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Re: A LITTLE PACKARD (AND ROUTE 66) HISTORY FROM 2017
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Home away from home
 
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Continuing on with the photos... You'll note the last photo reveals the appearance of the building at nightfall with the art moderne vertical ribs on the building exterior illuminated using neon.
Then the inside has what looks like an old reception desk accompanied by glass block enclosures and Route 66 sign. Then you see this.. along with an area that looks for all the world like an old radio studio! Yesss, it has some of the look of the old Earle C. Anthony (Packard dealer and Southwest Distributor) KFI radio studios that were once on Vermont Avenue in central Los Angeles. Now... why and how this all got to Texas is a mystery. But it is a very, very fascinating place to visit (as well as one of the rare CLEAN rest plazas that are remaining open on today's interstates). A fabulous place to pause and rest... and think... and somehow it seems about the only thing missing is a Packard! For anyone who does not know... Earle C. Anthony founded KFI radio in the very early 1900s on the floors above his original Los Angeles Packard dealership that was located at 1000 S. Hope Street (there are "Packard Lofts" condos there today). The radio studios were later relocated to South Vermont Avenue where they remained until the 1970s. KFI radio is still very much in business today. KECA which Mr. Anthony also owned was sold off long ago. He also had one of the early TV stations which was KFI-TV and was eventually sold off too. Mr. Anthony was said to have invented TV "cooking shows" and once had a studio that was in fact made up exactly as a working kitchen. Unheard of in those days except by movie studios. By the way... if you look at the sign shown here and you notice it says "clear channel" next to KFI... this was not a brand name as it is today... it was a broadcast status. It meant that no one else was allowed to broadcast on KFI's frequency. So with the properties of AM radio and good weather conditions, you could theoretically hear KFI radio almost anywhere in the northern hemisphere. Mr. Anthony used to do broadcast checks when he would travel in his private train car or when he was sailing far out at sea with his attorney on trips to Hawaii and Tahiti-and this was in the 1920s-30s! Additionally, Mr. Anthony imported and mounted the first commercially successful neon signs in the USA. The first of these was located at 7th and Flower Streets in downtown Los Angeles in 1923 (NOT at his dealership as the internet and neon "historians" will tell you... the pics shown on the internet depict a neon sign on a building that was not even erected until 1929). By the way, those signs (3 of them, not 2 as the internet and books will tell you) said "PACKARD"... Attach file:  (192.57 KB) (187.63 KB) (216.83 KB)
Posted on: 2017/9/30 13:21
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Re: A LITTLE PACKARD (AND ROUTE 66) HISTORY FROM 2017
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I live right of I-40 and I travel I-40 east & west on a regular base but I can't place this at all. Where on I-40 is this?
Posted on: 2017/9/30 14:35
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I can explain it to you but I can't understand it for you
 Bad company corrupts good character! Farming: the art of losing money while working 100 hours a week to feed people who think you are trying to kill them |
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Re: A LITTLE PACKARD (AND ROUTE 66) HISTORY FROM 2017
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Quote:
I may need to pull out my road atlas for deeper details, but as I recall it is on I-40 eastbound. An official interstate rest stop. It is officially known as "NW-4" according to the Texas Department of Transportation. It is maintained by a company out of Buffalo, Texas. It would seem as though this rest stop would be an ideal stopover for a Texas Packard Club region on a road tour. Here is another photo. Signs on these walls say: "Fyre Drop Gasoline"... "Hood Tires"... "Authorized Studebaker Service"... There is also a large tornado shelter in the building. Attach file: (187.45 KB)
Posted on: 2017/9/30 14:44
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Re: A LITTLE PACKARD (AND ROUTE 66) HISTORY FROM 2017
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Here's a shot of the KFI / KECA studios at 141 S. Vermont, circa 1940. It was torn down by the local school district in the dead of night - without permission - as they wanted a new parking lot.
Attach file: (54.67 KB)
Posted on: 2017/10/1 7:45
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