Charles’ 
Slide of the Week: December 29th, 2006
Happy New Year, Monterey Park, CA, 1956
I hope you like yellow! Swedish monkeys tell us what year is ending and what year is beginning. Our smiling bartender pours a cocktail. There is a small open container of cigarettes in front of him and a pack of L&M’s where the Formica counter meets the wall.
Katie Kellogg wears horn-rimmed glasses, sling-back Cinderella slippers, red lips, red nails and rouge. She’s pulled up her plain-Jane party dress revealing some leg. In her left hand: her thigh. In her right: a mass produced clear green glass with a reindeer motif. At the bottom of that fancy glass: a perky pair of little plastic breasts! Happy New Year!
Here’s to you and your best new year yet!
Charles Phoenix
Los Angeles
December 2006
Sets this Slide belongs to:
Holidays
16 Comments on “Happy New Year, Monterey Park, CA, 1956”
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December 29th, 2006 at 8:36 am
Weren’t people NAUGHTY? Drinking and smoking and carrying on at all hours! This reminds me of the block parties we used to have in our 1950s subdivision. My mother would have one drink (sans plastic breasts) and then fill her glass with water the rest of the evening. She’s pretend she was as slammed as everyone else, but then she’d be up on New Year’s Day cleaning and shaking throw rugs from the front porch. Folks thought she could really hold her liquor!
Happy New Year, everybody, and thank you again, Charles, for sharing my memories (and those of so many others) with the world!
December 29th, 2006 at 8:36 am
Hi Charles - I saw you at the Music Center Christmas Eve celebration, GREAT job! Thank you for a year of enjoyable slides and humor. I have your Holiday Weenie Tree postcard on my fridge, so you’ve been a part of my holiday season for sure!
(I bought your So.Cal history book at the UCLA Bookfest about 3 years ago.)I look forward to another year of great views from So.Cal. past. Brings great memories. Best to you and yours in 07, a ‘young 50′ Native Angeleno. Evelyn
December 29th, 2006 at 9:10 am
On the eve of 1957 ! Wow. In my opinion the greatest year ever. And I wasn’t born, but even my father who was 15 that year said that it was magical and everyone knew it. The birth of the greatest chevy ever, fuel injection was introduced on the Corvette and of course Elvis was just begginning his king-ship and starting to make movies. And of course lovely Miss Kellogg is showing off those thigh high silk stockings ! Whew ! Charles I am bringing my lovely date this evening so “Break a leg” ! ! !
December 29th, 2006 at 9:29 am
Happy New Year! Just a quick reminder that the monkeys are Danish (and are still available), designed by Kay Bojesen in 1951.
December 29th, 2006 at 3:50 pm
Celebratory Charles!
I do love that Katie is having such a good time on New Year’s Eve! Her fabulous gams and sassy shoes have enough oomph to bring in the new year on their own … so she might think of putting down her drink. I’ve pulled out one of my favorite guidance books of all time — _What Men Don’t Like About Women_ by Thomas D. Horton (1945)– and I’ve found quite a screed against women who tipple too much. Although I’m certain Mr. Horton was nothing more than a grinch who loved to regale the miffed and masculine readers of Esquire magazine with tales of horrific women, we ladies might think about the following characterization of liquored-up lasses. Can you see yourself in Mr. Horton’s description?
“Women are dangerous drunkards — dangerous to themselves and to their friends. They have far less control of themselves than men. They expose all their love affairs, naming names and even relating incidents, describing idylls and recounting arguments to the minutest detail. Sometimes they will even open their pocketbooks and pull out pictures and letters — for all and sundry to see and read. A man in love with a woman who gets drunk runs the chance of having the world know about his every sentimentality and dereliction. He might just as well make love to her in the middle of Fifth Avenue.
Women drunkards are far more disgusting physically than men drunkards. Their mascara runs, their lipstick cakes or becomes too moist, their eyes glisten with pitiful timidity, their waists become splotched with liquor and food stains, their hair runs over their foreheads, and so on. They use language that even a drunken man hesitates to use. They become, in short, mere animals. And on top of it all they steal all your handkerchiefs, seldom returning them.”
