The Music of Colonel Sanders

Colonel Sanders was apparently a music fan. During the late 1960s, while he still owned Kentucky Fried Chicken, he released a number of albums which were sold at his restaurants.

His first record, released in 1966, was "Favorite Old Church Hymns recorded by The Colonel's Mandolin Band for the glorification of Christ."



The story goes, as reported by the Danville Advocate-Messenger (Nov 6, 1967), that "a group of sixth-graders originally became interested in mandolins after their teacher brought an instrument to the school. When the children, who lived near Colonel Sanders, had formed a band and played many times, they performed for him and he forthwith bought them all new mandolins and assisted them in making a record." In fact, he decided to print 30,000 copies of the record, almost none of which sold.

Vice.com reports that thousands of copies of the record are still in a storage warehouse in Kentucky, and you can buy one if you visit the original KFC location in Corbin, Kentucky.

The other albums he released were more generic music compilations. The best title among the lot is Colonel Sanders' Tijuana Picnic, which sounds vaguely obscene, but was just a collection of Tijuana Brass knockoffs. You can listen to the whole album on YouTube (clip below).

Posted By: Alex - Thu Jun 18, 2020 - Comments (3)
Category: Music, Junk Food, 1960s

Fresh Air Vending Machine

Source.

Posted By: Paul - Sun Jun 14, 2020 - Comments (6)
Category: Frauds, Cons and Scams, Technology, 1960s

Follies of the Madmen #479

UPDATED: the source.

Posted By: Paul - Fri Jun 12, 2020 - Comments (3)
Category: Business, Advertising, Emotions, Underwear, 1960s

Concentrated Ocean Water

A dubious medical cure-all from the early 1960s: bottles of briny water marketed as 'concentrated ocean water'.

The sellers claimed it could prolong life, cure arthritis, cancer, Parkinson's disease, hardening of the arteries, etc.

The FDA, which shut down the companies selling it, called it "the great sea salt swindle."

I couldn't find anyone selling concentrated ocean water today. Though there are plenty of present-day products that are similar in spirit — such as those cans of Swiss Mountain Air I posted about recently.

Newport News Daily Press - Apr 21, 1961

Arizona Republic - Mar 26, 1961

Tampa Bay Times - Apr 24, 1961

Posted By: Alex - Wed Jun 03, 2020 - Comments (6)
Category: Health, Patent Medicines, Nostrums and Snake Oil, 1960s

Hamfat Asar

The creator's Wikipedia page.

Posted By: Paul - Tue May 26, 2020 - Comments (3)
Category: Art, Avant Garde, Surrealism, Stop-motion Animation, 1960s

Follies of the Madmen #477

Our cigarettes are enjoyed by problematical outcasts and outsiders.

Source of ad.

Posted By: Paul - Mon May 25, 2020 - Comments (3)
Category: Business, Advertising, Corporate Mascots, Icons and Spokesbeings, Ethnic Groupings, Stereotypes and Cliches, Tobacco and Smoking, 1960s

Tuberosity Meter

In 1960, Thomas Scoville received a patent for a device for measuring tuberosity. He explained that the purpose of measuring tuberosity was to improve the fit of chairs:




Even after looking up the meaning of the word 'tuberosity' in the dictionary, it took me a while to figure out what exactly Scoville's device was measuring, and what it possibly had to do with chairs. Because the dictionary simply defined tuberosity as a 'rounded swelling.' Some more googling revealed that Scoville must have been referring to the Ischial tuberosity, or 'sitting bone'. As defined by wikipedia, this is:

Posted By: Alex - Sun May 24, 2020 - Comments (1)
Category: Body, Furniture, Inventions, Patents, 1960s

Safety Kisses

Throughout the 20th century, it seemed to be widely assumed that the mood of the husband was determined by the behavior of his wife at home. So, concluded the District of Columbia's traffic safety office in 1963, if a man was in a 'disgruntled disposition' and consequently got into a traffic accident, it must have been the fault of his wife who didn't cheer him up adequately when he left home with a goodbye kiss "as though she meant it."

See also: Whose fault is it when your husband is cross at breakfast?

Minneapolis Star - Nov 12, 1963

Posted By: Alex - Wed May 20, 2020 - Comments (2)
Category: Highways, Roads, Streets and Traffic, Gender, Husbands, Wives, 1960s

Peter the Hermit of Hollywood

Article source.

More anecdotal articles here.

Posted By: Paul - Wed May 20, 2020 - Comments (3)
Category: Eccentrics, Bohemians, Beatniks, Hippies and Slackers, Movies, 1960s, Twentieth Century

Perfume-O-Books

In 1960, Monarch Books announced the launch of Perfume-o-Books. These were books infused with perfume.

They had plans to use a saddle-leather scent for westerns, floral odors for flower-arrangement books, and food scents for cookbooks.

All of which seemed logical. However, they decided to launch the line with three movie tie-in titles: "The Enemy General," by Dan Pepper, "The Stranglers of Bombay," by Stuart James, and "The Brides of Dracula," by Dean Owen. These three titles were each infused with a "Chanel 5 type perfume."

They seem like very odd titles to have been perfumed. And evidently the perfume didn't appreciably help sales, because no more perfume-o-book titles were ever printed.

Richmond Times Dispatch - Apr 17, 1960

Posted By: Alex - Mon May 18, 2020 - Comments (3)
Category: Books, 1960s, Perfume and Cologne and Other Scents