The History

Pass Me the Sugar: Generic Items and Forced Participation

I would like to highlight items that show no real affiliation with specific interests; in other words generic items (sugar packets, jelly packets, grocery bags, toilet paper, soap). Tammy S. Gordon emphasizes in her book The Spirit of 1976: Commerce, Community, and Commemoration that weather American citizens sat on either the right, or the left both were heavily involved in the “spirit” and consumerism of these products[1]. To create this environment, advertisers would have to generate mass appeal on a base level. This was difficult because during the bicentennial, there was concern about hitting three profitable groups of the time: African Americans, youths, and urban shoppers. Such an emphasis on “Americana related themes” would alienate these groups who provided the most skepticism and cynicism concerning American patriotism[2]. This coupled with a marketplace plastered with bicentennial memorabilia made was difficult to stick out; a simplistic solution to these problems was forced participation

A perfect example of this technique is the sugar and jelly packets. First of all, these are generic ingredients that are found in most restaurants and homes, which would make them difficult to avoid.  Second, these items are very different from other items in the collection (magazines, beer, soda, socks, or toys). The packets do not require some kind of interest level like magazines, or an age restriction like beer, or interest in hobbies like the kite. These are standard items that can not only be put on food, but can also be a massive display. The skeptical groups might not buy the commemorative plate, coffee can, or kite; but things like these small food packets made it very difficult to escape consuming bicentennial memorabilia.

 

This idea of “forced participation” can be seen when looking at items like the grocery bags as well. Looking at this collection it is hard to believe one could go to the store and buy “alternative” items that do not have to do with the bicentennial celebration. If they were able to accomplish this, they might be in for a surprise when all of their items would be placed in a bicentennial grocery bag. This utilization of marketing is genius because it requires little work on the seller while the consumer is being indoctrinated with patriotic memorabilia. Even if they are unwilling.

These products are also untouched which made it easier to produce. If you wanted to read an issue of MAD, Time, or Newsweek the content of that magazine would be altered due to the bicentennial. The Plate no longer serves its use outside of independence themed holidays. But the taste of the sugar does not change, the grape jelly does not change; just the packaging. Plus it is small enough to forgive someone if they still had leftover packets after the bicentennial celebration.

Another example of this is commemorative, bicentennial toilet paper. The only thing “bicentennial” about it is the wrapping on the outside of the paper. It is still just plain, white, toilet paper otherwise. Once that package is off it no longer has affiliation with the bicentennial, yet one would still be participating in the mass consumerism.

 

Items like condiment packets, toilet paper, and soap also have a long shelf life. Magazines are no longer topical and other consumables do not have as many units inside a package (i.e. only a 6 pack of soda). This means that long after the bicentennial was over, people were still using these products and therefore being further indoctrinated with the patriotism that the company perpetuated.

 

With the political climate the way it was in 1976 it was important for companies to create products that appealed to all walks of life. The idea to use products as small as sugar packets to endorse the bicentennial shows the permeation of the subject matter. Bicentennial endorsement was ubiquitous and inescapable. Not all products would be consumed by everybody, but these products covered the most bases. These do not require an age or interest to use, they could be in your cabinet, in your fast food restaurant, or garbage lying on the ground. The ability to be used by the possible unwilling, while also being seen by a mass audience is what makes these products so vital in understanding the goals and saturation of bicentennial memorabilia products.

[1] Gordon, Tammy S. The Spirit of 1976: Commerce, Community, and Commemoration  (Massachusetts: University of Massachusetts Press, 2013) Pg. 18

[2]ibid, Pg 48

50 Cans for 50 States: The Great American 7Up Collection of 1976

(above image thanks to rustycans.com)

The 1970s will forever be remembered for shag carpet, avocado green everything, disco, and of course, the 1976 Bicentennial Celebration. Throughout ‘The Good Doctor’s Collection’ are a wide variety of ephemera that helps to bring us back to the far out days of the 1970s and the 1976 bicentennial anniversary. By looking at the bicentennial celebration through ephemera, we can see how both groovy Americans and the companies that catered to them ‘sell-abrated’ this year-long anniversary.  The item chosen from the collection for this blog is the ‘United We Stand’ 7 Up soda-can collection – one of the largest collections of the archive. It took almost an entire year of both purchasing and dumpster diving to complete this very American collection.

