WPIX CHRISTMAS COMMERCIAL BREAKS FROM BACK IN THE DAY PLUS THE YULE LOG!

1979 Station Christmas Message and Holiday Movie Break:


WPIX Holiday Christmas Parade Bumper:


Xmas 1982:


And what would be Christmas in the New York Tri-State area without the legendary Yule Log:


WPIX Yule Log opening 1986:

WOR Commercial Block 1986

Here is a commercial block from channel 9 (WOR-TV) via 1986 at some point in the middle of the night during the "9 All Night" movie Day Of The Dolphin. Among the local NYC commercials in these nine minutes include:

Personal Touch Home Care
The Legendary Unicorn Statue Mail Order
Trim Gym Mail Order
The Money Store [Phil Rizzuto]
Fashion Connection
Petland Discounts
Domenico Tours
L Ron Hubbard Dianetics
York Security Shutters
Matchmaker International
4 Ring TV Offer [More Crap!]
U.S. Savings Bond

WPIX Weekday Morning Commercial Block 1979

We'll be back with the Magic Garden after these messages...

WPIX Commercial Break 1979-80 with Child World commercial!

JAHN'S

Again, my generation was lucky enough to catch the last days of this popular icon of Nassau County (not to mention Brooklyn, Queens and New Jersey).

Located adjacent to the old Levittown Roller Rink, Jahn's was a mainstay of Levittown/East Meadow/Hicksville/Bethpage youth for over 70 years. I remember the first time I ever saw Space Invaders was at Jahn's, and I believe my mom had a birthday party for me there with my friends. I'm sure the famous Kitchen Sink sundae, which was this massive sundae with the works that served about 8 people, was what we gobbled down before skating it off at the rink.

I was very lucky to have been able to experience this "old fashioned" ice cream parlor, as there are not too many around these days.The last restaurant of the franchise still exists in Jackson Heights, and plans are definitely in the works to make a trip out there before its too late.

Footage of the original Jahn's in Queens located at Hillside and Myrtle that is now gone, quite sadly:

Broadway Mall/Mid Island Plaza

The Mid-Island Plaza in Hicksville was one of the first malls I ever frequented. My uncle used to manage the Record World there, and I would tag along with my older cousins during my weekend and holiday excursions to my grandfather's in Levittown. My dad used to love taking me to the old My Pie pizza restaurant there as well during his yearly visit with me. It was definitely one of the coolest malls I ever went to, especially in the days when it was an open air plaza, but now it looks like every other boring-ass mall out there.

Enjoy this wonderfully written history of the Mid Island Plaza, now known as the Broadway Mall from Labelscar.com:

The Broadway Mall is one of the largest–and perhaps strangest–malls on Long Island. The mall opened in the 1956 on the site of a former boys’ orphanage as the open-air Mid-Island Plaza. The Hicksville area of Long Island was in the middle of a building and population boom at the time, as residents were flocking to the suburbs in great numbers. Some of the largest strictly suburban areas on the entire east coast are located in the vicinity of the center, including archetypal post-war suburbs like Levittown and Hempstead (which, with over 700,000 people, is the second most populous census-designated place in New York State).

The original Mid-Island Plaza consisted of 10 buildings and 8,000 parking spaces. The center’s main anchor, Gertz, was a local store from downtown Jamaica Queens who opened a major outpost in Hicksville to follow the population trends. Gertz’ 5-story, 300,000 square foot store dominated the center’s original design, and its rumored that this store is the tallest suburban department store ever built. At some point the mall also was home to an EJ Korvette’s store. The mall was even structured with an underground tunnel (still in use today) that allowed deliveries to be made directly to the stores underneath the mall. The Mid-Island Plaza was being enclosed in 1968 (and perhaps renamed at the same time?), then renovated again in 1989 and 1995. Gertz Department Stores parent company, Allied, united the Gertz stores under the Stern’s banner in the 1980s before becoming a Macy’s in 2001. The mall’s website offers a bit of its history.

