Sandy's Hamburgers

Tonight I've been doing a little research for my proposed fifteen-volume encyclopedic work What Used To Be Where, Back In The Day (and you thought I was joking about that, didn't you?)

In the course of my studies, I just happened across a delightful web page devoted to the long-since-departed Sandy's Restaurant in Louisville. Sandy's, apparently a Scottish-themed burger joint, had a girl in a kilt and a plaid beret for their mascot and served a specialty burger called a "Big Scott". They operated one location in Paducah and three locations in Louisville. Of the Louisville stands, one was at 5009 South Third St. (pictured above in a photograph taken on October 16, 1971) another was at 1007 W. Broadway, and the other was at 1420 Poplar Level Road. The Paducah stand was at 1726 Broadway.


There's nothing like a gang of retro-obsessive hunter-gatherer archivists to restore my faith in the human condition. These people are hardcore serious about reconstructing the lost memory of Sandy's for posterity, as it should be. Here's an example from their site to illustrate their zeal:

"The 1968 Sandy's locations list shows one of these locations as a possible 1967 opening. The 1973 list shows Poplar Level Road as Sandy's #317 and 3rd Street as #318 which points to a 1973 opening. Perhaps these locations were rebuilt as the new mini or maxi Sandy's restaurants as some locations were switching to the new buildout at this time and maybe they were renumbered into the 300 range at that time.

Robby Delius shows yet another scenario by providing both the 1965 and 1969 city directory listings for Louisville which shows Poplar Level and S. Third Street as being in existence in 1965 as well as 1969!"

We need more people like this in America.

And it gets better. It turns out that this lovingly detailed paean to preserving memorabilia related to the Sandy's of Louisville is actually just one page among many in a greater effort to hoard photos, menus, and even signage from every Sandy's restaurant that ever existed on Earth. It could take two hours to absorb it all, and if you're as much a card-carrying member of the Society For The Preservation Of Everything as I am, then you will devote those two hours to this holy work.


But wait, there's more!

Sandy's is just the tip o' the iceberg - that link is actually just one small fraction of Captain Ernie's Showboat, a truly leviathan site that assiduously sniffs out all available effluvia regarding a whole raft of obscure and neglected stuff from our collective childhood of the Midwest - everything from Romper Room to Cactus Jim to the Davenport, Iowa Morning Farm Report!

Life is good.

Stephens Drugs

One from our Whitewashed Windows and Vacant Stores blog:


Another classic old Louisville business goes bye-bye.

St. Matthews' beloved old-guy drugstore, Stephens Drugs on Shelbyville Road (previously Holdaway Drugs) has shut its doors forever and put up a sign sending all its former clientele to Wish's Drugs in Whipps Mill.



It's always puzzled me whether the establishment is meant to be called "Stephens" or "Stephen's" - the building itself lacks the apostrophe on their main sign and in many of their printed advertisements, yet they also have a smaller sign (visible in the top photo) that includes the apostrophe. Online listings almost universally disinclude the apostrophe.

Oomp Boomp

Spotted on YouTube: a rare 45 record from 1959 called "Oomp Boomp", by the obscure Louisville band The Rhythm-Addicts. This highly peculiar recording sounds a lot like the style of rockabilly weirdo Marvin Rainwater, but is also loaded with hipster nonsense verbiage, in the tradition of Slim Gaillard and Babs Gonzales.

According to rcs-discography.com, "Oomp Boomp" was the first of four singles the Rhythm-Addicts released and is the only known release from Louisville's Frantic Records. The band, whose members included Carl Frey, Bob Struck, Josh Noland, Bernie Schweickart, and Bob Smith, also recorded as The Coachmen.

More Kentucky Babes

Back in May we looked at the 1907 recording of "Kentucky Babe" by the Vassar Girls Quartet. While wandering aimlessly around YouTube, I've just now stumbled upon several other versions of the song.

Most interesting of all to my tastes: an extremely rare early "Colgate Comedy Hour" TV clip of Dean Martin & the Four Vagabonds performing the tune. Dean never recorded or performed the song again. But there's also versions by The Lennon Sisters, The Clovers, The Crew-Cuts, and even a rendition at the Maconaquah High School 1985 Talent Show.

Kentucky Babe

One from our Creeps Records blog:


Composed by Adam Geibel and Richard Henry Buck in 1896, this obscure tune was recorded by the Vassar Girls Quartet on an Edison Cylinder in 1907. To the novice ear, its melody may sound nebulous and impenetrably cornball - and, well, it really sort of is - but stay with it for the duration of the recording and see if its haunting ethereal tones don't reach you on some level. I can still hear it in my head hours after listening to it, and how often can you say that about a cylinder recording?

Vassar Girls Quartet - Kentucky Babe (mp3)

Rogers Restaurant

One from our Transylvania Gentlemen blog:


Doff your hats and bow your heads, in memory of Lexington's great old Rogers Restaurant which was torn down a few years ago to make room for a boring and neighborhood-wrecking apartment complex.


I remember reading a Lexington Herald-Leader article about the place that said it must have been a bookie joint at some point in its checkered past, because when the last owner did some renovations, he discovered a secret panel that had concealed a secret room filled with telephone-line connections. Oh, to have been here in its glory days.


