You Asked For It was an American television show that aired from 1950-1959. Viewers were asked to mail in requests for things they wanted to see on the show. The program showed how things worked, a behind the scenes look at movie effects, curiosities, etc.
The one episode that I remember seeing, was how they made it look like an actor was riding on a moving horse (close-up shot). The horse or fake horse was actually stationary (but would rock back and forth) and the background scenery would move behind the horse creating the illusion that the horse was moving forward. I believe it was in this same episode that they show how they used red colored wax bullets, so when they shot someone in say, a western movie, it would appear as though the person was shot and bleeding.
You know how they say that “Everything old, is new again”. Well, there are a number of current day television shows that take you behind the scenes of how things are done, such as “How It’s Made”. This is a show on the Science Channel and they have a series of episodes that show how just about anything is made. This is somewhat similar, but not quite, because they only show how things are made (hence the title How It’s Made) and they don’t show how special effects are done or any of the other curiosities someone might request. Even good ol’ Mister Rogers on “Mister Roger’s Neighborhood” took you on field trips to show how things were made.
But the one show that comes the closest to the “You Asked For It” show, is a kids show called “Curiosity Quest”. Just like “You Asked For It”, they ask for viewers to send in requests for what they wanted to see. They’ve been to places like, the Vermont Teddy Bear factor showing how the bears are made, how bread, bikes, snowboards are made, to how they train fire fighters. A great show, even for adults that are curious about these things.
Curiosity Quest:
http://www.curiosityquest.org/
A few youTube videos of different You Asked For It episodes:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qWRp55vdxzQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ztd5B_rAKAM&NR=1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z8LVfdKmln8&feature=related
Wikipedia.com–You Asked For It
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/You_Asked_for_It
The years when I was growing up at my parents house, I remember always having milk in the fridge. We rarely had to go to the market to get milk, because it magically appeared on our front porch when we woke from our sleep.
The Adohr Farms truck would cruise the neighborhoods during the wee hours of the morning, delivering milk to their customers. They would drive up to our house, open the wooden gate to our front porch and leave a wire basket that contained glass bottles filled with milk.
One thing that sticks in my mind after all these years, is that the milk that was delivered, would on occasion, be sour. There’s nothing like pouring yourself a tall cold glass of milk after walking home from school, putting it to your mouth, and taking a nice big gulp–YUCK! I ran for the kitchen sink and spit out the spoiled milk! EGADS!
Here’s an interesting tidbit of information. Do you know where the name Adohr, in Adohr Farms came from? Just so I get the story right, I’m going to quote from a May 29, 1997 article in the Los Angeles Times:
“The corner of Ventura Boulevard and Lindley Avenue in Tarzana was once the Adohr Milk Farm. However, the land was part of a cattle ranch empire owned by a Southern California family who later established the city of Malibu.
In 1892, Frederick Hastings Rindge bought the original Spanish land grants that made up Rancho Malibu Topanga Sequit. Rindge’s land purchases spanned more than 17,000 acres along the coast toward Ventura County and several miles inland over the Santa Monica Mountains into the San Fernando Valley.
At the time of Rindge’s death in 1905, the ranch lands were divided between his three children. In 1915, Rindge’s only daughter, Rhoda, married Merritt H. Adamson Sr., who was originally the ranch’s foreman.
A year later, the Adamsons established a dairy farm on the north slopes of the Santa Monica Mountains. To honor Rhoda, Adamson named the farm “Adohr”–his wife’s name spelled backward. Adohr Farms became famous for having one of the largest herds of Guernsey cattle in the world.
During the Depression, the Adamsons were forced to sell most of their land to pay creditors. However, the milk farm kept the family solvent.
The Adohr dairy moved to Camarillo in 1947. Adamson’s son, Merritt Jr., eventually sold the dairy operation to the Southland Corp. in 1966.”
A couple LA Times articles about Adohr Farms:
http://articles.latimes.com/1997-05-29/local/me-63477_1_adohr-farms
http://articles.latimes.com/1998/mar/01/local/me-24380
I heard this story on a local radio show and found it interesting, so decided to share it with you.