The Broadway Mall is located only a few miles from Roosevelt Field Mall, the largest mall in all of New York state and one of the largest on the entire eastern seaboard. As a result, it has an interesting feel and has an unusual store roster. The center is shaped like an “H”, with Macy’s at one of the junctions. Its other two anchors are a Target (which had been a JCPenney very briefly from 1999 to 2001 or 2002) and an IKEA, making for one of the stranger rosters of anchor stores of any mall in the northeast. Broadway Mall also boasts Steve & Barry’s University Sportswear, H&M, Old Navy, and a movie theatre as junior anchors. I’m not entirely sure what the IKEA or Target stores were initially, but the mall did boast EJ Korvette’s as one of its original anchors. Korvette’s stores tended to have large footprints, so it’s possible that IKEA took this space after the mall’s major redevelopment in 1995.

MallsofAmerica has some really cool photos of the Broadway Mall during its Mid-Island Plaza days, and our photos were all taken in May of 2007. I’ve been to this mall many times since 1999 (until 2004, this IKEA was the closest one to Boston) and it hasn’t changed much in that time, beyond when Target replaced JCPenney at the rear anchor. The imposing, humungous Macy’s store is certainly a highlight here, as is the cavernous center court and the strange way the food court is cantilevered onto a second level. But really, Broadway Mall is most interesting as an example of how a second-tier mall that would normally be crowded out by larger siblings is able to hang on with some less-than-traditional anchor stores and make out just fine.

DUNKIN' DONUTS: Old School Edition

This morning I decided to check out the new Dunkin' Donuts that opened up on Main St. in my fiancee's hometown, Lincoln Park, NJ.

It went against my better judgment to walk through the door of this place, because in the last 10 years Dunkin' Donuts chains, with its ugly new colors and ugly new logo and due to the fact that anyone with the capability of breathing in oxygen can open one up, have been popping up like roaches in otherwise small business-friendly streets like Main St. in Lincoln Park, driving up rents so the Moms and Pops of America whose dream it might have been to open up a florist shop or luncheonette could never do so.

I went in there and a Spanish woman who could barely speak a word of English. I asked for a bacon, egg and cheese on a flatbread and a medium coffee coolata and wound up with a medium hot coffee with cream and sugar and a ham, egg and cheese sandwich.

And now I'm left with a bellyache and a strong feeling of guilt for going against my small business minded morale. Not to mention a longing for the Dunkin' Donuts of my early youth on Old Country Road in Plainview, with the funky logo and the question mark style counter that I would sit at with my mom and grandparents and have my honey-dipped donut and chocolate milk. The days of the Old Fashioned Donut and those killer souvenir coffee mugs you could get for less than a buck.

This post is a testament to those days.

Thank you. -MGMT

1975 Dunkin' Donuts commercial with Mason Reese:

Mays Department Stores

Here are some commercials from the old Mays department store. The one by where we grew up in Levittown closed in the mid-80s and is now the home of the Tri-County Flea Market, which opened up shortly after Mays went under. If you go to Tri-County, you can still see remnants of the old Mays, including door handles with the store's name on them and the old elevators and escalators from the Mays era. These commercials span from the late 70s on through to 1983, a couple of years before the whole chain went out of business. Pictured above is a shot of the old Mays store in Union Square, which later became the now-sadly closed Virgin Megastore.

Early 80's Commercial Break -WNYW Channel 5

FOOTAGE OF CONEY ISLAND PART 1: Steeplechase Park 1978

With news that the storied Coney Island is due for a much-reviled makeover, Metro Recycling will be paying homage to the legendary Brooklyn beach town's golden age. First up is this amateur film footage shot by one of the guys who worked the Go-Karts at Steeplechase Park of the various rides, including the karts and some killer action footage of the Cyclone. Enjoy! -Mgmt.

WPIX Commercial Break 1980

1. Gloria Vanderbilt Jeans sale with free belt
2. Coleco Merry-Go-Round Stroller
3. WPIX 11 Alive New York promo for Magilla Gorilla
4. Ideal Beware the Spider game
5. Zenith System 3 cable-ready television (aired in Phoenix)

FOTOMAT

Ahhh...an old relic from the days of actual real film...

These old Fotomat booths used to be all over Long Island and the NY/NJ area. My aunt worked at one for a while when she was in high school and, if my memory serves me, she might have gotten held up at her location, actually...

Here is a picture of an old abandoned Fotomat in Rosendale, NY, not too far from New Paltz.


Fotomat commmercial from 1984:

KORVETTES

I remember going here with my mom and grandma when I was a little kid. They had an amazing toy section. Next year will be the 30th anniversary of its closure. RIP.

