How Retro.com: 2011

1960s Shoes

The Influential Mods

Modern Go-Gos

The British Mod movement in the early half of the 1960s defined much of that decade's style - as everyone knows, it was a revolutionary period in fashion as well as attitude. Mary Quant, Vidal Sassoon, Ben Sherman helped set the tone for hair and clothes and for shoes, designer Beth Levine re-introduced the boot to 60s women and Andre Courrages took it to new levels of funkiness and the white boot became emblematic of the era.

Boots came in various colours and designs to suit mods and non-mods -fur lined ankle boots, white gogo boots in various heights, riding boots, brown or black leather knee-highs, classic blue and white canvas gym boots and later, lace-up Granny boots.

The Eternal Quest for Youth and Beauty
As we grow older, we (some of us) become susceptible to the lure of the fountain of youth, preferring to believe in the promise of plastic surgery, rather than accept the realities of aging. Thus notions of "growing old gracefully" are vanquished to the outer reaches, while we do a cost/benefit analysis of plastic surgery.

Although we do live in a particularly shallow media-driven culture where youthful image rules, the desire to extend the appearance of youth is nothing new. Even the ancient world dabbled in plastic surgery and in modern terms, surgeons have been performing face-lifts since the beginning of the 20th century.

It began with the discovery that a simple incision in front of the ear, the removal of a slice of skin and stitching the whole thing back together as discreetly as possible could make the face tauter and thus more youthful. This 'mini-lift' was popular in Paris among film stars and the vain and well-to-do.

Sweet Scottie vintage fruit box label

Scottish Terriers: The Decorative Dog
Scottie dogs, with their distinctive, stylised looks and appealingly earnest facial expressions, have long been a popular 20th century motif for fashion, ornaments and various what nots and bric a brac. They ooze character and have a kind of retro, old-fashioned charm - possibly because their image can be found on so many old tea towels, cake tins, calendars and brooches etc. Like the poodle, they possess a serious style cachet and were particularly sought after, as decorative accents, from the 1920s through to the 1950s. They even had the distinction of being a Monopoly playing piece.

Raffles Hotel, Singapore

Colonial Splendour
Raffles Hotel in Singapore is a world famous remnant of the colonial era. Built in 1887, the 104 suite hotel was the vision of four Armenian brothers - Martin, Tigran, Aviet and Arshak Sarkies, who named it after Sir Stamford Raffles, the founder of modern Singapore.

Although now multi-cultural, in the colonial era the hotel's gracious facilities were strictly for the patronage of European guests and not the local native Singaporeans. It wasn't until the 1930s that Asian guests were permitted.

ABBA

70s Musical Kitsch
In the 1970s, for reasons that are largely mysterious, Australians formed a great and lasting love affair with the Swedish pop group ABBA. As Bjorn Ulvaous remarked at the Melbourne ABBAWORLD exhibition in Melbourne in 2010:

‘Australia was the first country that took ABBA to heart and we never forgot about that. We always felt a lot of love from audiences there.’’ Aw...

The eye of Horus

The ancient Egyptians certainly knew how to create drama in the human form. Their striking profile images of black-haired, dark-eyed figures clad in golden garb, snake and scarab amulets and extraordinary head-pieces are so powerful, they still resonate today. Egyptian influences can still be discerned in our decorative arts, fashion and make-up.

In the 1960s, the penchant for heavy eye emphasis and pale faces and lips echoed the drama of the darkly smudged eyes of the 1920s, which in turn took much of it's inspiration from ancient Egypt.

Animal Pins and Brooches

Creature Chic

Cute

When I was a kid at school, it used to be very popular for a while for children to wear a small mouse brooch (usually with ruby, saphire, or emerald eyes) pinned to your coat. Why mice? Perhaps because they featured heavily in children's stories and nursery ryhmes and are small and non-threatening. Strange that females are traditionally portrayed as fearing mice, yet turn them into cartoons, storybook characters or adornments and we're supposed to find them adorable.

