rreini

Going further afield, there used to be a Toddle House in League City on West Main (FM 518) just west of Hobbs Road (and thus west of the freeway). It's been a Waffle House for several years now.

Southwest Dodge 60s Channel 39

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQaQ5_yJqJs

That dealership must have turned into Southwest Lincoln-Mercury, for that's what I remember at that location with the longhorn logo. Nice find there!

I thought it was Johnny Rivers that did "Secret Agent Man". That was one of my favorite songs at that time.

It was indeed. Johnny Nash did "I Can See Clearly Now", "Stir It Up" and "Hold Me Tight".

But did Foley's move into Dillard's (Joske's) after Dillard's closed the Joske's building to move to the original Macy's building, then temporarily moved into Wards then moved back after it reopened? That's what I'm wondering.

I'm pretty sure that Foley's moved into the old Wards store first, then arranged to have the old Joske's expanded after Dillard's had moved out. All of which led to one net result: Dillard's and Macy's switched buildings!

Holy crap!, 1979?. I can't believe I was off by that many years . But I do recall going to Sears when it openned and the rest of the mall not being finished. They were open before the rest of the mall.

I'm pretty sure everything opened at the same time. When my family first went up there, the entire mall was open, though every storefront was not necessarily filled. If there was a period where Sears was open before the rest of the mall, it was very short.

i don't remember a sears out there in 71 but that's not saying much (the aerial website doesn't appear to indicate there was one there either). i remember the mall opening ~1979 with sears, montgomery wards and joske's. this was a good complement to almeda since it had penney's and foley's. i do remember then mervyn's and macy's were added but can't pinpoint a year( 85 is what one website says macy's opening yr was). then in the mid to late 90's macy's closed in baybrook (joske's had already been bought out and changed to dillards in ~87) and dillards opened their 2nd store in baybrook where the former macy's was. this "newer" dillards was expanded and the original dillards closed.

here's where my memory goes cause i never was a fan of baybrook. if someone remembers what was, where macy's is now, then i can probably continue. i'm thinking it was ward's.

There was definitely NOT any Sears there in 1971. That corner was vacant until the mall was constructed. Sears has always been at that location since the mall's opening in 1978. Where Macy's is today, Joske's originally was, although I don't believe that the building is the original. The Penney's building is definitely not the old Ward's store remodeled; that store was leveled and rebuilt.

Can't really help with a precise dating of when the Mervyn's and original Macy's were built (I'd left the area by then), but 85 is in the right neighborhood.

My (former) sister in law said she appeared twice for her Bday too.

Can anyone help solve this true mystery? I could swear the phrase "Kitty's Korner" was used in Kitterick's or similar show? They would announce (or TV Guide) would have Kitty's Korner with both K's?

I would gladly buy someone a cheeseburger with the answer. I have wondered for decades....

That was another channel 13 show that I can barely remember: Kitty's Corner. Back in October 1966, according to the Houston Post TV guide that I have, it aired at 8:30 in the mornings. Cadet Don was on from 6:30 to 7, then came back from 7:30 to 8:30.

That TV guide had "Kitty's Corner" spelled that way, just the one K. But it did list the Kitirik show (4 PM) as "Kitirik's Karrousel".

I remember Jack Lalane, Casper(was a favorite), and the "singing with the bouncing ball" show. I'm showing my age, now! Don't recall Cadet Don, but the name is familiar. I remember vaguely a show with a giraffe puppet, could that be "Happy Hollow" or "Mary Jane's Castle"? Couldn't find a pic in the links. Just wondering.

The only show I remember with a giraffe puppet was The Friendly Giant, which aired on channel 8. Jerome Giraffe, I believe (yes, I remembered correctly; thank you, Wikipedia!)

I vaguely remember Marijane's Magic Castle; it was on channel 2, and I think I won a prize of some sort from a contest on it. But that's all I can remember; I was 3, maybe 4 at the time.

This is a great thread and was gripping to read cause I have been working in Pasadena since 03 and never knew the history behind it.

The only bit of trivia I can add is that Manson family murder victim Sharon Tate went to that Catholic School north of Southmore on Shaver (St. Pius V Catholic School) between 48 and 51. Her family lived in Pasadena but left after her 2nd grade year. The whole church campus looks unaltered to I suppose it looked the same when she went there.

The Shaver and Spencer intersection is one I cross at least a few times a month. I took a look at that vacant lot that was the site of the parking lot puddle wrestling in the film....VERY sad to see how it is today. In fact, I went to that Ward's a few weeks before they were going out of business. The worker in the store was an old lady that said she had been there for about 25 years (back in 02 or 01). If I knew about that filming location I could have gotten info...grrrr. Man I wish I had at least taken photos of the Ward's in the final days. It looked so out of place.

In front of the flea market is a motorcycle shop that opened up about 1 or 2 years ago. On the SW corner of the intersection is an HEB dubed Mi Tienda that opened in early 07. They cater to the Latino market that is like 90% of the population in that part of Pasadena.

One question though...where exactly was Gilley's located? I know there is nothing left of it now but where was it?

Also, what used to be on the land that Walmart on Southmore sits on these days? When was that built?

If anyone wants pics of the Shaver and Spencer intersection I can shoot some anyday...it is a few minutes in the car to get there from work. You may cry if you grew up there when it was still sort of rural and clean.

Heck, I'll do a mini photo survey of the old parts of Pasadena since I have time to kill at work this week.

