Heritage Foundation Newsletter Vol.43 No.1
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HERITAGE THE UTAH HERITAGE FOUNDATION NEWSLETTER VOL.43 NO.1 CONFERENCE OPENING NIGHT features CHARLES PHOENIx’S Retro SLIDE Show By Kirk Huffaker, UHF Executive Director at 5:30 p.m. in the Salt of Downtown Los Angeles, on a vintage Lake City Library’s Au- school bus, proves that the similarities ditorium and is free and between Downtown Los Angeles & Dis- open to the public. neyland are STAGGERING! In fact, we In the ‘60s and don’t have one Disneyland we have two! ‘70s while growing up You’ll never see Downtown LA the same in Ontario, California way again! Charles studied design Americana the Beautiful: Mid-Centu- at the “Disneyland ry Culture in Kodachrome, published by School of Style” and Angel City Press, is his newest book and became interested in will be available with his other books at 50s and 60s cars while Opening Night. His other colorful books spending Saturdays on celebrate ‘50s era American road trips his dad’s used car lots. to Las Vegas, Southern California, and This is what stimulated the Pomona Valley and also highlight his severe interest in more exotic destinations like Hawaii and mid-century art, fash- Rancho Cucamonga. ion, transportation and Charles says that, “Americana doesn’t architecture. discriminate between classic and kitsch, In 1982, Phoenix high-tech or homespun, mass produced moved to Los Angeles or one-of-a-kind, the authentic or make- and began a career as believe. It draws no borders between town a fashion designer. He and country. It embraces Mother Nature also busied himself with and man-made, the future and the past. hobbies that included Americana is the essence of American collecting and trading culture.” So even if you still get the chills vintage cars and other about your family getting out the slide mid-century treasures. projector to show vacation slides, this is One day he unexpect- one show you won’t want to miss! edly stumbled across a box of old 35mm Have you ever wondered what family and travel slides in a thrift shop. happened to all those classic slides Soon collecting other people’s old slides your family took on vacation? Well, became an addiction that changed the they may have found their way into course of his life. the collection of Charles Phoenix. He His passion for mid-century has been collecting them from friends, American culture combined with his garage sales, and vintage stores since thrift-shop fortune of vintage ‘40s, ‘50s, 1982. From the kitsch to the clas- and ‘60s slides developed into crowd- sic, Charles Phoenix loves the world and-critic-pleasing live performances of mid-century design and American including a show of his best slides. Culture. With his vast collection he has Audiences on both coasts are delighted traveled the country, becoming known by Phoenix’s unique ability to point out for his live comedy retro slide shows, the hysterical and historical, the ironic school bus field trip tours in Los Ange- and the iconic. les, and colorful coffee table books. In 2004, Phoenix added tour guide Charles Phoenix’s Retro Slide Show to his repertoire. His ‘Disneyland’ Tour Tour of America is the Opening Night feature at Utah Heritage Foundation’s 2009 Utah Preservation Conference on April 30, 2009. The program begins Utah Heritage Foundation is a non- profit, statewide, membership-based CHARLES PHOENIX’S SLIDE OF THE WEEK organization dedicated to preserving, protecting and promoting Utah’s historic built environment through public awareness, advocacy, and Modern Shopping Center, Ventura, CA 1961 active preservation. Friday, January 30, 2009 Board OF Trustees A cool watercolor sky highlights a pic- Pete Ashdown, Chair (SLC) ture perfect space age suburban shopping Martha Bradley, Vice-Chair (SLC) center. The spirited sea breeze has blue David Richardson, Secretary (SLC) and yellow plastic pennants swagging Bernie Allen (SLC) and snapping in the wind and a Blue Ken Ament (SLC) Chip Stamp banner clinging for life on Chris Anderson (SLC) a two-headed lamppost. Red clay brick Sue Anderson Ball (Provo) glows with warmth beside sunshine yel- James W. Christopher (SLC) low and snow-white stucco. Flat facades John Dahlstrom (SLC) labeled with store names spelled out in Amy Gallivan Damico (SLC) fun fonts hover over impressive floor to Lisa Eccles (SLC) ceiling plate glass doors and deep-dish Muffy Ferro (SLC) display windows. Abandoned shopping Lewis Francis (SLC) carts share the spacious parking lot where Allison Leishman (SLC) colorful, chrome tipped cars parked are Carolyn Nebeker (Ogden) on the bias. There is one foreign car in the lot, a British roadster. It doesn’t take up much room. A Craig Paulsen (Spring City) raised bed of tropical plantings, up front, looks like a feeding trough for vegetarian dinosaurs. Anne