I had so much fun reading the Casa Bonita comments from fellow Denverites and ex-Denverites that I wanted to continue the conversation. Consider this an open thread about Denver popular culture.
Suggested topics for starters: Jakes Jabbs, Starr Yelland, KWGN channel 2, Celebrity Sports Center, The Yum Yum Tree, Blinky's Fun Club, Buffalo Bill Museum, Heritage Square.
Ah, Blinky. His depressing-ass thrift store is still there, next to that other thrift store with antique dental surgery equipment and obsolete science apparatus.
Celebrity Sports Center: Oh, lord. Seeing my lady classmates in bikinis at the tender age of 13 and suddenly finding that interesting and not cootieriffic at all. And that one water slide that snaked out of the building, then back in? Wondrous. I still live in Denver, and this is a Whole Foods now. Sad.
KWGN: There was a period in the mid 80s where they ran R-rated movies, unedited and commercial-free. Now I think they're some sort of WB-affiliated channel with nary an original idea in site.
Commercials: Jake Jabbs (the answer to the childish riddle, 'why should you never bend over in American Furniture Warehouse?'), Dealin' Doug, Big Mike Naughton, Rocky's, Pleasure's, and about a zillion others I can no longer recall...Denver was Hollywood for bizarre, locally-produced TV commercials. I seem to recall that G.W. Bailey from 'Police Academy' was in several local commercials...
White Spot: Did anyone else ever waste evenings at the White Spot downtown for some reason? Or Perhaps Paris on the Platte? (still there! shockingly.)
Finally, FunPlex; your source for crappy indoor underage entertainment in the southwest suburbs. I think it's still there, too, although it seems to have taken on a decidely gang-related vibe...
Thanks for the memories, Octopede!
Was Channel 4 the station that had a mid-afternoon movie that they introduced with a psychedelic abstract animation and the orchestral theme song from The Who's "Tommy?"
The Shane Company!!!
I will forever remember the exact location of "The Shane Company" (1/2 mile east of I-25 on Arapahoe) and their iconic hours of operation.
Sadly, thoughts of going back to Lakeside to ride the "Wild Chipmunk" only occur to me during the broadest of daylight hours and have me wondering how my parents could have ever allowed me to roam around unsupervised for so many hours.
Thanks for showing Denver some love.
Hah! I honestly don't remember, but that sounds about right. (I lived in Evergreen and out crappy rabbit ears only picked up 2 and 6 and 12). Which reminds me... Channel 12, the used-to-be oddball PBS channel... I used to stay up late and watch Nitzer Ebb and Sisters of Mercy videos on Teletunes. (fanning self) O lawdy! the memories!
Biiiig Mike Naughton....iiiiissss...Ford!
And what about Exit Lincoln, Exit Ford - but exit the Giant Medved Autoplex?
And Rocky's claim that their cars were special because they were all washed in Rocky Mountain spring water....ahh, I miss Denver.
Fun Plex used to be in the amazing basement of the Cinderella Mall. It's now down on Broadway and Downing...it's a fun place still.
Celebrity Sports Center was amazing! I used to go there all the time when I was a kid. I remember the "Barracuda" slide being particularly good. I got pretty excited when I saw the bit on Casa Bonita yesterday. It really brought back some magical memories of Black Bart and sopapias!
I came here to say this thread is useless without The Shane Company, but I happily see that I'm not alone.
The Shane Company located on Peoria Street, one half mile east of I-25. Open every day, Monday through Friday till 8, Saturday and Sunday till 5.
Channel 12 is still the oddball PBS channel. :)
The funny thing about South Park..the element of truth to some of those things. It's scary at times.
The original Elitch Gardens actually had gardens...it's Elitch Gardens again (Six Flags sold it) but it hasn't worked on its newest identity yet.
Anyone been to the cowboy hat park...or who remembers the airplane park on Belview (now pirates cove?)
Some nice photos of Lakeside here:
http://xrl.us/oqr5x
What beautiful signs!
Actually, it was Funtastic Nathan's in the basement of Cinderella City. I still remember those slides... And they had that weird photo-sensitive room where you contorted your body to make the best silhouette when the lights turned on and then off.
Ahh...Cinderella City. I still remember Cinder Alley with Zeezo's Magic Castle...
How about the original location of Elitch Gardens? They moved the whole thing to a new, bigger, corporate theme park set up with Six Flags branding and it's a bit soulless now compared with the cheesy 70's fun vibe of the old park in my opinion.
More commonly just called "Elitch's", they used that old site as a location for the movie "Things to Do in Denver When You're Dead", dunno if it's still there all abandoned and creepy looking or not though.
There's still the old Lakeside amusement park, and even though it hasn't aged very well either, at least it still has some nice vintage neon and classic rides and whatnot even though it feels a little downscale compared to the newer park.
@TERRANWANNABE: Correction: Exit Kipling, Exit Ward, buut exit the Giant Medved Autoplex!
And if you haven't seen the recent Rocky's commercials (the last 5 years or so), you don't know the kitchy-ness you're missing.
(Grew up in, and still live in Arvada)
Me: Scored with Englewood chicks in every dark corner of Cinderella City.
When I was a kid American Furniture Warehouse "went out of business" every three or four months.
My friend Brian went on Blinky's Fun Club for his b-day in 5th grade. I remember how excited he was to show us the video on his Betamax.
Anyone besides me deposit their BubbleYum/DNA on the gum tree at Elitches????
@MARKG: They kept the gazeebo from the old Elitch Gardens, but the rest of the area has been turned into housing, plus a 24hr Fitness and Sunflower Market (sorta like Whole Foods, but without the pretentious attitude and high prices). It's actually very nice there now.
Also, Six Flags sold the new park, and the new owners seem to be doing a bit to bring back some of the old charm (albiet slowly).
Lakeside, on the other hand, could use a hearty shot of cash in it's left arm. The family that owns it (and the surrounding miniscule "city" of Mountainview) is letting the place slowly rust over, while milking every last penny they can out of it. My wife and I talk about how the first thing we'd do if we ever hit the powerball lottery is buy Lakeside and make it back into what it deserves be.
I just found out a few years ago that Arvada has a main street! A cute old-timey main street, with a good sandwich deli if I recall correctly.
There is a great article in a recent Colorado Historical Society magazine (Colorado Heritage Autumn 2007) http://www.coloradohistory.org/publications/publications.htm about Celebrity Sports Center. It details how Walt Disney created it as a test bed for a new venture in family entertainment. Also, you can't talk about Blinky without talking about his fast food venture: Bronco Burger, on S Broadway in Littleton.
My first job was working at Lakeside in the parking lot for the awesome sum of $0.98 per hour. We'd finish up late in the evening and either sneak into the stock car races (track closed in the 80's after a spectator died when a car leapt the outer barrier..pretty cool actually) or go into the park and ride for free until the place closed. I rode the roller coaster (The Cyclone) 10 times consecutively on one fine summer evening. Ah...
Who remembers the Scotchman drive-in at Federal and I-25? A great hangout for motorheads, their hot dates, and geeks like me who loved to ogle the cars and chicks.
MarkG: it's Elitch Gardens again now...but they haven't got their own branding yet.
The old Elitches now has condos and stores...the old pavilion and theater are still there.
Funtastic Fun on Downing is owned by the same guy who owned the one in Cinderella City...he did his dry cleaning at my grandparents store.
Let's see anyone remember Bear Valley and the $1 theater with the crazy lights?
I grew up in the mountains, I've lived in Denver (re Arvada) for 6 years now. Spent a lot of time in Denver.
Channel 2 and Binky's fun club...I used to watch this channel all the time...we didn't get fox or 20 in the mountains. Sigh.Nostalgia
Holy cow: Teletunes! (Remember their record giveaways? Make a phone call in the middle of the night, then go pick up your promo loot at a used record store in downtown Aurora - on a block that's now fancy condos, but used to be pretty run-down, lots of pawn shops and strip clubs...)
Funtastic Nathans! Cinder Alley! (And how about that weird Polish restaurant in Cinderella City - I think it was the last man standing before they tore it down... Or the surreal madness that was the Cinderella City underground parking deck, after it started to warp and twist and had to be closed...)
The Airplane Park! (I didn't know other families called it that!) How about Boat Park? Can't remember exactly where it was - off Santa Fe and Arapahoe someplace, I think - had a pond with an ark...)
Anybody for the Breakfast King?
And the White Spot, Muddy's, Paris... Oh, my wasted youth!
Anybody remember an abandoned building down on the Platte which kids called The Birdhouse? It's behind Coors Stadium, and I think it's now zillion-dollar studios - but it used to be a creepy place for punks. And the 16th Street viaduct - used to be able to jump off it onto freight trains, or just hang out above the sight of the adults... Good times!
Along with Blinky's Fun Club -- Noel and Andy! Anyone? Lady with a puppet? Mighty Mouse and other old cartoons, drawing demonstrations, an ongoing mail-in art contest... I'm the oldest one here, aren't I? Crap.
Bubble gum tree...ah yes...at least 40 or so times a year...we'd buy a pack of gum just to chew while waiting in line for the log ride.
I had no idea that Bronco Burger was Blinky's place! Scariest clown ever... if I remember correctly, had kind of a sharp Scotch smell about him.
Oh the Boat Park! I forgot about that one.
Any old denver skaters remember the jamaica bowl at 38th (now MLK) and colorado blvd?
We should have a thread where folks can ask questions about what's true in South Park...giggle.
Teletunes has never been replaced for me. So many weekend mornings I was glued to that thumping intro. Anyone else have VHS tapes full of bad-quality recordings of music videos they wanted to keep?
I don't know if it's still on the air, but I used to listen to a Ft. Collins music station: KTCL? That was the best. It was usually DAYS before I'd hear a song repeated. Of course, now I can choose from any station in the country with a streaming cast.
How about the Organ Grinder restaurant? Loved it as a kid, went past later and it was shuttered.
I was going to ask if Cinderella City was real (I just have sparkly memories of being there once as a kid), but I see that it is much remembered.
Good morning to you, good morning to you, good morning dear children, good morning to you!
Jake Jabbs hit on my mom on an airplane once.
The Cinderella City drive-in movie theater is gone now, as of about a year ago.
3 words:
Levine's
Furniture
Warehouse
Remember the home made mom-and-pop TV ads?
A friend of mine who grew up in Austin has been wanting to go to Casa Bonita since the South Park episode aired. Despite my best efforts to dissuade him, he never relented in his enthusiasm. So I finally offered to use a kindercare night out with my (much) younger sisters as pretext for a visit to the famed family paradise.
He's a vegetarian, which was difficult for him, since the menu lists no vegetarian dishes and the girl at the register5 did not seem to know even what such a thing is. When he finally asked if they could an all-cheese-enchilada plate, she said, "You mean the 'cheese deluxe'?", which turned out to be nacho cheese sauce wrapped in three corn tortillas and smothered in nacho cheese sauce.
After dinner, he nearly had a claustrophobic anxiety attack in Black Bart's cave and was none to happy with the woeful state of disrepair in the gaming room. However, he seemed moderately impressed with the diving show.
In the end, I think he still keeps Tiny Town at the top of his Denver-area novelties list.
Also relevant to this thread: I think I saw the blond guy from the sleazy Pleasure's commercials at the King Soopers at 9th and Downing on Sunday night.
@brokenrobot - We might recognize eachother. I don't remember it being called the birdhouse. I think we called it the silos or something. Slept there once in a big pile of foam chunks.
Ok, maybe I'm nuts but "Tickle's Playport"? It may have just been an Eighties aberration in Colorado Springs.
It was sort of a fun house indoors at malls.
The Museum of Natural history and the Planetarium were classics. Celebrity Sports Center.. Good lord! I still have dreams about driving by that place on I25 on our way to ski.
And while we're at it, let's not forget The Original Elitch Gardens.
Anybody remember Denver's answer to white castle, the $0.39 hamburger stand? They were mostly in the old 'Der weiner schnitzle' A-frames, painted white with a blue frame in the 'generic' style. Food came wrapped in white paper marked 'hamburger', 'cheeseburger', 'soft drink', etc. Kinda like Repo Man actually! You could get a hamburger, fries, & a drink for under a buck.
There's still a Hamburger Stand on Broadway, and it's still dirt cheap
The O'Mera ford lady anyone?
@28 yes KTCL was fantastic! Unfortunately it moved to Denver and became pretty bland and normal, but back in the 80's it was incredible. I wish I could remember their slogan.
It broke my heart when Celebrity closed. I have so many wonderful happy memories of that place.
And teletunes. GOD this thread makes me SO happy. Haven't lived in CO in many years, but all my happiest memories are there. God bless you people.
If I were around during the 60s or 70s, I'd be more useful here, I suppose, but as a former inhabitant of a town near Denver, the one person that I miss more than any other, is Franklin D. Azar, the Strongarm.
http://www.bobandgeorge.com/karnak/index.php?comic=150
The Denver Convention Center is fabulous! It looks so small from the outside, but if you try to walk around it, you get lost. It's just as thrilling inside. There's so MUCH space!
elich's was AWESOME. and lakeside, too.
i didn't know that bronco burger had a blinky connection. how frackin' awesome is that?
i'll add another thing to the list: are there other people besides me who cannot hear the big dramatic middle part in styx's song "come sail away" without seeing the channel 2 "eye in the sky" news helicopter zooming to some breaking news story? they played that commercial ENDLESSLY! nowadays i wonder how they got away with using such a popular song for their commercial. i doubt the styx boys got any royalties for it.