Support your local 50s-retro old-man saloon, folks, wherever you are. Enjoy 'em while they're here, because they'll all be pulled down sooner or later by the forces of postmodernism so they can put up a bank or a tanning salon or a quickie-mart. It's no country for old bars.

More Tombstone Junction Images

Many thanks to Linda Tarter for emailing us some fantastic scans of old Tombstone Junction photographs!







For more information about Tombstone Junction, consult your copy of Weird Kentucky, page 160.

Covington's Futuro House

The Futuro House was a short-lived fad during the late 1960s and early 1970s. Okay, maybe it wasn't even a fad, because they only ever built 96 of these things.

With 525 square feet of living space, the Futuro House could supposedly accommodate 8 people, its press releases said. Hmmmm... maybe, but only if you're cozy and unclaustrophobic. These things seem more like children's playhouses to me. While it lacks the size and majesty of Berea's Spaceship School, it still possesses a certain space-opera charm.

The official reason given for the failure of Futuro is that the rising price of plastic during the mid-1970s oil crisis made production of the domed domiciles too expensive. Personally, I think the real reason is simply that no one wanted to live in a tiny plastic space pod.

Of the 96 Futuro houses originally sold, Wikipedia estimates only 60% still exist. We're fortunate to have one of them still intact in Kentucky, on Wright Street in Covington. See it on Google Maps Street View here.

Ronald McDonald Dies in Ashland

Michael Polakovs, the original Ronald McDonald clown for McDonald's commercials, passed away this past Sunday at King’s Daughters Medical Center in Ashland, KY. Polakovs died of complications from a stroke at the age of 86.

According to an obituary in the Ashland Daily Independent:

Polakovs, who lived in southern Boyd County, was a giant in the world of clowning.

He spent his entire life performing in circuses, was highly respected by his peers and was major source of inspiration for several generations of clowns. A number or the routines he developed are still used by clowns worldwide.

In 1966, the McDonald’s Corp. hired Polakovs to design Ronald McDonald. He designed the outfit and makeup that is worn by the character to this day. He also appeared in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade as Ronald McDonald and appeared in the first eight TV commercials that featured the character.

In addition to creating the Ronald McDonald character, Pokalovs was internationally known as Coco the Clown, a persona he inherited from his father Nicolai, also a world famous clown in his day. Pokalovs also helped found the Ringling Brothers Clown College.

The early Polakovs version of Ronald McDonald is actually quite different from the fey and well-groomed fellow we know today. He was scruffy-haired, more striped, wore a giant bib around his neck and a dixie cup over his nose, and balanced a giant to-go box on his head. You can see him on YouTube here and here. Pokalovs was also behind the later redesign of Ronald, which made the character more streamlined and ostensibly less scary.

Starks Bldg. Skylight

Now that the brilliant Mendel Hertz has taken over Louisville's Starks Building, the 1913 structure's original glass roof has been restored to its original glory.


See more Hertz-Starks Building photos here.

Cannon Doorknocker

Walking down the street in Frankfort, at first glance I thought this was supposed to be a submarine, or a submarine's periscope. But upon closer inspection, this unusual old metal doorknocker turned out to be a miniature simulacra of an antique cannon. It's on the door to the ticket office at Frankfort's Grand Theatre. A nice Steampunk-retro touch.

RC Vending Machine

That Georgetown office building mentioned in yesterday's post about the mystery red line in front of the urinal also had another distinguishing feature: a wonderful old retro 1970s Royal Crown Cola vending machine in its employee snack room. (It's starting to really freak me out that stuff from the 1970s is now "retro"... tempus sure does fugit.)

Norton Commons

A steampunk/retro enthusiast's wet dream, Norton Commons is an amazing community that, just a couple years ago, was a desolate field. Now it's a self-contained city unto itself, composed of all manner of antique architectural styles, giving one the strange and wonderful feeling they're on an elaborate movie set, or that they're Remote Viewing another point in time.





Their website says: "Imagine the convenience of a market, restaurants and other shops all within walking distance of your home. Retail stores in Norton Commons add the charm of village life that’s missing from suburban living. Sidewalks draw residents who appreciate the convenience and quality of these amenities. For visitors, the streets provide easy thoroughfare and ample parking. Businesses in Norton Commons become an integral part of a loyal community."









Stores are mixed in amongst the homes just like in an older neighborhood, and apartments are often placed above retail locations, as it used to be back in the day before the deadly dull postmodern ideas of zoning. The styles of the buildings are a total mish-mash of different time periods, just as it would be on an actual century-old street: there's Colonial, Federal, Italianate, Prairie/Foursquare, Victorian, Folk Victorian, Queen Anne, Craftsman/Bungalow, and even plain ol' depression-era-industrial ugly (which I find beautiful).





It's hard to find - I usually take Westport to Chamberlain, or you can get there via Wolf Pen Branch, or Brownsboro, or the Gene Snyder.

Gelato Gilberto is located out here, and it's worth the drive. It's the place to go for Gelato in Jefferson County, especially now that Café Glacé on Frankfort Avenue is gone, and - what was that other place that used to be on Bardstown Road? Whatever it was, it's gone too.