Next town east of here is Dumont NJ, but I don't think there was a Dumont dealer there.... :D

I'll ask my dad exactly what year he retired. But it had to have been around 1985 or 1986. The store remained vacant briefly (exact amount of time, I'll have to ask), but Siam Best moved in - with no intervening occupants. There was a TV shop across the street (NW corner) of Venice HS, but I do not remember any other TV shop on Lincoln in the vacanty of my dad's store. And I worked for my dad, on Saturdays (school months) and fulltime during the summers during JHS, HS and a bit of my college days ('62-'73ish), and I have no memory of a Lincoln Blvd store. My dad started his business on what is now Abbot Kinney, north of Venice Blve in the late '40s. Moved to the Lincoln Blvd address in the very late '50s, very early '60s time frame.

ok since were on the local subject,if any of you(mels son or charles) went to jr high school in that area,i have some old 8mm film and slides of webster middle school(sawtelle and national)they were remodeling the gym and were gonna trash them and some audio equip(i saved a jr velocity rca ribbon mic,and 2 shure s55 mics,but couldnt get the stromberg-carlson amp,although im still trying to get the main s-c pa system that looks like a dj desk with a reel to reel player on one pull out and trascription record player on the other).

I WENT THERE! It was for 1 year in '81 & '82 for 9th grade... Funny you should mention that electronic stuff, because I raided Mr. Bennett's classroom (electrical shop class,) and got an RCA KCS-49 chassis, and a bunch of 6Kv caps. He also gave me an old Magnavox 19" color tube set that was at one time mounted up above in the electrical shop classroom.

That campus has a lot more mobile classrooms now, so I don't know what if any of the old PA equipment might still be threre.

Small world!

Charles

lol well it is a small world,well the pa system is still there(found out yesterday)and the plant manager said that if i can haul it i can have it,but i have to take it apart,so maybe in the future.oh and also there is a old packard bell in "daniles den" and yea ive been eyeing that for a long time.webster has a lot of stuff,but yea the slides and stuff are from the opening of webster(then called richland jr hi)and date back to 54/55.oh and one other thing that i got were some old pa speakers that looked real cool in my backyard.

charlie

Great stuff here. It's sad to see the state of some of them, especially the one on Rt. 60, but even the ones that have been transformed into something totally different, since it just means one less for the "old TV shop" and one more for the "big box." If only we could go back.

As an addition to my comment above, has anyone noticed how, when a period building is transformed into a new business, it is often so poorly done? Neon signs and interesting typefaces are replaced with generic screened or interior-lit signage, rocket- or boomerang-type designs are torn down, period colors are covered over with the same stuff as the guy next door. It's unfortunate that some of the details that made those old buildings great (and unusual) are the first to be ripped down when the new people move in.

There is a great old downtown area that, like most, had fallen on hard times. I loved to just walk down the street and admire the architecture. Then I read an article in the paper criticizing some of my favorite buildings. In the fifties & sixties those storefronts from the early part of the century were freshened up with new facades. Some people liked the way they were better. But I agree, there isn't much pretty or unique about the way stores are built these days.