THE RETROLOGIST

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If you've been following The Retrologist on Tumblr for years, first of all, thank you! Second of all, the place to follow my writing and photography now is Substack! SIGN UP FOR MY NEWSLETTER HERE! The Tumblr will stick around for a while, but my content will eventually migrate to Substack. I'll also have a new website soon complete with my latest articles, media appearances and details on a book I'm writing! Thanks and see you on Substack!

When Arby’s opened at 400 Knollwood St. in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, in 1968, it was a big deal. The chain of fast-food restaurants, specializing in roast beef rather than burgers or fried chicken, was only 4 years old but had already spread far from its birthplace of Boardman, Ohio. The “10-gallon hat,” festooned with neon, fanciful typography and dazzling incandescent lighting, was quickly becoming a symbol of the American roadside, a grand example of look-at-me-and-pull-over-and-spend-your-money-now American vernacular of the highest order. In an article published on Dec. 8, 1968, the Winston-Salem Journal described the Arby’s as the “biggest traffic-generator” at the new Knollwood Shopping Center, and when I visited on Memorial Day in 2021, the Arby’s, pandemic and all, was still lassoing them in. Well, my fellow nostalgic cowpokes, it’s time to grab our dusty hats and place them solemnly across our chests, because the Arby’s at 400 Knollwood is no more. READ THE FULL STORY IN MY SUBSTACK.

On August 6, 1980, an estimated 150,000 people jammed into the Galleria mall in White Plains, New York, just north of New York City. It was the opening day of an 865,000-square-foot behemoth in the heart of downtown: an enclosed mall encased in a Brutalist concrete bunker spanning 10 acres and two immense city blocks, even bridging a major thoroughfare. The Galleria opened with pomp, circumstance, and clowns mingling with eager crowds, quickly captured the zeitgeist of 1980s pop culture, and is now closing with a whimper, kind of just fading away. Yes, it’s another mall closure in an era when news of dying and dead malls is commonplace, just as ribbon cuttings at mall grand openings were routine a generation earlier, but this one hits different, as they say, because the Galleria was My Mall, and I loved it. I said farewell to the Galleria recently in a visit with @yazcountry. We both spent a lot of our youth roaming its Italian marble halls, shopping, socializing, hanging out in the food court. Today, the Galleria, which was once home to 150 shops and two anchor department stores, is down to just one store – a hobby shop on the ground floor that used to be a Sam Goody. (Swipe to see a relic.) And it will clear out of there by Friday, March 31, which according to reports is the last day of the Galleria. Sign up for my Substack newsletter here, where I explain why the Galleria was built, what it was like, why it’s closing and what might replace it. Remember to sign up for my newsletter, too, the best way to keep up with my work. Did you ever shop at the Galleria? What are your mall memories? #retrologist (at Galleria at White Plains) https://www.instagram.com/p/CqO4EuOr0ND/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

Where’s the beef? That wasn’t always a slogan for Wendy’s around here. From 1945 to 1977, the site of this Wendy’s in Sunnyside, Queens, was home to the Sunnyside Garden Arena, where the beefs were between boxers, wrestlers and rolly derby players at the magnificently dingy, neon-bedecked arena that stood here, at 45th Street and Queens Boulevard. When it was demolished in December 1977, the plan was to build a Wendy’s once the tatters of the temple to the sweet science were carted away. The Wendy’s, 45 years later, still stands. The building has been updated a tad – the original was likely yellow, lacking a mansard roof and that 1980s sunroom – but otherwise, fast-food time has slowed here. The sign touting “old-fashioned hamburgers” survives, too, attracting motorists, pedestrians and straphangers rumbling above on the No. 7 train. Wendy’s has been selling burgers here much longer that punches were ever traded at the arena. Most who stop by likely have no idea what Sunnyside Garden Arena was, much less that it was built in the 1920s by the grandson of industrialist Jay Gould, for more genteel pursuits like tennis. They might think you are referring to the Lewis Mumford-approved pioneering garden-home community nearby, Sunnyside Gardens, not the pugilistic ancestor to their local Wendy’s. But since 2012, a monument on the front lawn has reminded us of those other beefs of yore. It reads in part: “This monument is in honor and dedicated to those men who fought in the amateurs and professional bouts.” It was placed here by Ring 8, a group that advocates for veterans of boxing — “boxers helping boxers,” as they say. And there’s more than sports and fast food history on display here. There’s politics – John F. Kennedy stood here while running for president in 1960. And there’s television – the Dumont network broadcast matches from here in the medium’s earliest days, a medium that lethally deprived local boxing arenas of their audiences. It goes to show you that wherever you go, there’s more than meets the eye. And when you realize that, it can feel like a punch in the gut. #retrologist *** Enjoy this? Sign up for my newsletter at the link in bio! https://www.instagram.com/p/CqCMa5fMh4f/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

