The jukebox remains one of the most beloved symbols of midcentury America. If you have a coin in your pocket, you have the ticket to crafting a magical, musical memory, complete with tapping toes and a song on your lips.

A revolution in sound

At more than a century old, jukeboxes are just one in a long line of technological innovations that have moved the music industry forward since the Industrial Revolution. Their precursor, the phonograph, was invented by American inventor (and household name) Thomas Edison. The phonograph, which Edison patented in 1877, featured a recorded message etched onto the tiny indentations of a tin foil-covered cylinder, which was then played by turning a crank handle and allowing an attached needle to fall on each of the indentations to play the completed message. Nearly a decade later, inventor Alexander Graham Bell would later improve upon Edison’s invention by covering the cylinder in wax and using a floating stylus instead of a rigid needle. This device, which Bell named the graphophone, offered a clearer, cleaner sound.

In 1889, another inventor by the name of Louis Glass created a device considered to be the first type of jukebox, though it looked absolutely nothing like the jukeboxes we have come to recognize today. Glass’ creation was “large and clunky,” according to an article on the website for Victrola.

“Additionally, since a listener could only play one cylinder at a time, the music options were limited because each change was done manually,” according to the Victrola article. “To get the traditional jukebox to work in public spaces, it required inserting a token or coin to activate its operation, much like a vending machine. Though the sound quality was poor and the workings of the machine itself cumbersome and inconvenient, the novelty was enough to inspire other inventors to improve upon this original contraption.” 

Entertainment at the push of a button

The dawn of the 20th century saw those days of tedious disc changes end; by 1906, units like the “Automatic Entertainer” could play 24 different selections on 10-inch discs, according to the National Center for Families Learning’s education website Wonderopolis.org.

Individuals who rose to the challenge of improving upon the invention included Justice Seeburg – a Swedish immigrant whose company began producing jukeboxes in the mid-1920s — and the members of the Wurlitzer family, German immigrants whose company began making pianos and organs but who would become better known for their jukeboxes starting in the early 1930s.

These early 20th century jukeboxes not only allowed for speedy music changes and better sound; their design was appealing to the eye, too, with Seeburg unveiling one model that would become a game changer for its competitors.

It’s party time

Meanwhile, Wurlitzer jukeboxes sold especially well starting with the repeal of Prohibition in late 1933.

“The demand for coin-operated music was about to explode,” van Etten writes. “It did, and by 1937, Wurlitzer had sold over 100,000 phonographs.”

The industry would become inundated with manufacturers by the late 1930s, with companies like AMI, Mills, Rockola, Aireon, and Chicago Coin joining the fray. Like radio and television technologies, jukebox production grinded to a halt when the United States entered World War II, but when production resumed in the late 1940s, the numbers showed that their popularity was only growing – by the end of the decade, in fact, more than 75% of the records produced in the U.S. went into jukeboxes. The trio of Wurlitzer, Seeburg, and Rockola dominated the industry.

It seems that aspic – that clear, savory jelly, not to be confused with Jell-O – was ever present in the cookbooks of the 1950s. It surrounded fruits and vegetables, eggs, poultry, even fish. If it was edible, it could be suspended in gelatin and pass as a midcentury dinner party “treat,” assuming you held a very broad definition of the word.
The idea today, of course, doesn’t just seem silly; it’s downright stomach-turning. But talk to an older family member like a grandmother or an aunt, and at least one of them will brag about her “famous” gelatin concoction that can be found at every family gathering (usually untouched). How did the idea and execution of aspic dishes come about, and why do they make us chuckle and cringe?

There’s always room for Jell-O

First of all, a distinction must be made between aspic and its more popular cousin, Jell-O. Though both are made using gelatin, which itself is made of animal collagen (read: cartilage and bone), the powdered gelatin dessert with sugar added was invented in 1897, and, within its first decade of existence, marketed as “America’s Favorite Dessert.”

