Already hugely popular in Japan, Bandai’s Tamagotchis – or “virtual pets” – were all the rage in the US in 1997. Attached to a keychain,…
Browsing: Fads
The original teen fashion rebel of the post-war era, the “Teddy Boy” paved the path of rebellion for all hooligans to come. During the war…
One of the most well-known fads of all time was the art of Telephone Booth Stuffing. In taking part in this event, several students would…
Tiger Beat was founded in September 1965 by Charles “Chuck” Laufer, his brother Ira Laufer, and television producer and host Lloyd Thaxton. Marketed primarily to…
Tupperware, a company making plastic kitchen containers and other domestic items, always concentrated on selling its products through party-plan selling, allowing housewives to buy the…
Since television licenses first appeared in the UK, the TV Detector Man has been a ghoulish spectre who can allegedly track down telly-watchers by means…
Of all the fads, foibles and crazes that swept the Sixties (and there were LOTS), few caught on as universally as The Twist. It started…
“Left foot . . . red, right hand . . . yellow”. These familiar words echoed through houses throughout the 60s as children of all…
The Unisex fashion movement largely came and went in one year: 1968. The trend began on the Paris runways, where designers like Pierre Cardin, Andre…
When it happened we can’t say . . . fer sure – All of a sudden everything the ‘Vals’ did or said was blown out…
The technology behind the Sony Walkman – a portable personal device for listening to cassettes – might never have developed without Sony Chairman Akio Morita. Seeking…
In 1968, Charles Prior Hall, a furniture designer in California decided to create the world’s most comfortable chair. Taking his cue from the very popular…
It all began when the producers of the two-year-old Dallas devised a cliff-hanger ending to their popular super soap. “Who shot J R Ewing?” was a…
After several rumours of licences not being renewed, battles with the police and the drugs squad and many other problems, it was ultimately none of…
While the first-wave feminism of the 19th and early 20th centuries focused on women’s legal rights, especially the right to vote, the second-wave feminism of…
World Cup Willie, a roguish little lion with a Union Jack jersey, emerged as one of the leading personalities of the 1966 World Cup competition.…
X-Ray Spex came about in 1964 when Harold von Braunhut (the mastermind behind Sea Monkeys) repackaged an optical effect made popular by a device called…
In addition to debating whether 2000 or 2001 would mark the “real” beginning of the new millennium, the Western World pondered the effect the Y2K…
A playground favourite for millions of schoolchildren the world over, the Yo-Yo is actually, according to some historians, one of the oldest toys around. Museums…
What rich 1980s white-collar workers were called in the decade when the western world revelled in unapologetic materialism. Yuppies (an acronym for “Young Urban Professionals”)…