Travellers set of 3. Cargo

Retro Luggage

Euro Suitcases by Cargo

Vintage suitcases have a lovely charm about them, especially the genuine article, which also come with a history and the interesting patina of age. I love the rounded shapes and contrast trims of 50s luggage...but the pseudo-old ones are a good substitute if you don't happen to have any old mid-century baggage lying around.

Road suitcase by Cargo

The cheaper ones make great storage boxes for odds and ends or for decorative purposes and of course the better quality cases can be used as real luggage.

Mavis Bramston

The pioneering Mavis Bramston Show premiered on Australian television (ATN 7) in November, 1964 and ran for three years. It was our first venture into home-grown satirical comedy, showcasing revue-style skits and songs and audiences responded to viewing themselves through an edgier, comedic lens.

At the time of its airing, television had only been a force in Australia for a mere eight years and although we did produce some local content, the vast majority of prime time TV shows were imports from the US and Britain. Bramston was our attempt at creating our own version of some of the more sophisticated comedy shows that were coming out of the BBC. Groundbreaking shows like Peter Cook and Dudley Moore's Not Only but Also, The Frost Report and That was the Week That Was, were popular here, proving that Australian audiences could digest more than Wagon Train and Z-Cars.

Pony rides on Foys rooftop. Photo courtesy of the Bulpit family

Old Melbourne - Foys Rooftop Carnival

Christmas at Foys was a big event. Source

Foy and Gibson, commonly called Foys by its patrons, was an iconic department store in Bourke St Melbourne, up until 1967, when the company sold out to David Jones. Foys had been built on the site of the old Orient Hotel, which was knocked down to build the massive store.

Foys was famous for its toy department and the annual Christmas rooftop carnival - many a Mebournian child was taken into the store to meet Father Christmas and receive a wrapped present. The logistics of hosting a carnival, complete with ponies, merry-go-rounds etc on a rooftop in a busy city location must have been daunting. On the Museum Victoria website, English immigrant John Woods, whose photograph appears at right, and who remembers the rooftop carnival well, recalls:

I also remember an annual rooftop carnival on the Foys building. There was a ferris wheel which virtually hung over the edge of the building and could be seen from the street below. It was an exciting ride because it felt as if you were falling from the top of the building into Bourke street.~ Museum Victoria

Even a train ride. Photo courtesy of the Bulpit family.

Fun in the sky. Merry go round on Foys rooftop. Photo courtesy of the Bulpit family

Foys in Collingwood
In addition to the Bourke store, Foys occupied a large complex of buildings, designed by architect William Pitt, in Collingwood, incorporating Oxford Street, Cambridge Street, Stanley Street, Peel Street, Little Oxford Street and Wellington Street.

Foy and Gibson, resplendent at night on the corner of Swanstonand Bourke St. Melbourne Source: State Library

At its height, the dominating factory complex contained "two miles of mills", employed around 2000 people and made most of the supplies that filled the Foy stores. The Foy and Gibson factory complex and retail stores in Smith Street, were an integral part of the area until most of the retail buildings were pulled down in the late 60s. Parts of the factory complex architecture survives however and are now on the Heritage Victoria Register.

Postcard of Smith St Collingwood. Image from the State Library, Shirley Jones Collection

Mark Foy and William Gibson
The creator of this commercial empire was draper, Mark Foy, who, lured by the gold rush, emigrated from Ireland to Victoria in 1858. After knocking around the gold fields for a few years, he must have decided there was more fortune to be had in supply than extraction and he opened a drapers store in Smith Street Collingwood in 1870. It was a canny move, as by the end of the decade the drapers store had grown to occupy six shops.

After successfully building up the business, Mark Foy decided to retire and travel and passed on the business to his son Francis and a new partner, William Gibson, who came from a family of clothier manufacturers in Edinburgh and had arrived in Australia in 1882 - thus Foy and Gibson. Unfortunately, Mark Foy died on his travels, in San Francisco in 1884, however, after his departure from the firm, Foys continued to go from strength to strength under the guidance of William Gibson and Foys stores sprung up inner city Prahan and in three States - Perth, Adelaide and Queensland. The huge Bourke street store was built in the 1930s.

