Back-to-School Show at the Palace – Sept 2, 1964

Remember the summer movie series for kids in Lorain?

Well, here's a Lorain Palace Theater ad for a back-to-school show aimed at kids that ran in the Lorain Journal on Sept. 2, 1964. In the good old days, kids didn't start school until after Labor Day.

Not only did the moviegoing kids get to see six cartoons (which I assume included classic Tom and Jerrys) and a feature, but they also received a nifty pencil box filled with school supplies. All for 40 cents!

It's funny thinking how in the 1960s school supplies used to consist mainly of pencils, paste, scissors, a ruler, maybe a protractor, etc. Now in 2012 (depending on their grade level) elementary school kids in Sheffield Lake also have to bring Kleenex, wipes, hand sanitizers, head phones, and paper towels. (Here's the actual list). Avon Lake's list is even longer, including such things as USB flash drives.

Yessir, times change.

But getting back to that Palace promotion. It seems the feature film was ahead of its time. Interestingly, it was a 1960 Japanese anime film about a monkey, and one of the earliest of that type of film released in this county according to this Wiki entry. To make the film more appealing to audiences for its U.S. release, a soundtrack was prepared featuring the voices of Jonathan Winters, Arnold Stang and Sterling Holloway (the original voice of Winnie-the-Pooh) as well as the singing voice of Frankie Avalon.

Nevertheless the ad is a throwback to simpler times, when kids had a longer summer, and all it took was a cartoon marathon to make them happy.

****

Hey, Dennis Lamont just informed me that part of Alakazam the Great is on YouTube. It's a random assortment of clips, but you get a pretty good idea of what those Lorain kids sat through 48 years ago at the Palace.

Sterling Holloway is the narrator, Arnold Stang is the mustachioed Lulipopol, and I believe Jonathan Winters is the pig character.

Can't Bear the "New" Smokey Bear

Classic Smokey Bear Poster

Anyone who has followed this blog for a while knows that I have a real fondness for classic advertising mascots. And one of my all-time favorites is Smokey Bear.

It's probably because my family camped so much at National Parks, as well as State Parks, in the 1960s. Inevitably, there would be Smokey Bear signs in the ranger stations, on park kiosks and even on some trees in the camping areas.

Although Smokey had a very serious message, the bear was so gentle and likable that it was easy to see why he was a favorite of kids.

That's why I was so disappointed to see a billboard last week on the way home from work featuring the brash "new" Smokey Bear that's currently featured in a TV campaign.

What's that? You didn't know there was a new version of the beloved fire prevention spokesbear? Sadly, there is – and I pretty much dislike him. Here's what the billboard – seen from I-90 Westbound just past the W. 117th Street exit – looks like (below).

This "new" Smokey has shaggy, computer-generated fur and realistic eyes. But what he doesn't have is heart. He looks like he could rip you apart limb from limb with his bear, uh bare hands – and then scoop up the remains with his shovel!

Not to be completely negative, I think the current TV commercials are somewhat clever and entertaining. But I still think Smokey looks far too menacing – and needlessly "realistic" – especially his muzzle.

The "new" Smokey is also featured exclusively on the Smokey Bear website (below) with the classic Smokey relegated to the history section.

Anyways, I prefer the old panda-like Smokey. Remember when he looked like this (below)?

You could tell right away that he was a friend of children and his fellow forest animals.

Through the years, Smokey appeared on countless posters, and in a variety of books and comics that reinforced that strong connection to kids.

He also appeared in animated TV commercials like this one (below) that appealed to kids. Smokey makes a cameo near the end of the spot, which is narrated by Paul Frees.

The "new" computer-generated Smokey is annoying to me because the creative team involved makes no attempt to breath life into the beloved character that all of us have known throughout our lives using the wonderful technology that is available. Instead, they redesigned Smokey's classic, well-known appearance and personality (that have been consistent since the 1940s) into something more "hip" and realistic – thus removing almost all of the goodwill and equity in the original image.

I can barely bear this new bear.

However, all is not lost. The "new" Smokey's appearance seems to be limited to the TV campaign and the website. You can still purchase lots of items featuring the classic Smokey Bear through a quarterly catalog published by Woodland Enterprises (below) by special agreement with the U.S. Government.

Here's the link to the company's website, where you can shop online or request a printed catalog.

Anyway, here's hoping the new CGI Smokey attracts some attention with the TV campaign, and then quietly disappears into the woods.

Readers Reminisce about Giant Tiger & Gaylords

Since my posts on Giant Tiger and Gaylords, I received a few emails from friends about shopping at those two stores.

Sandy from Sheffield Lake emailed me to tell me about her 1967 Giant Tiger memory. "I remember being in the checkout line at Giant Tiger with my Mom, Dad and brother," she said.

And then it happened: her brother accidentally sprayed automotive de-icer into his eyes.

"I didn't see it happen," she said, "but all of a sudden, my brother was whisked away to the emergency room at St. Joe's. I remember the massive eye patch that he came home with."

Sandy was only four at the time – and she can't remember if her father ever bought the de-icer he needed!

"Now stuff is so securely packed you almost need an engineering degree to get things open," she notes.

Meanwhile, historian and archivist Dennis Lamont emailed me to tell me about a memorable purchase from Gaylords.

