Mid Century Movie Night #2

One of the best things about the 1952 Academy Award winner for best picture was that it was in color, which was a big deal in those days. And it was really colorful. The Greatest Show on Earth is the story of several intertwining stories embedded in the inner workings of Ringling Brothers circus. It was also long, clocking in at about two and one half hours. Check out our reviews under the MCM Movie Night tab. 

Starsky and Hutch

Ok...just Hutch, or in this case...a hutch. The newest used addition to our MCM home is a early 60s hutch to replace the one we had that was more of a 90s thingamajig. It is in great condition for its age and will hold most of our dining accouterments (that's MCM talk for stuff). 

It is solid wood, not that particle board crap with a cheap, thin veneer. You know the main difference between the two? Moving them. The new particle board type can be moved by a six year-old, the mid-century variety took two grown men and I think Tom slipped a disc getting it in the house. Moving during the middle of the last century separated the men from the boys. 

The dining/living room area is beginning to develop nicely. The table is in full use, new sofa and loveseat will be here shortly, the pole lamp shines brightly in all of its MCM splendor and new artwork is on the way. We will post the before an after photos once it is complete, probably around mid-April.

In the meantime, we have some dishes to move. The hutch is lonely and demands to be filled with our dinnerware. We are on the look out for some Blenko glassware to place in it as well if you happen across any. 

Curtain Call

Before the swingin' shower curtain

As we mentioned before, there are somethings we have no intention of going retro with. A few items really did get better in the future (as viewed from a 1950s perspective). One of those is the bathroom. 

Post MCM touch

In pure mid-century style, we all share one bathroom. Tom survived as a child with four people sharing one bathroom so we can muddle through as well. Scheduling is key. But we had no desire to return the room to its original look. Most bathrooms of the era were somewhat gaudy and had tile that were a mixture of colors that make most people nauseous. Then there was the heater, a contraption of death and mayhem that was just as likely to electrocute you as keep you warm. Bathtubs were small, some had no showers and little in-bathroom storage for towels, etc. Our indoor outhouse looked like it had been remodeled in the 70s or sometime and Stacy had recently renovated it with modern plumbing fixtures that made it very functional. 

Yes, yes...we know...it's awesome

Still, it lacked anything that screamed mid-century modern, and frankly, there were no retro-oriented options. But, we found a shower curtain that had a MCM print on it. It was a simple and somewhat inexpensive touch to give our bathroom a MCM flair without sacrificing the hard work Stacy had put into getting into 21st century acceptability. It didn't have to be particularly cozy. In today's homes nearly everyone has a bathroom. When a family shares one, you get in, do your business and get out. No reading while on the throne. Still, we have time to gaze upon a motif reminiscent of the era. 

Pole Dancing

Every mid-century home should have a pole. A tension-pole lamp that is. You can't slide down it like a fireman, or dance around it like a stripper entertainer, but it does a magnificent job a standing in the corner and providing lots of era-appropriate light. 

It is hard to find any specific information on exactly when tension-pole lamps made the scene. Our research suggests that they appeared in the 50s and were ubiquitous in the 60s and phased out in the early 70s. Unless you have a designer one it is even harder to tell when the one you own was manufactured. 

Some common traits of all include: floor to ceiling contact with the top portion being spring-tensioned like a pogo stick, three adjustable lamps with shades that are coned shaped (cones typically in the 60s and 70s while globes seemed more common in the 50s), and a polished metal or fake wood finish with real wood knobs on the lamps. 

We found one at a retro store a few months back, but it had round wicker globes on it, not the atomic-style, cone-like lamp covers. We made the right decision by holding out until we found the one we need to accentuate our mid-century living room. One nearly identical to the one in Tom's living room in the 60s. You can see it in all of its mid-century, atomic splendor in the photo. One 21st century update though: CFL bulbs....it's for the environment you know. 

Mid Century Movie Night

We had our first mid century movie night. It was day actually, it snowed in Oklahoma...a real dumping...all of about 3 inches, which means in Tulsa people reacted like a civil war broke out and most things were closed or cancelled. Stacy got to stay home from work so MCM movie night was held in the afternoon. 

We will review movies of the era, starting with the Academy Award winners for best picture from 1950 to 1965. First up was All About Eve (1951) starring Bette Davis. We will review each movie and give it from 0-5 MCM stars. Stacy will rate it, Tom will rate it and then there will be an averaged rating based on how we find it. You can check out the first and subsequent MCM movie reviews under the MCM movie night tab. 