The Skipping Girl

Sources:
Collingwood Historical Society.
Museum Victoria

Men's Sideburn Styles

Sideburn enthusiast, Englebert Humperdink

Although daily shaving can be a definite drag for men, the existence of male facial hair does at least offer them the option of expressing their own individuality and completely changing their appearance via a beard, moustache and /or a shapely pair of sideburns.

Sideburns suggest virility but also, if in the right configuration, elegance - they can be employed to slim down a face, reflect an era or style and just generally conjure a particular image that the wearer might be desirous of getting across. With that in mind, let's explore some of the common sideburn affectations that have proved popular with the testosterone crowd....

Polo

Polo in Australia
If media reports are to be believed, the game of polo has been enjoying a definite hike in popularity in Australia recently, particularly with the upwardly mobile set, who have the funds to indulge in what is a fairly expensive sport and traditionally, the provenance of the well-heeled. Like yachting, polo has connotations of privilege and the smack of exclusiveness. It is, after all, known as the "sport of kings". Perhaps that's a big part of the appeal.

Skyhooks: Living in the 70s

They had flares, glam jumpsuits, dubious hair and plenty of attitude...Melbourne group Skyhooks was the quintessentially seventies band. In fact they even wrote a song about it - Livin' in the 70s, which shot up the charts in 1974. They were, in their day, a very popular band. Love them or hate them (and not many people did hate them), Skyhooks were at least different. Visually, each band each member had a completely unique, theatrical presence - there didn't seem to be one cohesive style, although musically, they were tight..

English actress, Margaret Rutherford

A stalwart of the post-war British film industry, Margaret Taylor Rutherford was a memorable character actress. Adored by her fans, she exemplified much that was lovable about the English eccentric. Her comic skill, essential 'Englishness' and general oddball character translated well from stage to screen and during her career she enjoyed some plum film roles, notably as the credulous psychic, Madame Arcati in David Lean's film adaption of the Noel Coward play, Blythe Spirit but perhaps her most famous, ongoing role was as Agatha Christie's sharp spinster detective, Miss Marple in a series of films in the 1960s.

Ok, there's no real rhyme or reason for this frivolous commercial treatise, except that I happened to be reminiscing about the favoured junk food of my childhood (clearly I don't have enough to occupy my mind) and felt moved to jot my juvenile preferences down for posterity, though owing to my tragically sweet tooth, this is by no means an exhaustive list..

Robot Cushions

Those wide-eyed 50s style toy robots have developed some trendy cachet recently - to the point where they're appeal is now considered mainstream. Fans can acquire anything from designer retro robot wallpaper to cushions. Ah, our consumer society is so quick to capitalise on the shifting sands of retro fads. But I digress...check these beauties out from Ferm living. ...

Ferm Living toy robots

The Retro Perm

After the mass 1980s overdose on permed hair, there was a distinct backlash against perming and processed curls went seriously out of vogue for a decade or two. The anti-perm vibe was so strong that ultra-straight, smooth hair emerged as the fashionable style. It seems we went from one extreme to the other.

That was fine - we needed time to recover from those scary big hair perms that swamped the 80s scene. However, could it finally be time for perms to come out of the woodwork and be fashionable again? Enough permless time has gone by and super straight hair is looking a little stale.

French Berets

The beret is a classic style that never dates, perhaps because it is so simple a design - basically just a circle. It's also very old, dating way back to the Bronze Age and although we associate berets with the French, they were worn in some form or other by the ancient Minoans, Romans and Etruscans and in various military organizations the world over.

Classic wool beret.

The reason for the French association is down to a particularly style of "Basque" beret, which was originally worn by Basque shepherds in the Pyrenees mountain region between southern France and Northern Spain. This style of beret was produced commercially by local craft people as early as the 17th century in Southern France and when industrialization hit in the 19th century, they were mass produced in factories.

