How do you remember Phoenix? Stories from long time residents... (Gilbert: military, vacation)

[roosevelt]

-- Speaking of sculpture: I remember a private home on East Camelback (between 36th and 44th Streets, I think) with a huge metal sculpture of a man with upraised arms in the front yard. Does anyone here know if that belonged to a Phoenix celebrity, and who the artist was?

That was the 'Sun Worshiper' and used to stand in front of Walgreens and Coffee Dan's (or Smuggler's Inn) at Park Central in the late 60's. It was auctioned off and ended up in somebody's yard. The sculptor was Walter Emory, a former doctor. Most everything he made was with rusted steel and a torch.

[observer53]

Pets on Parade is STILL on Channel 3. A truly long running show.

I remember the Ryan Evans (later Revco) and the AJ Bayless at Scottsdale and Camelback, and the Guggy's with the downstairs restrooms and fallout shelter.

Speaking of the orange groves.... we used to pick GRAPES on the land where Fashion Square was later built. Camelback Road was dirt past Scottsdale Road then.

I do remember FedCo.

The Kiva Theater was just down the block (there was actually a private home in between) from a store my mom and aunt had. They used to have Saturday kiddie matinees, before they became an adult theater. Then there was the Portofino theatre across the street, off the sidewalk on the edge of a courtyard. That always was an adult theater... very mysterious place to us young kids. Lute's Pharmacy was just across Scottsdale Road... they had a soda fountain and all the other elements of the old fashioned drug store.

[Dave Bob]

[quote=MileHighMadman;10216270]
-- Uncounted fond recollections of Wallace and Ladmo -- not only did I love the show itself, but it's also the first place I saw Roger Ramjet! (Remember Ladmo's solution to the problem of having to dig a cereal prize out of the bottom of the box? Ladmo Flakes ... an entire box of prizes!)

Yeah, my siblings and I were pretty much raised by Wallace & Ladmo, bless their hearts. Hard to describe how widespread their influence was on a few decades worth of Arizona brats.

And Roger Ramjet was my favorite cartoon; I was just old enough to appreciate some of the satiric content as well as the childish silliness and goofy characters.

Evil Professor Mayoryorty (Sam Yorty was mayor of L.A. in the 60's).

General Brassbottom saying "Ramjet, you always cease to amaze me!" (and Roger being flattered).

Red Dog the pirate (did he have 2 eye patches?) with his parrot Carl Bob--"Come on Carl Bob, we've got piratin' to do!" and "Aaarrr, it's Roger Ramjet, bane of pirates."

[MileHighMadman]

Originally Posted by Dave Bob

Evil Professor Mayoryorty ...
General Brassbottom ...
Red Dog the pirate ...

You forgot the Solenoid Robots (beep-beep-buzz-click!). I remember one priceless episode where they tried to induce chaos and panic by burning out every refrigerator light bulb on earth ...

[Arizona Mike]

I loved all the Roger Ramjet villains - like the gangster Noodles Romanoff, or the aforementioned Professor Mayoryorty (who sometimes cackled, "Shades of George Zucco!" after saying something evil - Zucco did play Professor Moriarty in the Basil Rathbone movies.) Those cartoons were pretty minimalist in animation but they made up for it in sophisticated humor.

Even the cartoons on Wallace and Ladmo were often edgy and hip and cool - classic Warner Brothers cartoons, Roger Ramjet, cartoons that (like the show itself) were made by people who didn't talk down to kids but were having fun themselves.

After Wallace and Ladmo, they had the Rocky and Bullwinkle show, with Fractured Fairytales, Sherman and Peabody, etc. - which was also a very hip cartoon show. For a short while in the mid-1960s, the show after Wallace and Ladmo was "Cliffhangers!" - old 1930s and 1940s movie serials like "The Purple Monster Strikes" and "King of the Airmen", which my friends and I got into just like the kids in the 1930s and 1940s did, arguing on the playground about how the hero would get out of the trap each afternoon. KPHO had some amazing programming for kids in the afternoon.

There was also a lot of crossover - as when Wallace and Ladmo when wander into Marge Comden's "Happy Homemaker" type show before their show came on. And if you were young enough, or it was summer and you were home, or of you were sick and home from school, you could watch Ladmo's show at noon - mostly cartoons, but great skits with Ladmo and Mr. Grudgemeyer.

If you YouTube Wallace and Ladmo, you can see some of the old episodes, BTW.

[MileHighMadman]

Originally Posted by Arizona Mike

... classic Warner Brothers cartoons ...

