LA’s legendary Clifton’s Cafeteria is a local landmark of the highest order. It’s also my all-time favorite place to have a stuffed moose stare at me as I enjoy a tasty turkey dinner and Jell-O beside a waterfall overlooking the redwood forest mural. After I finish eating I step inside the tiny chapel and push the button to hear the prayer. After that, it’s up to the third floor ‘VIP Room’ to enjoy the Clifton’s memorabilia on display. Among the array of amazing artifacts on display is this poster from about 1960. Don’t you just love how happy daddy-o, mommy-o and junior are? That’s exactly the way I feel when I’m at Clifton’s! And, btw, please enjoy the timeless classic gold metallic and red-flocked wallpaper you can barely see behind the poster!

You can experience Clifton’s and dozens of authentic Los Angeles attractions with me this Sunday, Feb 24 or next, March 2, on my ‘Disneyland’ Tour of Downtown Los Angeles. The MAIN STREET USA, ADVENTURELAND, FRONTIERLAND, FANTASYLAND and TOMORROWLAND of the heart and soul of our city awaits you! There are a few tickets left.

For Tickets and all the info click here.

Here’s to CLIFTON’S, rediscovering Downtown Los Angeles as theme park, and YOU!

Visit Charles’ site or join his Slide of the Week Mailing List.

Here in the kingdom of Southern Californialand we don’t have a king, but we do have a queen – the Rose Queen. Her reign is brief – just a year. The Queen and her court work their way up through the charm schools and debutant balls of the San Gabriel Valley. The highest call of duty for the bevy of beauties is waving very properly to their subjects and cradling a super-sized bouquet of red roses like a baby while being strapped on a flower covered barge vehicle riding toward the morning sun of the first day of the New Year. Palm trees and crystal clear blue sky provide the picture perfect backdrop.

Without a doubt the Rose Parade is the grandest and most detailed parade on the planet. It’s run with military precision by an army of men and woman dressed in red blazers over white shirts, pants and shoes. It’s oh-so civilized. The prized show horses, champion marching bands and, most importantly, the giant, rolling flower petal art procession have been a New Years Day tradition on Colorado Boulevard since 1890. If this is not American I don’t know what is!

If you’ve never been to the parade in person WHAT are you waiting for? It’s waaaaaaaaaaaaay more dazzling and fragrant in person and a zillion times better than it is on TV. You don’t have to get there the night before to get a great spot. The trick is to get a spot at the end of the route – Colorado and Sierra Madre. Get there about 8:30AM.

DIRECTIONS: From LA take the San Bernardino Fwy (10) exit at Atlantic Blvd. Go north to Huntington Drive, turn right, then left on Sierra Madre Blvd. PARK YOUR CAR just east of Sierra Madre Blvd, on a residential side street, four or five blocks South of Colorado Blvd. Then observe the legendary spectacle somewhere near the corner of Sierra Madre and Colorado Blvd, which is near the end of the parade route.

Afterwards you’ll be starving of course. For me and the gang it’s usually a hearty-heavy-fatty lunch at the North Woods Inn, nearby at the corner of Rosemead and Huntington Drive (7247 Rosemead Blvd, San Gabriel, 626-286-8284). Please don’t forget to marvel at the fake snow on the roof.

Here’s to the Rose Parade and a Happy New year to YOU!!!

Visit Charles’ site or join his Slide of the Week Mailing List.

A serpentine, sidewalk-less, suburban street frames front lawns planted with modest winter-blooming posies. A toddler age Mexican fan palm and a street lamp flank the driveway. Both are bordered by circular cement scallops, which match the scalloped hemline on that smart felt tree skirt.

I’m not sure if the lady is modeling or working the curb!

Here’s to working a tree skirt and YOU!!!

December 17, 18, 19, 20 8:PM
Tickets and Info

Cheers!

A papered wall printed with Spanish moss hanging from tall trees separates tasteful titty-pink satin drapes. An itty-bitty day-glo airplane hangs above the four-flag centerpiece. The table is set with Franciscan’s apple pattern and fancy golden-rimmed glassware. Pickles and olives are waiting to be eaten.
»continue reading Charles Phoenix’s Slide of the Week: Bon Voyage Party, Long Beach, CA 1955

Frankenstein, Pasadena, CA 1965

Can you believe those beautiful honey blond closet doors? They have no doorknobs!