Aspic, meanwhile, is simply the savory jelly version, made with fish stock or meat stock. Unlike Jell-O salads, which still make appearances at potluck dinners or family gatherings, the aspic’s time on Americans’ dinner plates has largely passed. Both Jell-O and aspics can be molded into decorative shapes, and aspics are usually clear, though some are amber in color. Before refrigeration, aspics were used to protect food from air. Delicate and sliceable aspics (two of the three types of aspic), enhance the food’s flavor; some cooks even use aspics as a decoration (decorative aspic is the third and final type), according to author Wayne Gisslenen’s book “Professional Cooking.”

“Aspic looks kind of weird, kind of futuristic, but at the same time kind of old school,” writes Samantha Maxwell of Tasting Table, a fan of the dish. “But there’s also that unfair association with all those weird Jell-O salads that float around the Internet every few months. These negative impressions mean that some of us will never get to savor the fun, jelly-like joy that is quality aspic.”

If you’ve ever had bone broth, you might already know the taste of aspic (a French version is called “chaud froid,” which translates to “hot-cold,” a reference to boiling the meat broth to let it chill and congeal, Maxwell notes).

Wiggly, jiggly … and savory

The earliest references to meat aspics in recipes and texts related to coking appear as early as the 8th century, and vegetable aspics soon followed. By the early 19th century, aspics were popular in Europe. According to MyRecipes, in the centuries before the Industrial Revolution, aspic was considered “haute cuisine”  something only the wealthy consumed. But by the mid-19th century, gelatin became easier to produce, thus it became more widely available and more cost-effective to those who wanted to give the exotic dish a try. And at the dawn of the 20th century, aspics gained a following in the United States. At the height of its popularity in the mid-20th century, celebrity chef Julia Child introduced many Americans to the dish.

“Of course, eating these foods in what we now consider to be a Jell-O mold might seem like a strange practice these days,” Maxwell notes, “but at the time, aspic was at the height of dinner party trendiness.”

Unlike Jell-O, which is relatively simple and quick to prepare, aspic is quite labor-intensive, Maxwell continues.

“Aspic takes so long to make because the cook must boil the bones and cartilage long enough to release the gelatin that gives aspic its signature jiggle,” she writes.

By the 1960s, however, aspics were falling out of favor with the public, instead being relegated to the category of “cringe-worthy, bizarre recipes of yesteryear” sections of America’s cookbooks. So, while it doesn’t appetize us – especially the aspics centered around cuts of meat – the aspic has never failed to entertain, shock, and even make us chuckle.

Those who remember the bygone days of disco recall a colorful expression of freedom, a musical genre whose sound captivated the world but whose bright star faded quickly.

A call to go wild

Delighting listeners with four-on-the floor rhythm (a steady beat in 4:4 time with the bass drum hit on every beat), as well as the use of electric piano, brass, horns, syncopated basslines, and synthesizers, the genre was developed in the late 1960s. It seemed to be a high-energy response to those who felt that dancing had no place in music – especially from fans of rock, which had dominated airwaves in the 1950s and ‘60s. Disco ushered in the 1970s with a flair that dismissed those naysayers, with dance as one of the pillars of its subculture.

“Disco music in the ‘70s was just a call to go wild and party and dance with no thought or conscience or regard for tomorrow,” singer Martha Reeves once said of the genre.

And the world, it seemed, answered the call, with disco clubs being erected in what seemed like every major city. There, music lovers converged in loose-fitting, colorful clothes that made it easy to dance. They danced the Hustle, the Bump, the Watergate. The speakers poured out the sounds of artists like ABBA, KC and the Sunshine Band, the Village People, Donna Summer, and Diana Ross.
The 1960s were over. The ‘Me’ Decade had arrived – and with it, so had disco.

