Repost from November 2010. I found a trade journal put out by Prosperity International in 1984 called, “FLORIDA: In Shape for The Future”. It’s filled with all kinds of promotional materials for Florida companies. (Ironic note… it was printed in Japan. I guess there were no Florida printing companies that would pay for advertising?) In it I found some fun Burger King photos. I loved Burger King in the 1980s. Hell, I can’t help it, I still love it! Click photos to make larger.
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Another new pinup, in preparation for Pinupalooza. This one features some original neon, also created by me. I love neon, and I’ve been looking for the opportunity to include it in a pinup.
I’m exhausted. I’ve never done a show before and I’m stressing trying to get everything done. I am really looking forward to it though. I hope it’s the first of many conventions that I’ll get to take part in.
Ads for Gary’s Duck Inn and Cherry Plaza Hotel.
I found this brochure at an estate sale recently. It features marketing and promotions for Orlando, Winter Park, Maitland and Central Florida, circa 1961. Lots of good stuff. It’s also a good reference guide to Orlando in the 1960s. Click below for more. As always, click the image for a larger version.
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I occasionally root through all the sketches I’ve amassed throughout the years to see if there’s anything that gives me inspiration. Once and a while, I’ll find something in that sketch bin that just begs to be finished.
Yesterday, I pulled out a two minute sketch of a little astronaut, holding a tray with a burger and fries, looking for all the world like he was traveling by jet-pack in the same way that carhops of a bygone age would have gone by roller-skates. You see that sketch below.
Anyway, I spent a few hours turning this little character, who I’d previously named “L’il Astor,” into a Googie / retro-futuristic restaurant sign.
Here’s an article I wrote for Mouseplanet.com back in the early 2000s about Walt Disney’s Empress Lilly restaurant, called “The Queen of Lake Buena Vista“.
This is another bunch of ads from the Orlando Sentinel food sectionals from 1972. Check the original article here. Above is an advert for Sweden House. My love for “All You Can Eat Buffets” knows know boundaries. Of course, back then it was called a “Smorgasbord”. I’m not sure which is the classier moniker. These places were all over Florida in the 60s and 70s. I hope they had Swedish meatballs. If Ikea had all you can eat meatballs, they’d have to wheel me out on one of those HÅVET chair beds.
I found this menu for Aunt Hattie’s Chicken in the Woodpile on eBay a few years ago. It’s especially neato because it’s autographed by Edward “Uncle Ed” Boore, husband of Aunt Hattie and founder of the restaurant. Aunt Hattie’s was opened in 1939 by Ed and Hattie Boore who had previously run a fruit stand. It closed in 1985. The full history of the restaurant is recounted by Scott Taylor Hartzell in this excellent St. Petersburg Times article.
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Pumperniks was a Saturday afternoon staple for my family when I was growing up in Miami. It’s the first place I ever ate Matzo ball soup and a brisket sandwich. The experience of eating this food for the first time was enough to make me consider converting to Judaism. Read more