A 1950's place ...

[cwmoser]

Every thought of furnishing a room entirely like era 1950's?
I've thought about it but I'm leashed to too much modern
day electronics like the PC, cell phone, tablet, flat panel TV.

I had a friend whose wife did something like that with her
dining room. She went so far as to have the electrical outlets
removed so her candle-lit candlelabra would be totally appropriate.
She was creating a colonial times feel.

Be nice to have a room set in a 1950's era and nothing else in it.
Big overstuffed couch, a B&W TV, maybe a chair-side radio,
rotary dial telephone, FDR picture on the wall (something left
over from the 1930's), etc. Not junked up or looking like a
hoarders or collectors storage area either. Be a comfortable
setting to play our restored TVs.

A different kind of "man cave".
Anyone else think that would be a good thing too?

Carl

[decojoe67]

I always try to create the proper atmosphere for my sets. My radio's and TV's have period antenna's clocks, lamps, ashtrays, lighters, etc. on and around them. It also makes for fun secondary collectibles to seek-out in my travels.
I always had the idea, if I was rich, to create a "man-cave" that had period rooms from the 1920's through the 1960's. Basically small apartments with a few small rooms each. Fill them with the most iconic pieces from each era that would really make your eye's pop when you walked in. No small detail would be over-looked. Each "apartment" would have a prime radio and TV from the era in their living room areas. It would be so cool to me to go in there and "pick an era" to spend an evening!

[cwmoser]

I distictly remember at the Charlotte Antique Radio Show a few years ago a
setting. Someone had brought in a Zenith console radio and had it playing
soft big band music. That radio was sitting by a couch and an old guy was
snoozing away like he was in his memories.

Decojoe, I think those setting like your man cave ideas can be our "Feng Shui" :-)

Carl

[Countryford]

Every thought of furnishing a room entirely like era 1950's?
I've thought about it but I'm leashed to too much modern
day electronics like the PC, cell phone, tablet, flat panel TV.

If your only doing one room do one that doesn't have a PC or flat panel TV. Unless you have a pc and a flat panel tv in every room in your house? As far as the cell phone and tablet, they aren't normally left in a certain room and are more portable.

I personally don't have just one decade in each room. My living room has two 1920's floor radio, 1930's floor radio, couch, loveseat, and chair from that era, then m y 1959 Magnavox console tv and a 1956 AMi Jukebox. The remainder of the house is kind of mix-matched like that.

[decojoe67]

Originally Posted by cwmoser

Decojoe, I think those setting like your man cave ideas can be our "Feng Shui" :-)

Carl

Exactly Carl! I can picture the whole thing my mind. I'd have a blast with that.
I actually remember seeing on TV a guy that lived within a large warehouse building with his family. He made it look like a sort of "Mayberry" village Main Street - all indoors of course. The different storefronts and homes were just different rooms of the "house" that you went in and out of. His kids seemed to love it! Very cool idea - just hate to cool and heat it!

[old_coot88]

Originally Posted by cwmoser

Be nice to have a room set in a 1950's era and nothing else in it.
Big overstuffed couch, a B&W TV, maybe a chair-side radio,
rotary dial telephone, FDR picture on the wall (something left
over from the 1930's), etc...

Great idea. Don't forget the 48-star Flag.

[spudz64]

My basement is a full-on retro/Tiki bar, and I showcase one of my Predictas (1960 Princess) in one corner complete with a working 1961 Bell Princess phone! I run a loop of early 1960's TV commericals/shows I made from YouTube clips, all from an out-of-site DVD player, and my guests find it quite mesmerizing, and retro!

aloha corner2.jpg

[Kevin Kuehn]

An interesting thought experiment is to even consider how comfortably most of us could live in a totally early 1950's environment, without any of our modern day luxuries. I'd think that our feelings for the nostalgia of 1950's period would quickly fade away, probably more so for us that had never originally experienced living through those years. I can only imagine how something like that could mess with ones mind after several weeks exposure. Sort of like being thrown into the Truman Show type scenario after first having experiencing the outside world.

[Kamakiri]

I'd think that any stuffed furniture would wear out really quick. That, and in much of it, the cushions would be as hard and crumbly as sponge candy.

Myself, I could easily live in a 1950s environment. Except for internet....living without that would be a challenge....

[Jon A.]