From Wikipedia:

E. J. Korvette was an American chain of discount department stores, founded in 1948 in New York City. It is notable as one of the first department stores to challenge the suggested retail price provisions of anti-discounting statutes[1]. It is also notable for its failure to manage its business success which led to decline and its 1980 bankruptcy and closure.[2] Founded by World War II veteran Eugene Ferkauf and his friend, Joe Zwillenberg, E.J. Korvette did much to define the idea of a discount department store. It displaced earlier five and dime retailers and preceded later discount stores, like Wal-Mart, and warehouse clubs such as Costco Wholesale[1].

E. J. Korvette's founder, Eugene Ferkauf, began his discounting career in a 400-square-foot (37 m2) loft in mid-Manhattan, New York City. Inventory consisted of well known brands of luggage, household appliances and some jewelry. Discounts were one-third off regular price. Sales were over $2,500 per square foot. Ferkauf retired in 1968. (Discount Merchandiser July 1988)

E.J. Korvette's used several retailing innovations to propel its rapid growth. It used discounting even though most discounting was outlawed (or thought outlawed) at the time[1]. Korvette's instituted a membership program, a technique from consumers' cooperatives that had never been applied to a department store before. It also expanded into suburban locations at a time when most department stores were in a central business district.

Korvette's low-price, low-service model was in some ways similar to that of earlier five and dime retailers such as Woolworth's, McCrory's, and S.S. Kresge. But Korvette's was innovative in avoiding the anti-discounting provisions of the Robinson-Patman Act, and undercutting the suggested retail price on such expensive items as appliances and luxury pens.

Korvette used "membership cards" (which it distributed in front of its stores, and to surrounding offices) to style itself a retail cooperative. In so doing, Korvette's was able to accept deep discounts from suppliers— something that competing department stores, such as Macy's and Gimbel's, could not do. In fact, Macy's and others filed numerous "fair trade" lawsuits against Korvette's to stop it from undercutting their prices[1]. None succeeded. Arguably the lawsuits helped Korvette's by calling attention to prices so low that competitors thought them illegal.

Founder Eugene Ferkauf attributed his idea for membership cards and deep discounts to luggage wholesaler Charles Wolf[1]. But where Charles Wolf made limited or even surreptitious use of it, Korvette's popularized it by instructing employees to distribute membership cards to any person entering any Korvette's.

While the first E.J. Korvette store was located on 46th street in Manhattan, its rapid growth in the 1950s was helped by its many stores in strip malls along arterial roads leading out of urban centers. This made E.J. Korvette ideally situated to meet the demands of the suburbs which grew in the United States during the that era.

The first of the modern type stores was opened in 1954, a 90,000-square-foot (8,400 m2) store in Carle Place, Long Island, which for the first time carried apparel. (Discount Merchandiser July 1988) In 1956 Korvette's had 6 stores, including stores in Philadelphia and Harrisburg, PA. By 1958 it had 12 stores. At its peak, it had 58 stores[1].

A Korvette retail floor had cashiers located in individual departments, with no checkout line area. Large stores included a full supermarket, pharmacy, pets, and tire centers.

Korvette's expanded into the Chicago area in the 1960s. It successfully disputed the state and local Sunday closing ordinances and laws. Once those barriers were broken, many other retailers opened on Sunday.

Korvette's decline and closure are variously attributed to inconsistent management[1], failure to focus on merchandise it knew (such as appliances), and ultimately attempting to compete directly with the department stores in areas such as fashion (when it had neither the expertise nor the right store atmosphere)[2].

Of note was E. J. Korvette's venture into the home entertainment business. The retailer established a rather out of context series of high-end audio salons within selected stores. Korvettes went so far as to market its own "XAM" brand of stereo receivers, amplifiers (some manufactured by Roland Electronics of Japan) and speakers. At a number of the retail locations the audio department was, on dollar per square foot basis, one of the more profitable departments in the store.[citation needed]

In late 1965, Korvette's formed its own Home Furnishings Division and ceased subcontracting furniture and carpet sales. A complex warehousing and distributing network was established. A central distribution warehouse was established in Danville, VA. This location received furniture, purchased by its buyers located in East Paterson, NJ. and in turn reshipped individual customer orders based on promised delivery dates. The sold merchandise was then shipped to delivery warehouses in East Paterson, NJ, Pensauken, NJ and Jessup, MD for final prep and delivery. This well-managed furniture distribution group was active until it closed at the end of 1977.