Aeroplane Jelly

In the annals of Australian commercial history, there are some brands that stand out as iconically Australian, although many of these are now defunct or have been commandeered by non-Australian multi-Nationals - Arnotts biscuits (now owned by Campbell's Soup), Golden Circle (now owned by Heinz), Peter's Ice-cream (now owned by Nestle) just to name a few.

A guide to all things harpsichord

Although it may conjure images of Lurch and elderly ladies in musty chintz-curtained parlours, the harpsichord was at one time the instrument of choice for hip young ladies in fashionable parlours. A woman who could display her musical accomplishments on an elaborately decorated harpsichord was socially ahead of the game.

The harpsichord appeared sometime in the Middle Ages and continued to be widely played for a few hundred years, however its popularity waned with the emergence of the piano in the eighteenth century.

The Baroque Period
The distinctive notes of the harpsichord featured prominently in Baroque and Renaissance music and notably, in the the concertos of immensely popular composers such as Bach and Vivaldi. It was Bach who arranged some of Vivaldi's concertos, many of which he (Vivaldi) had written for the young girls at a convent school in Italy, so that they may be played on the harpsichord.The Baroque period was a particularly vibrant period for music, breaking away as it did from traditional European religious and choral based music.

Lace Gloves

Lacy and Racy

White lace gloves.

Ultra-feminine and best seen on slender, delicate hands, lace gloves evoke an era of ruffles, fluttering eyelashes, swishing skirts and wide-brimmed sun hats or even parasols. They have a kind of Blanche Dubois fragility about them that seems strikingly out of place in the rough and tumble post-feminist world.

I can't imagine ever having occasion to wear them or feeling comfortable in them even if I did but then, I'm not the parasol type. Yet they sell them on Amazon so someone must be wearing them. Perhaps some people wear them ironically, with a leather jacket and bullet belt. More likely it's a kind of retro Madonna thing, to be worn with pseudo Victorian underwear -eg; white bodice and thigh garter. Very 80s. They could also be worn with a wedding dress, cocktail outfit (in black) or dressing up as a Southern belle. For a variation on a theme, there are also fingerless fishnet gloves, which create a slightly different mood and in black especially, lace and net gloves seem just a bit wicked.

Elizabeth Taylor as Cleopatra

Think Cleopatra, think vamp. Powerful, passionate, crusher of hearts, destroyer of men - the infamous Queen of the Nile, elevated by the force of legend and the mystique of Ancient Egypt, is the ultimate femme fatale. At least that is the image that is firmly embedded in our cultural text, as passed through the transmutations and perversions of Hollywood mixed with history.

So strong is this image that even her hairstyle, or rather our conception of it, has become a symbol of dangerous female seduction. Play with those lush dark locks and you play with feminine fire. The Cleopatra hairstyle is contrived, heavy and dramatic...always dark, with a thick fringe and cut along emphatic, geometric lines. Provided you have the physical assets to carry it off, it's a ring a ding ding, iconic style that turns heads.

Matte 40s lips

Luscious 1940s Lips
In old black and white films from the 1940s, women's lips often appear dark and smouldering, rather than dewy and glistening. This is because the Hollywood lip fashion for that era was for deep reds in a matte lipstick. The look was soft and sensuous, making the lips look like kissable red cushions.

Among the general population lipstick wearing had an ambiguous status. It was regarded as adult and reflective of female sexuality and some regarded it with suspicion. Although the roaring 20s, Hollywood and Elizabeth Arden had done much to make coloured lips seem desirable, lipstick was still regarded as way too racy in some quarters, particularly among the older crowd who decried lipstick use on teenage girls. Nonetheless, despite the dire warnings that lipstick was a 'provocation to men', or perhaps because of it, there were still plenty of young women who rebelled and took the decadent plunge and painted their mouths in thick, matte, smudgy red hues.

