Tag: Retro Travel View All Tags
Tags: Starbucks Alternatives / Coffee Travel / Stockholm / Stockholm Travel / Stockholm Restaurants / Retro Travel / Design Travel / → All Tags
Stockholm Kicks Starbucks To The Curb With The Retro 'Konditori Valand'
Starbucks might be attempting to create more of a cafe with their concept "15th Street Coffee & Tea" restaurant, but it will simply never equal the awesomeness of truly great, very authentic cafes that still exist and serve up homemade goods around the world. One such spot, which might not last too much longer as the owners grow old, is Stockholm's Konditori Valand.
The cafe, in the Surbrunnsgatan section of town, is run by Magdalena Åström, who has maintained the original interior of the cafe since it was begun and designed by her husband in 1954. The result is a mid-century modern stunner, with well-worn teak furniture and an imported black stone floor from Italy. The cafe is a fixture in German guidebooks and on the lists of retro furniture enthusiasts, but that doesn't mean that a regular old, design-appreciating tourist can't enjoy a coffee and slice of cake here.
Tags: NYC-In-The-1950s / Retro Travel / New York City / Tourism Advertising / Clubs / Burlesque / Night Clubs / → All Tags
New York 1953 To Today: Times Square Is For The Girly-Shows
Times Square and Central Park attract tourists to New York City in droves, but what were the most exciting sights back in the 1950s? Thanks to an old tourist brochure from 1953, we're exploring back in the day versus today, for NYC tourists.
Here's a quick trivia question: How does the leggy advertisement for the Latin Quarter nightclub relate to Barbara Walters? It was run by her father! We doubt that Barbara enjoys being connected back to this notorious club, especially since it embodied the seedy side of Times Square from the late 1960s through 1980s by showing soft-core pornography and being a popular fight spot.
Oh boy but back in the day, especially in 1953 when the lights of Times Square were still glamorous and not all red. Lou Walter's Latin Quarter hosted the big names alongside a little nudie chorus girl show. Think Frank Sinatra, Milton Berle and Mae West.
Tags: NYC-In-The-1950s / Retro Travel / New York City / Tourism Advertising / Restaurants / Sports Travel / Food Travel / → All Tags
New York 1953 To Today: Can We Resurrect The $1.95 Steak Dinner?
Times Square and Central Park attract tourists to New York City in droves, but what were the most exciting sights back in the 1950s? Thanks to an old tourist brochure from 1953, we're exploring back in the day versus today, for NYC tourists.
If you visiting New York in 1953 and you weren't going out for lobster at some place like the Grand Central Oyster Bar, then you were probably licking your chops for a visit to East 52nd Street. And there, setting itself apart from $1.95 steak dinners advertised all around Times Square, was Al Schacht's Restaurant, owned by the baseball player-turned-comedian.
Tags: NYC-In-The-1950s / Retro Travel / New York City / Tourism Advertising / Ships / Cruise Travel / → All Tags
New York 1953 To Today: Transatlantic Liners Versus Cruise Ships
Times Square and Central Park attract tourists to New York City in droves, but what were the most exciting sights back in the 1950s? Thanks to an old tourist brochure from 1953, we're exploring back in the day versus today, for NYC tourists.
While no tourism brochure these days would use the phrase "your gay entree" unless we're talking about Damron or another gay-focused guidebook, this ad for transatlantic crossing on the storied French Line causes us to conjure up sepia-tinged fantasies of sailing out of New York harbor on a great ship, with goodbye party streamers flying all around and cocktails in a piano lounge.
By 1953, travelers had already mostly forgotten about the Normandie burning at dock in NY in 1942, and they would continue to sail until the early 1960s, when airplanes finally got the hang of elegant travel.
Tags: NYC-In-The-1950s / Retro Travel / New York City / Tourism Advertising / Travel Photography / → All Tags
New York 1953 To Today: Going 'Kodaking'
Times Square and Central Park attract tourists to New York City in droves, but what were the most exciting sights back in the 1950s? Thanks to an old tourist brochure from 1953, we're exploring back in the day versus today, for NYC tourists.
According to the brochure, "there are almost as many cameras enthusiasts in America as there are residents." We don't know what kind of Kodak film they were sniffing back in the '50s, but we beg to differ. Nonetheless, NYC is like a hyper picturebook, and tourists definitely take advantage of the urban grit just as much as the picturesque skyline when it comes to photography.
Hoping to snap a few pictures of the local color along with The Statue of Liberty for your New York vacation album? Let's see what the old 1953 guidebook recommends for "Kodaking in Gotham..."
Tags: NYC-In-The-1950s / Retro Travel / New York City / Restaurants / Food Travel / Tourism Advertising / → All Tags
New York 1953 To Today: Grand Central's Oyster Bar
Times Square and Central Park attract tourists to New York City in droves, but what were the most exciting sights back in the 1950s? Thanks to an old tourist brochure from 1953, we're exploring back in the day versus today, for NYC tourists.
Walk past a Starbucks on every block and shiny Apple stores around the city, and you might believe for a second that city has change completely in the past 50+ years, but a quick visit to Grand Central Station will reveal that some things are held too sacred to ever change.
Tags: Disney World / Nostalgia / Retro Travel / If You Had Wings / Eastern Air Lines / → All Tags
Does Anybody Else Remember the Old "If You Had Wings" Ride at Disney World?
The internet really is an amazing thing. Last week, for some reason, I was thinking about an obscure old ride at Disney World that I doubted many people remembered. Lo and behold, a quick search revealed not only extensive information about it, but a couple of first-person videos as well. The ride was called If You Had Wings, and it was essentially a big advertisement for Eastern Air Lines, which was, at one time, the official airline of Walt Disney World. My dad was a pilot for Eastern Air Lines, and so we made a point of riding the Claude Coates-designed Omnimover Dark Ride whenever we went to the park, and I loved it.
