It’s December, 1975. I am watching PBS’s “The Electric Company” on our RCA console television and wishing that Santa would bring me a Holly Hobbie doll and some Lincoln Logs. I wanted to say that back in the day, we played with real toys, not virtual ones. But Atari released “Pong” that Christmas season and sold $40 mil in video games. It’s no Call Of Duty Modern Warfare, but it’s also no Pet Rock. (Oh yeah, the Pet Rock people sold 5 million of those stupid things in 1975.)
I like to think that the 70s and 80s were the best time to be a kid. Toys (and books) were our escape from reality, and the only limit on how much fun you could have was what you couldn’t imagine. So when making a movie about 4 children in 1975 who escape their reality by going to a place called THE PLAYROOM, what is more important than the period-specific toys that you use to populate that room?
Thanks to our Art Department gurus Robert Winn, Linda Nolan, Kay Bay and Brittany Fletcher, the playroom in THE PLAYROOM was a treasure trove of well-worn and loved vintage toys and games: Slinky, pick up sticks, Spirograph, Mille Bornes, jacks, paddle ball, hula hoops, Legos…when the cast and crew were finally allowed into the magical rompus room, we gawked, giggled and illegally touched as many of our old made-in-Taiwan friends as we could get away with before getting busted for disturbing a hot set.
I was convinced that the “adult kids” would be more nostalgically interested in the crusty old toys than our young cast of characters. But surprisingly, the 70s toys proved to hold up under the youthful modern scrutiny. Even though Ian (“Sam”) couldn’t perform a scene without his new-fangled Bionicle™ (still not sure what that is) under the couch cushion beneath him, those worn green army men had a mesmerizing effect on him. He would, with great attention to detail, set up complicated skirmishes and follow through with battle plans for the next great table top war. Jonathon (“Christian”) would forgo his iPad to draw works of art on the Etch-A-Sketch and Allie (“Janie”) got to experience what it was like to put a 45 under the needle. If only she knew what it meant to sing the “skips” on the vinyl!
Early on, someone asked why THE PLAYROOM wasn’t set in 2011. Julia would say, “Because it couldn’t happen in 2011!” The 70s man – those were different times. Kids rode their bikes in the street after school until it was too dark to see the curb and families ate dinner together every night because … well because that’s the way it was.
“Kids these days” have computers, smartphones, satellite television, the internet, xBox and facebook. Playing can mean that you are sitting completely still with only your eyes moving across an LCD. Interaction is texting your friend who is sitting beside you on the bus. Getting together happens with a comment on Facebook. The new millenium playrooms have flat screen televisions with Nickelodeon playing 24-7. It just had to be 1975. And when you see THE PLAYROOM, you will inexplicably smell your Easy Bake Oven bulb burning hot and have visions of your “Weebles wobble but they don’t fall down”.
Even if you were born a decade or two late and never took a ride on a Sit ‘n Spin or haven’t experienced the delicate magnetic tape jamming in your audio cassette recorder, you will still be a child of the 70s coasting along on your banana seat with your arms extended for flight. What were some of your favorite toys as a kid? What are some of your favorite toys now?
Related:
That was fun. Great music:)
Loved the film. Really well made and captures the 70′s zietgeist!
My Favorite Toys Were The “Vertibird” Helicopter that you flew on a rod around in a circle and picked up things like a raft and place it in a different place in the circle.
I also liked “Rock-Em-Sockem Robots” The goal was to knock the block off your apponent by punching him in his jaw using your thumbs to throw the punches.
I also had a little fan that would fly a balloon around the room as long as the batteries were strong.
Thanks For The Memories!!! Jim
Hot Wheels and Matchbox cars forever, even though I didn’t care that much about actual cars. Just loved the tiny details, and the way the Hot Wheels zoomed so satisfyingly.
Dolls were important for playing out crazy stories, or just experimenting with image. Madame Alexander dolls were more to be looked at and adored than for play; Barbie had that whiff of snooty, perky slutishness; and Liddle Kiddles were a fad that burned white hot and then was gone. Oh–and DAM Dolls, aka Troll dolls (but the original, authentic kind, had the imprint “DAM” on their backs, and those were the only ones acceptable to my friends and me.
So many more, like Play-dough and that other sculpty-substance that came in a kind of plastic egg shell, that could be rolled into a super-high bouncing ball, or flattened out and pressed to newsprint, picking up an imprint of it–what was that stuff called? There was some kind of compass-like thing, with colored pens, for creating intricate patterns. Also the classic Slinky, Twister, Slip ‘n Slide, Hoppity Hop balls, Hula Hoops… So many fads came and went: simple bubble blowing (lots of experimentation with formulas and implements for variation of size); kazoos (we’d buy el-cheapo plastic ones, and paint them in brightly colored designs); sling-shots, and on and on…. Guess I like toys.