By 1966, Korvette's had begun to decline and chose to merge with Spartan Industries, a soft goods retailer. Eugene Ferkauf was eased out of the company leadership, and Spartan managers attempted to revive the company.

From 1971 to 1979, Korvette's was owned by Arlen Realty, a land development company that used Korvette's 50 stores as a source of cash flow. Under Arlen's ownership, Korvette's stores deteriorated and lost market share relative to other retailers. Soon the company soon became worth more for its real estate assets (such as its ownership or leasehold interests in valuable locations) than its retail sales.[citation needed]

In 1979, Korvette's was purchased by the Agache-Willot Group of France[3] which initially closed Korvette's least profitable stores, and began selling off merchandise, fixtures, equipment, and real estate. In 1980, they declared bankruptcy and on December 24, 1980 they closed all[3] of their remaining 15 stores.

Old Korvette's commercials:

NBC News Break 1978

From the good old days of NBC:

John Dancy anchors this 1978 NBC News update, accompanied by ad spots for Maxwell House, Grape Nuts, American Tourister Luggage, and an NBC broadcast of the movie "Patton"

EMPIRE DISCS

It's been two years since this mecca of Long Island record shopping has been closed. However, I'll never forget the first time I happened upon Empire shortly after I moved back to Long Island upon my graduation from SUNY New Paltz back in the summer of 1998. It was mind blowing. The square footage of the store was that of a large CVS or Walgreens, but it was all CDs and DVDs!

My friends and I quickly made Empire a regular stop on our monthly record store circuit treks. And living only 10 minutes away from the place in Westbury, I was there on the regular, especially during the week if I was bored and wanted a place to go and hang out and pick through the bins at 11 PM on a Tuesday night. I found some serious gems in that store, whether it was a copy of Otis Redding's Tell The Truth for $2.95 or a mint condition copy of Shellac's At Action Park for $8.95 or a Japanese import of King Crimson's Red with the mock vinyl packaging for $10.

The place is sorely, sorely missed by many of us who spent their evenings hanging out, rifling through their shelves.

I recently found a post on Yelp from one of the former store managers I became friendly with over the years, the lovely Lynee, who left this wonderful epitaph:

For 7 Years I managed Empire Discs, it was like my second home.
This was an amazing music store. I miss it terribly! Unfortunately IPODs/downloading & technology has taken over and people do not want to buy cds when they can just get the songs for free!

Empire bought and sold new and used cds and dvds. We paid from $.05- $5.00 per disc. We sold our merch for as cheap as $.25 and on average a cd was $4.95-$8.95. We were open every day (even Christmas, Thanksgiving etc!!!) from 10am-midnight. The store was very large and had a tremendous amount of merchandise.

This store was for the hunter and the obsessed. It was like a garage sale of music and movies. Recent arrivals and listening stations were available for those who would frequent the store. Every genre of music and movies could be found, even the most pickiest person could appreciate and enjoy what we sold!

Local bands would continuously call to book a show at our in-store performances. We tried to promote all types of music and started sponsoring shows at the Vanderbuilt etc. We worked closely with the guys from WLIR 92.7, and even traded business with my local music store, Slipped Disc (also closed) in Valley Stream.

Empire was a social late night hang out for everyone. I met a lot of great people and got to be friends with the regulars. I miss this place!

She also posted some great photos of the shop, which I have included here as well.

Store front in the glory days:


Local band Hepburn killing it at one of Empire's many in-store performances:


An epic battle waged on the Recent Arrivals racks:



Rest in peace, Empire Discs. You will always be remembered at Metro Recycling.

News feature on Empire Discs from Hofstra's student-run TV station:

THE PALACE OF WONG

Here are some photos of a great old-school Chinese restaurant/cocktail lounge in Rockville Centre. Nothing says classic like quality neon tubing...

Photography by Daniel Gafforio

WCBS TV-2 NY Station Sign-Off 1977

There is nothing insomniacs want to hear more at 4 AM than "The Star Spangled Banner"...

Here's to the good old days before 24 hour broadcasting...

R.I.P., VHF/UHF...