7 Up, the lemon-lime soda pop we have all come to know and love, has been around since the early 1930s. Then called Bib-Label Lithiated Lemon-Lime Soda, it would not become 7 Up until 1936. By the 1940’s, 7 Up had become the third largest selling soda pop on the market, according to the Dr. Pepper Snapple Group, the current owners of the 7 Up brand.

Besides releasing special glass bottles in 1976 to mark the occasion of the United States Bicentennial, 7 Up released its ‘United We Stand’, aluminum can collection. This was one of two fifty-can 7 Up can collections released that decade – the other being ‘States Turning 7 Up’, released in 1979. At the time of the collection’s release, 7 Up was the only soda company to market an entire aluminum can collection of this type. Its parent manufacturers, Pepsi Cola Co., had released commemorative glass bottles celebrating the country’s anniversary, but no other soda brands had released a can collection of this magnitude.

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(images above from bevreview.com and Savannah Bitto)

With the ‘United We Stand’ can collection, each State’s soda can, Beginning with the instructions for the design plan on Can #1 and ending with the ‘United We Stand’ logo on Can #50, could be collected and stacked to create an image of the famous I-Want-You Uncle Sam image from the propaganda poster of 1917. The image of the design was created by repeating use of the word ‘7 Up’ in two colors – either red or blue, leaving the background of the decorative side of the can to be white. Each State’s soda can also shared three facts from each State.  Florida’s state facts, for example, are that it’s the twenty-seventh state in the U.S., its state capitol is Tallahassee, and its state nickname is ‘The Sunshine State’.

This marketing strategy for the ‘uncola’ soda, would be used again in 1979 with the ‘States Turning 7 Up’ collection – another assortment of fifty cans for fifty states that could be gathered and stacked to share an image – this time the picture of the country itself, the United States. No other soda company has released a collection likes these since, though they have done so on much smaller scales.

Today, many soda can collectors are still collecting this large and very American assortment of 7 Up cans. Through websites such as eBay and soda can forums, collectors have looked sometimes for years for individuals cans missing from their collection – one can only imagine the work it took for a person in 1976 to attempt to collect this great American treasure.

Lessons from Bicentennial Plates

Purpose of Bicentennial Junk Collection 

My focus on the Bicentennial Junk Collection concerns two historical plates. The first plate is a porcelain plate with an image of the Liberty Bell with both the colonial and current American flags on each end. The other plate is a souvenir tray that has various images of American events, mostly of the Revolutionary War era such as Paul Revere’s ride, the Statue of Liberty, Cornwallis’ Surrender, Bunker Hill, Declaration of Independence and others. The theme of collecting for Dr. Crepeau was “wanting to preserve some of that [bicentennial] spirit for future generations”. [1] Dr. Leland D. Peterson adds that future generations must understand that the bicentennial was necessary to celebrate where America has come within the last hundred years, despite the mixed bag of America’s triumphs and low points. [2] Forty years removed from 1976, people can still appreciate the euphoria that took place in the mid-1970’s by looking at the collection.

Context of 1970’s 

It is clear that during the 1970’s, the United States, as a capitalistic society, took advantage of the demand for patriotic memorabilia. Tammy Gordon presents in her book Spirit of 1976, the commercialization that took place leading up to the bicentennial. She states how the bicentennial featured “tag lines [that] evoked the founding fathers, the Revolution, the Declaration of Independence”. [3] This perfectly describes our bicentennial plate which was created in response to this commercialization. Today, the plates no longer carry the same euphoria as in 1976 in a post-modern society. Also, perhaps the prices of the plates were greater in value monetary than in present times with current prices for sale online ranging from $15 to $25 for the porcelain plate and $10 for the souvenir tray. [4] [5] There is no significant monetary value for these plates anymore, but someone is willing to pay these prices to have a piece of bicentennial history, which helps fulfill the prophecy spoken by Dr. Crepeau.