Saving the day

Like so many other cultural trends, disco was born in New York City. It was early 1970, and a young DJ, David Mancuso, was planning to host a big party in his loft. The party – “Love Saves the Day” – was organized to celebrate Valentine’s Day. Hosted at Mancuso’s home, the venue, which quickly simply became known as ‘The Loft,’ would welcome only a select group of revelers. It was the very first underground dance party, and at its epicenter was Mancuso’s arsenal of high-tech music equipment, which, according to authors Bill Brewster and Frank Broughton, had to play music that was “soulful and rhythmic … and impart words of hope, redemption, and pride.”

From its very beginnings, disco was music for the “others” of society, played in music venues for African-Americans, Latino and Hispanic-Americans, Italian-Americans (especially in New York City), and gay Americans.

“Disco gave different communities a safe space to celebrate love and liberation. It was an opportunity to find people who looked like you, thought like you and — perhaps most importantly — danced like you,” according to an article on PBS.org. “This was especially liberating for the LGBTQ+ community. Oppression came from the legal system and friends, neighbors, colleagues, and police; it was illegal for two people of the same sex to dance together, let alone have public relationships. Even when a 1971 law made same-sex dancing legal in New York City, wider society refused to tolerate it. For many, being queer became about looking out for each other — and disco was one way to do that.”

The hits keep comin’

The new sound combined elements of other music genres, from soul and funk to gospel and electronic. In disco clubs, colored tiles lit up on the dance floor to keep time with the beat of the music as mirrored balls shimmered and became physical manifestations of the upbeat tunes spun by disc jockeys night after night.

And in the span of just a few short years, the genre gave birth to some of the decade’s most memorable songs, which include:

• “Bad Girls” by Donna Summer (1979) – “An energetic ode to ladies of the night,” according to forbes.com. Toot toot, hey, beep beep!
• “The Hustle” by Van McCoy (1975) – The number one song on the Billboard Hot 100 in the summer of ’75, its tune was easy to dance to and its lyrics were easy to follow.
• “Night Fever” by The Bee Gees (1977) – Made famous in “Saturday Night Fever,” it was one of the first disco songs to energize mainstream audiences.
• “I Feel Love” by Donna Summer (1977) – According to Forbes, the song “makes you feel as though you’re on a dance-floor with only the speakers. The synthesized beat contrasted with Summer’s angelic vocals have a transformative effect only love can.”

• “I Will Survive” by Gloria Gaynor (1978) – An anthem of strength, Gaynor’s timeless classic helps you pick yourself up and move on from a bad breakup.
• “We Are Family” by Sister Sledge (1979) – An upbeat tune all about the power of community.
• “Staying Alive” by The Bee Gees (1977) – Perhaps the most well-known mainstream song, forever linked to “Saturday Night Fever.”
• “Boogie Nights” by Heatwave (1976) – With a jazzy beginning, this song had dancers tearing up the dance floor back in the day.

The common theme of these and other disco tunes – the joy found in liberation.

“The heartbeat of the genre can’t be stopped”

As the decade came to a close, so too did the heyday of disco. Long-simmering tensions between producers of rock music and producers of disco music culminated in “Disco Demolition Night” on July 12, 1979, at Comiskey Park in Chicago. There, the MLB promotion featured a crate of disco albums being blown up on the baseball field. The field itself was heavily damaged, and large groups of the more than 47,000 attendees stormed the field, sparking a riot.
The genre blazed as brightly as a mirrored ball on the dance floor – and its influence on pop culture is “staying alive” even today.

“The heartbeat of the genre can’t be stopped,” the PBS article notes. “Disco itself may not exist as it once did, but this revolution has had an evolution, and now its impacts are breaking boundaries between genres — much as its original creators did. While the so-called “end” of the era is still disputed, what matters most is that the soul of disco is still alive in speakers, earbuds and dance clubs around the world.”

