We took a retro dive into the early 1960s for some of our most popular designs.
77 Sunset Strip
(Unisex & Women's T-Shirt, Women's Tank Top, Unisex Sweatshirt)
77 Sunset Strip ran from 1958 to 1964. It starred Efrem Zimbalist, Jr, as Stu Bailey, and Roger Smith as Jeff Spencer, private detectives working from stylish offices in Los Angeles, right next door to Dean Martin’s Lounge, Dino’s Lodge. We used the image of the awning outside the office for our design. The show also starred Edd Byrnes as Kookie, your basic hair combing, slang talking, rock and roll digging early 60s hipster – maybe a Fabian wannabe - who worked as a parking valet at Dino’s and eventually worked his way into a partnership at the PI firm. Louis Quinn was Roscoe, the racetrack guy who was well connected to the word on the street.
Zimbalist later starred as the lead in the popular show, The FBI. Smith went on to manage the career of his wife, Ann-Margaret. Edd Byrnes’ Kookie character became a cultural phenomenon. His song, Kookie, Kookie (Lend Me Your Comb) with Connie Stevens was the first hit single for Warner Brothers Records! For an incredible head-scratching, face-palming view of 1959 pop culture, check out Byrnes and Stevens on the Saturday Night Beech-Nut Show with Dick Clark.
The show was unusual in that it typically featured either Bailey or Spencer as the lead, alternating each week. Also, it was the first of the spinoff creators, as other series of cool investigators and their staffs worked their magic in hip cities: Surfside Six in Miami Beach, Hawaiian Eye in Honolulu and Bourbon Street Beat in New Orleans. As the shows had similar themes and character structures, plot lines were often recycled from one series to another.
Up and coming actors who guest starred on 77 Sunset Strip included Mary Tyler Moore, Ellen Burstyn, Cloris Leachman, Gena Rowlands, William Shatner, Roger Moore, Marlo Thomas, Elizabeth Montgomery, Robert Vaughn, Dyan Cannon, Robert Conrad, Adam West, Tuesday Weld, Connie Stevens and Troy Donahue.
Surfside 6
(Unisex & Women's T-Shirt, Women's Tank Top)
Surfside Six was also a private detective series that ran from 1960 to 1962 as a popular replacement for Bourbon Street Beat. Investigators Sandy Winfield (played by teen heartthrob Troy Donahue), Kenny Madison (Van Williams) and Dave Thorne (Lee Patterson) worked out of a Miami Beach houseboat across from the famous Fontainebleau Hotel. Adventurous socialite Daphne Dutton (Diane McBain) lived in a yacht berthed next to Surfside Six. Margarita Sierra played Cha Cha O’Brien, a performer at the popular Boom Boom Room at the Fontainebleau. Madison was a character that moved from Bourbon Street Beat to Surfside Six, much like Richard Belzer’s Detective John Munch, who moved from Homicide: Life on the Street in Baltimore to Law and Order SVU in NYC.
Hawaiian Eye
(Women's & Unisex T-Shirt, Women's Tank Top)
Hawaiian Eye ran from 1959 to 1963. Robert Conrad, as Tom Lopaka, Anthony Eisley, as Tracy Steele, and Grant Williams, as Greg McKenzie, run a detective agency out of the luxurious Hawaiian Village Hotel in Honolulu. Eventually, Troy Donohue, after his gig at Surfside Six ended and Eisley left the show, joined the cast as a hotel social director who lends a hand to the investigators. Further assistance is provided by Connie Stevens as photographer Cricket Blake, who doubles as a singer at the hotel’s Shell Bar and often provided a musical interlude - here's the Hawaiian Eye theme. Poncie Ponce plays a cab driver with a finger on the pulse of the islands. The show proved to be a precursor to popular Hawaii-located shows like Hawaii 5-0 and Magnum PI.
The Roaring Twenties
(Women's & Unisex T-Shirts)
The Roaring Twenties had a run of forty-five episodes from 1960 to 1962. Rex Reason and Donald May played New York City newspaper reporters covering gangsters and crime. But the true star of the series was the incredible Dorothy Provine as Pinky Pinkham, a performer at the Charleston Club. Provine performed a musical number in each performance, as a smiling good guy entered the club or a scowling bad guy watched from a table. Provine was hired for the series after her title role in The Bonnie Parker Story (“Cigar Smoking Hellcat of the Roaring Thirties”). She would go on to appear in the popular films, It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World with an enormous who's who cast of comedy legends, The Great Race, and Good Neighbor Sam with Jack Lemmon. We're not sure the 2020s are roaring, but the grayscale mirror ball from the series is still a cool look.
Annette Funicello and Frankie Avalon
(Women's & Unisex T-Shirt)
Annette Funicello and Frankie Avalon starred together in four beach party movies from 1963 to 1965: Beach Party, Muscle Beach Party, Bikini Beach and Beach Blanket Bingo. They were already big stars before collaborating on the beach movie franchise. We repurposed and recolored an old image that captures the early 60s beach genre for our tee. As a nice touch, the color of Annette's bikini will be the same as the color of the tee.
Annette’s career began as an original Mouseketeer on the Mickey Mouse Club in 1955 at the age of twelve. A recording career followed, including pop hits like Pineapple Princess (written by the Sherman Brothers, who also wrote It’s a Small World After All and the songs in the movie Mary Poppins) and Train of Love (by Paul Anka, who also wrote dozens of hits, including My Way and the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson theme). How about Annette singing with the Beach Boys!?!
Philly boy, Frankie Avalon was a star in his own right, with two number one singles in 1959: Venus and Why. He also had a film career, co-starring with Alan Ladd in Guns of the Timberland and John Wayne in The Alamo.
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At Wearing It Well, shirt designs can be printed on sweatshirts, hoodies, tank tops and even canvas bags or coffee mugs. Just let us know!