An obscure drama from 1961 offers a rare glimpse of the Cedar Hill Grocery and gas station that operated along Route 66 east of Tucumcari, New Mexico.
That includes the long-gone neon sign that was on the canopy (seen above). The movie also shows the interior of the business.
According to a Wikipedia summary of the film, “Naked Youth” also was known as “Wild Youth”:
Two fugitives from a New Mexico prison farm, “Switch” and Frankie, encounter a 16-year-old farm girl, Donna, and go on the run together. After accepting a ride from a stranger, Rivas, when their car breaks down, the group encounters a drug dealer and murderer, Maddo, and his strung-out girlfriend, Madge who is addicted to heroin.
The Lodge at Conchas Lake, northwest of Tucumcari, also makes an appearance in the film.
The Cedar Hill Grocery first makes an appearance around the 34-minute mark.
Wolfgang Bohm found the movie and posted about the Cedar Hill link on the Tucumcari and Quay County Then and Now page on Facebook.
The ruins of the Cedar Hill Grocery are about halfway between Tucumcari and San Jon on Route 66, near Plaza Largo Creek. The complex also had a corral and a few motel rooms.
The Cedar Hill reportedly was established in the late 1800s and continued to operate until the mid-1970s. Longtime owner Charles Murray was tied up and robbed in December 1969 by four men, but they were caught.
Infamously, the Cedar Hill’s roof is made of oil cans. I recall seeing the pattern of the flattened cans via drone footage image of the site, but I can’t seem to find it right now.
(Screen-capture image from “Wild Youth” film of the neon sign of the Cedar Hill Grocery)
It’s hard to believe there was a time in the past when saving two cents on the purchase of anything was a big enough deal to justify manufacturing a neon sign to advertise that fact!