Whether you're "Movin' On Up" like the Jeffersons, "Movin' Out" like Billy Joel, or even "Moving Right Along" like The Muppets, any move from here to there is a pivotal moment in life.
For philluminists (serious matchbook collectors) the pivotal moment was when the match striker was moved from the front of the cover to the back. While the industries involved did so for improved safety, the necessary change became the ballywick that helps collectors date how old a matchbook is. In fact, there are collectors that only seek "front strikers" and practically disdain "back strikes" even though in some cases the matchbook has an identical design- but the slightly newer version has the backside striker.
This "announcement" design, produced by the Diamond Match Corp. highlights that moment when the striker was officially moved from the front to the back. While it's not dated, the change was mandated in 1973, thus giving collectors a median for determining the age of the matchbook.
This design is one of a series of at least four styles produced that addressed match safety - Don't smoke in bed, Keep matches from children, Keep matches and medications from children. (See blog post "Safety First", April 2015) Inside, they all have the same message balloon about safe usage- kind of like the industry saying "Hey, matches aren't dangerous unless you use them wrong!"
The KC Matchgirl has thousands of complete matchbooks, and she is merely a collector, not an arsonist.
Note: In addition to the striker location, the digits on a phone number or zip code can help determine the age of the cover, in addition to design styles.
There's a gamut of restaurants to chose from when scouting the best locations for an evening of wining and dining, but few also offer the atmosphere of mining. The matchbook pictured, for Baby Doe's Matchless Mine, actually tells no tale- until you dig a little deeper.
The top layer is the namesake for this late 20th Century restaurant chain, Elizabeth "Baby Doe" Tabor. Her rags to riches to rags story has been told in countless books, movies, and even an opera. Widowed at an early age and then abandoned by her adult daughters, she clung to the only things she had left, a tiny cabin and a closed silver mine.
Her fate as a tragic figure in American history was sealed when she was found frozen to death inside her sparse cabin in 1935. Her cabin and the adjacent Matchless Mine have been a Leadville, Colorado tourist attraction ever since, and registered as a National Historic Place.
The second layer, as we dig deeper, takes us back to 1978 when Specialty Restaurant Corp. of Anaheim, CA developed the concept for a dining establishment built to resemble a ramshackle mine. Founder David Tallichet located hillside areas in Birmingham, AL, Columbus, OH, Atlanta, GA, Dallas, TX, Denver, CO, Los Angeles, CA, and Kansas City, MO that would offer diners downtown skyline views and the very popular beer cheese soup.
A third, deeper layer, surfaces at the Kansas City location. Like the others, it was constructed of weathered wood, rusty metal, and accentuated with mining cars, a windmill, and perhaps some livestock for a true, rustic dining experience. With 10 dining rooms, a lounge, and giftshop, it was a popular dining destination after its September 1980 opening.
But just like its namesake, the restaurant Baby Doe's experienced a tragic death when diners felt the building shift in July 1985. The restaurant was quickly evacuated as gaps in the flooring grew wider. After the building was declared unstable, it was shuttered and vacant for several years, looking more and more like the abandoned mine it was built to resemble. Eventually, it was demolished after declaring the area was too unstable to repair or rebuild.
One by one, the remaining locations closed, for various reasons, and have been demolished to make way for new development. Seems nobody wants an abandoned mine these days, even with a skyline view.
NOTE: While both versions of the restaurant's matchbook have a photo of Baby Doe on the cover, the older, and more worn example (perhaps it was found in a mine) reads Baby Doe, while the version pictured at top reads Baby Doe's. Both are from the Kansas City location, which was located on W. 26th Terrace at Bi-State Drive, featuring a west side downtown view.
Everyone with toes, knows how it goes: this little piggie went to market, this little piggie stayed home, this little piggie had roast beef, this little piggie had none. And this little piggie cried, "Whee, I'm going to the Pig Stand!" (Which is a restaurant that will serve pigs- but only on a bun.)
At any rate, The Pig Stand hails as the "Originators of Drive-In Service" where customers could get "A tasty meal served at your wheel". While we're used to fast-food drive-throughs today, this was a novel concept in 1921.
