990’s, but dropped out of the scene. She misses it though and is finding her way back to that way of life via The Vintage Movement. She’s been one of This is Vintage Now’s most ardent supporters too, having featured our Reverbnation widget in her blog steadily over the months it took to ready the compilation for release.
DeliGlam Blog Published by Italian ladies’ Vintage fashion boutique DeliGlam Vintage, this largely English-language blog discusses many aspects of Vintage ladies’ fashion, including Vintage fashion icons of both yesterday and today, tips on dressing Vintage, and advice on shopping for Vintage ladies’ fashion in Italy. They also have information on upcoming Vintage festivals and events in Europe.
Land Girl 1980 features the musings a British gal named Charly, including fashion tips, product reviews, travel adventures, and outfit posts (meaning that she tries a new outfit and takes pictures to show what she came up with). And if you’re wondering what a Land girl is (as I did), check out this post for the whole story—I won’t spoil it for you.
(A word of caution: At this point, there is a problem with some Vintage Fashion bloggers trying to build an elitist “snob scene”, which is something that we feel very strongly does NOT belong in Vintage at all. If you get an air of snootiness or condescension from any blog or blogger, be it toward you, other people, or the original period, we advise dropping them like a hot potato and instead reading the blogs from the nice people, of which there are plenty. All of the Vintage Fashion blogs listed above we have dealt with personally and can recommend.)
Tiki Culture:
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The lovable Cudra Clover, hostess of Hawaii-based Exotica podcast Cudra Clover's Exotica Hour. |
Cudra Clover’s Exotica Hour Launched on Valentine’s Day 2009, this Exotica podcast comes direct from the island of Maui in Hawaii, and has to be one of the best ways ever for Tiki and Bachelor Pad newbies to get into Exotica. Cudra Clover is a delightful and instantly lovable hostess and DJ, and her knowledge of Exotica is absolutely breathtaking. To add to her talents, Miss Clover also played flute on Tiki Joe’s Ocean’s milestone album Under the Midnight Sun (2010), and is a talented visual artist with an unmistakably tropical style. On Cudra Clover’s Exotica Hour, The Lady Herself offers tracks from all the greats of the genre, digs deep with rare material taken direct from vinyl, and does interviews with current Exotica greats like The Waitiki 7 and Andy Nazzal of Tiki Joe’s Ocean. She also expands into other Bachelor Pad and vintage-style music, but Exotica music is her ground zero. Take your first drink of Exotica with Cudra Clover and you’ll be hooked for good—and that’s a good thing!
Tiki Talk is a blog that has been with us since 2005 and covers news about Tiki related happenings. They offer a bi-weekly newsletter to help Tiki fans stay abreast of the last Tiki news, as well as a monthly contest where you can enter to win hep Tiki stuff!
Koop Kooper’s Cocktail Nation is an online Exotica and vintage music podcast run by Koop Kooper live from this über-swank Aussie penthouse. The podcast’s homepage features a link to Koop’s latest podcast, retro news/gig guide, and a “swank advice” column where Koop offers tips on the art of being hep.
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Screenshot of the Tiki Lounge Talk blog by novelist "Tiki" Chris Pinto. |
Tiki Lounge Talk This Tiki blog is run by lifelong Vintage fanatic “Tiki” Chris Pinto. To quote the Blogmaster, “This site is for everyone into Tiki Culture and the Retro Scene. Here you’ll find posts [covering everything] from vintage movies (Mod/Noir/Retro Movie Mondays) to exotic Tiki bar cocktail recipes.” Chris is also a novelist, having written two retro-style paranormal murder mysteries: Murder On Tiki Island (2011) and Murder Behind the Closet Door (2010). He’s a great fellow who is all about learning and discovering new Vintage stuff and helping people get into the scene.
The Cocktail Journal is a blog run by The Waitiki 7 cats that features new Tiki drink recipes and discusses Tiki mixology in further detail. Loads and loads of Tiki drinks of every persuasion are featured here!
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Tiki Iniki co-preprietor Todd Rundgren relaxing amongst the décor he and wife Michelle are collecting for the establishment's February 2013 opening in Princeville, Hawai'i (on the island of Kauai). |
Tiki Iniki (Facebook Page) Coming in February 2013 is a new Exotica and Tiki-themed nightclub based in Princeville, Hawai'i and run by entrepreneurs Todd and Michelle Rundgren. Michelle is best known as a comedienne and former dancing girl for the rock band The Tubes, and Todd is the prolific veteran rock musician and producer. To my knowledge, this new nightlife establishment is Michelle's brainchild, and it intends to pull out all the stops in delivering a top-notch tiki experience. Here's the information they're released so far: "Tiki Iniki...is an exotic place for crafted Tiki Cocktails, Island Cuisine, Live Entertainment, and Dancing. The decor is Vintage Tiki, Hawaiiana, and Exotica from the 1940's to modern day. The staff of sultry sirens and savage mixologists add to the ambiance." Like their Facebook page to keep abreast on updates!
