Uploaded February 2025 | Updated September 2026, 1 day ago
When people think of the 1950s in America, a few things come to mind. The frisbee, tail fins, Leave It To Beaver, Eisenhower, the hula hoop... But there was a lot more going on than that.
Oh sure, those things are, as we like to say today, "iconic." But back then they were merely.. real. They weren't emblematic of an era. They were just some stuff that happened, and some products that came along. This girl, my actual sister by the way, is just trying to work that hula hoop without any thought whatsoever about what it means to history. And here's my actual father attempting the same thing and resorting to turning his inability to use the thing on its own terms into a joke by using it on HIS terms. This is a practice I inherited from him that is sometimes not so amusing as it is self-limiting. And I'm doing it right now.
But anyway, though the hula hoop is iconic, and emblematic of an era, by no means could everyone work the thing. It's universality is a myth. Like the other things I mentioned in the intro, they all are a kind of historical shorthand of that era. But what we're doing here today is looking at a few items in longhand. Very real products from the baby boom era that never make the cut in the abridged version of pop culture history that most people know.
I like looking at things from the lesser-known perspective. I like hearing the other point of view, the other side of the story. Or sometimes, just hearing the unheard. I'll look at a western movie, for example,.. and at the end where the two cowboy hats face each other on the muddy street, elbows cocked and ready to draw--and I think, at that exact moment, I wonder what he had for breakfast? Not the actor,.. the character. What was there in those days in the old west? Shredded wheat? Grape Nuts? Hmm. Oatmeal. They probably called it porridge... And the next thing I know the movie's over. So yeah, I'm interested in the history that doesn't get told.
And nobody's talking about Butch Hair Wax. In the golden age of the crew-cut hairstyle for men, this is the stuff that held up the front of your hair--that made it stand straight up and stay that way all day. It was made by Lucky Tiger, whose "Rose Hair Oil" was pretty much what a barber shop smelled like in the 1950s. Now I was just about 9 years old when I got a crew cut, and this jar of Butch Hair Wax to go with it. At 9, I was not an avid reader of Esquire or, probably, didn't even know what that was. So I had no idea that it said in Esquire, in this 1957 ad, that it was an undisputed fact that "Lucky Tiger gets the gals!" And all I had to do was choose which one I wanted, Linda, Lola, or Louise. "Gals just naturally go for guys who use Lucky Tiger! The lovelies love you with that Lucky Ti-groomed look. It keeps your hair he-man handsome... naturally good-looking, without "patent leather" shine... Lucky Tiger covers your scalp and hair in only 9 seconds! Contains a new grooming agent which keeps your hair perfectly groomed but is not oily or greasy. Start using it now and look your best always!" ...Annnd there's this little note about Butch Hair Wax: "Created by Lucky Tiger for crew cuts." Wait a minute, it says "THE crew cuts."? Created for "The Crew Cuts." These guys? No, they don't mean THE crew cuts--just crew cuts. Like I had. A crew cut haircut. "Holds hair up where it should be up--down where it should be down!" Yes, there were all kinds of 'shoulds' and 'shouldn'ts' about hair in those days--and probably still are. We humans love to take naturally occurring things like hair and sexual desire and construct enormous lists of rules around them. It is a wonder ANY of us turned out ANYTHING like normal.
I can't believe... it's a girdle. This is one of the greatest brand names of all time. The box being mostly black was pretty unusual for such a product. Weren't such things typically in pink and other pastel colors? Should I take it out of the box? Oh man, I don't know. I get the distinct impression that handling this thing would be like some kind of a sin. Isn't there a commandment about this? Oh well. And here's a dead spider in here. From the Carter administration. Well, I certainly do appreciate the graphics on this box. "I Can't Believe it's a Girdle!-- a unique new weaving process gives this incredible lightweight fabric control comparable to heavier, panelled girdles." Yeessss. "Playtex brings you the most dramatic improvement in girdle history!! Unbelievable control, yet unbelievably lightweight."
The black packaging was a bold choice and really made this product stand out. It reminds me of another product from this era that was also, unusually, in a mostly black box. You may remember "Screaming Yellow Zonkers." As with ladies delicates, black was an unusual color for snack food packaging. This product too stood out on store shelves for that reason. They're a "Crispy Light Butter Glazed Popcorn Snack!
