Atkinson & Williams Ford Ad – Feb. 24, 1958

I couldn’t resist posting this ad for Lorain’s Atkinson & Williams Ford dealership, which was located on Kansas Avenue.

The whimsical ad, which ran in the Lorain Journal on February 24, 1958 shows how much automobile advertising has changed in the last sixty years.

Courtesy auction.howardlowery.com

The ad stars a cute, kilt-wearing, bagpipe-playing Scottish bear. (I did a post last month about the ubiquitous Scottish thrift theme that seemed to dominate 1950s advertising.)

In this ad, each piped toot of his instrument represents another feature of the Ford Custom 300 Tudor, such as whitewall tires, two-tone paint, gold anodized side molding, turn indicators, gunsight fender ornaments, special chrome headlight trim, deluxe interior and Magic Aire heater.

The bear kind of reminds me of the little-known Disney character Bongo (at right).

Anyway, perhaps some marketing executive at Ford realized that they needed a more sophisticated advertising approach than bagpipe-playing bears. The very next year, the Peanuts characters made their TV debut in a commercial for Ford and its “Economy Twins” – the Falcon and the Fairlane 500.

I like the cute, natural voices of Linus and Lucy in this early TV appearance.

Krantz Hardware Building Design Unveiled – Feb. 22, 1906

Last fall I spent a lot of time looking at microfilm at the library trying to find an article about the Thistle Building from the time it was first built.

It seems that I found almost every new building on Broadway from that era except the Thistle Building (such as the Duane Building).

Well, here’s another one. Above is the front page illustration with caption announcing the upcoming construction of the new Krantz Hardware Company building. Its location was described as the southwest corner of Broadway and Franklin Street (today’s Fifth Street).

The building would be better known as the longtime home of Lorain Hardware (run by the Krantz family).

The 1924 Lorain Tornado would strip the building of its top floor and roof. You can see the damage in the photo below, courtesy of the Lorain Historical Society.

The building’s facade was later hidden by a Mansard-style roof, giving it a more modern appearance as seen in this photo, also courtesy of the Lorain Historical Society.

Today, the building has been restored to its original, ornate appearance. 

Washington's Birthday Sale – Feb. 21, 1958

In honor of George Washington’s Birthday (on Thursday), here’s a page of a special shopping section that ran in the Lorain Journal on Friday, February 21, 1958 – 60 years ago today.

It’s kind of a wacky sales theme, combining the celebration of the birthday of the Father of Our Country with a “We’ve Gone Mad!” theme in which "Madman Muntz" and his TVs seem right at home.

The ad includes a roll call of many other well-remembred Lorain stores, including Louis Cohn, Kresge’s, Kline’s, Cane’s Surplus Store, Penney’s, Wissman’s, and the Style Center.

I like the little pieces of George Washington clip art that are dropped into some of the ads, especially the one of Li’l George blowing out candles on a birthday cake.

Early Days of Kentucky Fried Chicken in Lorain County

I love chicken pot pies, and a discussion about them at work recently resulted in my having to stop at Kentucky Fried Chicken to pick one up for dinner that night. (That’s the power of suggestion for you.)

As someone who really pays attention to advertising and packaging, I was pleasantly surprised to see that the box the pot pie came in had a fun, retro design with the full company name. It even had a vintage illustration of Colonel Sanders himself.

Here’s a better look at the box lid.

That got me to wondering : “When did Kentucky Fried Chicken first arrive in Lorain County?”

Well, back when Colonel Sanders launched his fried chicken empire in the 1950s, he first enlisted franchisees who would put Kentucky Fried Chicken on the menu in their own established restaurants. One of the earliest and biggest franchisees was Kenny King of Cleveland.

Thus in Northeast Ohio, many of us were first introduced to the Colonel’s chicken through Kenny King’s. The restaurant also had other things on their menu, such as the “Big King” steak burger.

Vintage city directories and phone books indicate that one of the earliest Kenny King's offering Kentucky Fried Chicken in Lorain County was at 903 Telegraph Road (State Route 113). It first showed up in the Elyria phone book in October of 1961.

Here’s the ad from the 1962 Elyria directory.

Here’s a color photo of a bucket similar to the one shown in the ad.

And here's a Kenny King's newspaper ad from the Lorain Journal of August 2, 1963.

Here’s a later ad, from the 1967 Elyria directory. Note that the Telegraph Road address is still the only restaurant in the area.

Also of interest is the use of the same Colonel Sanders illustration that was found on my pot pie box.

Even as late as 1968, the only local Kenny King’s was in Elyria. Here’s a coupon that ran in the Lorain Journal on March 20, 1968.

It looks like Kenny King’s did not make it into Lorain until the early 70s, with a Kenny King’s Carryout listed at 4300 Oberlin Avenue in the 1971-72 Lorain Phone Book.

Here's a June 29, 1973 ad from the Lorain Journal. Note that a new illustration of the Colonel was being used.

A year later, Lorain had two outlets: 4300 Oberlin Avenue and 1725 Henderson Drive. Here’s a 1974-75 phone book ad listing both of them.

Although the Lorain restaurants were Kenny King’s in the early days, my parents didn’t refer to them as such when they wanted Kentucky Fried Chicken. It was always, “How about some Colonel Sander’s for dinner?”