Homer Laughlin img_2075

Yet for the company that made the porcelain plate, production may have been more of a golden opportunity than just capitalism. Perhaps individuals take for granted that the plate was made in the USA, but in the context of the 1970’s, this is significant. The porcelain plate was made by the company Homer Laughlin who outlines in their history how difficult the 1960’s and 1970’s were for their business. America had begun to import tons of low-cost, foreign imports that threatened the business of homegrown companies like Homer Laughlin. [6] The opportunity to produce home manufactured, patriotic memorabilia such as the plate, in the USA served simply as an opportunity to stay afloat.

img_2077How Exhibits Can Be Used As Learning Mechanisms 

America is a country known as a melting pot of many different cultures bringing their own traditions and cultures. However, often when America’s story is told, there are certain memories that are championed more than others. The souvenir tray can be used as a learning tool to teach the real American story, describing what is on the plate, and what should be on the plate. The 1970’s were a period where minority groups (women, African-Americans, Native Americans) demanded representation in the national narrative. [7] Forty years later, we can tell the American story that includes everyone, not just a dominant White Anglo-Saxon story. At the end of the day, these plates, once used for capitalistic purposes can be reinterpreted and reinforced as a memento and as a learning mechanism.

Sources for More Information 

[1] Central Florida Future Vol 8, No. 13, pg. 3

[2] Leland D. Peterson- “Bicentennial Bellyache”
Old Dominion University, Spring 1976

[3] Tammy Gordon- Spirit of 1976, pg. 54

[4] Bicentennial Plate Example http://www.ebay.com/itm/like/252577433866?lpid=82&chn=ps&ul_noapp=true

[5] Souvenir Tray Example https://www.etsy.com/listing/247061412/bicentennial-souvenir-tray?ref=market

[6] Homer Laughlin https://www.fiestafactorydirect.com/t-about.aspx”>https://www.fiestafactorydirect.com/t-about.aspx

[7] Tammy Gordon- Spirit of 1976, pg. 3-4

Low Culture Collection: Bicentennial Edition

Dr. Crepeau’s collection of “Bicentennial Junk” features a few rather distinct items in its collection, a few pornographic magazines and a novelty condom. While the magazines are bicentennial special editions and the condom is purely a novelty item, they all share a similar feature, purchase “raunch-culture” goods. To reference Tammy Gordon, these items are wholly “buycentennial” goods that grew out of the 1976 “sellebration” of the American Revolution. These items are of particular interest because, unlike other items in the collection, they are not a used good like a plate or cup, but they are also not things that one would display openly in their house, like a flag or a photograph. The collection of “low culture” goods provides an interesting insight into how pornographic culture functioned during the mid-1970s, and how that may have changed during the bicentennial.

A major point of interest when looking at this particular collection is its relationship with feminism in the 1976s. Differing views of pornography developed a split in in feminist thought in the mid-1970s. Ariel Levy’s work Female Chauvinist Pigs: Women and the Rise of Raunch Culture discusses looks at the porn industry in the 1970s and how women perpetuated “raunch culture” during the time. She does this by discussing a “schism” in feminist thought that developed around 1976. According to Levy, feminists broke into two camps during the time, one that viewed pornography as a means of oppressing women, and one that viewed it as a means of expressing the female body. While the commemorative issues do not address the issue of women’s rights directly it is important to look at these items from the perspective of a political battleground centered on the porn industry.

