Old Milwaukee Archives | Milwaukee Record

Remembering the time Biff from ‘Late Night With David Letterman’ sang the national anthem at County Stadium

October 8, 2018

Take yourself back to the summer of 1989. George H.W. Bush is the president. The Milwaukee Brewers are playing .500 baseball in Milwaukee County Stadium. Late Night With David Letterman is one of the hippest sh...

Watch Milwaukee’s very own Elvira in this Partyland commercial from 1985

Matt Wild

October 1, 2018

So-called "horror hosts" are nowhere near as ubiquitous as they once were, but a few of them are still hanging around, undead and unkillable like the zombies that populate so many of their films. Flip on MeTV o...

Remembering that weird “This Is My Milwaukee” video from 2008

Matt Wild

September 12, 2018

Take a stroll through YouTube these days and you'll find a bevy of gorgeously filmed, breathlessly narrated videos celebrating the city we call home. Big budget tourism videos share space with amateur love lett...

As the Bradley Center enters its final days, watch a star-studded video from its first days

Matt Wild

August 10, 2018

According to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, today marks the first day of official closing operations for the BMO Harris Bradley Center. Forty-five full-time and 606 part-time employees are officially out of wo...

Let’s watch old videos of Milwaukee poet Matt Cook explaining Milwaukee history

Matt Wild

July 9, 2018

Milwaukee has some serious—and some seriously weird—history. From its indigenous roots to its European settlement to the time we all had to boil our water because of that Cryptosporidium thing, the Brew City ha...

Honor, Service, Love: Remembering the life and heroics of Milwaukee’s Lance Sijan

Tyler Maas

July 4, 2018

Every Fourth of July, Americans take pause to recognize the selflessness and sacrifice of those who have put their life on the line for their country. Countless servicemen and servicewomen from Milwaukee have f...

Social Distortion plays Summerfest tonight, so let’s remember the Social Distortion Milwaukee riot of 1988

Matt Wild

June 29, 2018

Tonight, on day three of Summerfest 2018, living-legend punk band Social Distortion will headline the Harley-Davidson Roadhouse at 10 p.m. It'll surely be a lively, crowded show full of old (and new?) fans enjo...

Dear FOX6: Please, please, please unearth this “Drinking in the ’80s” series from 1984

Matt Wild

June 25, 2018

Dear FOX6, Hi! How are you? Happy Monday! Milwaukee Record here. In case you didn't know, we're big fans of your station. Really! Ted Perry is the best, and FOX6 WakeUp is our second-favorite local morning s...

We demand to know more about this 1984 commercial for Giggles nightclub

Matt Wild

June 6, 2018

The internet is a wonderful and awful place. Wonderful because a near-infinite amount of human knowledge is instantly available at our fingertips; awful because despite that near-infinite amount of human knowle...

Let’s watch five decades of epic Channel 6 news promos

Matt Wild

May 29, 2018

Aside from actual time capsules, there are no better time capsules than old local TV news clips. The anchors! The music! The fashion! The star wipe graphics! In Milwaukee, WISN's ancient "Hello Milwaukee" news ...

Let’s come together and ID these folks from a 1993 Animal Crackers commercial

Matt Wild

May 22, 2018

Hey! Anyone remember Milwaukee-area pet store Animal Crackers? You know, the same Animal Crackers that had locations at Bluemound Plaza, Highland Plaza, and Southridge Plaza? The same Animal Crackers that had a...

Prepare for a summer of fun with this Milwaukee County Parks commercial from 1984

Matt Wild

May 10, 2018

Hey! It's summer! Sort of? Yeah, it's gonna be cold and rainy this weekend, but whatever. Now's the time to get out of the house and enjoy all the summer-y things Milwaukee has to offer: festivals, concerts, an...

Remembering the New Barbarians / MECCA Arena riot of 1979

Matt Wild

April 25, 2018

Buried in the long, storied, and debauched history of The Rolling Stones is a peculiar footnote: The New Barbarians. A side project, of sorts, of Stones guitarist Ronnie Wood, the band formed in the spring of 1...

Remembering the time the Milwaukee Bucks almost moved to Minnesota

Matt Wild

April 17, 2018

Tonight at 7 p.m., the Milwaukee Bucks meet the Boston Celtics for Game 2 of the first round of the 2018 NBA Playoffs. Yes, the Bucks are down one game, but no matter what happens over the course of the next we...

Dick has gone CRAZY in these old commercials for Dick’s Place

Matt Wild

March 20, 2018

Sift through the history of advertising and you'll find a strange subgenre: the CRAZY home electronics salesman. New York's "Crazy Eddie" was probably the most (in)famous, with his IN-SA-A-A-A-A-ANE prices and ...

Our kingdom for one of these personalized South Milwaukee love songs from 1985

Matt Wild

March 5, 2018

Have you ever listened to a song and thought, "This song is great, but I wish the singer was singing directly to me. You know, like singing my name and everything. That would be swell." Of course you haven't. S...

Wear your Milwaukee nostalgia on your sleeve with Remember The Tees

Matt Wild

February 20, 2018

It has never been easier to flaunt your Milwaukee pride. From the inescapable Milwaukee Home shirts to the nothing-says-Milwaukee-like-a-Corona-sunrise "People's Flag" apparel, it's practically a crime not to s...

7 pre-World War II ads from Milwaukee companies (and the stories behind them)

Catherine Jozwik

February 8, 2018

Today, it seems like the Geico gecko is the height of clever advertising campaigns. While some ads and commercials are arguably comical and memorable today, gone are the days when ads appeared solely on the bac...

Let’s relive the magic of Esser TV & Appliance’s “Stop, Shop, and Buy” jingle, shall we?

Matt Wild

January 31, 2018

If there was a Milwaukee Jingle Hall of Fame (someone get on this, please), you'd find the usual suspects: Channel 12's iconic "Hello Milwaukee." Emergency TV Service's frantic self-titled ditty. That terrifyin...

Adam Levin puts passion for hometown history into “Old Milwaukee” Facebook group

Tyler Maas

January 29, 2018

Milwaukee is always changing. For every new building erected, every new amenity added, or for each conceptual change and ownership overhaul that happens in our city, a piece of Milwaukee's past is lost in the p...

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