Category: 50s to 90s

Someone on Reddit found the postcard above that was written and sent by Malcolm X from Kuwait back in 1964. Malcolm X was an African American Muslim minister and human rights activist who was a popular figure in the US during the civil rights movement. Following his exit from the Nation of Islam, he took a pilgrimage to Mecca and during that time, he also traveled to Kuwait, Nigeria, Ethiopia and Casablanca.

The postcard above was one of 16 postcards that were auctioned off in 2016 and were sent by Malcolm to Gloria Owens, who was the secretary at Muhammad’s Temples of Islam where he was a minister alongside Louis Farrakhan. The postcard reads:

Greetings from beautiful Kuwait. Since I’ve seen what a mess can be made of things by narrow-minded people, I’m still traveling, trying to broaden my scope.

Until just a few moments ago I had no idea Malcolm had visited Kuwait. I’ll try and see if I can dig up anything from his trip but for now, if you want to see a higher resolution version of the postcard above, click here.

Thanks Ayr909!

When I saw this photo I realized I haven’t really seen that many photos of the Kuwait Towers under construction. I think that’s pretty weird for such an important building that there aren’t many photos (at least online) documenting the process. The construction of the Kuwait National Assembly building on the other hand which was completed a few years after the Kuwait Towers is well documented and I was even able to buy a book detailing the whole construction process.

There are a lot of collectors in Kuwait but a lot fewer people willing to sell what they have. GTM Comics is the Instagram account for a local comic book and toy collector called Mishari AlReshaid who actually sells some of his stuff. He has vintage comics, action figures from the 80s, old lunch boxes from the 80s, some new release collectibles and a bunch of other things. You can check out his store on Instagram @gtmcomics_shop

If you follow me on Instagram then you know I went to the camel races yesterday. I’ll be updating my old post with new info tomorrow but for today I wanted to share a post by Mark Lowey, an ex Kuwait National Petroleum Company employee who recently wrote about his experience at the tracks back in 1988 when he and his wife were living in Kuwait.

Lots of pictures and a good write up, you can check out his post here.

Found a video of the Kuwait Towers under construction in the 70s. Not sure what the original source is or if the video originally had any audio, so if anyone recognizes this footage from somewhere, let me know in the comments.

Update: OK this is kinda funny. My friend made me realize that I’ve actually posted the video above on the blog 6 years ago. Not only that but I’m the original source of the video. I got the video from my friends parents who shot it on Super 8 film back in 1975 when they first moved to Kuwait. The clip above was taken from the original longer video which you can watch under my previous post here.

With over 12,000 posts, 15 years of blogging and my terrible memory, I’m not gonna remember everything I post.

If you skip to the 2-minute mark in the video above you’ll get to an old Showbiz ad, one I hadn’t seen before. It’s a pretty lame ad but it does have footage of the interior which will bring back memories if you ever went there as a kid. Showbiz opened up in the 80s on the Gulf Road and was a concept similar to Chuck E Cheese. It closed down and the building demolished in the 90s to make way for a new Showbiz but that project ended up getting abandoned.

If you keep watching after the Showbiz ad you’ll see an old Crush soda ad which I actually remember watching as a kid.

Thanks Janna

Sheikh @nsaalsabah with his wife Sheikha Hussa Alsabah prepared to open Dar al Athar al Islamiyyah museum in 1983 pic.twitter.com/IuObpQJyT9

— نوح (@kwt80s) June 24, 2020

The behind the scenes video above is of Sheikh Nasser and his wife Sheikha Hussa during the preperations to open the Dar al Athar al Islamiyyah museum back in 1983.

Sheikh Nasser Sabah Al Sabah passed away yesterday aged 72.

Someone on Reddit shared a vintage RCA ad for air conditioners that mentioned Kuwait. They shared a black and white version but I managed to find a colored version which you can check out here. If you want to read the text on the ad click here.

I always wondered what came first, the mosque or the roundabout and I still can’t figure it out from these pictures. The top photo is from 1958, the bottom black and white one from 1965 and finally the last photo from 2020. What’s interesting between the 1958 and 1965 photo is the amount of old Kuwaiti homes that were demolished. Kinda sad.

via @alialsalim

I’ve lived on Salem Mubarek Street in Salmiya for the past 40 years so I basically know it inside out, yet for some reason, I just found out that the first Wimpy opened up on my street back in 1969! There used to be a Hardee’s on my street which I’ve known since I was a kid but turns out before Hardee’s it used to be a Wimpy. The photo above is supposedly from 1972 and below is the last photo I have of that building dating back to 2008 when it was about to get demolished. The corner store is where Wimpy and Hardees used to be.

Update: Below is another photo from 1973

Source 1 Source 2

I recently found out that the oldest Persian restaurant in Kuwait was located down the street from where I live. Layali Tehran was the first Persian restaurant in Kuwait and has been around now for over 50 years. They were originally located in Sharq but had to move to Salmiya years ago. I don’t know much about Iranian food other than kebabs so I’m not the best person to ask about the food, but, I think the most interesting thing anyway is the idea of dining at the oldest Iranian restaurant in Kuwait.

If you want to try it out they’re located on Amman Street. Parking is a bit difficult but I parked across the street where there was less traffic and just crossed over. Their phone number is 25613312 and here is their location on [Google Maps]

This got me thinking, I wonder if the first Chinese or Italian restaurant in Kuwait still exists? I previously posted about the oldest restaurants in Kuwait and there were some good examples in the comments, check those out here.

