The Retro TV Costume

When Joe proposed making a vintage TV costume, initially, I wasn’t so hot on the idea. It didn’t seem as exciting as the Pinball Machine, the Fortune Teller, or the Seeburg Jukebox. Then I began to think about the first TV I can remember in my parent’s living room – it had a blonde cabinet, sparkly fabric covering the speaker, and legs similar to the ones on our boomerang coffee table, I began to think this idea definitely had possibilites!

It began with a sports utility box from U-Haul that we cut down. Joe fashioned a smaller box to hold the iPad. I bought a HUGE roll of wood grain contact paper from Home Depot to cover the box. Seriously – we probably have a good 50 feet leftover –  if you want me to come over and line your kitchen cabinets, give me a call.

The knobs were oven dials purchased from a mom and pop hardware store, and a knob I found lying in the street. I was obsessed with using sparkly fabric for the speaker. Unfortunately, since I couldn’t find it, I made my own weaving gold Christmas cord through a piece of brown fabric. The criss-cross design on the speaker are dowels, hot glued together and painted with copper acrylic paint.

My other obsession with the costume was that it had to have legs. Originally, I was using the legs from our boomerang coffee table, but they were too heavy for the box. Posterboard proved to be the only material that would roll without creasing.

The key to the costume was going to be an iPad that was going to act as our television tube. We met the technological challenge but what were we going to put on the TV? I insisted on something vintage and it had to be black and white.

A perusal of the Internet Archive gave us the perfect solution – the 1955 pilot episode of The Lawrence Welk Show!

As an added bonus, here is that episode of Lawrence Welk and His Champagne Music. Watch it streaming here or check it out at The Internet Archive. It’s in the public domain and FREE!