My latest newsletter is out – link in bio – and it’s jam-packed with roadside Americana news. I discuss the closure of the iconic Neil’s Coffee Shop on Manhatan’s Upper East Side and share photos from my last visit there. What will become of this place? I then head to Florida, with troubling news of a fire at the beloved “Big Orange” in Kissimmee, but they hope to reopen soon. Plus, a neon supermarket sign is being restored in Manhattan, and up in Hyde Park, New York, you have a chance to run your very own drive-in theater – owned by the National Park Service! Plus, Dutch Haven is back in the news, and I have over a dozen more stories in the newsletter, including the closure of River View East, a sacred stop on any New Jersey hot dog tour. Please subscribe and support my work! #retrologist https://www.instagram.com/p/Cp-rwSXrPJ_/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

With its stepped-gabled roofline that seems more Flemish than Florida, its candy-cane poles supporting the simple portico, and its gigantic neon sign featuring a chicken and a chick that has a proto “Partridge Family” vibe, Maryland Fried Chicken has long been a cinematic stop along the strip-mall sameness of Colonial Drive — the old Highway 50 — in Winter Garden, Florida, just outside Orlando. The fried-chicken fans who flock here no doubt take comfort in the architecture, but they are really here for the comfort food from one of the last outposts of a chain that could have been a contender and almost was a contender but has still managed to survive in pockets of the Southeast — and, in a small city in Michigan. So to me, that makes Maryland Fried Chicken a plucky survivor. Until April 1, when it closes for good. In my newsletter, sign up here, you can read the story of this location and of Maryland Fried Chicken, which was founded in Orlando, not Maryland (there’s a fun backstory). What’s more, in my newsletter, I’ve also written a second post with a guide to surviving locations, plus more photos. Subscribe and support my work! #retrologist (at Maryland Fried Chicken) https://www.instagram.com/p/Cpyk4lrLSJS/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

My latest Retrologist newsletter is out — find it at the link in my bio and sign up — and it’s full of vintage goodness! Among the stories I have for you: the owner of the reopened Arthur Treacher’s Fish and Chips Restaurant in Garfield Heights, Ohio, is looking to expand the chain; NYC’s Subway Inn opens again in what is now its third home in 86 years; and a beloved “spiedies” restaurant in New York’s Southern Tier closes. (And yes, I explain what a spiedie is.) Plus, I have an update from Wildwood, sad news from the Lincoln Highway, a cool Lego model inspired by a Montreal landmark, a “Gold Medal” ghost and its real-life inspiration and many more headlines I hope you’ll enjoy if you follow me here. Please subscribe and never miss a beat! #retrologist (at United States of America) https://www.instagram.com/p/CpeOTM9MESo/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

In New York City, where I live, there hasn’t been enough snow this wretchedly warm winter to make a snowman or even a “Snoboy.” But at least I can remember my visit last year to Minneapolis, where I finally photographed the iconic Snoboy sign! Snoboy is something of an orphaned sign – his parent company left town long ago – but he’s hardly abandoned and is very much loved. In fact, you may well have enjoyed Snowboy fresh produce – “picked for flavor,” as the old slogan goes – without even realizing it. In my latest newsletter, I tell you all about Snoboy, and where you can find this sign if you want to visit it yourself. Plus, I have 14 more headlines from the American roadside, including the closure of a 130-year-old cheese shop in New York’s Little Italy, and the threats facing an Art Moderne motel along the Lincoln Highway in Pennsylvania. Please support my work by signing up for The Retrologist newsletter here.