One beloved American comic strip has allowed readers to see the world through the eyes of children – and a feisty beagle, too – for 75 years this year.
Charlie Brown, Snoopy, and all their friends entered American pop culture (and our own hearts) in 1950. Penned by cartoonist Charles M. Schulz, the Peanuts strip followed the adventures of a boy named Charlie Brown (ever the underdog, unlucky in both life and love, he was nonetheless the most lovable loser in the Sunday funny pages), along with his rambunctious beagle Snoopy, whose imagination and taste for adventure rivaled his owner’s desire to finally kick a football that was always pulled just out of reach.

Over the years and then decades, a menagerie of friends would join ol’ Chuck, including, to name just a few, Linus Van Pelt, a philosophically minded boy always attached at the hip to his blue security blanket; Linus’ sister Lucy, a bossy, self-proclaimed fussbudget who delighted in tormenting Charlie with the aforementioned football; Schroeder, a highly talented piano prodigy who was singularly focused on his music; and Sally, Charlie’s younger sister whose unrequited love for Schroeder – her “sweet baboo” – seemed neverending.

Before the Peanuts gang hit the scene, Schulz, a military veteran and lifelong illustrator, drew his first comic strip, Li’l Folks, for the St. Paul (MN) Pioneer Press in the late 1940s. Li’l Folks first featured the Charlie Brown character, whom Schulz named after a fellow instructor at an art school where he taught. In those strips, Charlie Brown didn’t yet wear what would become his signature zigzag shirt, though he was accompanied by his best friend, a dog who looked like what would become Snoopy but wasn’t yet given that name.

United Features Syndicate, catching wind of the popularity of Schulz’s comic, agreed to sign a contract to produce a daily strip for syndication. The syndicate pushed for Schulz to use the title “Peanuts,” an idea that Schulz would later say he hated. Why, Schulz argued, would he use that title when there was no character with that name? Still, Schulz reluctantly agreed – yet for the duration of his long career, he never warmed to the idea.

The 1950s

Peanuts made its debut on Oct. 2, 1950, first appearing in just seven newspapers, with Schulz receiving $90 for his first month of content.
Longtime fans who read the earliest strips will note many differences of the characters from those early days and the ones they have come to know and love. Charlie Brown’s entire personality is perhaps the most notable difference. In the early 1950s, Charlie Brown was “flippant, gradually growing into the kinder, gentler hero who most readers are now familiar with,” according to the Charles M. Schulz Museum’s website.

Later, Schulz said of Charlie Brown, “He’s a caricature. We all know what it’s like to lose, but Charlie Brown keeps losing outrageously. It’s not that he’s a loser; he’s really a decent little sort.”

Charlie Brown’s shirt with the iconic zigzag pattern would make its debut in December of that same year. Joining Chuck was his beagle pal Snoopy, who would walk on all fours until 1957, when Schulz first depicted him walking on his hind legs only.

Throughout the decade, readers would be introduced to most of the strip’s primary characters – Schroeder and Violet in 1951; in 1952, Lucy and Linus; eternally filthy Pigpen in 1954; and in 1959, Sally. The art in Schulz’s comic strip was cleaner, sleeker, and simpler, with thicker lines and short, squat characters,” according to the museum, and Charlie Brown’s head began as the shape of a football; it wasn’t completely round, as it would appear in future years.

By the end of the decade, Schulz had decided that he alone would produce all aspects of the comics, from the drawing to the text to the inking. He never employed assistants in his studio.

The 1960s

The ‘60s was considered the Peanuts strip’s Golden Age, incorporating more social commentary, as well as expanding Snoopy’s fantasy world in which he flew his doghouse throughout the sky as the World War I Flying Ace. Readers would meet new characters throughout the decade, including Charlie Brown’s crush, the Little Red-Haired Girl, in 1961; the freckled and tomboyish Peppermint Patty and Woodstock (initially unnamed) in 1966; and Franklin, the comic strip’s first Black character, in 1968 (Schulz created Franklin after a fan who worked as a schoolteacher wrote to Schulz shortly after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., asking Schulz to introduce a Black character in the strip). The Peanuts comic strips of the 1960s tackled other social issues and topics of the day, including the inclusion of women in sports (Charlie Brown’s baseball team featured both boys and girls), the Vietnam War, the space race, and school dress codes.

