TOD - Fort Lauderdale
Its small but wonderful old downtown is now a horrible new downtown. Nothing's left except the shells of little more than one block of buildings that housed some of the smaller stores, and the one large block-size department store, Burdines, that was turned into government offices years ago.
MOVIE THEATERS: The Florida and Warnor downtown, the Sunrise Cinemas I & II, the Coral Ridge, the Plantation, and the Gateway (mentioned a couple of days ago) are, quite literally, places of my dreams. I still try to return to them. Only the Gateway still exists -- long ago divided into four theaters, and the vertical component of the original signage is long gone -- but it still exists, and that's the only thing there that does.
We had to drive down to Miami or Miami Beach for most road show engagements. Those were always very special occasions, usually done on a Sunday afternoon.
BOOK & RECORD STORES: The main one was Gaul's Books and Records whose original store was downtown next to the Florida Theater, and they also had a newer store in one of the shopping centers that I believe was more like an early mall. A piano and organ store in another shopping center had a nice record selection, as did the Burdines Department Store and Britt's, a new department store in one of the shopping centers. I remember one other record store in another shopping center. In those days, certain other stores such as the larger drugstores and some electronics stores very often maintained a small record department. But those small selections were good ones -- they carried things that are real collectibles today.
My first real book store was actually a downtown newsstand, a fairly large store full of comic books, magazines, and paperbacks. A number of my favorite movie tie-in paperbacks were found there, and on the revolving paperback racks in drugstores. Going into any such store, I always looked for the paperbacks. I'm even remembering a small mom-and-pop market that had paperbacks worth finding.
Our little trips to Miami Beach for road show movies led me to discovering some of the nice book and record stores Maimi had to offer, and I soon began taking a bus down there just to browse and buy a few things myself, and later got to drive the family car to Miami for that and to attend a few plays and concerts.
LIVE THEATER: Fort Lauderdale got the Parker Playhouse in the mid-1960s, where I saw Ethel Merman in "Call Me Madam" and a few other things that came around. More was to be found at the Coconut Grove Playhouse in Miami, such as "Luv", "Stop the World", John Raitt in "Carousel", Ann Sothern in "Glass Menagerie", etc. Other than that, my introduction to live theater in those years was the high school and community theater plays and musicals, and I eventually began playing piano in some of those.
FAVORITE EATERIES: The soda fountain or lunch counter section in various drug and five-and-dime stores, the greatest being one downtown drugstore whose plate of onion rings I remember to this day and hold all others to. Very few come close.
Royal Castle -- a mostly southern chain (at one point there was one in Cleveland), similar to but a little different from White Castle, and I would kill to have it back.
The cafeterias -- Many Sunday dinners and the occasional weekday meal. They were everywhere in those days.
Pancake houses -- I think an early one was called Uncle John's, and there were a few others before International House of Pancakes came along (actually, I think my first one of those was in my college years in Cleveland).
Wolfie's -- one of the great South Florida deli/coffee shops. Favorite location was in Miami Beach, and they had one in a shopping center in Fort Lauderdale.
Lum's -- which showed up here and there around the country, but I didn't know that then. In high school a bunch of us loved to go there for a Lumburger with cheese and to hang out for a bit on the small front patio after a movie or Junior Theater rehearsal or whatever, enjoying our Cokes in a place that actually had a bar.
Department store "tea rooms" and such -- Wherever we lived, it was always a special treat to be taken to one of these.
