White Front, SoCal, 1961
White Front? That’s false advertising!
Giant color blocks and a grand space age span of an entrance glorify one of SoCal’s first suburban “big-box” retail chains.
Inside there is no “moody” department store lighting – just a ceiling full of fluorescents. Business is brisk. The parking lot is full. On the right the gull-winged and cat-eyed tail of the 1959 Chevrolet stands out. And on the left a top-of-the-line 1961 Ford Country Squire Station Wagon beautifully trimmed with fake wood trim.
White Front started in Watts in 1955. Mr. Blackman was the owner. He drove a white Cadillac. The name refers to the white fronts of refrigerators he sold. He didn’t offer the decorator colors of the day as other dealers did.
Growing up, my family often shopped at the White Front in my hometown of Ontario, Ca. But one visit stands above all the others. I’ll never forget one Saturday morning in 1970, my mother woke me up and said “Get ready, we’re going to White Front to meet the Brady Bunch!” Before I could say “What?” I was dressed, in the car and ready to go. The Brady Bunch was my favorite show. We got there and stood in line for hours to buy their Christmas album. Then stood in yet another line again to meet them and have them all sign it.
Immediately when we returned home, I played it on the stereo console. But, nobody in my family liked the way the Brady Bunch sang so we never played it again. So there the album sat in the record closet. Decades went by.
One day I decided to go looking for it. Before I got to the old record closet, my mother said, “Oh too bad, I last week donated it to the Goodwill.” So out there somewhere a record collector has a Brady Bunch record with my name on it! I hope they at least like the way the Brady Bunch sings!
Cheers to Colorful White Fronts, the Brady Bunch and you!
Charles Phoenix
Los Angeles, CA
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I remember White Front only my memory is fussy about the department store.
I was young and took everything for granted thinking everything would stay the same (don’t I wish!). Nothing really stayed the same. I hate that!
If I would have known David Cassidy was going to be at White Front….I would have
been first in line!
He was such a cutie!
I like to check out the American cars and the clothes the people wore in these
great photos! And note how clean American was back then!
Ah Charles…I too went to White Front to meet the Bradys…but there were only 3 there! I had dressed my best and stood in line to get them to sign my album. It was so exciting for this preteen I could hardly speak! I had that album for many years but my ex-husband took all my albums when we divorced. I think I only played it once too. good times…
Back in the day, Soupy Sales would air commercial spots for White Front on his show. Two lines that I remember him saying are “Right around the corner, right around the price” and “White Front-where service to the customer is our most important asset.”
C— in southern cal our White Fronts were all white. high concept. Jayne Mansfield came to ours in La Mesa, California & my parents refused to take me! At the time she was trying to cash in on the James Bond fad & called herself Jayne Blonde, agent 0038 or something. Hated my parents for bailing on me, & a few months later she was dead! At least you got to see The Brady Bunch. & Maureen was the only one who could sing. Spent a few days with her once… strange creature!
I totally miss White Front. They had everything. A deli. A snack bar. They had a supermarket too. I was four and riding in the front of the cart and the door said “to push, open”. I could read that but I couldn’t read “emergency only”. It made a loud ring.