Why am I here?

And I don't mean that in any sort of a philosophical way. Why am I here on blogger?

I started this blog over a year ago, in part to understand and examine my own urge to collect things. As you can see by the list of labels over on the right side, I have many, many interests. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but it can become very frustrating when you're compelled to collect items from all those interests. And - you don't even know the half of it. I've barely mentioned comic books, and I considered myself a comic book collector ever since I was a little kid. I have a huge interest in original comic art, and zombie comics and movies right now, and they haven't even made it on here much. I feel like I have far too many interests, and I was tired of feeling compelled to buy something because it was cool, only to have it end up in storage - or, now, in a box in the garage. So writing here has helped me to deal with stuff I've collected, share and celebrate it, and feel like there's a use for it.

It has not helped me to stop collecting, however. I have developed a sense that just because something is cool, that doesn't mean I have to buy it, independent of writing here. I have actually bought a few things just because I wanted to talk about them on the blog, if you can believe it. Way back here I rediscovered my old collection of James Bond paperbacks, and I ended up buying a sort of rare copy of Live and Let Die to talk about there. And that's not the only time I've done that, either. I bought a stack of comic books I wanted to write about over a year ago. Now, with the move, it's going to take me awhile to find them, let alone write about them here!

Part of the problem with being a collector, for me, is I have a very hard time getting rid of things, too. This button above was something I wore at a trade show 18 years ago when I travelled around the country selling knee braces. It doesn't hold a lot of meaning for me, and has little or no value, but it's hard for me to get rid of. Good, bad, or indifferent, it represents a period of my life.

Something like this, though, is good for me to take a digital picture of, talk about briefly here, and actually throw away. This may not sound like much, but it's a step for me.

I have taught myself to have more focus in what I collect. Just because something is cool, doesn't mean I have to buy it. However, if it falls specifically in an area I collect on, it's fair game. I still collect animation cels - specifically, obscure or odd animation cels. One advantage in this is they rarely cost very much - most of my purchases were under 20 dollars apiece, like this original cel and original background from a Bill and Ted cartoon series. ( I say "a" series because there were two of them, believe it or not. One was better than the other, but now, I can't even tell them apart by just a cel). I really enjoy this piece, and the fact that they're reading a comic book in the image only makes it better for me.

I also am still really looking around for anything on or from Alan Hale's Lobster Barrel, the restaurant he owned at 826 N. La Cienega Blvd., "The celebrity end of restaurant row." My interest spilled out to the rest of the boulevard, too, largely because it was once such a big deal and now there's scarcely a whisper of "restaurant row" anywhere - even on Restaurant Row. I have a lot more to share both on the Lobster Barrel, the other restaurants that have occupied 826 La Cienega, and the rest of the boulevard. Why? Because I enjoy researching, that's why. (By the way, the mug here really has nothing to do with Alan Hale's restaurant, but come on - a lobster and a barrel - how could I resist?)
I've semi-seriously set out to get two items from every restaurant that I can on the Row, and I've had pretty good luck again without it costing much. Like from Ed Debevic's: Debevic's was a late entry on the boulevard, open when I came out here in 1990, and I dined there several times myself. It was famous for rude wait staff who dressed like 50's and 60's icons (my last waiter was Howdy Doody. Seriously) and danced on the tables and bars. they also had tiny, tiny sundaes which they gave you free for your birthday. I collected a menu and four of the tiny sundae glasses you see here, so that counts as two (different items to represent the restaurant for my collection).

So, I'm just taking a moment to reassess what I'm doing here: you'll see more of what I actively collect, what I used to collect, and what I can't believe I (or anyone) collected. More, of course, Big Bang Theory, and everything associated with being a fan of the show. And more of everything a fan, collector, or geek could want.

Your comments and questions are always welcome here; I appreciate nothing more than a good question I can do some research on. You can comment on the blog or write me at fancollectorgeek@earthlink.net - sorry, I don't know how to make that the kind you click on that conveniently pops open your email.

Also, follow me on twitter at fancollectrgeek (notice the second o is missing)! There, I post anything I'm watching that I recommend, and anything I come across that fits in the Fan/collector/geek categories. If you follow me, please just send a Horton hears a who type "We are here!" message so I know you're a real person.

