Hollywood is much more than a location in California; it is an idea, a dream to many and an incredibly profitable organization to still others. It is one of the most enduring icons in the American culture, one that has never been recreated by any other country.

Moviemaking began with inventions by a variety people during the Industrial Revolution. The first motion picture camera is credited to Louis Lumiere of France in 1895, although many other inventors were working on the same technology at about the same time. Some of the earliest inventions associated with the movie industry were patented by Thomas Edison, realizing the need for the protection of his developments. In 1891 he made the Kinetograph, a motion picture viewer. It was a movie viewer with a peephole through which people could view short films. These were placed in penny arcades at first. Next came the Vitascope, a motion picture projector. This was used for movie screenings Edison held in New York City. These movies were accompanied by music and voices recorded on cylinders.

Edison started the Motion Picture Patents Company in 1908. It was comprised of nine of the largest film studios at the time and was referred to as the Edison Trust, resulting in a monopoly on moviemaking. To get away from the control of this trust, and in search of a more pleasant climate, some moviemakers headed westward. They went as far west as they could: they went to Hollywood.

The town of Hollywood, incorporated in 1903, began as a small town filled with farms and orchards. Originally called Cahuenga, it was a conservative community. According to a town ordinance, liquor could be sold only by a pharmacist. Cattle were driven down the streets of the town (but only in herds that were not to exceed 200 cattle).  A trolley was added in 1904, extending from Hollywood to Los Angeles, named the Hollywood Boulevard. Hollywood was annexed to Los Angeles in 1910 in order for the two towns to share a common water supply and sewer system.

Filmmaking in California started with the New York-based Biograph Company. They travelled to Los Angeles in 1910 to film a movie titled “In Old California” with Mary Pickford, Lionel Barrymore, Blanche Sweet and Lillian Gish. While exploring for sites in the area, they discovered the Hollywood area and decided to shoot their film there. They continued to make several more movies before they went back to New York.

Word spread about Hollywood, and a New Jersey movie company by the name of Centaur Co. decided to set up a studio on Sunset Boulevard in 1911. They named it the Nestor Studio. Their first film was a western directed by Cecile B. DeMille and Oscar Apfel, titled “The Squaw Man” released in 1914. Within a year, most American movies were being made either in Hollywood or within the Los Angeles area. Major movie studios to set up in the area were Paramount (in 1912), Warner Brothers (in 1918), Columbia Pictures (in 1924) and RKO (in 1929).

The “Hollywood” sign is a very famous landmark that has come to symbolize the moviemaking industry. Consisting of 50-foot high letters, it was constructed in 1923 and read “Hollywoodland”. It was never meant to be a permanent fixture, but rather, to advertise a housing development in the hills overlooking the city.

Through the 1920’s movies were silent films accompanied by a gramophone, piano, organ or by a group of musicians. The first “talkie” movie (with sound-on-film) was released in 1927. It was “The Jazz Singer” starring Al Jolson. The Golden Age of cinema is considered to have extended from the beginning of the talkie era through to the late 1950’s. During this time, Hollywood studios released thousands of movies starring some of its greatest movie stars.

Another first for Hollywood was to be the location of the first television studio west of the Mississippi River. It was KTLA that began broadcasting in 1947. Their network television series, The Public Prosecutor, was the first to be filmed in Hollywood. CBS Television City was built and began taping shows in 1952. Capital Records was added in 1956.

In 1958 the Hollywood Walk of Fame, along Hollywood Boulevard and Vine Street, was created to pay tribute to great performers in entertainment. The very first star was dedicated to Joanne Woodward in 1960.  The Kodak Theater was opened in 2001 and has been the location of the annual Academy Awards since 2002.

Today, many of Hollywood’s big box-office draws are actors from the U.K., aware that they can achieve greater movie (and monetary) success here. Bollywood, as the Indian film industry is called, has been making films since 1913, and were given the nickname due to their prolific filmmaking capabilities. Their films imitate many characteristics of the Hollywood movies, but are still very faithful to their own culture.

Despite the influx of foreign actors and outside competition, Hollywood will always be a great American icon, largely due to the great actors and movies of its past. It remains an entertainment dynamo that is sure to continue to entertain us for a very long time to come.

Rock ‘n’ Roll continues to be one of the most popular musical genres today, especially among young people. But where did the term “Rock ‘n’ Roll originate? The term evolved over many years from the African American slang of “rock”, meaning “dance”, and “roll”, meaning having sex. African American Rhythm and Blues songs were released with titles like “My Baby Rocks Me with a Steady Roll”, by Trixie Smith in 1922. In 1931, Duke Ellington released “Rockin’ in Rhythm” and in 1939 “Rockin’ Rollin’ Mama” was recorded by Buddy Jones. This music form that came to be know as Rock ‘n’ Roll continued to evolve, with its roots based in upbeat Chicago Blues and the Rhythm and Blues of African Americans. Of course, the African American Blues sound originated in the early days of slavery in America, so the roots of Rock ‘n’ Roll run very deep in this country. These two sounds combined, (Chicago Blues and R&B), and the result was a whole new sound that became known as “Rock ‘n’ Roll”. Ironically, it was a white DJ from Cleveland that helped bring this musical genre into the mainstream.

