Coffee cups used in the briefing room (TOS)

[Iluvlacquer]

In the episode Space Seed (and at least one other episode) the crew was seen drinking coffee out of blue paper cups. Any has anyone ever seen these 60s (disposable) coffee cups before or since?
Sorry for the lame post but it got me curious to types of disposable coffee cups used in the late sixties.

https://photos.google.com/photo/AF1QipMJM-Mn-jjJGIeDSy3xTDIzcShixMmF-7jIFq1j

 

[Kor]

I can't see your Google picture(s) without logging in...

I believe these are the cups in question: https://tos.trekcore.com/hd/albums/1x22hd/spaceseedhd460.jpg

I always thought of that color as a shade of gray rather than blue.

Among other episodes, this type of cup is also seen in The Trouble With Tribbles: https://tos.trekcore.com/hd/albums/2x15hd/thetroublewithtribbleshd1126.jpg

I immediately thought of Where No Man Has Gone , which gives us a good unobstructed view: https://tos.trekcore.com/hd/albums/1x03hd/wherenomanhasgonebeforehd395.jpg

That one is also gray, possibly with a bit more sheen, but also with a United Earth logo, or whatever it's called.

To my eye, the thickness, the white interior, and the width and shape of the lip thing at the top, look like typical disposable polystyrene foam cups, like these: https://www.dartcontainer.com/about-us/dart-history/#event-1960

We typically refer to the stuff by the trade name Styrofoam, even when it's actually from another manufacturer. Anyway, these cups were still relatively new in the 1960s, as they had just come into widespread use at the beginning of the decade.

Those cups were plain white, so that means the ones that appeared on TOS had the exteriors painted to better fit into the setting of the show. Spray enamel paint is corrosive to that kind of foam because of the solvents mixed in, so it would have been an acrylic or latex paint brushed or rolled on.

I'm sure someone else out there has more specifics on these cups. Any clarifications or corrections are welcome.

Kor

 

[Ryan Thomas Riddle]

I’d love to have ceramic versions of these cups made.

 

[Neopeius]

In the episode Space Seed (and at least one other episode) the crew was seen drinking coffee out of blue paper cups. Any has anyone ever seen these 60s (disposable) coffee cups before or since?
Sorry for the lame post but it got me curious to types of disposable coffee cups used in the late sixties.

https://photos.google.com/photo/AF1QipMJM-Mn-jjJGIeDSy3xTDIzcShixMmF-7jIFq1j

That's not a lame post at all! It's actually very interesting.

Dixie cups were the rage in the 60s, but styrene cups grew in popularity starting that decade. Since they could be molded, and the Trek cups have distinctive shapes, @Kor is probably correct in his deduction of the material!

 

[Iluvlacquer]

I can't see your Google picture(s) without logging in...

I believe these are the cups in question: https://tos.trekcore.com/hd/albums/1x22hd/spaceseedhd460.jpg

I always thought of that color as a shade of gray rather than blue.

Among other episodes, this type of cup is also seen in The Trouble With Tribbles: https://tos.trekcore.com/hd/albums/2x15hd/thetroublewithtribbleshd1126.jpg

I immediately thought of Where No Man Has Gone , which gives us a good unobstructed view: https://tos.trekcore.com/hd/albums/1x03hd/wherenomanhasgonebeforehd395.jpg

That one is also gray, possibly with a bit more sheen, but also with a United Earth logo, or whatever it's called.

To my eye, the thickness, the white interior, and the width and shape of the lip thing at the top, look like typical disposable polystyrene foam cups, like these: https://www.dartcontainer.com/about-us/dart-history/#event-1960

We typically refer to the stuff by the trade name Styrofoam, even when it's actually from another manufacturer. Anyway, these cups were still relatively new in the 1960s, as they had just come into widespread use at the beginning of the decade.

Those cups were plain white, so that means the ones that appeared on TOS had the exteriors painted to better fit into the setting of the show. Spray enamel paint is corrosive to that kind of foam because of the solvents mixed in, so it would have been an acrylic or latex paint brushed or rolled on.

I'm sure someone else out there has more specifics on these cups. Any clarifications or corrections are welcome.

Kor

Interesting idea about the cups being painted with latex paint. There were no acrylic or latex spray cans in colors back then but perhaps they were painted white Styrofoam. They could have been thinned acrylic tube paint put into an airbrush...

 

[Iluvlacquer]

https://tos.trekcore.com/hd/albums/1x22hd/spaceseedhd460.jpg

Yes this is the image

Image replaced by link

 

[J.T.B.]

There have been discussions of this over the years, the brand was apparently "Styrocup."

https://www.trekbbs.com/threads/donnys-tos-enterprise-interiors.212119/page-174#post-12475771

 

[Iluvlacquer]

I can't see your Google picture(s) without logging in...

I believe these are the cups in question: https://tos.trekcore.com/hd/albums/1x22hd/spaceseedhd460.jpg

I always thought of that color as a shade of gray rather than blue.

