Description: King Cobra was a stand-up roller coaster located at Kings Island in Mason, Ohio. Other stand-up roller coasters that preceded King Cobra were sit-down models later modified to accommodate stand-up trains, so King Cobra was the first in the world to be designed from the ground up as a stand-up roller coaster. After the coaster's Japanese manufacturer, TOGO, went out of business in 2001, parts for the ride became more expensive and harder to find, so following the 2001 season, King Cobra was dismantled and put it up for sale. When the ride didn't sell, the track was scrapped and the train's common components were used as spare parts for other rides.
Description: Ghoulardi was a fictional character created and portrayed by voice announcer, actor and disc jockey Ernie Anderson as the horror host of Shock Theater at WJW TV in Cleveland, Ohio, from January 13, 1963, through December 16, 1966. Shock Theater featured B-grade science fiction and horror films and aired in a Friday late-night time slot.At his show's peak, Ghoulardi scored 70 percent of Cleveland's late-night audience, outperforming national programming. Fans sent up to 1,000 pieces of mail a day and the Cleveland Police Department even attributed a 35 percent decline in juvenile crime on Friday nights as kids were all home to catch Ghoulardi on Shock Theater.
Description: Founded in 1962 as a Catholic literary quarterly, the legendary San Francisco muckraker, Ramparts Magazine, was born from San Francisco's culture of dissent and activism. In 1964, a young new editor shifted the magazine’s focus towards politics, and it became a monthly, hiring writers steeped in Berkeley’s ardent campus activism, and their views on politics, drugs and music shaped the magazine for years to come. Realizing the limitation of a monthly publication in a rapidly changing world, The Sunday Ramparts newspaper was spawned in 1966 as a weekly companion to the magazine, albeit one that was known to be much more edgy. The Sunday Ramparts is largely credited with the birth of gonzo journalism and laid the groundwork for RS Magazine.
Description: Located between the towns of Shadyside and Sunnyvale, Camp Nightwing is a place where the centuries old town rivalry can be put aside and kids can just be kids. Thomas Slater was an affable young man from Sunnyvale working as a counselor at Camp Nightwing in 1978. Everything was going great until he got possessed by Satan and sent on a Shadysider killing spree, which kind of put a damper on the Summer.
Description: Minnie Pearl's Chicken is a legendary case study of how not to run a restaurant franchising operation, and one that is still frequently referenced today. In the late 1960s, a Nashville entrepreneur persuaded Sarah Cannon, who performed as Minnie Pearl, to lend her name to a chain of fried chicken restaurants established to compete with top national chains. After initially reporting good results and enjoying public stock worth $64 million, the venture collapsed amid allegations of accounting irregularities and stock price manipulation. The company stated it had lost $5.5 million during the first half of 1969, but when the SEC investigated, it noted that the company had lost a whopping $31 million, leaving the stock to fall to just 44 cents.
Description: The Bonanza was a western-themed hotel and casino that opened in July 1967 in Las Vegas, Nevada. It was built right on the strip in between the Three Coins and the Galaxy Motel, both of which served as the Bonanza's lodging as despite the name, the Bonanza didn't actually have any hotel rooms. The casino did however have a luxurious theater that screened classic western films, which was a popular respite from the casino floor. Additionally, the casino became popular for its country music acts, many of whom were big name artists or would go on to be big names. There had been plans to add a high-rise hotel to the casino, but this never materialized. The Bonanza would change hands in the early '70s and towards the end of 1973, was demolished.
Description: Founded in Houston in 1958, Longhorn Supply Co. kept countless Texas oil fields and manufacturing operations stocked with industrial supplies. From their warehouse at 3130 Navigation Blvd., Longhorn Supply Co. dispatched trucks daily carrying everything from wellbore bits and drill pipe to trash pumps and rigging equipment to customers throughout Texas.
Description: Cranberry Lake is a hamlet in the eastern part of the Town of Clifton, in St. Lawrence County, New York, just off State Route 3. The lake is of the largest remote lakes in the Adirondacks, and it's proximity to 50,000 acres of wilderness, intermingled with 50 miles of well-developed trails, make it the outdoor enthusiast's perfect vacation spot. Whether it's fishing, boating or just laying back and relaxing, Cranberry Lake is the spot for you. The mature forest canopy around the lake provides excellent shade on hot summer days, while the undergrowth provides privacy for campers. The area is almost entirely owned by New York State as such and has remained largely undeveloped with a population of just around 200 residents.
Description: Pacific Intermountain Express (P.I.E) got their start in 1927 when the Lilenquest brothers began providing freight service in Idaho, running two Model A trucks between Pocatello to Idaho Falls. The company grew steadily, but P.I.E finally took shape after procuring three other firms and consolidating them in 1940. By 1946 P.I.E had 535 employees and was growing rapidly through ongoing acquisitions in the late 1940s and 1950s. In 1954, P.I.E became the largest hauler of petroleum products in the world. Service now extended from the west coast all the way to St. Louis and Chicago. By the mid 1960s, P.I.E extended service to the east coast through more acquisitions, giving them 67 terminals in 29 states.
