Remco Movieland Drive-In Theater, 1959

Here it is -- the toy I coveted most for Christmas that year (I was six).  After seeing the TV commerical (see below) I remember being surprised at how small it was, but I wasn't disappointed.  I spent many happy hours in the dark getting eyestrain trying to read the slightly out of focus titles.

Powered by two D batteries, it's essentially a flashlight.  From a technical standpoint, it's certainly not very impressive, and wasn't even at the time. We did, after all, have home movie projectors in 1959.  The 'movies' are merely black and white filmstrips. Each strip contains two slideshows, side by side, in which each frame is a mere 4mm wide.

But I loved it anyway.  To me, it wasn't just a toy, it was an experience. One drove the basic tin cars through the entrance, parked and waited for the show to begin.  And because it was illuminated by a standard flashlight bulb, the room was required to be pitch dark for maximum effect.  It came with a 'light shield' (made of black, heavy stock paper) in case you wanted to view it in daylight hours, but who goes to the drive-in during the middle of the day?

There were even cardboard inserts to display the evening's double feature.  The stories themselves were not terribly exciting, of course, but as opposed to say, a Give-a-Show Projector set, there were enough panels to convey the bare essentials of a story including a beginning, a middle and an end.  For example, Mighty Mouse goes to the moon and discovers rather hostile aliens.  At the end, it's revealed to be a mere dream.  

The projection booth.  One pulls or pushes the plastic cone to adjust focus (it never gets terribly sharp).  One obvious omission was a refreshment stand.

 As you can see, there's no masking for the image.

 This feature is based on the television program, Have Gun - Will Travel, starring Richard Boone (1957 -1963). Though it's hard to imagine it now, it was one of several half hour dramas produced for television at that time.

Below, the TV commercial starring Patty Duke a few years before she starred on Broadway in The Miracle Worker.  The person who posted this video thoughtfully provided information about the toy and Remco.

The Enduring Legend that is the Edsel

Even those who know little about 1950s cars have probably have at least heard of the Edsel, even if they'd never actually seen one.  I had only just turned four years old when the car was introduced in the autumn of 1957, but I distinctly remember watching when after all the considerable hoopla, it was finally unveiled on television. My mother said, "They've got to be kidding!  That's ugly!" As it turned out, she wasn't alone her assessment.

Promotional model cars were given away at every new Edsel dealership to every adult who came by for a test drive or probably merely to ask for one.  Here's mine. Even now, fifty-six years later, the 1958 models can easily be found any given day on ebay. Following are the 1959 and 1960 promo models.

Promotional model of the 1958 Edsel, given away free to anyone who came in to test drive an Edsel to give to junior as a plaything.  The warpage is typical of plastic used in promo models of that era.

Promotional model of the 1959 Edsel.  The design became more conservative, but the distinctive vertical grille remained.

Promotional model of the 1960 Edsel, the rarest Edsel.  The rarest of all Edsels is the 1960 Edsel convertible, of which very few are known to survive.  The distinctive grille was dropped, though the taillights pick up the concept.  The full-sized Ford had a very similar silhouette.  A few months after the 1960s were introduced, the Edsel was gone forever.

Edsel was designed by Roy Brown, Jr., who only recently died at age 96.  Roy had also supervised the design work for the amazing 1955 Lincoln Futura concept car, which eventually became the iconic Batmobile for the 1960s television series.  A comprehensive page for the Futura is here, and I've previously posted some pictures of it here.  To me it's a pity that Ford didn't just go ahead and manufacture the Futura if they really wanted to do something daring and different.

Now and then I wonder:  what might have happened if the Edsel had been a success and endured as a Ford division? Because I bought the book Edsel - The Motor Industry's Titanic some years ago, I remembered that Roy was still thinking about this, too.

I didn't know until tonight he had done other drawings which appear here as part of a very entertaining and informative website about the Edsel.

