The Clapper
By Julie Anderson C’mon, sing along! Clap on! (CLAP, CLAP) Clap off! (CLAP, CLAP) Clap on, Clap off – The Clapper! The Clapper was the modern eighties way to turn your electronic devices on or off without the hassle of getting off the couch. The switch was designed to respond to a specific acoustic signal: two claps. Joseph Pedott, founder of Joseph Enterprises, Inc., began selling the Clapper in 1985. (You’ve probably heard of Joseph...
Test Your 80s Country Music Knowledge
By Julie Anderson Before Taylor Swift and Lady Antebellum made country cool for city kids, it was thriving in, like, the country. We had bodacious country superstars in the eighties, as well as a few crossover artists who tried rad rhinestone cowboy hats on for size. Test your eighties country music knowledge with our Like Totally 80s quiz: 1. Who said, “I’m not offended by dumb blonde jokes because I know that I’m not dumb. Also, I...
Vision Quest, 1985
By Alexi Lalas At 15, wrestling was not my thing. Singlets and those lace-up shoes that looked like ballet shoes seemed like a silly way to spend two hours of my then-still-short life. However, pretty girls and rock music were an easy sell. Definitely worth $6.50 at the Showcase Cinemas in Pontiac, Michigan, a few miles from where I grew up. But Vision Quest, even two and a half decades later, is about a lot more than pretty girls and...
Turning 80s Cassette Tapes and Vinyl Records into Totally Awesome Decor
By Stacey Iden Don’t know what to do with all those old cassette tapes and vinyl records you have stored away collecting dust? Now that all your old favorite songs from the 80s are probably happily filling your MP3 player, what should you do with all your hard-to-let-go music media memorabilia? Break the Record knows exactly what to do with it to “keep the music alive.” Break the Record transforms previously-loved vinyl records and...
Underoos: The Underwear That’s FUN to Wear!
By Julie Anderson In the late seventies, Larry Weiss came up with a really great idea: print superhero costumes onto kids’ top-and-bottom underwear sets. In retrospect, it was marketing genius, but the idea was rejected by Hanes and then dropped by Scott Paper company. Fruit of the Loom, which had been lined up to supply the blank underwear for screen printing, stepped up and bought Underoos in 1978. It was a wise decision....