Anyway, in recent years the corporation has embraced its original name, utilizing it in advertising and signage along with the shortened name KFC. I’m sure the Colonel would be proud.

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UPDATE (March 12, 2018)

I enjoyed a big ol' bucket of Kentucky Fried Chicken last week and was pleasantly surprised to see that it had a nice retro design, just like the pot pie box. It's a nice counterbalance to the goofy TV commercials with the celebrity Colonels.

St. Joseph’s Hospital to Enlarge – Feb. 19, 1907

Although the oldest wings of the former St. Joseph Hospital building were torn down three years ago, it will remain a big part of many Lorainites’ collective memories.

One hundred and eleven years ago today, the hospital unveiled the architectural rendering of the new structure on the front page of the Lorain Daily News of Feb. 19, 1907.

Here’s the story as it appeared in the paper that day. (Part of the article was unreadable due to the age of the paper and quality of the microfilm, and I have indicated that in my transcription.)

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New Wing, Nucleus of Future Enlarged St. Joseph’s Hospital

The accompanying photograph shows the new addition to St. Joseph’s hospital the designs of which have just been completed by Architect H. E. Ford. The building is the first of a group of four wings. It will be built on the north side of the present structure and will have a frontage of 100 feet on Penfield avenue and 40 feet on Kent street. It will be of brick, three stories high and will be absolutely fireproof and will cost $20,000. The building will be connected to the present building by passage ways nine feet in width.

The basement will be used for a clinic and free dispensary. The second floor will contain four large rooms with toilet and other rooms, including diet dining room. The upper floor will have thirteen small ward rooms with one or two beds each. There will be toilet rooms, linen rooms and diet dining rooms. Plans will be prepared so that the contractors can bid within two weeks and work will commence as soon as the contract [unreadable].

As soon as possible another wing will be built on the south side of the present building which will connect the two front wings by an administration building. From the north and south buildings there will extend westerly two other wings so that the present frame structure will be completely surrounded.

The whole building, when completed, will have a frontage of 235 feet on Penfield avenue and will cost over $150,000.

****

I never realized that St. Joseph Hospital had been built in stages as described in the article.

You can see the transition as it unfolds in the vintage postcards below. (I’ve included postmark years when they were available.)

1910

1916

1932

1936

1944

Grand Opening of Fisher Foods at Westgate – Feb. 1958

Well, it's Friday – and back in the 60s and 70s, that meant it was grocery shopping day in the Brady Household. (I still tend to do it on Friday.) So it's a good day to post this full-page ad.

It's the Grand Opening ad for the new Fisher Foods store that was located at the Westgate Shopping Center at 21st and Leavitt in Lorain. The ad for the regional grocery store giant with the longtime Lorain presence ran in the Lorain Journal on Feb. 19, 1958 – 60 years ago this month.

As the Wiki link above noted, Fisher Foods eventually merged with the Fazio’s chain of stores.

It’s strange thinking about how many big grocery store chains are either no longer in Lorain (Kroger’s, Sparkle) or kaput altogether (A&P, Pick-N-Pay, Finast, Fazio’s).

Back in 2011, I did a post about going grocery shopping as a kid with Mom back here.

Anyway, here’s a 2012 view of the former Fisher Foods location at Westgate.

And here’s an October 2016 view of most of the shopping center, looking somewhat worse.

And finally, here’s a recent view.

A “Super" Way to Spend an Afternoon

Since I work in Cleveland, I’m usually loath to turn around and go back into town after work for any reason. However, a ‘super’ suggestion by a co-worker convinced me to make the trek into Downtown Cleveland on a Saturday afternoon.

What brought me back into town? The terrific exhibit at the Cleveland Public Library – Superman: From Cleveland to Krypton. It's on display through March 31, 2018. If you're a fan of the Man of Steel and want to learn about his Cleveland roots, it's an impressive exhibit not to be missed.

Here's the link to its page on the Cleveland Public Library website.

Large backdrops with er, super graphics tell the story.

The exhibit features tons of memorabilia and artifacts in display cases from several well-known collections. Just about anything related to Superman that you can think of is on display, including original comic strip art, original costumes from the TV series and movies, rare photographs, posters, toys, lunch boxes, cereal boxes, autographed items – you name it, it's there.

It's all methodically organized and displayed in a beautifully-designed setting that is almost overwhelming to a nostalgia buff. Music, clips and sounds from the TV series and movies play in the background as well. I found myself strangely choked up as I took it all in and confronted various pop culture artifacts that made me feel like a kid again.

The funny thing is, my introduction to Superman as a kid was only through watching the Adventures of Superman TV series that ran on one of the UHF channels after school. We never had any of the comic books. To us, the guy on TV (George Reeves) was Superman.

There was an advertisement (below) featuring Superman (promoting the Palisades Amusement Park in New Jersey) that ran in the back of the DC Comics (The Adventures of Bob Hope and The Adventures of Jerry Lewis) we did have around the house.

Anyway, if you're a fan of one or all of the various comic book, TV and movie incarnations of Superman, you won't want to miss this terrific exhibit at the Cleveland Public Library.