OMG, this thread is giving me fits of misty-eyed nostalgia. I L-O-V-E-D the Yum Yum Tree with every fiber of my tiny heart. Blinky scared the hell out of me and I still couldn't stop watching him and Celebrity Sports Center might honestly be the first thing I think of when I think of my childhood.
Pretty much everything else I wanted to add has been covered, but since some of the other awesome parks were mentioned I did want to throw in Dinosaur Park. Also, and this is moving more into the 1980's, I loved Photon on 225 and Mississippi almost as much as I loved Celebrity Sports Center.
oh, and #5 (OCTOPEDE): you lived in evergreen? that's my HOMETOWN!! high five, brutha! the little bear RULES.
@32 We called it The Silos too. It's super expensive lofts now isn't it?
I remember when my little brother was born we went to see Blinky's Fun Club live(!). My grandparents wanted to see their newborn grandchild and the show was also shown in Billings, MT where they lived. I went into the Blinky's Antique store to relate this story to Blinky himself, but he was such a gruff jerk I didn't.
I remember when American Furniture Warehouse was on 58th and broadway, right next to I-25. Ol' Jake Jabs has this fetish for exotic animals for those that don't know, and every weekend they'd have a huge petting zoo out back for the kids.
Funtastic Nathan's was so awesome. They had those weird plushy dome things to climb on, like no less than 5 bouncy rooms, and that huge pipe that ran the length of the ceiling of the place that kids could climb through. I've never seen a kid's attraction that was better than it. Funtastic Fun (the new incarnation) isn't nearly as good, but the giant bear is there. I don't think you could climb on it when it was at Funtastic Nathans, but I could be wrong.
Heritage Square always a little sad, but their Alpine Slide is cool. Google pictures of it. Heritage Square also has a pretty decent Go-Kart track too, well, it was good when I was a kid.
Lakeside nowadays is SCARY. It's like a gangland hangout. I remember when we'd go see the car races at the racetrack next door. Do you people know that they created their own city for the amusement park and ractrack? It because of a liquor license issue with Denver city I think.
Anybody remeber Lakeside's Fun house before it was torn down? With the crazy fat lady singing on top? She did that because it was dangerous, but in a fun way. They had a giant platter they'd put everyone on and spin it, the last person left on "won", playground-style. There were ridiculously steep slides, and moving floors, and a whole bunch of other good things. It's a pity I can't find pictures of it anywhere.
Or how about the old Boardwalk Arcades? There were two of them. They were HUUUUGE. It was the first arcade I had ever seen that you bought a magnetic card and charged it. You played games by the hour, and not by the quarter. Made beating those wallet-sucking games like Ninja Gaiden and Gauntlet much more feasible.
And the old Elitches, what a place. Millions of flowers everywhere with roller coasters in the middle of them. I remember the gum tree by the Log Ride line, it was kind of disgusting. Unfortunately the ground where put the new Elitches is worth more than what the park takes in in 3 years. Every year that they open again I'm surprised.
What memories.
Teletunes first aired as "FM-TV" six months before MTV debuted. Nevertheless they where pressured to change their name to "Teletunes." Along with KTCL and Wax Trax Records Teletunes would complete the trifecta of the Denver Goth/Punk music scene in the 80s.
There was also the revolving weekly dance venues of Thirsty's, Tracks, The Church, Stars, and Pogo's in Boulder. With everyone ending up at either Muddy's Coffeehouse or Paris on the Platte.
Before Colorado changed their drinking laws around 1988 you could order 3-2 beer if you were 18 years old. Or, once you hit 19, you could drive up to Wyoming and buy hard liqueur and fireworks. Ah, good times.
I remember being at Furrs Cafeteria one night with my family. An old man comes up to us and starts being a bit too friendly to us kids. Just before my dad is going to step in we figure out that it's Blinky, without his makeup on.
OK how about Calvin's on 15th and Market street downtown? I think I had my first drink in a bar there and no I was not yet 21. It's a PF Chang's now. Come to think of it most of downtown Denver (or "Lodo") is corporate and soulless now. But The Wizard's Chest is still around! And thriving too!
Oh this is awesome!!! It got me thinking about some memories. Here they are in no certain order (Sorry if some are off topic).
*Of course Cinderella City (They had the best record store in town)
*Ferrell's Ice Cream Parlor (When you order that big honking sundae and they came in with the sirens and bells)
*Shakey's (sp?) Pizza and Godfathers Pizza.
*Bronco Burger (MMMMMMMM...... Burger)
*Movie theaters anyone? Cooper, Continental, Century, Cinderella City Drive In. Now those were some big screens. They don't make them like that anymore.
*When there was nothing past County Line road except Daniel's Park
*Hagging out at the Nautilus Arcade in Southglenn Mall and spending hours on Defender.
*Being able to drink 3.2 beer at 18 and hanging out at "After the Fox" and "Thirsty's"(sp?).
*Having Runzas for hot lunch in elementary school.
*Taking a drive in the mountains and it seemed like the only house you saw was the "Sleeper" house.
gawd, we climbed to the top of the birdhouse/silo in the middle of the night, with only bic's to light our way. actually made it back down safely and realized we lost our car keys. Had to go back to the top (climbing the narrow stairs on walls of the shaft up to the roof - 10 stories?) - No keys. Made it back down again and realized I left them in my jacket on the hood of the car.
This was after a long night at My Brothers Bar...
The Popp Shopp- great selection and cheap.
Shakey's fried chicken and pizza- Amazing fries that were actualluy thick slices of seasoned potato.
Jolly Ranchers- Wheatridge plant had store attached where you could get bulk seconds for 99 cents a pound.
Gart Brothers Sports Castle. Nuff Said
After the Gold Rush. Teen Night on Tuesdays I think it was.
Fourney Train Museum- Amazing collection of classic cars, dioramas, and of course trains.
@#1
Paris on the Platte? HAH! wow, I was just there last night. Loud music, too many scenester kids and weak coffee, but one of the best damn coffee shops to spend and evening in with friends.
I'm only 23 and I remember Blinky the clown from TV. the main memory I have of him is the birthday...thing he'd have at the end of each show where he had a lot of kids stand in front of some rainbow as he sun the birthday song to them. I remember some kids got sad, and some absolutely spazzed out with glee.
KWGN Channel 2: Anyone remember when they ran "Creature Features" late on Saturday nights? We'd stay up late and scare ourselves watching the old 50s "atomic mutants" monster flicks.
White Spot: When I worked as an overnight producer at one of the Denver TV news operations, my news reporter met Jesus Christ in the downtown White Spot one memorable midnight hour...he even pulled out his ID card to prove it.
Casa Bonita: My wife worked her way through college making those famous sopapillas, and telling insistent people "There are NO more tables by the lagoon." 30 years later, our kids don't especially like the food but they love finding Mom's name on a dusty "Employee of the Month" plaque in some dim back corridor by the mine shafts. Appetite Tip: NEVER EVER get old Casa Bonita alums talking about what REALLY went on back in the kitchen!
Saber Tooth Tiger at the Museum of Natural History: Put in a penny, get out a throaty, gurgly guttural roar. Scared me years ago as a kid....now it's a grrREAT ringtone on my cellphone, recorded during a recent visit. That roar cuts right through any crowd noise.
KHOW Radio (or was it KIMN?), every Friday at 5pm, kicked off the weekend playing "If I Had a Wagon, I Would Drive To Colorado!" from the Up With People group.
I still hear it in my dreams. "The Shane company, direct diamond importers. Just off Arapahoe road on Emporia Street, one half mile east of I-25. Open every night, Monday through Friday 'till 8, Saturday *and Sunday* 'till 5."
I also remember Casa Bonita. It was magical, and South Park did it justice. Delightfully tacky. I wonder how much I'd like it as an adult?
Elitch's was also really amazing, although I remember watching the Wildcat's track sway every time the train went over it. Very scary, indeed. I was also there the first season they had a looping coaster, and I remember thinking how, "gosh, they could really do more with this concept." Lakeside was always sort of like the one you'd go to if you couldn't get into Elitch's for whatever reason.
Who else remembers Water World? Twenty years later I *still* haven't found a better water park. We used to go during summer day care.
Anyone else remember when Cinderella City was the largest mall in the country?
I cracked my head open on the edge of the pool at Holly Park in Greenwood Village, and I took off the bandage early to go swimming at Celebrity Sports Center (although I stopped just shy of getting on the Dolphin, Barracuda, or Shark water slides.)
My dad tells me that one time, on the Heritage Square alpine slide, I kept telling him to slow down...but I had actually just learned how to read and was reading the signs aloud on the way down.
Born in 1978, I do *not* specifically remember the clown pictured at the top of this article...but for some reason he's alarmingly familiar to me and he reeks of Denver.
Ross
@41, 43 Bennito, I somehow knew you'd show up here. Good call on Dinosaur park, even though I never went there until way later.
It's good to reminisce about all these great old places.
And, just to add one more: Wax Trax on 13th. Talk about mis-spent youth.
Dropsy, you're not the only one here old enough to remember Noel and Andy.
How about endless reruns on channel 2 of Gilligan's Island, McHale's Navy, and I Dream of Jeannie? Or the Saturday morning horror movies? They had Godzilla, Gamera, and all those others that ended up on MST3K long before MST3K was a idea.
How about BOB POST CHRYSLER PLYMOUTH on South Colorado? (Those old enough to remember will know why that *has* to be all in caps).
Movie theaters? The old North Star drive in in Thornton actually had the biggest movie screen in the world!
That Sleeper house is still there. I think some church now owns it.
Damn you Mark, I get off work come home to read BoingBoing and have to see that damned evil clown.
Apparently he is still alive
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8ewlkxvFuI&feature=related
No clips of his creepiness on YouTube but I did find this
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oPYeewiD3Dw
For those of you who wasted most of their nights in High School at Muddy's I found this a few months ago
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=69185202
I seem to remember in High School that the White Spot was bought buy a gay man and everyone I knew called it the Cum Stain. (yea we were a bunch of asshole punk rockers)
I remember Teletunes but does anyone remember Home Movies? I work for a public access TV station now and I can't even believe that this show used to exist. Every week new movies sent in by just anyone.
I thought the boat park was way down on south Broadway near a Safeway. I saw a big rat swimming through the pond at the boat park one night. And the plane park was Bellview park in Englewood.
I used to do puppet shows at Nathans Funplex when I was in middle school, not something I admit very often.
Is anyone else old enough to remember the fountain in Cinderella City before they closed it? And what was the name of that record store in the basement that was also a borderline head shop? I bought My first cassette tape there, go ahead and laugh it was Quiet Riot.
KTCL is still the standard I hold any radio station to, and not one has come close. I remember one morning going to school and hearing Public Enemy, the Grateful Dead and The Sex Pistols in one set. But I also remember being able to listen for hours and not hearing a single song I knew.
I know this is mostly about childhood memories, and a lot of people have touched on a lot of things that I remember growing up in Englewood. But in high school the best local band for me had to be the Warlock Pinchers, and it's a crime that no one has mentioned them yet. (or Wax Trax, or sneaking into Rock Island when you were 16, or that horrible all ages club INXSS)
All of you ride Cock Horses IMHO :)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z20UYhP8vIQ&feature=related
(last link NSFW)
I still have scars from being in the pit at a Pinchers show.
I lived in an old apartment next to Gates Rubber a couple years back, and I took a walk down to Blinky's with my 1 year old daughter in a sling. I remember watching Blinky on before Mr. Rodgers every morning when I was in the young elementary school age, so I thought it would be an interesting experience for her.
"If you're not buying, get out." I think were his exact words. Freaky, but somehow life affirming. Even clowns get old and cranky...
Then there are all those wasted late-adolescence nights down at Paris on the Platte, waiting on crappy coffee served by surly goths, in the sketchy part of town, now surrounded by yuppie condos and a wine shop (A FUCKING WINE SHOP) where the book store was! That book store had one purpose only (to smoke weed while hidden from the rest of the coffee shop).
I had the privilege of taking a walking tour of old swansia and the meat packing district about 8 years back with local historian Ernesto Vigil (of Crusade for Justice fame) as part of a labor history class I took at UCD. I haven't looked at Denver quite the same since...
I took my kids to Lakeside on Labor day, and it's still weird and creepy, still a decaying husk of an amusement park, like a corpse of a freak long dead, now preserved and shown at peep shows. We saw a couple ladies snorting coke in the parking lot...
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v63/vespaboy/starride.jpg
The long dead starride, now intermingled with a tree, as if they half disassembled it then forgot the rest forty years ago...
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v63/vespaboy/mkspaceride.jpg
My kids in a weird 1950s space ride, complete with guns to train the next generation of warriors to fight the communists in space...
Thanks for the topic! I live in Denver, and have for the last 10 years (my wife is a native of 29 years), and I really love this amazing city near the mountains!
I nearly had a heart attack when I saw that photo, and when I read the list of Denver pseudo-celebs, a gush of childhood flooded forth from deep in my brain. The weirdest thing about all my reminiscing is that I grew up in a small town in Western Nebraska. The local TV stations were so small and so few that the cable company imported the local channels of the closest "big city, "Denver, CO. I grew up bathed in Denver TV without having been there until I was 11 or 12.
@21, brokenrobot
Yeah. Blinky always seemed like the transient clown that actually was a transient.
And I actually won a record off of Teletunes once, but I had to go up to the Wax Trax in Boulder (there's another one...the once-great Wax Trax empire, anyone? I guess that's more early 90s than 60s/70s) and they had no clue what I was talking about and I got shit.
And Breakfast King: Good diner or the best diner? Complete with mouldering old Gates Rubber factory out the window...