It’s not every day I get to share good news like this: The Arthur Treacher’s restaurant in Garfield Heights, Ohio, has reopened, two years after shuttering amid the pandemic. This is big news, as it doubles the number of existing Arthur Treacher’s standalone restaurants, taking them from, well, just one to now a whopping two. Details at this time are scant, but @clevelanddotcom confirm that the restaurant is back in business, and “just in time for Lenten season.” The other remaining standalone Arthur Treacher’s is in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, which I visited last summer. In my newsletter, I have more details as well as photos, as well as much more news from the American roadside. If you like my Tumhblr you’ll love my newsletter. Please give it a read and sign up! READ AND SUBSCRIBE!

Architectural Digest is lovin’ this McDonald’s. The magazine declared it one of the most beautiful McDonald’s in the world. In my latest newsletter – find it and sign up at the link in my bio – I take you inside the Fort Dells McDonald’s at Wisconsin Dells, and share its fascinating history, with roots in Disney’s Frontierland, the Fort Dells amusement park that was inspired by it, and the woodsy, watery wonderland that is Wisconsin Dells. (How I love it!) As I write in my newsletter, “Despite its architectural rigidity, McDonald’s has allowed quirky designs to flourish among the sea of mansards and now McBoxes, special locations that are synchronized with their host communities.” This is the story of one of them, the start of a series looking at quirky McDonald’s in my Retrologist newsletter. Please sign up and follow along! #retrologist (at Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin) https://www.instagram.com/p/CoYnrHfLhSF/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

Happy Sunday! It’s always a thrill when my photos inspire art. So I was so happy to see these two works created by @homefront_design. First up is White Manna Hamburgers in Hackensack, New Jersey, followed by the beloved Pizza Land in North Arlington, New Jersey, featured in the opening of “The Sopranos,” which I’m binging yet again. In other news today, my latest newsletter is out! You can read it at the link in the bio, or visit my story for the link. I’ve got a lot of news on diners — some on the market, others in new hands; an update on the former Nabisco cookie factory that’s about to crumble; news from the L.L. Bean factory store in Freeport, Maine (you’ve got to see the big Bean Boot!); and much more. If you enjoy my Instagram, I think you’ll love my newsletter. Thanks as always for your support! #retrologist https://www.instagram.com/p/CoSyV75vMYB/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

Wendy’s sunroom. Those two words pack a lot of nostalgic punch. Along with Wendy’s newspaper tables and salad bars, the sunroom holds a special place in the firmament of fast-food restaurant history. If a restaurant was getting built or renovated from the mid 1970s through the early 1990s, there’s a good chance a sunroom was getting glued onto it. Wendy’s made an art of it. The other day, a picture of a Wendy’s sunroom went viral, the poster asking if such things were a thing anymore. Multiple people tagged me, figuring I knew the answer. The short answer is yes, they are still a thing, but they are less a thing every day, as Wendy’s of a certain vintage fall victim to the glass-box craze, for which I suspect nobody will be nostalgic in the 2050s. The other day, I drove past a nice example of Wendy’s sunroom in the hamlet of Vails Gate, New York, in Orange County. I pulled over for these photos at sunset, because you never know just when the sun will set on a Wendy’s sunroom. At this point, I will switch to proper Wendy’s terminology for the sunroom, and that is greenhouse. This is how they were described in old newspaper ads in the 1980s. They were greenhouses not simply because they let the sunshine in, but because they were full of plants! Let’s revel in the wording from a 1983 ad for a Wendy’s that had just been “sunroomed.” “The addition, which fronts the restaurant, will increase seating by 22 customers who will be able to enjoy the mouth watering delights at Wendy’s in an atmosphere of lush green plants.” The ad goes on from there, telling us that the foliage – “the cluster of hanging vines” – is not the “only thing growing at Wendy’s. So is the menu.” And you better believe this growth extended to the salad bar, with the addition of the ultimate in 1980s self-service food luxury: Jello parfait and breadsticks! Of the “Greenhouse Wendy’s” I’ve visited in recent years, none have plants, and the salad bars have been pretty free of green, too. Follow my newsletter – link in bio – for more Wendy’s coverage. And, coming soon to the newsletter, a tour of the Wendy’s museum complete with newspaper tables! #retrologist (at Wendy's) https://www.instagram.com/p/Cn9zOFYLshr/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