The celebrated Cleveland disc jockey, Alan Freed was in a record store in 1952 when he noticed a great number of white teenagers buying African American R&B albums. In response to this new trend, and with the encouragement of the storeowner, Freed changed the name of his radio program from “Record Rendezvous” to “Moon Dog’s Rock ‘n’ Roll House Party” and began playing R&B songs for his mainly white audience, referring to it on the air as “Rock ‘n’ Roll”. He helped close the racial gap in music by bringing rock into the mainstream. To further market this new sound, he promoted a rock concert at Cleveland Stadium (a 10,000-seat venue), which had to be shut down after it attracted more than 20,000 fans.

In 1954 a band called Bill Haley and the Comets recorded “Rock Around the Clock”. The song didn’t do very well, until it was used as the theme song in the teen movie “Blackboard Jungle”. The 1955 movie featured Glenn Ford, Sidney Poitier and Vic Morrow. The song was heard during four different parts of the movie and it caught the notice of audiences. It was number one on the charts for eight weeks, selling millions of copies. This one song served to launch the Rock ‘n’ Roll phenomenon.

Rock ‘n’ Roll music appealed to young people (and still does) because it is rebellious and irreverent with explicit lyrics and a beat sure to drive a lot of parents crazy. As one of a generation that was taught that “children should be seen, not heard”, Rock ‘n’ Roll provided a voice and also an outlet.

Elvis became famous during the Rock ‘n’ Roll revolution of the 1950s, hitting the scene playing music referred to as “Rockabilly”. This music form was influenced by Country music, Blues and Swing. He became a national sensation with the song “That’s All Right”, released in 1954.

In the 1960s the motto was “Sex, drugs and Rock ‘n’ Roll”. The music style was that of “garage rock”, a more underground, low-budget, poorly recorded style of music. One of the first bands to be successful playing garage rock was Paul Revere and the Raiders. Garage bands paved the way for Punk Rock and bands of the British Invasion, like The Yardbirds and the Rolling Stones.

Woodstock 1969 was a landmark moment in Rock ‘n’ Roll history and was driven by the hippie culture that was moving across the US. Over half a million people attended. Some of the bands that performed were The Who, Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix and Creedence Clearwater Revival.

The 60s and 70s saw the development of Arena Rock (bands like The Rolling Stones and The Beatles), ushered in with The Beatles’ performance in 1965 at Shea Stadium.  The 1970s saw the introduction of Heavy Metal bands like Black Sabbath, Judas Priest and Led Zeppelin. By the late 1970s, the Heavy Metal trend was overshadowed by Punk Rock featuring British bands like The Clash, The Ramones and The Sex Pistols. Punk became popular on the East Coast of the US, but the trend followed The Sex Pistols as they toured the US and eventually performed in California.

Punk led to the New Wave music of the 1980s and bands like The Police, Blondie and The Cars. Also in the 1980s was the rise of the Glam Bands like Motley Crüe, Twisted Sister, and Quiet Riot. (It was all about the big hair, tight clothes and lots of makeup). These bands and their crowd-stopping images were responsible for putting MTV on every television in the US. Music videos became all the rage and were so successful, that even older bands turned to this form of entertainment. Parallel with the Glam movement was Alternative Rock, which was music that didn’t fit into the other categories. Originally called “College Rock”, this music was played at first mostly on college campus radio stations. Bands in the Alternative genre were those like R.E.M., The Cure and The Violent Femmes. Grunge was a form of Alternative Rock that began in the Seattle area. This movement was brought to the forefront with the success of Grunge band Nirvana’s album, “Nevermind” in 1991. The 1990s also saw the rise of Nu Metal in bands like The Red Hot Chili Peppers.

There are many more subsets of rock—too many to go into here. One thing is for sure; Rock is here to stay, in whatever form or sub-genre. It has evolved over many years, and will continue to do so. It is a true American icon that has grown from our American culture and has become a vital component of our self-expression.

What began as a plan to connect many smaller roadways to one major route from Chicago to Los Angeles became a work program for the unemployed during the Great Depression and resulted in a major roadway connecting the two halves of the country. For many years, it was THE route to take when driving cross-country. Today it lives on as a symbol of freedom and of a simpler way of living. Route 66 is an enduring American icon.

We have already posted a blog titled “Route 66 Then and Now” about the history of the Mother Road, but that did not touch on the lasting impact Route 66 has had on people’s hearts and minds.

Many people alive today still remember traveling along Route 66 with their own families. They stayed at some of the roadside motels, many of them with goofy names like the Pig Hip Restaurant (Broadwell, IL) and even goofier gimmicks, like cottages built to resemble tepees (Wigwam Motel in Golden, CA). There was so much more to these trips though. They were family holidays spent driving cross-country with all of the intimacy that kind of time together entails. Few families vacation like this anymore. Most trips nowadays involve getting on a jet airplane to some location, whether it’s a theme park or cruise, and spending the days involved in organized activities.

My folks were very keen on car trips and I remember many miles of the games played to keep we four kids from getting too rowdy in the Ford Country Squire station wagon. We played “I Spy” and sang songs. It didn’t hurt that my mother packed small paper bags with simple dime store activities and bubblegum to keep us busy. Because my parents kept things simple, we really thought we were living high when we pulled into a motel. This was an exciting adventure to stay over some place other than our own home.

