Friend of the site and undervalued hero of the skateboarding and surfboarding historical community, Scott Starr passed away some time this month. Scott put a tremendous amount of effort and his own money into collecting and preserving old skateboarding and surfing films, which included having them professionally digitized when his finances permitted. His numerous accounts on Youtube wouldn’t last long due to obscure, questionable or pointless copyright claims. The only thing that seemed to matter to him was preserving these films and TV appearances, some of them dating back to the 60’s. I used to email him fairly regularly about things I’d seen or heard about, and he was a willing fountain of knowledge. I also bought a handful of 60’s era comic books from him that featured skateboarding content, you can find many of these on S&A. Scott had some health and anxiety issues he battled with, keeping him out of the public eye and probably contributing to that fact that he is not more widely known to later generations of skateboarders. I consider him an important person in the lexicon skateboarding in popular culture. I don’t know that there is anyone else out there doing the kind of…

You’re looking at a 1965 newspaper ad in the Alhambra Post-Advocate for Liebergs Children’s shop, a store that closed around 1991. – Thanks to Butch Gary Ayala for the pic.

I found this 1960’s era TV commercial for Gleem toothpaste in the Prelinger Archives. I was actually looking for a Bell Telephone commercial featuring Patti McGee but was surprised to find one that I’ve never seen before. The actual date is unknown but it is mostly likely around 1965 or 1966.

When a plain old skateboard isn’t enough and you need to add a motorized sound to get the kids excited, the Irwin corporation has you covered. The advert is most likely from a 1965-66 Playthings Magazine, an industry publication for toy retailers. A suggested retail of $1.98 ( Under $17 according to the US Inflation Calculator) would have gotten you a noisy plastic sled that didn’t really turn. Fun! Time to “cash in on this surfboarding business.” Order your Whoom-m Jr. Sidewalk Surfer now! Thanks to Darren Haugen for the pics.

Just a run of the mill 60’s era steel wheeled skateboard that probably wouldn’t be shown here were it not for the fact that it’s still in the original packaging. Moen & Patton was a toy company primarily known for it’s roller-skates, but they made other toys as well. I’ve seen mention of their toy golf clubs as early as 1948. It looks like the used the Road Surfer as a descriptor in place of the word skateboard. Road Surfer appears on other Moen & Patton boards as well, and they eventually got around to screen printing a logo on top. – Thanks to David Maes for the tip.

This wraps up any uncertainty about the authenticity of the Hobble Wobble, which seemed like it might have been artificially created to look like it was vintage. The name of the inventor made it easy to look up the patent this time. Harold Katz filed his patent in October of 1958 and finally received his patent in March of 1960. This short highlight article on the Wibbler must have been published sometime shortly after, making my original guess ( After the hula hoop in 1958 and before skateboard fad in 1964 ) pretty accurate. Somebody should pay me for this research. Hello Betsy? This is not skateboard related, you may cry, but I will endeavor to prove a direct connection in the following presentation. Can someone dim the lights please? [Photo: Ebay seller Catzuzan ]

Jan and Dean’s 1964 song Sidewalk Surfin’ is pretty much the first skatesploitation song. I haven’t actually researched that, Doc Skaterock probably knows for sure. It’s easily the most famous one. As a young lad I remember buying a cutout Jan & Dean greatest hits compilation on cassette tape just because of this song. Before we were exposed to the larger world of punk rock and skate rock, we actually used to derive a bit of stoke from this cheesy tune, and later on would bust it out for a laugh and some nostalgia.

Peanuts Wikia says this cartoon of sally on roller skates while the rest of the gang rides skateboards, including Linus, Snoopy, and some random kid whose name I can’t figure out even with the help of wikipedia, which has an extensive listing of main and minor characters in Peanuts. Newspapers across the country have been rerunning “Classic Peanuts” strips since Charles Schulz died. The ones you can see on Peanuts.com have all been colorized, and in the case of the Sunday versions, reformatted slightly. Charles always treated skateboarding with respect in his strips. Whenever they appeared they were matter of fact, and not used for a pratfall. Catch the colorized version after the jump. – Thanks to Jodie Taylor for the tip.

Check out this clip of Jan and Dean lip-syncing Sidewalk Surfin’ on American Bandstand. August 22, 1964. Dick Clark talks with audience a little bit about skateboarding (a young man’s game?) and half the “band” actually does sidewalk surf on the stage. There’s even a little bit of dorking around during the lip sync session. See what passes for a “trick” in 1964. All in all, a very interesting clip showing skateboarding and skatesploitation in mid-60’s popular culture.

Makaha Commander, allegedly from 1960, but probably not. The construction looks to be fiberglass or epoxy of some sort, maybe bakelite? It’s not nothing super interesting except for… What the heck is that thing on the rear axle? Bigger view after the jump.