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Summary: Lots of books look back at the 60s; this book does it best.
Review: Sixties nostalgia has been a popular subject for quite a while now, but few works in any medium capture the spirit of the sixties with as much depth, honesty, and palpable joy as HAL LIFSON'S 1966! Plenty of retrospectives evoke the obvious hallmarks of the era -- "groovy, baby!" and Flower Power and the like. What sets this book above the rest is its ability to express the smaller pleasures, the more obscure delights, the hidden gems. Within its full-color(!) pages are pictures not only of enduring 1960s classics like BATMAN and Bond and the Beatles, but also forgotten treasures such as Twinkles cereal or the ADVENTURES OF BOB HOPE comic book or local TV star Shrimpenstein.I'd list more, but half the fun of reading HAL LIFSON'S 1966! is the joy of discovery. There's a surprise in nearly every turn of the page -- "Hey, I thought I was the only one who remembered that!" for some; "Wow, I had no idea that existed!" for others.
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Summary: A Great Book About My Favorite Year
Review: Thank you, Hal Lifson, for putting together a truly fabulous book about one of the best years ever, 1966. I have to admit that 1965 and 1967 were pretty cool, but '66 may actually have been the best--in my lifetime, anyway. Hal's book truly captures the flavor of popular culture of that very special time--the music, the TV shows, the movies, the ads, the toys, you name it. For me, '66 was James Bond ("Thunderball"), "T.H.E. Cat," "The Man From U.N.C.L.E.," "I Spy," "Get Smart," "Wild Wild West," "Mission: Impossible," Agent Zero M, the Beatles. It was simply the coolest time to be alive. Hal, who clearly was alive during those 12 months, does a marvelous job of taking us down memory lane in this terrific little book. It's filled with great photos and a quaintly personal account of all the great things that went on 37 years ago. For anyone who was there, I highly recommend you order this book as a means of flashing back to that fabulous time. You'll be glad you did!
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Summary: A Great Book About My Favorite Year
Review: Thank you, Hal Lifson, for putting together a truly fabulous book about one of the best years ever, 1966. I have to admit that 1965 and 1967 were pretty cool, but '66 may actually have been the best--in my lifetime, anyway. Hal's book truly captures the flavor of popular culture of that very special time--the music, the TV shows, the movies, the ads, the toys, you name it. For me, '66 was James Bond ("Thunderball"), "T.H.E. Cat," "The Man From U.N.C.L.E.," "I Spy," "Get Smart," "Wild Wild West," "Mission: Impossible," Agent Zero M, the Beatles. It was simply the coolest time to be alive. Hal, who clearly was alive during those 12 months, does a marvelous job of taking us down memory lane in this terrific little book. It's filled with great photos and a quaintly personal account of all the great things that went on 37 years ago. For anyone who was there, I highly recommend you order this book as a means of flashing back to that fabulous time. You'll be glad you did!
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Summary: Non-stop fun
Review: This is an incredibly fun and interesting book filled with facts and photos. Lifson's light, clever touch on this seminal year in world pop culture combined with his encylopedic knowledge of the era makes this essential reading for anyone interested in knowing why the baby boomers turned out as they have. Further, the art direction is deft so that each page amuses as it illuminates. Terrific memories and memorabilia, recommended not just for collectors but students of mass merchandising, art direction, graphics, music, television and film afficionados.
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Summary: HAL LIFSON'S 1966! IS A MASTERPIECE
Review: This is the best book on the 60's I have ever seen. It is so colorful and creative and contains TONS of photos that I had never seen before! Hal took me right back to my own childhood bedroom listening to great songs like, "Summer In The City" on my little pink transistor radio my parent gave me. Hal's writing has warmth and pathos and he really knows his stuff. It is also interesting that fused his interest in the 60's era into a career that included managing some of the biggest stars of the 60's! Like Nancy Sinatra, Nancy is one of my favorite singer of all times!(There are LOTS of great photos of her in the book) and she says nice things about Hal in her intro. The picture of Hal in his Batman costume next to Adam West's Forward was a nice touch. This book brings out the kid in all of us! You will too will have this feeling after reading this one of a kind book! I highly recommend it!! Lynda L. Larmore
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Summary: Hal Lifson is a 1966 Guru!