John Steinbeck first referred to Route 66 as the “Mother Road” in his novel, “The Grapes of Wrath”. Following the book’s publication there was a massive migration westward to California by refugees of the Midwest Dust Bowl. Many personnel were stationed in California during WWII and stayed on after the war was over. California became known as the land of opportunity and many people wanted to be located on the pathway leading there, to get their share of money spent by the many travelers. After the war Americans found they had more leisure time and began to travel and sightsee along the US roadways.

In 1946 the American songwriter Bobby Troup released the song, “(Get Your Kicks on) Route 66”. This song glorified the Mother Road, with lyrics that included the names of towns along the route from Chicago to L.A. The idea for the song came to Troup as he traveled westward along the route himself. The popularity of the song served to further romanticize the idea of the highway for the public.

Route 66 no longer appears on modern roadmaps, but remnants of the roadway still exist. There are motels, hotels, restaurants and old filling stations from the original road sprinkled along the way. Some are still operating today, many are gone and still others remain as abandoned markers of the old two-lane road. Route 66 continues to live on in many different ways. One of these is through recipes passed on from restaurants that were and still are along the old route. Posted online are recipes for dishes such as Route 66 Chili, and Café Peach Cobbler. There are many nostalgic websites dedicated to the memory of Route 66. There are great photos of some of the ghosts of the old roadway. These are memories of an incredible phenomenon in America’s history. It may be in our past, but Americans have a real taste for nostalgia and a fondness for anything retro. A lot of what was once there is gone, yet there is still a sense of mystery and excitement about it that still captures the imagination today, making Route 66 a true American icon.

Today, baseball is so prevalent throughout the United States that we may tend to take it for granted. But it hasn’t been a part of our culture for all that long, having really only taken hold following the Civil War. Although most cultures throughout the world have a game involving a ball and a stick, American baseball appears to have evolved from an English game called “rounders”. Played in America in the early 1800s, it was commonly called “town ball”, but also was called just “base”, or “ball” and “round ball” and “base ball”, depending on the region.

Differences between modern-day baseball and town ball included the fact that in town ball there wasn’t any foul territory. Every hit was considered playable. A runner could be called out by hitting them with the ball, as long as they were not on base. This was called “soaking” or “plugging”. The infield was square or rectangular and the batter stood between home plate and first base. After hitting the ball he could run as many bases as possible as long as no one caught the ball either in the air or after the first bounce. Rules were variable and a team could be up at bat until all their players were out (all-out), or until only one player was out (one-out), depending on what was agreed upon. In addition, the number of innings was up to the two teams playing, or they could opt to play until one team got a particular score.

As baseball gained popularity, towns formed teams and larger cities organized ball clubs. In an attempt to standardize the game, the first written rules were assembled by the Manhattan, New York Knickerbockers ball club. These became known as the “Knickerbocker Rules”. The author of the rulebook was the New York bookseller, Alexander Cartwright. He is considered by many to be the Father of Baseball. As a matter of fact, in 1953 the US Congress officially gave credit to Cartwright for inventing the game of baseball, as we know it today. Maybe more importantly, he helped spread the modern form of baseball across the country. Like many others, he got caught up in the Gold Rush frenzy and headed west, sharing his fondness for baseball in towns where he stopped along the way.

The first baseball game to be played using the Knickerbocker Rules and to be officially recorded was played at the Elysian Fields in Hoboken, New Jersey in 1846. The Knickerbocker Club played against the New York Nine, who defeated the Knickerbocker Club 23 to 1 in four innings. Baseball became increasingly popular in New York City, and by 1850, it was becoming an obsession. Several Manhattan ball clubs had formed the National Association of Base Ball players, using the Elysian Fields as their home field. By 1856 newspaper journalists were calling baseball the “national pastime”. In 1865 the Elysian Fields was the sight of a game between the Mutual Club of New York and the Atlantic Club of Brooklyn. The game attracted 20,000 spectators! That’s a pretty impressive turnout when you consider the total population for Manhattan at that time was slightly less than 1 million people.

Two new fields were built in Brooklyn; the Union Grounds for Manhattan’s Mutual Club, and the Polo Grounds for both the New York Metropolitans and the New York Giants. The new fields were fenced, allowing the promoters to charge admission. By 1857 there were sixteen clubs from NYC, and by 1858, there were twenty-five from NYC and one from New Jersey that sent representatives to a convention where they met to standardize the Knickerbocker Rules.

There was a decline in the number of baseball clubs with the beginning of the Civil War in 1861. The traveling by soldiers during the conflict served to spread baseball fever throughout the country and interest in the game was greater than ever at the end of the war. The postwar convention in 1868 was attended by delegates from more than 100 teams.

The first professional baseball team to be formed was the Cincinnati Red Stockings in 1869. The National League was founded in 1876. This league has survived to the present day, where many other leagues have not. Although African-Americans were banned from the game in 1867, in 1883 Moses Walker was the first African-American to play professionally, when he signed with the minor league Northwestern League Toledo Blue Stockings. Walker’s career ended when the team released him in 1889. In 1890, the leagues unofficially banned African-Americans from playing baseball once again. The Negro National League formed in 1920. The next baseball player to break the “color barrier” and play on a racially integrated team was Jackie Robinson in 1946 when he signed with the Brooklyn Dodgers.