Don the Beachcomber Restaurant Tiki Culture has its origins with Don the Beachcomber (born Ernest Raymond Beaumont Gantt), a native Texan turned world traveler who began the legendary Don the Beachcomber Restaurant in Hollywood in the 1930’s. The restaurant offered an escapist atmosphere that would soon become a favorite haunt for celebrities, and which laid the groundwork for the Tiki culture craze of the 1950’s and beyond. Don the Beachcomber’s restaurants became a successful chain under the guiding hand of his wife Sunny Sund in the 1940’s while Don served in World War II, and the chain continued on far into the 1980’s. The current Don the Beachcomber restaurant is located at 16278 Pacific Coast Highway in Huntington Beach, California, where it has been since 1969. Arthur Snyder bought out the Don the Beachcomber brand in 2007, and continues to preserve the lush atmosphere, the careful mixologies, and the one-of-a-kind dining experience that has been a Don the Beachcomber tradition for nearly seven decades.
Vintage Fairs and Festivals:
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One of the designs used to promote Vintage by Hemingway's The Vintage Festival, which is now in its second year in the UK. |
The Vintage Festival (formerly Vintage at Goodwood) did more than anyone else to make 2010 a watershed year for the Vintage Movement in the UK. This festival is run by successful British fashion entrepreneur Wayne Hemingway and his family. The Hemingways do this on their own dime because they love Vintage and want to share great vintage culture with the rest of the world; they are a great group of folks who set a down-to-earth, approachable, non-snobby precedent within the leadership at the festival. Cultural artifacts and ways of doing things from the 1920’s to the 1980’s get a voice at tradeshow-sized, labour-of-love event.
Twinwood Festival has taken up the Vintage banner in the UK as well, putting on a music-heavy Vintage Lifestyle show that is now in its 11th year!
Judy’s Affordable Vintage Fairs is the largest traveling Vintage fashion flea market in the UK; according to its official site, “Serving 23 cities, it has been hailed by the national press as a ‘shopping phenomenon’.” Check out the pictures on their site to get a good (stunning, really) overview of this shopping phenomenon, and keep up with news and tidbits of info at their Vintage Style Blog.
Vintage Fashion and Resale:
Vintage Clothing at Fashion-Era.com Vintage is a buzz word in the world of fashion and fashion resale, and this site gives the best introduction I've ever seen to the world of Vintage fashion and fashion resale. It gives Vintage, Retro, Antique, and Collectible strict definitions, and gives would-be Vintage fashion entrepreneurs a down-to-earth and realistic idea of what to expect should they decide to start a Vintage resale business, complete with an in-depth run down of what fashion tended to be like in the different eras.
The 100 Best Vintage Shops Online (ebook) Written by Sammy Davis of Sammy Davis Vintage, this ebook is by far the best survey of American-based Vintage fashion resalers currently available. This beautifully designed and informative handbook will not only help Vintage fashion enthusiasts in their quest for great Vintage clothing from reliable retailers, it will also help the newcomer to Vintage fashion with basic introduction on what Vintage Fashion is and how to shop for it. Read our review of this ebook in the Articles and Reviews section of this website; we cannot recommend it enough.
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Italian Vintage fashion resalers Deliglam Vintage have branded themselves with cheery yet sophisticasted fashion photography that harkens back to the haute couture shoots of c.1950's fashion magazines. |
Deliglam Vintage is a ladies' fashion boutique in Italy that sells Vintage reproduction and one-of-a-kind Vintage and Retro fashion finds from the 1930's through the 1980's from their chic yet personable online shop. Italy has long been world-famous for being at the forefront of ladies' fashion. This is an opportunity to find some rarer and more unique Vintage fashion finds direct from Italy, and in a variety of sizes at that. Deli Glam love working with international customers, and offer a flat rate shipping fee of €12 (twelve euros) to the USA, Canada, and Latin America. They also have a blog where they discuss Vintage fashion icons of both yesterday and today, and also offer tips on dressing Vintage and on shopping for Vintage ladies' fashion in Italy.