Oh, and of course: we've got at least one more visit to the Michael Jackson auction to write up. It's a good one.

Thanks for listening - I'll see you in the funny papers.

Before Lobster, Snapper

Returning to my current fascination with the history of Restaurant Row, and more specifically, Alan Hale's Lobster Barrel:

After stopping by the Melrose Trading Post looking for Restaurant Row memorabilia (but instead finding this great historic photo), I went down to Santa Monica to check out an antique mall I hadn't been to in a few years.  It is still there and was packed with tons of tiny items of interest to me, squirreled away in the shelves and tiny drawers of about 200 dealers stalls.

If you're a collector, often it's the hunt that is the most fun, and that afternoon, I was in the mood to go over the place with a fine toothed comb.  I was probably there at least 2 hours, and found many, many great items.  Like the matchbook for "Clif Herd's Red Snapper" on Restaurant Row, above.  As you can see, it's the same address as the Lobster Barrel - 826 La Cienega.  From the graphics I'd say this was in the late 50's or early 60's - just a guess - and sometime after it was "The Famous Restaurant."  I have no idea who Clif Herd was, but apparently he also had a Red Snapper restaurant in Monterey Bay (at least according to this auction).

A curious feature of Ebay for the masochistic collector is that you can search completed auctions too.  Though I found nothing currently offered from the Red Snapper, a completed search showed me that a mere couple weeks before I learned the place existed, another collector bought the menu above, unchallenged, with a bid of 10 dollars.  Well, at least I swiped this scan of it from the auction for free... but as I've said before "virtual" collecting isn't quite as satisfying as the real thing.

Ebay Selling tip #1

Suppose you have a program for a small high school production of "Guys and Dolls" from the 60's, and nobody bids on it on Ebay.  Here's a tip: check the ads in the back.  Maybe the back cover is for something someone collects...

You get my point.  This great ad with coupon for a "Big Barney" was listed on Ebay as such, and I bought it for ten bucks.  It came, of course, attached to the whole program.  Very clever listing!  the seller knew there were more Red Barn collectors than small high school Guys and Dolls program collectors.

Another Red Barn collectible that I actually passed on bidding on for the longest time were the giant stuffed dolls of the "Hungries" from the early 70's.  They are, to say the least, frightening.

And they're huge!  Look at how the stuffed (I say stuffed because he's definitely not "plush") Hamburger Hungry towers over the mug of the same character.  He's big enough to help me drive in the carpool lane here in California.  And the way his hamburger bun - shaped head translated into the odd mangy-dog looking fur...I wonder how many of these survive?   I mean, how many kids really wanted these back then?

Still, I can't wait to get the stuffed "Chicken Hungry," shaped like a giant furry drumstick with a face...

Generic, Yet Famous

As I said last week, I've become obsessed with the history of "Restaurant Row" in Los Angeles, and especially 826 La Cienega, home of the legendary "Skipper Alan Hale's Lobster Barrel."  (If you don't think it was legendary, check out the forward to Ben Stiller's "The Ecstacy and Agony," a book of Los Angeles photography, here.  The Lobster Barrel comes third in his list of childhood memories of California, after "Disneyland" and "sunshine."  Not bad).

I quickly turned up evidence of many, many other restaurants that had occupied that location at one time.  One of the first I turned up is this matchbook for "Famous Restaurant," serving Jewish Cuisine - probably the only restaurant I found in the history of the location that didn't serve shellfish.  It's also, I think, the only one with a "Bradshaw" prefix on the phone number, so that may help narrow down when it was there - looks like the fifties, probably.

By the way, the first time I wrote about the restaurant I got wrong what's actually in that location now.  It's really "The Spanish Kitchen," which I've now visited three times.  They have the best Steak fajitas I've ever had, and there are several features inside that just might date back to the "Lobster Barrel" days, like the wrought iron railings in the dining room.  (check out the gallery at the Spanish Kitchen site for a look inside).

More Lobster Barrel history coming at you soon!

World Famous Restaurant Row

Way back on September 18th I proclaimed I was "not much of a matchbook collector."  Now, three months later, I have about six hundred of them.  It all started because of that one matchbook I found for Alan Hale's Lobster Barrel.  It proudly proclaimed it was "on Restaurant Row" in Los Angeles.  It seems like, back in the 50's and 60's especially, the stretch of La Cienega Boulevard roughly between Santa Monica Blvd. and Wilshire Blvd hosted a world-famous collection of eateries as intriguing as "The Lobster Barrel" and more.  