A new generation of children were introduced to the Peanuts gang in December 1965, when the strip’s first television special, “A Charlie Brown Christmas,”made its debut on CBS. The special might be best known for its heavy use of religious themes, including Linus reading Luke 2:8-14 in the Bible in order to explain the true meaning of Christ-mas. In that same year, Peanuts characters appeared on the cover of Time mag-azine. Another TV special, “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown” first aired the following year, in 1966. At the end of the decade, in December 1969, the strip’s first feature-length film, “A Boy Named Charlie Brown,” opened in theaters.

The 1970s

Snoopy’s avian friend Woodstock finally received his name in 1970, and Peppermint Patty’s bookish friend Marcie, who only refers to Patty as “sir,” made her debut in 1971. Meanwhile, Linus and Lucy’s younger brother Rerun was born in 1973.

Despite the introduction of more characters, by the 1970s, it was clear that Snoopy had become the most popular. Schulz began to incorporate Snoopy into more comics, giving him the alternate personality of sunglasses-wearing Joe Cool, as well as an integral (and memorable) role in 1973’s “A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving,” the strip’s 10th TV special. Snoopy’s brother, the desert-dwelling Spike, was introduced in 1975.

Schulz faced criticism for his focus on Snoopy, with fellow cartoonists praising his earlier Peanuts strips as being more cerebral and thought-provoking in nature and criticizing his later cartoons for being “lighter and more whimsical.” Schulz himself recognized that Snoopy’s dominance in his strip was at least a possibility. “I have to be careful not to let the ubiquitous beagle run away with the strip,” he mused.

In The New York Press, one artist would respond to Schulz’s statement by writing, “Snoopy proved a calamitous artistic misjudgment through which the most intelligent comic strip the world had ever seen was transformed, by the late 1970s, into a thoroughly third-rate feature.”

Royal Doultons

If you’re headed to the china cabinet to use your good dinnerware this holiday season – you know, the items that will become family heirlooms – there’s a good chance they’re Royal Doultons.

One of the most well-known ceramic and home accessories manufacturers on both sides of the pond, Royal Doulton pottery, stoneware, cookware, glassware, tableware, and even linens have become synonymous with those special occasions that call for a touch of class and sophistication. Even today, the company, at more than two centuries old, is creating new traditions for families in the United States, its native Great Britain, and around the world.

The early years

Founded in London in 1815, the Royal Doulton company was the result of a collaboration between John Doulton, Martha Jones, and John Watts, who worked as a foreman at a London factory. In the beginning, their small company produced only salt glaze stoneware pieces, mostly jugs and jars intended for pubs or inns.

Jones left the company after only five years; Watts stayed on until 1853, and the following year, the company was renamed Doulton & Co. John Doulton’s son Henry, who had been working in his father’s studio since the age of 15, took over the business from John upon his death in 1873.

Throughout the mid-19th century, the company had branched out from stoneware to manufacturing circular sewage pipes, due to a cholera pandemic between 1846 and 1860. The cholera pandemic, which killed 23,000 in Great Britain in one year alone, was traced back to contaminated water as the original method of the disease’s transmission.

Though the company wasn’t known for its plumbing items – among them, cast-iron bath tubs – it added a variety of housewares to its catalogue in the ensuing years, including mixing bowls and storage jars. Later, Doulton added decorative objects such as vases and plaques, having moved on from the original salt glaze finish to an underglaze painting.

Now a household name

By 1871, the company brought young artists into its employ at its studio in Lambeth, a district in London, bringing in students from the nearby Lambeth School of Art. Many of the artists were young women, and most of the surviving pieces from that studio are signed and dated by the artist.

