Evidence of pre-rubber humankind
typed for your pleasure on 23 September 2020, at 12.29 amSdtrk: ‘Pyjamarama’ by Roxy music
Several months ago, an iDollator mate of mine and I were chatting via text, and surprisingly, the topic turned to mannequins. I’m not actually being clever when I say ‘surprisingly’, as I can’t recall how the conversation shifted, and as this was months ago, if you think I’m going to scroll through my texts to discover why, you lot are out of your minds. But! Our chat did give me an idea, as there’s a part of Synthetik History we have here at Deafening silence Plus that I don’t think we shared with new girl Dyanne…
~ later ~
DYANNE: ‘so whatcha got in here? 🤔😯’
ME: ‘Before I moved out of my parents for the first time, every couple of months I’d write letters — actual physical letters — to various mannequin companies, asking them to send me catalogues. That box contains everything I’d received over two or three years. Open it up!’
DYANNE: ‘whaaaaaaattt??!? holy cow!! 😳😍’
ME: ‘I know, right?? I can’t even remember what I’d told ’em to get those! Probably I was a filmmaker who needed props or something.’
DYANNE: ‘now what the hell is all this over here?? 😯😗’
ME: ‘Remember how I’d told you that, back in the early Nineties, I’d go up to Mario’s Mannequins in downtown Detroit like once a month and take photos “for photo class”? A couple of weeks before they closed up shop, I kinda pestered Mario for any catalogues he wanted to get rid of, and this is what he gave me.’
DYANNE: ‘SHUT THE FRONT DOOR. there’s stuff in here from 1986, 1989… and this is from 1983?? this is crazy! this is literally mannequin history!! 😳🤘😄’
ME: ‘There’s a catalogue in there somewhere from 1979, too. Plus I’ve got one of two mannequin blokes from the early Eighties wearing appalling clothes.’
DYANNE: ‘ha ha! so when you say “appalling”… 🙁’
ME: ‘Think Herb Tarlek from “WKRP in Cincinnatti”.’
DYANNE: ‘😨😵’
DYANNE: ‘i am totally gonna be going through these for the rest of the afternoon! wow, buddy, why didn’t anyone here tell me about these?? 🙄’
ME: ‘It’s been years, so it probably slipped our minds! Actually, I kinda forgot about them myself until Euchre mentioned classic mannequins recently.’
DYANNE: ‘woooww. this is like going through your grandparents’ old stuff and finding out your grandma was a nazi hunter, or your grandpop was a burlesque stripper!! 😳😎’
ME: ‘…I, ah… I hadn’t thought of it like that!’
DYANNE: ‘that’s… definitely a look!… 🙃💩’
Random similar posts, for more timewasting:
Stars in their Eyes, Part II on August 5th, 2005
Any Synthetiks-related news, Davecat? (Feb 2013) on February 1st, 2013
September 23rd, 2020 at 7.11 pm
Vintage mannequin catalogues… that is quite amazing! It would be quite something to see scans of some of your favorite photos, let alone the photos you took!
September 23rd, 2020 at 11.09 pm
I did manage to scan maybe half (or less than half?) of the Mario’s Mannequins photos I’d taken… it’s the damnedest thing. I’ve had goshou’s scanner over at my flat for close to three years, for the express purpose of scanning all of my print photos and collages, with the Mario’s photos being first, but needless to say, completing that task is still on my to-do list. Typical. 😐
Anyway, remind me, and I’ll send a couple your way!
September 26th, 2020 at 8.09 am
man, oh, mannequins!
have you watched umbrella academy on netflix? there’s a super-cute mannequin relationship on there.
September 26th, 2020 at 6.51 pm
WHAAATT
My (former) supervisor was always recommending that I add The Umbrella academy to my Netflix queue. Now, from what I’d heard from a (former) coworker, my supervisor knows I’m an iDollator, so I wonder if he was nudging me towards that show because of what he knew…
In any event, back into the queue it goes! It was on there previously, but between Better than us and Mad men, I got distracted.