Vintage neon signs

[2jakes]

A diner with a warning sign. Nice!

Hot dogs which have been cooked
by NYC central subway system perhaps?

 

[Fading Fast]

View attachment 137152 View attachment 137151 View attachment 137150

Been to two of these places, Union Oyster House in Boston (very touristy, but still, the building is ancient and the restaurant does have its history) and Sarges deli in NYC (old, not ancient, NYC deli that hasn't been "discovered" and which was recently in a scene from HBO's "The Deuce" set in the early '70s).

 

[2jakes]

The city that never sleeps!

 

[Ghostsoldier]

Neon vice.

Rob

 

[2jakes]

Neon madness...

There goes the hotdog, cotton candy, peanuts, corn on
a stick and my Dr. Pepper...darn...
I’m hungry again!

 

[2jakes]

 

[LizzieMaine]

All that and World War Too. It's very disappointing that stubby little Alan Ladd doesn't actually *play* Hitler in this film. Could have been quite a career move for him.

 

[Fading Fast]

All that and World War Too. It's very disappointing that stubby little Alan Ladd doesn't actually *play* Hitler in this film. Could have been quite a career move for him.

Surprised I had never heard of the movie. As to Ladd, his IMDB height lists him as 5' 6-1/4" (as if quarter inches in height is even a thing). Also, 98% of men under, oh about, 5' 10" lie about their height; for women, the lying starts around sub 5' 4".

One smart career move vertically challenged Ladd did was team up with vertically challenged Veronica Lake (listed as 4' 11-1/2", as if the 1/2" matters at that point) to make one of the best noir teams and some very good noir movies.

 

[2jakes]

Before TV
Throughout the ‘30s & ‘40s, folks flocked to their local movie theaters
to be scared out of their wits.

"Midnight ghost shows (sometimes called “spook,” “voodoo,” or
monster shows) promised a night of creepy and playful stunts.
There were glowing ghosts, floating objects, psychic readings
and dozens of other illusions, all playing off the nation’s
interest in spiritualism between the two World Wars.”
Matt Novak

 

[Fading Fast]

Some fun ones this morning:

This one could have come from any of the early strip malls popping up outside my town in the late '60s / '70s when I grew up and when those strip mall stores were killing the town's traditional stores



Good job capturing the ball-hits-pins-explosion moment (not sure I'd have gone with stars though)



Good fish, Interesting that they chose to advertise the feature "char broil."

 

[LizzieMaine]

The artwork on that fish looks like he's clapping a palm to his forehead in dismay at the sight of the martini. OH NO NOT AGAIN.

 

[2jakes]

Feast your eyes on the World's smallest McDonalds:

(Japan)

Ten facts to impress your friends.

1. The average wait time at McDonalds is 90 seconds.
Still it may vary depending on a location and time of day.

2. McDonalds used to sell Pizza in 1989.
The reason why they excluded Pizza from their menu is its cooking
time which is average 11 minutes.
McDonalds wanted to keep its reputation for fast service.

3. McDonalds turns away a higher percentage of applicants than
Harvard.
Harvard accepts about 7% of applicants while McDonalds accepts only 6,2%.

4. The farthest away you can be from a McDonalds in the U.S is
107 miles.
Such point is located in the state of South Dakota where you may
be 107 miles away from the location called McGriddle.

5. There are 3x the number of Chinese restaurants in the US compared
to McDonalds.
America loves Chinese kitchen, do you?

6. McDonalds and NASA planned a joint advertised space mission to the asteroid 449 Hamburga; however, it ended up being cancelled.
It could be a huge piece of unhealthy fast food advertising so maybe what happened was for the best.

7. There is a fake McDonalds used only for commercials and movies. It contains every uniform and furniture scheme for any market in the world.

For 30 years it’s been located in California.

8. McDonald’s has sold well over 100 billion hamburgers.
How many of them are yours?

9. The $8.7 billion in revenue from franchise stores alone, makes McDonald’s richer than Mongolia.
Do you agree it’s kinda disturbing?

10. McDonald’s has 761,000 employees worldwide, that’s more than the population of Luxembourg.
The number of those who wish to work for McDonalds is dozens of times higher!

 

[BobHufford]

Where are the strippers? Oh ... wait ... nevermind.

 

[2jakes]

Where are the strippers? Oh ... wait ... nevermind.

Try Dino’s on Sunset Strip!

Tell 'em you know “Kookie”...

you’ll get front row table.

 

[Ghostsoldier]

Noir.

Rob

 

[LizzieMaine]

Miles Davis? Oscar Peterson? Where's Coltrane playing?

 

[LizzieMaine]

If you listen close, you can hear Harry Reser's band playing...

At one time this was the largest electrical sign in the world. It stood atop the Hotel Normandy on Broadway, and spanned an entire block between 38th and 39th Street, and like most of the Times Square spectaculars of the mid-twenties it used a combination of neon and colored incandescent bulbs running on interruptors. The figures pulling the sled were animated to give a running effect, as the driver's whip cracked out over the blinking "Clicquot Club" lettering and the northern lights shimmered in the background. The photographer didn't catch the driver's face, but he had a big satisfied grin as he rode along. No color photos exist -- sad to say, because everyone who ever saw it remembered it as one of the most colorful displays Times Square ever had.

Pronounce it "Klee-Ko," which was also the name of the Eskimo Boy himself.

 

[3fingers]

Surprised I had never heard of the movie. As to Ladd, his IMDB height lists him as 5' 6-1/4" (as if quarter inches in height is even a thing). Also, 98% of men under, oh about, 5' 10" lie about their height; for women, the lying starts around sub 5' 4".

One smart career move vertically challenged Ladd did was team up with vertically challenged Veronica Lake (listed as 4' 11-1/2", as if the 1/2" matters at that point) to make one of the best noir teams and some very good noir movies.

The average height for men of that generation was about 5'8" give or take an inch. Ladd was short, but not dwarfish for the time. My grandfather was 6'3". He was out of high school and an adult before he met anyone taller than he was. In contrast, at 6'2" I was taller than average as a teen. My sons however are 6'3" and 6'5". While still above the average, none of us are in any way as unusual as my grandfather was in his time. Height has progressed as much as life expectancy in a few generations.

 

[2jakes]

If you listen close, you can hear Harry Reser's band playing...

Lizzie...I can hear him. He’s up there at the Knickerbocker Grill.

 

[Fading Fast]

View attachment 137569
Lizzie...I can hear him. He’s up there at the Knickerbocker Grill....

For years, where I worked overlooked (at an angle) the Knickerbocker Hotel at 42nd and Broadway (the Grill has sadly long since closed). This is how it pretty much looks today:



It's a gorgeous building despite being a bit muddled by the obnoxious retail stores it now houses at street level.

One of our conference rooms had a very good view of the Knickerbocker (the building I worked in was a brand new "all" glass tower - so it had incredibly open views) and I you could quickly tell who did and didn't like old architecture just by casually saying, before a meeting started - "hey, that's a great old looking building."