What do you call a kid who can skate like that? You call that kid a Cracker Jack. I totally forgot about this jingle until I watched the commercial, and it all came back to me. I never saw this particular Cracker Jack commercial, but I remember others with the same song. This series of commercials aired around 1978. Assuming the kid skating is the same one they use in the closeup, someone ought to be able to identify him. – Thanks to Wes for the tip.

Adam Crofts sent me a beat up copy of the Keane Brothers debut album from 1977 because it had skateboard on the cover. I listened to it, hoping that the song Keep On Rollin’ was skateboard related, but it wasn’t. The album is a truly awful mix of 70’s disco, soul, rock, country and bubblegum. It’s a freaking awesome train wreck. I noticed the producer also had the last name Keane, so I figured this was a showbiz father trying to get rich off his kids, and that this was probably the last time anyone ever heard of the Keane Brothers, if anyone ever heard of them at all. Of course I was wrong. The Keane Brothers had one of those variety shows that were all over the 70’s like flies on shitty music, and they appeared on the Tonight Show and the Mike Douglas Show. On top of that, the opening sequence of their variety show prominently features the Keane brothers on skateboards.

About this time last year I put up a 70’s era advert for a skateboard made by the Hooker Headers company at the behest of the Salba’s father who was working there at the time. Mark Bernard of Detroit actually ordered one of these boards via the mail-order add in Hot Rod magazine. (If you look at the order form, they ask for the weight of the rider.) After recently finding my original post, he sent in some pictures of the very same board which is still in his possession. He bought it in 1976 as a 14 year old at a cost of $80.

It’s Joe Strummer hanging out in an unidentified West London skatepark (UPDATE: It’s Meanwhile Gardens) during an interview that took place some time between 1988 and 1991. Footage from the same interview also appears in the 2007 Joe Strummer documentary The Future is Unwritten, which I haven’t actually seen yet, but maybe it lists the source in the credits. This particular digitization is pretty rough. If anyone finds clearer footage and can identify the source please let me know.

I don’t know much about 70’s era R.A.C.O. skateboards other than they loved to use imagery on their products, even their metal boards had some kind of photo sublimation. The collection of fiberglass boards shown here features assorted beverage logos for Schlitz, Budweiser, Olympia, Pepsi, and 7-Up. It’s almost as if R.A.C.O. was the NHS of the 70’s in terms of branded boards. We should be glad that truck hole patterns were standardized. Imagine how much of a pin in the ass it would have been to drill for trucks with a triangular pattern.

Check out this April, 1978 footage of Prince Charles hanging out with skateboard kids in Kentish Town, London and eventually taking a ride. It aired on a program called Nationwide. This particular episode was about a program called Inter-Action, which was some sort of inner city youth outreach. The episode is available on the BBC web site, but appears to be incapacitated at this time. I’m not sure if it’s only viewable inside the UK or not, but I was able to watch it a few months ago in the USA. Fortunately, there are a coupe of liberated clips available for embedding here. Charles voice and demeanor with the kids is excellent. He almost sounds like he’s ready to pick a fight. When he gets on the board he mentions that he hadn’t done in such a long time, which means he likely skated at some point in the late 60’s as a wee lad.

Not to be confused with Jodie Foster’s Army, because, you know, I have to spell everything out since being diagnosed with a phobia of people not getting my very obvious jokes. What are the questions that annoyed Jodie Foster in the 70’s? “Do you have a boyfriend? Are you really a skateboard champion? Did you go crazy after Taxi Driver?” Bonus spread of Lief Garret/Jodie Foster skateboard romance after the jump, and you might as well check out the extensive 2009 Skate and Annoy interview of JFA’s Brian Brannon when you’re done.

If you remember our first feature on this ancient 70’s skatepark in Pocatello, Idaho, you’ll be happy to see some new pictures and a short video of the park in use. Check it out.

Could there ever be any doubt that this is a skateboard? Thankfully, the manufacturer labeled it in big block letters, “Justen” case you weren’t sure. It really messes up an otherwise clean, and kind of cool top graphic. I guess people in the 70’s were dense….

Two more from Vintage Toy Advertiser. On the left, an ad from a 1977 issue of the French comic book Pif Gadget with a contest to win among other things, one of 300 rolling surfboards AKA “surfs a roulettes” AKA skateboards. On the right, a crazy skateboard shirt from a 1978 issue of Pif Gadget. It’s 1978 and there’s no skyhooks on that skateboard. How did they get that photograph of an unobstructed bottom view of a skateboarder seemingly getting air? Was he skating on a sheet of plexiglass? It’s clearly just a rolling shot, so where’s the harness and the wires?