Until the late 1960s, lacquer decals (soaked in water and applied to hard surfaces) were a small visual part of every American consumer's life. They served as advertising signage, announced brand names, instructions, and safety warnings, and were a cheap and classy way to decorate almost anything. Today, decals are obsolete technology kept alive by nostalgic hobbyists, restorers, and collectors. This is the first book written to immortalize decals and present an overview of their slick and amusing designs that were innovative in the 1950s and '60s. Chapters cover travel, girlie, Lady Luck, X-ray glasses, hotrods, monsters, aliens, and advertising images. Today, graphic designers, pop art buffs, and champions of visual icons will applaud the fantastic designs that fill these pages. Decals are gone, but not forgotten.

The dream of pure freedom in the South Pacific islands has never died on the mainland; sometimes it's more of an ache than a dream. Over time and through the mill of popular culture, the dream has been distilled into two enduring images: the hula dancer and the tiki god. This book displays over 500 color images of collectible hula dancers and tiki gods with which readers can have a little exotic fun and maybe catch a tropical thrill along the way. The hula dance provided an escape in its original culture, and here the dancers are shown in sections devoted to flat images, three-dimensions, crank girls, and Hollywood's versions from the twentieth century. The tiki gods that 1960s surfers wore for luck around their necks may have deeper meanings as well, and became the most important symbol of cool adulthood that mainland youngsters could imagine. Here lamps, figures, posters, and souvenirs all come together for entertainment and enjoyment. All dreamers of tropical pleasures will covet copies of this book to linger over. And the values guide will bring them quickly and happily back to reality.