Dining In

The centerpiece for any home, especially during the mid-twentieth century, was where the family sat around and enjoyed their meal. There were no 24/7 distractions of the internets, smart phones, around-the-clock news, 100 plus TV channels or what not. It was home from school, play in the yard, maybe watch Daniel Boone on the tube in black and white then eat at the dining room table and then wait your turn in the bathroom to get cleaned up and ready for bed. I suppose industrious kids did homework somewhere in the mix. 

It was the meal that brought the entire family together for at least 30 minutes at the end of each day, and the dining table was the apex of that experience. Many of us that lived through it have formica tops emblazoned into our memories, but others had the typical sleek wood slab that we scooped up our vittles from. We wanted to give our place that touch as well. After scouring the several resale shops in Tulsa that specialize in mid-century furnishings we made our find on Craig's List. I know, I know....CL is full of crazies. I know that as well as anyone, but there are also some regular folks just trying to do some business on there...you know, like maybe 10%. 

The best we could find at a resale shop that fit the bill ran about $500-600 and some of those without chairs and in various states of disrepair. We felt fortunate to find a MCM gem with 6 chairs for $350. We had to glue some of the chair braces as the old glue had just worn out, and we refinished the table and chairs using a product called "restore" after a light sanding. The results were pleasing and you can tell from the pictures that it adds something to our Lortondale hideout. The placemats have a distinctive MCM flair with the type of bird print, but they are actually new from IKEA...a good source of newer stuff to accent any MCM home. 

Transistors

We are turning one of the three bedrooms in our MCM into an office. It will still have a trundle bed for guests, but basically an office. We want to give it as much MC flair as possible and are off to a good start with an old mid-century, metal desk. Stacy has claim on the bedroom so think of this as good as a man-cave can get for a mid-century modern abode. That will explain the distinct masculine flair when the before and after picture get posted in the future. 

But for now we need to think of how to give it that MCM ambiance, and in doing so will introduce the first item acquired to go into that room: a Jade 2215 transistor radio. 

The date of manufacture is unknown, but I did find a picture of a kid listening to one in 1968 and many seem to think that 1969 was the date they were sold. Not exactly spot on mid-century but not too much of a stretch. We hope to find a more appropriate radio for the room someday, but this gem was $1.50 at an estate sale so it was worth taking a chance. 

Transistors were a big deal during the day. They replaced tubes which were large, produced lots of heat and had a high failure rate. Transistors "miniaturized" electronics and reduced power requirements. Plus, they last pretty much forever. Tom spent years working on tube-powered radars for the Navy so knows how much trouble they can be. Anything transistorized is known as "solid state." Tubes had gas in them and were far from being solid. Transistors are a hallmark of the late MCM period. They appeared in the 50s but were really mainstream by the mid-sixties. While they were much smaller than tubes, they still were visible and models of radios liked to tout how many were in the radio itself. 

Today, we use integrated circuits, or ICs, on microchips. One microchip might have hundreds of transistors on it that you cannot see with the naked eye. We have come a long way in electronics. The bad news is ICs make it hard to repair electronics at home.

While our Jade 2215 is an AM/FM radio, only the AM works. I think the selector switch is broken but AM only gives if more MCM flair. The volume control is sketchy as well and does not transition smoothly along the volume range. Tom suspects a dirty potentiometer but it is not really worth trying to hunt down the part to fix it. 

In the meantime, until we can find a really atomic-looking radio, AM played a little too loud will reverberate throughout our MCM pad. 

Roof Update

We had a rain since our state-of-the-art temporary repair job on the siding/roof convergence. The tape looked space-aged so I figured it must be state-of-the-art. But it turned about to be about as reliable as the promises made in the State-of-the-Union address. In other words, it did not help. We still have a leaky garage. 

Had a contractor come and look at it and he needed to bring his other guy out that has a ladder to get on top and take a better look. It has to be done before the roof so stay tuned. To make it interesting we are having him take off the Dryvit stucco on that section since it is the back end of the garage. That will give us a clue as to the the condition of the original redwood siding. It could get ugly before it gets better. But, living in the mid-twentieth century meant living with the very real threat of being nuked by the russkies so, this is miniscule in comparison.