The great illustrator Mel Odom created this marvelous image called "Jennifer" for Paper Moon in 1979.
Disco and Roller Disco was obviously HUGE in the late 70s and even into the early 80s. I loved these airbrushed images of disco couples, one of them comic and the other sexy...I SO wanted a satin tuxedo like this first image. I already had a shiny acrylic belt that looked like bands of metal...
When I was entering my teenage years, we moved from the east coast to California. It was 1979 and I had been dreaming of moving to the land of film studios and cool clothes. It seemed to be where anything "cool" was from. These images only whetted my appetite for my new home and when I arrived, I was thrilled to find that, while obviously stylized, the images were somewhat accurate! I still adore living here and after nearly forty years, I am proud to say I am a true Californian!
There was a real "Retro" movement in the late 70s and early 80s, fueled by a kind of punk/"New Wave" interest in graphic imagery from the 1950s (you can even see it in the disco images above with the skinny tie, and cat eye sunglasses). I went to more than a few dance clubs in the early 80s that projected cut-up and collaged instructional/educational/public service and corny B science fiction films from the 40s and 50s. There was something fascinating about dissecting these seemingly naïve cultural artifacts, and dancing under film clips showing children how to "duck and cover" in case "The Reds" decided to drop some bombs. But the irony of course was that we were still living in the Cold War, worried about mutual nuclear annihilation.
