Almost since recording begin, there have been musical tracks without the vocals. In the early years these were used by the original artists themselves. No one knows for sure who invented the first karaoke machine. Some have claimed that Daisuke Inoue invented the karaoke machine in Kobe, Japan in 1971. It quickly became popular and spread to other parks of Asia in the 1980s and then to other parts of the world.

Now Karaoke machines are household items. Smaller and less expensive, it is easy to host your own karaoke party!

After my post on True Grit (1969) a reader asked “Whatever Happened to Kim Darby?” She played Mattie Ross.

Kim Darby was born Deborah Zerby in Los Angeles California on July 8, 1947. She is the daughter of professional dancers. Kim began acting at age fifteen and her first appearance was that of a dancer in the 1963 film Bye, Bye Birdie. She played a fourteen year old in the movie True Grit even though she was twenty at the time. In the 1960s and 70s she appeared in numerous television roles. In 1999 she appeared as a female convict in a television episode of the X-Files.

Kim has been married five times and has one daughter. She teaches acting and lives in California.

The Charybdis Fig Tree is a fig tree that is situated about the whirlpool monster Charybdis in Homer’s Odyssey. There is not much to explain why the fig tree is there, but it did save Odysseus from being sucked into the whirlpool monster. After Odysseus’s men at the Sun-God’s cattle, they were punished by their boat being ripped apart in a storm. Odysseus makes a raft, but the current drags the raft to Charybdis. Odysseus escapes by grabbing the overhanging fig tree branches.

I have not yet seen the new True Grit movie and I am not sure that I will. I have always been a fan of John Wayne and really can’t see anybody else play Rooster Cogburn. I went to a local store to try and buy a copy of the 1969 version of True Grit, but their POS systems were screwed up and they couldn’t even tell me if they had a copy, so I decided to order it from Amazon instead.

The movie is based on the 1968 novel of the same name by Charles Portis. Wayne won his only Academy Award for his portrayal of Rooster Cogburn. When this film was shot in Colorado, Wayne had already had one of his lungs removed and could not walk for any length of time without having trouble breathing. The horse in the film became one of Wayne’s favorites and was used in his last film, The Shootist.

I recently went to see the new Tron movie: Tron Legacy. It was enjoyable, but a little slow at times. I remember watching the original Tron movie and loving the cool graphics (which now seem a little cheesy). The new graphical effects are quite an improvement. Here is the original Tron trailer:

One of the most famous dance scenes is Gene Kelly performing Singin’ In The Rain from the musical of the same name. Kelley dances in a downpour of rain without an umbrella or rain boots. The lyrics are by Arthur Freed and the music by Nacio Herb Brown. The song was published in 1929 and was featured in an earlier film, The Hollywood Music Box Revue.

The song has been recorded by a number of artists including Cliff Edwards, Jimmy Durante and Judy Garland. But the most famous is this rendition by Gene Kelly:

Before the wii, there was the Magnavox Odyssey often considered the first video game console. It was first demonstrated on May 24, 1972 and released to the public in August. The Odyssey was designed by Ralph Baer who actually had a working prototype in 1968.

Sales were not good due to poor marketing and the fact that the public believed it only worked on Magnavox televisions. Magnavox actually sued Atari for patent infringement over the Pong game since the Odyssey had a similar game. The suit was settled out of court. Over the next ten years, Magnavox sued several other companies for patent infringement and won each time. Companies were required to pay royalties. In 1985, Nintendo tried to sue Magnavox claiming that the first video game was actually William Higinbotham’s Tennis for Two built in 1958, but they lost the suit and continued to pay royalties.

Baer went on to invent the popular game Simon in 1978.

I didn’t realize that Hess Toy Trucks were so collectible until I moved to New Jersey. You don’t need to run out and get cheap car insurance quote for these miniature vehicles that have been around since 1964.

The first toy was a tanker, the “B Model Mack Tanker” and was only sold at Hess gas stations. Since then, a new model has been offered almost every year. They were made to be exact replicas of vehicles in the Hess fleet until 1987 and then non-fleet vehicles were used. Each toy was produced in limited quantities and sometimes there was a limit to two per customer.was sold at Hess gas stations. A high quality plastic toy vehicle bearing the Hess name has been offered almost every year since then. They were made to be exact replicas of vehicles in the Hess fleet until 1987 when the design was changed to include non-fleet vehicles.

Betsy Wetsey was introduced by the Ideal Toy Company in 1934. The doll was made in several different sizes and hair color and became very popular in the 1950s. She came with molded hair or brown, blonde or red plugged hair. The feature that kids loved most about the doll was the you could pour liquid into the dolls mouth and the doll would urinate.

Another toy company also made a similar doll – Dy-dee and sued for patent infringement. A judge ruled however, that drinking and urinating are natural movements and can not be patented.

Betsy Wetsey was named by the Toy Association of America to the Century of Toys list of the most 100 memorable and creative toys of the 20th century.

Before there were fancy mbt shoes there were the original Keds! Keds shoes were introduced in 1916 by U.S. Rubber (later known as Uniroyal) and had canvas uppers with rubber soles. Keds are currently owned by Collective Brands. The original name for Keds was Peds (from the Latin meaning foot) but is was found that someone already owned the trademark. The were sold as “sneakers” due to the rubbers soles. In the 1960s and 1970s the brand added a range of casual shoes and athletic shoes called Pro-Keds which were specifically designed for basketball. Keds lost some popularity in the 1990s but sales surged again in the 2000s. Did you ever own a pair of Keds?