Originally Posted by Kamakiri

Myself, I could easily live in a 1950s environment. Except for internet....living without that would be a challenge....

Same sort of thing here, except that my environment would be mostly full of 70s/early 80s stuff. Not only was technology progressing rather slowly when I was a kid, but the people I grew up around didn't have new-everything. Oh, and I'm just a little less dependent on the internet as I don't do fakebook.

[Tubejunke]

I have, and prefer to have things of most all time periods of recent history in my home. I consider recent history to be most anything in the 20th century. technology was sort of on a slow boat before that and somehow things took off like, well, a rocket in the 20th century. I always tell people that in more or less a single human life span we went from pretty much a horse and buggy for transportation and little to no electricity to men walking on the moon, space stations, and computer controlled everything (including people).

One day, probably after we are long gone historians will marvel at these times the way we wonder about the Great Pyramids and such. HOW did we do it? So, again I have things of many decades all through my home and I put most of it to use. I can proudly say that less of it is PC/neo modern junk. I don't own a flat screen TV and it's not because I can't afford one. I like to percolate my coffee and I tend to get more done listening to the radio than watching television, but I have plenty of TVs, so I can't say much there. I have a special attraction to the old TVs that I am starting to think is a mental disorder or some "savant" nature. Maybe that is a bit to extreme. Perhaps we all have some eccentricity of sorts that simply makes us unique. But not many people get the old TV thing. They never have.....

[NowhereMan 1966]

Originally Posted by Tubejunke

I have, and prefer to have things of most all time periods of recent history in my home. I consider recent history to be most anything in the 20th century. technology was sort of on a slow boat before that and somehow things took off like, well, a rocket in the 20th century. I always tell people that in more or less a single human life span we went from pretty much a horse and buggy for transportation and little to no electricity to men walking on the moon, space stations, and computer controlled everything (including people).

One day, probably after we are long gone historians will marvel at these times the way we wonder about the Great Pyramids and such. HOW did we do it? So, again I have things of many decades all through my home and I put most of it to use. I can proudly say that less of it is PC/neo modern junk. I don't own a flat screen TV and it's not because I can't afford one. I like to percolate my coffee and I tend to get more done listening to the radio than watching television, but I have plenty of TVs, so I can't say much there. I have a special attraction to the old TVs that I am starting to think is a mental disorder or some "savant" nature. Maybe that is a bit to extreme. Perhaps we all have some eccentricity of sorts that simply makes us unique. But not many people get the old TV thing. They never have.....

I remember having a discussion at work one time about this where the 20th Century experienced the fastest technology growth and it might not be rivalled for a long time to come. Just compare 1901 to 2000.

[decojoe67]

Originally Posted by Tubejunke

..... I have a special attraction to the old TVs that I am starting to think is a mental disorder or some "savant" nature. Maybe that is a bit to extreme. Perhaps we all have some eccentricity of sorts that simply makes us unique. But not many people get the old TV thing. They never have.....

I once heard it said that EVERYONE can be pigeon-holed into some mental psychosis if you find a need to have to pigeon-hole someone. I find the hobby of collecting and enjoying vintage radios/TV's a fun pastime. What are typical "normal" pastimes? Getting drunk on a couch and watch guys on a field chasing a ball around?!
Just enjoy and don't analyze is my recommendation.

[cwmoser]

I was thinking about something like these:

[Kamakiri]

Outstanding post.

And, to take it a step further, what in daily life has really changed in the last decade? Not a hell of a lot. Same basic styles in regards to clothing, hairstyles, what have you. Even music is either a throwback or a modification on a previous genre.

The main reason that I can't get with today's trends are that they are ALL media related. Take media and internet out of the equation, and 2014 could be 2004 for all intents and purposes. There's a general complacency and sluggish laziness in the world that makes everything just a general repackaging of what's already been.

I'm not a person that could sit and watch movies or sports for a whole day. My brain is just too active. If I sit and do nothing, I would go out of my skull. I need things to think about, things to create, things to....."do", and "do" as an active verb. And that's why I can only absorb so much of today's culture. Oh sure, I love ebay and VK and facebook, but that's pretty much the extent of the amount that I want to be plugged into the Borg collective .

I tell my wife all the time, if there was ANYthing "new wave" that didn't involve either sitting on my arse or something that's an "extreme" sport that my 40-something body couldn't survive, I'd be all over it.

But there just ain't.