The Reatta poses in Laughlin Park

My friend Richard Stanley lives in Laughlin Park, where Cecil B. DeMille, Charlie Chaplin and W.C. Fields built their Hollywood mansions.  The Reatta posed for his camera here and there in the neighborhood.

 

It seems the Reatta was inspired by the 1983 Buick Questor show car.  

The Questor had two computer screens, predicting GPS, back-up camera, and touch-command controls.  While GPS and back-up cameras were a little further in the future, a very similar touch-command screen did indeed turn up on the Reatta and other high-end GM models.

1989 Reatta restoration complete!

 This was a long, six month process (see earlier posts) but the old gal is finally finished. More pictures will follow.

Louisville, KY movie ads on December 10, 1957

All that's left of the Ohio is its facade and marquee.  Likewise, only part of the Uptown exists and is now a restaurant.  The Rialto, one of Louisville's largest and most impressive movie palaces, was torn down soon after playing the 1967 Rex Harrison musical, Doctor Dolittle.  The Crescent, always known as a neighborhood art theater, has long been converted into a restaurant.  The Westend and Cozy are long gone.  The Brown became a legit theatre many years ago, and continues as such to this day.

Neighborhood theaters, all gone.

The Mary Anderson was one of the older theaters in downtown Louisville.  Part of an office building, it was gutted long ago.  The Kentucky still exists, though gutted and repurposed.  The drive-ins are all gone.  

The Lowe's & United Artists was an unusual corporate sharing of one theater when it was built in 1928. John Eberson, famed for his atmospheric theaters, designed it.  In the early 1960s, the balcony was converted into the Penthouse while the downstairs became the United Artists, eventually inheriting the Rialto's Cinerama screen, which they touted as D-150, though neither movie shot in the process -- Patton nor The Bible...in the Beginning played there.  It is now known as The Louisville Palace and has been completely restored.

Memorial Auditorium, a handsome Greek revival-style venue, still exists.  Who knew that Paulette Goddard toured in The Waltz of the Toreadors?  In 1958, Melvyn Douglas took it back to Broadway with Betty Field.  Perhaps Paulette had had enough.

Merry Christmas from Stewart's Dry Goods, Louisville, KY

This charming watercolor graced the cover of Stewart's catalog sometime mid-century.  Stewart's was the Bloomingdale's of Louisville, and like most regional department stores, it no longer exists.  The flagship store downtown was saved, at least, and is now an office building.  More information is on this excellent department store museum site.

My Mother's Big Moment, December 10, 1957

December 10, 1957:  a bank robbery so large in suburban Louisville, KY it was picked up on the wire and the robbers didn't even get the fame they deserved.  It all took place at the Citizens Fidelity Bank branch at Dixie Manor Shopping Center.  My mother, who was the bank secretary, stole it from them.  As she later told me many times, the robbers came in waving guns and said "Everyone out front."  "Well, I was already out front," she told me.  "I thought they meant outside, so that's where I went!  I didn't even have a sweater!  I was freezing!  I heard one of them say, 'Hey, where's she going!' but I didn't think he meant me until I turned around and saw I was the only one out on the sidewalk.  So I ran until I saw a lineman up on a telephone pole.  He called the police." In the complete article which follows, you'll detect a slightly different version.

My aunt, who was in college in Missouri, read about it in the St. Louis paper.  When my mother told grandfather on the telephone that 'we were held up today but I'm okay,' he replied "Oh, all right," rather nonchalantly, assuming she was referring to being held up in traffic.

Soon afterwards, a periodical of some sort speculated that since my mother walked out of the bank unscathed, it was rather hard to believe she wasn't in on the scheme, even referring to her as a 'cheap blonde.'  Oh, how I wish they'd kept a copy!  More troubling was a letter we received.  Angry at her interference, someone, perhaps even a cheap blonde, threatened to kidnap me!  The police weren't convinced it was to be taken seriously as I recall.  I was never kidnapped, so I presume they were right.

The sentencing, December 10, 1958.  No mention of George.