Review: To even flip through this book is to become deeply enmeshed in the time that was (and for author Hal Lifson, still is) 1966! If you grew up in the 60's like I did, you will gasp in delighted recognition with each turn of the page as you peruse this wildly colorful book. This is not a highly inclusive record of everything from 1966; this is the author's own personal recollections of his youth and culture growing up in Encino, CA and all those things that comprised his environment during that time. Luckily for the rest of us, whether you grew up in that time or not, you will enjoy and very much relate to the stories Hal Lifson tells. For those of us who had a similar childhood, or those who want to get an idea of what it was like to be a kid in the 60's, this book provides enough detailed and factual captions to make it an educational must-read for anyone interested in 60's pop culture. The pictures of the toys and products alone (remember using a real potato for Mr. Potato Head? Hey! I had that Mary Poppins lunchbox!) make this book worth getting, but Hal Lifson's observations and comments truly make you feel as though you were reminiscing with an old childhood friend about all the things that were important to you back then.
Extremely fun and highly recommended!
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Summary: The Swingin' 60's Strike Again!
Review: What a groovy book, baby! I was only three years old in 1966 but I remember just about everything in this delightful scrapbook that's a time capsule for everything from that hip decade.
Hal Lifson has collected photos, ads, album covers, toys, etc. that brings back a very cool, swingin' period in American culture. The Beatles, Batman, James Bond, Playboy, Nancy Sinatra--they're all here!
Definitely a book for anyone alive at the time. Or anyone interested in what that was like.
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Summary: Hal Lifson's 1966 Time Capsule
Review: When a time capsule is buried for a future generation to discover, it is generally anticipated this will occur in a thousand years or so. Well Hal Lifson has jumped the gun by about 963 years with his book "1966!". This coffee table-style book is a kind of printed version of a home movie that focuses on Hal's personal favorite year, 1966. With great recall- belying the fact that Hal was only 6 years old that year- he takes us on a fun-filled, sometimes sentimental journey through his early childhood. Whilst thumbing through the pages of "1966!", I couldn't help but be taken back to those halcyon days of the mid-1960s. I am the same age as Hal and so much of his childhood echoes my own. The pages are filled with wonderful photos of 1966 ephemera including food products, toys, household gadgets, and mod clothing that makes the era so destinctive. Also, there are fabulous pictures of many cool items that are a part of Hal's personal collection of 1966 artifacts. When was the last time you laid your eyes on a tube of Prell shampoo? How about that Schwinn Sting Ray you couldn't wait to mount and ride forever? And who could forget the lunch box- those little square metal containers featuring pictures of comic book heroes and T.V. show characters that we used to haul our lunch in to school? These and so much more are vividly pictured in full color on just about every page of "1966!". If you were there in the mid-1960s, and were old enough to participate, you will be overwhelmed with memory flashbacks that are sure to induce you to drag out those old board games or run for the television remote to click on to "T.V. Land" to remember just how good entertainment was in the 1960s. If you are too young to have been a part of the most exciting decade of the 20th century, than "1966!" will serve to clue you in on what you missed. I can say from my own experiences that 1966 was an amazing time to have lived; an era that was culturally stimulating and exciting. No other decade in my life was so special to me as the 1960s. Hal Lifson has succeeded in bringing back an era-if only in the time it takes to leaf through the book-that can never be relived. Thankfully, "1966!" enables us to remember-or to just plain view-and enjoy. In sharing with us his childhood, Hal has managed to give all of us a historically important retro journey to a simpler time. And if while looking back to 1966 through those rose-colored glasses of Mr. Lifsons you find yourself crying "96 Tears", I can assure you they will be tears of joy. Thank you Hal!
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Summary: A superb slice of pop culture history
Review: With this gorgeous book '60s expert Hal Lifson has distilled the turmoil and triumph of 1966 to its very essence. Far from a "dry" history, "Hal Lifson's 1966!" is a bouncy, irresistible read that will leave you pining for the Whamm-Os and 45-RPM record changers of your youth. From the cereals we ate to the cars we drove, Hal's richly evocative study of this pivotal year is exquisitely researched and beautifully designed; a definitive portrait of the people, places and things that irrevocably changed our lives. Once you begin poring over its amazing color photo spreads and reliving the memories that Hal so brilliantly captures, you won't be able to put this book down.
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