Also just shared some interesting stuff on Twitter related to the oldest restaurants in Kuwait:
Oldest “liver” restaurant in Kuwait
Opening of Muwaffak Jabri Restaurant in 1961
Opening of the first Wimpy in 1969
Photo of the first burger restaurant in Kuwait Haroon El-Rasheed

Back in July I posted that I was looking for a copy of the Iftah Ya Simsim vinyl soundtrack (اغاني من افتح يا سمسم), and this past weekend I finally managed to get one. I actually got a lead to a copy for sale back in July and since then been in an on and off discussion with the owner about buying it as well as the price. In the end, the transaction went down like some sort of drug deal and I ended up picking up two other difficult to find LP’s from the guy (شادي الخليج ‎– السندباد and ٢٥ عامًا على الإستقلال).

There doesn’t seem to be much info about the Iftah Ya Simsim record, I know it was produced in 1979 but that’s about it. Supposedly only 100 prints were made and were given out to the staff of the show as a thank you but I haven’t been able to find any proof of that. I do know the record is really hard to come by and those who do have it don’t want to sell it. Because of the limited number of copies and the fact that the show was broadcasted around the GCC and so is very nostalgic, the demand for the record is really high. A couple of months back a friend of a friend sold his copy to a guy in Qatar for KD500. I paid half that for mine which is the average price for it for the condition my copy is in (6 or 7/10).

Even though the record is pretty expensive, it does hold its value due to the fact they’re very hard to come by. That’s why I was ok with spending so much money to aquire one because I figured if I ever got bored with it, I can just sell it to someone else. If anyone wants to get a closer look at the cover, I took some really high-resolution photos which you can check out below:

Front Cover
Back Cover
Inside Cover

Update: I’ve decided to sell this so if anyone wants it let me know.

Since my Arabic Cartoons from the 80s list did so well I wanted to put together a thorough 80s English Cartoons list. The whole weekend whenever I remembered any cartoon I wrote it down but it still feels like I’ve missed some. But the search did remind me of two very important TV channels growing up. Before satellite TV we only had access to Kuwait TV channels (KTV1 – Arabic, and KTV2 – English) but sometimes when the weather was humid we would pick up Saudi Channel 2 (English) and Dubai Channel 33 (also English).

Anyway here are some of the most memorable cartoons I used to watch in the 80s, if I’ve missed out anything let me know.

Alvin and the Chipmunks
Bionic Six
BraveStarr
Captain Planet
Care Bears
Centurions
Chip N Dale
Dangermouse
Dennis the Menace
Denver the Last Dinosaur
Dinosaucers
Duck Tales
Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids
G.I Joe
Gummi Bears
He-Man
Inspector Gadget
M.A.S.K
Mister T
Pole Position
Popeye And Son
Rainbow Brite
Scooby-Doo And Scrappy-Doo
She-Ra: Princess of Power
Silver Hawks
Speed Racer
Snorks
Tale Spin
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle
The Real Ghostbusters
Thunder Cats
Transformers
Voltron
Yogi Bear

I’ve been stalking the account of Super Robots, a local vintage toys collector on Instagram for about a year now, so when he decided to open a “museum”, I had to pass by and check it out. I put the word museum in quotation marks because it is and it isn’t really a museum. It’s the guy’s private toy collection displayed on shelves in a store, but none of it is for sale. So it’s a museum in the sense that there are things on display that you can’t buy, but that’s the only similarities.

I think my generation is a bit extra nostalgic compared to other generations because of the 1990 Iraqi invasion. This is just my theory but, because of the invasion, I had to leave a lot of my childhood behind when escaping Kuwait. A lot of other kids had to leave stuff behind or were maybe outside of Kuwait during the invasion and had their homes looted. Because so many of us lost the toys we had or grew up with, as we got older we started reacquiring some of our favorite ones we lost. That’s my explanation at least when friends ask me why I’m buying the most random stuff on eBay.

So I completely get toy collectors or any sort of collectors really. Super Robots is a toy collector who decided to take his toys out of storage and display them in a shop. It’s a neat idea and allows people like me interested in old toys to pass by and check them out but, the only issue is, the store is pretty tiny and STACKED. You can barely see anything because there are boxes and boxes of toys stacked up on the shelves. They’re all closed boxes as well so you’re basically checking out the packaging and not the actual toys themselves. And then you have boxes in front of boxes so you’re not even getting to see the full packaging because it’s being covered by another box. The other issue is that it’s located in the basement of Rehab Complex in one of the tight alleyways so it’s not a very inviting location. But this is a start and maybe eventually with enough interest, he could decide to move to a larger space somewhere else.

If you’re interested in passing by the store he’s open from 3PM to 9PM. Shop #183 in the basement of Rehab Complex. Also, make sure you check out his toys on his Instagram account @superrobots.

Is Netflix about to add a ton of old 80s Arabic cartoons? I hope so because they recently added one of my favorite childhood cartoons, Flona (فلونة). Currently, the only way to watch old cartoons from the 80s is on YouTube and a lot of the episodes are missing and it’s not really practical to binge-watch a series there. If Netflix is gonna start adding these cartoons then I’m suddenly going to have so much content to watch. Here are some of the Arabic cartoons I’d like to see on Netflix (please feel free to mention any Arabic cartoon I missed):

Abtal Al Mala3eb
Al Hadaf
Al Laith Al Abyad
Al Nimir Al Moukana3
Al Rajol Al Hadidi
Amira Yakout
Bell wa Sebastian
Bombo
Captain Majed
Flona
Ghawasa Al Sarka2
Grendizer
Heidi
Jazora 
Jongar
Khomasi
Kimba 
Mazinger
Moghamarat Neils
Nahoul Bashar
Raad Al Emlaq
Sanshiro
Shanakel 
Sindibad
Sinan
Sport Billy
Smurfs
Zeina

If you want to check out Flona, it’s listed in its English name on Netflix Kuwait, The Swiss Family Robinson.