Interestingly enough the cover imagery for two of these magazines can be used as support for both sides of the feminist debate Levy identifies. Anti-pornography feminists could simply use the July 1976 cover of Hustler as the basis for their argument of female objectification. This cover features a woman’s genitals covered by American flag underwear and nothing else. In the broadest sense this cover invokes the provocative and objectifying aspect of the porn industry that many Feminists stood against. However, the July 1976 cover of Playboy is drastically different. It features a woman wearing see through robes holding up the American Flag. While this image does objectify women in the sense that she is visibly nude, the model is not positioned in an overtly sexual way, and the cover does not make her nudity the center point of the cover. It is clear that the female body and sexual imagery are the focal points of each publication, the presentation of those qualities differed drastically from one publication to the other, much like the stance feminists took against the industry during the time.

While the condom is not historically viewed as the centerpiece of feminist debates, it still holds a similar value in its purpose as a celebratory good. The condom has no practical use and is simply a piece of ephemera that one would share with others. However, like pornographic magazines, the piece is not something that would readily be displayed openly. This shows that there was a market for non-practical, “raunch culture” goods during the time, providing a lens into American sexual identity during the 1970s. The condom is simply a great example of how pervasive the “buycentennial sellebration” was, and how deeply it permeated American culture during the time.

Upon further analysis of “low culture” products in Dr. Crepeau’s collection provide an understanding of feminist thought as well as American consumerism during the time. No matter which camp of feminism one supports, it is clear that these magazines are capable of narrating the drastic differences in the women’s rights movement and the complex issue of feminine empowerment. When combined with the novelty condom this collection as a whole shows how deeply rooted Bicentennial celebration was, permeating all the way into the American sex industry.

Referenced Works:

Tammy S. Gordon, The Spirit of 1976: Commerce, Community, and the Politics of Commemoration, (Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 2013).

Ariel Levy, Female Chauvinist Pigs: Women and the Rise of Raunch Culture, (New York: Free Press, 2005).

Cold War Conformity or a Conduit for Change?: Women and the American Bicentennial

In an archival experiment of historic proportions, professor emeritus Dr. Richard Crepeau of the UCF history department challenged his students in the spring and summer of 1976 to amass a collection of ephemera highlighting the profusion of the American bicentennial celebrations. Items ranging from the predictable to the more unique permeated American markets and found their way into the hearts of American homes and families. Recognizing the significance of the items in the bicentennial collection and their reach in terms of leisure and entertainment, home and family, and travel and education hints at broader social trends and reveals conflicting truths about life in the United States in 1976.

Many of the items in Dr. Crepeau’s bicentennial collection are household in nature. Looking beyond the perishable, disposable, temporary pieces like sugar packets and cereal boxes, the eye comes to rest on a handful of more durable, reusable items intended for accumulation and display. There are a handful of tea towels in the collection, items with a distinctly British heritage that have been rebranded with robust American iconography and employed for prolonged use in the kitchen of millions of homes across the nation. They are both decorative and functional, intended to remind the user of their patriotism every time a dish is dried.

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[Left: full-size tea towel decorated with eagle emblems, Revolutionary War soldiers, bells, drums, and tall ships. Right: placemat-size tea towel with 10 images celebrating events associated with 1776, middle graphic reads “Patriots then and now, from sea to shining sea, a salute to America’s 200 years.”]

Employing household pieces like these tea towels in the commemoration of the bicentennial hints at the intended domesticity of the 1970s and places the kitchen at the heart of the home and the ideal American family during the Cold War era. This focus stands in stark contrast to the status of women in light of emerging social movements, including that of feminists and other such groups embracing Abigail Adams’ famous insistence that America “Remember the Ladies.” By 1976, the American divorce rate as well as the number of married women with school-aged children in the labor force exceeded 50 percent. [1] “[Census] data painted a picture of the United States in which the nuclear family once featured on the pages of Life was becoming less and less common at the same time that new family forms – families shaped by divorce and separation, single parenthood, and dual wage earning – were becoming more viable.”[2]

screen-shot-2016-10-24-at-1-37-29-am[Labor Force Participation of Women, http://www.pbs.org/fmc/book/2work8.htm]