What’s that you say, you don’t recognize the name in the title? Well, you very well may not, especially if you weren’t around in the late 1960′s. You may however recognize the name Liquid Paper, which is the topic of this post and how the product and company came to be.
As is the case with the majority of inventions, you have a need and you create a product to fill that need. That’s exactly what Bette Nesmith Graham did back in the early 50′s. She worked as a typist and like most people, made mistakes while typing and it wasn’t like our modern day computers/word processors where you just backspace or highlight, delete and continue typing. She was on a mission to come up with a way to correct her mistakes.
Starting in her kitchen using her blender, she made up a paint like product she called “Mistake Out”. She packaged her new product in a green bottle with a Mistake Out label affixed to it and started providing her product to her co-workers.
Unfortunately, one day she made a mistake that she failed to correct (she typed in her own company name instead of the banks) and was fired from her typist job. It was from this point forward, that she decided to devote her time on her correction fluid company.
Ms. Nesmith offered her product to Big Blue (IBM), but they declined. Bette had sold Mistake Out from her house for 17 years; the name was changed to Liquid Paper shortly after. By 1968, her product was making a profit, and in 1979 the Liquid Paper Corporation was sold to the Gillette Corporation for $47.5 million with royalties.
In 2000, Liquid Paper was acquired by Newell Rubbermaid. In some regions of the world, Liquid Paper is now endorsed by Papermate, a widely known writing instruments brand (also owned by Newell Rubbermaid).
Do you recognize Bette’s maiden name; Nesmith? If you were a fan of the 60′s rock band the Monkees, you may know this name from vocalist and guitarist, Michael Nesmith. Michael was the son of Bette Nesmith-Graham and the primary heir to her Liquid Paper fortune after Nesmith’s death in 1980.
Like many people, I used Liquid Paper for my own typing mistakes and/or handwritten mistakes or revisions.
The word Ironrite in this case, is a noun. The Ironrite was a behemoth ironing machine, that dwarfs any conventional iron.
Back in the ’60s, my mom had one of these contraptions and it was stored away in her bedroom. To a curious kid it was a gold mine. “What was this big white, metal box with a metal chair sitting in front of it”. Well I found out one day when my mom sat down to use it on a load of clothes. She opened up the metal cover which was essentially a big metal box that was hinged at the back. She flipped down a black plastic shelf that sat in front of a big white roller. She flipped on a couple switches and you could hear a humming noise coming from the beast.
One of the main working parts of the Ironrite was a big cloth covered roller which spins round and round and moves up and down. When the roller was in the full down position, it spun against a metal platen that spanned the length of the roller and provided the heat source for pressing your clothes.
To operate the Ironrite, you needed to be a bit coordinated, because there were two levers attached to the bottom of the Ironrite that you actuated with your knees. You hit one lever to raise and lower the roller and the other lever to start the roller spinning. And if you held one of the levers, it made the roller go up and down.
Once you put your clothes in between the roller and the heating platen, and you lower the roller, and start the roller spinning, it will pull in whatever fabric you feed it. It will also pull in small fingers too, that’s probably why they have a manual release lever to lift the roller in emergencies.
Many, many years later as an adult, my wife and I took a vacation to Washington D.C. and we visited the Smithsonian Institution. As we were walking around we came across a good old Ironrite Automatic Ironer, it brought an immediate smile to my face and memories of burned and pinched fingers. 
The link below is a YouTube video that I found, that shows how to use the Ironrite Ironer, check it out if you’re interested.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A3Mzkphi7lA&feature=related
I bet some of you remember Kellogg’s Concentrate cereal from back in the ’60s, it was the best cereal ever, in my honest opinion. It was packaged in a small gold foil box (pictured) and it consisted of tiny little flakes. Supposedly it was very nutritious for you too. As a kid, I didn’t care about nutrition back then, all I knew was it just tasted good.
I use to put a spoonful of cereal and milk in my mouth and suck all the milk out of the cereal, and the cereal would stick together in a clump. Ok, I admit, that’s kinda weird…but you can tell me, I know you probably did it too.
From looking at other sites, it sounded like it costed too much to manufacture, so that’s why it was so expensive and probably the reason for it’s demise. I hope with today’s new technologies and processes, they can bring it back to a waiting older and newer generation.
