Casa de Fritos, September 1979
HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY! I hope everybody has a wonderful, happy day. Don't step on a hot sparkler with your bare foot, like I did once. Sue. B (as usual) has a scan for any occasion, and here's the 4th o' July example. This unusual tableau is from Cypress Gardens, Florida - sort of a topiary birthday cake. 1976 was the big Bicentennial year, after all, and many American's had Bicentennial Fever! Something about those candles gives the "cake" a Christmas vibe, or maybe that's just me. Thanks Sue!
For today's regular pix, I have a quartet of scans from the Mysterious Benefactor, each featuring Casa de Fritos, which was still chugging along in Frontierland, serving up enchiladas, tacos, tamales, and all sorts of other delicious Mexican/American cuisine. I'm not sure when they changed to font to this style (does anybody know what it is?), but it looks very 70s to me. (Here's how it looked in its earlier incarnation).
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I wish everything was made by Frito-Lay. If they made cars, I'd drive one. Thimbles with the image of every U.S. Vice President? I'll buy two sets. Toothpaste? Hopefully it is Frito-flavored.
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The sign shop had access to a sand-blaster... I used to work for a guy who sometimes made signs as a side hustle, and customers just loved that deeply-weathered wood grain look. They also loved signs that had airbrushed "chrome" lettering, the zenith of Western civilization.
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Casa de Fritos looks like a pretty nice place to relax. Sip on your Coke with lots of ice and feel the stress of the day evaporate. Only three years later (in 1982), Casa de Fritos was changed to Casa Mexicana.
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MANY THANKS to the Mysterious Benefactor!
14 comments:
Major-
Extra points to Cypress Gardens for including an array of 'CG' "shields" - complete with water skis - as a part of their Bicentennial cake-!
I suddenly have the strangest desire to ♩ "munch a bunch of Fritos corn chips." ♬
Thanks to Sue & the M B. Happy 4th to all.
Major, the "Christmas vibe" you're getting is probably because the 'cake' looks like a Christmas tree, and people used to put lit candles on their tree.
The flowers on the ground are petunias. I thought that some of the 'cake' flowers were roses, but now I'm not so sure. I have no idea what all the others are.
Interesting photo, Sue. Thanks!
Not sure what the font is, but I have seen it before. I think it was in a book of old European typefaces.
I'm guessing that the Imagineers added the cracks in the walls? So, how would they be able to tell real cracks, if and when the form, from fake cracks? The whole building could come crumbling down without any warning!
I have to admit that I do like that weathered look. Although, the weathering looks a little too perfect; makes it look unnatural.
For some reason, the little "®" below the Frito-Lay logo make me chuckle.
Thanks to Sue, Major, and the Mysterious B.
The font was introduced by the Typeface company PHOTOLETTERING and licensed . It goes by a few names including ROBERTA and CORDOBA ….. in the 1970’s into the 1990’s WED Imagineering used Franklin Type source and Central Graphics ….. both of Los Angeles . So the films - or letter guides would have been from either of them. Disneyland and Walt Disney World also used a camera foto lettering custom built by WED called WED TYPSITOR….. it was used mostly for things like menu boards. Thus allowed WED and DL/WDW sign shops to produce their own letter guides or film positives to create their own stencils or silkscreens or rubber resists for sandblasting. By the late 90’s Disneyland farmed out their sandblasting to local companies. When WED was so busy with Tokyo DL and Epcot , almost all the graphics for New Fantasyland had their film positives for signs and posters done Thru Central Graphics of San Diego, while Franklin lettering and Central Graphics of Los Angeles focused on EPCOT CENTER and Tokyo Disneyland ….
A side note : when computers and desk top publishing came into existence most of the software companies didn’t want to pay licensing fees for the use of specific fonts …. So many computer graphics software creators made knock offs of popular or well know fonts …. For example a software company might take the font family from PHOTOLETTERING “Roberta” and slightly alter the look - barely - and give it their own name like “Roberts” ….. the UNIVERSE font family developed in the 50’s and 60’s was copied and called UNIVERSAL…. Pretty shisty on the computer software people. Eventually the typeface and photolettering companies began to make the switch to license digital and many are still used and are available today , but mostly the damage was already done and the graphic housed and font companies went out of business.
Well, Cypress Gardens obviously didn't even bother to put 200 candles on that bicentennial "cake," so they blew it!
Casa de Fritos should have had a costumed "W.C. Fritos" character (from the 70s), greeting guests out in front of the restaurant.
Thank you, Major and M.B.!!!
And thank you, Sue, too!
Happy 4th to all!