Among other episodes, this type of cup is also seen in The Trouble With Tribbles: https://tos.trekcore.com/hd/albums/2x15hd/thetroublewithtribbleshd1126.jpg

I immediately thought of Where No Man Has Gone , which gives us a good unobstructed view: https://tos.trekcore.com/hd/albums/1x03hd/wherenomanhasgonebeforehd395.jpg

That one is also gray, possibly with a bit more sheen, but also with a United Earth logo, or whatever it's called.

To my eye, the thickness, the white interior, and the width and shape of the lip thing at the top, look like typical disposable polystyrene foam cups, like these: https://www.dartcontainer.com/about-us/dart-history/#event-1960

We typically refer to the stuff by the trade name Styrofoam, even when it's actually from another manufacturer. Anyway, these cups were still relatively new in the 1960s, as they had just come into widespread use at the beginning of the decade.

Those cups were plain white, so that means the ones that appeared on TOS had the exteriors painted to better fit into the setting of the show. Spray enamel paint is corrosive to that kind of foam because of the solvents mixed in, so it would have been an acrylic or latex paint brushed or rolled on.

I'm sure someone else out there has more specifics on these cups. Any clarifications or corrections are welcome.

Kor

That's not a lame post at all! It's actually very interesting.

Dixie cups were the rage in the 60s, but styrene cups grew in popularity starting that decade. Since they could be molded, and the Trek cups have distinctive shapes, @Kor is probably correct in his deduction of the material!

 

[Iluvlacquer]

could have been painted in silver metallic and detailed with a black marker around the top edge?

 

[Iluvlacquer]

There have been discussions of this over the years, the brand was apparently "Styrocup."

https://www.trekbbs.com/threads/donnys-tos-enterprise-interiors.212119/page-174#post-12475771

based on your picks they look like plastic cups-dixie cups?

 

[Kor]

<snip>
Yes this is the image

Just FYI, per site rules externally-hosted images shouldn't be embedded into posts like that unless you own the site or if it's an image hosting site that is meant for that kind of use on message boards.

Anyway, the black line is an interesting wrinkle. From the TOS appearances I had assumed the darker line was a shadow from a wider lip on the cup. Now I see that a drawn/painted on line makes more sense.

Kor

 

[Herbert]

I'm now curious about plasticware in the 60s

 

[Iluvlacquer]

Just FYI, per site rules externally-hosted images shouldn't be embedded into posts like that unless you own the site or if it's an image hosting site that is meant for that kind of use on message boards.

Anyway, the black line is an interesting wrinkle. From the TOS appearances I had assumed the darker line was a shadow from a wider lip on the cup. Now I see that a drawn/painted on line makes more sense.

Kor

Yeah kind of like a sharpie but probably a felt tipped bic pen back then

 

[E-DUB]

Yeah kind of like a sharpie but probably a felt tipped bic pen back then

I believe they were called "Magic Markers". I'm curious about what looks like 3-D checkers.

 

[Iluvlacquer]

That's not a lame post at all! It's actually very interesting.

Dixie cups were the rage in the 60s, but styrene cups grew in popularity starting that decade. Since they could be molded, and the Trek cups have distinctive shapes, @Kor is probably correct in his deduction of the material!

Found this 60's cup image:
https://sites.lafayette.edu/dixieex...files/1960s-adv/lc-spcol-dixie-1960s-0008.jpg

 

[Orphalesion]

Dixie cups were the rage in the 60s,

Wow...and advertisement praising single-use, disposable styrofoam cups?

That's really from another world and time, haha.

 

[UssGlenn]

I believe they were called "Magic Markers". I'm curious about what looks like 3-D checkers.

If you haven't seen Donny's extensive virtual recreations of TOS (and the movies) sets and props, do yourself a favor and look them up over in the Fan Art section. You'll learn all sorts of fun stuff. The 3d checkers set was seen onscreen, and was an actual game you could buy in the 1960s. They used pieces of it to build the 3d chess set.

 

[Iluvlacquer]

If you haven't seen Donny's extensive virtual recreations of TOS (and the movies) sets and props, do yourself a favor and look them up over in the Fan Art section. You'll learn all sorts of fun stuff. The 3d checkers set was seen onscreen, and was an actual game you could buy in the 1960s. They used pieces of it to build the 3d chess set.

I went to 3 trek conventions in my life. The first one was in 1976 a a Hyatt hotel in DC when I was 12 with my little brother. In the dealer room they had a 3D chess set for sale

 

[Neopeius]

Wow...and advertisement praising single-use, disposable styrofoam cups?

That's really from another world and time, haha.

True, though Dixie cups were paper coated in paraffin.

 

[Kor]

And plastic bags were invented with the idea of saving the trees from all that wasteful one-time use and disposal of paper grocery bags. (The plastic bags were supposed to be re-useable)

Kor