Relax, Laugh and Remember with Reminisce Magazine. Each issue is a "time capsule" of life from the 30's, 40's, 50's and 60's filled with reader-written stories, pictures from the past, embarrassing moments, ads from the Old Days and much more!
Yep, I’ll admit I’m half in love with the kitschier side of Christmas, and the quirky stop-motion animated specials from Rankin/Bass Productions hit all the right cheesy buttons for me. I watch Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (1964) every year, and I’m not alone in that: Rudolph rated No. 2 among 18-to-49-year-olds when it aired last December. So if you’re a Rankin/Bass groupie, too, try our quiz, “It’s a Rankin/Bass Christmas” (page 50). We hope it slides you back to that sweet spot in the calendar of life when the holiday was all shiny noses and chubby singing snowmen. Many of us cherish the gifts of those childhood yuletides. In “Christmas Keepsakes” (page 30), illustrated by Mary Kate McDevitt, readers tell of holiday treasures that still hold a world of meaning for…
PHOTO TIPS Please identify the people, city, state and year the photo was taken. For photos sent by mail: • Be sure your photo or reprint is in focus. Do not send photocopies; we cannot print from them. For photos sent digitally: • Scan your photo as a JPEG file at 1200x1800 pixels, 300 dpi and 1MB. • No scanner? Walgreens, OfficeMax and FedEx Office offer this service. TIKI STYLE We’re researching a story on the rise of Hawaiian and tiki style in general during the 1960s. The look has been revived in recent years. Did you or someone you know fall in love with all things tiki? We’d like to hear about your experiences. What did you like about the look and why? Label your story and pictures “Tiki…
President Dwight D. Eisenhower declines meeting Fidel Castro when the revolutionary visits the U.S. Alaska and Hawaii become states Nos. 49 and 50. NASA introduces its Mercury 7 astronauts. Music is big news: Miles Davis records Kind of Blue; Berry Gordy Jr. founds Motown Record Corp.; the first Grammy Awards event is held; and Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and J.P. “the Big Bopper” Richardson die in an Iowa plane crash. Bonanza—in color—and The Twilight Zone debut. The first Little Caesars opens near Detroit. And Merriam-Webster finds these words in common use. CB: The FCC’s decision to open a special band of frequencies called the “citizens band” the year before leads to many new, amateur users—and a flood of “breaker, breaker” radio calls, center bottom. CRUISE MISSILE: The first—and only—delivery of…
RAY CHARLES STRIKES GOLD Playing a dance hall in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in December 1958, Ray Charles and his seven-piece band ran through their entire repertoire and then realized they had some time to fill. Knowing the band had to finish the four-hour set to get paid, Charles dug deep and came up with a groovable beat and simple lyrics—mostly oohs and aahs—that lit up the crowd. “There was nothing left that I could think of,” Charles recalled in Brother Ray: Ray Charles’ Own Story. “So I finally said to the band and the Raelettes, ‘Listen, I’m going to fool around and y’all just follow me.’” A blues-based boogiewoogie riff on his electric keyboard set the stage. Then Charles began tossing out short lyric lines, which he encouraged the backup singers…
Two nights a week and on Saturday mornings I tended the switchboard at the Art Center School in Los Angeles (now the ArtCenter College of Design). It was the early 1960s, and I was studying photography. The switchboard job was easy duty, and I could use the extra money. One evening in July, Fred Lyon, a photographer in San Francisco and an Art Center alum, called the switchboard. He was looking for an assistant for a photo shoot, and wondered if the school could help. In fact, I did think the school could find him an assistant—me! I met him in the lobby of the Beverly Hills Hotel the next Sunday morning. His assignment was to shoot Rosemary Clooney and Jose Ferrer and their five children for the Christmas spread…
Rod Serling started writing TV scripts in his 20s, winning Emmys in 1956, ’57 and ’58, but often battled program censors and sponsors who found his work too controversial. In 1959, Serling cannily turned to science fiction. In the creepy “fifth dimension” of The Twilight Zone, which debuted that October, social commentary breezed past censors while still delivering an emotional wallop. Serling would win three more Emmys, two for Twilight Zone scripts, and was inducted into the Television Academy Hall of Fame in 1985. He earned a Purple Heart and a Bronze Star in WWII. He was injured while serving with the Army in the Philippines. Flashbacks and nightmares haunted him for years afterward. His now famous narration was actually Plan B. Serling framed each episode of The Twilight Zone…