There used to be a big Sears store where that Walmart is located today. I grew up in League City, and that Sears store was the one we always went to, for it was the closest one to our house for 15 years. I imagine it was built in the 50's, but that's a guess on my part. I can't remember that area ever being rural and clean; it was built up and clean, with the Sears, the Weingarten's and the Abel Drugs building.

A home depot will be built at the intersection of Eldorado Blvd. and I-45 on the northbound side.

one complete shopping center has been designed and planned for 10 years now on the northbound side of I-45 between Bay Area & Eldorado.

It figures about the Home Depot -- there's a Lowe's not too far away, between Bay Area and El Dorado.

You are absolutely right and I am embarrassed. It's humbling and a little scary when you learn that you can't trust your own memory anymore. I lived in Dickinson when I worked at KVVV in 1968, and I always drove over to Alvin on FM 517, but for reasons I attribute to the onset of Mad Cow Disease, I just don't remember making that right turn on FM 528 and driving north a couple of miles to Lundy Lane. That part of my daily drive is a complete blank. I only remember how long it took to get there from Dickinson on 517.

I searched for Lundy Lane in Alvin on Google Earth and there it is -- big as life. The old KVVV building, still sitting out there in the middle of that field, just off FM 528. The pics taken last September by Invisible Texan are startling, to say the least. Very sad.

Invisible Texan may have taken those pictures just in time -- when I was last down there in November, I remember driving past and NOT seeing the building there anymore. It looked like the lot had been cleared. Can anyone confirm this?

Roger

It's on FM 517 less than a mile east of the N. Alvin Bypass. As you drive east away from Alvin it's on the right. Look for a TV tower with a delapidated two-story brick building next to it out in the middle of a field. I'm amazed the FCC or the FAA hasn't ordered somebody to take the tower down. It's been standing there unused since the late sixties.

Here's a link to some photos taken just last year by HAIF member Invisible Texan. To whom we owe our everlasting thanks for taking the time to go out there and crawl around in that old place. These photos are great.

http://new.photos.yahoo.com/invisible_texan/albums

They're labeled -- what else? -- Ruins of KVVV TV.

Actually, I remember it off of FM 528, not 517, not that far from the old channel 11 tower (which I remember more as channel 8's tower). The Wikipedia entry for KVVV gives the address as 1400 Lundy Lane in Friendswood. Definitely on the right when leaving Alvin.

Oh - my - God. All the gin joints in the world and I had to walk into this one. Somebody asking about a TV station where I once worked nearly 40 years ago -- for a brief time. Time for true confessions.

K-V-V-V Channel 16 was licensed to Galveston, but it was physically located in Alvin. Actually, it was in a brand new building in a cowpasture just outside of Alvin on the road to Dickinson. (One of the owners owned the land.) It went on the air in 1967, to mainly show movies, game shows and syndicated reruns. The big marquee attraction was a six hour live running analysis of the stock market called The Stock Market Observer. It had a large set with computerized display boards providing constant monitoring of the action on Wall Street. The Dow Jones 30, S&P 500, the Chicago Mercantile and the Board of Trade for livestock futures, and others.

It was presented on a repeating segmented hourly wheel by an on-air staff of 3 people -- including yours truly -- who kept viewers "almost" up to the minute on everything important in the markets, from opening to closing every business day, complete with the NY and American Stock Exchange tickers crawling across the bottom of the screen. I say it was "almost" up to the minute because the stock exchanges required a 15 minute delay in putting their tickers on the air. The Bloomberg Network is now doing almost the same thing we were doing in 1968.

I joined the air staff in early 68, and worked about 7 months with co-hosts Jeff Thompson and Roberta DeFranceso, until the station lost so much money it started laying people off in September and October. I was in the first group to get pink slips. You know what they say -- last hired first fired. It's true. Jeff and Roberta both moved to New York to continue doing the show up there, and it lasted for several more years. I went back to radio, Jeff now has his own PR firm in Raleigh North Carolina, and Roberta lives in Houston where she does the Fiesta commercials on TV. She's the Fiesta lady.

The Stock Market Observer was a great idea, far ahead of its time, and it had a lot of viewers in just about every company office in town, but the TV station sales staff had no idea how to sell it and get sponsors. They were clueless. The show's creators had identical shows in New York and Dallas, both of which were successful and making money, but the show at KVVV in Alvin ultimately failed for lack of advertising.

When the SMO went off the air in late 68, the station limped along on life support for a few months, until sometime in mid 1969, the owners decided to put it out of their misery. It was off the air and history by 1970. So now you know. You can't even find any sign of it in that cow pasture.

One telling factoid: the owners hired a station manager whose only TV experience was as Nod the Clown on Channel 13 in the late 50s and early 60s. That says it all. Jim Page was a nice personable guy, and I liked him, but he was in over his head trying to run a TV station. I wonder what Page is doing now. Anybody know him?

I just joined the forum and happened upon this thread (and a lot of other interesting ones, too) -- thanks for the history of channel 16, FilioScotia. I was only 5 years old when it was on the air, but I can clearly remember it. I do remember seeing the stock market coverage on occasion and definitely remembered someone named Roberta. Thank you for confirming some old memories for me!

Here's another memory of channel 16: No-No the Clown. I don't remember too much about the show, except that he used to air Dick Tracy cartoons during the program. I was on it once, along with several of my friends from the neighborhood (League City, so the station was very close to us).

Roger