WNEW-5 10 O'CLOCK NEWS OPENER FROM 1977

This is a real find! The classic opening of The 10 O' Clock News for WNEW-TV Channel 5 (currently WNYW Fox 5) serving the five boroughs of New York, New Jersey, and Southern Connecticut. Check out the funky, Lalo Schifrin-esque theme music that goes perefectly with the jump scenes of old school NYC back in the gloriously gritty 1970s.



Here's a bonus YouTube of two Channel 5 News Promos from 1981 as well:

WONDERAMA ON CHANNEL 5

We continue our tribute to the old school Channel 5 with a clip from Wonderama, the legendary children's show with Bob McAllister that aired in the 1970s back when 5 was called WNEW. Enjoy!

WNYW 'V' COMMERCIAL BREAK

Here is a commercial break from back when WNYW was still WNYW, before the devil Rupert Murdoch came in and took it over with his Fox Corporation. This is a break that aired back when Channel 5 was running the 'V' miniseries.

ANIMALYMPICS

Anyone who grew up with HBO back in the early 80s will remember this great animated feature Home Box played ad nauseum back in the day. Fun factoid about Animalympics: one of the animators who worked on it was Brad Bird, who went on to Disney/Pixar immortality by directing two of the Mouse House's latest cartoon classics: The Incredibles and Ratatouille. Enjoy!

WPIX Part II

More old school revelry from the old WPIX..

These are some blocks from the year 1979, including commercial breaks from the Bea Arthur Special and The Magic Garden.

Physical Graffiti Building on St. Mark's Place

St. Mark's Place has been given the gaudiest makeover this side of the new Pitchfork Media site, as the last ten years has seen the shuddering of such staples of the famous East Village street as Joe's CDs, Coney Island High and, most recently, Kim's Video, the three-floor monolith of music and film appreciation that has since been whittled down to a skimpy new location and an even skimpier CD collection and, apparently, no more vinyl. It's truly sad to see such an authority of music shopping in the New York City area, somewhere I have been to countless times over the last 15 years, get hobbled in such a drastic way.

This TV demo for a music-related travel show called Rock Junket, featuring a two-minute segment about the Physical Graffiti building on St. Marks, one of the last bastions of the original street, was filmed in 2007, when Kim's still stood in its original location neighboring Trash and Vaudeville. It's too bad this isn't made into a real show on the Travel Channel or something. I would watch it. -Ed.

Old Record World/TSS Commercials from the New Wave Era

Record World was a mall-chain record store popular in the New York/New Jersey area in the 70s and 80s. They had an amazing selection of everything from the hits of the day to obscure imports you couldn't get anywhere else. My uncle was a manager at the one in the old Mid Island Plaza (now the Broadway Mall) in Hicksville during the shop's heyday in the era of New Wave, just when mall culture was hitting its stride and Record World was the place where the cool, hip music kids hung out.

Record World, at least in the Tri-State area, continues to exist in some capacity, as FYE, neck and neck with J&R Music World as the last man standing in the commercial record store food chain in 2009. Record World was changed into The Wall sometime in the early 90s, which was then transformed into FYE within the last ten years. Some say it's only a matter of time before they become a victim of the recession, but as someone who visits their local FYE subsidiaries, Coconuts and CD World, in Totowa on a regular basis, those places are still hopping and their used CD selection rivals that of Vintage Vinyl, quite arguably.

In any case, enjoy these old commercials we dug up from FYE's glory days as Record World/TSS, which I personally feel grateful to have experienced firsthand as a young youth. The Yes one is great, gotta love the tomato squeeze at the beginning, there.
-Ed.

THE HOT ROCK (1972)

This amazingly underappreciated 1972 heist film starring Robert Redford and George Segal was filmed all over East Meadow, including the Nassau County Jail and Hempstead Turnpike, where during one key car chase scene, they pull into the parking lot of the old Modell's, where Home Depot is now. All done to the funky, funky soundtrack music of Quincy Jones...

Here is the trailer, which features said chase scene. Enjoy!

RIP FORTUNOFF

"It's the end of an era!" exclaims the voice on the recent spat of commercials announcing the liquidation sale of Fortunoff, a furniture/jewlery/appliance retailer who has been in business here in the Tri-State area since 1922.

It's sad to see a place you grew up going to, especially as a New Yorker, fall victim to the economy, as this guy who posted a YouTube commentary on the fall of Fortunoff so eloquently puts it.

