That was fun. It is also my birth year.
How cool is that?
Everything looks so wholesome. You would never guess the national insanity that was simmering, just waiting to boil over.
I remember the Clock and of course the Circle Drive, but Beany's was gone before my time. Judging from the video, it appears Beany's was at the corner of PCH and Alamitos Blvd.
Nearby was the Cinnamon Cinder (CC). Many acts played there over the years: Ike and Tiny, Righteous Bros. Joe Turner, Beach Boys, James Brown, John Lee Hooker etc.
Went there a couple of times in my street racing days.
Those were good times. Had a cousin lived close to there, get a load of the cars and clothes.
I ran across this footage about six months ago, but it was sans music. It’s quite akin to a lot of the chrome-era postcards I used to collect of roadside americana. Small-town street scenes, motels, diners, etc. The glimpse in the film of the marquee at the next-door drive-in theater is advertising “The Golden Hawk” (1952), a swashbuckler starring Rhonda Fleming and Sterling Hayden.
Had a drive-in restaurant of similar vintage here locally, with a somewhat similar architectural motif (although it dated to 1949). Closed-down quite a long time ago. The commercial landscape is so comparatively bleak and dreary nowadays. And the appearance of the patrons has devolved even moreso, to put it mildly. There’s such a visual third-world ugliness to America these days.
That set up reminds me of the Inn N Out burgers who were also just starting up during that time frame.
Okay, I was born in 1954, lived 23 years in the Long Beach area, and went to Long Beach State.
I never heard of the place before. When did it open and close?
In 60 years I hope that people don’t look back and think of 2015 as the “Good Old Days”.
Fantastic! Thanks for posting this one! Seems like this all happened only yesterday....
Elvis was driving a truck.
Long Beach sure looks better in that video than it does today
Trey cool and a woodie station wagon too! My wild guess is a Plymouth.