So this is what I could find : the Casa De Frito font in these pictures is ROBERTA. It appears to have first been used in November of 1978 …. And new signage between 1982 - 1983 using the same font as “Casa MEXICANA” hosted by Lowery’s were created / installed. The graphics in 1982 were also altered to include the LAWRYS MAGENTA corporate color into the “Casa MEXICANA ”
Happy 4th to all! My very English mother who married a very American American would fly the largest Union Jack ever on 4th of July just to irritate him...possibly, she may have irritated all the neighbors too...who knows...my thought, why irritate? Just divorce the guy...and that is for another time with my therapist. Nothing says Fourth of July more than tacos at Casa de Fritos. Things I like with Fritos: French Onion Dip. OK...it's ONE thing, but that's it. I REALLY like Chili Cheese Fritos, or when I was a wee one sometimes on "Hot Dog Day" at school they had BBQ Fritos instead of the regular ones, which I also love(d). I do not love Hot Dogs...at all...they are in a "do not like" category all of their own. As I was forced to eat them, my remedy was to completely cover them with yellow mustard, which covered the taste, look, etc. More therapy is needed. I wish I would have went to Cypress Gardens in it's heyday, as it looks like quite the place. It still does exist, on a smaller scale as a part of "Legoland Resort". I'm not sure if I could muster an entire "Resort" out of Lego's, but I guess they have. I love Legos, as most middle age guys do, but have never been to a Lego Land. Seems like they are exploiting Legos...Lego's were for the future architects and designers of the world...I'm not sure that sitting in a Lego roller coaster inspires me to be the next Paul Williams, or F.L. Wright...but my small collection under my bed as a kid in the original box did. Back to the Casa! Where was I?....right...Fritos! There is the old legend of Doritos being created at Casa de Fritos, which deserves a deep dive and more insight. Someone had to have been there that knows. There has never been a Dorito that I did not like. In fact, my laziness on this holiday may dictate that I get Door Dash or Uber Eats to get me a $50 bag of them...in honor of today's posting. Casa de Fritos is a large facility...and has a very nice ambience I think! I wouldn't mind seeing fast food/street tacos/ etc. on one side, and table service out on the patio.. Hire a well known Mexican Chef...serve authentic Tijuana Caesar Salads...made table side, real Margaritas...real guacamole...I would make those reservations 6 months in advance for it..., and if I could have Mexican food every day for the rest of my life I wouldn't be sad. I live on farm land that pre-dates the revolution by more than 150 years...and we are all very patriotic here, with flags lining the streets from Memorial Day to Labor Day, bunting on all of the homes...and a decent fireworks display tonight. So go out and enjoy if the weather is nice! Happy 4th to all! Thanks for the memories major and thanks for Cypress Gardens Sue!
Happy Independence Day! This was a fun holiday to celebrate when I was stationed in England, and all my English neighbors and my wife’s English cousins loved it. I have to admit I was pleased to discover that the 4th of July is observed on the same day in both countries.
Casa de Fritos…that place we never ate when I was a kid. Not sure why. Wandered through there last November now that there’s a passageway from the Hub through Fanatasy Faire that spits you out at the bathrooms behind the restaurant. My understanding is that a lot of families get turned around coming out of that latrine and end up walking into the wrong land.
TM!, funny you should mention W.C. Fritos, a character I have zero recollection of. Our very own Stu29573 just posted a W.C. Fritos artifact a couple of days ago on his Stu’s Attic blog.
Bu, we took my very English mother-in-law to a very American minor league baseball game and fireworks display last night for her birthday (come to think of it, her birthday was on the third last year, too, and the year before…I’m sensing a pattern here…). They had to call a halt to the fireworks midway through as they had set fire to the field behind the right field fence. Fire department responded and an access door melted…but they never turned on the stadium lights or turned off the musical accompaniment during the entire 20-minute interlude. Not sure what “Don’t Stop Believin’” and “Night Moves” have to do with Independence Day, but it was still fun…until the traffic meltdown trying to exit the parking lot. Thanks, Blue BMW Convertible Guy, for not hitting any families with kids as you weaved between cars driving 90 degrees off of traffic flow at 30 mph; hope you managed to impress the three women you were with with your middle-aged shenanigans, Jackass…
Chuck, my family also managed to never go into Casa de Fritos. Never set foot in it till 2008 when my nieces refused a meal at the Creole Cafe and required something “familiar”. This may have been why we never went in before, plenty of good Mexican food available at home town places and Disneyland was the closest to NOLA on short notice.
Oddly enough, my Danish family also celebrated July 4th on the same day as Americans.
Mike C, thanks for the typeface back story. I think a few of the old styles survive into the digital age. Back then pre-Macintosh, I was partial to Goudy Old Style and Garamond since the capital “J”s and “G”s were distinctive. Wood-blast signs certainly were a thing, haven’t seen one for many years.
JB, you have a good point about the animatronic cracks, presumably WDI engineers compare the design renderings to the real walls after every earthquake to see if new cracks appear. The weathering is well done, the walls look just like Mission San Miguel north of Paso Robles, except for the weird Frito-Lay logo.
The shields on the Cypress Gardens vegetated cake are somewhat odd, lends a Masonic look to the whole ensemble. Respect the use of the Christmas candles for a second holiday, saves money, still festive and marginally appropriate.
Thanks Major and Sue, everyone have a good holiday!
JG
Those "birthday" candles do look like repurposed Christmas candles. And the Bicentennial really did seem to last the entire decade.
BU : the full story of the Disneyland creation of the Dorito - and just about any other Disneyland restaurant and food legend is covered in the recent book EAT LIKE WALT ( or is it EATING LIKE WALT) it’s a hardcover book released a few years ago with cub rot art , original recipe sheets used by DL cooks and all kinds of other stories regarding every kind of food served at Disneyland during Walt’s time and slightly after …. ( when Walt era chefs retired etc)
Happy 4th, everyone!
Thank you, MB & MP!
...gotta run, the fireworks are about to begin...
TM!, funny you should mention W.C. Fritos, a character I have zero recollection of. Our very own Stu29573 just posted a W.C. Fritos artifact a couple of days ago on his Stu’s Attic blog.
Chuck, thanks for the heads-up! I just checked out Stu's post. Now I think Casa de Fritos should have been giving out little W.C. Fritos erasers, with every meal!
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