I have a question, is there a certain place,
maybe a restaurant or store that you
remember fondly or have an attachment to
during our nostalgia special last month?
Historian Felix Benell shared a list
of disappearing places around Seattle.
Now after that, many of you
shared places that you miss.
So here's Felix with a few of
your favorites. One
category was movies and
recreation like movie theaters.
I think they've suffered
a lot during the pandemic.
I think. People,
especially Miss movie theaters right now,
but one that kept coming up was
this Lewis and Clark complex down
by the airport went dated back to the 1950s.
It's been gone for almost 20 years,
but there are multiple screens.
There was a bowling alley there,
you'd see it when he drove by the airport.
But for people in that part
of South King County,
that South of Seattle,
it was just a magical place
really. Now it was indoor movie
theater and you said it was kind
of a complex what was around it.
Well have had a bowling alley too
because again these these like I think
like a theater and a bowling alley.
These are these kinds of businesses
that require lots of real estate,
big parking lot and lots of lots of room
for for bowling and for seeing movies.
Big Big movie theaters,
lots of seats and I like the fact
it's named after Lewis and Clark.
What a goofy thing to name a movie theater
after the people who came out and did.
The core of discovery.
You know exploring at the behest of
Thomas Jefferson more than 200 years ago?
That's that's a great name for movie,
theater and other theater that just it.
Just in the last week or so,
looked like they were tearing it down
as the Guild 45th in Wallingford.
Yeah, it's been closed since 2017.
It's been kind of painted over.
The people have been putting sort of
joke names on the marquee and stuff,
but I guess it's the marquee was
damaged so they had to tear it down.
There was a big scare,
doesn't look like it's ever coming back,
but that movie theater came up again
and again at people fond memories I
saw that a lot on social media over
the last week or so from Wallingford.
Another thing that seemed to evoke
peoples emotions and you got a lot
of feedback over was restaurants.
Yeah, and restaurants have a
little bit more than just the food.
This one that came up a lot
was called Pizza and pipes.
And I admit I never went to
a pizza pipes in my life,
but they were all over the place.
There was one in Greenwood,
one down in University Place,
one in Bellevue, and what it was
was a regular pizza restaurant,
but built into each building
was a classic theater organ.
In fact, the one in Greenwood had the
leftover pipe organ from the Paramount
Theater at Giant Wurlitzer taking up.
I don't know how many
square feet of the building,
but so many people have fond memories
of sitting there eating their pizza,
chewing on the crust,
and hearing.
You know,
the organ player playing like
silent film music while they had
silent movies and stuff playing
on a screen and against the wall.
That seems like such a loss that
we don't have that anymore. Yeah,
and then other memories came up.
A little kind of 1 off places
and this is one of my favorites.
Certain downtown Seattle at 6th and Pike,
a place called a Bruzzese.
It was in New York style pizza place.
It was there from the
mid 1950s to about 1994.
I think Nike Town sits on top of it now.
No, I used to go there back in the early 90s.
You can get this sort of
kind of not mediocre,
but just really simple thin crust pizza
with a little bit of cheese on it.
It was really cheap.
One of the Shakers for the Parmesan
cheese and the red pepper flakes.
And it was like.
That have been lifted up from New York
and dropped 3000 miles away in Seattle.
And what a cool place.
Los Yeah,
another place that you know everyone
knows ***** burgers which is still
in business all over the place.
But Dags was another favorite.
They had a really visible location
just north of the battery.
St Tunnel on Aurora.
That neighborhood changed a ton of course,
but tags really popular for years and
then you know along with a restaurant
there's the other categories.
There's other retailers places where
you just had to go to go to buy,
you know,
a roll of paper towel or a
mouse trap or whatever,
and a couple of the big
ones were chubby and tubby.
This was a great name
that was the real place. Yeah,
dated back to the late 40s.
There was one down in Rainier Avenue,
one on Aurora up around
195th or on Green Lake.
That kind of area, but that's where you go.
You go there and buy your converse tennis
shoes or your other sort of, you know,
like waiting pools and kind of that
generic kind of variety store stuff
that we all just sort of take for granted,
but that was one great place to get and it
was pretty cheap and one more Ernst hardware,
a locally based chain.
They had locations all over the place.
They're same company that had a place called
pay and Save and Lamont just a generic.
Nothing super special about it other
than it was local and you knew the
people when you went there and you
knew where everything was located.