Blink and you’ll miss it. I photographed this right before the blink. This is one of my favorite photos, mainly because it shows such a rare thing – the sign for this long-defunct bagel shop in Dyker Heights, Brooklyn. In July 2014, I was tipped off to its emergence, and made it down here just in time. It was gone a few days later, either removed or entombed again by the successor business. This is not the first National Bagel Day in which I’ve shared this sign, and it probably won’t be the last, because as I reviewed my photos of bagel places, this one alway rises to the top! What’s not to love here? Just savor the flames, the holes where the neon tubing once existed. As I wrote a while back, “it’s comforting if frustrating to realize that there is a veritable museum of New York retail history hiding under new signs and cheap vinyl awnings all around town. And every so often, this clandestine museum offers a surprise exhibit. It’s free, but you have to act fast. Or it might just disappear again, this time forever.” For a treat, check out my latest newsletter (link in bio) to watch a short documentary film from the 1970s called, appropriately enough, “Hot Bagels.” It will help explain the world from which this sign came. #retrologist (at Dyker Heights) https://www.instagram.com/p/CndCdsXrDRv/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

In my latest newsletter, which you can subscribe to at the link in my bio, I share news about the demolition of a classic @arbys that dated to the 1960s in Richmond, Virginia. But the sign appears to have been spared at least. As I write in the newsletter, "the style of this building — rolled out around 1976 — was the immediate successor to the original chuckwagon design dating to the chain’s launch in 1964. The fact that the restroom was accessible from outside, in the back of the building, was another clue that this was originally a chuckwagon-style building." Thanks to my friend and former Tribune Broadcasting colleague @scott_wise of @cbs6 for the update on the demolition and the aftermath shots. Plus, only in my newsletter, I have news on McDonald's leaving the New York State Thruway, a throwback Burger King closing in Washington D.C., and over a dozen more headlines from the retro American roadside. Please sign up and never miss out! #retrologist https://www.instagram.com/p/CnDk_gcLb7_/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

My latest newsletter is out (link in bio!), and I’ve got some Christmas treats for everyone! On my road trip through the South this past week, I visited so many interesting places, including some of the spots here. They include one of just three remaining Suncoast Videos in the nation, an old Spencer’s with the late 1990s look, the Hills of Snow snowball stand, the iconic @claxton_fruitcake bakery, which is near Santa Claus, Georgia, a great @stuckeystop mural and more. Plus, I take you to the homes from “Home Alone,” “A Christmas Story” and “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation.” All in the newsletter -- please give it a read and subscribe to get them emailed right to you. #retrologist (at United States of America) https://www.instagram.com/p/Cmmxk2dOQ24/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

Hello from the road! I’m filing this from Florence, South Carolina, as I explore the Southeast in a pre-Christmas adventure. If I’d been traveling, let’s say, back in the 1970s, the orange roof of a Howard Johnson’s off in the distance or the “Great Sign” of a Holiday Inn were signs of safe harbor for the weary traveler -- a good meal and a good night’s rest awaited right beyond the exit. In my latest newsletter (find at link in bio), I share a link to the @the_eps_podcast in which I discussed the legacy of HoJo’s and Holiday Inn with host Eric Paul. It’s a fun listen! Please visit the newsletter and give the show a listen! In my latest newsletter, I also have some good news about neon signs out west, including a pink elephant, and an update on Lucy the Elephant, whom you might say is in the pink! Those are among over a dozen roadside Americana headlines, so please check it out! #retrologist (at United States of America) https://www.instagram.com/p/CmajbGLMSiE/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=