Dennis worked in management for many years at the steel mill. "It was very convenient having a store like that right outside the plant gate," he noted.

"I bought my first pocket calculators there for $9.95 each. One for me and one for our department clerk," he remembered. Before the calculators, Dennis pointed out that they "still had the ancient mechanical calculators" where you had to "turn the crank toward you to add and away from you to subtract."

"With the pocket calculator, it was instant and we were amazed, it took so little" he remembered. "This was back in the days when spreadsheets were 11x17 blue ruled paper with a red double line column marker to the left, carbon paper and #2 pencils, no xerox machines, etc."

Special thanks to Sandy and Dennis for their anecdotes!

Gaylords is Destroyed – April 1974

(Journal photo by Michael Pugh)

I did a post about the former Giant Tiger/Gaylords building on Monday, and a few of the comments (including one by Alan Hopewell) mentioned the storm that "blew the roof in."

Well, here's a photo (above) of just that. It ran on April 15, 1974 (just as Alan remembered) on the front page of the Lorain Journal with headline, "Gaylords Store Destroyed As 'Hurricane' Wind Hits." No one was in the building when the roof caved in because the store was closed as it was Easter Sunday.

The article included a brief interview with the builder, Alex Fodor of Alex Fodor Realty Company, Cleveland. He stated that he had "absolutely no idea" why the roof toppled under the winds.

"The construction was 100 percent correct," said Fodor. He added, "It was architect supervised and built according to plans."

Strangely enough, at the time of the disaster the building was owned by the Journal.

The article also had a photo of the building as it looked prior to the disaster (below).

The Giant Tiger Mascot

One of the funnier aspects of the regional Giant Tiger chain (for me anyway) was their appropriation of the most famous and beloved cartoon tiger used in advertising to moonlight as their mascot.

I'm talking of course about Tony the Tiger.

I can't imagine that Kellogg's would have approved, but nevertheless Tony the Tiger himself appeared in many Giant Tiger ads that appeared in the Lorain Journal during 1967 and 1968. The first time I saw it, I imagined that it was just some lowly paste-up artist's idea of a gag. (After all, I was a paste-up artist at one time and I would have thought it was an amusing thing to do.) But then I saw that Tony's appearance in the ads was a regular thing that went on for quite a while.

There was even a logo arrangement with Tony right next to the company's name (see above).

No doubt Kellogg's provided newspapers with clip art sheets for use when laying out one of their cereal ads; perhaps in this case, the Giant Tiger artist – fighting a last-minute deadline – thought,"Oh well, a tiger's a tiger!" and then slapped the Gr-r-reat One onto the ad.

Anyway, about a year ago, I happened to be scrounging around in a thrift store in Cleveland (appropriately enough called the Unique Thrift Store) where I found this scrap of paper in the records section (below). It reveals that maybe at one time, another tiger prowled around in the Giant Tiger ads.

Giant Tiger Grand Opening August 1967

Here's an ad for the grand opening of a store that many of you longtime Lorainites will remember: Giant Tiger, at 20th and Elyria Avenue. The ad ran in the Lorain Journal on August 23, 1967 – 45 years ago – announcing the store's opening the next day.

The ad artwork is a little jangled looking; the words DISCOUNT STORE are jammed in there pretty good. But's a nice illustration of the building.

A small, front page Journal article that same day read, "Mayor Woodrow Mathna and Miss Lorain County, Jan Musarra of Avon, will assist in brief ribbon-cutting ceremonies, which, in turn, will launch a three-day spree of special events, prizes and gifts.

Captain Penny

"Tomorrow at 7 p.m. Captain Penny, Cleveland television personality, will chat with youngsters and provide free autographed photos. Saturday afternoon Cleveland Browns football stars Paul Wiggin and Dick Schafrath will visit with customers.

"There will also be live bands, surprise guest stars; free gifts for everyone with a color television topping the list."

****

I don't think we ever shopped at Giant Tiger. There were just too many other stores closer to us (such as Big Town) or on the way to Midway Mall (such as Ontario). It would have been fun to meet Captain Penny at the grand opening, though!

Giant Tiger was sold to Gaylords in 1968. I don't think we shopped there either, although I remember at least one TV commercial for Gaylords that featured Cleveland Indian pitcher Gaylord Perry.

Here is a photo of the former Giant Tiger/Gaylords property on Elyria Avenue today (it's for sale).

Here's an interesting link with some additional information on the former Giant Tiger building on a blog called Dead and Dying retail! If you look along the left side of the blog, there is a listing of Ohio links.

Penfield Grocery Store Then and Now

Shortly after my post a few weeks ago about the August 1967 closing of the Penfield Grocery Store, I got an email from blog buddy Drew Penfield, who let me know that the former grocery store building was indeed still standing on Route 18 in Penfield Township, at the intersection with Route 301.

I should have known to ask a Penfield in the first place!

Anyway, I happened to be in Wellington last week during my vacation, and decided to take a drive down Route 18 and see what the building looked like these days. It looked slightly run-down in the vintage photo (at left).

To my surprise, the building was still in great shape and currently for sale, listed by Lisa Eyring of Russell Real Estate Services. The online listing describes it as an updated Century home that is zoned both residential and commercial.

Driving by the place today with its grassy front yard, you would never know the place was a grocery store and gas station, and very important to Penfield at one time.