Chic Nostalgia: Let's Bring Back ...

Some of you may remember my first Let's Bring Back... column, which was posted two months ago.

In part an homage to Diana Vreeland's adored Why Don't You ...? features, and in part a celebration of the pleasures of eras past, here is the second installment.

* * *

Let's Bring Back ...

El Morocco

1. Supper clubs. Think El Morocco and the Stork Club. With those discreet curved leather booths, palm trees, and a wonderful old-fashioned ebony telephone on each table.

2. And on that note, let's bring back dancing. "Whatever happened to going out dancing for an evening?" a friend of mine recently lamented. "As in, it's Friday night. Let's go out dancing."

3. Lockets. With pictures inside, of course. They're just so endearing and personal.

4. Discussion societies. Polite ones or impolite ones. It doesn't matter. Let's move away from the chatroom and message boards and into real rooms with three-dimensional people. Anonymous internet postings try to pass for discussion societies but they are absolutely not the same thing. Too often they breed animosity instead of constructive discourse. Talking is good. Real debate is a dying art.

5. Picnics. And picnic baskets. They're hard to carry but in the end they are worth it. Wear linen clothing, set up shop under a tree, bring (and read) books, take black and white pictures.

The Carol Burnett Show

6. The Carol Burnett Show. Because she was so unbelievably, diabolically hilarious. Stinky-mouth Sarah Silverman doesn't hold a candle in comparison. No one does. Well, maybe Lucille Ball. But no one these days.

7. Fondue. There's nothing like sharing a spitty pot of cheese to break the ice at a dinner party.

8. Aging naturally. Nothing else needs to be said on this one.

Portrait of Nancy Beaton by Cecil Beaton

9. Wedding portraits. The highly-staged, highly-produced studio ones, a la Cecil Beaton. Taken before or after the wedding, with a gorgeous painted backdrop and dramatic lighting. Black and white, of course.

10. Ice skating. And ice-skating culture. First dates, mittens, hot chocolate, the works. Reference that amazing Alfred Eisenstadt photo of Gloria Swanson ice-skating with her fourth husband if you need inspiration.

The Orient Express

11. Train restaurants. Good ones, obviously, in wood-paneled cars, with white linen-covered tables. And crystal, china, etc. Agatha Christie-style.

12. The original Nintendo. Incongruous, I know. But I'm an addict. And the games have an elementary charm of their own. Super Mario Brothers 2 and so on. And they're such a refreshing change from video games that feature hookers and drive-by shootings.

13. Banana combs. Just kidding. Those suckers can RIP.

14. Mahogany phone booths in hotel lobbies. Like the one in The Graduate, and Grand Hotel and every other glamorous old Hollywood movie. They just have a seductive appeal to them; they evoke illicit dealings of all sorts. So Hitchcockian.

The lovely dancers of "Solid Gold"

15. Solid Gold. As in the TV show. It should be noted that I've added this one at the request of my editor. She enjoyed it so.

Comments

[mwissot]

Let's bring back...great articles like this! Inspiring and delish!

[dadw5boys]

I remember $0.14 cent gasoline and it went to $0.19 cents I was pissed. I mowed yards.
Bring back Pet Rocks, people will but anything.

[AndreaSue]

I wish they'd bring back good shows for kids that actually seemed to be targeted for KIDS and not some hybrid by-product of the new millenium in which eleven year-old girls watch MTV and sixteen year-olds watch R-rated movies. At this rate, if I ever have kids, my kids'll have kids before I have more kids! Did that make sense?

[realitytrumpsbull]

Um, hate to be the bearer of the bad news, but
the past will stay firmly in the past until and
unless you get busy on those plans for the time machine...get all Back To The Future, here.
Some things that can stay buried in the past:
Bell-bottoms
Ford Pinto(smash it crush it melt it, KILL IT!)
Most of Disco
No internet
3 TV channels
Pastels
STILL no internet
First oil crisis
70's 'Big Hair'
WHERES MY DAMN INTERNET!?!?!
God-awful cheesy TV commercials(worse than today)
6-inch collars
INTERNEEEEEEEEEEET!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Discussion boards also have their merits,
because they prevent a little of the verbal
competition that goes on, ergo better
communication, you say/me say/you say/me say...
it's almost like that horrid animated character
in that one Star Wars movie, but hey, it works...

[waiguoren]

I came of age in the '50s and can remember the whole lot...including supper clubs, going out dancing, and fancy restaurants in department stores.
By the end of that decade, me and my gang couldn't wait to ditch that entire scene...

