In my formative years of being a songwriter, the Captain and Tenille covered the AM radio landscape thicker than astroturf. Even their bulldog, Elizabeth, was part of the act that made wearing a dorky captain’s hat and walking around with a bowl haircut that looked like it had marshmallows stuffed in the curled under ends fashionable. But for whatever can be said about their ultra bubblegum, cringingly cute look, Captain and Tenille made equally as cute yet great Pop records like “Love Will Keep Us Together”, 1975 Record Of The Year, and the evermore schmaltzy “Muscrat Love”, a song with a great melody whose arrangement featured scrunched-up-rat’s-nose synthesized rodent sounds.
This Toni Tennille doll is a “fully poseable fashion doll” that’s 12-1/4 inches tall and features “cut out accessories”, which means you have to cut out cardboard shapes of Elizabeth the bulldog’s bones and bowls and then play with them flat on the table.
Ms. Tenille was made in 1977 by C&T’s own Moonlight and Magnolia, Inc. in association with Mego Corp, maker of some of the most popular and cheesiest dolls of the 1970s as evidenced on the back of the box where photos of other dolls in their TV Starz series feature Tenille’s identical face.
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Popular causes have always been prime breeding ground for Kitsch but none so powerful as the first wave of products that spin out of these Pop Culture phenomenon. Both Libby The Lovely Liberated Lady and the Do-It-Yourself Coloring Kit Black Power Statuette are two such statements from burgeoning Civil Rights movements in the 1960s and ’70s when these folks were expressing themselves freely among the masses for the first time.
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I’ve never seen one of these that worked properly or where the heads stood up straight but still it’s one of the most prized collectibles of Monkees memorabilia. Although I loved the just-ingested-mushrooms quality of their TV show and the supreme popiness of the records, I never had a favorite Monkee as my head was buried so deeply in Motown.
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No one can accuse Garvin, the designer of this drunk matching 50’s couple, for thinking small: “Hip Nip can be used for Scotch, Mouthwash, Gin, Shave Lotion, Rye, Urine-analysis, Bicarb, Bourbon, Malted, Aspirins, Deodorant, Suntan oil and Hairdressing”. His mate, Hot Nip, only promises “to keep you warm”.
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In 1968, not only did Julia become the first African American career woman on television but Diahann Carroll became the first African American lead ever in a TV series. Although it was dismissed by some for not being political enough and reflecting a more radical Civil Rights stance, Julia ran for 86 episodes and finally broke the color barrier on television.
I loved Julia most for all the memorabilia it spawned. I have the pull string talking doll shown here, the 3′x4′ promo poster that accompanied it’s release in 1970, three Viewmaster reels, Colorforms and four lunchboxes.
There’s another version of the doll called Julia Twist that comes dressed in a less elegant dressed in a nurses uniform and with a turnable waist. I used to own her but I twisted her too far and now am left with only upper Julia and lower Julia. Additional outfits, all Barbie fashions, had names like Brrr-Furrr, Candlelight Capers, Leather Weather, Pink Fantasy and Leather Weather and could be added to both Julia dolls, turning the reserved medical assistant into a bumpin’ party gal.
In 1968, not only did Julia become the first African American career woman on television but Diahann Carroll became the first African American lead ever in a TV series. Although it was dismissed by some for not being political enough and reflecting a more radical Civil Rights stance, Julia ran for 86 episodes and is credited with breaking the color barrier on television.
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This awkwardly made 1988 plastic drink kooler is one of the rarest and kitschiest of all my MJ memorabilia. You put the puppet kooler in the freezer til the patented freezing gel kicks in, insert a can in MJ’s torso once it’s out and flip his Smooth Criminal hat to get at the drink which supposedly stays cool for hours. It comes with a plastic drinking glass, a total inconvenience as there’s no place to keep it once the drink is popped into Michael. The bottom of the cooler reads “Sherman Oaks, CA., Made in Mexico”, a mysterious combo indeed.
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Sammy’s the Kitsch King no matter how you slice the cheese wheel. His shtick is the barometer against which all other nightclub cheese is measured – though the Candy Man’s case is made all the more compelling because of his Kool factor. This bobble head is newish but is a limited edition with no new ones being made. My favorite thing about him is that he sits on top of a speaker in my recording studio and bobs his head in loving rhythm to whatever I write.
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Although she also came in white this black version, Mego’s bendable answer to Barbie, rode the wave of 70’s blaxploitation heroines like Friday Foster, Cleopatra Jones, Foxy Brown, Christie Love and my fave, Velvet Smooth. I love when colloquialisms are bent into names: Dinah-miiiiite!!
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