Sepia Saturday: Early Days of Television, and Barbie Dolls

In his introduction to Sepia Saturday 823, Alan Burnett writes: 

"Back in the 1950s and 60s, people often wanted their television sets included in photographs; those box-like, round-knobbed sets were the status symbol of their time."

This reminded me of probably the only "TV photo" that I have from my early childhood. It's in my first photo album (put together by my mum), and when looking it up now, I note that it's from the autumn of 1957 - which means I was only two years old when it was taken. 

My mum's note (in Swedish) below the photo translates: The child in the Age of Television - or "Look, it's snowing". ...  "Snowing" referring to the fact that more often than not, back then, there was nothing on to watch - and even when there was, the image might often be rather blurry and "snowy"... And here I'm obviously just staring at a blank screen! 

The TV belonged to my maternal grandparents, and the photo is from their living room. Regular TV broadcasts in Sweden did not start until 1956, but my maternal grandfather was always keen to try new inventions, so did not wait long to get one... My own parents did not get one until years later, I think. 

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I'll combine this with a few photos I snapped from my flat screen TV a few days ago. There was a short documentary on about the history of Barbie dolls, and some women of different ages collecting them, and "remembering"...

As some followers of this blog may recall (I know at least Meike does!), some years ago I gave away most of my own old Barbie dolls, but decided to keep two - which have since been "living" on a shelf next to the TV in my sitting room, rather than tucked away in a box. And when something Barbie-related is on, of course they want to watch with me...

 

"My Barbie and Me"

Looking in my old photo albums for TV-related photos now, I also happened to find the  photo below of my first three Barbie dolls, from the summer of 1965 - and taken by me with an old black-and-white camera then rather recently "inherited" from my dad:

Barbie, Ken and Skipper

Checking up on things now, Barbie dolls were launched in Sweden for Christmas 1963. I doubt I was among the very first to get one, so more likely that I got these three for my birthday + Christmas in 1964. The Skipper doll is the same one that I still have (at some point in early history, she had a haircut); while the Barbie doll is the last one I got. She came with three different wigs, so is really kind of "three in one". But I prefer her in this one: 

(Repeating a photo from Easter)