@JORNIN
I spent many a night, after HS, at Muddy's. Some of my fondest memories. Thanks for that link :)
Also, I have a Warlock Pinchers CD. They rock!!
Rock Island was great back then. That was when it was a sketchy part of town. For some reason I always ended up throwing up that night.
ahab
Anyone remember when the Gothic used to show movies?
Does anyone else remember hearing that some kid went down to Lakeside and started throwing M-80's in the lake with all the fish? I heard that's why they closed down the lake access. I've always thought that someone needed to take Cory Doctrow to Lakeside, all those cool, low rent, art deco neon signs. I remember spending hours in the Funhouse, I'm sure that was closed down by some insurance adjuster.
And yes I remember puking in the wave pool at Water World, that place was insane.
@52: OMG, yes, the Museum of Natural History! Dinosaurs! Glowing rock specimens! And the nature scene dioramas!
I lived in Colorado Springs only briefly, but I remember Casa Bonita well (and those sopapillas, yum!)
@54 Ha, Carlos of the Basques! Good to see you among the riff raff. I wonder how many other people here know each other and don't realize it.
Does anybody remember that Shakey's had these balloons that blew up into a bowling pin shape and had a clown printed on them and big cardboard "feet" that you'd slip over the knot? I loved getting those.
And was it the Yum Yum Tree that had the huge pile of pumpkins every Halloween that you could take?
Wow you're really making me homesick for Denver, Mark!
I'm so thrilled there are so many Teletunes fans here. I was a VJ for them for a few years, so I may be a bit biased with that one!
I have years worth of Teletunes episodes on VHS that I should put up on Youtube. As hosts we really had fun putting on skits, interviewing bands on location and basically being on-camera music geeks.
I interviewed Budgie from Siouxsie and the Banshees in the foyer of a ladies bathroom at their venue, Primus in the basement, and ska bands in dark alleys. Shonen Knife was my first interview and I don't think they knew much English at the time so we talked about their shoes and candy.
I remember being in skits involving a time traveling bath tub, killer squirrels stalking me at haunted Cheesman Park and me stuck on the railroad tracks.
Good times. Good times.
ah celebrity's: where it always smelled of bleach and kids constantly pooped in the pool. That one big slide that started sort of outside on Colorado Blvd was pretty cool though. And the game room rocked.
I remember the giant teddy bear at Funtastic Nathans and crying when i had to leave.
Cinder Alley had all those fun machines that pushed tokens and toys out. BEST. TOYS. EVER.
Blinky scared the crap out of me in person. I went on the show for my birthday and would not go on stage.
I remember riding the small, speedy wooden rollercoaster at Eliches in the rain and almost flying off the track.
This thread cracks me up - because a huge number of these 60s and 70s things were still around in the 80s and 90s when I was growing up (I'm still in Denver btw).
Commercials:
Jake Jabbs and his whole family on the commercials with tigers. Aparently some law about owning wild/endangered big cats and having to use them in a public service capacity. Always made for fun commercials with baby tigers climbing over sofas though
Dealin' Doug - may be a newer thing, but ye gods, he's still around, and one of the more wealthy people in Denver.
Shane Company - I was in Dayton, OH, and heard a Shane Company ad there too - I was so offended! The only place is on Imporia Street, One half mile east of I-25!
Someone mentioned the O'Meara Ford lady - ugh, whoever's bright idea it was to put her on TV should be throttled.
Places:
Celebrity Sports Center - Didn't get over there to that part of Colorado Ave. often, but it was crazy.
Nathans Funtastic Fun, Cinderella City, Cinderella Drive-In - Definitely had a couple birthday parties there at Cinderella City. That whole area of Englewood is different now. No more Drive-In, no more mall (its the Englewood City admin building and a Home Depot now on Hampden, Condos and the Light Rail station along Santa Fe.)
Fun Plex - is now on its 3rd name/owner - closed and became Fat City for a while (nice bowling alley stuff, otherwise about the same), now its something else. Laser tag and Indoor Put Put golf! Many days spent there.
TV/Radio
Blinky and his Fun Club were still around when I was a kid, but not for real long.
Channel 2 during the day is still about the same... though channel 20 has picked up a lot of the crappy-weekend-afternoon movie stuff.
Radio Personalities - Lewis and Floorwax are still on The Fox 103.5 - KBPI lost Dean and Rog after they did something obscene at a Denver area mosque - Dave Logan is doing 1stBank ads and on 850 KOA (still the strongest AM radio source in the west I believe)
Ah I could go on and on...
@AHAB
Yea I bought my first (and only) sheet of acid at Muddy's. I even asked the waitress if she knew where I could get any and she hooked me up.
You only have one Warlock Pinchers CD, there are two.
The first time I snuck into Rock Island I was juggling with a bunch of Ren Fest Geeks passing torches under that rotting viaduct.
Oh, and then there is Red Rocks! And the iconic U2 "Under a Blood Red Sky" concert that was filmed there.
My first concert was Depeche Mode. What was your first or most favorite Red Rocks concert?
Oh yeah forgot about that one
(bad robot voice)
K B P I ROCKS THE ROCKIES
There's a Compass Drive-In right near you/
With two big features, count 'em, two/
Delicious food for all the family
Kids under 12 are free!
Tonight a Compass Drive-In is the place to be!
Man, I just keep thinking of new ones. How about the High Line Canal? We spent tons of lazy summer days in Eisenhower Park using a rope swing to jump into the canal, which is pretty gross in retrospect since it was essentially storm drain run off.
Is KAZY still around? I remember riding our bikes to the end of the High Line canal path once to go to the KAZY studios.
Oooh, and Rainbow Music Hall!
OMG
I saw Weird Al at the Rainbow.
I am such a F'in Nerd
WAX TRAX:
I worked at the Wax Trax in Boulder for awhile too when I was in college in the '90s. It was the closest thing to the High Fidelity record story experience as you could get. We were sort of expected to be rude to customers who made crappy music choices.
I distinctly remember when the uber-conservative men's group The Promise Keepers had their conference in Boulder, and one of them came in looking for Christian music I sold him a Ministry CD. heh.
WHITE SPOT:
It was where us ravers and go-go dancers went late at night for a decent slice of pie. It was usually the only place you could spot a drag queen before it became trendy.
UZI:
The only fetish fashion store in Denver for a long, LONG time. Mari ran it and she and he partner made their own rubber corsets to cater to strippers, Goth kids and club kids. She also ran a performance group of dancers and club kids as well.
GOTH CLUBS:
Does anyone remember Rock Island? I was a regular for sure at Pogo's. That little club in Boulder seemed to go through a different name change each year.
KUCB:
It was the "coolest college radio station you couldn't get legally off-campus" at CU Boulder. As a DJ and the Music Director there for a few years, I have to say that was one of the funnest and most educational music experiences of my life. Not every station can boast having live interviews with Ogre from Skinny Puppy, Poison Ivy from the Cramps, Marcia Brady, and the band Butt Trumpet!
DENVER/BOULDER BANDS back in the day:
Warlock Pinchers!
http://www.myspace.com/warlockpinchers
Foreskin 500!
http://www.myspace.com/foreskin500
@eggonstilts: I think I was at that same Depeche Mode concert at Red Rocks!!! I remember being in front row seeing Nitzer Ebb open up!
Ya know, Nine Inch Nails just played there last week:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/nineinchnails/2842013639/
Happy Birth-a-day to you. I love Blinky. He dead?
How about the ORIGINAL Time Warp on Pearl Street in Boulder? The 2 guys who ran it? Wayne & Kent. No lie. They took Stan Lee to see "Raiders of the Lost Ark" on opening day.
17th & Pearl... The Denver Folklore Center?
The Green Spider Coffee Shop?
The House of Tarot?
The Psychedelic Shop?
The Rugged Room?
The Avalon?
Just Askin'
Celebrity Sports Center, omigod. Another rockin' good time when I was a kid.
Denver really was like a mini-LA/Hollywood/Disneyworld/Universal Studios when you were a kid.
And a shout-out to the UA Continental, one of the finest 3-story theatres in these parts. Perhaps the finest.
And WaxTrax, another fine reason to go to Denver in the 80's.
Yeah - you guys have hit upon just about every item on my list high-points... even down to the Warlock Pinchers... but somehow, no-one has mentioned Fashion Disaster! Back in my day, you had to drive downtown to get NA-NA creepers or 16-eye ox-blood doc's. These days, you just have to go to Hot Topic at the freekin' mall!
KAZY - We used to call it "k-O-Z-Z-Y" because it seemed like you could turn it on @ any time, and after every 3rd song, Crazy Train or something would come on. KTCL (Ft. Collins?) and KBCO switched my world view quite a bit. Teletunes? That was for poor kids whose families couldn't afford cable. Oh, and it was far superior to anything on MTV!
Earliest childhood memories are from Casa Bonita - I think because it was so surreal w/ the setting and the divers and all. Bought my 1st guitar down the street at Rockley Music! 20 yrs later and I still have it.
I have to echo the comment about Celebrity Sports Center and lady classmates at 13 in their swimsuits -- like a rite of passage. Water World was another awesome aquatic hang out.
Blinky always seemed kind of tragic to me, but even as a kid, I knew he was a good soul.
Reading Westword while hanging out on the 16th street mall... Awesome memories.
I live in Illinois now, and when people see the MEDVED badge on my jeep, they ask me, "Are you a paramedic?" :-)
Chucky Cheeses... animatronic b-days and triple homicide!
Ronnie Redneck
Mayor Peñut
The Hooligan
Kacey Fine Furniture
The stunning trompe l'oeil mural by I-25 they painted over with a hideous rendition of Andres Gallaraga
Imi Jimi. It's a sad story if you know it, but I came in the first day they opened and hung out there almost daily for a few years after that.
I remember Elitches, Lakeside, Buckingham Mall, Ferrell's Ice Cream Parlor, Casa Bonita, some old magic shop (can't remember name) and Laserium at the Planetarium
This thread is a riot, especially since I just moved back (to Boulder) after being gone for nearly 20 years. Almost all of the things I remember have already been mentioned: Paris on the Platte, Wax Trax, Celebrity Sports Center, Elitch's, Casa Bonita, the classic commercials, etc., etc.
The only thing I could remember that I don't think has been mentioned yet is the old Showbiz Pizza. One time, we saw Craig Morton (the Broncos' QB) there with his family...as did everyone else in the place. His wife was not a happy camper as he signed dozens of polystyrene plates.
#68, #75: I was at the same Depeche Mode show - remember that crazy hailstorm earlier that day? It was like the most costliest hailstorm in the country up to that date, and the show still went on. In fact the weather was gorgeous after about 3:00 or 4:00 in the afternoon.
WAX TRAX. Holy cow I can't believe I haven't thought of that place in years. I spent SO much of my meager earnings there. On 13th street, right?
I worked in downtown, near where the ballpark is now - there used to be a cafe there called the Mercury Cafe where I saw Alanis Morissette play to a room of people. By all rights she should have been playing bigger crowds, but I guess the tour was scheduled before she "blew up". This was summer of '95.
And someone mentioned My Brothers Bar. Awesome! I drank my first legal drink there, though I'd already been having a beer with lunch there occasionally for a couple of years since I worked in the area.
@64: OMG, Bonnie, I totally remember you from Teletunes. I was a total Rock Island/Ground Zero playa (if by 'playa' you mean bumming cloves and requesting that same godawful Front 242 song over and over and over and over...). And the Pinchers? Yeah, one of the first shows I ever saw on my own dime was them opening for The Dead Milkmen at the Gothic, back when bits of plaster would rain down during sets. Awesome.
And, yeah, I was totally at that awesome Depeche Mode / Nitzer ebb show at RR (back in the boondocks where all the drunken frat dudes were)... I remember Nitzer Ebb broke their beat-machine and just drummed and strutted before finally slinking off stage.
I grew up at the Rainbow Music Hall: The Police w/The Specials, X, Randy Newman, Thin Lizzy, U2 (3x), Black Flag w/The Minutemen, Ramones, Warren Zevon, T-Bone Burnett, etc.
For those who still lament the dead mall, I just uploaded my song “Cinderella City” to m’ MySpace page. The lyrics accompany it.
Please allow me one more piece of shameless self-promotion. My Denver novel: A Western Capitol Hill.
American Furniture Warehouse still has the animals come by. I took my daughter there to get her picture with a tiger...must be a bad mom. :)
Kacey of Kacey Fine Furniture just died...it's pretty sad actually.
The Lakeside fun house...my mom got stuck on one of the roller slides once.
Furrs!!! We used to go there all the time. I remember being freaked out by the wall paper.
Jolly Ranchers! We used to get in the car line every Halloween for the free bags of candy. I used to live in Golden near the factory and we'd go every weekend.
Waterworld still there, still going strong...lots of competition now...Elitch's has a water park, and there's Splash & Pirates cove...plus countess random wavepools/slides.
Buckingham Mall is pretty rundown/empty...though a traveling carnaval stops there every year.
Mercury Cafe: Still there, fantastic food, and Thursday night swing.
Frist off Teletunes was FMTV first before KBDI sold the name. I put up a list of youtube videos that I remerber from that time under FMTV, "This is not my beautiful wife."
Anyway, how about Prom restaurants? The Magic Pan in Larimer Square. The Boulderado
Wow. This might be the first time in my adult life that I've felt nostalgic and a little proud about being from Denver.
This is perhaps a bit niche, but anyone remember Roller City on Alameda? Now a Salvation Army or a Goodwill, I believe, but the source of much 'tween angst for me.
@50:Jolly Ranchers- Wheatridge plant had store attached where you could get bulk seconds for 99 cents a pound.
I was so heart broken when they closed the plant. Fire Jolly Ranchers never tasted the same after that.
