Sunday, October 26, 2008

"The Dummy" short from USA Night Flight 1981

For Halloween, a old short that used to scare the living crap out of me as a kid.

"The Dummy" 1981

Sunday, October 19, 2008

Disney's Halloween Treat



This one's near and dear to my lizard heart, Disney's Halloween Treat. Aired off and on in the 80s and has some great halloween/scary themed Disney clips and shorts.









Monday, October 13, 2008

More Children's Palace/Child World goodness

I got some more cool pics from former CW/CP guru, Bernard









Bernard also sent along a Child World video from youtube



Some other CW/CP videos





Lost Retail: Venture stores

Here's some background culled from the various online sources:



Venture Stores, Inc.
A former chain of retail stores that operated in the American Midwest. The company operated over 90 stores, and was based out of the St. Louis suburb of O'Fallon, Missouri.
Opened: 1970 in St. Louis, MO
Headquarters: O'Fallon, MO
Employees: 18,000
Website: www.venturestores.com (archived at Deadmalls.com)

History
1970: First store opened in in the St. Louis suburb of Overland (location became a Kmart and is now a Home Depot).
1976: Expanded to 20 units.
1978: Venture purchased 23 Turn Style locations in the Chicago area from Jewel food stores, and expanded to over 40 locations. They were the largest discount chain in Chicago with inner city locations other than Zayre/Ames.
1985: Over 50 stores, most of which were in Chicago and St. Louis.
1990: Venture became a private corporation, operating in eight states: Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky, Iowa, Oklahoma, Kansas, Arkansas, and Indiana.
1995: 115 stores in 9 states, having expanded into Texas in 1993.
1998: Bankruptcy. Stores closed in late April



Laura, a Venture fan and super-friend of the blog was kind enough to share some of her cool Venture collectables to help me round out this post
















Ad from Oklahoma Cit, Christmas 1984


Venture's advertising slogan during the 1980s was "Save With Style." In the 1990s, Venture used two other slogans; the first was tied to the remodel and
restrategizing to be like Kohl's and that slogan was "See What's New For You!". By the time they closed they used the slogan "See What A Little Money Can Buy".

Bankruptcy
By the late 1990s, the chain found that it was unable to compete against other retail chains, such as Wal-Mart, Target, and Kmart. Venture tried to return to its founding principles as an upscale discounter and remodeled most of its stores. While facing vast competition Venture made a fatal mistake trying to expand into Texas instead of protecting its core markets. Venture sold the Texas stores to Kmart in 1996 and closed its distribution center in Corsicana, Texas. The company entered Chapter 11 bankruptcy on January 20, 1998, and tried to operate with a smaller number of stores. The effort was not successful, and the company announced its closing on April 27, 1998. Most of the former Venture buildings were absorbed into other chains, such as Kmart, Kohl's, ShopKo, and Burlington Coat Factory

Sunday, October 12, 2008

TV Guide Halloween show ads



I'm a full-on vintage TV Guide junkie. It's probably one of my dumber geek-obsessions. I just love looking through the old one. So, here's some Halloween themed ad scans. I'll do my best to include the location, station and years.


KPTM 42 Omaha, 1988


KMEG (I think Grand Island, NE) 1988


Bugs Bunny, Raggedy Ann and Real People Halloween Specials, Los Angeles 1980


Fright Week, "The Thinkg with 2 Heads", Los Angeles 1980


"How the Grinch Stole Halloween", Los Angeles 1980


"The Halloween that Almost Wasn't", Los Angeles 1980


"In Search of..." with a pimped out Nimoy, Los Angeles 1980


"The Legend of Sleepy Hollow", Los Angeles 1980


The Omen and The Omen II, Los Angeles 1980


Salem's Lot Los Angeles 1980


"It's The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown", KTSP Channel 10, Phoenix 1983


"Halloween II", KNXV Channel 15, Phoenix 1986


"Night of the Living Dead", KTVK Channel 3, Phoenix 1986


"Tales from the Darkside Special", KNXV Channel 15, Phoenix 1986


Halloween Thrillers, KMGH Channel 7, Denver 1981


Ripley's Believe it or Not, Denver 1981


Scary-ass local news ads on a multi-part cancer series,
KMGH Channel 7, Denver 1981
Skeletor VS Can-Sor, on a very special Masters of the Universe.

Famous Monsters #152 Halloween-ish Ads


Famous Monsters #152, jam packed with some killer monster and scifi ads, from 1979.


Masks


Super 8 Movies


More Super 8 Movies


All sorts o' cool stuff


Records


Tighty Whiteys!!! I think I just threw up in my mouth a little bit...


Superman


Close Encounters


A Shit ton of Star Wars merchandise