This slide was clearly marked ‘Pasadena, 1965.’ OK fine. But what I want to know is where in Pasadena in 1965 do you find Goth shoes? They don’t have Goth shops in Pasadena in 1965. Finally I figured it out. Frankenstein had to go to one of those shops that you go to if you have one leg longer than the other!

Wishing you the best Trick-or-Treating EVER!!!!

Happy Halloween!

Visit Charles’ site or join his Slide of the Week Mailing List.

Clifton’s Pacific Seas Cafeteria, Los Angeles, 1950

A turquoise neon backlit waterfall is the centerpiece and crowning touch of what has to be the most exotic and over the top restaurant façade ever. The craggily cafeteria front has ‘lil caves of multi-colored light and a jungle of tropical plantings. This was Adventureland before Adventureland – the Tiki Room before the Tiki Room. Clifford Clinton, the king of cafeterias, dreamed this up in 1939. It must’ve been shocking then. It still is today. His son, Don, took this slide IN 1950. Thank you Don!

In the realm of Polynesian themed eateries Clifton’s Pacific Seas is, without a question, one of the most spectacular ever! It is the younger and shorter-lived sister of Clifton’s Brookdale Cafeteria. The Brookdale, delightfully done in a most charming redwood forest theme, serves up steam table savories and delicious desserts at the corner of Seventh and Broadway in downtown Los Angeles just as it has since it opened 1935. Clifton’s Pacific Seas was just blocks away on Olive just below Sixth. After just twenty-one years the Polynesian palace closed in 1960. For what reason I don’t know. The parking lot that replaced it is still there.

Themed interiors and environments were not invented in Southern California, but they certainly were perfected here. Clifford Clinton was a master right up there with Walt Disney, Walter Knott and Alex Madonna (Madonna Inn.)

Even without our dearly departed Clifton’s Pacific Seas cafeteria, downtown Los Angeles is still a hotbed of unique, unusual, bizarre and breathtaking vintage places to experience. And you can do so this Sunday Oct 14 and next Sunday the 21st. Of course, we’ll be eating lunch at Clifton’s Brookdale Cafeteria!!!

Here’s to Clifton’s Pacific Seas Cafeteria, the DISNEYLAND TOUR OF DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES and YOU!!!

Visit Charles’ site or join his Slide of the Week Mailing List.

Felt Guitars in Bob Baker: This is Your Life!

1970s vintage dancing felt guitars playing themselves take center stage at a puppet show extravaganza this labor day weekend at the “Fantasyland” of Downtown Los Angeles, The Bob Baker Marionette Theater – a landmark since 1961. Metallic Martians from outer space, glow-in-the-dark dancing skeletons and fez wearing monkeys along with dozens of other vintage handmade Bob Baker puppets appear in a wide variety of amazing musical/comedy acts from every decade since the 1930s.

I will host the colorful tribute to the world’s greatest puppeteer and puppet show extravaganza and tell the story of Bob’s life and 75+ year career as a puppet showman with a short film and vintage slide show. Cake and ice cream reception will follow the final act – a performance by the master himself!

Here’s to Bob Baker, his amazing Marionettes and YOU!!

BOB BAKER: THIS IS YOUR LIFE! LABOR DAY WEEKEND!
Bob Baker Marionette Theatre
1345 W. 1st St., downtown Los Angeles
(under the bridge where Beverly becomes 1st St.)

FOUR PERFORMANCES ONLY:
Thurs-Fri-Sat August 30, 31 & Sept 1 @ 8pm
& Sunday Sept 2, @2pm

Buy tickets here or at the box office 1 hr before showtime.

Visit Charles’ site or join his Slide of the Week Mailing List.

