Subjective Color

July 25, 1967: During its broadcast of the TV series Combat!, ABC aired a commercial for a soft-drink called Squirt. The commercial appeared in color. What made this unusual is that it appeared in color even on black-and-white TV sets.



The commercial used a technology developed by the Color-Tel Corp., and patented by James Butterfield, that used pulses of light to trick the brain into thinking that it was seeing color. Butterfield described this as "subjective color".

The company had informed the media before the broadcast, but most people didn't know it was going to happen, and so they thought they were going nuts when they suddenly saw flashes of color on their black-and-white sets.

Detroit Free Press - Sep 14, 1967

The technology had some limitations. It could only be used for still images. Also, the colors were muted and flickered a lot. But the really big problem was that the technology emerged just as color TVs were becoming popular. So it was a clever gimmick that no longer had much practical purpose.

More info: Chronicles from the Analog Age Blog

Also worth noting: the idea of being able to see color images on a black-and-white set was the premise of a famous April Fool's Day hoax that occurred in 1962 in Sweden.

Posted By: Alex - Sun Sep 20, 2020 - Comments (0)
Category: Inventions, Patents, Television, 1960s

Follies of the Madmen #488

Induces gagging sensations of sipping tobacco-flavored drink.



Source.

Posted By: Paul - Sun Sep 20, 2020 - Comments (0)
Category: Business, Advertising, Tobacco and Smoking, 1960s, Nausea, Revulsion and Disgust

Music Beamed to Astronauts

This NPR feature describes how Mission Control had a tradition of waking up orbiting astronauts with music. But as you can see in the second piece, the playlist was even more extensive at one time.









Source of text.

Posted By: Paul - Wed Sep 16, 2020 - Comments (0)
Category: Music, Spaceflight, Astronautics, and Astronomy, 1960s

Music to move families by

"a promotional release given to families who moved in 1960 using Allied Vans services."

image source: Unearthed In The Atomic Attic

You can listen to the entire album via YouTube:

Posted By: Alex - Mon Sep 14, 2020 - Comments (2)
Category: Music, 1960s

Perry Submarines

Hobbyist submarines are pretty oddball. (Not even getting into the territory of drug-smugglers with homemade subs.) Here's a forerunner from 1962.

Apparently the company is still going strong. Although they don't make subs anymore.



The restoration of one sub.

Posted By: Paul - Mon Sep 07, 2020 - Comments (3)
Category: Daredevils, Stuntpeople and Thrillseekers, Hobbies and DIY, Oceans and Maritime Pursuits, 1960s

A silly millimeter longer

In 1966, Benson & Hedges introduced the "100" — an extralong, 100-millimeter cigarette. Their tongue-in-cheek commercials focused on the supposed disadvantages of such a long cigarette.



Not to be outdone, the makers of Chesterfields responded by introducing the "101", which was 101 millimeters long. As they put it, it was a "silly millimeter longer."



As far as I know, no one ever introduced a "102" cigarette.

Posted By: Alex - Fri Sep 04, 2020 - Comments (5)
Category: Smoking and Tobacco, 1960s

Why aren’t your feet as sexy as the rest of you?

One of life's great mysteries.

The ad ran in Cosmopolitan magazine (and probably other publications) in the late 1960s.

I found it in The Sex Life of the Foot and Shoe (1976) by William A. Rossi.

Posted By: Alex - Wed Sep 02, 2020 - Comments (4)
Category: Advertising, 1960s, Feet

North to Alaska

Here's a type of song, a story ballad, that seems pretty much extinct these days. (Any WU-vie who can cite a contemporary instance gets a No-Prize!) It seems, judging by the film clips in this video, to recount the entire arc of the movie!



The Wikipedia page for the film.

Posted By: Paul - Fri Aug 28, 2020 - Comments (4)
Category: History, Movies, Music, Regionalism, 1960s

1969 Design Proposals for NYC

A 200-MPH transit system, a dome over Times Square, and other daydreams.

Source.

Posted By: Paul - Wed Aug 26, 2020 - Comments (3)
Category: Motor Vehicles, Urban Life, 1960s, Yesterday’s Tomorrows

UK’s Central Government War HQ

The Central Government War Headquarters (CGWHQ) is a 35-acre (14 ha)[1] complex built 120 feet (37 m) underground[2] as the United Kingdom's emergency government war headquarters – the hub of the country's alternative seat of power outside London during a nuclear war or conflict with the Soviet Union. It is located in Corsham, Wiltshire, in a former Bath stone quarry known as Spring Quarry, under the present-day MoD Corsham.[3]

The Wikipedia page.

Posted By: Paul - Tue Aug 25, 2020 - Comments (3)
Category: War, 1960s, United Kingdom