How do you remember Phoenix? Stories from long time residents... (Avondale: laid off, influx)

[locolobo13]

Originally Posted by hotashell

why is there never any discussion about the west side? love to here some awful stories.

The population density of the west side was lower back then. When my family moved here in '66 it was farms west of 43rd Ave. There were still farms east of 43rd Ave along McDowell as well. Look at the old maps from the 60s.

The probability of somebody being from the west side back then vs more central or east is lower. So most of the stories are going to be about areas further east. Just the way it is. That said if you look through this thread you will find memories of the west side as well.

[Arizona Mike]

Originally Posted by azdr0710

I like the dire warnings for "Poor White Trash" showing at both the Acres and Northern: "due to the abnormal subject matter of this motion picture no children allowed with or without their parents" and "special uniformed police will supervise admissions".....

is that a juicy enough story for the west side, hotashell??!!

I wonder who the "special uniformed police" were? A security guard? One of the lot attendants with a badge?

Filmmakers were a lot more creative then in ways to drum up publicity for independent films, especially "four wallers" like this one probably was. The "pressbooks" that exhibitors received containing newspaper clipart ads usually had a section of goofy publicity stunts to heighten attendance.

My favorite story was from the mid 1960s, when an exhibitor showed a Swedish nurse-training film about obstetrics and gynecology and marketed it as a "spicy" film that "explored the frontiers of human sexuality!" He advertised that an ambulance and trained medics would stand by outside the theater in case the subject matter was too explicit for theater-goers to handle. (It was actually supposed to be very tame with a few flashes of bare breasts during a section on breast-feeding and some shots of breech deliveries and caesarian deliveries that no one would consider "sexy".) The exhibitor then put pans of carbon tetrachloride on hot plates inside the theater on opening day to cause revolting fumes to waft through the theater, so when passers-by were outside, they saw people stumbling out of the theater and barfing while "ambulance attendants" (ushers in white jackets) attended to them. Attendance skyrocketed afterwards.

I was curious enough to look up "Poor White Trash" on IMDB, and learned it was released in 1957 and starred Peter Graves (Mission Impossible), also released as "Bayou". It was apparently hugely successful on the southern drive-in circuit. Plot: "A community of Cajun fishermen living around a remote bayou includes one authentic beauty, Marie, who wants to better herself but must deal with the unwelcome attentions of storekeeper Ulysses. When she meets Martin Davis, visiting New York architect, they hit it off at once; but the sinister Ulysses is not inclined to suffer a Yankee rival."

[hotashell]

Originally Posted by locolobo13

The population density of the west side was lower back then. When my family moved here in '66 it was farms west of 43rd Ave. There were still farms east of 43rd Ave along McDowell as well. Look at the old maps from the 60s.

The probability of somebody being from the west side back then vs more central or east is lower. So most of the stories are going to be about areas further east. Just the way it is. That said if you look through this thread you will find memories of the west side as well.

utterly baffling compared to what it is today. progress sucks.

[jukebox47]

Originally Posted by Arizona Mike

I wonder who the "special uniformed police" were? A security guard? One of the lot attendants with a badge?

Filmmakers were a lot more creative then in ways to drum up publicity for independent films, especially "four wallers" like this one probably was. The "pressbooks" that exhibitors received containing newspaper clipart ads usually had a section of goofy publicity stunts to heighten attendance.

My favorite story was from the mid 1960s, when an exhibitor showed a Swedish nurse-training film about obstetrics and gynecology and marketed it as a "spicy" film that "explored the frontiers of human sexuality!" He advertised that an ambulance and trained medics would stand by outside the theater in case the subject matter was too explicit for theater-goers to handle. (It was actually supposed to be very tame with a few flashes of bare breasts during a section on breast-feeding and some shots of breech deliveries and caesarian deliveries that no one would consider "sexy".) The exhibitor then put pans of carbon tetrachloride on hot plates inside the theater on opening day to cause revolting fumes to waft through the theater, so when passers-by were outside, they saw people stumbling out of the theater and barfing while "ambulance attendants" (ushers in white jackets) attended to them. Attendance skyrocketed afterwards.

I was curious enough to look up "Poor White Trash" on IMDB, and learned it was released in 1957 and starred Peter Graves (Mission Impossible), also released as "Bayou". It was apparently hugely successful on the southern drive-in circuit. Plot: "A community of Cajun fishermen living around a remote bayou includes one authentic beauty, Marie, who wants to better herself but must deal with the unwelcome attentions of storekeeper Ulysses. When she meets Martin Davis, visiting New York architect, they hit it off at once; but the sinister Ulysses is not inclined to suffer a Yankee rival."

I worked at several drive-in theatres to get through high school in Phoenix. The bigger the crowd the harder we had to work, of course. I remember a sex education movie called Mom and Dad, Street Corner was another sex education type movie and the worst was called Blood Feast, a very graphic and violent movie. I think those were the biggest crowds ever for the theatres I worked at.

One of the theatres had thousands of the old movie posters that people collect these days. They said "get rid of em" so I burned them. In those days we burned all the paper trash in barrels since there was not any laws against burning in those "old" times.

[hotashell]

all you 60's era east siders what did y'all think of maryvale at the time?

[observer53]

Originally Posted by hotashell

what did y'all think of maryvale at the time.

What "time"? Maryvale decades ago didn't have the reputation it does now. A lot of us who grew up on the east side of Phoenix would not have known it was there but for the ads and commercials for John F Long Homes. If you do a bit of reading on the history of how Maryvale got started (and there's plenty of information out there), you'd see what it was like in its early decades.

[HX_Guy]

Can't believe my thread is still going!!!

I wish this was like YouTube, I could get paid for all these view!

[observer53]

Originally Posted by HX_Guy

Can't believe my thread is still going!!!

I wish this was like YouTube, I could get paid for all these view!

You started it, but it's gone WAY beyond that... and it isn't as if you own it.

[hotashell]

seriously and without racism, when did all you white east siders notice the huge hispanic influx.

[hotashell]

Originally Posted by observer53

You started it, but it's gone WAY beyond that... and it isn't as if you own it.

the nerve.