How do you remember Phoenix? Stories from long time residents... (Glendale: farmer, shelter)

[jack swilling]

Does anyone recall the tv commercial by a company called Luna? I think the store was in west Phoenix, or Glendale. A voice boomed: Luna. Everything on wheels. Then there appeared the motion picture of a store window. Behind the plate glass was a collection of many wheeled gadgets, and all the wheels would be turnng like crazy. It was impressive and comical, for the voice that introduced the wheels sounded like it was introducing the Second Coming. I think Luna sponsored tv programs in the fifties and sixties. We never knew how much we humans owed to the wheel, until we saw all those wheels turning in the window.

[Ol' Northsider]

Yup! Seems to me that LUNA had a storefront on the west side of 7th Street, a few blocks south of Roosevelt.

[1937Gal]

Originally Posted by AzSon

O.k. i've read a few hundred more posts and now know the Fox theater was lost in 1975.
There are a couple things I remember about being in Phx in the 70's I'd like to know more about :
Anyone remember a big slide with a small pool at the bottom called SplashDown ? I think it was at the 5 points of 7th st.east Dunlap and Cave Creek rd. The "tickets" were wide rubber bands.
This would have been around '74 or '75.I think I remember Wallace and Ladmo promoting it on thier show.
I haven't yet read anything about Sombreo Playhouse/Theater,east side of 7th st. just south of Camelback.I went there regularly from fall '77 until '81 or maybe '82. Rocky Horror Picture Show on fri. and sat. nights plus saw films like Harold and Maude,Kentucky Fried Movie.A Boy and His Dog,Zardoz,Ralph Bakshi's Lord of the Rings,and so on.What was the name of the restaurant adjacent to the theater ? It had had a south seas island
type of design with palm frond roofs.When the theater was built in the 50's its purpose was to stage plays,but that idea had long been abandoned by the time I was going there.The place was on hard times and run down.There was a article about it in a issue of Arizona Highways some time after it opened.Can't remember what year.My Dad had every issue of A.H. from 1948 to 1983 in cases the magazine sold with the year and Arizona Highways embossed on the spine.The first three,'48,'49, and '50 were actually bound like a book.Wish I had those volumes now.I don't know when the theater and restaurant were demolished.I hadn't been there for a while , when one day I passed by and there was a pile of rubble where they had been.A mid-rise office building took thier place.

Anyone else remember this place or am I the only "creature of the night" on this thread ? Speaking of creatures I saw 'Creature from the black lagoon" there on a double bill with '"It came from outer space",both in 3-D.
Back then,before this current phase of 3-D movies, 3-D was retro !

You are speaking of The Islands ... I loved that place. They had the most exotic drinks. Later it became Yums Oriental Buffet. I was born here 1937 and this site is truly awesome for information.

[1937Gal]

Originally Posted by roosevelt

Anyone remember Flagstaff? I could post this under Arizona but no one reads those threads. Here is a street scene that should bring back memories.
Attachment 66983

Ah Flagstaff!.... I was born in Phoenix 1937 and my young life was Here. In 1955 father was transferred to Flagstaff and we stayed until 1959. Looking back, it was a nice small town, and I have some great memories. However those 4 years were spent wishing I was back in Phoenix at Encanto Park, Bob's Big Boy, etc., etc.

[1937Gal]

Originally Posted by desertratz

The nervous hospital.............I should have known. Got to take a tour there when I was in a psychology class in high school.

Most long-time Phoenix residents never referred to it as the Insane Asylum in their conversations, it was just euphemistically referred to as "24th and Van Buren" and everybody got it. Being a valley native, it's what I grew up hearing.

Oh how I remember 24th and Van Buren...the chain link fence and the residents standing at the fence looking at the world. My mother worked there when she was 19.. Remember Winnie Ruth Judd?... My mother came to AZ when she was 6 months old in 1909.