RC Antiques is a successful Vintage resale business run by a lady named Linda Caricofe; this is her blog where she lists new items that she has for sale. Linda’s Vintage resale venues of choice are Ruby Lane and Ruby Plaza; click the links to see both of her online shoppes. Linda also shares advice on succeeding as a Vintage resaler through a YouTube video series called Linda’s Shop Talk, which you can find at RC Antiques’ YouTube Channel.
The Evolution Rewind Collection Morro Bay, California-based entrepreneur and writer Lisa Graystone has started a collection of exotic, one-of-a-kind cocktail rings hand-crafted from Vintage brooches. The Evolution Rewind Collection is an extenstion of Lisa's online Vintage resale shop Evolution Vintage, but it is creating a standalone reputation for itself, with pieces from the collection being acquired and worn by celebrities such as Lisa Marie Presley and the adult contemporary vocal group Wilson Phillips. Follow their Facebook page for top-notch photos of these breathtaking rings and to see which ones are still available for sale, as they tend to sell quickly.
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Gentlemen’s Breakfast is a rather unusual name for the heppest supplier of Vintage men’s eyewear in the USA! Good quality glasses/spectacles are getting harder and harder to find, and Gentleman’s Breakfast offers high-quality ORIGINAL (not reproduction) Vintage frames from the 1880’s through the 1980’s, as well as the Garrett Leight line which have a retro look are are also built to the standards of circa-1960's frames. The owner of Gentlemen’s Breakfast is a certified optician, and can put prescription lenses into any frame you purchase. Gentleman’s Breakfast ships all over the world from Los Angeles, California. Their shop is an experience in itself, with comfortable hunting lodge-style décor that is designed to put the client at ease, and give them time to find the set of frames that suit them the best. And you may find that if you buy frames with Gentlemen’s Breakfast that were made in the Sixties, you may still be wearing them when you are in your sixties.
Vintage on Etsy There are a BUNCH of Vintage Resalers selling Vintage items of all types on Etsy, which is essentially a massive online strip mall full of boutique fashion and antique dealers. I hope someday that we can get a list up of individual resalers, but listing their big hangout is a start.
More Vintage Lifestyle:
Vintage is becoming a way of life beyond just music and fashion. There are night life establishments, restaurants, hotels, culinary artists, furniture makers, bridal boutiques, and so on coming in to support and expand Vintage as a full way of life. Many of these establishments are scattered and conducting business outside of the Vintage Movement, but many are working hand in hand with the existing Vintage Fairs and Festivals (see above) to make their contributions available to Vintage lovers. Here we present an extremely short list of businesses who do Vintage in other ways that aren’t directly music or fashion related.
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Interior of the Denver, Colorado-area restaurant chain Gunther Toody's. The waitresses are the best part of the whole experience—they are cute and nice, and look and play the role of adorable 1950's diner waitresses. The only thing that's missing is the roller skates. |
Gunther Toody’s is an established and popular diner chain in the Denver, Colorado area that has a 1950’s rock and roll-style atmosphere, complete with a jukebox, memorabilia galore, and—the best part—adorable, flirtatious waitresses in cute outfits that are required by the management to doll up 1950’s style. Their site is not really much to look at an assumes that you are already familiar with the joint, but it is a great example of a diner that gives the full Vintage diner experience without feeling run down or sleazy.
Vintage Airplanes Out in Sonoma, California, you can book a flight in an open-cockpit airplane or biplane, and they can even do aerobatic stunts while you are in the plane! Who needs a rollercoaster after this?
Daisy-Mae Designs Featured in Cheshire Life and Vintage Life magazines, this Cheshire, UK-based proprietorship specializes in Vintage-style bridal regale, “from Vintage Brooch Bouquets and Vintage Wedding Dresses, to the Perfect Wedding Reception.” Daisy-Mae Designs bring class and individuality to brides-to-be who want to include Vintage in their weddings, as well as a wisp of innovation into the bridal and wedding industry at large. The one thing here that you do not want to miss is their heirloom brooch bouquets; each one is a truly stunning, breathtaking work of art in and of itself.
West Country Whimsy Well, after the wedding comes the inevitable—children. And West Country Whimsy has much of that covered, with their “collection of elegant nursery furniture and accessories. From painted antique chairs covered in floral linens luxurious cot sheets in French fabrics, to vintage toys lovingly restored.” They have some really adorable (not to mention high class) children’s chairs and chaise longues, and restored Vintage toys, amongst some other side items such as Vintage clocks.
And Finally:
Why the Burlesque Show is (Almost) Over
Written by This is Vintage Now producer David Gasten, this article pretty much says it all.
That was “Vintage” then. This is Vintage Now!
