LIFESTYLES USA Volume 18

Volume 18 of Something Weird’s wonderful Lifestyle USA series offers five lengthy but incredible all-color industrial shorts that will quickly remind everybody what bliss the early 1960s were…

THE BIG WHEEL (color) is an ultra-oddball musical extravaganza promoting the new line of 1966 International family-friendly trucks, cars, and campers starring none other than Herschell Gordon Lewis’ favorite actor WILLIAM KERWIN. Before his gigs in "Goldilocks and the Three Bares", "Scum of the Earth", and "Blood Feast", Kerwin supplemented his work in TV and obscure movies by appearing in educational and industrial shorts (most notably the meat-slicing short "Carving Magic" with Harvey Korman). And somewhere between his roles in "Two Thousand Maniacs" and "A Taste of Blood", Kerwin camped it up as the most wholesome dad on the planet in this 42-minute mini-epic, made for a major sales conference, and meant to have some built-in interaction with an in-person host. (Watch the goofy “Market Commander” stand still and wait for his live-action cues.) With his perfect wife and kids, Bill’s singing, dancing, and mugging will quickly have you diving into your auto so you too can sing out loud!

THE NEW WORLD OF STAINLESS STEEL (color by Technicolor) is a 1960-style celebration of the “new metal” used for kitchen knives, buildings, and rocket ships that, once again, reminds us that the Sixties was supposed to be the first decade in the Age of The Jetsons. Proving that there’s nothing people love more than “bright silvery surfaces,” we see stainless steel sinks, elevators, trains, bird cages, bank vaults, revolving doors, oil refineries, and buckets. And remember, it’s “beauty that will not corrode, oxidize, or wear away!” We love it!

TO PLEASE A WOMAN (color) uses mimes – yes, God help us, mimes! – to prove that nothing pleases a woman more than… well, latex paint. Forget what you’ve heard about diamonds or furs – it’s a bucket of latex paint the Little Lady really wants. And why not? It “seals color to walls with a protective film!” Her life and home will be instantly transformed – just the way the lives of the mimes are here, in a short so surreal and scary that it must have been made in outer space.

A STEP-SAVING KITCHEN (color) is another must for the ladies, this one “demonstrating a U-shaped kitchen developed by the Housing Staff of the Bureau of Human Nutrition and Home Economics,” full of pull-out boards, revolving corner cupboards, flour and potato bins, a “planning center,” a “mixing center,” a “vegetable preparation and dishwashing center,” a “cooking and serving center,” and a “compact dining space” which lets the happy homemaker “share her family’s enjoyment at mealtime.” So, c’mon, girls, put on your “functional house dress” and start slaving over that hot stove!

SPRING AND SUMMER FASHIONS 1961 (color), presented here for gals who have survived latex paint and U-shaped kitchens, offers “up-to-date and reliable information on fashion trends” such as the “bulky jacket which is a favorite of millions, from Mrs. Kennedy to you and me.” All of which is presented, appropriately enough, by the International Ladies Garment Workers Union whose members are seen happily toiling away at sweatshops….