Oh Mr. Horton! Who hath broken your tiny, dry heart? What fun-loving broad is painting the town red with one of your old handkerchiefs in her pocketbook? My goodness! I hasten to say here that Katie’s waist seems free of liquor and food stains and she appears to be having a wonderful time, not dwelling on the love affairs of days gone by. Not a drunkard, that Katie!
But do keep our ol’ Tommy’s words in your mind, women, as you go out this exciting weekend. Close your pocketbook. Keep those secrets in. Tidy up your waistline. Watch the language. And return those handkerchiefs.
Cheers to all!
xoxo!
Miss Sharon
December 29th, 2006 at 4:07 pm
Hello Again Charles,
I loved the retro show last Saturday night! I was also so happy to see you the next day on channel 28. My thought was that you were great and very confident, indeed! I remember my dad getting a brand new 1956 Ford! He thought he was so clever to have the dark blue and the light blue two tone, custom painted in the reverse. I was ten and for some reason 1956 is my favorite year thus far. Many of my friends made themselves faint over just the thought of Elvis.Charles you rock my world, Lynn the twin!
December 29th, 2006 at 4:31 pm
As usual I love the photo. It is such a reminder of the bar we had in our house as a child. Have a wonderful New Year.
Rori
December 29th, 2006 at 4:40 pm
Dear Charles,
thanks for all the wonderful photos and stories you send each week!
I only wished I lived in the States so I could attend your shows!
Best wishes for a great 2007 from Sydney, Australia.
Glenn.
December 30th, 2006 at 1:42 am
Ah yes, back before politically correct. Dem was da days my friend, dem was da days.
Reminds me of after work cocktails at the Pink Poodle off of Ocean Park Blvd in Santa Monica.
*sigh*
Trish
RIP Jerry
December 30th, 2006 at 1:17 pm
I wrote a show about my early life in 1950’s Kansas City, Missouri. So your photo of New Year’s ‘57 was very evocative. I’m sorry I missed your show; but I just found out about this site. Do you give info about your shows here? Would love to revel with other revellers. Thanks! Edie
December 30th, 2006 at 4:53 pm
I must also point out the classic hair and glasses she has on.
This, my friends, is the slide to beat. I’d love to use this as a “Happy New Year” card for the year when I neglect to send out my Christmas cards on time.
Brad: You’ve got the cleverest mom.
Happy New Year, everybody!
January 2nd, 2007 at 6:15 am
Happy New Year indeed! They look like they’re in the festive spirit. Happy New Year Charles! May this year be filled with more slides, slide shows, cool L.A. Disneyland tours, and more books. You da man, Charles!
January 2nd, 2007 at 6:05 pm
This slide is priceless! Thank you for making my day a much brighter shade of yellow.
January 3rd, 2007 at 3:45 am
Ooooh! I love her shoes!! As usual, Charles has done a splendid job taking us down Memory Lane on New Years Eve! Cheers, everyone!!
January 3rd, 2007 at 2:49 pm
Funny, I was born in Monterey Park, circa 1953. In 1956 we moved outta there to a brand new development in brand new La Mirada. Everyone wanted new, new after WWII. However, I imagine the kitchen in our home in Monterey Park looked a lot like this one. I’m sure my VERY stylish parents looked like this in their home in M.P. (from the many pics I have of them from Xmas’s past, including dad’s cigs) except my mom’s boobs were a lot better!
January 3rd, 2007 at 10:22 pm
That’s the picture of our 1956 “progressive” New Years Eve block party in a new neighborhood of Newport Beach at the time. I was 15 and mostly an observer of the wild goings on. The grownups could really party! One neighbor guy poured me a tumbler full of scotch (from someone else’s bottle, of course - I got the impression that scotch was wildly expensive). I hated the taste and got rid of it as soon as I could. I also had a pair of those clear plastic “Cinderella” high heels and wore them in Las Vegas earlier that year when we went to the dinner show to see Joe E. Lewis and Sophie Tucker at the El Rancho Vegas.