Fourney Train Museum- Amazing collection of classic cars, dioramas, and of course trains.
Moved but still around: http://forneymuseum.org/basicinfo.htm
@Bonnie:
I distinctly remember when the uber-conservative men's group The Promise Keepers had their conference in Boulder, and one of them came in looking for Christian music I sold him a Ministry CD. heh.
Thank you for that. Bill McCartney and the Promise Keepers. *shudder*
N @37 - KTCL was owned by Alf Landon's widow. I still have a tape from about 1963 of when Mom and her Brownie/Girl Scouts were on, and I told the announcer that I was not a girl scout. The station was KZIX then, and later KIIX, then KTCL.
The great radio stations in Denver were KMYR (which became the miserable KHOW) and KFML (whose frequency is now KIMN-FM, as far as I know, pitching Muzak-lite from the KCOL studio in Fort Collins). KFML has fan sites on the web (as does KIMN) where you can hear some old station breaks in their early-70s glory. KLZ-FM was pretty good, too (I remember once or twice they put "Teddy Bear's Picnic" on the turntable) -- they changed their name to KAZY for some dopey reason.
I made it to Elitch's one time, around 1979, when they put free coupons in the paper. A friend and I and his date collected a handful of them, then found that it took about five to get a ride, so we each had one ride and flipped a coin for the other one, then went home. At least I saw the place. I rode the roller coaster a week or so after a Denver policeman was decapitated on it.
In 1975-6, I used Blinky in a comic book story, "Jimmy Cool vs The Creature from Channel Two," in which Cool goes up against their afternoon movie host, Tom Shannon. Blinky is Shannon's enforcer. In part two, he meets the Reruns (Gilligan, McHale, Gomez Addams...). Search YouTube for Blinky, and see him chatting away in his shop. I used to stay up for their Creature Features, eager to watch a double- or triple-feature of old Universal and American International flicks, only to wake up to a screen full of static.
The Forney Transportation Museum used to be in Fort Collins, where the Forneys lived. They figured they could make more money in Denver some time in the 70s.
Wax Trax was great. I still have all the used vinyl I got there, and an issue of PUNK magazine (then we moved before I could buy more). I remember their turntables -- one had a sign that said, "Like, Out of Order, JACK."
Then there are the older memories, of Fred 'n' Fae on KLZ-TV, singing the "Tum Tum" song and showing serial chapters and "The Funny Company." They came to Fort Collins once to give away photos. I stood in line and when they handed me a picture, asked if I wanted an autograph. I was game for anything extra and said sure, and they rubber-stamped their name on it. I wasn't pleased -- they ruined my picture!
Jesus...Blinky's Fun Club. I watched that guy every morning! Most of my memories of Denver revolve around pizza joints (Showbiz...The Organ Grinder, which was walking distance from my house when I was a kid..), morning kid shows, Elitch's, and shoplifting. I didn't know I'd be so nostalgia-y today. :)
Mile High Comics?
Elitch's! I saw a production of Harvey there with the dad from Silver Spoons, the maid from Diff'rent Strokes, the wife from Amadeus and some dude from Dukes of Hazzard. I was completely starstruck.
Anyone remember listening to the post game show on the radio after the Broncos games and hearing, "They spell it N-E-L-O-W-E-T, but it's pronounced, nel-o-way..."? They lived in my neighborhood, and the OTHER Sleeper house was in my neighborhood as well.
Dealin' Doug - GUH!
pablo_marx said: "I came here to say this thread is useless without The Shane Company..."
I truly don't mean to be a turd in the punchbowl of Denver-specific nostalgia but only today, after reading this thread, have I discovered that the Shane Company is a national chain. I, too, have those cheeseball radio ads memorized from the 80's ("across from the Dunfey in San Mateo, open weekdays till 8, Saturdays and sundays till 5!")...except I grew up in California.
They're based in Ohio.
If this had been an SF bay area childhood nostalgia thread I probably would have ALSO posted the Shane Company. Sigh. we've all been duped.
never been to denver but now I wish I had a time machine set to 1977 so I could go.
I spent many a nights at Muddy's during high school and after. My picture made the wall twice. By the time I was 21 I found myself at Calvins. I miss those places as well as the 15th St. viaduct and chinese fire drills while waiting for trains to go by. Rock Island, Stars, INXS, Normans, the Fizz, Scandals, the Grove, 13th Street Cafe, the Pegasus, Fashion Disaster. Teletunes!!! I miss LoDo before it was even called LoDo. You didn't go to lower downtown after dark - but we did!
I miss the gum tree while waiting in line for the log ride at the old Elitch's. Thank God Casa Bonita is still around. I like Davie's Chuckwagon too.
The list goes on...
Oh, oh, who remembers Laser Floyd at Gates Planetarium? They had a specially modified projector that produced the fastest-rotating star field in the world. Awesome!
I remember Laser Floyd, but also the superior Laser Rock - Boston, Styx, and who knows who else.
Thanks for setting the record straight about FMTV and MTV. Yes, FMTV existed before MTV. And it wasn't that they changed their name to Teletunes to avoid legal problems. It was because they sold the name to some other program in another part of the country. Ah, the almighty buck.
Ohhh #100, you stole mine! I loved going to Muddy's and Cafe Euphrates! Those were some serious years during my teenage years... and going to Paris now makes me feel sick to my stomach... it's just not the same!
And to clarify, everyone... it was FUNTASTIC NATHANS ;) I still have an 80's style t-shirt from there. The whole rainbow, cheesy logo... so fun.
And while I'm on my coffee house places... certainly someone here frequented Denny's on Evans and Colorado when Euphrates & Muddy's closed and Paris got old...
- Fine dining at "The Broker" chain
- U Turn Man
- Applejacks
- The Eskimo Club
- Coors Tours
- Mori's, when it was the only thing in empty lodo
- Cruising Colfax (which I avoided)
- Anyone remember summers at sandy Sunset Beach, the (4th) largest (outdoor) pool (surrounded by sand) in America?
- The Rockies (ice hockey team) and that song
I'm sure I'll think of more later.
Wow, what flashbacks...I'm waiting to hear some situation I was actually a part of.
Here's a great memory I have about Celebrity:
Warming up in the upper level arcade (many more traditional pinball machines), then heading for the lower level, improved variety arcade area, where I'd often make a b-line for indy-800, which could accommodate 8 racers at once. There was a "black night" pinball machine down there that I just thought was the coolest.
How about Maxwell's deep dish? (I think I have that right)
Crusty enough to remember Noel and Andy and the thick marker pen drawing demos. Cripes!
TV after school specials, and wasn't channel 2 that aired the John Byner show and you could actually count on seeing some topless women forced into the story?
Heritidge Sq and the mini train, and here's an obscure one: the funhouse or whatever it was called that was probably just a big brown trailer but inside everything in the space was altered to tweak your perceptions (water flowing uphill and a ramp that looked level but felt like you were either walking uphill or downhill).
And let us not forget the original orange crush.
Holy crap- I had a wiki childhood/punk adolescence with way too many of you! Shout out to Roller City, though I liked Skate City in Arvada a bit better they had a black light for couples skate. As a tween girl Sunday nights on KIMN were the best, American Top 40 followed by Dr. Demento then Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. I used to listen to Allan Berg too, he had a lot to do with my formative political years, I was devastated when he was killed.
Thirsties, Ground Zero, Normans and Pogos? My misspent youth! I can't believe we were allowed to drink at 18. Half of my friends didn't make the cut for the grandfather clause, there was big money in getting your "lost" driver's license replaced back then.
@74, and @88, I totally remember the Promise Keepers gig, I worked on the hill too at the Yello Sub- all the old dads came in one afternoon and the girls and I were pissed, we put on the Sex Pistols, jumped up on the tables and made out. Foreskin 500! I hear that Punk Rock Dave actually owns a wine shop now.
What about all the great Denver dive bars? Lions Lair, Pete's Kitchen, El Chapultapec...
Hey and for you FoCo kiddies, anybody else catch Tony Hawk skating in Old Town, he must have been about 13. Would love to find the where abouts from anybody from Team Stupid too, I know a couple of the guys worked on some early hydrogen car prototypes, before they blew up their house...
Wow, good times is right!
I can't ever remember my phone number, but when I'm 90 I'll still know exactly how to call the Denver Post.
Call 825-2525, the Denver Post guaranteed classifieds!
GO ROCKIES!
Celebrity - stopping in the Shark/Barracuda and waiting for friends; endless running up the ramps and slowing when you knew a guard was around the next turn; and the shooting gallery - nuff said.
As I understand, two of the most venerable institutions of my youth are now rooming together - Tattered Cover and Twist and Shout?
Monkey Island in Washington Park for midnight capture the flag.
Original Chipotle on Evans - there opening day!
Anyone get dragged out in school to go to Four Mile Historical something or other?
There are only a couple things in this entire thread I haven't done/been to in my youth in Denver -
It makes me want to go home...
OMFG this is SUCH a cool thread!
I remember Cin City very well, as I worked 2 different jobs there in my youth. And to this day I still wear the brass belt buckle I bought in the headshop on the basement level for a measly $2.
... and KFML - really opened my eyes to what music should be about (when they didn't space out and forget to cue up the music).
... and drinking beer in Wash Park on a summer afternoon back before it was banned.
... and hanging around Celebrity.
And speaking of that neighborhood: Anyone remember the Riviera (before it got turned into a family-friendly restaurant)? Oh well, at least the new mgt had the sense to keep that awesome sign.
I nearly shat myself when I suddenly saw Blinky on BB. I never liked his show when I was growing up (in the 70s and 80s). He creeped me out then.
And yeah, Celebrity was awesome. I actually still have it as a recurring setting in my dreams, and I think I only went there twice. I don't even like swimming, and never have, but I loved the water slides there.
What a wonderful thread!!!
buscas empleo aqui lo encontraras http://www.aquiempleo.com
Dropsy, thanks for bringing up Noel & Andy. I was beginning to think I had made her up completely.
Here's a few more:
The Organ Grinder: Crappy pizza on Alameda with a huge, HUGE organ in the center of the dining hall.
The Straw Hat: More crappy pizza @ 80th & Wads where they would project cartoons on the walls.
I still remember sitting on Santa's lap at the Denver Dry each Xmas. It was at 16th & Glenarm. Gone now.
Anyone remember the fun house at Lakeside? The creepy laughing animatronic fat woman outside? I had several bloody noses from that place, trying to walk through the spinning barrel.
Lastly, about poor Blinky. Russell was a nice enough man. I met him at the end of his career while I was at PBS. He was very civil, but reeked of booze. I guess the clown cliches keep coming.
P.S. Praise Zod for the creator of this thread.
I went to grad school at DU '71-'72. Rode endlessly on bus routes 9 & 13. Hung out at Capitol Billiards on Sunday afternoons. Loved to eat at Joe's Buffet, home of the Original Mexican Hamburger. It brings tears to my eyes just thinking about it. Got a tattoo at Don-the-Tattooist on Broadway. Also liked to eat at a Thai place (Chada Thai?) where the menu was on a giant chalk board & the best bet was always "Let Lili Do It." We would go out in Larimer Square in the early days of prettification and walk home to Capitol Hill at 1:00 a.m. without a worry. There were still traces of the place that Kerouac described in On The Road, gin mills and stumble bums, but Urban Development was well underway and parts of the city looked bombed out, waiting for new buildings to spring up. One day, my brother & I were sitting on a bench by the federal buildings, and a truck stopped near us. A bunch of workers jumped up, rolled up the grass, and hauled it away. I've always wondered if they were legit landscapers, or turf rustlers. Could have gone either way.
I could go on and on with this thread (and I'm resisting the temptation to do so, just so you know), but does anyone remember "POW!", the after school television intermission call-in "game show" hosted by KIMN's Danny Davis? I am sure other cities had their own version, but I remember using the speed redial feature on my parents' newfangled touch tone telephone over and over in an ultimately unsuccessful attempt to compete in what surely must be the lamest "videogame" ever: you (the caller) yell "POW" into the phone, causing a little ball to shoot from a moving cannon on the left side of the screen and, if you're lucky, destroying something on the right side of the screen. You had something like ten shots to complete your objective, but there seemed to be little to no relationship between the sound of the player's voice saying "POW" and the ball shooting across the screen, which meant most callers just screamed "POWPOWPOWPOWPOWPOWPOWPOWPOWPOW" and completely shot their wad. I'm glad I never got through.
Gosh, I must know a lot of you, at least by sight. I used to work in a book shop in lodo before it was lodo, which reminds me of another book shop, City Spirit Cafe, what a great place.
Muddy's til 3 in the morning crushing on Amy the waitress, and way too much time spent at My Brother's Bar.
They should have let the 15th St. Viaduct fall down in its own good time
I've never been compelled to post; but this is to good to pass up.
Remember the creepy-yet-still innocent animatronic displays all through Buckingham during Christmas? I can't count the times my cousins cried when we went to check them out. Sometimes, the Palace Guard's plaster smiles set to a small electronic hum still pop in my head.
My wife wonders why I like killer clown stories and puppet movies...
What about Bandemere (sp?) Speedway? Just take Alameda to Rooney Road and follow the signs... Sunday, SUNDAY!!!
@103: Denny's on Colorado Evans: Liquidsky hangout...we used to drive down from the mountains just to go there and hang with the liquidsky folks. :)
Going to Buckingham's at Christmas...my grandmother used to take us every year!
Mile High Comics...spent a lot of money there...wait I'm a geek...I still spend money there. :) There's a few of them still around.
Not quite Denver but did anyone go to NorthPole as a kid...all I remember is the huge potato sack slide.