Setting Lotion

Old fashioned rubber hair rollers have gone seriously out of vogue but years ago they were a standard items in most women's box of tricks. Many women would get their hair permed periodically and do a 'wash and set' once a week at home. The set involved dipping a comb into a gluggy pot of goo called setting lotion, which helped to hold the curls in place until the next wash.

Vintage wave curlers. Still available from Accessories of Old

Amazon cat eyes

Few things screech middle century as loudly as those out there cat eye glasses that were so evocative of the 1950s in particular. Subtle they weren't. Rather, they were an eccentric style, designed for women, to lift the face and create interest - perhaps even the illusion of feline grace and slinkiness. In the 40s, glasses had had a more rounded shape but it seems the 50s penchant for extreme, fin-like accents extended to more than just cars.

Some of the gang from Adventure Island

Australian children's TV in the 60s and 70s seemed to have more local content, as opposed the imported variety, usually from the US, that is so ubiquitous today. Some of these old home-grown shows were quite imaginative and one in particular that springs to mind was the popular ABC series Adventure Island which ran on Australian TV from 1967 to 1972 - a healthy run of five years.

The series was the creative co-conception of script-writer John-Micheal Howson (who also played Clown) and director Godfrey Phillip, who had both created the successful kids show The Magic Circle Club, which ran from 65 to 67 and aired on ATV 10. At that time television had only been up and running in Australia for a mere ten years and in terms of home-grown TV production, everything was indeed, an adventure. When Magic Circle club was cancelled over at channel 10, the ABC (public broadcaster) wanted to take over its production but studio head Reg Ansett refused to relinquish the rights - thus Adventure Island was created to fill the void.

Fossil Combat Men's Messenger bag

If you were a student in the 1970s, male or female, it was almost obligatory to wear a messenger bag, preferably with the strap draped diagonally across your shoulder. Only then we didn't call them 'messenger bags...we just called them 'shoulder bags'. Army surplus thick canvas bags were very popular and could be picked up for a few bucks at an army disposal store. Those who had a deeper reserve of funds to tap had nice leather ones with stylish stitching or maybe a pseudo school satchel with buckles. No-one had a handbag as such...that would have been considered very bourgeois.

Red Telephone Boxes

Gather 'round 21st century children and I'll tell you a story, about an old but now vanished piece of redundant technology...

The lonely red telephone box..icon of the 20th century. Source

Way back in time, when mobile phones were only a futuristic novelty, when a text message was known simply as 'a letter' and the web was still just a spider's hangout, there used to be a thing called a 'telephone booth'...a strange, enclosed box with pane glass windows that people would occasionally slip into when they were away from home and wanted to make a phone call.

Retro-futurist robot reindeer

Some of my very earliest memories are of Christmas decorations, which may seem a tad odd but it's probably because Christmas is such an exciting time of the year for young children. Certainly it was for me.

I can, for example, remember being held on my father's shoulders to see the deep red and green concertina paper decorations in the corner of the ceiling in our living room, although I must have only been about two at the time. For some reason that one really sticks out in my mind - that and a set of felt-covered, rotund Father Christmas figures, each one holding a musical instrument. I wonder what happened to those?

1930s . Ladies trying to keep their hats on at the Brisbane races.

1940s. Hats and gloves were still essential items.

Hard to believe but there was a time when few women would be seen in public without a hat and gloves. Up until the 1960s when fashion relaxed, along with traditional social mores, these accessories were a marker of good dressing- even respectability. Men too, were socially required to wear hats...not only that, but to 'tip' them as a woman approached, as a signal of respect

Dressing was much more occasion-orientated - if a woman went into town or out to lunch, it was considered worth dressing up for. Of course, it also made the whole clothes thing much more rigid - there wasn't the same oh wear what you like freedom. Attitudes demanded a certain conformity to set standards. The 60s revolution must have broken the hearts of the glove manufacturers, not to mention the milliners (hat-makers).

