Introducing: Columbo Clothes and Laughs Blog!

 I have found a new hobby and it is Columbo. 

 

 

 

To support this obsession, I have started a new blog: Columbo Clothes and Laughs. 

 

There we will discuss the vintage fashion and humor of the Columbo television show.

 

 

For episodes where there are more than three excellent outfits, there will be a poll for everyone to pick their favorite. 

 

 

New posts every Wednesday, just as the original episodes aired!

 

 Thank you very much, Lieutenant!

COLUMBO CLOTHES AND LAUGHS BLOG

 

 

 

Keeping it fresh, 20 years on

It's bugged me for the last decade once I realized after the Vintage Vantage website went dark that half the photos and all the links in my RIP Vintage Vantage post also went dead and blank. 

In honor of the 20 year anniversary of when I joined VV, I went through and fixed all the photos and links and now it's back fresh and functional as the day the post was born in July 2010! Thank you, Wayback Machine! 

Without further ado: RIP Vintage Vantage (2001 - 2010) now with working links and photos!

Behind the T-shirt: Coke Adds Life to Super Tennis Week

(via Indianapolis Recorder) - Tucson Arizona, July 1, 1978 -

This balmy, scenic, southwestern city went Hollywood when luminaries of the film and sportsworlds converged on the desert for the fourth annual Celebrity Invitational Tennis Classic sponsored by American Airlines and Jet Newsweekly magazine last month. 

The two-day event at the Racquet Club Ranch was part of the “Super Tennis Week" here, for the benefit of the United Negro College Fund. The results were thousands of dollars for UNCF’s 41 member schools. 

 

 
A glimpse at celebrities from fans filled the excitement shared by participants of the event. Former Cleveland Brown “romper" and now star actor/producer Jim Brown bested Earl (the Pearl) Monroe of the New York Knicks, to capture the men’s single title. Brown tasted defeat, however, when he challenged any “woman tennis player in the audience.” Amateur Andrea Whitmore*, a 23-year-old Los Angeles resident, accepted, and downed Brown 5-3. 

 

The women’s singles trophy was won by actress Myra Waters, who defeated Jeanie Bell. Defending champion Gail Fisher, picked up an award for winning the most games in the “women’s celebrity division." Gladys Knight of the Pips, and Floyd Caldwell, a marketing executive with Kodak-one of the tournament sponsors--took the mixed doubles championships. Gladys’ husband, Barry Hankerson, and her brother. Bubba Knight, claimed the men’s doubles event.

 

 

*True crime aficionados may recognize the name Andrea Whitmore (Buchanan), the volunteer who trounced Jim Brown. She was murdered 3 years after Super Tennis Week. Per wikipedia:

Born in Los Angeles, Andrea Buchanan went to Dorsey High School and turned professional in 1978. She was one of only several African American players competing on tour. Her best grand slam performances came at the 1981 Wimbledon Championships, where she beat Barbara Hallquist before falling in the third round to second-seed Hana Mandlíková. In what would be her last grand slam appearance she won a first round match against Eva Pfaff at 1981 US Open.

On the morning of January 28, 1982, Buchanan was found mortally wounded on the floor of a Los Angeles fish market, where she was working part time as a cashier. She was rushed to Brotman Memorial Hospital in Culver City with multiple bullet wounds to her upper body, but never regained consciousness. Her boss, 57-year old Nathanial Brown, was pronounced dead at the scene. The case remains unsolved. Police ruled out robbery as a motive and believe that, unknown to Buchanan, Brown had been involved with dealing illicit substances.

 

 RIP Andrea Whitmore Buchanan.

Check out the 70s Coke Adds Life to Super Tennis Week t-shirt at Skippy Haha Vintage Etsy!  

Flops and the Halloween Meatballs

 

What do you do when it's 7:30 on Halloween night and there's a line of hundreds of kids in costumes at the door and you've run out of candy?

If you're my grandfather, Dick Tramonti, circa 1963, in a neighborhood full of trick-or-treating kids in Rhode Island, you take a small meatball that you've made for dinner, wrap it in a napkin, and put it inside a kid's candy bag while surreptitiously grabbing a handful of the kid's candy from their bag to give away to the next few kids. 

Once you've run out of stolen candy, you simply put another meatball in a child's candy bag and steal some more candy out for the next trick-or-treaters.

My mom estimates at least 12 kids went home with meatballs in napkins that Halloween.

Emily "Drezza" Tramonti

 

Emily "Drezza" Tramonti - May 20, 1928 - August 21, 2022

 

Flops & Drez on a train in New Hampshire, 1983

I spent most of the summer of 1985 living with Flops and Drezza, the summer after we moved to NY, I wanted to be back in Rhode Island and they welcomed me to stay at Vancouver Ave.

Freezing in Disney World, 1985

 

 

For a few weeks I was Drezza's sidekick - went with her to do errands at Almacs, Daves, Silvermans, for milkshakes and grilled cheese at Newport Creamery, and to work - at Warwick Prescription Center, the small local pharmacy she worked at for decades. I was 9, and she trusted me enough to let me count actual pills for actual prescriptions. I typed the labels on a real manual typewriter and put the warning stickers on. I tried my absolute hardest to get everything right and I think I did. I would charge her something like $3 a day for this work - kept track on an envelope - and she paid me. What a racket. 