Today, there's still a sign there that 

labels it "Restaurant Row," but there's not much sense of it as a collective destination that it once was.  To top it off, the history of the area seems to be virtually forgotten and uncelebrated.  Virtually, but not entirely.  

So, for the last few months, I've become a "Restaurant Row" collector - searching out information on what once was there and what still is.  To my surprise, I quickly found out a great deal of history for Alan Hale's Lobster Barrel at 826 La Cienega.

One of my first finds was this matchbook (an Ebay purchase) that seems to predate Hale's invovement in the place.  Since he was so involved in promoting the place, it seems pretty clear this matchbook with no mention of the Skipper/host came from a time before the Barrel enjoyed a celebrity endorsement.

Even a look at the sign out front gives the impression the "Skipper Alan Hale" topper was added after the place had been in business awhile.  This image is reconstructed from a tilt shot in this interesting YouTube video  that features an interview with Hale inside the Lobster Barrel itself!  

It's very interesting to piece together, like a puzzle, the history of "Restaurant Row" and, more specifically, the Lobster Barrel.  Sure, I could probably go down to City Hall or the Library and find out every business that ever opened on La Cienega, but where's the fun in that?  Well, maybe I could go look through old microfilms of newspapers and find ads from when they were open, like this:

So Charo was singing next door at Casa Cugat?  I wonder if I can get in touch with her and find out what the glory days of Restaurant Row were like...

Just sit right back, for surf & turf

I am not much of a matchbook collector.  If you've been reading you won't be surprised to know I have a few from Carrols restaurant, and a few other restaurants from when I was a kid.  But when I saw this on Ebay in a small group of matchbooks, going cheap, I had to get it.  It just arrived this morning.

I liked Gilligan's Island as a kid.  I watched it all the time, and even drew my own comic of it once.  (It was on a huge piece of stiff paper, so I'm sure it was destroyed long, long ago.  I only remember it involved the Professor inching his way along a ledge, probably because he was the only one I thought might get them off the island.

I'm not really a Gilligan collector, though.  I never got the floating island toy, with a little Gilligan, Skipper and Mary Ann (you can buy Mary Ann here), or any of the later dolls you can also see at that link.  But something about this matchbook spoke to both my childhood love of that silly show, and my current interest in long gone eateries.

Alan Hale Jr, famously, loved his role as the Skipper on Gilligan's island, and wore his trademark hat often after the show - as the illustration clearly attests to.  826 N. La Cienega is now the very swanky looking "Mark's Restaurant" - I wonder if they know about the history of the location?  I'm going to be on the lookout for a menu or photos from the place.

I do have a few other Gilligan things I've "collected: in my Itunes are audio files I pulled off of TV of all the songs from Gilligan's Island's version of "Hamlet."  They put the play on to convince  producer Harold Heckuba (Phil Silvers) to leave the island sooner, but guess what?  It was so good he stole it & left without them.  (Did you ever wonder if they ratted out all those people after Rescue From Gilligan's Island?)  I can never, ever hear Bizet's Toreador, En Garde from "Carmen" without hearing Hale belting out "Neither a Borrower or a Lender Be" in my head.

And last but not least, the pride of my animation collection is a cel of the walk cycle from "The New Adventures of Gilligan" with an original background painting.  

It's framed in bamboo.  What else?

When the Hungries Hit - Hit the Red Barn

Back here I shared my obsession with a long gone restaurant from my childhood, Carrols.  Actually, though, there was another restaurant that I remember much better:  The Red Barn.  Right around the corner from the Carrols of my youth, just a few steps further away from home, was a Red Barn restaurant.

I think Red Barn was more of a favorite to us when I was a kid mainly because - well, aside from looking like a big red barn, they had characters - the three Hungries - Hamburger Hungry, Chicken Hungry, and Fish Hungry.  (They can be seen pretty well on the cups, in this slightly different crop of the photo from my banner.  Also note the "Hamburger Hungry" ring in front of the cups).

