 Clare
B. Richardson1 ,
2 , 3,
4, 5,
6, 7,
8,
9, 10,
11, 12,
13, 14,
15, 16,
17, 18
| Something else became a shock at finding
the exact date. The event was held in the middle of the day on a Wednesday! Are
you kidding me? I thought the picture looked like a Sunday! In trying to find
coverage of the event afterwards, which I didn't other than the "Thanks," there
was nothing. But of particular interest was an event to be held two days later
on July 13, 1951. It was the 11th anniversary of Phillips Drive-In Café at 315
Park Ave. They ran a full-page ad and featured free Fortune Ice Cream, roses for
the ladies and cigars for the men. A children's' show was at 3 p.m. and an adult
show at 11 p.m. There was "The Kurtis Marionettes" and "The Cushings" along with
"George Maki and his Dance Band." The ad is surrounded by 12 local merchants (none
of whom were the sponsors of the Dairy Queen event) all congratulating Phillips
on their 11th birthday. We'll probably never know for sure but it seems the reason
the Dairy Queen event was held on Wednesday rather than Sunday was to take the
thunder out of the 11th anniversary of a probable competitor to their business
and bring attention to their side of town called the South Hot Springs business
district. |
| Of interest also was
one of the Dairy Queen pictures provided me. It is the same one used in the full
page ad announcing the Dairy Queen event with the Slyman's Rug Cleaning panel
truck in the background. This means this picture was not taken when the others
were but a short time before to be used for the promotion of the event. Looking
at all the pictures it is clear that they weren't just typical photographs from
a 35 mm camera by someone in the crowd. In fact some of the pictures center the
Dairy Queen and "Curly" the animated sign in the picture and one has both the
management staff from both NASCO and Dairy Queen in the picture. The picture resolution
is among the best of any Dairy Queen has in their archives and why they use it
so frequently in current promotions. Think back about what Wayne Truman reported
all those years ago about NASCO's intention to get Dairy Queen to make those mechanical
animated signs standard as part of all Dairy Queen establishments nationwide.
The professional pictures were most likely made to court Dairy Queen into the
idea and a professional commercial photographer was used so copies could be sent
to them. Dairy Queen turned down the idea but the pictures went on to become a
big part of the nostalgia and ambience Dairy Queen enjoys 50 years later in several
of its establishments and in national promotions such as the current 100th anniversary
salute to the ice cream cone. I also think I know who took those pictures. In
the "Thanks" newspaper article published the day after the "Grand Party", both
Spa Flying Service and Wylie Studio are separate from the list of merchants contributing
to the event especially in the form of prizes. This separation to me indicates
a special thanks to Spa Flying Service for flying the "Curly" mascot over the
city and to Wylie Studio for the photography that day. Wylie is listed as a commercial
and portrait photographer at that time and existed into the early 1970's before
being bought out by present day B.W. Studios. While at the library I also checked
the weather report in the Thursday July 12, 1951 edition, which stated the high
the day before was 94 degrees. That explains the appearance of the people in the
picture. Since it is summer, kids were out of school and moms took the younger
ones. There are not too many working folk as they were on the job being Wednesday.
I also found an ad for Slyman's Rug Cleaning in a city directory rather than a
phone book of that time so indeed they, too, were a Hot Springs local company. |
|
So we now know the famous picture and two others were taken that day, Wednesday,
July 11, 1951. The fourth picture was taken before the others but probably in
late June or early July also to have it ready for the full page promotion in the
newspaper. I left the library in a pouring rain that was coming down harder than
I'd ever seen anywhere before. I did get hold of George Sammeth in the morning
and he was ecstatic that we now had a date to end all speculation and controversy.
Without George Sammeth's fine input of identifying 1951, I'd still be searching
as time permitted in and around 1953. His input was key to solving the mystery
and it was neat that it happened while we were both in Hot Springs to share the
excitement. I was able to pass George copies of the 1951 articles I had found.
We agreed to meet at Shaw's Antiques and look at the articles with Mike Shaw who
has a deep interest in preserving Hot Springs history. We also got to look at
the two animated signs again and get some photos. One of the identification plaques
on the NASCO sign mentioned the local four-digit phone number of NASCO at that
time, 6420. It listed patent number 2,045,675, which I researched to find it was
granted June 30, 1936 to a George L. Phillips of Newkirk, Oklahoma for an advertising
display device with a movable arm to point to items. Uncle Sam is used in the
patent as an example. NASCO had improved and expanded on the idea to be an outdoor
novelty, based on that exact mechanical principle and they enhanced it by adding
a yellow light bulb in the hand to further emphasize what was being pointed to.
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