These kids are going places!
Years ago, good-looking young people hoping to break into careers on stage or screen often started out as models, posing for fashion ads or even for record jackets, while waiting to be “discovered.” (James Garner started out modeling bathing suits.)
Those records still show up in the thrift shop bins, often ignored by those hoping to strike it rich with some Beatles rarity.
We have preached for some time that one of the unforeseen merits of the 12-inch LP record was the restricted field it presented for artistic composition. Just as the author of a haiku is required to focus his or her eloquence in a limited number of syllables, so we can watch the development of the record jacket during a compressed, 40-year “golden era,” starting with two colors and plain text in 1948, as succeeding generations answered the question: “What can you do with this 12-inch square?”
Three of today’s four entries offer young models who would go on to fame and fortune in other fields. The fourth is just our old friend, Florida keyboard virtuoso Lenny Dee, caught in a candid snapshot exchanging greetings with a young neighbor on his way to work. Lenny’s watchword was always “safety first,” and if you look real close, you’ll see the little friend atop his electric organ IS wearing a doggie life preserver.
Remember: The cardboard can be collectable, too.
November 18th, 2014 at 4:52 pm
Edward ‘Kookie’ Burns?
November 18th, 2014 at 7:07 pm
Mitch, was that a guess, or a request?
Edd “Kookie” Byrnes joins us here:
http://www.abebooks.com/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=9804840713
Kookie had released his own Extended Play 45 by 1960, featuring his unforgettable vocal stylings on “Like, I Love You.” But while the 22-year-old showing off his Lindy moves here on the cover of Vido Musso’s “Teen Age Dance Party” was about the same age, by the time this album cover was photographed (circa 1957) he had already landed some of the one-shot TV appearances on “Death Valley Days” and “The Adventures of Jim Bowie” which would eventually lead to his historic teaming with James Drury and Clu Gulager for that interminable Western yarn which helped render much of American ’60s television “The Land That Time Forgot.”
— V.S.
November 19th, 2014 at 7:31 am
#1 = Kent McClure?
#2 = MTM? (this is a swag)
#3 = idk … Sandra Dee? (super swag)
November 19th, 2014 at 7:35 am
Correction: #1 = DOUG McClure?
November 19th, 2014 at 9:28 am
John,
#2 MTM: Good guess:
https://www.etsy.com/listing/100605334/million-sellers-mary-tyler-moore
November 23rd, 2014 at 8:56 am
#1 = Sophia Loren
#2 = Mary Tyler Moore
#3 = Grace Kelly
#4 = I would guess Sandra Dee except I am not certain she could waterski that well.