The baseball craze has only grown with time. The first modern-day World Series was played in 1903 between the Boston American League and the Pittsburgh Pirates. In 1939 Little League Baseball was founded. During WWII, when all able-bodied men were serving their country, the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League was formed. They played from 1943 to 1954. The first College World Series took place in 1947, and in 1953 the Major League Baseball Players Association was founded. Baseball was admitted to the Olympics as a medal sport in 1992.

Throughout its history, the game of baseball has experienced its ups and downs, its strikes and scandals. But baseball is still the favorite American pastime, which has made it a real American icon. Although baseball is played in many other countries throughout the world, the official game rules evolved here, in the United States. Many outstanding American players live on as heroes and role models like Babe Ruth, Joe DiMaggio, Lou Gehrig and Hank Aaron, just to name a few. Fans love their ballparks nearly as much as they love their teams and their players. Each baseball stadium is a little different. But that’s a subject for another blog.

The Harley-Davidson® motorcycle has a following and a mystique about it that no other motorcycle in the world has. It is part of the American tradition and has become an American icon. The concepts that accompany the name “Harley-Davidson®” are those of freedom, tradition and riders share a distinct sense of solidarity with other riders. The motorcycle itself has always had a unique styling and sound, like no other bike has ever had.

Surprisingly, the Harley-Davidson® origins are rather humble. The Harley-Davidson® Motor Company got its start back in 1901 when 21-year-old William S. Harley of Milwaukee, Wisconsin created a drawing of an engine that he designed to fit onto a bicycle. William Harley and his boyhood friend, Arthur Davidson and his brother, Walter, worked over the next two years building this engine in a friend’s machine shop. They installed the engine on a bicycle, only to find it wasn’t powerful enough to power the bike up hills without the rider also peddling. This sent the young men back into the shop to make design modifications.

After the redesign, the one-cylinder engine was larger and it proved to be a success. With minor modifications to the bicycle, they were able to mount the engine. What Harley and Davidson had created was a motorized bicycle, or motorcycle, intended for racing. In 1903 Harley and Davidson built, and were able to offer to the public, the first Harley-Davidson® motorcycles. They formed the Harley-Davidson Motor Company. The first Harley-Davidson dealer opened in 1904 in Chicago, Illinois. In 1906 William Harley and the Davidson brothers built their first factory on what is still the location of the corporate headquarters today. The original factory was only a 28 x 80 foot 1-story wooden building and in their first year they built 50 motorcycles there. They also produced their first motorcycle catalog.

1907 saw the factory and staff double in size and Harley-Davidson® began recruiting dealers in the New England area. In 1908 Walter Davidson had two triumphs that helped establish Harley-Davidson’s® reputation as a machine with outstanding performance and endurance. He achieved a perfect score at the 7th Annual Federation of American Motorcyclists (FAM) Endurance and Reliability Contest and also set the FAM economy record of 188.234 miles one gallon of gasoline.

In 1908 the first motorcycle was delivered to the Detroit, Michigan Police Department. This became a very important market for Harley-Davidson® and they still supply motorcycle fleets to police departments around the country today. In 1910 the famous “Bar & Shield” Harley-Davidson® logo was first used.

Motorcycles were used for the first time in combat service in WWI. The US Government purchased 20,000 Harley-Davidson motorcycles for the armed forces. Government issued bikes amounted to nearly half of all Harley-Davidson® motorcycles produced during the war. Harley-Davidson had become the largest motorcycle maker in the world by 1920, with dealers selling their motorcycles in 67 countries.

The Harley-Davidson® Motor Company continued to grow and to thrive but the motorcycle’s reputation became tarnished through the 50s and 70s, being portrayed in Hollywood movies as the bike of gang members and outlaws. The Harley-Davidson® motorcycles on the racetrack were a different story, though. They continued to make new modifications and design changes that resulted in a very successful racing bike. Customizing became incredibly popular on street bikes and Harley-Davidson® capitalized on this, making accessories to accommodate this craze.

Production was revved up in 1972 when a 400,000 sq. ft. assembly plant was built in York, Pennsylvania. In 1983 Harley-Davidson® formed the Harley Owner’s Group, or H.O.G., their factory-sponsored motorcycle club. It rapidly became the largest club of its kind in the world. In the year 2000, it boasted over half a million members. In 2008 they opened the Harley-Davidson® Museum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Today there are Harley-Davidson® riding clubs all over the world. In 1987 Harley-Davidson® did a study that revealed that half of all riders were under the age of 35. In 2005, the median age of Harley-Davidson® customers was 46.7 years of age and that only 15% of all riders were under 35. The Harley-Davidson® tradition is part of the American culture and it appears that “Harley mania” will always be with us.

Here at Retroplanet.com we now offer a big selection of beautifully nostalgic Harley-Davidson® metal signs. Display a sign or set up a grouping of signs that show your love of the open road and the original American motorcycle—Harley-Davidson®. If you’d like some ideas for decorating with Harley-Davidson® signs, check out the photos we’ve posted in the Retroplanet Gallery. There are all kinds of suggestions and a variety of solutions shown to give you the inspiration you’re looking for.

The name of Apple Computer has recognition today throughout the entire world. It’s a little hard to believe that the company is 33 years old this year. Those of us that grew up with the Apple Computer revolution may have hardly noticed the changes as they occurred, but when you look back it’s amazing how far the original 3-man partnership has come, what they have created and what effect it has had on global technology.

