As an only lonely child of the 1980s with a parent who literally worked around the clock, let’s just say, I grew up watching a lot of television. But that’s probably the exact same childhood of anyone born after, say, 1965. One of my earliest memories of being at a cinema was seeing a Rainbow Brite film (I am guessing it’s this distinguished award-winning feature). Anyway, a woman about six months older than me is stuck in a past filled with cartoon rainbows. Katy Cartee Haile turned her house in North Carolina into a museum for her favourite childhood toy, Rainbow Brite. This reminds me of the guy who runs a Beetlejuice Museum in his Hell’s Kitchen Apartment or that Toilet Seat Art Museum in a Texas garage or the 28,000 items of the Bunny Museum stuffed into a California house or the Troll Museum in some chick’s Lower East Side walk-up.
In case you’re unfamiliar with the story, it’s about a little girl named Wisp who brings colour into the world. After receiving her first doll for her fifth birthday, Katy was hooked and has since collected over 1,500 items (here’s a PDF if you have time to kill), which are displayed at her Rainbow Land Museum. Although no visitors/fanatics have yet to pay a visit, Katy says “all are welcome!” Up a rainbow painted staircase, there is a 500 square foot room of blue sky walls where glass cabinets and shelves display rare toys and collectibles. A favourite item is a prototype 12″ Dress Up Rainbow Brite doll. An extra guest bedroom has her Rainbow Brite “linen collection”. And yes, I believe I slept with that duvet cover (but unfortunately, I did not have the matching curtains). And that’s not it. Back in 1997, Katy’s obsession led her to create rainbowbrite.net and with it, a community of like-minded individuals from around the world. She also collects the new Masters of the Universe Classics line to go along with a small vintage He-Man collection (Hey, but what about She-Ra???).
And yes, you might have already seen this story on BuzzFeed. Sorry but this tumblr is sometimes stuck in the past. Just like Katy.