My grandmother and mom used to take me to Fortunoff when I was a kid, and my fiancee wanted to register there for her wedding shower.

Though I might not have been a regular at Fortunoff, it's sad to see a place I remember since my youngest days go away just like that.

CORONET IN WESTBURY

Coronet on Old Country Road in Westbury was, at root, a children's furniture store, but they also had a killer toy department as well, easily one of the best on Long Island (next to Child World, of course). The first time I ever went in there I found the ultra-rare first issue Cobra Commander figure, which I was trying to find literally everywhere to no avail. I believe I also found a rare Star Wars figure in there, too, one of the Bounty Hunters from Empire, 4-LOM, maybe?

The store has been closed for well over a decade, but memories of those super-cheezy, super-on-the-cheap local commercials with those two dudes and the Coronet mother still exist for the world to see thanks to YouTube.

BAYSHORE ROLLER RINK

Long Island Oddities has a great feature photo essay on the old Bayshore Roller Rink, which apparently still stands to this day and has proven to be a hang-out spot for obnoxious kids with terrible graf skills and urban explorers alike.



Check it out along with some of their other killer spoils from their local adventures at www.lioddities.com.

WPIX Sunday Movie Commercial Break 1984

Attn: Sunday afternoon TV watchers of the 80s...Here is a seven-minute commercial break from Christmas 1984 loaded with all the classic Tri-State area based commercials, including Apex Technical School, NBO, Crazy Eddie and the Money Store, and a few national nuggets, too (holla, Rosie!).

STORYTOWN U.S.A.

Growing up, one of my favorite times of the year was when my grandfather would take me to my Aunt Madeline's house in Saratoga Springs, NY. I have been going up to Saratoga since I was a baby, and it remains arguably my favorite town in the state of New York.

Whenever we would go up to visit my aunt and cousins in Saratoga, my grandpa would take myself and one of the cousins to Lake George and Storytown USA, now known as The Great Escape/Splashwater Kingdom and a part of the Six Flags franchise. Papa used to take my mom and uncle there when they were kids, and he kept the tradition alive by bringing me during my wonder years.

If you could bottle up and sell that excitement and happiness I felt when I saw that big Storytown road sign approaching after the long car ride, I guarantee the world would be in a much better place.

A little history of the park, thanks to whoever wrote the entry on Wikipedia:

The Great Escape was opened in 1954 as Storytown USA, a Mother Goose themed amusement park by businessman Charles Wood who bought the land with his wife for $75,000.[1] In 1957, realizing that the park was geared only toward small children, the park opened its Ghosttown area, the first of many themed areas opened in the parks history.

In 1983, the park officially changed its name from Storytown USA to The Great Escape. For publicity, the park placed bumper stickers on every car in the parking lot. This practice stopped a few years later due to complaints.

In 1984, the Great Escape opened the Steamin' Demon, the first of its eventual seven roller coasters. The showpiece attraction at The Great Escape is the Comet. Re-opened at The Great Escape in 1994, this roller coaster already had a 41-year history as The Comet at Crystal Beach (an amusement park near Niagara Falls, Ontario). It was saved shortly after the park closed down forever after the 1988 season. Charley Wood, the owner of Great Escape Fun Park and Fantasy Island in Grand Island, New York successfully bid for The Comet and it sat in storage for a few years in Fantasy Island before making its way to the park in Queensbury, NY and reopening in 1993. Roller coaster enthusiasts recognize it as one of the best wooden roller coasters in North America.

In addition to typical amusement park rides the Great Escape offers a variety of unique shows, most notable of which is a high dive show featuring a team of divers scaling an 80-foot (24 m) tower and plunging into a ten foot deep pool.