The company was a household name by the end of the 19th century, when Doulton & Co. had more than 4,000 employees on its payroll. Henry Doulton, having run his family’s company and overseen its dramatic expansion for nearly 25 years, retired in 1897 and died just a few months later.

As the Victorian era came to a close at the dawn of the 20th century, the company had already begun making architectural terracotta – columns, arches, sculpture. Many were designed in the British Art Nouveau style that became popular during the reign of King Edward VII; the monarch would later grant a Royal Warrant that allowed the company to change its name to the one we know today – Royal Doulton.

As the 20th century progressed, though Royal Doulton continued the production of its sewage pipes as well as its decorative ceramics, the company shifted its focus to manufacturing high-quality bone china. Figures, too, would become increasingly popular, with the highest-quality pieces produced between the end of World War I in 1918 and the outbreak of World War II in 1939.

A brand fit for a prime minister

One of the most well-known artists in the company’s studio in Burslem, Charles Noke, produced some of Royal Doulton’s most sought-after ‘character jugs’ – jugs in the likeness of a variety of people, from grizzled fishermen to soldiers to British Prime Minister Winston Churchill.

“Until his death in 1941 (one of his last models was a character jug of Winston Churchill) he oversaw many of the factory’s most popular 20th century lines, including the rich brown glazed Kingsware, the practical and decorative Series Ware and the range of loving cups and jugs modelled with scenes from British literature and history,” according to antiquestradegazette.com. “Noke showed the first Doulton figures at the Chicago Exhibition in 1893 and 20 years later was responsible for launching a designated range of figure models – known as the HN (Harry Nixon) collection – while the first character jugs, John Barleycorn, Old Charley and the double-faced Mephistopheles, arrived in 1934. … Although made across a century in a bewildering variety of subjects, styles, and colors, Doulton figures and ‘tobys’ are instantly recognized and widely collected around the English-speaking world.”

Hopping into a postwar world

In the post-war years, Royal Doulton acquired ceramic filter company Gloucester-based Aerox Ltd., and, a few years after that, Beswick Pottery, which specialized in porcelain figurines (including figurines of characters from the popular Beatrix Potter books). Royal Doulton’s immensely popular “Bunnykins” figurine series, which had been introduced in the 1930s, later ceased production and re-introduced in the late 1960s, was a series of nursery dishes and collectible figurines of anthropomorphic rabbits. The original pieces were illustrated by Sister Bailey, an English Roman Catholic nun.

Between 1971 and 2005, Royal Doulton was owned by conglomerate Pearson plc, and later by Ireland-based Waterford Wedgewood plc. Today, Royal Doulton is owned by New York-based KPS Capital Partners. Collectors can still buy contemporary pieces – including a cookware, dinnerware, and crockery collection from celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay — at www.royaldoulton.com.

Royal Doulton collections have their loyal collectors, but there’s always room for more, according to antiquestradegazette.com.

“For casual collectors who buy Doulton simply on the strength of subject matter or personal preferences, this is a buyer’s market in need of new entry-level collectors. Online trading, and eBay in particular, has proved well-suited to Royal Doulton, but it has brought a glut of examples to light – too many for even the large number of collectors in the UK, the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa to absorb,” the website states. “But rarities, those that plug holes in the collections of the top tier of Doulton collectors, are a different matter. Here high three- and four-figure prices are the norm with a clutch of hard-to-find early figures capable of selling at over ($5,000 U.S. dollars).”

And though it can be difficult to know where to begin your Royal Doulton collection, there are opportunities around every corner, according to online antiques seller Roundabout Antiques.

“A Royal Doulton figurine may begin at a variety of sources, a chance gift, a souvenir picked up on holiday,” the website states, “or an appreciation of Royal Doulton craftsmanship can initiate a lifetime of extremely satisfying collecting.”