Does anyone know of a sleeping bag they made back in the 80 is which had a zip that was in the front of the bag and not the side and it only went half way down the bag? And it had a hood similar to one you see on a hooded jumper, plus is it true that the person inside the bag could not zip it up or down on there own?

Sounds familiar.

There are center zip bags, but unless the zipper gets jammed, l do not know of any that you can not get out of:

http://vtarmynavy.com/snugpak-softie-18-antarctica.htm

http://nunatakusa.com/Sleeping_Bag_Raku.htm

there are a few front-zip models available, but all of them are designed so that the person in the bag can zip or unzip the bag by themselves. in addition to the bags above, there is also the GoLite ''feather bag:''

http://golite.com/product/productdetail.aspx?p=SS7203&s=1

The bag u r talking about first came out in the 50 is & was used by the military. It found it is way into private use when soldiers came home & wanted something light weight but warm to use while camping.

Originally it was called a Mummy Bag, until the 70 is when it became known by a variety of names. Each manufacturer called it something different.

You could unzip them easily from the inside, unless u bought a cheaply produced one that the manufacturer failed to put a zipper tag on the inside.