I remember being scared of the Organ Grinder. I loved Celeberty...but I was so young I didn't know what it was called.
This thread has just telepoprted me back in time. Lived in Denver from 64-85.....you all have covered almost anything I could have named with one exception. There was a mall somewhere in SW Denver that had a miniature circus model that was massive and incredibly detailed. Anyone...?
I want to reply to every comment with YES! YES! YES!
An update on some stuff for you Denver Natives that left and haven't been back.
Wax Trax is still on 13th and Pearl and still going strong. Fashion Nation is still across the street, alas, Imi Jimi's is gone (as someone mentioned).
KTCL sucks now.
Paris on the Platte is still there, but it's not the same with industrial decay all around it. They still make Broadway Wakup shakes and they're still awesome.
The Mercury Cafe is still there, and still does all kinds of cool stuff, I still want to take Tango lessons there.
My Brother's Bar is still kickin, and pretty much just as you knew it.
Muddy's of course, is long gone. They threw small raves in the space for a couple of years, and now it's some horrible upscale martini bar or something that's always empty from what I've seen.
#111: One of my biggest missions in life is to find pictures of that Lakeside funhouse, I've been looking for a long time. Got any;)?
Uhh what else, Everything else is kind of just gone.
Being a Denver native that's never left, it's kind of sad to see this stuff. This city was so much better with Teletunes, and the fledgling music scene it once had. Now, it really kind of blows. There is no music/club scene here anymore, it's all become pretty banal. Someone correct me if I'm wrong, maybe I just grew up and don't have time for that stuff anymore. Really though, that's the only complaint I have about the city. Yeah, it's a bit more upscale (economic growth!) but Denver is relation to the world is a fuckin utopia. Come visit, I bet you'll want to stay to live.
Oh, and I own both Warlock Pincer CD's ;P
I had no idea that the crowd I was surrounded by as a child would all grow up and and join me as members of the boingboing army.
Last time I was in Denver, Dave's chuckwagon diner is still there on Colfax. Steak and egg breakfast for $3.00
Does anyone else remember a huge spiderweb rubberband room at Funtastic Nathan's where there were layers of webbed inner-tube like bands you could climb around on like you were a giant spider?
And am I the only one who's mother incessantly listened to "Troubleshooter Tom Martino" for hours every day?
I remember the sabertooth tiger head at the Museum of Natural history where you could throw in a penny and hear it roar. And I remember going to Gates Planetarium on prom night in 1995 (I went to Wheat Ridge High School,) to see Laser Metallica.
Paris on the Platte and Muddy's, and going afterwards to see the Rocky Horror Picture Show...again.
I remember Blinky's show always had a game where kids would throw a ping pong ball into a series of buckets that were further and further away, and the furthest bucket you threw it in you got a bigger prize. I never got to go on the show, but I always envied the kids that did. I hear he's a bit of a jerk in real life.
My favorite radio DJs were always Kerry and Kearns on KBPI. If I remember right, KAZY became ALICE sometime in the early 90's, on the day they switched, we all tuned in to hear the usual good rock and roll, and they played nothing but "Alice's Restaurant" over and over again all day long.
I'm suddenly missing Denver now more than ever.
Anyone else remember Blinky's other character/show, "Captain Dooley"? He had a sidekick puppet named Wilbur and they also had a holiday special they'd run called "Christmas Is'a Coming!"
I did an internship at KDVR (which co-workers called "Cadaver") during the mid-80s. We showed movies like Charles Bronson's "Ten to Midnight" dubbed from laserdiscs and kept in the full-frontal nudity! Sunday night was filled with paid commercials or what they referred to as "bugs on babies" shows...
Who are all you people and why did we all hang out at the same places and watch the same shows? I bet we all have met at one time or another. Muddy's, Paris (when I was in High School we used to drink in the field across the street, sadly now condos and other yuppie things), Wax trax, white spot, Teletunes, Lakeside (that I now live by and still go to),and Warlock Pinchers. I love Denver.
Question: Who didn't put their gum on that tree at Old Elitch Gardens? Do you think that they remove the gum off the trees at the end of the season, that would be a lot of gum.
Remember Miss Kitty's? My family used to drive past that old scary porn theater on Colfax!
Here's one I haven't seen yet. On or about the corner of Larimer Street and 15th (I think) there was an awesome old business-supply (and other stuff) store. I remember they had a handmade posterboard sign advertising something like "canvas grenade-sight cases" that was in their window for years and years. I went in once, and a man probably 90 years old shuffled around to help me...it was like in a movie, except instead of mogwais you could find carbon paper or typewriter ribbon. Not that I ever needed anything there, it was just a what-would-become-LoDo fixture for my first ten years in Denver or so. It held out against Larimer Square surprisingly long, but finally succumbed when I was away. Sad.
For the nonce, though, the Rocky Mountain Seed Company and Rockmount are still both in business; equally historic reminders of LoDo's commercial/warehouse era...
Muddy's, in both its locations, was awesome. *sigh*
Lakeside still is. Yeah, it's a bit shabby, but they encourage you to bring in your own food, unlimited rides for as little as $12, a hundred years of history and rides, incredible art deco designs, affordable food and drinks, lines that range from zero time to a few minutes max... It's not the new Elitch's, but it neither costs $50 nor has Elitch's strict food/drink policies or lines. And it's no "gangland", unless by "gangs" you mean "Latinos"... Was it on this site the word "beausage" was mentioned? 'cause Lakeside's the very essence of that.
Yay the creepy 15th street viaduct, both on the Rock Island end and the Paris on the Platte end!
Anyone remember a band called Monkey Siren? I liked them. And there was a group of artists before I was in Denver, called the Mud Men...would wear faux-tribal masks, coat their bodies in mud, and go around downtown gibbering at people.
MCNICHOLS ARENA (aka Big Mac)!!!!!!!
My first concert was KISS in 78'. I was in 5th Grade. Lol!
@109 The Riviera Club!! My folks took me there literally as long as I can remember. I remember going nuts waiting for them to finish the last few sips of their beers because they liked to just sit and soak in the biker/80's yuppie ambience.
I'm old enough to remember the old Denver Bears AAA club at Mile High and the original Colorado Rockies hockey team.
Did anyone else ever frequent the Deadbeat Club?
If you went to East, then I'm sure you would skip 1st period to have breakfast at It's Greek to Me ($1.99) on Colfax then grab a smoke on the south lawn.
Well - the morning is gone. Amazing to read all of this.
What was the name of that burger joint in Cherry Creek that you sat in booths and used a phone to call in your order. I loved the whole damn thing as a kid. It was close to Shakey's.
#124: I worked at Kitty's for a time in the early 90's. As a cashier, not as a janitor (I'll leave you to come up with what a janitor does at a porn store with TV booths).
I never thought there would be this many people in Denver on BB. Maybe we should have a meet? That might be a trip.
Ok...I haven't read every comment yet, but have we talked about:
The KIMN Chicken
Alan Berg
Y108
Zezo's Magic Shop in Cinderella City
Water World (still there?)
Stapleton Airport
Cafe 13
Hal & Charlie (Huck & Chuck)
KBPI Rocks the Rockies (The TV Commercial with the woman lip-syncing the robotic voice)
Oh, The White Spot, how many hours spent there guzzling crappy coffee and "studying". My brother and my friend were both on Blinky's Fun Club (Happy Birth-a-day to you, cha cha cha). My first college room mate dated a cliff-diver from Casa Bonita, and lots of students in our high school marching band worked there. Did any of you know that the South Park office (where they make the show) is called "Casa Bonita"?
Football: Remember the "Orange Crush" and there were commemorative orange soda cans for each of them? Oh, and Rich Karlis, the shoe-less kicker? Steve Watson.
And Cinderella City at Christmas for kids was overwhelmingly delightful/frightening. You wanted all year to go, but then when you got there all of those animatronic glazed-over children and the giant Santa throne..yikes!
Denver is where my heart will always be, no matter where I live...because of all these odd details that only Denverites would know!
Oh....and my dad used to call into AM radio shows and answer sports talk questions to win gift certificates to the Yum Yum Tree! Awesome.
After a brief search this link is about the best article I can find mentioning Tom Hollar and Imi Jimi. This was heartbreaking to me considering I spent a few years as a teenager thinking Tom was about the coolest guy on the planet. He was always so friendly and down to earth. Imi Jimi was an oasis in the boneheaded, hipper than thou Denver skate sceene.
http://www.westword.com/2006-03-30/news/ghost-of-a-chance/
Sniagrab anyone?
#133: Sniagrab still rules, and do you remember the giant conveyor belt/ski slope inside the sport's castle? They had skiing lessons year-round on it. This was before even before snowboarding.
Tony LaMonica? Is that right...SkyCopter9 or whatever on 9News.
What about the crazy guy that dressed as a ?Civil War soldier and hung out in front of the 7-11 on 13th (?) -- he was on an early episode of COPS!!
Remember the department store "The Denver" ha!
#131,
I haven't thought of Alan Berg in years. The day he was killed he spent all day at the Denver zoo meeting people and signing autographs and whatever. I was the last kid he talked to at the end of the day and he answered all my questions about being on the radio. He was killed that night, and my mother took me to his memorial service.
And I totally forgot all about the KIMN chicken. It was like a radio mascot of big bird.
#131,
I haven't thought of Alan Berg in years. The day he was killed he spent all day at the Denver zoo meeting people and signing autographs and whatever. I was the last kid he talked to at the end of the day and he answered all my questions about being on the radio. He was killed that night, and my mother took me to his memorial service.
And I totally forgot all about the KIMN chicken. It was like a radio mascot of big bird.
Lions Lair is where I cut my teeth as a young rocker/drinker. Don't forget the Cricket on the Hill. I spent way too much money and time frequenting smelly bars in the 90's.
Anyone remember the bands Ruby Hue, Mean Uncle Mike, Babihed, The Fluid,
Sorry just thought of another one. Anybody remember Stormy Rottman from 9 news?
He came to our elementary school to speak. I used to watch him all the time.
@131 OMG the KIMN chicken!!!!!!!!
And does anyone remember the restaurant at Stapleton with the rocks on display as you went through the line? We cried so much when that went away. DIA is such a shithole!
Does anyone remember "Come on and take a free ride... On the 9 News express!"
Mike Landess. Ed Sardella. Oh god there are so many more whose names I can't remember.
At one point in the 90's they switched the 3 major networks -- 9 will always be ABC to me but now it's NBC or CBS? I don't even know.
KBPI radio progression:
'BPI and KAZY were awesome competitors for years. We had 2 awesome radio stations. Anyone remember Steven B and the Hawk? sadly, they have both passed away now. Way better than Dean and Rog or the Locker Room, or any of the morons that Clear Channel puts in there now...Unlce Nasty is the only thing on the station that is at all real, and that is only when he does his late night "metal shop".
Anyhow, in the mid 90's, KAZY was bought out by J-corp. Some sort of competitor/precursor to Clear Channel. They took the station "all-digital" which meant that KAZY started to suck. The win after all those years of competition went to 'BPI. For a short time, 'BPI was independent and awesome. Then Clear channel/J-corp bought KBPI too. Moved them to KAZY's old slot on the dial, and started "Alice" at 'BPI's old slot.
Denver radio has sucked ever since.
KTCL-remember Suzy Wargin? She got her start there. I went to school with her at CSU. She's on local TV now-Channel 9. much hot.
grew up in Evergreen/Lakewood, spent college years in Ft. Fun, and back to Evergreen. Denver is quirky, odd, strange and unique in so many ways...
Rocky Hockey! Bears Baseball! Dan Issel and David Thompson on the Nugs bench! Gradishar, Armstrong, Odom, Morton, Little and Upchurch!
The Gart Sports Castle! remember the indoor ski lessons?
And of course, let's hear it for the Blizzard of '82...and its sequel in 83!
@139 YES Stormy Rottman THANK YOU!
The Rok Tots
Hell's 1/2 Acre
Oh...and the lame band "Dotsero"!! Haaaa. I found out years ago that Dotsero is a Colorado town. I know this because driving out to LA once, my friend got attacked by a bee while driving and we exited the ONE exit to Dotsero so she could recover.
Satire Lounge. The Golden Nugget. There is a documentary about Colfax Avenue...try googling it. I think I got mine using Amazon.com, but I can't remember for sure. There are a few signature homeless people, business owners, patrons, city planners, etc...and lots of amazing history that goes waaaaaaaay back to the pioneers.
Find out what the GOV. has in mind for displacing the "Land of the Lost" (as we used to call Colfax).
Cruisin' the 'Fax. Remember how news-worthy this became when they banned it!?
John Nickel's "A Nickel's Worth" -- sappy news center 4 stories about "real people" or whatever. gross.
Local newsmen-only 1 name: Bob Palmer.
He just died last month. Great guy. Actually had a small role (as a local newsman) in the awesome movie "The Vanishing Point".
Anyone remember the Rainbow City Music Hall?
Had the chance to see some great bands there before they made it big - INXS, Midnight Oil and more.
It's now a drug store.
Such a loss.
Argh. I can't stop.
This dvd is actually pretty fantastic. Lots of commentary from the folks who shaped Denver into what it is today with a good focus on the 70's up to today. It has kind of an industial video feel, but worth the time or a few bucks for those who really love Denver. For the locals, they show it on Denver Comcast channel 8 every once in a while so check your listings.
http://www.amazon.com/Downtown-Denver-Heart-Havey-Productions/dp/B000WEPRS4/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1221065996&sr=1-1
Speaking of Teletunes,
I remember seeing a freaky-ass video that weirded me out from about the time I was 9 until 12.