Like they used to say ( still do ? ):

Politicians, whores, and ugly buildings...if they stick around long enough they become classic and respectable.

[QueenCeleste]

Yes to all Lesley! (Except perhaps Nintendo and Solid Gold, but that's okay.)

In no particular order: Cocktail parties. Drinking! Spacious ladies lounges in department stores and restaurants (see old movies). Manners. Gloves and hats (not baseball caps). Hi fi consoles. Vinyl records. Lovely sit down restaurants in department stores. Malt shops. Mom and pop shops. Dressing for occasions or just for the hell of it. Analog telephones (does anyone else miss that special ring?). Analog radios (I miss that up and down the dial sound). Courtship. Little niceties.

Lesley, this is such fun! I'll think of more.

[GenericBlogger]

Let's bring back:

- Real news without celebrity trash
- Real journalists
- Uncorporatized news outlets
- Uncorporatized radio stations
- Talented movie actors with character on and off screen
- Real concerts, no lip syncing
- Talented singers, without voice enhancers
- Talented musicians without good looks, they make the best music
- Real women, no walking anorexic skin covered skeletons
- The old fashioned Coca Cola
- Frequent passenger trains
- A world without AIDS
- TV with fewer commercials
- A world without terrorism

[Superfelo]

I am sorry to rain on your parade. All those wonderful things you mentioned are from a time that we were more innocent; but also more oppressed personally; and there were less people in the world; and people of color knew their place; and the subways in New York were 20 cents; and we were warned about the population explosion, and people had a little more shame that we have today.
Today we have no shame; the population has exploded, there is too many of us; and today the new warning, is global warming, which is not really new because when I was High School they used to warn us about the polar ice cap melting; and how New York could become a swamp.
But it is all the sum total of denying others equal opportunity, who today could be helping to solve the problems of the world.

[QueenCeleste]

Yes, the problems you mention existed. (Happily, things have changed.) But what does that have to do with a nostalgic fondness for supper clubs, high tea, ice skating, lockets, and all else Lesley mentioned?

None of us are saying "Let's bring back segregation why don't we?" Goodness me.

[Mr.Fitz]

I'll take 1,4,5,8, and 11.

[HedgeApple]

I loved these!

May I also suggest high tea and Irish linen table cloths and napkins as nostalgic favorites?

We do a once-a-month tea in our neighborhood (rotating with different hostesses' houses) and it's oh-so civilized.

[sandhi]

What's a banana comb?

[lmmb]

One of those wretched hair clips shaped like a banana, that - when affixed - gives you sort of a mohawk on the back of your head. Can be seen in all sorts of 80s movies; guaranteed to send a cheap horror-shiver up your spine.

[Markson]

Love this column. You should do more, monthly perhaps?

My grandfathers loved, at least, two of the suggestions you listed: discussion societies and dancing. The latter was always a town affair where our elders showed the kids how it's done (basically, it was a creative way to show manners); the former was a community-type organization where the neighbors would gather to enjoy dinner, alcohol, dominoes, culture, society, and politics. What always struck me most about these "discussion" were how civil they were, no matter how opposed people were politically.

Thanks, again.

[schnick444]

I love this blog...I agree with everything and want to add 'the written note or letter'. There is nothing quite like receiving a handwritten letter in the mail. Very last century.

[sonofsamstone]

I agree schnick44. Personally, I'd like to see more telegrams....like in the Jimmy Steward movies!

[lolosrun]

Thank you, Lesley! There is such a history of class and sophistication that is not only neglected but completely unheard of by people my age. People used to GET TOGETHER to DISCUSS things- not just celebrity gossip or stock portfolios, but things that mattered like world affairs, philosophy, and art. I can't help but feel that younger generations are missing out on a vital part of living by lacking any knowledge of what has come before or any opportunity to engage in such activities now.

And who wouldn't love a mahogany phone booth in a hotel lobby?

[ImmanuelGoldstein]

Actually getting together? Are you kidding? Between work and kids and everything else, doing that's like wrestling an alligator. Frankly I'm thankful for the chats.

[ByrdtheStampede]

1 minor objection - The Original Nintendo. It's back, it's just wireless and has more of a silly, fun name - the Wii's Virtual Console allows all the old classics to be downloaded in minutes.

That being said, well put on the Supper Clubs and Discussion Societies.

[lmmb]

The new console just ain't the same. You need those rickety old controls.