A competitor to the Hollywood sign? May 20, 2013
Posted by Ron Warnick in Art, Attractions, Signs.add a comment
Those who have traveled an old alignment of Route 66 recently along northeast Los Angeles may have gazed up into one of the hills overlooking the city and found an unfamiliar — yet familiar — sight.
It’s a massive “Glassellland” sign halfway up a hill above the Glassell ParkRecreation Center. According to a report in the Los Angeles Times, the sign with 10-foot-tall letters was erected by an artist named Justin (no last name given) who has planted cutouts of movie stars in the Glendale area.
Times reporter Steve Lopez spoke to Howard Seth Cohen, a publicist for the “Glassellland” sign:
Cohen told me he thinks Justin is trying to instill a sense of civic pride in Glassell Park and suggest that romanticism is not confined to the hoity toity Westside neighborhoods.
The sign pays a sort of homage to the world-famous “Hollywood” sign in Los Angeles, which actually was “Hollywoodland” many years ago.
Scott Piotrowski, an expert on Route 66 in Los Angeles, said by email after sending a photo of the sign:
The hill is a part of Mount Washington (the hill, not the community in Los Angeles). It literally is surrounded by Route 66 on three sides, and another portion of 66 sits slightly north. In other words, coming down from the hill, you almost HAVE to at least cross Route 66 to get anywhere. [...] The view of the sign is from the west side of the hill, along Eagle Rock Boulevard and Verdugo Road. In this Google maps link http://goo.gl/maps/CWrXx the Glassell Park Community Center is marked. Just south / east of there is Mimosa Drive. The sign sits between Mimosa and Kinney on the hillside.
And Piotrowski agrees the “Glassellland” sign isn’t mocking the “Hollywood” sign so much, but was created by “someone calling this community their home and taking great pride in that fact.”
(Hat tip: Scott Piotrowski)
The story behind Albuquerque’s big aluminum yucca May 19, 2013
Posted by Ron Warnick in Art, Attractions.2 comments
A huge aluminum yucca sculpture, appropriately titled “Aluminum Yucca,” in the east mountains of Albuquerque along Interstate 40 and old Route 66 recently marked its 10th year of existence, reported the Albuquerque Journal.
The 22-foot-tall artwork stands out no matter when you see it. Its shape and polished metal amid the mountain rocks capture eyes in the daytime, and it’s lighted at night.
Gordon Huether of California created the $124,000 sculpture, which was paid for with grants from the U.S. Department of Transportation, City of Albuquerque, and State of New Mexico.
Two parts of the story stand out. One was Huether’s inspiration for the sculpture:
His inspiration was twofold, the artist, now 54, recalled in a telephone interview. One part had everything to do with Albuquerque and the East Mountain’s ties to Kirtland Air Force Base: The sculpture’s shining stalks are actually fuel tanks recycled from old military aircraft. The second part of his inspiration stemmed from New Mexico’s state flower, the yucca. Huether said he finds “inherent dramatic gestures” in the yucca’s form.
Second, the sculpture was supposed to be part of a larger complex in that area:
The artwork was originally intended to be just one element of a much larger “East Mountain gateway project” welcoming motorists to the city, she said. Plans called for building a complete visitors’ center with nods to historic Route 66, Kirtland Air Force Base and Sandia National Laboratories. Even more ambitious plans envisioned similarly grand gateways to the city at Albuquerque’s northern, southern and western freeway entrances.
To date, except for Aluminum Yucca, none of that has happened.
I wonder what happened with the visitor’s center? Did the recession in 2008 scuttle plans? Or did the U.S. government get tight-fisted with domestic money when it was fighting two foreign wars shortly after the sculpture was erected?
(Image of “Aluminum Yucca,” via JadeXJustice via Flickr)
A happy ending at Cadillac Ranch May 19, 2013
Posted by Ron Warnick in Art, Attractions, People.add a comment
We’ve seen a lot of bad and even unsavory news about Cadillac Ranch near Amarillo, Texas, in recent months — mainly because of the many legal troubles of the art installation’s longtime proprietor, Stanley Marsh 3.
But this video reminds us that Cadillac Ranch remains a roadside attraction of levity … and even poignancy.
The folks at One Tree Films explain:
Our journey across historic Route 66 took us to Cadillac Ranch in Amarillo, Tex., on a cold and windy March morning. We would cross paths with young couple who were there to paint the cars and even offered to let us use some of their spray paint for our film.
We would come to find out they weren’t just there to paint cars. Nic had a painted message, “Will you Marry Me, Frances.” It was a little hard to read, but she figured it out quickly and One Tree was there to capture it all in pictures and film.
Our little engagement gift to you both for being just awesome people
An even more amazing coincidence is that One Tree Films specializes in wedding videos.