I can't remember the band, but the song was "Lullaby for a Swinging Larvae." It had a creepy dwarf dancing around, a child who was kidnapped by a giant, and some weird backtrack recordings.
BTW - I didn't grow up in Denver. I was in a small town about 90 miles Northeast.
KAZY - Gettin' the Led out! They also used to play 7 entire full length albums every Sunday night.
I always thought of KBPI as the little brother to KAZY.
The Fluid was the best band EVER! Just found their clip on Youtube from a show I mostly remember too! http://www.youtube.com/thefluidvideoarchive I totally remember Mean Uncle Mike, I had a massive crush on Mike Ward all through High School, shout out to @121 lets hear it for the Farmers!
Was anyone else creeped out by the Crown Hill mausoleum? It's right in the center of West Denver like a little Taj mahal and lit up at night, you can see it from anywhere, talk about an eyesore, gave me frickin nightmares. http://www.city-data.com/picfilesc/picc3317.php
this is a great thread -- there is no sense to this, I'm just rambling ...
The original "Time Warp" was the Mile High Comics flagship store in 1980-82, when I worked there. (Chuck Rozanski sold it to Wayne sometime later). I WAS THERE at the theater, SAVING STAN LEE'S SEAT, at the Raiders of the Lost Ark premiere -- a highlight of my life, for certain.
Other memories:
*KWGN Ch. 2 used to have "Mr. First Nighter" on Sat. nights -- a cloaked horror host who would introduce generally classic Universal horror films. I trace my love of movies directly to that.
* I'm also betraying my age by remembering Fred and Fay -- in the 60's, they had a children's show which had primitive music videos -- i.e., Fred and Fay would mouth along to pop records, sometimes with sets and makeup and things.
* KFML - FM was a hippie radio station that, in the 70's, had High Street -- an improve comedy group. Once a week, you'd turn on the Channel 2 10 o'clock movie, turn the sound down, put KFML on the radio, and listen to them doing their own soundtrack to the movie (they once turned some turgid soap into a time travel/science ficion piece). I suppose it was even better if you were chemically enhanced.
* KFML also had John Dunning and "Old TIme Radio" first, playing classic radio drama. That's what made me a radio rat, which I remain to this day.
* We loved Lakeside and Elitch's -- but I most remember riding the train circling the Lakeside Lake late at night, playing tonsil hockey with the Girl who Made Me a Man a couple weeks later.
Good times!
After Alan Berg came Rollye James, eclectic talk radio and music trivia junkie. She's still on the air. www.rollye.net
Traildust Steakhouse (perhaps too 80s)
The Call-in burger joint (you phoned in your order from your table to the kitcher) was called Round The Corner, IIRC.
Crown Hill had to be in Wheat Ridge. Olinger's is the undertaker with the large "HOLLYWOOD"-style sign right on the side of I-25.
Oh and best Denver band EVER? Obviously the Warlock Pinchers.
Blinky's awesome thrift store, right next to a walk-up Masonic Lodge
what about the original St. Mark's coffee on 14th and Market? I loved that place in high school!
I also wanted to mention that since leaving colorado, I have had memories of going to petting zoos inside the mall where I grew up in the suburbs...which I guess they don't really do in other places ;)
How about the "Gold C" coupon book? A friend I sent the link to this thread reminded me of that. Great deals on Waterworld passes, Breeze Ski Rentals, Copper Mountain lift tickets...
Mary and Lou's. Remember THAT joint? Loved it. Below street level and dimly lit so you couldn't see the true color of the Soylent meatloaf.
I wonder what happened to Muddy's coffee house.
And Peter Boyles. Man, now THAT dude should be the mascot for Denver. Peter Boyles with mentor/sidekick Baxter Black. Three words:
FACTORY OUTLET STORES!
But Denver never really had anything as corny as Sergilla, Albuquerque's own trailer-home-selling Mexican Godzilla. Sergilla rules.
Mary and Lou's was great, it was often there or a trip to Chubby's after clubbing
(now I gotta go to Chubby's)
You guys remember about 1987 when the FBI or DEA was pursuing some guy through Denver and when he hijacked a pickup one of the news helicopters started tracking him and landed in front of the truck, only to have the feds roll up behind and shoot the guy 40 times... on live television?
When I started reading this, there were 133 posts. By the time I finished, there were 155.
BLINKY AND BUCKLES: Blinky had a sidekick for awhile! I was in the live audience once when I was about 5. Buckles squirted me with his flower lapel pin. I snuck behind the puppet stage and saw all the lifeless hand puppets. Aha! My suspicions were confirmed. A stagehand came over and told me to get back to my seat.
DUCKWALL'S (on Alameda, in Lakewood), Where my dad caught me shoplifting. He went back and paid for the stupid little toy, and then kept it on his dresser for years (it seems), and I was never allowed to play with it.
TOP'S COFFEE SHOP: I noticed all of the frilly toothpicks stuck in the drop ceiling, and I wondered how they got there. My dad figured it out. And in a wonderful lapse of judgement, he told me: You shoot them out of the drinking straws!
@50: JOLLY RANCHERS: Yes. They made one flavor per day. We would drive by and our salivary glands would seize up from the smell.
@1,51: I played an open mike night at PARIS ON THE PLATTE in 1992 (sorry, wrong decade for this thread). And old guy came up to me and said, "Stay pissed off."
THE DENVER WAX MUSEUM: Who's old now, Dropsy (@22)?
@57: GATES RUBBER: I had an evil 5th grade teacher. The only kind thing she ever did--in her entire life, I'm sure--is she gave us all hard rubber balls from Gates, which is where her husband worked. (Yes, Mrs. Wade, I'm talking about you.)
THE PARAMOUNT THEATER: Where I saw MAGAZINE with YOUNG WEASLES, and Gluons.
TEEN LINE: It was a weird bug in the Mountain Bell phone system. You could call a particular number for free from a pay phone and there would be a beep-beep-beep like a busy signal, but between the beeps was a conference call with a bunch of teenagers. "[beep]Meet[beep]us[beep]at[beep]7-11[beep]..."
@125: Yes, I remember MONKEY SIREN. I knew Glen Taylor, the Bela Fleck of pedal-steel guitar. (Again: Wrong decade for this thread.)
Finally: OPEN LIVING SCHOOL! Did anyone else happen to go to that experimental public school in Edgewater, where you didn't have to do anything if you didn't want to? The teachers had to spontaneously create curriculum around whatever seemed to interest the kids--paper airplanes, for instance?
Mary and Lou's was great, it was often there or a trip to Chubby's after clubbing
(now I gotta go to Chubby's)
Mary and Lou's -- this was the place with the lottery ticket scratchers hung all over the place, right?
In was Bonzo (from Chicago) that had the buckets...not Blinky.
Denver music has picked up big time in Colorado (you must not listen to alternative/punk). 93.3 is the big proponent of that now.
Y108! Hey Steve [something] make me a weiner. Those crazy songs..lol..that's the only one I kind of remember.
Crown Hill is in Lakewood. I used to pass it every day on my way to work (Coors).
KPBI is still there and every once in a while they play the robot sound it's kind of Rap/rock mostly now though.
The Fox plays what KPBI used to...I mainly listen to 93.3 and JACK.
"Mary and Lou's -- this was the place with the lottery ticket scratchers hung all over the place, right?"
Yep, just a diner on Broadway, when the only reason to be there was the Mayan
One cannot talk about 70's Denver pop culture without mention the now defunct "adult palace" on Santa Fe.
http://www.artifacting.com/blog/2008/09/10/live-girl-show/
Chubby's! I remember the old one on 38th avenue where you could get huge burritos smothered in green chili in the front and...really cheap...unboxed...slightly used TV's, stereo's, car stereo's etc in the back, as long as you didn't ask too many questions.
I had friends at Open Living School. They loved it. Isn't it now the Jeffco open school?
I need to get off this thread. It will eat up my entire day...
KTCL and Teletunes were so closely related at one point and all of their stuff was imported, underground, or at least edgy. KTCL from the mid-90s onward is just another Clear Channel station.
I remember KBPI once tried to vary its format and they played Love and Rockets, "No New Tale to Tell." How bizarre that butt-rock station would play something interesting.
Paris on the Platte was pretty hilarious. You had to be pretty intent on looking artsy, intellectual, or hip just to show up... and then you turned 21 and never stepped w/in 1,000 feet of the place.
But I see that place every time I fly into Denver 'cause it's down the street from My Brother's Bar, best beer garden EVER.
Wow, so many weird memories . . . I moved back to Denver after stints in NY and LA.
Do you remember . . .
White sands swim beach?
Denver drumstick (with the toy train up by the ceiling and your chicken drumstick came in a container decorated with a rocket ship)?
Scotty's burgers (with the worst french fries ever made)?
Ebbetts Field? (Great little nite club with a history of some of the best concerts ever)
Someone asked about the burger place with the phones at the table . . .Was that Round the Corner?
And does anyone remember some of the old attractions at the zoo? Sea lions in the cliff dwelling diorama? The old bird house by the lake? The really smelly pachyderm house (which is still there btw)? crocodiles in the moat around monkey island?
And, OK, Red Rocks. Lotsa great shows. Talking Heads where David Byrne jumped into the audience and sang Life During Wartime while standing next to my brother and me. Springsteen in the rain? Getting in line at 4 in the morning to get good seats?
Does anyone watch Animal Planet? ER Veterinarian Kevin Fitzgerald is a denverite who was one of the original cliff divers at Casa Bonita.. I can only tell you that it was worse that you remember.
How about ice skating the amazing building that IM Pei designed for May D&F. Can't believe anyone had the balls to tear that down. So sad http://www.dshistory.com/stores/may_df_denver/ice_skating_on_zeckendorf_p.html
Weekends began when the guy on KHOW (Hal? Charlie?) yelled "I LOVE YOU DENVAAR!"
I loved KTCL and remember FMTV before the name was sold..("They're American planes, made in America: Smoking, or non-smoking. Ahh ahh ahh oh ahh.")
I know a few of you grew up in Arvada: How about the Harvest Festival -- I remember when my soccer team go to march in the parade, in our cleats and everything! High school, I remember 3.2 beer at After the Gold Rush or Confettis. Aferwards, we'd head back to the top of the hill on Carr and ogle the School of Mines' big lighted "M" and the Sex Lights.
#167 I spent HOURS of my youth there.....my dad worked close by.... Plains Conservation Center anyone? That was a standard stop on the field trip circuit for Aurora Public Schools.
Denver had the most awesome record stores-JB & H, Sound Warehouse, Don's Dusty Discs in Thornton! All gone now, sadly...
Ch. 9 also used to have a crappy kiddie show in the 70s..they put some felt thing on the boom mike they would lower to talk to kids that looked like ears and called this thing "ears"! I'll bet I am the only one who remembers that.
The news people were a hoot-Reynelda Muse (who later commuted to her new job in Atlanta at a cable upstart called "CNN" from Denver!). Carl Akers! Janet Zappala! I rode on a bus in the early 90s in NYC with former ch. 4 star Madelyn McFadden (on her way to her short-lived "Inside Edition" job). She looked kind of like Pat Benatar and was a rising star for a while. Remember "ActionCam"? Ch. 9's ENG news camera? They had ads that used "A Fifth of Beethoven" by Walter Murphy!
Denver "news" was awesome. If they weren't whipping everyone into a frenzy about how 90% of Denver's population were affiliated with the Bloods or Crips, then Wendy Bergen was filming pit bull fights in her on basement and calling it a KUSA exclusive.
Funny how nobody's really owned up to living in the suburbs. I went to high school in Littleton and lived in Aurora and couldn't get out of the burbs fast enough when I turned 18. I think about 50% of Denver's population is kids that moved there from Englewood, Edgewater (God forbid) Greenwood Village, etc.
Who remembers the 7-Eleven on 13th and Pearl (or was it Penn?) down by Wax Trax? I loved watching Cops when the filmed in Denver and how that Sev was like ground zero for vagrants committing petty crimes in Denver.
Anyone ever shop at Twist & Shout's 80s location, when they had enormous volumes of live bootleg CDs and records, big enough for federal marshals to notice?
@171 If i remember correctly Vinyl Junkie (accros from wax trax on 13th) was shut down for selling bootlegs. I had an almost unlistenable Jesus and Mary Chain bootleg I purchased there that I absolutley loved.
Round the Corner!!! Yes, that's it!
I remember waiting in line in the rain for the first Star Wars at the Cooper Theater! I wuz just a littl'un... sigh.
Youth in Boulder:
Mile High Comics! and then Time Warp! (1 block from the house I grew up in, and next door to the Sanitary Bakery, the memory of their blueberry chip cookies just set my mouth a waterin')
3.2 beer from 7-11 with forged HS IDs!
Kenny Be and T. Motley
Young Adulthood in Denver:
The best thriftstore in the world: Salvation Army in Commerce City or ARC in Thornton?
The Rok Tots! The Fluid! Boss 302! El Espectro! Jux County!
El Taco de Mexico!
Lion's Lair! Skyline! 7 South!
Thanks for the memories, all! And I did recognize at least one person on this thread that I do know: @106: Hi, Shawn! ...but I know there're more!
@166 Michael - Yes, it was Round the Corner Burgers - ah man I forgot how great that place was.
Does anyone remember the pizza at Bonnie Brae cafe or the ice cream shop across the street?
The original Tattered Cover bookstore in Cherry Creek.
Watching Twice Wilted at there band space/living quarters in the warehouse district in LODO.
And does anyone remember that old guy who use to hang out at shows and at Muddy's passing out fliers of up-coming shows?
