Welcome to Modeling Mid-Century Modern. Originally intended for my illustrations, I later incuded photography and historical features.
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Check out my article on this site celebrating 150 years
of Denver history: BuckFifty (link is more specific now)
Elvis Presley shakes things up in Denver, on his
first visit in 1956. 16,000 tickets sold! Elvis made $4,000.
His first RCA Records release, Heartbreak Hotel had
only been out for 6 weeks and already sold a million copies.
Co-star Faron Young and his Country Deputies who had a great hit
with Live Fast, Love Hard, Die Young. Still, it must have been rough on him
to be the opener.
Francis Melrose of the Rocky Mountain News gets the controversy flowing. I love how she put ‘Singer’ in quotes! I bet she wasn’t ready for the backlash of letters she received.
The rage begins:
There are so many great quotes in these letter columns: “Johnny Ray with St. Vitus Dance”, “He’d get up on stage a take a fit, and those crazy dames in the front row would take a fit right along with him”, “I think you’re jealous, or else you’re working for Faron Young“.
Aside from Faron Young, also on the bill were the upbeat country duo
Jimmy & Johnny and rockabilly queen Wanda Jackson!
The next year in 1957, Faron Young and his Country Deputies returned on a country bill that included Ferlin Husky and his Hush Puppies, Hank Thompson and His Brazos Valley Boys, Johnny Cash and the Tennessee Two, Ray Price and at the bottom of the bill, none other than Patsy Cline. If you know your country music, you know this this was a monster show!
Alan Freed’s Mister Rock N Roll film at the Denham Theatre 1957
Another great traveling rock and roll show, this time from ‘58, this one starring
Jerry Lee Lewis, who no doubt demanded headliner status. Also R’n'B singers
The Silhouettes & Roy Hamilton, plus Bobby Helms, The Four Preps and
Bill ‘Raunchy’ Justis. The mixture of both black and white music acts as far back
as 1958, goes a long way to show how rock and roll broke down racial barriers.
An amazing rock and roll bill from 1957, Fats Domino, Chuck Berry, Buddy Holly & The Crickets (Buddy is not even named on this bill!), Eddie Cochran, LaVern Baker, Frankie Lymon, Clyde McPhatter & The Drifters, The Everly Brothers, The Diamonds, Buddy Knox, and pop singer Paul Anka. They must have had each act play 2 or 3 songs to get through this show in one evening.
Elvis dated Tempest Storm, Denver’s favorite strip tease dancer?!?
Well, if she’s good enough for the king, then she is good enough for Denver!
The Denver Hilton, now the Denver Sheraton, downtown on the
16th Street Mall. This was built 1960 as part of the famously-lost
Zeckendorf Plaza designed by the firm of world famous architect,
I.M. Pei. The Sheraton is now all that is left of the plaza.
(The entranceway is a recent addition.)
I was fortunate enough to take the Doors Open Denver Pedestrian
Walking Tour by Denver architect and city hero Alan Gass. He worked
for I.M. Pei’s firm during the period of the construction of the Mile High Center
and the Zeckendorf Plaza.
It rained almost the entire time and I was thoroughly soaked by the end of the two hour tour, but listening to Mr. Gass’ recollections of Denver architectural history was worth every minute.
As everyone from the Front Range knows, it can snow and rain on Friday and Saturday, but come Sunday when I took these photos, it was about 70 degrees.
The Zeckendorf Plaza included a skating rink and the famous hyperbolic paraboloid by Pei. The Hilton overlooked the rink. This would have been your view while skating.
Even without the plaza, the surviving Sheraton is still a great example of mid-century modern architecture.
I.M Pei’s two other surviving buildings in Colorado are the Mile High Center and the outstanding N.C.A.R. in Boulder, which Gass referred to as “the best building in the state”.
Warren St. Thomas’ night club, The Tropics on W. Mississippi.
I drew this in Google SketchUp, just for fun.
I’ll rework this and spend more time on it, when I find more source material!
SketchUp, CorelDraw
Sid King’s Crazy Horse Bar, famous as the coolest
location in Clint Eastwood’s monkey movie Every Which
Way But Loose. Ad is from 1963.
Everyone misses Celebrity Sports Center, one of the two
Disney related entries into Colorado entertainment.
Pogo Poge! This famous Denver radio DJ pogoed on a pogo stick
from Boulder to Denver, if I am not mistaken.
Hadda Brooks, a ’40s-era jump-blues belter who transformed into a chanteuse
by the time of this show at the Melody Lounge in 1959.
Denver Drumstick, known for having model railroads circulating
around the ceiling interior. This is why they had the railroad theme
with the Box Car of Burgers shown above, from 1963.
Taylor’s Supper Club on West Colfax. The Taylors were
Denver’s equivalant to Martin & Lewis!
The Taylor’s Supper Club building is now Lakewood Endoscopy Center.
Chez Paree, a block or so south from the Brown Palace.
One of the premiere strip clubs of old Denver in 1963.
Bob Hansen put out an obscure comedy lp in 1962. The repellant casual bigotry
on this record makes you very aware of what passed as acceptable in those days.
The Cooper Theatre designed by Richard Crowther. This Denver architect also designed two sister Cinerama theaters in Omaha and Minneapolis. Crowther designed much of Lakeside Amusement Park.
Anita O’ Day is one of the all-time top jazz female vocalists.
This picture is advertising her Melody Lounge show in ‘59.
By the time Anita O’Day visited in 1963, the Bandbox was the
hot spot for jazz. Today this is Annie’s Cafe.
Denver’s Oldest Bar at 17th & Market!
The tropical Acapulco Lounge with a jazz quartet fronted by Joe Lucero.
Lakeside Amusement Park, admission for adults: 10 cents, children
under twelve: 5 cents! That was ‘63, today this is up to $2.00!
Lakeside Speedway 1959! Jumping new Fords over other new cars!
Crashing cars and motorcycles! This historical, unused track is still there!
CDR! Continental Divide Raceway near Castle Rock on the 85. The lines of the track are still faintly visible on Google Maps. Too bad they plowed up all the pavement! Ad from 1964.
Big Al’s Gashouse was not a strip joint, but they told racy jokes,
hence the 21 and over.
Apparently Big Al, Diamond Lil, and clarinetist Punky Cadwell were all humongous!
Next installment in this category will be Elvis’ first Denver show!
I was so excited when I spotted this example of Denver Googie signage,
that I rushed over to photograph it, without waiting for the snow to melt!
You can see the zig-zag pattern of the lights representing the tipped
martini drink pouring toward the restaurant. Spill your drinks here!
There are still a dozen or so martini glass signs around town, the
Satire Lounge being the most prominent in Denver. I didn’t have
a good picture of the R&R Lounge handy, but I did have a couple
of the Mozart Lounge.
The Mozart Lounge is located over by the Mayfair Shopping
Center off of 13th.
This reminded me to check on the current condition of the old
44th Avenue Grill sign, now being used at the new location
of the last remaining Gordo’s restaurant.
44th Avenue Grill was on the corner of Wadsworth and 44th, they
replaced the building, but kept the sign, moving it back west on
44th. They seem to have kept the martini glass intact, but the
lettering is replaced and in a contemporary desktop-publishing
font, and hey, they cut off the Gordo’s logo a little! That’s odd.
Ah, now this is more like it! This is the other original sign from Wads.
and 44th, again, moved a little west, lightbulbs and lettering intact!
Beautiful! And plural no less. . .
My friend Greg sent me this picture of another tipped martini glass sign out on Leetsdale. He has some cool photography sites, such as Gregory Ego Photos and Denver Images
