The 1970s were one of America’s weirdest decades. Sandwiched between the idealistic ‘60s and the self-centered ‘80s, the 1970s often fall between the cracks in popular memory. What comes to mind – to the extent that anything does – to most are bell bottom pants, Disco, Watergate, gas shortages, and national malaise. There was way more to the ‘70s than that, though. From fish tank platform shoes, to scamming kids with Sea Monkey ads, below are thirty fascinating but lesser known things about the 1970s.
30. 1970s Fish Tank Platform Shoes
1970s styles went for the garish and over-the-top. Few things exemplify just how over the top things got than the brief fad of platform shoes with a fish tank. Often dismissed as an urban legend, 1970s fish tank platform shoes were all too real. That was unfortunate for the poor fish that were subjected to injury and death in order to help some benighted soul make a (poor) fashion statement. The fish almost never survived, either because of all the jostling, or because the shoes broke and spilled their contents on the dance floor. In addition to the animal cruelty, it was also unfortunate for the very concept of fashion: those things were tacky eyesores.
Fish tank platform shoes were not mass-manufactured in the 1970s. Instead, they were bought by disco fans from small specialty boutique stores. They did not come with the fish already sealed in – that would have ended them within a day for lack of oxygen. Instead, the clear platforms or heels were removable, or otherwise had a flap that allowed the wearer to fill it with water and add a small fish or two. Some went the extra mile, went all in for an aquarium look, and added colored gravel and water plants. Fortunately, the garish trend proved short-lived, and is now remembered not with any nostalgia, but as a butt of jokes about 1970s style excesses.