@174 I was wondering if anybody was going to mention Twice Wilted / Tar Mints - Kurt, hope you are reading this - too many late nights in the warehouse district. I lived at 30th and Larimer and various places on Walnut when it was a ghost town all weekend long, unrecognizable now
What was the name of that big beautiful single-screen movie theatre in Glendale(?), might have been on Colorado Blvd. Had loge seating, was really ornate. I remember seeing "The Empire Strikes Back" there during its opening week (okay, technically that was 1980)...?
I worked at North Valley and Northglenn malls, understand they're both long gone now.
All-you-can-eat iced shrimp at the Broker...
@158: I lived up Ward Rd from the Jolly Rancher plant for a while... ah, the aroma!
@PISOMOJADO
That was the Cooper Theater.
http://cinematreasures.org/theater/824/
They actually had a smoking section in there :)
I saw Empire there too. I won a trip to Walt Disney World on opening night of "Empire Strikes Back".
#173: El Taco de Mexico is soooo good. Tacos Pastor and huge glasses of horchata. Mmm. Never had family, friends or girlfriends that actually liked that place, so I'd usually eat at the bar reading Westword. The only places that rivaled that joing were Tacos Rapidos (obscure, Federal and Evans), La Favorita (restaurant now defunct) and of course Benny's.
Lion's Lair was fun, but I preferred the 15th Street Tavern, aka Dirtiest Bar in Colorado.
Two places I don't miss that much, but have nostalgia for: Rock Island and the mysterious downtown bar just called "BAR" by a neon sign in the window. Place had a one-armed man that served an awful Polish and sauerkraut.
Places I actually miss: PS Lounge, Goosetown, Bluebird.
Wow, great thread everyone and a really fun topic. I moved here in the summer of '82 (right before the blizzard) and have lived all over the area (Arvada, Lakewood, Evergreen, and Denver) ever since. Here are some of my memories...
-Yes, KBDI, Channel 12 used to be a lot better, more edgy. Besides Teletunes, does anyone remember the Home Movies show and how they used to broadcast live from the Boulder Mall Crawl? I think it's a pale imitation of KRMA now.
-Celebrity Fun Center, good times. Why can't we have a place like that now? I liked the pool and water slides the best, but they had a great arcade. For some reason, I can still recall the arcade's smell.
-How about the Denver Gold, the USFL team? My folks took me to see Alabama (for some reason) and one of their games one time.
-The UZI store? Wow. I lived with Mari's brother for about a year. He always had a lot of Foreskin 500 albums around.
-So many great record stores...JB&H was great, I think I've been to every Twist & Shout iteration, the first time I went to Chicago as a kid I was like, "There's a Wax Trax here too?"
-Casa Bonita, god, the food is so awful but I'm always down to go there a few times a year. We went all the time as kids. I even had my 33rd birthday party there.
-After the Gold Rush-um, OMG, I think that was one of my (recently divorced) Mom's favorite haunts. My Mom really liked KIMN and I really liked the chicken.
-The Gothic, I'm glad it's still around, but its vibe has changed considerably. I remember seeing Ministry there in 1990 and Nirvana open for Dinosaur Jr.
-The Wet Spot-sooo many post-drunk breakfasts, so many stories. It was sad to see it close down because of the memories and the fact that it was one of the last (maybe the last) example of a California-style diner in Denver. All of the Pete's restaurants are still really good. Muddy's and Paris on the Platte (and Poudre) are/were cool. Benny's is still just about my favorite place for Mexican.e for Mexican
-I was almost too young, but I need to give a shout out to Cinderella City, Nathan's, and The Organ Grinder. I have vague, but very pleasant memories from each.
Jake Jabbs and Dealin' Doug are sweet, kitchsy parts of our culture but, to be honest, I could go the rest of my life without seeing another one of their commercials. Why does Doug Moreland have to yell all the time?
-Finally, I was away when this happened, but can someone tell me why the Big Three networks stations played musical chairs at some point? I remember how channel 4 used to be the NBC affiliate.
#176 & #177: Actually I believe it was "The Continental" But I saw Empire Strikes Back at the Cooper. Both were great theatres.
#179: Notice how much "bling" both Jake Jabs and Dealin' Doug wear? I've been in Doug's old office, and it was decorated like Circus Circus in Las Vegas with less taste. I love watching his hands on the commercials, there's like $50,000 worth of jewlery there. It's the singular reason why I wouldn't ever buy a car from him.
@#90
Buckingham Mall doesn't exist anymore. It was torn down this summer, and they're building ANOTHER city-center style shopping center with a "main street" surrounded by big box stores.
One of my earliest childhood memories is being in a tap dance show at Buckingham Mall and my paper reindeer antlers falling into one of the fountains.
@180
It was the the Cooper. See my link and the comments.
I had walking pneumonia and we went to see it on opening night. Maybe they showed it at 2 diff theaers but I did see it opening night at he Cooper. Just my $0.02
@Battlestar_Schott or #148:
Yup that was one of the weirdest vids that Teletunes ever ran - "Songs for Swinging Larvae" by The Residents
Here it is for more nightmare material:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T3m70cSgAI0
I'm proud to say that we played a lot of videos that MTV wouldn't touch with a 10 foot pole -- really gorey/creepy stuff from Skinny Puppy, Ministry, NIN, Tool and so on. And we really gave props to local Denver bands too. I think thanks to this thread I'll put up my collection of Teletunes VHS tapes onto Youtube. So stay tuned!
MORE MEMORIES:
*Imi Jimi:
What happened to the owners of this skate shop was indeed a tragic story about how street violence can affect and bring together an entire community. I remember going to the murder site in the parking lot nearby and leaving flowers with all the other endless flowers and gifts left at the makeshift shrine.
*Fashion Disaster:
That was the ONLY place to get the latest Creepers, spider tights and Morticia dresses. When I hosted Teletunes I had us shoot on location there for a Halloween episode. In fact, I think we shot the next Halloween special at Central City's massive cemertary.
*Emporium Of Design:
At the time in the '80s and early '90s it was the only place you could get a non-traditional piercing in Denver. Navel rings and other below the belt piercings were done there, as well as the usual tattoos. A bunch of biker guys ran the place, and it was kind of endearing to get a navel piercing from an old timer who looked like he could give ZZ Top a run for their money.
*Time Warp:
A great little comic book store on Pearl Street in Boulder that ghad an amazing array of comics including a lot of alternative stuff that didn't have a single superhero in it. I discovered the world of Bettie Page from that shop since they were the only place I could track down copies of the fanzine The Betty Pages.
* Muddy's and St. Mark's coffee houses:
Serious coffee for the most diverse java lovers ever. I would get fashion inspiration there as I would quietly sip my vanilla latte at the corner table at both places playing with any of the board games scattered around.
* The Fluid
I'll have you know I still have their purple glitter band sticker on my bass amp.
* Stapleton Airport:
I remember as a kid when we went to pick up my dad from business trips and we'd drive under the runway bridge that planes landed and took off from. It seems so thrilling as a kid, that's for sure. I kind of miss the old airport.
* The Gothic
Before the big fire, it was one of the best places to see an industrial band. I remember seeing everyone from Skinny Puppy and Ministry and Die Warzau there to even Danzig, Henry Rollins and about a zillion KTCL bands. There was a bowling alley right next door and if you were smart enough you would hang out there before shows and see your favorite bands bowling. I have to say the members of Skinny Puppy were some of the most impressive bowlers I've seen in action.
*Tattered Cover Book Store
Three floors of books, or was it more? All I know is that this book nerd was in heaven whenever she went for a visit. I would get lost in the stack and just sit on the floor and read. I remember standing in line in the store for 3 hours to have Anne Rice sign my copy of the Queen of the Damned, then thinking for the next week that I made "a connection" with her from her glance. I was such a dorky goth kid.
*Boulder Mall Crawl:
Every Halloween the entire town of Boulder, and a lot of Ft. Collins and Greeley and Loveland kids, not to mention Denver folks, would invade Pearl Street in costume drunk off their butts to wander up and down the street and party. Think San Francisco Castro Halloween party but much smaller. Because so many people would be drunk and lose their shoes, some of us would gather all the lost shoes we'd find and then sell them back to people at a $1 a shoe at the end of the street. Worked like a charm.
Okay since Fort Collins is being lumped into this thread too, here's a few more '80s memories.
* Old Town
Heck yeah I remember Tony Hawk as a teen skating in front of the skate shop for some event. We were all smitten before we even knew he was going to be a megastar!
* Northern Hotel
We were all convinced it was haunted since there was a massive fire there years before. There was a punk club on the first floor, then it was closed down thanks to a mosh pit that ended up breaking the front window. Then it was a seedy bar. Now it's a coffee shop. The top floor of the Northern was turned into small dance club with a DJ on certain nights and a used bookstore below it. I think there was even a belly-dancing studio somewhere on the top floor. Either way, it was THE place to be in Fort Collins if you were a Death Rocker or punk kid.
* Ft. Collins Youth Center
After the Northern shut down, everyone moved over to the Youth Center in Old Town on Saturday nights for alternative music dance night. Even more low rent than Northern, it was more or less a basement with multiple rooms -- one for dancing, one with couches to hang out, and one with a patio and patio furniture so you could smoke cloves.
* Fort Ram
This was a dance club that had an all-ages alternative dance night on Wed nights I think. Every death rocker, punker, skate kid and future raver went to show off their outfits and dance mopey to the Cure. They served gigantic cherry cokes for the underage kids, while the creepy adults drank booze in the 21 and over area. I had my first real kiss on that dance floor, and also burned my bangs thanks to an overzealous boy trying to light my clove ciggie. Ah memories.
* Vinyl 10 cents a pound sale?
I can't remember which record store it was, but every year they'd get rid of their old records by selling them by the pound. It was a great deal for those of us wanting to learn how to beat mix in spoken word instructional records in with Moog classics and German metal. I bought a "Talk to your Plants" record along with some really bizarre futuristic mood music at that sale.
* Fort Collins High School
If you wanted to hang with the punker kids, art school wannabes, goths, skaters and openly gay kids, you'd go hang out with the students on the grounds of Fort Collins High School. At the Burger King next door, you could see kids at the tables putting together their zines, giving each other sloppy tap tattoos, making mix tape covers, and sustaining on free coke refills and cheap fries for lunch.
I worked at Tattered Cover over the holidays last year, mostly at the new one on Colfax, but occasionally down in LoDo. The new location is housed in the old Lowenstein theater across the street from East High School, and it's really pretty cool. Though we did constantly get people coming in and telling us they miss the old store. I've only lived in Denver for about two years, so I never went to the old store, but people certainly felt strongly about that move.
also, @#38 - Heck yeah Frank Azar. That little comic you posted the link too made me literally rotfl.
Denver seems like it used to be more fun back in the day.
Thanks Mark! this has been too much fun, better than my high school reunion by a long shot, I took the inevitable step and created a facebook group, mostly I want to see some of the old videos! It's called "Friends of Blinky" and would be great to catch up with ya'll there! http://www.new.facebook.com/groups/edit.php?customize&gid=33898908273#/group.php?gid=33898908273
Great thread. Rocky's Autos hats for everyone.
Psh, you kids and your three-story Tattered Cover! I remember when the Tattered Cover book store was just a tiny little hole in the wall in Cherry Creek. Blink and you'd miss it. I swear they used Timelord technology on that thing to get all the books in that little space.
#129
Round the Corner... I loved that place! I always wanted to order when I was a kid. I'm sure the employees were highly annoyed by a little kid on the phone.
I'll throw this out there, though it's a different crowd but I liked going to Tracks (the old one behind the now-Coors Field area) and Rock Island. Especially cause they'd both let me in well before I was old enough to go to either place
@37: My husband and I just said, at the same time, "KTCL translator link K276BJ."
@126: My first concert was Kiss at McNichols too.
@184: Gonna ask my daughter if FCHS has changed since you were there.
Pretty sure Blinky's daughter runs Steve's Snappin Dogs on Colfax. (Can that be right? Must check.)
More NoCo memories: Rick wants to know if there are any B-Boys out there.
Where is Scooter Tom now?
And hi to that one Elephant Boy.
Ringing way too many bells.
Vertivision: a cool show on KBDI (the beady eye) shot and broadcast in portrait, rather than landscape mode.
I still go to Lakeside every year with my kids. I love the strong smell of axle grease on all of the rides-- I figure if they are well lubed and haven't broken in the last 40 years, they won't break today.
A buddy of mine saw Jake Jabbs do karaoke at Whispers on Havana a couple of weeks ago. Whispers used to be Icarus, and you have to love a bar named for a guy who did not make it home b/c flying felt so good.
Denver is my main love it/hate it. Today was beautiful, so I love it.
@191 Mod Kris? Yo, it's Shawn G. come see us @ facebook! http://www.new.facebook.com/home.php#/group.php?gid=33898908273&ref=nf
#190: I didn't go to FCHS but all my pals did. And that's when it was in its original building -- that looks like a county court house. I think the new FCHS relocated and CSU took over the old building for the horticulture dept. There's green houses all over the front lawns now.
I went to Rocky Mountain High School (which I always thought was such a funny inside joke with the name). We had a taxidermied wolf in the lobby -- Go Lobos!
Gart Bros. is a good one, but does anyone remember when Gart Bros. was Dave Cook? And they were one of the spots you could go to buy tickets for shows. I remember going to the Dave Cook in University Hills with my older brother to buy tickets for Motley Crue at the Rainbow!
Re: FMTV and Teletunes.
