1977 JC Penny Catalog – People had serious dressing problems that year

I was looking around wishbookweb.com, which I love to do a disturbing amount, and decided to flip through the 1977 JC Penny Catalog, even though I already did that a little bit before. Here’s what else I found:

JC Penny was really the place to get clothes if you were dead but didn’t know it yet. These days I’m not sure where the dead-but-don’t-know-it crowd get their wardrobes:

1977 JCPenny Christmas page007
They took a break from unknowingly haunting their former house to model for the catalog.

You gotta get a CB radio just in case you have an emergency.

aaCB

 

First, “I’d like some sugar” could seriously be misconstrued. Second, if I were that horse, I would probably say “please free me from this torture device.”

aaHorse

 

There’s just not as many nightmare children’s toys these days. Tell me where you can find a good “horrifying clown plays peek-a-boo where you sleep” toy in 2013.

aaClown

 

On the other hand, a Redd Foxx talking doll that says gems like, “Your daddy sat on me” and has two faces? I will give you all my money for one of those.

aaRedFoxx

 

Now we get to the apparent inability for women to dress for cold weather.

aaCold1

 

The uncomfortable strangle-y feeling of a turtleneck combined with the more cumbersome bathroom experience a leotard brings topped with the 70s version of Uggs and then also freezing cold thighs. Fashion!

aaCold2

 

And then these people just don’t know what the hell they’re doing:

aaCold3

I guess maybe since it’s two of them they kind of egged each other on? Then they went out in the cold and died of hypothermia, I’m guessing.

24 thoughts on “1977 JC Penny Catalog – People had serious dressing problems that year”

  1. You missed one important detail on the turtleneck leotard- snap crotch! Who’s cumbersome now, huh?

    But I agree on the Redd Foxx doll. Where can I get me one of them?

  2. In the last photo I first thought they were saluting. But then I noticed the girl on the right is leaning her elbow on her knee which I guess makes sense. But what’s the girl on the left’s excuse? This leads me to believe that the right hand mittens are actually sewed to the hat. Unpractical? Yes. But Fashion!

  3. I used to have that same horse! Or, at least I think it was the same one? (Thanks to the the multiple concussions I suffered as a child caused by weak springs and my tendency to lean all of my body weight forward, my memory is a little hazy.)

  4. Was “your daddy sat on me” a thing? If so, why isn’t it STILL a thing? I feel that’s a euphemism that should have endured.

    The model on the left in the ski-pole photo looks like she seriously has to go to the bathroom, but is DELIGHTED about it.

  5. The dead-but-don’t-know-it ladies are in party dresses. Party dresses! Why the potholder on a strap is essential to the outfit is a mystery.

    I wouldn’t like Pennywise hanging off my child’s crib either. Is that a little hand clinging to his bow tie?

  6. I forgot how to close the door good buddy! LOL. Redd Foxx was super blue humor, I can’t believe they made a kids doll out of him!

    None of these outfits are as bad as the crap Lucy Liu wears on Elementary.

  7. A hood . . . but no socks. Yeah, she’s doing it wrong. Oh 1977. How delightfully bizarre you were. And between the dead people staring into my soul and the creepy peekaboo clown, I shan’t be sleeping tonight, thanks.

  8. duuuuuuuuuuude, a post! ZOMG!

    I had that Lone Ranger getup as a young man of the 1970s. I’m not ashamed.

    Do you have instagram? I’m lanceburson there. I posted a photo this weekend of the Suwanee, ga city hall. It looks just like the superfriends hall of justice.

  9. Yeah, I’ll have to agree with wanting a Redd Foxx doll. That’s just crazy-amazing. It’s so mind blowing to look at that catalog. It looks more dated than I would imagine. Sweet lord.

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