Retrologist's Roadside Roundup: Old-school Federal Express sign revealed; a beloved NYC sign gets TLC; architect sets record straight on LA icon; a Very Brady real-estate deal
Plus, NYC's war on rats is not easy on the eyes; saying farewell to old diners and welcome back to others; and many more stories from the American road.
When Federal Express was founded in 1973, it was an instant success. There was a deep need for rapid shipment of packages that the U.S. Postal Service and UPS were not meeting, and the company grew quickly.
Wait, what is Federal Express? If you are of a certain age, born after the late 1980s, you may not realize that FedEx was once called Federal Express.
Almost as soon as the company went into business, people began to shorten its name to FedEx. It just rolled off the tongue. Eventually, the company took the hint, and began to move in that direction, starting with an early FedEx logo in 1991. It went all the way in 1994, when the current FedEx logo was introduced — with the arrow cleverly embedded (see below) — and the name was officially changed to its nickname.
However, I’ve never forgotten FedEx’s nomenclatural roots, in part because Federal Express’ advertising game was strong. To this day, I still think of its commercials featuring the fast-speaking businessman, played by John Moschitta, and its slogan: “Federal Express, when it absolutely, positively has to be there overnight.”
When my pal Thomas Rinaldi stumbled upon this uncovered sign for Federal Express at 56 Duane St. in lower Manhattan, he reached out, knowing I would flip. He knows me well.
I one-upped Federal Express, at least its old slogan, not getting there overnight, but absolutely, positively arriving with camera in hand in just a few hours, for fear the old sign would be gone as fast as a coast-to-coast FedEx delivery.
This sign in recent years was concealed by one for H&R Block, which recently closed this location.
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The Lancaster County blues …
This wonderful Blue Ball Town Hall Restaurant in Blue Ball, Pennsylvania, is no more, americansquares reports on Instagram.
The restaurant opened in 1955 and closed last December when the owner retired. Check Leah Frances’ excellent Instagram for her lovely photos and the painful last shot of what it looks like today.
These are my photos from a visit in June 2016.
RELATED (well, geographically): The Grand China restaurant in nearby North Manheim Township is closing after 49 years. [WHTM]
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For the last time, it’s not a stack of records!
No less an authority than the architect of the Capitol Records building in Hollywood insists it was NOT meant to resemble a stack of records. But the myth will persist, as these things always do, and Louis Naidorf, who was a pup of 24 when he designed the building back in 1953, seems resigned to the myth’s indestructibility.
“The building was not designed as a cartoon or a giggle. To have it trivialized with the stack-of-records myth is annoying and dismaying,” he tells the Los Angeles Times in an excellent new article. “There’s not a thing on the building that doesn’t have a solid purpose to it.”
He didn’t even know initially for whom he was designing the building and was only briefed on the criteria the client was seeking. Nonetheless, the head of Capitol Records initially rejected the design as a “cheap stunt” by a young architect looking to make a name for himself, assuming it was meant to resemble, you guessed it, a stack of records.
So why was the building design based on stacked circles? Explains reporter Pamela Chelin:
Naidorf then had an epiphany: The project’s requirements were “eerily resonant” with a series of circular buildings he had designed for his master’s thesis in college. “The round shape is a very efficient enclosure of space,” he says. “You get more bang for your buck.”
How about the spire on top? No, it’s NOT a turntable spindle, especially considering it’s off-center. Naidorf describes it as the building’s “grace note” and placed the antenna that way to knock down any talk that the building was designed to look like a pile of records.
That didn’t work.
Naidorf is 95 now and basking in adulation from new generations discovering his work, but even if he lives another 95 years, which I hope he does, he’ll spend it explaining that the Capitol Records building is not meant to represent what it looks like — a pile of records!
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NYC’s war on rats gets ugly …
New York City Mayor Eric Adams commended beloved corner hot dog restaurant Gray’s Papaya for being a model citizen in the “war on rats.”
The city is rolling out “rat-proof” trash containers, in which all city businesses will be required to place their garbage bags by March of next year. The thinking is this will keep millions of pounds of trash off city sidewalks daily, denying rats a cherished and easy food source.
As you can see from the photo below, Gray's is already on the case and was lauded by Hizzoner. While I hate dirty, smelly streets and the rats they attract as much as the next guy, I must say these trash bins are hideous. And they’re going to be everywhere in no time flat.
They are just so ugly and are going to foul up our streets. People in Harlem, where residential trash bins have been piloted, are rightfully disgusted by how ugly those are, too, Gothamist reports.
I’m not saying the idea isn’t a good one — it is — but couldn’t some aesthetic considerations have been taken into account when these containers were designed, especially if they are going to be on so many streets? Surely, some innovative industrial designers would love to nibble at this idea, with the same zeal as a rat dragging a discarded slice of pizza through the subway.
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May this sign never bounce …
My friends at Noble Signs are sprucing up one of New York’s most beloved signs: Canal Rubber on Canal Street!