To keep up with such changes in family structure and advances in employment opportunities, women began engaging in various forms of social activism outside the home designed to promote gender equality and eradicate discrimination in a variety of social and professional settings. Drawing inspiration from the first wave feminists of the 1920s, groups like the National Organization for Women (NOW), the Women’s Equity Action League, the Y.W.C.A., the Girls Clubs of America and even some Junior Leagues began engaging in various forms of social activism. Names like Gloria Steinem, Betty Friedan, Susan Brownmiller, and Kate Millet came to dominate public discourse, despite backlash from a variety of men, conservatives, and the infamous Phyllis Schlafly, a conservative activist and leader of the Anti-ERA lobby. Schlafly, a visibly liberated woman with a law degree from Washington University in St. Louis, claimed the bill “conjured up the prospect of unisex public toilets, an end to alimony, and women forced into duty as combat soldiers.” [3]

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[Left: The feminist greats Gloria Steinem, Bella Abzug, Shirley Chisholm, and Betty Freidan (Charles Gorry/AP). Right: The late Phyllis Schlafly at a 1976 anti-ERA meeting (Associated Press)]

The efforts of these radical women standing up in the face of oppression and relegation to the domestic sphere (with its quaint tea towel kitchens) led to victories like the legalization of birth control for everyone, including non-married individuals, in 1972, the Roe v. Wade decision in 1973, a landmark case in the push for women’s reproductive freedom, and the progression of The Equal Rights Amendment (ERA). By 1975, it was only four states away from ratification. [4] The very same year, Time magazine awarded its man of the year to “American women” collectively, a victory followed up by a lengthy article entitled “Great Changes, New Chances, Tough Choices”[4] in its first issue of 1976, just five months before the beginning of American bicentennial celebrations. What started as grassroots resistance had blossomed into a movement that fundamentally changed what it meant to be a woman in the United States in the 1970s.

picketing-miss-america-pageant-1968 pittsburgh-protests-for-the-passage-of-the-era-1976

[Left: Picketing the Miss America Pageant, 1968. Right: Pittsburgh Protests for the passage of the Equal Rights Amendment, 1976]

For a select few, the bicentennial stood to highlight consciously overlooked racial and gendered inequality present in the United States since its founding two hundred years before. Prototypical patriotism was mass-produced and disseminated in the form of items like these tea towels, celebrating unity, allegiance, and a somewhat subconscious embrace of conformity with acceptable social constructs that many were actively working to reject. Thanks to the privileged majority, however, the bicentennial would come to be remembered as the perfect rallying point for the refocusing of a cohesive American people in the face of Cold War tumult, reviving “the nineteenth-century idea of history as rarefied…in the service of Cold War nationalism.” [5]

By highlighting such pieces as the tea towels and placing them within the larger context of the bicentennial celebrations and changing notions of social life in the United States in the months and years surrounding July 1976, staunch contrasts between idealized American living and the realities of struggle and marginalization, especially for women regardless of race, sexual orientation, or social standing, become clear. There is much more to this complex history than is presented here, but even a broad overview like this one seeks to tell stories within the larger scope of the 1970s, allowing for an inclusive yet focused approach to historical exposé. Themes of domesticity and gender roles, advertising trends and branding ability, and consumer behavior – along with their counter-movements – can all be interpreted through a closer study of these seemingly inconspicuous items in Dr. Crepeau’s bicentennial collection.

[1] US Bureau of the Census. Statistical Abstract of the United States: 1976. (97th edition.) Washington, D.C., 1976. Accessed October 17, 2016. http://www.census.gov/library/ publications/1976/compendia/statab/97ed.html.