Polinsky (SLC) The pure form-follows-function post-and-beam style of this safe harbor of smart shops is as utopian Gary B. Porter (Centerville) as it is utilitarian. If this isn’t classic mid-century modern I don’t know what is. It looks like countless Josh Romney (SLC) other neighborhood shopping centers built in the ‘50s. Katie Shell (Draper) Newberry’s was among the most successful five and dime store chains of the twentieth Century. Kay Sundberg (SLC) Mr. J.J. Newberry opened his first namesake store in Pennsylvania in 1911. By the late ‘90s the chain Reagan Tolboe (SLC) had evaporated. Hundreds of American towns had a Newberry’s store for decades. My hometown, Ontario, California, did. I remember eating grilled cheese sandwiches served with tangy wavy cut EMERITI DIRECTORS pickle chips at the counter there and buying goldfish that always died too soon. Ginette Bott (SLC) Slides of shopping centers are rare. This one came to me from a fellow slide collector. Immediately Robert Young (SLC) I knew it would be this week’s slide. It was marked Los Angeles, 1961. But I wanted to know exactly where in LA. Soon I found out it wasn’t LA at all. EXOFFICIO MEMBERS Yesterday I was in Ventura’s hanging out with a friend who happens to be the city’s leading archi- Sharon Cupit (SLC) tectural historian. Proud of this rare shopping center slide I showed it to him telling him it was taken Roger Durst (SLC) in LA but I didn’t know exactly where. He said it looked to him just like the Newberry’s that was Millie Kay Francis (SLC) in Ventura. Doubtful, I thought since many of them looked similar. But he persisted until he had a Frank Pignanelli (SLC) vintage postcard in his hand of this shopping center with this exact Newberry’s, Ardens, and Gallen Don Stromquist (SLC) Kamp Shoes proving that this was indeed taken in Ventura, CA. Next thing you know we were standing right there at the same shopping center nearly fifty years SHPO LIAISON later. Only the parking lot looked the same. The stores and their facades were several generations Barbara Murphy (SLC) removed. I stood right in front of the store that now occupies Newberry’s and for the life of me I can’t, one day later, remember what it was now. That either means I’m forgetful or it just wasn’t that memorable. I do, however, remember Newberry’s very well. Here’s to space age shopping centers, Newberry’s, Ventura and YOU! Staff Kirk R. Huffaker Executive Director Elizabeth Bradley-Wilson Assistant Director Carolynn Bottino Memorial House Manager Alison Flanders Heritage Moves to Theme Format Public Outreach Director As UHF diversifies how we provide content to our constituents, we seek the most effective ways Brett Garner to deliver current issues, events, and news about the organization. With greater access to our website, Office Manager blog, and ENEWSletter, we have changed Heritage to feature preservation themes. With Modern Kathy Nielsen Ideas | Historic Places, UHF’s 2009 Utah Preservation Conference, coming in April, this quarter’s Volunteer Director issue of Heritage highlights how we relate to our more recent past. Though this issue showcases a few Lisa Poppleton of the many great examples of modern architecture found throughout the city, we invite you to further Development Director explore your modern side! 2 HERITAGE NEWSLETTER OF THE UTAH HERITAGE FOUNDATION WINTER 2009 Saving THE 1960S: Salt LAKE CITY AND THE Leonardo LEAD THE Way ON FORMER MAIN Library By Kirk Huffaker, UHF Executive Director The original concept of a solid cube floating between two transparent planes of glass has been maintained faithfully since its construction. In the Summer 2008 edition of Heri- ardo, with formal approval imminent in ing. So while Utah’s construction industry tage, we delivered the good news that the early March. So as the historic library continued to prosper in the suburbs, the Keeper of the National Register ruled that building moves from the “former library” downtown area continued to decline. the former Main Library is eligible for status it has held for over 45 years, it’s im- Some property owners felt they had no the National Register of Historic Places. portant to understand why this building choice but to swing the wrecking ball as This means that the building will be has become well-respected by the elected they would better serve the public to pay treated, by federal agencies, as a historic officials and why they are willing to the property tax on vacant lots and keep property deserving more careful review invest in The Leonardo as a public build- the dust down. In 1958, the Grand Central of potential impacts. These impacts may ing and a historic structure, and how it’s Market, one of the last open air downtown come in any form of alteration, includ- at the forefront of rehabilitating historic markets was demolished.