Description: Pacific Intermountain Express (P.I.E) got their start in 1927 when the Lilenquest brothers began providing freight service in Idaho, running two Model A trucks between Pocatello to Idaho Falls. The company grew steadily, but P.I.E finally took shape after procuring three other firms and consolidating them in 1940. By 1946 P.I.E had 535 employees and was growing rapidly through ongoing acquisitions in the late 1940s and 1950s. In 1954, P.I.E became the largest hauler of petroleum products in the world. Service now extended from the west coast all the way to St. Louis and Chicago. By the mid 1960s, P.I.E extended service to the east coast through more acquisitions, giving them 67 terminals in 29 states.
Description: ChicagoFest was a Chicago music festival established in 1978 by Mayor Michael Bilandic. It was a two-week event held annually at Navy Pier that featured sixteen separate stages, each with a national retail brand and local media sponsor that broadcast live from the event. Stages included: Rock, Classic Rock, Country, Blues, Comedy, Roller Disco, Pin Ball Arcade, Jazz, Children's, Variety, Ethnic, as well as a Main stage seating 30,000. There were 600 performances by headline artists produced each year during the event. During the event's six-year run, Olympia sponsored the blues stage, which was extremely popular in the city that gave us the 'Chicago Blues' style that was greatly responsible for the future creation of rock and roll.
Description: CHiPs was a crime drama television series that ran from September 15, 1977, to May 1, 1983. It follows the lives of two motorcycle officers of the California Highway Patrol (CHP). The series ran for 139 episodes over six seasons, plus one reunion television film in October 1998. Episodes utilized a standard hour-long time slot, which at the time required 48 minutes of actual programming. Over-the-top freeway pileups and vehicular stunts including jumping from moving motorcycles to runaway cars were signatures of the show. As real-life CHP motor officers rarely ride in pairs, in early episodes this was explained away by placing the trouble-prone Ponch on probationary status, with Jon assigned as his field training officer.
Description: Happy Cat was a moist, hard brand of cat food that launched nationally in 1983. The claim was that it stayed 'moist and meaty' all day to keep cats happy, and advertising challenged people to 'squeeze and see' how soft it was. While the brand came and went inside of a few years, the cartoon cat licking his chops remained in our collective memories 😸
Description: A lot of folks know Carl's Speed Shop as a Daytona Beach motorcycle go fast landmark, but up until 1996, Carl called Whittier, California home. They say that location is everything, and this was especially true as Carl's namesake founder spent a lot of time making American iron faster and more powerful and when he wasn't turning wrenches, he was at the SoCal drag strips or out on the salt flats twisting the throttle and setting speed records.
Description: Famous Monsters of Filmland was originally conceived as a one-shot publication in the wake of the widespread success of the Shock Theater package of old horror movies syndicated to American television in 1957. The first issue, published in February 1958, was so successful that it required a second printing to fulfill public demand and its future as part of American culture was immediately obvious. The success prompted spinoff magazines such as Spacemen, Favorite Westerns of Filmland, Screen Thrills Illustrated, Creepy, Eerie, and several others.
Description: While he had been making hot rod parts for several years prior, Bill Von Esser opened his speed shop at 3307 West Irving Park Road in Chicago back in 1947. He expanded his reach beyond the local scene through ads in national hot rod magazines that had people sending away for his first catalog in 1948. While he stocked go fast goodies from many manufacturers, his house machined parts were without question his biggest sellers. From high-performance heads for your flatty to custom Offy throttle bodies, Von Esser's parts were highly desirable, something that has only increased decades later.
Description: Béton Hurlant (screaming concrete) was a skate park located on Ile Saint-Germain, in the Issy-les-Moulineaux commune area of Paris, France. Despite only being the country's second park as of its grand opening in 1978, it was considered the best, even years later after several others had come and gone. Despite high public opinion of the park and no shortage of skaters making it their regular spot, when interest in skateboarding waned a bit in the early '80s, the park was demolished as part of a larger redevelopment Ile Saint-Germain.
Description: Tate, or ‘Taters’ as his friends called him, was born Gerry Hurtado in Los Angeles, California. Tate was a top amateur skater in the early 1970s, but always downplayed his skating by saying he “only skated for fun.” Tate later attended a broadcasting trade school and applied his trade by working as a DJ in punk rock clubs. From his time in the clubs, Tate took up more interest in the newly growing skate rock movement, and recorded his first song, “Skaterock Rap,” in his friend’s basement in 1983. Upon its release, it became popular with skaters which led to becoming a popular opening act and the release of five albums. When not performing his skate rap, Taters was becoming a familiar voice as emcee at skate contests and events.
Description: Red Ball Motor Freight Co. was founded in 1928 by Henry English in Lufkin, Texas and had an original service area encompassing Lufkin, Houston, and the towns along the route. Through a series of mergers and acquisitions over the years, Red Ball Motor Freight Co. expanded to become the sixth-largest common carrier trucking company in the nation. Like many of the great carriers of that era, Red Ball failed to meet the demands of a deregulated trucking industry after the Motor Carrier Act of 1980 was signed into law by President Carter, and filed for bankruptcy in April 1982.