Other milestones include:

* 1954 — Charles Wood opens Storytown USA.
* 1957 — Ghosttown section of the park is opened [2].
* 1960 — Jungleland section of the park is opened [3].
* 1967 — Alice in Wonderland walk through adventure is opened [4].
* 1982 — addition of about eight adult spinning rides.
* 1983 — Name change from Storytown USA to Great Escape Fun Park along with the addition of Steamin' Demon looping rollercoaster and a few other adult rides.
* 1986 — Opening of Raging River, a river-rapids water ride.
* 1994 — A used wooden track and steel frame rollercoaster called the Comet was brought from Crystal Beach, Ontario and reassembled at Great Escape and opened, giving the park three rollercoasters.
* 1995 — Great Escape opens its waterpark Splashwater Kingdom.
* 1996 — Acquisition by Premier Parks, which later bought and changed its name to Six Flags.
* 1997 — Addition of Boomerang Coast-to-Coaster(a very much duplicated ride), a forward and backward looping coaster. Was and currently is still the tallest rollercoaster at the park.
* 1998 — Addition of Alpine Bobsled, an alpine themed bobsled type rollercoaster (Previously located at Six Flags Great America from 1990 to 1995 as Rolling Thunder and Six Flags Great Adventure as Sarejevo Bobsleds from 1984-1988).
* 1999 — Addition of Nightmare at Crack Axle Canyon, a combination rollercoaster and dark ride featuring four-person cars, but only operated with two people. (Indoor Schwarzkopf Jet Star rollercoaster).
* 2003 — Addition of Canyon Blaster (Family rollercoaster by Arrow Dynamics from defunct Opryland USA).
* 2004 — The Great Escape's 50th Anniversary.
* 2005 — Debut of Looney Tunes National Park: a Looney Tunes themed children's area which included eight new children's rides (including Road Runner Express, the park's seventh rollercoaster) and a re-themed restaurant as well as a cartoon walk-through. Replaces the old Jungleland area. Accompanying Looney Tunes National Park are the Looney Tunes characters. The Flash Pass system is introduced.
* 2007 — The Tornado opens in the Splashwater Kingdom.
* 2008 — Wiggles World Children's Theme Area and The Mega Wedgie, a Proslide Bowl. At the Great Escape Lodge, The Trapper's restaurant is converted to a Johnny Rockets, serving breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
* 2009 - Sasquatch. A S&S Power Inc. Combo Tower. Relocated from Six Flags New Orleans.

This ride will be located where the Rainbow used to be.

In February 2006, The Six Flags Great Escape Lodge & Indoor Waterpark opened up with positive reviews and sold out weekends throughout the first month. This major addition includes a 38,000-square-foot (3,500 m2) waterpark exclusively for lodge guests. This is New York State's first indoor waterpark.

With the closure of Houston's Astroworld in 2005, the park has received the dismantled Serial Thriller (Vekoma SLC) coaster as well as their former Tidal Wave shoot-the-chutes water ride. The Great Escape's General Manager was quoted as saying, to the Queensbury Town Board, that the Tidal Wave ride was "too old" and would not be assembled in the park and to expect the Vekoma SLC to be assembled at the park.

During the 2005 season, the park introduced a new line queuing system, the "Flash Pass." For $10, guests can use Flash Passes an unlimited number of times on rides that often have long waits, including the Comet, Alpine Bobsled, Desperado (no longer Poland Springs) Plunge, Raging River, and Canyon Blaster. The park is also offering Flash Passes for free for guests wishing to ride the Nightmare, which has drastically reduced the ride's normally long wait time.

The park debuted several new features for the 2006 season. These included character greetings from the likes of the whole Justice League.

Admission prices since 2007 have been $39.99 for visitors over 48" tall at the gate ($32.99 if purchased online), $24.99 for visitors under 48" tall, $24.99 after 3:00 p.m. Monday through Friday, and 24.99 after 4:00 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday, and free for visitors aged two and under. Season passes and group rates are available. There is also a $10 fee for parking, which a season pass can also be purchased for $30.

New for the 2007 season, The Great Escape added a Proslide Tornado water attraction to Splashwater Kingdom. This is the first renovation/adding to Splashwater Kingdom in 10 years. The Tornado will take riders through short section of enclosed slide before coming out at the top of a giant funnel. The same ride is already featured at several Six Flags parks, including Six Flags New England & Darien Lake. Along with the addition of the Tornado, the park re-themed their dive show to a pirate themed show, branded their pizza restaurant a Papa John's, and brought back the Superstars and Legends: Elvis! Show (Which featured throughout the summer not only Elvis, but also Buddy Holly, and Billy Joel) to JollyTree Theatre.


I have pictures of me chillin' at Storytown with Papa, my mom and my grandma in one of our last family outings together before my grandmother passed away, which I will post as soon as they are dug up out of storage.