Playing along with our house being an "inn"

Then she would take me to Thorpe's and I bought paperback books, Born Free about the lioness. I'd play rummy and watch Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune with Flops and later after he went to bed watch Murder She Wrote with Drez. 

Flops & Drez watching Chris play basketball at Whitman

It was around this time but during the winter, holidays, Thanksgiving probably when Drez fell out of her chair laughing at my impression of Flops' cousin Mary and Uncle John. I will never forget it, she was laughing so hard she took a knee and slapped the carpet in front of the puffy floral fabric covered chair in the corner of her living room surrounded by Hummels. (Mary- "Uncle Dick you are such a tease. If we look in the dictionary next to the word 'tease' would be a picture of Uncle Dick" and Uncle John walked into a chair and said "excuse me" to it. You had to be there.) 

 

With Uncle Tom at Lenny's in CT

She would make a whole Thanksgiving dinner for 10 and then bake a special pie for me - chocolate pudding in a flaky crust with whipped cream on top just for me. I would share but it was for me. 

Reading with Henry

I told her I liked getting mail and when I went to UNC freshman year she sent me hundreds of cards, I mean one almost every day, hallmark cards and notes and Readers Digest clippings, I still have them all in a box. 

Listening to Jojo at Angela's shower

She didn't like to talk a lot, she didn't like to eat a lot, she liked to read a lot and rearranged furniture a lot. 

Trying on shoes at TOPS Asheville, age 85

 

After the Prescription Center sold, Drezza worked at Country Curtains until she was 90, when she finally retired. As Chris said as a little kid, "Drezza is bossy in a quiet kind of way." I never heard her raise her voice. 

 

 

With mom & Aunt Jan

 

 

She liked chocolate covered raisins and lemon cookies. She was loyal and gentle and responsible, she put her family first. She liked mysteries. She never had her ears pierced, always wore clip ons. She liked things being neat and tidy. She liked having high quality things and taking impeccable care of them. She liked castles and historical estates and inns and flowers. Her hair was puffy blonde perfection, she was five foot one, five foot three with her hair. Her clothes were neat as a pin. Always. She drank a cup of Lipton black tea every day with whole milk and real sugar. 

 

She hated cats and birds.

With mom and dad on Mount Mitchell

She was the best grandma, the best Drezza. I am so lucky.

Chapel Hill Leather Shop - The Only Real Thing Left T-shirt

David Honigmann owned and operated the Chapel Hill Leather Shop from 1964-1984. Located at 133 ½ East Franklin Street, his shop was always packed with customers wanting to buy his custom-made sandals and hand-made leather goods. 

 

 

 

 In the autumn of 1964, David and friend Betty Bishop began exploring Franklin Street for a storefront, so they could open up their own leather goods shop. They found a place upstairs at 133 1/2 East Franklin Street, which rented for only $35 a month, and they named it the Chapel Hill Leather Shop. 

 

 

 

 It was just one, big room, owned by Alexander Julian’s father, Maurice Julian. Word spread of David’s excellent craftsmanship, and the shop became very successful, very quickly. They were so popular, in fact, that advertising was never necessary. They just had a sign out front that read the Chapel Hill Leather Shop with a pair of sandals nailed to it, and another sign outside the entrance to the store, and that was enough to keep them in business. 

 

 

 

 By 1984 the added recession was making it even more difficult to keep the shop going and after twenty years in the leather business, they felt it was time to move on. (Via Chapel Hill Recorder)

Relive the memories from the Only Real Thing Left with this 70s t-shirt - vintage 70s tee CHAPEL HILL leather shop t-shirt Small soft thin burnout

 

WTF Wednesday - Jim Boeheim Picks Nose and Licks Finger on TV

When I make a video that gets 3,500 views in a day, I guess I should post it here, too -

 

 

 

Here we see Syracuse men's Basketball coach Jim Boeheim picking his nose and immediately licking his finger. 

 

His use of a mask in a pandemic leaves much to be desired as well. Terrible example for the 20 young men he leads.  

 

All I can say, as I said in the video, is WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY

Behind the T-shirt: Uncle Sam's Nightclub

 Uncle Sam's was a disco nightclub chain in several US cities from the mid 70s to the late 80s. 

 

There were clubs in Houston, Detroit, Providence, Levittown, Minneapolis, Buffalo, Des Moines, and Syracuse. At least. There were probably more. 

 

Uncle Sam's - "Let's Spend the Night Together"

Shiny Happy Customers Night in Buffalo looks like fun.

Shot of the Minneapolis merch table in 1977. T-shirts cost $3.99!

This 70s Uncle Sam's t-shirt seems to be from 1976. It's in great shape and ready to do the hustle. Check it out at Skippy Haha Vintage Etsy now!

Behind the T-shirt - Amigos Say Olé Elway!