The Pig Stand #1 opened in Dallas, Texas and quickly became popular enough that founding owners Jessie Kirby and Reuben Jackson opened additional locations. Customers could drive up and place their orders through uniformed carhops (male) and chose from a menu that offered chicken-fried steak sandwiches, onion rings, milkshakes, and extra thick slices of bread they dubbed "Texas Toast". The trademarked "pig sandwich" was Tennessee-style BBQ pork on a bun. Pig-shaped neon signs reading "pig sandwich" dotted cities and states after the owners started selling franchises in 1925.
But like any popular business, other sandwich shops tried to hog in with their own version of The Pig Stand, with similar names and menus. That's why the simple name "pig sandwich" was trademarked. To stay ahead of their imitators, they hired an architect to design a unique building that featured a red-tiled pagoda-styled roof for all their newly-constructed Pig Stands, and even demolished their earlier stands so all their restaurants would look the same and be easily recognized by customers.
Over the years, the menu changed and expanded- the only thing that didn't change was the 'pig sandwich". By 1959, the chain had scaled back their franchising and only operated in the Texas area (Dallas, Houston, Ft. Worth, Austin, San Antonio, and Beaumont) and the founding families sold out to a new owner. The pagoda buildings were phased out for more modern "coffee shop" restaurants.
Under a bankruptcy filing in 2006, all the Pig Stands were forced to close. But luckily, the tale does not end there- a long-time employee (since 1967) was able to purchase and re-open Pig Stand #29 in San Antonio. The menu still offers the "pig sandwich", which once cost 15 cents, for $6.99. Yes, times have changed but at least the sole-surviving Pig Stand still stands.
Note: Mary Ann's Pig Stand (Pig Stand #29) is located at 1509 Broadway, San Antonio, TX. This matchbook dates to the early 1960's.
Somewhere across America, on one of those 24-hour Christmas music radio stations, The Carpenters' holiday hit "Merry Christmas, Darling" is playing- let's tune in for a moment...
"Greeting cards have all been sent, and thank goodness you licked the envelopes, Darling"... Wait, that's not quite right! Let's listen again...
"Greeting cards have all been sent, and thank goodness you licked the Darling envelopes..." Still sounds wrong, right? But in this case it is right- since the holiday greeting inside this matchbook actually comes from the Darling Envelope Corporation, once located right here in the KC Matchgirl's hometown. Their envelopes may have been darling, but their competitor, Tension Envelope, had the larger facility just a few blocks away and eventually bought out the corporation in 1999.
This swinging 60's Santa was a stock design for the Lion Match Corporation, which also had a location in KC, MO when this book was produced. This style was easily customized by printing the inside cover with a company logo and address.
The usually benevolent Santa seems a little stingy with his greeting though, only offering Darling's clients a "Happy Holiday". If he has only included an "s", New Year's happiness could have been offered as well.
Chances are that all the Darling envelopes that once traveled the mailways have been signed, sealed, delivered- and tossed. But thanks to collectors, at least this matchbook remains to continue its holiday message year after year.
Note: The Darling Envelope Corporation was located at 2018 Washington Ave. This 40 count front-strike cover can be dated prior to 1973. 2018 Washington currently houses an employment agency.
The old saying, "Nothing ventured, nothing gained" sums up the short retail life of the Venture department store retail chain.
Current discount retail giants Walmart, K-Mart and Target, all founded in 1962, were well established when the concept for a new department store was developed. John Geisse, formerly with Target, and Dave Babcock, of May department stores met in 1968 and figured they had the experience to open their own stores, the aptly named "Venture". In 1970, the first store opened in St. Louis, Missouri and within a few years began expanding into Kansas City and Chicago. At that time, there were no Targets in those areas and Walmart only operated in smaller towns.
During the 1970's and 1980's, Venture stores dominated suburban strip malls, where their black and white diagonal striped signage and facade made a bold impact.
The KC Matchgirl recalls many shopping ventures into Venture, taking home her bargains (record albums for $2.99!) in those black and white striped sacks.