Cadillac Ranch | Fate from One Tree Films on Vimeo.
Local artist painting mural on McDonald’s Museum May 15, 2013
Posted by Ron Warnick in Art, Attractions, Museums, Restaurants, Towns.add a comment
Cartoonist Phil Yeh is painting an elaborate mural on the McDonald’s Museum in San Bernardino, Calif., reported the San Bernardino County Sun.
Yeh, who created a comic book about Route 66 several years ago, started the mural last year but was slowed by a stroke. Due to partial paralysis, he painted left-handed until he recovered enough to paint right-handed again.
The newspaper described the mural:
The museum’s 12-foot-by-100-foot south wall illustrates San Bernardino’s history, its landmarks and inspirational people of the city, including favorite sons and celebrities with ties to the city.
The Earp family; Gen. George Patton, who used San Bernardino’s California Hotel as his headquarters while he trained soldiers in the desert; Pinky Brier, the first woman flight instructor in America; author Ray Bradbury; Xerox inventor and San Bernardino High School grad Chester Carlson; Dorothy Ingraham, the first African-American teacher in San Bernardino County; Silver Star recipient Chase Ash; animatronics pioneer Garner Holt (with a dinosaur); the rockers who performed at the Swing Auditorium – Jim Morrison, Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix. And of course, Mick Jagger and the Rolling Stones, who made their first U.S. appearance in 1964 at the Swing.
The north side, which is the same size, depicts cities – focusing on those in San Bernardino County – that line Route 66. Motorcycles, train cars and trucks, some of them bearing the names of sponsors, line the route as it passes through familiar towns and cities on its way from the Santa Monica Pier, the Route 66 culmination.
Yeh also says he hopes to restore the original McDonald brothers’ offices on the back part of the museum into a gift shop with works by local artists.
The McDonald’s Museum, located on an old alignment of 66, is owned by Albert Okura, owner of the Juan Pollo restaurant chain in Southern California. Okura also owns the Route 66 town of Amboy, Calif. There, he is slowly restoring the Roy’s restaurant and motel.
Route 66 pedestrian tunnel will be converted into art space May 13, 2013
Posted by Ron Warnick in Art, Attractions, Events, Restaurants.1 comment so far
A long-closed pedestrian tunnel under North Figueroa Street (aka Route 66) in Los Angeles will reopen Saturday night as an art gallery.
According to The Eastsider LA, the idea came from Antigua Cultural Coffee House owner Yancey Quinones, who enjoyed walking through the tunnel as a child. The tunnel, however, later was closed by the city because of gang activity.
The newspaper said:
“It’s going to be the community’s tunnel, safe, secure,” Quinones says pointing to newly installed LED lights and freshly painted walls of the tunnel at Figueroa and Loreto Street near Nightengale Middle School. [...]
“Like a snail, it’s going to take time, but eventually we’ll get there,” he says a few days before the tunnel gallery’s debut as part of NELA’s art walk on Saturday. The tunnel will remain open only for shows and exhibits. [...]
The tunnel will open on Saturday, May 11 at 6 p.m. with a show of work by local artist Jose Ramirez, whose band will also be playing in the tunnel. Quinones hopes to see the underground gallery used monthly.
Quinones has tried to reopen the tunnel since starting his coffeehouse in 2007. His persistence — along with a $9,000 grant — will make his quest a reality.
It’s hard to find anything new under the sun on Route 66. However, Quinones shows that even novel ideas can happen on the old Mother Road.
(Hat tip: Scott Piotrowski)
Story about Blue Whale becomes a short film May 12, 2013
Posted by Ron Warnick in Attractions, Movies.3 comments
In 2011, Craig Teicher wrote a short fiction piece for Tulsa-based This Land Press that revolved around the Blue Whale of Catoosa, Okla.
Later, the essay was adapted into a short film:
Imaginary Oklahoma – The Blue Whale of Catoosa from THIS LAND PRESS on Vimeo.
Doubts arise over history of Galena’s Murder Bordello May 9, 2013
Posted by Ron Warnick in Attractions, History.21 comments
Numerous media outlets — including Route 66 News — have reported that Galena’s Murder Bordello in Galena, Kan., served as the headquarters of a murderous madam, Ma Staffleback, during the 1890s when she and other accomplices may have killed dozens of clients.
However, records unearthed by two members of an area historical society have cast doubts whether Staffleback owned or operated in that house at all.
What’s not in dispute is the Staffleback case itself. During the 1890s, Staffleback and three accomplices killed and robbed up to 50 clients at a house of prostitution in Galena. She, two sons, and her husband were charged in 1897 with murdering Frank Galbraith, a miner, and dumping his body into a nearby mine shaft. All were convicted of various charges stemming from the killing. Staffleback, who became known as “Galena’s Bloody Madam,” died in a Kansas prison in 1909.