First, gotta clear this up: "Songs for Swinging Larvae" by Renaldo and the Loaf. Labelmates and kindred spirits of the Residents, but not the Residents. Actually, the first music videos I ever saw was a program of Devo, the Residents, Elvis Costello, a few others, 16mm shorts, at maybe the Gothic when it was still a movie theater? It woulda been about 1980/81, I was in 7th Grade, my mom took me down there from Boulder to see it. Blew my mind. That Renaldo and the Loaf clip was one. I was already turned on to Devo, but man, getting sent down the Residents/Renaldo road really put a mark on me. Love that vid: lifechanging. I was already a hungry music geek, and when FMTV/Teletunes hit, it was like manna from heaven.
Second, longshot: on Teletunes, there was a locally produced video by a band called The Pink, the song was TV Man. I'd be SO HAPPY to find any information about this band, and completely delighted to get a recording of this song... anyone got anything? Google has been failing me for years on this one; I'd say this is my best shot ever!
Thanks again, Mark! Probably ran into you at Time Warp on Pearl in High School. I might have a Boingboing in my stash somewheres, I know I have a few issues of Der Moderne Times.
Oh I am soooo psyched! I have been lonely for Denver for so long...the Denver that was.
So Me Caroline. Denizen of 1970s Capitol Hill. I remember Colfax when it was just filled with Hippie Kids and I remember that the Gay Boys used to stand on the State Capitol steps at night and the johns would drive round and round the circle. I remember the government building that lit up like a honky tonk for Christmas. The great old Painted Lady mansions that my friends and I had our apartments in. I remember the Folklore Center and that Head Shop called Desolation Row. I remember Denver Books and Wet Spot. My friends and I used to hang out there and once the waiter who served the coffee had a hypodermic needle behind his ear. I remember sneaking into the Brew as an under aged. but married, girl child and dancing with all my friends and the bar tender giving us a round of beer. I remember the bakery area in King Soopers displaying baked items of a Brass Bed, and my visiting Mother being so confused. And how my daughter always stopped by for a cookie after school and a sample of cheese at The Big Cheese. I remember the sexy cashier boy who had a belt buckle shaped like an unbuttoned fly. I remember Muddy's where my friend Lara was a waitress. I remember the Ogden and Rocky Horror on Saturday nights.
My ex, Shane, used to run the short lived Zipper Tapes and Records on Colfax, the spin off of Big Apple on the corner of Emerson.
The Denver Museum of High Art.
The Zoo.
The Natural History Museum
Bo Diddly at the Mercury Cafe, an old man in a leather hat stepping out of the crowd to play with my friends band JOMAMA.
If any one ever lived in Althea Apartments between 16th and 17th on Emerson, you will be interested to know that they filmed a ghostly-Gothic movie there called 'The Forgotten One'.
We always thought Binkie was pretty scary.
I remember the movie/radio dub, called HIGH STREET.
The 99 cent breakfast on 13th street. HOUSE of DRAFT, which everyone called House of DRUGS.
All the Lovers and the Partners. D.P.--all my love! We climbed the fence from Cheeseman over to the Botanical Gardens one afternoon and had a ball in the section of garden that represented a Rocky Mountain Meadow. And looking down on Denver lights from the heights of Lookout Mountain.
My crowd didn't make old bones, and a few died this decade, and others moved away...and the one member of my tribe still in Denver has Parkinsons
So there really is no going home again.
But God, I loved it so much...the first big city this little southern girl ever lived in.
The Satire for Chile Reneos. Hot plate! Hot Plate! O MG--who could forget the tattered and faded maniquin that stood in summer sun and winter blast on the marquee to Sid Kings.
I was finally able to find an article on the new google news service launched this week about a train wreck that happened literally right next to my house where two trains collided head on. I was 4 at the time but can still remember the trains hitting each other and the many people who came over to watch emergency crews from our Deck.
Article here: http://newspapers.umsystem.edu/default/Scripting/ArticleWin.asp?BaseHRef=CMN/1985/08/04&EntityId=Ar00901&Skin=Google&ViewMode=GIF
And oh yes, Blinky's Fun Club on channel 2 was awesome. He is like the Mr. Rogers of Denver.
I only went to celebrity sports once and all I remember was that the pool was really bubbly like your toilet looks after you just took a leak. We walked down one of the closed water slides and got kicked out. My friend's dad (another famous Denverite - a firefighter who was shot and killed by someone he was trying to rescue) was none to pleased.
aw, my comment never got through the mods. damn this anonymous. ive tried and failed on two occasions to create an account.
anyways, great to see mentions of 15 street tavern. ive seen many a band on their way to being big at that place when they were barely a dick on a stick.
and the creepiest cemetaries in the state, the Bald Mountain cemetary above central city. A+ bonnie.
someone mentioned tiny town way up there, didnt see it mentioned again.
YES! i remember the spider web castle and funtastic nathans like.. that thing was amazing. that place couldnt exist today with the safety standards i would assume.
seriously, organize a denver boing boinger meetup, fark has meetups all the time, and never in denver. do it at like hi-dive or lions lair or some other place mentioned in this thread all the time.
i think hi-dive and sputnik are keeping the local music scene together, along with... crap.. that one place further down broadway.
this thread hurts.
#158! You remember all the things I remember! Oh no wonder you remember! It's you brother!
The Wax Museum! How I loved the display of Alferd Packer! Teen Line! How did that happen anyway?? Open Living School (parents who sent there kid there would probably "unschool/homeschool" today)! When Grandma taught me to embroider, Duckwalls had scads of embroidery thread. Tops Coffee Shop with the "Color Me Hungry" clown on the coloring page, and the free toy from the treasure box after every meal. I don't remember the toothpicks in the ceiling but then I wasn't the spaz you were, baby bro (same reason I didn't get to go to Open Living School. Wah.). Evidently Open Living School still exists: http://jeffcoweb.jeffco.k12.co.us/high/jcos/geninfo.htm I wonder if it is still run by idealistic hippies
How about Leon the Neon Giraffe? Is he still there? And Yes! Roller City! You could skate to all the "good" tween records (Partridge Family, Bobby Sherman,Jackson 5, my favorite "Dizzy" by Tommy Roe and Melanie's "Brand New Key"). And YES I remember the Fat Lady at Lakeside I loved her! That fun house would never be allowed today especially that roulette wheel/thing that you sat in the middle and the centrifugal force would spin everyone to the outside (no safety belts, no seats, your body hurling onto strangers).
Heavy Early on KAZY. Alan Berg on KOA.
Wax Trax.
Beastie Boys and Run DMC at Red Rocks in about 86. Beasties spray painted on the stage and missed the meet n great cause the had to hide from the promoter.
Red hot Chili peppers & Fishbone doing a joint encore at Rainbow Music Hall in about 87.
Mr Twister at Elitch's - the best woody of all time.
Colorado Springs side note: Anyone remember Germer's commercials?
Mr. Twister at elitch's and Roller City FTW, too. i'd love to join the facebook blinky crew, but i just don't want to make another social networking account for one thing, sigh. a yahoo group, perhaps?
Isn't anyone going to suggest a Happy Mutants night at Casa Bonita (or Lakeside next season)? Surprised it got to 200 comments without that happening...
best thread ever on Boing Boing, thanks mark!
I can only agree with everyone
I live 2 minutes from Airplane (belieview) park, the airplane is gone
many mentions of the breakfast king, mmmm pancake sandwich
and funtastic nathan's? which is now funtastic fun on broadway and dartmouth, i had 4 birthday parties.
I love denver and this post makes me love it even more.
Big Sur Waterbeds, on west colfax, next to Casa Bonita.
That's drilled into my head from endless afternoons spent watching channel 2.
Warlock Pinchers: I loved the amount of merchandise that band put out. Any band that had collectible matchbox cars and beer cozies really had their act together.
I spent a few months off and on/in and around Denver during the 1970s. Except for a bar frequented by poets and actors (run by a guy they called "The Greek"), and a Beat Generation bookstore out on Colfax, it was Cleveland with mountains.
Casa Bonita was a shuck.
Great times...
Let's see.
The Original Taco House (All you could eat for 3.25)
Tanglewood Open Living School back when it was behind Denver West office park.
Feeling like a spy, biking through the Federal Center. (They had guard gates and everything).
Sloan's lake, across from Wheat Ridge HS, the smoking pit for us angsty suburbanite youth.
Club 1383 on Broadway (Is that right?)
Feeling "edgy" driving through Five Points at 3 a.m. coming home from Muddys.
Muddys, where my friend discovered the Goth culture and I discovered Bookstores and Coffee.
Working on Lowrey AFB with Americorp*NCCC for a year.
Discovering that the lights along 6th Ave. East of Colo. Blvd. were timed to 35 mph (So you could make them all if you went 70)
Going up to Boulder along Highway 93.
Saurdays, the soda-pop strip joint (Only had to be 18 to get in) on East Colfax.
BoJo's pizza in Idaho Springs.
The commercials for "WA-ZEEEEES"
The place that inspired Funtastic Nathan's (the place with the pedal go-carts)
TPing the ped. overpass on I-70 (And speaking to some nice men in uniforms)
Watching the nice men in uniforms stop talking to us and interact with a gently rocking car that had steamed up windows.
Showbiz pizza (Chuck E. Cheese was an upstart wannabe)
Going to my first and only Bronco game, age 7, with an Orange Crush t-shirt on.
Buying Chinese Stars at the little stores along 16th street mall.
Welchester Tree Grant Park, and the witches' grove on the South side of the creek.
Getting free socks from a Denver Bears game.
Biking through Confluence Park.
Villa Itallia mall and the scary two-theater movie house there.
Growing up instinctively "knowing" how to drive in a foot of snow on the freeway.
Simms Landing, and once you passed it, there was nothing until you got to Golden.
Ward Road hill, so big that you actually felt your stomach drop as you crested.
How about Malibu Fun Center? Anyone remember that?
Ha ha...this thread is still rocking!
Did anyone else ever take the elevator that was outside Paris on the Platte's doors? You could go down to a strange basement that was filled with old theatre props and appeared to have an area sort of shaped like a grave.
We once took a book from there and on the drive home something (can't remember what) freaked us out and we decided the book was evil and we threw it out the window on 6th Avenue.
Anyone else out there ever in "Colorado Honor Band Association" -- that used to meet Monday nights or Saturday mornings at the church on 1st and Grant, I think?
$5 All you can drink till 11pm at the Aqua Lounge
Who were the red beret guys that were "keeping the peace" between gangs etc.?
Does anyone remember "Ramone's" Mexican restaurant on West Colfax? YUM.
Going downtown and sliding down the banisters of the escalators on that building with the 2 story plaza...until MJ was wearing wool pants instead of jeans and got going way too fast...not enough friction. The security guard tried, but he never caught us.
The Wind Harp.
The Summer that women could be shirtless in the parks...Must have been 77 or 78. Got my Nibs so burned!
Wallabys
Elrond's
Jasmine's Garden
The Krsna Temple on a Sunday afternoon. Yummy!
Scary Colfax Bums
I grew up in Denver/Wheat Ridge during the 50's and 60's.
Do you remember:
cherry creek reservoir?
the Original Mexican Cafe?
Sloans Lake ice skating?
PT's -- yea, male strippers
King's on Colfax (cheese frenchee sandwiches)
Ebbett's Field
The Cinerama in Glendale
Ice skating at Zakendorf Plaza at the Downtown
May D&F and the ice cream parlor walk over between May D&F and the Hotel next door?
Regis College's 3.2 bar on campus?
Wheat Ridge High School was not across the street from Sloans Lake. They were across the street from a lake on the Crown Hill Cemetary property.
No mention of the Denver Zephyrs yet? For shame! I caught my first and only flyball at a Zephyrs game.
http://www.baseball-reference.com/bullpen/Denver_Zephyrs
Also, Blinky the clown used to buy the glue for his nose at my dad's pharmacy. Top that!
#195: Oops my bad for misrepresenting the Residents. The video looked more like a David Lynch film to me at the time anyway. ;-)
I think we only played it once on Teletunes. I'll have to look at my old playlists.
Now I'm beginning to wonder if my old age is making me mix up the Gothic with the Ogden Theater. Which one had the bowling alley next door?
#212, The Gothic of course, in Englewood!! It's next to the Dart BoARd and Bowling Alley, pretty sure. The Gothic ruled. It got all the fun shows. Still does sometimes.
I'ma go ahead and nominate this for The Best Thread Ever as Far as I'm Concerned. Matter of fact -- it's the winner. I haven't been lived in Denver for years and yet now I want to go buy a Warlock Pinchers hoodie and get a Social Distortion tattoo.
I think I'm going to upload flyers for shows, Teletunes playlists and photos from Denver/Boulder/Ft. Collins in the '80s to mid-'90s just because of this thread!
here's a start:
http://flickr.com/photos/bonniegrrl/sets/72157607235566573/
Maybe we should start up a Flickr group for everyone here who wants to submit old photos of pop culture stuff from Denver over the years?
Aw yes the Denver Gold. I knew one of the cheerleaders.
Tattered Cover...the old one (4 stories of books with a restaurant on top) closed down 2 years ago...now there are 3 none of them in Cherry Creek.
BeauJeaus Pizza...colorado style pizza..dinner and dessert in one!
#182 -
Sweet Jesus - that video is even scarier than I remember it.
Thanks for posting a link!
You sir, are a gentleman and a scholar!
Speaking of the show "Home Movies" look what I found on Youtube!
http://www.youtube.com/user/homemoviescolorado
Homemovies ran from 1981 to 1991 on KBDI TV in Broomfield/Denver Colorado. Not just low budget but no budget.
More info here:
http://hometown.aol.com/hammelbill/Homemovies.html