Re: A LITTLE PACKARD (AND ROUTE 66) HISTORY FROM 2017
Posted by Leeedy On 2017/9/30 13:21:37
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)
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)
This Post was from: https://packardinfo.com/xoops/html/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?post_id=196224