“Like clockwork, every 50 years or so, we clean and fix up our sign. Working with @noblesigns to keep us looking our best,” Canal Rubber wrote on Instagram.
It’s wonderful when a business that cares about its legacy teams up with a company that cares about the legacy of our streetscape as much as Noble Signs does.
I love the simple response Canal Rubber had to a comment begging them not to change that sign:
“Wouldn’t dare.”
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A ‘Rose’ by any other name just wouldn’t be the same …
The Red Rose Diner in Towanda, Pennsylvania, is reopening. The classic diner, which was moved to this Pennsylvania borough 20 years ago, closed back in 2017, and its future has been in doubt since.
The diner is right on historic Route 6, one of America’s early transcontinental highways, and the Pennsylvania stretch is a favorite drive of mine, worthy of its own detailed newsletter one day!
Taking on the Towanda diner, Cannella didn’t realize at first how deeply the name was ingrained in the community.
“I was not going to keep the name Red Rose,” said Cannella. “But I would be two hours away and people knew. Everyone knew it by that (name), so there’s no way I can change the name.”
I guess I’ll be making my way here soon.
Signposts Up Ahead!
New York’s revered Tenement Museum on the Lower East Side has reopened after a $7 million renovation. [New York Times]
The old Pizza Hut in Emmaus, Pennsylvania, is about to become … a Dominos! [WFMZ]
Talk about a “Downer.” Milwaukee’s oldest operating theater, which goes by that name, has closed after 108 years. But it may not be the last picture show if the group Milwaukee Film has anything to say about it. [Urban Milwaukee]
The Rincon Criollo Cuban restaurant in Corona, Queens, was set to close on Saturday, after extending its final day by almost a month. A second location is thriving on Long Island, and they hope to open another one there. This was one of my favorite Cuban restaurants, and New York can sure use ‘em. The restaurant dates to 1976, but its roots trace to the Cuba of the 1950s. [Rincon Criollo Facebook page]
New York’s Paris Cafe is celebrating 150 years in business with special dining and drinking deals. It’s been a rough decade for this restaurant in the South Street Seaport district, from Superstorm Sandy to the pandemic, so come out and support them. [amNewYork]
Movieland Cinemas, a mainstay of Coram on Long Island, has closed, citing a decline in foot traffic at the mall where it is based. "Obviously, we're sorry that we had to close but ... we can't sustain a business that's losing money," owner Michael Dostaler told Newsday. Covid and the rise of streaming were cited as factors, too.
Jordan Desner, who owned the theater for 15 years before Dostaler, said he hopes it will reopen eventually.
According to the website Cinema Treasures, a guide to movie theaters, Movieland Cinemas opened as the Pine Cinema in 1973.
Long Island’s independent cinemas — a mix of mom-and-pops and smaller chains — were already struggling against a tide of streaming content when the pandemic forced them to close their doors in March 2020. Many returned to business later that year, but some went permanently dark, including the Squire Cinemas in Great Neck, the Franklin Square Cinemas, the Merrick Cinemas V and the Herricks Cinemas 4. The total number of movie screens in the United States shrank to 39,007 last year, a drop of about 5% from 2019 figures, according to the National Cinema Foundation.
The Brady Bunch House sold for below ask in Studio City, California, but is in very good hands, hands that I hope open the door for me one day so I can visit!
The “Halloween” house is now on the market, primed to move for the spooky season! [KTLA]
A Schlitz-built tavern is reopening in Chicago as East Side Tap, reports the Chicago Tribune. The beer company’s logo is built into the brickwork. The Tribune story is paywalled; here’s an earlier look at the plans from Book Club Chicago.
The bad news: Cupid Hot Dogs in Northridge, California is closing …
… and in Minneapolis, the Band Box Diner is reopening after a long Covid-related closure.
And more good news. The iconic White Hut Burgers of West Springfield, Massachusetts, has opened a new location, in Holyoke, Massachusetts.
And P.S. …
Happy first day of fall from the Harvest Drive-in in Marion, North Carolina. Sadly, the diner closed after 61 years this past July. You’d order your meal from a telephone at your booth! When I drove by in 2021, it was closed for the day so I never got to experience this beauty, but I’m glad I stopped for photos.
My watchful buddy Josh took me to that Blue Ball diner on one of its last days. I was glad to get in there. Let me know when you're coming out to Lancaster county or city. We can check out some cool digs! And thanks for alerting me to the Towanda diner that's a twin sister to the Wellsboro Diner that I've been to many times. Route 6 Six is a real gem.
I worked as an admin assist in my salad days and for years afterwards, I had the 1-800 number for FedEx memorized because I used it so often. I think I still do, though I imagine it's been changed. 1-800-238-5355. When it absolutely positively has to be there overnight. And back in those days, IT WAS or they refunded your money.
Also Capitol Records guy should get over himself because the idea of it being a stack of records with a spindle is exponentially cooler than whatever claptrap he's mumbling about