While cleaning off my desk yesterday, I found and posted an old cover of Dynamite magazine on FB and it got some serious comment action! It seems people still have some pretty fond memories of the monthly entertainment and activity rag for kids that was popular in the 70's and 80's. I really loved Dynamite as a kid and thoroughly enjoyed all the activities that came along with it: recipes, paper airplances, 3d posters, and "Bummer" contests. Doing a little search, I found a site where another Dynamite fan had scanned a number of covers of the magazine. My weird favorite is this Mork & Mindy one--with the free "Disco Party Record". I loved those crappy plastic records you would get in Dynamite and the occasional cereal box. There are plenty of other covers you can check out here if you want a quick nostalgia trip.
I had a subscription to Dynamite for a good 4-5 years, until I was about 12 or 13 and I then decided I was getting too old for it. There was another magazine specifically for teens that Scholastic published called Bananas. But I remember thinking it looked pretty stupid. I mean, c'mon...Bananas?! At 13, I was a very discriminating reader. :) Anyway, here's to Dynamite....and all it's fun dorkiness.
I had a subscription to Dynamite for a good 4-5 years, until I was about 12 or 13 and I then decided I was getting too old for it. There was another magazine specifically for teens that Scholastic published called Bananas. But I remember thinking it looked pretty stupid. I mean, c'mon...Bananas?! At 13, I was a very discriminating reader. :) Anyway, here's to Dynamite....and all it's fun dorkiness.
Funny, I was looking tonight for a poster that was an insert into a '70s magazine, and I couldn't remember if I got it in a MAD magazine, or a Dynamite edition. It was a caricature poster of all the big bands of the '70's, with a few 'hat tips' to early 70's pass-ons (like Jimmy Hendrix, etc.) I remember it had Fleetwood Mac, Carly Simon, Grateful Dead, Moody Blues, and a few others on it. Along the passage of time, I have lost the original, and can't even find a digital online copy of it now. Anyone remember the poster I am referring to? I was probably 10-13 when I first got it, as I remember it was the first 'good resolution' caricature colored poster I had ever seen (which caused it to go on my bedroom wall, right beside my Farah Fawcett poster, of course).
ReplyDeleteAnd yes, like many of us headed for 50 or older, Dynamite, MAD and a few others were great fodder for young minds back then. (I still remember the twisted tale MAD told in the parody of The Exorcist, and the Disco Dynamite playable record for (I think) edition 54, or something like that. I remember it played at a strange speed, maybe 33-1/3, for it to be a 45 in size...was played in like 2.5 minutes. It also came with a phonograph arm, so you could use it to decorate a birthday cake!
I think that poster was maybe in MAD. If it had the Grateful Dead and Moody Blues, probably too adult for DYNAMITE (which only featured squeaky clean pop like Shaun Cassidy and Bay City Rollers). I remember the Disco Dynamite album too! :)
ReplyDeleteI digitized (most of) that Free Disco Record (Disco Dynamite) and put it on my iPod some years ago. The first 30 seconds of the record was bent so it wouldn't play on my record player. Does anyone have another mp3 of it?
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