Remember the great age of home intercoms? I don’t either! That’s because in the 1960s and 1970s, home intercoms were not found in your typical suburban house. Unless your family were “people of means,” as your Mom or Dad might have referred to your rich neighbors, you didn’t have one–sadly enough. Those neighbors with the sprawling,… Continue reading Golden Age of the Intercom
Author: Lee Wallender
Deception, influence, fakes, illusions, themed environments, simulations, secret places, secret infrastructure, imagined places, dreamscapes, movie sets and props, evasions, camouflage, studio backlots, miniatures.
Tour I Love Lucy’s Fictional Beverly Palms Hotel
It’s the part of the I Love Lucy TV series that stands out in so many viewers’ minds: Hollywood and the Beverly Palms Hotel. For three seasons, Lucy, Ricky, Fred, and Ethel lived in Manhattan. There were location changes between apartments, Ricky’s Tropicana Club, various stores, but mainly they stayed within the New York area. Then… Continue reading Tour I Love Lucy’s Fictional Beverly Palms Hotel
Theodore Marcuse: Character Actor Destined for Greatness, Cut Down in His Prime
Theodore Marcuse brought gravitas to the decidedly airy, unsubstantial world of 1960s television. Theodore Marcuse cross-sectioned the world network TV at that time. Name a show, he was there: Star Trek, Hogan’s Heroes, The Untouchables, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, Wild Wild West, and far more. Marcuse was a bald, ballsy, confident, and… Continue reading Theodore Marcuse: Character Actor Destined for Greatness, Cut Down in His Prime
Universal Studios 1972: Scenes from a Studio on a Verge of a Boom
With these photos of Universal Studios in 1972, understand the context: this was the studio at one of its lowest points. Its big, bustling period of huge stars and directors was well in the past. Its next boom, the Easy Riders, Raging Bulls period detailed by author Peter Biskind–Jaws, The Sting, American Graffiti–had not yet happened,… Continue reading Universal Studios 1972: Scenes from a Studio on a Verge of a Boom
Sad Devolution of Cracker Jack Prizes Mirrors Decline of America
It’s early April 2016. You’re a junior associate at a PR firm. You get an e-mail from your boss, Haston Lewis, senior director of marketing, Frito-Lay, saying, “Cracker Jack is dropping its prize and replacing it with a scannable code that will unlock four baseball-themed experiences on their mobile device. Let’s sidestep the fact that… Continue reading Sad Devolution of Cracker Jack Prizes Mirrors Decline of America