While the French poodle has always been popular, in the Fifties it was everywhere. There were ceramic poodles, plastic poodles, pink poodles, white poodles, black poodles. You could wear poodles, decorate with poodles, store things in poodles, even throw your trash in poodle wastecans.
Some of these items bear the label “Made in Occupied Japan.” What does this mean? After World War II we were fussy about what we’d let Japan manufacture. In short, nothing that could possibly be used for making war. You get to do this when you are the victor and occupy a foreign country. The consequence? Japan made a lot of French poodles.
And if all that wasn’t enough, a poodle haircut was prevalent. The best example of the poodle style is none other than Lucille Ball, pictured below.