Most people are familiar with the names of Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak as the founders of Apple Computers, but there was also a man by the name of Ronald Wayne in the original partnership. Wayne worked with Steve Jobs at Atari before they founded Apple on April 1, 1976. Wayne drew the first rendition of the Apple logo and wrote the manual for the Apple I. But under a partnership, all members of the partnership were liable for each other’s debt, so Wayne sold his stock for $800 and left the partnership after only two weeks. With the remaining partnership of Jobs and Wozniak, Apple was incorporated on January 3, 1977 (changing the partnership to a corporation) and became Apple Computer, Inc.

Apple’s first product was the Apple I, which was a personal computer kit, hand-built by Steve Wozniak. It was not the traditional PC that comes to mind today, with a CPU, monitor and keyboard. It was simply a motherboard and was sold at $666.66. To make it a functioning computer the user had to add a case, power supply, monitor and a keyboard. Storage was saved via an optional board to a cassette tape.

In 1977 the Apple II was introduced. It was different from the other PCs offered in that year in that it had color graphics and an open architecture, making it easily upgraded. At first they were produced utilizing cassettes as storage, but the newly released 5 1/4 floppy disk drive was added to later models. Not taken all that seriously up to this point, when the Apple II was chosen by VisiCorp in 1979 as the platform for their VisiCalc financial software, it converted the Apple computer from a hobbyist’s gadget to a serious business tool. Apple’s sales in 1976 of $174,000 shot up to $117 million by 1980.

Apple’s Macintosh computer was introduced in 1984. Sales were good, but were further enhanced by the release of the LaserWriter postscript laser printer. With the addition of PageMaker software, the Macintosh and printer were sold as a desktop publishing package. To people in the desktop publishing industry, as I was at the time, this brought about amazing changes to production. Pages were no longer typeset on typesetting machines by trained operators, waxed and assembled manually onto boards. Rather, pages could be set in place and with further software advances, eventually graphics files (of scanned art and photos) could be put into place on the pages. Apple’s success continued with the introduction of the PowerBook in 1991. Manufacturers originally thought the laptop would only serve useful for salesman and accountants, today there are very few people who do not own a laptop computer and they’re seen using them everywhere.

After struggling with the product line in the 1990s and experiencing internal conflicts, Apple came out with the iMac, a computer with the monitor and CPU in one unit. Apple was back on target when they sold nearly 800,000 iMacs in the first five months. The iMac has revolutionized the look of desktop computers. They have evolved into beautiful, flat-screen, self-contained computers without a lot of cable connections and the bulky CPU to have to make space for.

The same team that designed the iMac also produced the iPod, a portable digital media player, in 2001. The Apple software, iTunes, allows the user to copy music onto the iPod from a computer. Apple created the iPod in response to the complaints by music artists and their recording companies about people who were sharing and downloading music online. Many consumers felt the albums produced at the time rarely contained more than one song worth having and the public was balking at paying for music they wouldn’t be listening to. Apple stepped in and produced a device where you could download only the songs you wanted, after purchasing them from online services. More than 173 million iPods had sold worldwide by September of 2008.

The iPhone made its debut at the Macworld Expo on January 9, 2007. The iPhone is a touch-screen phone that connects to the Internet and serves as a portable media player. Also at Macworld Steve Jobs announced the company would from then on be called Apple Inc. This name reflects Apple’s branching out into all sorts of consumer electronics in addition to computers. Personally, I’m waiting to see an Apple device made specifically for digital download of books. They have a record for doing things better than the competition, so it ought to be great.

Apple Inc. is a homegrown company that is based in Cupertino, California and although it has offices around the world, it remains very much an American company. The corporate offices have taken a non-traditional approach like many other companies formed in the 1970s. They encourage a more casual atmosphere and have always emphasized marketing their products, but especially the Apple name in particular. They have the highest repurchase loyalty among all computer manufacturers. We have been using Macs here in the Retroplanet offices since we opened more than 10 years ago. Apples iPods have completely changed how the world listens to music. Blazing new trails is what Apple Computer has always done best and is part of what makes them an American icon. Another part is their highly successful marketing that has put their products in our homes and has made Apple part of our popular culture.

When you hear the words “Las Vegas,” what most likely comes to mind are bright lights, stage shows and gambling casinos. Today’s vibrant, exciting Las Vegas has evolved remarkably far from the fertile valley it was less than 200 years ago. In more ancient times the area of Las Vegas, Nevada had been the home to the Anasazi Indians, dating back 2,000 years. Other native people settled in the area, including the Paiute Indians. The first non-native person to explore the area was Rafael Rivera in 1829. He was a scout for a group of Spanish explorers who had been sent ahead of the party in search of water. While crossing the desert Rivera came upon a fresh water spring. The Spanish named the area “Las Vegas,” meaning “the meadows”.

In 1844 John C. Fremont was sent by the US Government to explore and survey the western part of the United States. While on this expedition, he camped at the Las Vegas Springs and observed the oasis, recording his observations in a journal. His writings about the area became very popular reading, and resulted in many travelers stopping at the springs on their journeys west.

In 1848, gold was discovered in California, which spurred incredible growth in the West. Railroads were built and the people followed, resulting in towns literally popping up overnight. Within one year’s time, 90,000 people had travelled west to California. A group of 30 Mormon missionaries from Salt Lake City, Utah settled in the Las Vegas area in 1855. They constructed a small adobe fort to serve as a midway point between Los Angeles and Salt Lake City. Due to disputes between the Church members, they abandoned the fort in 1857. In 1864 Nevada became the 36th state.