[2] Natasha Zaretsky, No Direction Home: The American Family and the Fear of National Decline, 1968-1980 (Chapel Hill: UNC Press, 2010), 11.

[3] Ryan Bergeron, “‘The Seventies’: Feminism Makes Waves,” CNN,  August 17, 2015, accessed October 17, 2016, http://www.cnn.com/2015/07/22/living/the-seventies-feminism-womens-lib/.

[4] “Women of the Year: Great Changes, New Chances, Tough Choices,” Time, Jan 5, 1976, http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,947597-1,00.html.

[5] Tammy S. Gordon, The Spirit of 1976: Commerce, Community, and the Politics of Commemoration (Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 2013), 47.

See also:

Bosek, Ruth A., Meredith McCain, and Mildred L. Rogers. Women Involved: A Report on the Bicentennial Achievements of Women. Washington, D.C.: American Revolution Bicentennial Administration, 1976.

Geisel, EllynAnne. The Kitchen Linens Book: Using, Sharing, and Cherishing the Fabrics of Our Daily Lives. New Jersey: Andrews McMeel Publishing, 2009.

Kendrick, K. “Roe v. Wade and its Effects on Society.” Rollins College. Accessed October 17, 2016. http://social.rollins.edu/wpsites/thirdsight/2014/02/10/roe-v-wade-and-its-effects-on-society/.

“The Women’s Rights Movement.” In American Social Reform Movements Reference Library, edited by Carol Brennan, Kathleen J. Edgar, Judy Galens, and Roger Matuz, 373-405. Vol. 2, Almanac. Detroit: UXL, 2007. U.S. History in Context (accessed October 17, 2016).

The Dinette of 1976: Embracing the American Revolutionary Experience at home

Dinette of !976

Welcome to the Dinette of 1976: where one can see the true American Spirit expressed at home. The Bicentennial of 1976 saw an increase in public ceremonies and productions of American celebratory items that became available to the public. The purpose of this was to allow and encourage Americans to take a piece (or pieces) of the celebration home with them. To quote author Tammy S. Gordon, “Consumerism was more than just marketing, retailing and buying; it was (and is) a discursive form in which almost every American could participate through buying, choosing not to buy, viewing others or the self in terms of material possessions, expressing identity and personality, or simply discussing goods and their role not just in the economic life of the country, but in the cultural and social life of the nation.” [1] The availability of products ranges from pricy commemorative plates to food boxes purchased at the local fast food restaurant.

Inspired by the New Times article, “The Great American Bicentennial Sale” by Ernest Lendler, pictured here is an exaggerated collection of commemorative pieces; a recreation of an American family’s home décor, that has actively embraced the “sellebration”. [2] In the New Times article, Lendler writing in 1976, is very satirical about this phenomenon, revealing that not all of the contemporaries embraced it, while others were happy to participate. Viewing this recreation, you can decide how you feel about the 1976 Bicentennial.

Marketing in the Bicentennial worked to keep everyone involved with the celebration. The goal of 1976 was to celebrate the 200-year-anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, which involved the original thirteen states, but marketers and event planners wanted to make sure the celebrations included all states, like modern day 4th of July celebrations. So marketers had to take into consideration that they were presenting their patriotic lines to a large diverse group of people that may or may not have a connection with the American Revolution. Of all of the pieces the ones that communicate this unity the most are the commemorative plates that use an interesting combination of images to connect different eras in American history. For example, in the Dinette the White China Plate on top of the cabinet, that shows image of the Liberty Bell from Philadelphia, connects itself to other places and time by also featuring images of the thirteen-star and fifty-star American flags. Other images that relate to all regions are the Pepsi Eagle Plate and Pepsi Glasses that use the Great Seal of the United States. Below you will have an opportunity to see these items and many others around the room up close to observe these images as well as see if you notice any features.