Then there wasn't being controlled by
some Eastern Syndicate or something.
It's just a local hardware store.
People have, you know,
they post pictures of the old bags.
You know the receipts from Ernst.
There's little bits of ephemera that come up.
People love to share,
so
I was just thinking that.
I mean it's such a it's such a
time of uncertainty right now.
It's nice to think of the things that
were so certain to us at that time.
I know that you got a big response.
Were you surprised?
As a historian that you got such a response.
Well, you know, I like to think of myself
as this very sort of serious historian,
caring about like you know,
the the the important stories behind
things and why things are important
for society and that sort of stuff.
But I get hooked on this stuff to you.
I you know, I'm from Kirkland.
I grew up over there.
I live in Seattle now,
but I find myself over in Kirkland
three or four times a year.
Just kind of driving around trying
to look for the evoke some memory
of something of who I used to be
or what that area used to be there.
There's nothing wrong with being
able to have serious history,
but also had this.
Just this nostalgia for things
that we love and that remind us of
the people that we love and the.
The things that make this area special.
So no, I I was surprised,
but I shouldn't have been surprised.
Of course. Of course, I'm nostalgic.
I'd I'd be a liar if I said I wasn't,
you know, it's hard not to
be nostalgic about things.
I don't know if y'all remember
but about our last show in
2021 was all about nostalgia,
and that's where we got these
great ideas from all of you,
producers Susan Rebecca are joining me now.
Ladies, do you have certain places
throughout the area that make
you nostalgic for another time?
So I actually remembered.
The Lewis and Clark theater
that he talked about first.
I think I saw
The Little Mermaid there like in 1989.
But what I remember about that place
is that there were like murals on
the wall of like Lewis and Clark
and the Native Americans. I can't
remember if they were on the outside or on.
I think they were on the inside
though, but that's kind of
what made that movie theater
different than the other ones.
I love that I remember Farrell's ice cream
and that played a big part in my life.
I know we've talked about that before.
Ferrules being here in Felix
has talked about that,
but it was also in Southern California
where I grew up and I spent a lot
of preteen and teen time at Farrells
and they it was just so loud and.
Everybody seems so happy.
And then of course I scream right?
Yeah yeah, it's funny.
You mention that because after we
did this special and we talked
about Ferrules I was talking to my
aunt about it and she was like oh
as a child you had a total freak
out there because it was so loud
that apparently I ran out of the
place and I never could get me back
in so isn't that funny how you?
That's not the part you remember?
Yeah, just remember how loud it was.
I think for me also there was
some a place called Bob's Big Boy.
Yes we franchise and I think I loved it.
Not 'cause the food was that great.
They put American cheese on spaghetti,
which was very weird.
I don't remember that,
but I just remember sitting next
to my Grand Father and then my
father sat at the bar in eight,
so I think that's the memory for me.
I remember that I remember the food,
there was not the best.
I think there still is a Bob's big boy
in beautiful downtown Burbank, CA.
But yeah, it's funny for me locally,
you know.
Obviously I've only been here about
almost close to a decade now,
which is crazy, but.
When I first moved here,
when we King Five was on Dexter,
we were really close to the original
13 coins.
Oh yeah,
and I used to go there every day to
the point where they'd be like welcome back.
Like literally I gained all my
pregnancy weight there and it
was such a neat building.
And of course it had to be torn
down to make way for progress.
But and it it's moved so it's still
like they they took a lot of the
original like the big original
chairs with them.
Oh cool which I was so glad because
those chairs were so iconic though.
These like very 60s.
You know,
tall chairs and they tried to
bring a lot of it,
but it is hard because once it's gone,
it's gone forever and it brings
up that conversation of.
Yeah, maybe it isn't a historic monument,
but when do we start saving things?
You know
it takes you back to a time you like
the chicken parm there, right? I think
you have used me to that. You all.
It's a white sauce on the chicken.
If you've never had it,
it's really good man.
Now that I've mentioned American cheese
on spaghetti, we need to go right.
They have literally the best
chicken parm I've ever had.
It's so amazing and I'm sure there are a
lot of other places that y'all remember too,
so please keep sending us this 'cause feel.
Felix loves talking about that.
He does so. Ladies, thank you for
sharing and thank you for sharing again.
Send us anything you want us
to check out historic,
wise or nostalgic wise.