In the meantime, check out these two YouTube clips I found of old super 8 reels of family trips to Storytown, one from 1966 and another from 1973, the year I was born.

OLD SCHOOL TOY STORE INDEX

If you are looking to reminisce about all the old toy stores you went to as a leisure suited youth of the 70s and early 80s, look no further than the Gallery of Vintage Toy Stores, put together by the fine folks at Plaid Stallions. If you thought we had some funky fresh toy emporiums here in New York, get a load of some of these spots in other parts of the country. Star Wars endcaps. Walls of Lego playsets. Full-on daps to Montgomery Wards! Holla!

My personal favorite is a store called Stuffnpuffs, which sounds more like a head shop than a toy store, if you ask me.



And nothing beats this wall of old school Atari, Intellivision and Colecovision at the defunct mall shop The Game Player.



And vintage gamers will totally appreciate this display at Child World as well.


For more retroactive fun, visit www.plaidstallions.com

Young Seth Green in a 1987 Play World commerical:

BRAINGAMES

Anyone who ever had HBO back in the early 80s is sure to remember this quirky educational short series that ran for a brief time before they featured some kind of children's programming. Here are some clips I found off YouTube. As one of the first families who had "Home Box" on our block in Levittown, NY, Braingames was definitely required viewing in the house.

And now, a word from our SPONSORS

Welcome Back, WPIX!

It is really great to the best local TV station in New York make a comeback after over a decade of hostile corporate occupation by Warner Bros. and their racist frog.

But though WPIX may be back in name, they are still a long way away from their glory days of the 70s and 80s, with its psychedelic TV movie bumpers, an Action News team that puts Ron Burgundy to shame and, of course,those great editorials from station head Richard N. Hughes that came on right before the Odd Couple.

All praises to TapThat2012 and the other folks who posted these clips on YouTube and providing great memories for all of us TV zombies who grew up in the Tri-State area in the 70s and 80s. -"Whipped in Whippany"

BONNIE RAITT, JOHN HAMMOND AND LOWELL GEORGE JAMMIN' IN HEMPSTEAD!

Check out this amazing FM broadcast I found on Guitars 101 of Bonnie Raitt and John Hammond jamming with Lowell George of Little Feat, recorded live at the old Ultrasonic Studios in Hempstead, NY for WLIR-FM on October 17, 1972.

Enjoy!

01. Intro
02. Love Me Like A Man
03. Under The Falling Sky
04. Talk
05. Love Has No Pride
06. Talk
07. Going Down To Louisiana
08. Talk
09. Can't Find My Way Home
10. Tuning
11. Big Road
12. You Got To Know How
13. Talk
14. Apolitical Blues
15. Talk
16. Come Ride In My Automobile
17. Talk
18. As The Years Go Passing By
19. Watch My Pony Ride
20. I Can't Be Satisfied
21. Sky Is Crying
22. Tuning
23. Honest I Do
24. Talk
25. It's Too Late


http://rapidshare.com/files/18125743...part1.rar.html
http://rapidshare.com/files/18125740...part2.rar.html
http://rapidshare.com/files/18127789...part3.rar.html

Steve Wonder Meets Grover

Check out these clip from a 1973 episode of Sesame Street with guest Stevie Wonder. First there's a little cute back-and-forth with Grover, before getting the band together and knocking Mr. Hooper's socks off with a funkdafied rendition of "Superstition". My boy's four-month-old son was lovin' this shit! -Ed.

The Caldor Rainbow

Nicholas DeMaio is a 23-year-old photographer from Farmington, CT and the author of The Caldor Rainbow, an amazing Blogger site dedicated to the preservation of dead, dilapidated and long-gone buildings that once housed some of the department stores, hardware shops, electronics boutiques and fast food eateries that once made America a weird, wild, colorful rainbow of retail that gave even the littlest town its own unique flavor during the 60s, 70s and 80s before Wal-Mart and Target stomped a big mudhole of globalization into all their asses and shut 'em all down.

Now every town you go to all looks the same. Well, almost every. The Caldor Rainbow, not to mention DeMaio's Flickr photostream(http://www.flickr.com/photos/10073060@N00/), boldly aims to document any old pieces of retail Americana left in the country, and does an excellent job documenting if I don't say so myself.

Please check him out at www.thecaldorrainbow.blogspot.com and prepare to get pulled back in time.