The purported bordello in Galena, Kan., before renovation work began this year.
The house at Front and Main streets in Galena had sat vacant when, several years ago, a local group acquired a nearby Kan-O-Tex gas station, renovated it, and rechristened it into a popular Route 66 destination, 4 Women on the Route. At the time, the principals wanted to acquire the house across the road and turn it into a bed-and-breakfast.
Apparently the home was rumored to have been where Staffleback and her clan committed the murders. The first reference to that in the media surfaced in August, when Galena Mayor Dale Oglesby said he wanted to save the decaying house from the wrecking ball. Citing a book titled “Bedside Book of Bad Girls,” the Joplin Globe newspaper referred to the home’s alleged link with Staffleback. In later stories, the Cherokee County News-Advocate in nearby Baxter Springs and other outlets told about the house’s purportedly sordid past.
In January, Russ Keeler of After Midnight Paranormal Investigations in Siloam Springs, Ark., persuaded the home’s co-owners to spend thousands of dollars to shore up the structure and install period furniture. The allegedly haunted home opened for tours a few weeks ago and, with a nod to the Galena’s notorious murders more than a century ago, was dubbed Galena’s Murder Bordello.
But in recent weeks two members of the Cherokee County Genealogical-Historical Society have refuted the link between the house and Staffleback. Marilyn Schmitt, president of the group, wrote a letter to the Cherokee County newspaper, saying Oglesby wrote her he was “convinced” the home was not the original Staffleback house.
Also, Schmitt wrote:
We have a notebook in our genealogy library of all the newspaper articles that appeared in the Galena and Columbus newspapers from 1897-1901, that includes information the Stafflebacks lived in a three room shanty on the west edge of Galena on Owl Creek. That shanty was burned down after the Stafflebacks were sent to prison and anything left was carted off as souvenirs.
Also, another historical society member, Carolyn McLean, wrote to the Joplin Globe to refute the home’s alleged link to Staffleback and urged a retraction of the story.
An independent online search also bolsters McLean’s and Schmitt’s findings:
- An archived newspaper clipping from 1897 reports the Staffleback house was burned to the ground.
- An 1897 Chicago Tribune article said the Staffleback crimes were committed in “a four-room log cabin” — not close to the description of the ornate home that stands.
- An online scan of the book “Missouri’s Wicked 66: Gangsters and Outlaws on the Mother Road” says the Staffleback crimes occurred in a “long-abandoned shanty.”
Other 1890s newspaper reports of the Staffleback crimes also have been posted online, and support the notion the murders didn’t take place at the house at Front and Main streets.
Contacted by email, Keeler said:
I personally have not claimed at any time that this is for a fact the Staffelbacks house, we know where that is, the house is being restored for the benefit of bringing more tourism to Galena. could the Staffelbacks ran a bordello in here, possibly. There is no clear history on this house, we know it is old enough to have been, and it is haunted.
Indeed, much of Keeler’s copy on the house’s website and Facebook page is careful to not make a direct claim to Staffleback. In a Facebook message, Keeler said the property is being restored as “a historical location to comemorate (sic) the Staffelbacks”.
However, an online description of the property for a recent event there seemed less ambiguous:
“Galenas Murder Bordello” Built in 1890 this old Bordello was ran by a family of murders, The Staffelbacks, said to have murdered more than 30 miners that were seeking a night of entertainment then dumping their bodies in the area mines, one of which is located on the property.
Also, the house being called Galena’s Murder Bordello — and its logo — imply that homicides were committed there.
Keeler also produced the copy of an email purportedly from a distant great-grandson of Staffleback. It said, in part:
I recall somewhere in my early research that the cabin where they lived was expanded by Ed, George and Mike. That was where they lived. The bordello was a short distance away, and I don’t believe it was destroyed. It was their house that was destroyed. I cannot find the article or source offhand, but when you said you were working on the bordello, that really had me thinking. [...] The good news is that the bordello very well might still exist.
So it’s possible, if the recollection is correct, the Staffleback clan lived in the cabin but operated the bordello at another location.
Even so, it seems the two women from the historical society hold a lot more data supporting their arguments.
Personally, I’m glad Keeler took an interest in the house and restored it. Had the long-neglected property sat for a few more years, it probably wouldn’t have been salvageable Now, it’s a tourist attraction that can work in tandem with the nearby Cars on the Route, formerly 4 Women on the Route.
The house had been rumored a bordello long before Keeler arrived on the scene. So this is yet another case on Route 66 where a site had become more legend than fact. Yet this episode should serve as a cautionary tale to those who play fast and loose with history — especially during an Internet era where facts are a lot more easily verifiable.