In 1865 a miner named Octavius D. Gass acquired the abandoned Mormon missionary fort and turned the building into a ranch house. He bought the surrounding land, making a large ranch with a store and blacksmith shop to equip passing travelers. Due to some bad investments, Gass required a loan and borrowed money from Archibald Stewart. Unable to repay his loans, Gass’ land and ranch were taken over by Archibald and his wife Helen Stewart in 1882. In 1884 Archibald died in a gunfight in a dispute with a hired hand from a neighboring ranch, leaving his pregnant wife and four children to run the ranch. Helen ran the ranch successfully until 1902 when, with the urging of Senator William Clark of Montana, she sold it to the San Pedro, Los Angeles and Salt Lake Railroads for $55,000. (The railroad was later known as the Union Pacific.)

The railroad’s acquisition of the Stewart land led to the establishment of the Las Vegas Town Site. At first it was nothing more than a railroad station for travelers passing through the area. In 1905 Sen. Clark held an auction of the railroad land in which 600 lots were sold (or 110 acres), totaling sales of $265,000.

In 1907 Las Vegas had their first phone installed in the office of Las Vegas’ first hotel, the Hotel Nevada on Fremont Street (named after the explorer). In 1909 Nevada banned gambling, although illegal gambling continued and was tolerated. On March 16, 1911 Las Vegas, with a population of 800, officially became a city.

During WWI the Las Vegas railroad depot became even busier, as the war caused a greater demand for the metals that were available in Nevada. But when the war ended in 1918, the demand slowed and Las Vegas became a mere maintenance stop for the railroad. Many local businesses went bankrupt. To add to their misery, in 1919 Prohibition was passed, and there was no longer a reason to pass through Las Vegas.

In 1931, during the Depression, Nevada lawmakers made changes to two major laws, in the hope of attracting more visitors. They legalized gambling once again, and divorces were simplified by altering Nevada state residency law. Residency could be obtained after living in Nevada for only 6 weeks. It may surprise you, as it did me, that the precursor to the major hotels that sprang up on the Vegas Strip were hotels that were provided for men making a brief stay in Nevada to get a “quickie” divorce. These became known as “dude ranches”. (Not what we think of as dude ranches today.) This change in the law led to the state of Nevada becoming synonymous with divorce.

Prior to Nevada’s change in laws was President Hoover’s signing of a bill for the construction of the Boulder Dam. Construction began in 1931, bringing construction workers and others interested in relieving them of their earnings. Nevada lawmakers knew this massive project was heading their way and must have known what a boon the casinos and dance halls would be to the local economy once the dam workers moved in. The Las Vegas population of about 5,000 increased to 25,000. The dam was finished in 1935 and the name was changed to the Hoover Dam. In 1937 Southern Nevada Power supplied power from the dam to Las Vegas, their first customer. Fremont Street, because of its lights, became known as “Glitter Gulch”. Tourists flocked to Las Vegas for the casinos and to see Lake Mead, the reservoir created by the Hoover Dam. There became a need for bigger and classier hotels to accommodate all of the tourists.

During WWII the US Army had a very strong presence in the Las Vegas area. The ready supply of water and inexpensive energy made it a great place for military industries, testing and bases. One thing the US Army objected to was the prevalence of prostitution in Las Vegas and the used their significant influence to have it made illegal.

The El Rancho Vegas resort was opened in 1941. It was the first in a very long line of big resorts on the Las Vegas Strip. After the end of WWII, luxurious resort hotels and casinos continued to be constructed. They offered first-class entertainment and featured big-name stars. Unfortunately, gambling and the huge profits attracted gangsters to Las Vegas. The infamous Bugsy Siegel built The Flamingo resort in 1946, with the help of other gangsters and mob boss Meyer Lansky. Siegel was murdered in a mob hit in 1947, but there were many others to take his place. Other resorts built by people in organized crime were the Sahara, Sands and The Tropicana. Mob connections were not enough to slow the flow of visitors to Las Vegas. Over 8,000,000 people were visiting annually by 1954 and were spending 200 million dollars at the casinos. Another draw for the tourists were the famous performers appearing in shows at the casinos, like Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra, Judy Garland and Liberace.

What most people are referring to today when they say “Las Vegas” is actually the Las Vegas Strip; a 4-mile long stretch of road that has been designated a National Scenic Byway by the USDOT (Unites States Department of Transportation). The Strip is the location with the greatest concentration of hotels, casinos, restaurants and resort properties. There everything is big and bold, each new resort trying to outdo those that came before it. Of the 20 largest hotels in the world (by room count), 15 of them are in Vegas. Some of the grandest and most famous of these resorts are the Bellagio, Mandalay Bay, The Venetian, Caesar’s Palace, Mirage and the MGM Grand.

As visitors approach The Strip they are greeted with the famous “Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas Nevada” sign. It was built in 1959 by Western Neon and designed by Betty Willis and Ted Rogich who were paid $4000 for their work. The sign has been moved more than once as the strip has grown. As people leave Las Vegas, the reverse of the sign reads “Drive Carefully” and “Come Back Soon”.