Fish Hungry didn't look much like a fish to me - more like a guy with Elmer's Glue poured over his head.  And even as a 3-4 year old kid, I thought Hamburger Hungry looked a lot like Ernie from Sesame Street (giving merit to the changes requested by The Children's Television Workshop).  But by far, the oddest one was Chicken Hungry, who was basically a living drumstick, face and all.  They may have seemed odd, but they were fun, and I can remember going there much better than going to Carrols.  I even remember that the milkshakes tasted great, and they remain my standard of what a good "real milk shake should taste like.

Why then, am I more "obsessed" with collecting Carrols memorabilia?  In part, I think it's because there is already an amazingly comprehensive fan site for Red Barn at barnbuster.net.  So Carrols always felt a little more in need of being preserved in my memory.  and more importantly, shared with others who remember the chain.

 

Here are a few odds and ends I've collected for Red Barn - "Big Barney" was their specialty burger.  The chicken ad is cribbed from an Ebay auction I didn't win, but the metal plate for printing a newspaper ad (shown also in reverse so you can read it) is one I did win.  You can see a lot more at Barnbuster.net, but at least for now there are a few items I've collected that I haven't seen there yet.

One item I remember well was a sheet of punch out marionettes of the Hungries that had jointed arms - you assembled them with string - that was a lot of fun to play with.  I haven't seen one of those turn up online yet; I think they were pretty fragile and mostly disposed of. It's something to keep an eye out for - every time I find one of these things, it's feels like digging up an archeological relic of a long-lost era.

An era where Big Barney turned people on.  :)

You'll Come Back to Carrols

So far, of everything I've shared on this site, all the stuff I've collected, I still feel like I haven't shown you much of the stuff I consider my "major" collections - things I'm actively collecting, in a fairly completist way, and enjoying very much.  One such collection is animated cels, which I've shared a couple of examples of.  Another is Big Bang Theory, of which there's very little to actually collect right now.  So, it's time to talk about one of the really big ones, which I suppose I've been putting off because it's a little hard to explain:  Carrols restaurant memorabilia.

When I was a kid in Syracuse, NY, we used to go to a fast food place called Carrols.  It was only a few blocks away from our house, and I remember very little about it except that it was decorated mostly in orange.  (This photo looks very little like that restaurant, though it represents that era).  I do remember, though, when in 1975 all the Carrols restaurants became Burger Kings.  In fact, the Carrols Corporation still exists today, still headquartered in Syracuse, NY, and is the largest franchisee of Burger King, with over 300 restaurants.

So fairly recently, almost entirely with the help of Ebay, I've started collecting Carrols memorabilia.  Some dates back to before my time, like this take out box shaped like a restaurant.  It's just big enough to hold a hamburger, french fries, and maybe some napkins and ketchup.  I never saw a restaurant like this myself, the one in my neighborhood was sort in a strip of shops, not a stand alone.

Other items seem to be more recent corporate items, like this pin with 3 stones in it.  I'm assuming it's a service pin of some sort, for 3 or 30 years with the company, or something like that.  

Still other items I've come across surprise me that they still exist anywhere.  One guy had worked at a Carrols for years, and on his last day, took home one clean piece of every paper item they had, like this french fries envelope.  (Servings were much smaller back then!  Insert social / health comment here).

The funny thing is, I can't remember the food at all.  The menu was pretty much the same as McDonalds, with their specialty burger called "the Club Burger."  So I'm not sure why I started collecting it.  

I think part of it is a tie to my family - I was only 9 in 1975, so I never went to Carrols without my parents or at least older sisters.  (Now that I think about it, I'm not sure if I ever went to any Carrols other than the one in walking distance on Marshall Street in Syracuse).  I'm sure my interest is partially spurred on by the fact I could find very little about Carrols on the web, though nostalgia sites for other restaurants abound.  

In any case, I've learned an awful lot about the restaurant, what became of it, and oddly, why it's not completely extinct today.  (If you like spoilers, read up on wikipedia.  If not, I'll be continuing the story soon).  The Carrols memorabilia is displayed on a shelf in my living room (part of which is visible in the banner for this blog!)

Now if only I could find someone who knows about Carrols cinemas, which were still around years after the Burger King conversion.  Or...anyone out there got a ticket from one they want to auction off?

I'd like to invite anyone reading this who has any recollection of Carrols at all to please, comment here.  I'm really interested in compiling your impressions of the place.