[1937Gal]

Originally Posted by Donalumni

Gee, I didn't think the trotting track ever opened after the Phoenix 20 got ADOT to stall the construction of I-10 to go past it. Who was the owner of Turf Paradise who was in the Phoenix 20? Was it Kemper Marley? I know Kemper Marley was on the Arizona Racing Commision for years.

I was mentioning to another Phoenix native friend about the race track in the 50s at 7th Avenue, northeast corner of Osborn Rd. She couldn't remember it but I do. Seems it was a huge green building and we high school gals used to stand across the street and google the guys taking tickets. Does anyone recall this race track? ...the name?

[1937Gal]

Originally Posted by roosevelt

Bob's was opened in 1954 at Central and Thomas, across the street from the Village Inn Drive In and just north of the Polar Bar drive in. Bob's put both out of business. At first Bob's had carhops but gave it up because of vandalism and drive offs. Not many people remember what Bob's looked like. There was a rock wall entrance and above that a large Kachina 'sand painting'. I mostly remember the strawberry pie, I had never seen just large strawberries before.

Carnation was one block north of Indian School Road and opened their restaurant in the 40's.

As a 50s teen, we loved going to Bob's Big Boy. The line for carhop service would be out on Central and sometimes winding around from E. Thomas., We'd order a Bob's Big Boy Hamburger for 55 cents and a half order Chef's salad (with avocado and shrimp) for ...yep...55 cents.

[jack swilling]

The racetrack off the northeast corner of Osborn and Seventh Avenue was called Sportsman's Park. Someone--I think Roosevelt--posted a fine aerial photo of it on this segment of the forum. My mother purchased a new home in the Hoffman subdivision in 1950, and I remember hearing the Parade to Post from out in our back yard when I was a child. Across the street on the southeast corner was Larsen's/Larson's gas station (Mobil, I think), or Larsen Brothers, which came to be known to the wags as Larceny Brothers. On the southwest corner were old deserted buildings that had been used at the Central Avenue Dairy for the cows. The Hoffman subdivision was on the northwest corner.

[John B Sloop]

Originally Posted by roosevelt

The Indian Drive In had a similar sign, just a head on the large wall behind the screen of an Indian chief. Here is the Phoenix Drive In, since it was the first one in Phoenix, it was simply the Drive In Theatre when it was built.
Attachment 78827

OH, Thank you for that quite wonderful post card of the Phoenix Drive In Theatre. I never thought I'd see that again. I was awed as a kid by the neon of course, and the art deco of it (didn't the eyelashes flutter??) or is that my imagination working over time. There was a mom & pop ice cream joint next door to it on the drive-ins left side, that my dad drove us kids out to. It was a big treat and we would sit outside and just stare at the 'neon lady'. What a treat to see it again.

Say I went to Emerson, too. Graduated in 1956. I have the Emerson Herald Senior Edition still. I just sent a copy of it to another Emerson graduate that found me on-line. Do you remember Miss Ogelsby, the music teacher. She was my favorite teacher of all time. I went on to North High for 1956-57. Then to Camelback graduating 1960. What if we knew each other somewhere along the way? Never know, its a small world...

I remember the Indian, too. Wonderful neon. Just terrific memories...

[John B Sloop]

Originally Posted by 1937Gal

As a 50s teen, we loved going to Bob's Big Boy. The line for carhop service would be out on Central and sometimes winding around from E. Thomas., We'd order a Bob's Big Boy Hamburger for 55 cents and a half order Chef's salad (with avocado and shrimp) for ...yep...55 cents.

We went to Bob's every weekend. It was where you ran into everyone usually after (2) films at a drive-in. I remember my brother and sister going to the Polar Bar drive-in they were quite a bit older. That was their hang out from PUHS.. I remember we used to go out to fancy dinners at Cathy Gardens and Macao's. Everyone drove up and down Central to Monroe St . turn left to ist St (right) then Right again on Washington St. back up to Central Ave. and up to about about Camelback RD and turn around at ...the cars were so cool in those days. You could get six of your friends in the car easy and probably more. Next door to Bob's was my good's friends father insurance company on Thomas Rd. I thought that was pretty cool.