A few items from around the room:

Table

Table:

Two Mini Plates – text: “The United States of America Bicentennial 1776-1976”, image left:  Great Seal of the United States, image right: George Washington crossing the Delaware

’76 Glasses with Flag wrappers

Spirit ’76 Coasters with liberty bell

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On Top of Cabinet:

White China Plate – text: “Bicentennial 1776-1976, proclaim liberty throughout all the world unto all the inhabitants thereof” with graphics of 2 flags (one old, one new), back is stamped with the brand and date “Homer Laughlin made in USA 1976”

Pepsi Eagle Plate – image of eagle, version of the Great Seal of the US

Bicentennial Plate – image of Paul Revere’s ride, the Statue of Liberty, Surrender of Cornwallis, Bunker Hill, Washington crossing the Delaware, Liberty Bell, Star Spangled Banner, and the Declaration of Independence

In Cabinet:

Commemorative Glasses – cows dressed in revolutionary clothing playing drums and a fife

Pepsi Glasses – eagle emblem, dates, and “200 years of people feelin’ free” (Company from North Carolina)

White Glass Mug – graphics of Revolutionary fife and drum corp

Folger’s Coffee Commemorative Tin – decorated as a war drum used in the American Revolutionary War, (Company from San Francisco)

Cereal Boxes – Uncle Sam Cereal “a natural laxative” (Company from Nebraska), Kellogg’s Frosted Mini Wheats (Company from Michigan)

Falstaff Beer – (Company from St. Louis, MO 1903, discontinued in 2005)

Questions for your Consideration:

What does this image say about the American Bicentennial?

Can you imagine someone decorating their house like this in 2016? 2017?

What does this say about marketing in 1976? Would it have been unpatriotic for a business or person to not participate?

What companies do you recognize?

The major featured companies are American companies? Do you think a foreign company would have used American iconography in hope it increase sales during this time?

How do pieces in this collection include ideas about the entire United States vs just areas involved in the American Revolution?

Sources:

[1] Gordon, Tammy S. The Spirit of 1976: Commerce, Community, and the Politics of Commemoration. Amherst, MA: University of Massachusetts, 2013.

[2] Lendler, Ernest. “The Great American Bicentennial Sale.” New Times (1976): 41-44.

A Particularly Psychedelic Bicentennial Celebration

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During the Bicentennial, the “Spirit of ‘76” was alive and well. Each day was like Independence Day. It seemed that everything was painted red, white, and blue. Bicentennial commemorations proliferated in advertisements, on television, in films, at festivals, and at community and family gatherings. In 1976, the U.S. Information Agency commissioned animator Vincent Collins to commemorate the Bicentennial with a psychedelic cartoon entitled “200”. The animation was funded by a Bicentennial project grant. Vincent Collins’ “200” is an interesting time capsule that inadvertently indicates the lingering influence of the 1960s through its psychedelic rendering of the celebratory atmosphere of the Bicentennial.

You can download the short animation at http://www.archive.org/details/200.

Here it is!

You can also visit the Library of Congress website to see how Florida celebrated the Bicentennial at http://memory.loc.gov/diglib/legacies/FL/index.html

Bicentennial Junk at UCF’s Art in Odd Places

Welcome back to 1976!

Come see Dr. Crepeau’s collection of Bicentennial Junk on Wednesday, November 9th and Thursday, November 10th during UCF’s Art in Odd Places.  The exhibit begins on the ground floor of Colbourn Hall across from the bookstore where you’ll see the original 1976 TV special of Jean Shepherd’s America featuring Dr. Crepeau.  Then take the elevator to the 5th floor, where you can see our collection of 1976 magazine covers.  Finally, follow the American flag arrows to room 534 where you’ll be immersed in the 1976 atmosphere complete with objects from the collection displayed everywhere in the room including the star of our show: a 7-up can sculpture of Uncle Sam.   Cans, condoms, and condiments, oh my!  You don’t want to miss this rare, eclectic collection!  The exhibit is from 9am to 5pm both days.

We hope to see you there!