An Old-fashioned Game for Kids

Queenie is a very old, simple but fun ball game my Aunt taught me when I was a young child and it has proven to be a great favourite with every kid I've played it with as an adult, causing much laughter and excitement. Essentially, Queenie is a a game of bluff and good acting skills are a distinct advantage. It requies three or more players.

Torchy the Battery Boy

One of the more unusual kids shows to appear on Australian TV in the very early 60s was the British made puppet series, Torchy the Battery Boy, which was an interesting variation on the Pinocchio theme. The series was actually made in the late 1950s by the independent film company AP and was co produced and directed by Gerry Anderson of Thunderbirds fame. Two series and 52 episodes were made in all, however the 26 episodes of the second series were made without Gerry Anderson and AP films.

Torchy the Battery Boy

The series has a peculiar, quirky charm and although it is very '50s' and thus dated, it has a simple, black and white morality and many fantasy elements that would probably still be appealing to very young children - talking toys, an adorable dog, a planet that grows treats on the trees etc. It's also very English.

The Premise
An old man lives in a cosy cottage with a pretty poodle called Pom Pom and deals with loneliness issues by encouraging the local children play in his garden. Uh oh..already we're getting into dodgy territory, as these days an old man luring children to his back yard would be regarded with deep suspicion, if not outright hostility. Of course back then there was less moral panic about such things and the bearded man is, after all kindly and harmless. Anyhow, back to the storyline...

One of the few remaining (and rundown) drive-ins in Victoria, Australia

Dream Screen in the Dark
At the peak of their popularity, in the 1950s/60s and even 70s, drive-in movie theatres could be found dotted all over the place - come nightfall, thousands of people would slip into a parking space in front of the giant open air screen, roll down their windows and hook up to the theatre sound system - each car a personal viewing capsule.

Old-fashioned alphabet blocks from Lindenwood

Although I must have been knee high to a grasshopper as an infant on the living-room floor, I can still faintly remember playing with wooden alphabet blocks as a very young child - particularly the texture and feel, which returns to me more as a sensation than a visual recall. Did this early positive experience foster a life-long love of letters and words? Oh probably not but I do think alphabet blocks are a good, constructive toy for toddlers.

The 28 piece set above is modelled after a turn-of-the-century design and features some very charming vintage pictures of animals, as well as embossed lettering and maths/number symbols. Educational and beautiful. Such blocks are often the first hands-on educational toy a child receives and have been a mainstay for generations. So much so that in 2003, ABC blocks were inducted into US National Toy Hall of Fame.

The Young Mad Scientist's set below is impressively detailed with some fascinating engraved images depicting 'mad science' concepts- this is art and just the thing for the budding Dr. Frankenstein. I'd like these myself but yes, they are for kids too.

Young Mad Scientist's Alphabet Blocks Available at xylocopa

Huey, Dewey and Louie

Donald and his nephews in a corny scene.

Poor Donald Duck. Huey, Louie and Dewey, his wise-racking identical triplet nephews, trumped him at every turn. They were smarter, cuter and great favourites of their uber-rich uncle, Scrooge Mc Duck. The triplets acted in unison, almost acting as one entity and often finished each other's sentences.

However, despite the rivalry between Donald and his nephews, theirs was a close relationship. In the early comic strips, the nephews were a tad mischievous and uncontrollabe but they matured as the characters developed; taking on a more supportive, responsible role in the Duckburg lexicon.

Robert Baden-Powell

Founder of the Scout Movement

Robert Baden-Powell

The Englishman whose upright, good deed philosophy spawned a global legion of boy scouts and girl guides was a born organizer. Lord Baden-Powell had been a soldier in the 13th Hussars, serving in India, Afghanistan and during the Boer war, in South Africa.

During the famous Battle of Mafeking, when a large Boer army had taken siege of the town for seven months, Baden-Powell distinguished himself by organizing the boys of Mafeking as guides, messengers and first aid corp, thus freeing up more soldiers for fighting. In May, 1900 when the town was released, there was much rejoicing back home in England and Baden-Powell was publicly honoured.