Las Vegas is a true American icon. It grew from a small frontier town in the American Wild West to the vibrant metropolis it is today. People travel from all over the world to enjoy the shows, food, museums, lodgings and gambling offered throughout the city and at the spectacular resorts.  Many casinos have closed over the years. Many of them changed names or were demolished to make way for new casinos or resorts. But Las Vegas has proven itself to be very adaptable to the times and will surely continue to be a favorite vacation destination far into the future.

 From Horse-Drawn Wagon to the Great American Diner

A “diner” is typically defined as a prefabricated building or modular structure, designed as a location to prepare and serve food from. The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines a diner as “a restaurant usually resembling a dining car in shape”. The name derived from railroad dining cars, since many decommissioned passenger cars and trolleys were modified to serve as diner-style restaurants. It was a cheaper alternative to building a restaurant from scratch. The definition of a diner has evolved over the years to include small restaurants with a counter that serve “American” style food at an affordable price. The atmosphere is generally casual and diners usually stay open late at night.

The American diner has roots that go back farther than you may imagine—back to the 19th century when, in Providence, Rhode Island, 17-year-old Walter Scott sold sandwiches, boiled eggs, pies and coffee in the late evenings to his fellow pressmen at the “Providence Journal”. He began in 1858 by serving food to the workers from baskets of food he prepared at home to complement his printing income. By 1872 he was able to purchase a horse-drawn covered wagon he outfitted to serve hot food from, while pulled up outside the newspaper office.

Scott’s innovative idea spread and more individuals began to set up their hot food businesses from covered wagons. The first “wagon” that could accommodate customers standing inside, out of the weather, was opened in Worcester, Massachusetts by Sam Jones in 1887. In 1888 Thomas Buckley, also of Worcester, built himself a lunch wagon from which to serve his locally famous oyster stew. The wagon was called “The Owl” and had four stools to accommodate customers at a lunch counter.

In 1891 Charles Palmer received the first design patent for a lunch wagon. The use of these night lunch wagons or “Night Owls” began to spread throughout New England. They were actually much more than “wagons”. Palmer’s designs set the standard for all other lunch wagons of the time. His had a counter that separated the diners from the kitchen and orders could be placed from outside by walking up or pulling a carriage up to an order window.

Buckley began making lunch wagons commercially, and created wagons that were incredibly elegant as well as being in great demand. The Buckley Lunch Wagon and Catering Company was able to manufacture eight wagons in a month. He gave them names like the “White House Café” and “The Palace Café”. They were beautifully appointed cars; some had etched and stained glass windows, murals and elegant woodworking. At one point Buckley’s wagons were being used in 275 cities and towns throughout the US. His efforts reaped amazing success up until his premature death at age 35 in 1903.

Lunch wagons proved to be very popular for people that wanted to walk in for an inexpensive meal during the day or anyone wanting a hot meal after local restaurants had closed. Soon, the lunch wagons became so plentiful on city streets that city ordinances had to be passed to limit their hours of operation. Wagons began to fall out of favor with the arrival of steam engines and electrified trolley cars. During the 1920s, many of the lunch wagons were sold to individuals looking to set up a diner in a permanent location. The used wagons were sold pretty cheaply to people looking to make a profit selling food and not necessarily interested in maintaining the structure. Rundown diners resulted in the rise of what has become known as the “greasy spoon”.

Many dining car owners fought to overcome their poor reputation by fixing up their diner interiors and adding flower boxes and shrubs to the exteriors. They added more tables and booth service and more choices to their menus. They hoped to attract more people beyond the working class, including women customers, who had recently won the right to vote. Better transportation brought more travelers to diners that were looking for a good meal while on the road.

The fact that diners offered a decent, inexpensive meal is what got most of them through the Great Depression. The 1930s also brought a major change to the design of diners. Art Deco became very popular and, like trains, diners became very streamlined. They also changed to reflect America’s new fondness for stainless steel and rounded corners. Many diners were built with rounded or vaulted ceilings and a streamlined locomotive shape. Metal striping and porthole windows were added. New diners were built to reflect this new fashion, and old ones were updated as much as possible.

The 1940s were not as kind to the diner business. A large part of the working class were enlisted and defending the US in WWII. Food and building materials were being rationed. For the first time, women began working behind diner counters. Once the war was over, business took off once again. Newly designed, larger diners were being built and older ones were remodeled. With their new respectability, diners developed fancier menus with higher prices. Jukeboxes were added to counters and booths, which served to attract a younger clientele. The Baby Boom era had arrived and this group is largely responsible for the continued success of diners.

Diners of the 50s were built to attract customers as they drove by, since many people were moving out of the cities and into the suburbs. There were large windows and stainless steel exteriors. As the 50s progressed, the new diner construction began to be influenced by the Space Age. Porcelain enamel, glass blocks and neon signs were being used. Unfortunately the 1960s brought a movement away from the traditional look of diners and they began to be built with a Colonial or Mediterranean décor, having little resemblance to earlier diners. They began to lose much of their appeal and popularity with the public.

Late in the 1970s there was a resurgence of interest in the original American diner. Three of the original diner builders were still in existence and they resumed construction of diners using the old designs. Witnessing their success, other companies joined them in building retro-inspired diners. There are restaurant chains today that use the retro diner designs, understanding the public’s interest and fondness for retro buildings. Two of the chains currently using these designs are the Silver Diners and Johnny Rockets.