And uncensored at that! All the "nice violence" scenes left intact ... even the smoking scenes!

Originally Posted by Arizona Mike

... great skits with Ladmo and Mr. Grudgemeyer.

"Feed ... the birds ... feed ... the birds ... Feedthebirds!"

Hey -- still no takers on my "mystery comedy show" line?

[Arizona Mike]

Originally Posted by MileHighMadman

"If you're looking for a better set of wheels
I will stand upon my head to beat all deals!
I will stand upon my head
Till my ears are turning red!
GO SEE CAL! GO SEE CAL! GO SEE CAL!"
MHM

Okay, that really did run through my head all day.

My mom, God bless her, was one of those people who consistently mishear lyrics (the "Ground Control to Mao-Tse Tung" thing). After that commercial played one time, she turned to me and asked, "why are they singing '***** Cow! ***** Cow! ***** Cow!'?"

(EDIT: Sorry, I wasn't writing anything obscene there (nor would my mom ever talk like that!). The message board software deleted a common affectionate term for a cat which begins with a "p" and ends with a "y")

The Tex Earnhardt and Cal Worthington ads usually played during the late night movies. Tex Earnhardt would always begin each used car ad by chuckling and shaking his head, as if he'd just been watching the movie along with you.

That whole genre of advertising is dead now, and I just realized it. When was the last time you saw an ad for used cars where the dealer was out on the lot pointing out particular cars he had for sale? That seemed so common when I was a kid - when did they stop doing that?

[Arizona Mike]

With the Jerry Lewis MD Telethon coming up, I remember when that was a big event in local programming. Back in the 60s and 70s, the local Phoenix channels all turned off for the night, usually sometime after midnight after playing a tape of Navy jets flying through the sky and the Star-Spangled Banner. On weekends, there'd be a late movie (interspersed wth Tex Earnhardt and Cal Worthington ads (damn you, MileHighMadman!) so the channel might stay on until 2:00 am or so. Then the channel would sign off for the night and there would be no programming until the farm report, and Sunrise Semester in the morning.

KPHO (which carried it then) stayed up and broadcast all night for the telethon, which was really unusual for us and seemed exotic and cosmopolitan - I used to try to stay up all night and watch it (rarely made it all night until high school), as they switched between the local phone banks and a succession of faded Vegas stars and rat-packers with Jerry Lewis (Jan Murray! Red Buttons! Joey Bishop). We went down to KPHO one year to stick a cash donation at the drive-through which Wallace and Ladmo ran.

And yet...

The Jerry Lewis Telethon also meant the end of summer vacation, so there was a kind of sickening feeling as you watched it, knowing the endless summer good times were over.

[desertskies]

Originally Posted by Arizona Mike

The Tex Earnhardt and Cal Worthington ads usually played during the late night movies. Tex Earnhardt would always begin each used car ad by chuckling and shaking his head, as if he'd just been watching the movie along with you.

That whole genre of advertising is dead now, and I just realized it. When was the last time you saw an ad for used cars where the dealer was out on the lot pointing out particular cars he had for sale? That seemed so common when I was a kid - when did they stop doing that?

Same can be said for the original Lou Grubb style spots (genre being dead now).
Beautiful piano, calm melodious pitch to why he should be your car dealer.
Built an empire around that style.

As for Cal, wasn't he ran out of town for some legal reason?

Originally Posted by observer53

Then there was the Portofino theatre across the street, off the sidewalk on the edge of a courtyard. That always was an adult theater... very mysterious place to us young kids.

I remembered another adult theater that was across the street from Kiva, couldn't place the name.
Set away from the main sidewalk and a turn to the left?

[MileHighMadman]

Originally Posted by Arizona Mike

When was the last time you saw an ad for used cars where the dealer was out on the lot pointing out particular cars he had for sale?

In Worthington's case it would be preceded by him walking a camel, an elephant, a lion, an ostrich or any of several wild creatures, with the voiceover, "HERE'S CAL WORTHINGTON AND HIS DOG SPOT!" And he'd hand out Brock Umbrella Hats as a promo.

More stray car lot memories:

-- On KRFM/KQYT, Lou Grubb would do treacly spots for Rudolph (later Lou Grubb) Chevrolet. He'd do some bland Peggy Hill-style "musing," then segue into an easy-listening song. I remember a particularly insipid one (don't know the singer) called "Little Girl, It's Time for Growing Up."

-- Remember Evan Mecham's original slogan for Mecham Pontiac? "If you can't deal with Mecham ... you just can't deal."