#greatshakes
When people think of the 1950s in America, a few things come to mind. The frisbee, tail fins, Leave It To Beaver, Eisenhower, the hula hoop... But there was a lot more going on than that.
Oh sure, those things are, as we like to say today, "iconic." But back then they were merely.. real. They weren't emblematic of an era. They were just some stuff that happened, and some products that came along. This girl, my actual sister by the way, is just trying to work that hula hoop without any thought whatsoever about what it means to history. And here's my actual father attempting the same thing and resorting to turning his inability to use the thing on its own terms into a joke by using it on HIS terms. This is a practice I inherited from him that is sometimes not so amusing as it is self-limiting. And I'm doing it right now.
But anyway, though the hula hoop is iconic, and emblematic of an era, by no means could everyone work the thing. It's universality is a myth. Like the other things I mentioned in the intro, they all are a kind of historical shorthand of that era. But what we're doing here today is looking at a few items in longhand. Very real products from the baby boom era that never make the cut in the abridged version of pop culture history that most people know.
I like looking at things from the lesser-known perspective. I like hearing the other point of view, the other side of the story. Or sometimes, just hearing the unheard. I'll look at a western movie, for example,.. and at the end where the two cowboy hats face each other on the muddy street, elbows cocked and ready to draw--and I think, at that exact moment, I wonder what he had for breakfast? Not the actor,.. the character. What was there in those days in the old west? Shredded wheat? Grape Nuts? Hmm. Oatmeal. They probably called it porridge... And the next thing I know the movie's over. So yeah, I'm interested in the history that doesn't get told.
And nobody's talking about Butch Hair Wax. In the golden age of the crew-cut hairstyle for men, this is the stuff that held up the front of your hair--that made it stand straight up and stay that way all day. It was made by Lucky Tiger, whose "Rose Hair Oil" was pretty much what a barber shop smelled like in the 1950s. Now I was just about 9 years old when I got a crew cut, and this jar of Butch Hair Wax to go with it. At 9, I was not an avid reader of Esquire or, probably, didn't even know what that was. So I had no idea that it said in Esquire, in this 1957 ad, that it was an undisputed fact that "Lucky Tiger gets the gals!" And all I had to do was choose which one I wanted, Linda, Lola, or Louise. "Gals just naturally go for guys who use Lucky Tiger! The lovelies love you with that Lucky Ti-groomed look. It keeps your hair he-man handsome... naturally good-looking, without "patent leather" shine... Lucky Tiger covers your scalp and hair in only 9 seconds! Contains a new grooming agent which keeps your hair perfectly groomed but is not oily or greasy. Start using it now and look your best always!" ...Annnd there's this little note about Butch Hair Wax: "Created by Lucky Tiger for crew cuts." Wait a minute, it says "THE crew cuts."? Created for "The Crew Cuts." These guys? No, they don't mean THE crew cuts--just crew cuts. Like I had. A crew cut haircut. "Holds hair up where it should be up--down where it should be down!" Yes, there were all kinds of 'shoulds' and 'shouldn'ts' about hair in those days--and probably still are. We humans love to take naturally occurring things like hair and sexual desire and construct enormous lists of rules around them. It is a wonder ANY of us turned out ANYTHING like normal.
I can't believe... it's a girdle. This is one of the greatest brand names of all time. The box being mostly black was pretty unusual for such a product. Weren't such things typically in pink and other pastel colors? Should I take it out of the box? Oh man, I don't know. I get the distinct impression that handling this thing would be like some kind of a sin. Isn't there a commandment about this? Oh well. And here's a dead spider in here. From the Carter administration. Well, I certainly do appreciate the graphics on this box. "I Can't Believe it's a Girdle!-- a unique new weaving process gives this incredible lightweight fabric control comparable to heavier, panelled girdles." Yeessss. "Playtex brings you the most dramatic improvement in girdle history!! Unbelievable control, yet unbelievably lightweight."
The black packaging was a bold choice and really made this product stand out. It reminds me of another product from this era that was also, unusually, in a mostly black box. You may remember "Screaming Yellow Zonkers." As with ladies delicates, black was an unusual color for snack food packaging. This product too stood out on store shelves for that reason. They're a "Crispy Light Butter Glazed Popcorn Snack!
#greatshakes