How retro...vintage-style microwave from Nostalgia Electrics.

The slick, streamlined designs of 1950s products still have appeal for retro fans, who, like me, are suckers for a nostalgia burst. For that reason the Nostalgia Electrics vintage style microwave caught my eye. Of course, microwaves didn't exist in the 1950s but if they did they could well have looked like this - lots of chrome accents, a curved handle and a twirlable dial control.

Needless to say, behind the charmingly old-fashioned facade, the microwave has all the whizz bang features of a modern piece of technology - 800 watts, 12 pre-programmed features, 0.9 cubic foot interior..blah de blah. I'd never heard of this US based company before but, glancing at their website, they seem to be specialising in nostalgic small appliances and products that are "developed to excite consumers and retailers alike". Well, I'm not sure how exciting a small electrical appliance can get but I love the oval window.

Rag Curls

Years ago, way back when I was a pig-tailed precocious brat in Primary School, there was a girl in my class called Dorothy. Everything about Dorothy was nice - from her perfectly packed, healthy lunchbox to her beautiful manners and impeccable clothes....and most of all her hair.

Retro Knitting Patterns

The Knitting Revival

Retro Knits by Voyageur Press

Old knitting patterns have become very popular of late - mainly because there are some great retro styles to be found among them that just aren't available today.

Once upon a time, knitting was a standard activity for many women, however as more women entered the workforce in the latter part of the 20th century and were pressed by time constraints and other distractions, the popularity of knitting receded. In addition cheap, mass produced knits made the labour intensive art of knitting even less appealing.

But...store bought machine knits just don't have the feel and look of a hand-knitted item. It's the blood, sweat and tears of working those needles over and over again that weaves a kind of history and individualism into the knit. In the 21st century the age old art of knitting has made a resurgence.

It Makes Cents!
1966 was a big year for Australia - for one thing, it was the year our currency changed from pounds, shillings and pence to the decimal system. The changeover at the Royal Mint in London was given the title "operation fastbuck" - everything had to be ready by the 14th of February and new coins dispatched Australia-wide to the banks. At first there was public resistance to the change and a transitional period of dual currency but the government kindly provided the population with a catchy little jingle to help us along...

Modern Raggedy Anne doll by Russ Berrie

Before Bratz dolls and before Barbie and friends, there was Raggedy Ann-an old-fashioned gal who wore bloomers, button boots and a pinafore. A little behind the times fashion-wise, yes...yet the doll has a kind of timeless appeal and for very young children, she still presents as a simple, friendly face with a cosy, huggable body.

Bubbles are still fun for kids. Source

Bubble pipes have been around for gosh knows how long and they're still good for some inexpensive, old-fashioned fun. I say pipe but most bubble blowers these days have dispensed with the pipe shape due to the smoking connotations - no-one wants to encourage children to emulate a smoker, so they've gone the way of chocolate cigarettes and candied cigars. The original idea for the pipes could well have been inspired by the exotic hookah - a traditional pipe where the smoke is cooled by water, making a characteristic bubbling sound when sucked on.

Elizabeth Arden

There's big money in beauty. For proof, one need look no further than the compelling story of cosmetics giant Elizabeth Arden (born Florence Nightingale Graham), who, at the peak of her career, was considered the wealthiest woman in the world. Quite an achievement for a Canadian nursing school drop-out, at a time when few women could climb to the top in the male-dominated sphere of big business.

Arden's venture into cosmetics began in New York in the early part of the last century, when she worked as a book keeper for a pharmaceutical firm, picking up some valuable information about skincare along the way. This was followed by a brief stint working for Eleanor Adair, a beauty consultant, or as it was known then, a 'beauty culturalist'. In turn, this lead to a partnership with another culturalist, Elizabeth Hubbard. The partnership was dissolved soon after but in its place, Elizabeth Arden was born, run solely by its proprietor, Florence Graham. The name was a fusion, formed from Hubbard's Christian name and a narrative poem by Alfred, Lord Tennyson - Enoch Arden.