Yes, Brady Bunch House mania is about to set upon us. The HGTV makeover show starts airing next week. So, I thought I’d do some stories to help you get the look. First up: The classique blacklight posters in the Marcia, Jan and Cindy’s bedroom — including Butterfly of Love and oh my word — that [ subversive ] Electric Cat. And credit where credit is due: Impressive work by writer Kirk Demarais for his tenacious research to call out the art in the Brady Bunch house!
Above: Butterfly of Love, New Old Stock (!) on ebay right now. Thanks to vintageposterworld for giving me permission to archive their photo shown above. How soon ’til someone sees this story and snaps this glow-in-the-dark beauty up, stat?:
Note: The links to ebay in this story earn me a weebit commission if ya end up buying something.
Electric Cat — and Electric Pig — by famous poster illustrator Joe Roberts Jr.
Now to that Electric Cat. What were Mike (thanks, readers for correcting me; of course I saw every episode in real time, how could I forget?) and Carol thinking? The Butterfly of Love is as you would expect, but take a closer look at Electric Cat (tip: photos will open at 1000 pixels wide on a PC or laptop) . Those are “labyrinthine” bones showing. And those claws look ready to take Cindy’s eyes out. She would never to get to sleep with this thing in the room.
This is a trippy poster! In the girls’ bedroom on The Brady Bunch!
The photo above is from the collection of theguyshop on ebay. It’s from a sold listing… but continue on for the gem they do have for sale…
Who was Joe Roberts Jr.? I need crowd-sourced help!
Meanwhile, theguyshop DOES have this awesome New Old Stock Electric Pig. Pig was not in the Brady Bunch bedroom, but now I’m going down a rabbit errr piggy hole… I think I also saw a blacklight hippo from the series in my online travels, but now I can’t find it.
The 1969 copyright says Pig was “of labyrinthine structure, among mushrooms”.
Now I am going to have nightmares.
I didn’t really notice the detail in the posters until I started looking at who made the posters and who designed them.
Indeed: These Electric Animals posters were part of an important body of work by Joe Roberts Jr., who I see described as a premier blacklight artists. He did tons of posters. Googling to see them all is where I was reminded of the word “trippy.”
Alas, I cannot find any biographical info about Joe Roberts Jr. online. Can anyone else reading this find anything?
That Electric Pig is a treasure:
The posters were produced by Cocorico Graphics, 6311 Yucca Street, Los Angeles.
When I was about 11 and living in Vista, Calif., my father did not want me to get a fringed leather vest because he feared I would become a hippy. (I ultimately got the vest, wore it like crazy, became a yuppie not a hippy, and still have the vest.) I do recall having a blacklite poster at some point. sans blacklite. And it was a butterfly or some such. But not a Butterfly of Love. Because, of course, I was never, ever that cool.
- Oh my, 7000+ items of Brady Bunch mania on ebay
- Vintage blacklight posters on ebay — trippy trippy trippy not sure which ones are Roberts’.
Have a sunshine day!
Laura says
This past summer, while visiting my parents I looked through the collection of Barbie clothing my niece is playing with at Granny’s to see if any was “mine”. I found a few pieces that had originated with my Quick Curl Barbie and my Growing Up Skipper so I brought them home with me. One item was Barbie’s version of the imitation leather fringed vest my mom made for Barbie when she made one each for me and my two older sisters. We were all very groovy that Christmas!
Pam Kueber says
You had clothes to match your Barbie! I never thought to do that, and I was a sewer and I had Barbies galore!
John says
We have a Marie Mason black light mid century PAINTING. Awesome!
Elizabeth from Texas says
I have had a couple of different service people tell us that our house reminds them of the Brady Bunch House! (Thank you!)
Meanwhile, I didn’t remember that the girls’ walls and bedding were pink! And I thought I stole my favorite color from Mamie Eisenhower, when all along I must have subconsciously stolen it from the Brady girls! I’ve had seven different pink bedrooms over the last fifteen years!!
Allen says
Early in the series the girls room had pink and blue butterfly wallpaper. As they became older the room changed to pink paint with the black light posters. I liked the wallpaper better myself but paint seemed to make a huge stride forward in the 1970’s even though wallpaper was still very popular.
Ethan says
I was a kid living in Vista, CA back then too. I remember these days, sort of, but I was too young to participate in pop culture when this was happening. If I remember right, my grandfather wasn’t having any of it and my mom seemed indifferent to it.
carolyn says
The Sept issue of HGTV Magazine article said the Brady kids were working with HGTV stars to make the inside of the house look like the set as much as possible. While I was up in arms about them buying the house and it appearing the Property Bros were going to renovate it, my worries may have been for naught. First off, the house was only used for outside shots and the inside was never shown. What the actors were on was a few sets. Aw, I was a kid then, what did I know?!
Guess we’ll wait and see and maybe comment on later?
CarolK says
That’s good to hear, carolyn. I think I saw the real interior of the house when HGTV bought it and it had some really cool features.
Maria says
Blast from the past! I had the cat poster in my room.
Martha says
Did you mean Mike and Carol? Or did I miss something?
Pam Kueber says
oops, my bad memory. of course: mike!
Lisa Compo says
Oh I do love Brady anything. Guess it’s because I grew up in the 70s when the show became popular through reruns.
I designed a house I wanted to build that looks just like theirs. 🙂
Thanks for the good story. I hope others write in more comments, I really enjoy reading them.
BTW..might want to fix your little name typo..Carol was not married to Jim, LOL Remember her distinct Miiiiiike wail indicating some small tragedy. 😉
Gergosian Linda says
Thanks for the groovy info!? Also, Mr. Brady’s first name was Mike, not Jim! I’m so looking forward to the new show!?
CarolK says
Thanks for the vintage posters link, Pam. I had this cool poster of a tuxedo cat that looked almost identical to MY tuxedo cat. It hung in my dorm room wall. Then my brother got me a bigger copy of the poster which I hing on my dorm wall and the smaller one was hung at home. I did see a Kliban Momcat which would be cool.
I hope against hope that HGTV won’t totally screw up the Brady House. I wish that Brett Waterman of Restored and Nicole Curtis of Rehab Addict were having a lot to do with the restoration. Since they’re on DIY and since Discovery is about to destroy DIY by making it essentially the Gaines channel, there probably won’t be any of the cool people from DIY involved. Both Brett and Nicole have shown they can do respectful renos of mid-century homes.
Chris says
Brett Waterman is the absolute best and love Nicole too. YES! Has Brett had any more shows after that one season of Restored? What an excellent program.