By 1990, Venture ventured into Texas, opening multiple stores at the same time. But by then Texas shoppers were loyal to K-Mart and Walmart, and the venture failed. Venture sold their Texas locations to K-Mart in 1996. While re-grouping to focus on their original stores, the straight, bold lines that had defined Venture for so many years were softened to wavy lines, like a U.S. flag in the wind, in 1997. But Kansas City shoppers never saw the new design, as Venture filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in January 1998 and all stores closed for good 4 months later.
Venture's adventure in discount retailing lasted less than 30 years.
Note: This front strike matchbook dates from 1970-1973. It is blank on the inside and would have been distributed at all locations.
A concrete dinosaur, fiberglass jackalope, and free ice water made the world's largest drug store the best travel stop ever. But back in 1931, the now-famous Wall Drug was just a tiny storefront in a dusty little town nestled in a no-man's land.
Ted Hustead, a pharmacist from farther east, had moved his young family out west to Wall, South Dakota and purchased the town's only drug store, eking out a meager living, dependent on the local townsfolk that might need an occasional prescription. By 1936, on a hot and dusty afternoon made even more miserable watching travelers stream past the town without stopping, Dorothy Hustead figured a few travelers might stop if the store offered free ice water. Ted was not so optimistic, but nevertheless made up some signs and set out to post them along the roadway.
The story goes that by the time Ted returned to the store, Dorothy was busy chipping ice to serve the line of thirsty travelers that had formed- a few even decided they were more than thirsty and bought some ice cream. Dorothy's simple idea had the store full of customers every day since. Over the years, they hired more employees and expanded the store to offer more than drugs and sundries.
By the 1960's, son Bill Hustead, who had grown up serving the throng of thirsty travelers, expanded the store even more, adding souvenirs and attractions- like the 80 ft. tall concrete dinosaur at the I-90 exit ramp and the oversized (6 ft) jackalope big enough for kids to sit on. Long before cell phones and selfies, Wall Drug had created a variety of photo ops to lure travelers and entertain the kids.
The entire Wall Drug complex covers 76,000 sq. ft. in a town with only 800 residents, and most likely 799 of them have worked at Wall Drug one time or another, serving cup after cup of free ice water.
Note: Wall Drug is located at 510 Main Street, but all you really need to do is follow the signs, and look for the big green dinosaur.
What makes the Happy Chef so happy? Is it the wooden spoon he waves over his head? Is it his dapper orange vest? Or maybe his white suit with nary a food stain?
Certainly he had to be happy that once there were 63 Happy Chef Restaurants dotted across the Midwest. The first one in Mankato, Minnesota opened its doors in 1963, when not one, but 3, happy chefs started serving family favorites. Tom Frederick Sr. was joined by brothers Bob and Sal, and soon they were able to purchase other restaurants in nearby cities, eventually spreading to Iowa, Kansas, Wisconsin, South Dakota, Nebraska, and Missouri.
Each location had its own 36 ft. tall Happy Chef out front that would "talk" if customers pushed a button. Apparently, the message could be recorded at the local manager's whim because there was no standard message playing at each location.
The KC Matchgirl had her own brush with the famed Happy Chef many years ago. Turns out that the local Happy Chef Restaurant was in the path along the way to her grandparents house in nearby Raytown. After a while, it became quite the landmark for the 2 kids in the back seat of the family car, and one of us, or both, would have to exclaim, "Look, it's the Happy Chef!" My dad was game to try different restaurants from time to time, so we did actually stop once and "Dine at the Sign". For some reason, I don't recall hearing the Chef talk during that visit- maybe we didn't know you had to push a button or it just wasn't working. The most vivid memory was getting to take home a new matchbook!
We never made it back before the restaurant was shuttered and dark, and the Happy Chef was removed- Gone!
But my story does have a happy ending. While nearly every Happy Chef location has been sold or closed over the years, one still remains. If you're ever in Mankato, look for the original Happy Chef. He's still waving his spoon, and happy as ever to be your chef.
Notes: Visit the original Happy Chef restaurant at 51646 US Hiway 169, Mankato, MN
The Kansas City Happy Chef stood just outside the main entrance of the Blue Ridge Mall. The restaurant was remodeled and operated as a ChiChi's Mexican restaurant for many years. The mall and restaurant buildings were closed over a decade ago and demolished for new development.