 

When I saw this t-shirt graphic, I thought Amigos was a Mexican restaurant/bar in Denver celebrating some big wins by Elway in 1980, 1982, and 1984 with endless nachos.

 

I was way off. 

The 3 Amigos were Elway's wide receivers, and those were their jersey numbers.

 

According to the Mile High Report: "For about two years starting in 1987, there was John Elway and then there were the Three Amigos - Vance Johnson (82), Mark Jackson (80), and Ricky Nattiel (84). They were larger than life for that short period of time and it was a fun ride." 

No confirmation on whether they all fit under the same sombrero.  

Check out the Amigos Say Olé Elway! t-shirt on SHV Etsy.

Pawn Stars Vintage T-shirt Episode - Rick Gets Rolled

I watched the Pawn Stars episode this week, Season 18, Episode 9 "Raiders of the Lost Pawn", excited because "vintage t-shirts" were involved. 

A man brings in 2 baseball raglan concert tees - one from 1982 The Who tour and 1981 Rolling Stones tour. 

He said he bought them himself and hung them in his closet for the next 40 years, unworn. This is not the best idea. A better idea is to fold your t-shirts in a closet where the sun don't shine. Hanging t-shirts can stretch out the necklines, and if you use metal hangers (it appears this man thankfully used plastic), rust lines can transfer on the shoulders of the tees.

Chum Lee expressed how cool the tees were but he wasn't an expert so they called one in. 

The expert did not appear to be an expert in my opinion. He didn't even look at the tags! The Rolling Stones dragon graphic has been reproduced thousands of times by places like Forever 21. I appreciate his mentioning "single stitch" on the hems, but you don't know what you have unless you LOOK AT THE TAGS.

The tags were not even mentioned. I take this as vintage t-shirt blasphemy. 

What size are they? If they're Small or Medium, 90% of the population will never fit in them so their value is less than if they're Large or XL. 

The expert called the Rolling Stones tee a "holy grail" and valued it at $500.

I have personally sold several vintage Rolling Stones tour tees, one from 1978 that said "Happy Birthday Mick" and had Peter Tosh on back for $420 in 2005, 

 

and one from the Pontiac Silverdome for $50 (!!!) in 2011. 

 

 

 

 I think both of these are cooler and more rare and more valuable than the generic 1981 tour tee that doesn't even have the co-bill on back, it's a list of 20 tour stops.

There were thousands of these tees made for every stop of the tour. They're not a dime a dozen, but they're not a holy grail either, especially since big box retailers are reproducing the graphic. Rick pays $300 for this, he could have bought one, even cooler, for $125 any day of the week. 

 

 

Rick ends up paying $100 for the Who tee. Rick got a decent deal on this - I would ask $200 for that tee. 

I see on their website they're now selling the Rolling Stones tee for $525 UPDATE they jacked the price to $550 yesterday and there are no pics of the tag. Silly. 

All in all, I'm disappointed there was no focus whatsoever on the TAGS of these t-shirts - that is the only way to gauge their authenticity. Very cool t-shirts, in mint condition which certainly adds value - Rick got a bad deal on one, and a good deal on the other. I give the episode B-.

Rick, if you need a t-shirt expert like Rare Books Rebecca, call me!

Behind the T-shirt - Cap's Place

Here's a 70's t-shirt from Cap's Place Island Restaurant and Bar - Lighthouse Point, Florida

The back says it's been there for 100 years so I did some digging. 

Their website claims they're Broward County's oldest restaurant - "with roots as a 1920's casino and rum-running speakeasy, it sits on an island off Lighthouse Point and can only be reached by Cap's motor launch.

 

Back in the 20's in No-Man's Land Florida, Cap Knight, Lola Knight and Al Hasis brought together a group of wooden shacks attached to an old barge which was floated up the present day intracoastal waterway from Miami to its location on Cap's Island near the fabled Hillsboro lighthouse north of Fort Lauderdale.  This was a rum-running restaurant and gambling casino, nestled on an island in the coastal marsh."

 

 Look familiar? 

"Among some of the notables who have enjoyed Cap’s creative cuisine are Franklin D. Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, the Vanderbilts, the Rockefellers, Al Capone, Meyer Lansky, Casey Stengel, George Harrison, Errol Flynn, the Temptations, Susan Hayward, Gloria Swanson, Mariah Carey, "Norm" from TV's Cheers and Joe Namath. Cap's has hosted the famous and infamous for decades."

 

NORM!  

For this incredibly soft and thin authentic wearable piece of Florida's rum-running and gambling history, please visit -

vintage 70s t-shirt CAP'S PLACE bar florida soft thin burnout tee Medium Small

NEW VIDEO! Skippy HaHa (Promo Jam by Guadalajara Joe!)

It's here! The Skippy Haha Jam video! 

Thank you to Brandi Mappycamper, Jess Messin' Jess Pfohl, Greta, Clark, Kevin, Sugarhoney, and Iceman for dancing and baton twirling! I love you all!

And a giant thank you to Guadalajara Joe for creating this timeless heirloom, it's beyond my wildest dreams. 

Skippy Haha. Skippy Haha ha.