Diners are a trend that has also become popular in Europe and will certainly continue to be as more people become interested in retro American architecture, décor and lifestyles. A few original American diners still exist today, like the 1941 Modern Diner in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. It is one of only two remaining Sterling Streamliners and is the first diner to be placed on the National Register of Historic Places. (The other existing Streamliner is the Salem Diner in Salem, Massachusetts.) Diners will remain an American icon since they have their roots here, in New England, and evolved along with the American people, and were with us through all of our country’s ups and downs. Many believe we should never forget where we came from, and diners are part of who we were and who we continue to be.

Do you know of an original diner still in operation in your area? We’d love to hear about it. Blog-in and share your diner memories.

The Hot Dog and Hot Dog Stands Are Uniquely American

There’s probably not another food that is considered more uniquely American than the hot dog. Like so many other things in our culture, the hot dog has origins across the Atlantic, but we have succeeded in making it our own. The predecessor to the world famous hot dog is the sausage that has been made all over Europe for centuries. The making of sausage dates to at least the 9th century B.C., since it is mentioned in Homer’s “Odyssey”. It’s believed to be one of the most ancient of the processed foods.

There are several places that lay claim to the invention of the first hot dog. (And it’s important to take note that a sausage only becomes a hot dog once it is served in a roll or other form of bread.) Both the cities of Coburg and Frankfurt in Germany, as well as Vienna, Austria claim to have served up the first hot dog. There are many stories about who first put bread and sausage together, but it appears that the original hot dog, or “frankfurter”, was created in Frankfurt, Germany. A German butcher named Johann Georghehner from the late 1600s claims to have been the first to serve sausage on bread. He later brought this new food with him from Frankfurt to Vienna and sold it there. As a result, both places claim ownership of the food creation.

Frankfurt is so convinced of their discovery of the hot dog, that in 1987 the city celebrated the 500-year anniversary of its invention. Contrary to the Georghehner story, today locals say the frankfurter was created in 1487, five years before Columbus set sail to discover a new trade route to India. The celebration reportedly caused protest from the people of Vienna. The citizens of Vienna, Austria claim the hot dog evolved from the Viennese sausage, or the “Wienerwurst”. “Wien” is the German name for Vienna, and “wurst” is German for sausage.
Most likely, the American hot dog descended from the sausages brought to the US by many nationalities of immigrating European butchers. This melding of different cultural recipes is what makes the hot dog a true American food.

Although the hot dog may have an obscure origin, that is not so of the first hot dog stand. A German butcher named Charles Feltman opened the first hot dog stand in 1871 at Coney Island in Brooklyn, New York. Coney Island is a peninsula off the southernmost point of Brooklyn that provided beaches and an amusement park, in addition to many other attractions. It became a favorite daytrip destination for the people of Manhattan after the opening of the Brooklyn Bridge in 1883.

Charles Feltman was a German immigrant that acquired a Brooklyn bakery in 1870. Beginning in 1871, he pushed the bakery’s pie wagon along the Coney Island beachfront selling fresh baked goods to the pavilions and clam houses. His clients requested hot sandwiches that they could sell to their customers. Due to limited space on his wagon, Feltman thought hot sausage would be a good solution. He had his wagon builder make modifications, adding a tin-lined chest and a small coal stove. Then he was able to boil pork sausages and place them into fresh, warm rolls. His sales the first year alone totaled 3,684 sausages. Feltman’s success led to a fortune worth over a million dollars by the time he died in 1910. After his first year of hot dog sales he had been able to build a small restaurant and turned his bakery over to relatives. With continued success he was able to build a pavilion that was modeled on a German beer garden. He continually expanded the pavilion and added more attractions, like a carousel. He became known as one the great original developers of Coney Island.

In the 1890s, the hot dog also became known as “dachshund” sausage (meaning ‘little dog’) and sausage stands began to appear all over the US where people needed a tasty, easy meal on the go. Sausage stands like Feltman’s did not use the term “hot dog” to describe their food, since at the time it was used to describe meat of questionable quality or origin. Gradually the term became more accepted and “hot dog” was first entered into the “Oxford English Dictionary” in 1900.

1893 was a big year for hot dogs. They were served at the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair and first appeared at baseball games. Some claim that it was the owner of the St. Louis Browns, and not coincidentally, owner of a St. Louis bar, Chris Von der Ahe, that first served hot dogs to accompany the beer he sold. Whether he did or not, hot dogs have become a staple at ballparks all over the US for professional leagues and little leagues. They are as much a part of the American culture as baseball itself. Hot dogs make regular appearances at picnics, lunches and dinners. They can be customized with different toppings, from chili and onions to mustard and relish. Different regions of the US have their own version of the perfect combination of hot dog toppings. Hot dogs have been made of pork, beef, and even a lower-fat turkey version is now available. They are a food that is here to stay.

The hot dog has become an American icon by evolving from its European roots and becoming a food that can’t be found with the same great taste anywhere else in the world. There is a broad spectrum of toppings, each identifying a hot dog as being from a particular region, but hot dogs in general can be found anywhere and everywhere in the US. They are, I believe, permanently connected to our favorite pastimes and will always be associated with some of the best times in our lives. And they’re real easy to serve up too! I don’t know about you, but it kind of gives me a craving for one now….