Knott’s Berry Farm, 1955

A man dons a rain slicker, smokes a cigarette and cradles a little girl sporting a hooded rain cape over a coat and dress combo who sips sweet, delicious boysenberry juice from a wax-paper cup through a straw. They are prepared for wet weather but the lady is not. She has no rain gear to speak of just red painted lips accentuating her cheeky smile, a simple-yet-stylish suit and a conservatively colored scarf gathered in her hands.
»continue reading Charles Phoenix’s Slide of the Week: Knott’s Berry Farm, 1955

Ben Frank’s, 1962

A brave pedestrian jay walks across the legendary and very busy Sunset Strip. Behind him a man hangs his arm out of a two-toned 1959 Chevrolet Station Wagon. It has gull-wing fins, cat-eye tail lights and a two-tone paint that coordinates with one of LA’s greatest coffee shops in its first year of business. Ben Frank’s sophisticated yet snappy harvest gold and orange color scheme is way ahead of its time. And that smart and sassy asymmetrical a-frame looks like a relaxed Der Wienerschnitzel or House of Pancakes
»continue reading Charles Phoenix’s Slide of the Week: Ben Frank’s, 1962

In three weeks…

Ladies and Gentlemen Boys and Girls, I present to you…

THE UNITED STATES of CHARLES PHOENIX

A retro slide show extravaganza celebrating mid-century Americana

Cooking live on stage ‘n more

The fashion! The passion!

Friday, May 11, 2007 8:30PM

Live Under the Stars…in Hollywood at the historic John Anson Ford Amphitheater

Vintage dress & pre show picnics encouraged

Tickets and Info
Tickets by phone (888) 464-2468
Box Office info (323) 461-3673

Charles Phoenix

My New Car, Arcadia, CA 1958

A forward thinking new car owner poses with pride sporting a buttoned-all-the-way-up blouse, shoulder-riding cardigan and lady-like-length full skirt. She is as prim as she is proper; as proper as she is progressive. Few Americans were buying foreign cars in 1958 unless they were sports cars. And this is definitely foreign but it’s not a sports car.
»continue reading Charles Phoenix’s Slide of the Week: My New Car, Arcadia, CA 1958

Covina Bowl, Covina, 1955

This is the moment of ignition. A small, controlled flame is sucked in a post lunch cigarette pursed between the red lips of a space age suburban matron. Her black and white tweed suit is as sensible as it is smart. And that double rose head ornament is as unexpected as it is outstanding.
»continue reading Charles Phoenix’s Slide of the Week: Covina Bowl, Covina, 1955

The Picnic, Southern California, 1960

Daddy holds up a can of Schlitz beer like the statue of liberty holds the flame. Cheers! Perhaps he’s already had a couple. The lady on the right cheers a little less enthusiastically with a pretty pink paper cup. Her nails and lips are painted red like the redhead on the right smoking a cigarette with one hand and holding a lovely little girl with the other. Little Blondie is looking at grandma who’s looking at the buzz cut little boy held by grandpa who’s the only one staring into outer space and not wearing white. The little boy is picking his nose. Grandma’s initials are embroidered on her breast pocket. The handkerchief in that pocket matches her turquoise earrings. She tweezes her brows. The redhead does not.
»continue reading Charles Phoenix’s Slide of the Week: The Picnic, Southern California, 1960

Camellia Festival, Temple City, 1958

A young Camellia Queen-with-attitude is perched on her gold foil-wrapped throne centered on a pull cart glorified with camellias. She and her lavender clad court of one are just sitting there. The parade has come to a halt. The royal pull cart is powered by a trio of bobby socked brownies standing side by side in near military precision. Their fearless Girl Scout leader-chaperone is uniformed with a regulation hat and white buttoned up and bow tied blouse over a smart straight skirt. Her double strapped, chunk heeled, open-toed sling backs with side vents stand out quite nicely against asphalt. She doesn’t know it but her slip is showing. The sparse crowd of sidewalk sitters looks onward.
»continue reading Charles Phoenix’s Slide of the Week: Camellia Festival, Temple City, 1958

Hawaiian Punch, Fullerton, 1962

Six seniors have just returned home from a tour of the Hawaiian Punch factory. Each shows off a complimentary can of the fantasy fruit-flavored and colored virgin cocktail. One of them snagged two cans. He is the only one smiling. All but one wears the Hawaiian Punch factory souvenir hat in the normal position with the exception of Miss Floral Print, on the right, who sports her hat side saddle. Did one tourist call the others requesting that only blue, brown or white be worn for the exotic excursion? Color coordinating with friends for a day trip always makes the experience much better and far more memorable!
»continue reading Charles Phoenix’s Slide of the Week: Hawaiian Punch, Fullerton, 1962