Description: When 'fly-by-night' was first coined in the 18th century, it was with a different meaning from that of today. A 'fly-by'night' was a term for a witch. "You old fly-by-night" was a phrase of reproach to an old woman, signifying that she was a witch, and alluding to the nocturnal excursions attributed to witches, who were supposed to fly abroad to their meetings, mounted on brooms. The modern definition is much different, as 'fly-by-night' is now used in reference to someone who attempts to evade responsibilities or debts by absconding under cover of darkness. Today, 'fly-by-night' is applied to any person or business of a poor 'here today; gone tomorrow' reputation, but can also be used in reference to someone who operates on the sly.
Description: Founded in 1931, The Chief Lines was a regional trucking company based out of Tulsa, Oklahoma. With terminals in Tulsa, Kansas City, and Coffeyville, The Chief Lines covered most of Kansas and Oklahoma with line haul service for their first decade in business, but began expanding their coverage through a series of acquisitions that took them well into the northeast and a good way down the eastern seaboard. Despite their strong growth and expanded presence, The Chief Lines was a victim of the Motor Carrier Act of 1980 along with many other carriers at the time who simply weren't prepared to function in the new deregulated trucking industry.
Description: Long before Bushwick became known as a trendy hipster neighborhood, it was known as a rough and tumble working-class area in the northern part of Brooklyn. Among the blue-collar residents, many small businesses resided there as well, often at street level below the proprietor's residence. Bushwick Blades was no exception and thrived for decades as one of NYC's premier knife sharpeners, claiming to be able to "sharpen everything but your wit" and they did it exclusively with traditional hand sharpening methods. This made them a favorite of top chefs, barbers, and other professionals who relied on their blades in the five boroughs as they could get them dialed in to their exacting specifications.
Description: BraveStarr is a space western cartoon series by Filmation that aired from September 1987 to February 1988, and unlike the typical path of toys being developed from a show, the series was actually developed a year after a collection of toys released in 1986. BraveStarr was the last animated series produced before Filmation shut down in 1989. The series was set in the 23rd century on a desert planet called New Texas and episodes combined elements of science fiction and western genres. As on other Filmation series, a moral lesson is told at the end of each episode. One notable episode is "The Price," in which a boy buys a drug called "Spin," becomes addicted to it, and dies of an overdose... guess he learned a valuable lesson that day 🤷♂️
Description: The Blind Seer was one of NYC's oldest continuously operating family businesses in Chinatown. Operating across multiple generations of the Zhou family, from 1883 until 1992, the curio shop and fortune-teller business was a favorite of locals and tourists alike, but a combination of rising rents and a lack of interest from the next generation meant the end for this Lower Manhattan landmark. Thankfully, they made it through the '70s, which gave us a killer souvenir t-shirt that is now back to live another life.
Description: Misato Katsuragi is one of the main characters from the Neon Genesis Evangelion franchise. She is the operations director at NERV, initially with the rank of captain, she is later promoted to major, and in Rebuild of Evangelion, Misato's rank is lieutenant colonel. Her duties at NERV include acting as a field commander for the Eva pilots, issuing orders and relaying battle strategies, as well as processing input from Ritsuko Akagi and the technicians monitoring the Evas. She also handles many bureaucratic aspects of NERV's operations. At the beginning of the series, Misato first brings Shinji Ikari to NERV and is able to convince him to pilot the Evangelion Unit-01. She then chooses to have Shinji move in with her rather than live alone.
Description: BurgerTime, originally released as Hamburger in Japan, is a 1982 arcade game developed by Data East, initially for its DECO Cassette System. The player is chef Peter Pepper, who must walk over hamburger ingredients located across a maze of platforms while avoiding pursuing characters, including Mr. Hot Dog, Mr. Pickle, and Mr. Egg. The player can score extra points by either crushing them under a falling ingredient, or by dropping an ingredient while they are standing on it. In the latter case, the ingredient falls two extra levels for every enemy caught on it. Crushed or dropped enemies return to the maze after a short time. The player could stun the bad guys with their pepper shaker, and a life is lost whenever Peter touches them.
Description: If days of the week had a review site that people could go to, Monday would probably be the lowest rated day. One star, wouldn't recommend. 👎 During the mid-seventies, this fuzzy little monster started flipping everyone off, and nobody really knows why. He started on decals, then t-shirts, and even as graffiti, but nobody really knows the true history of this little guy and how he came to be. He managed to stick around well into the ’80s, but instead of just standing around and flipping the bird, he suddenly started being portrayed as doing more than just flipping people off.
Description: While I don't think being stoned makes you better at anything, it can make some things more enjoyable... for some people. There have always been those who could skate high and loved it, and those who couldn't function and hated every minute of it. Whatever camp you may be in, just remember, the dose makes the poison.
