SoCal Motels
By sheer chance, I have a few vintage slides featuring two motels in the Disneyland/Knott's Berry Farm area. Everyone loves motels! Air conditioning, heated pools, TVs in every room, and maybe even an ice machine near the office (ooh-la-la). Here we see the Pioneer Motel, which was located at 7851 Beach Boulevard. A number of local motels featured a large figure on the signs, I wonder if they were all made by the same company?
Here's a vintage postcard, obviously taken years earlier.
Another vintage postcard...
And another!
A screen grab from Google Maps shows that the building is gone, though a sign remains. My guess is that this image is a few years old, but it's the latest from Google. Notice the rides from Knott's Berry Farm nearby.
Next I have two photos from the Lucky 7 Motel (at 435 West Katella Avenue) in glorious Anaheim... you can tell it's lucky from the shamrocks on every door, and the horseshoes against the far wall.
I sure love the "Luckymobile" (my name for it), presumably used as shuttle service to Disneyland and back. "Be lucky, stay lucky".
Perhaps this is the next morning, and grandma and grandpa are checking out. Maybe they'll visit the Grand Canyon on their drive home!
You know I love me a vintage postcard:
The Lucky 7 is Where the Price is Right!
It looks like the Lucky 7 has been replaced by the Hotel Indigo, which is, in fact, brown.
I hope you have enjoyed visiting these vintage motels!
21 comments:
Major, everything about today's post is making me smile. Classic hotels with classic luxury. Love your commentary, too.
I can't wait to come back later and read what everyone has to say....
Thank you, Major.
Flashing back to when they all had little signs for different credit cards, and perhaps others indicating AAA approved, imitation AAA approved, Best Western, color TV, and maybe heated pool. Did anybody offer an unheated pool?
As kids we'd grab free postcards as souvenirs, sending real Disneyland ones to impress folks back home. Did anyone send motel cards?
Major-
I see the Pioneer Motel accepts ALL the great credit cards of the day - including [the then] BankAmericard. That's a 1958 Chevrolet parked right up front.
I appreciate the cylindrical 'sand ashtrays' standing atop the trio of spindly metal legs, staggered along the upper walkway of the Lucky 7 Motel. And it appears their 'limousine' is a 1965 Buick, probably a 'sport wagon'. Parked next to it is a 1961 Plymouth 'suburban sport' station wagon, [probably] in Air Force Blue. To its right is a 1967 (could be a 1966) Oldsmobile Toronado, [probably] in Trumpet Gold. Then a 1965 (or 1966) Ford Mustang. And finally a 1966 Mercury, [probably] in Silver Blue - the same car "Grandma" is standing next to.
Thanks, Major.
1) I wants one o' them Air Conditioned Heated Pools with a Free TV! (I don't see how they can stay in business giving away all those free items... times were different then, I guess.)
3) The second vintage postcard of the Pioneer Motel must have been taken at the same time as your first image, Major; the marquee text is the same, along with everything else.
6) I'm sure many other Jr. Gorillas will point out that the horseshoes are hung the wrong way... No luck for YOU, guests at the Lucky 7 Motel!
7) The "Luckymobile" reminds me of the Ghostbusters car, "Ecto-1". I like the maid service cart outside the open door.
8) I'm not seeing grandpa in this photo. I think grandma has had enough of grandpa's penny-pinching and his over-use of Bengay, and is taking the car and striking out on her own.
last image) Perhaps "Indigo" refers to a sense of the exotic and mysterious. What happens in Hotel Indigo, stays in Hotel Indigo.
^ Oops. Thanks, Major.
I love seeing images of vintage motels. I remember the Pioneer Motel on Beach Blvd. Major, that newer sign was still there in 2023, but was gone by the end of that same year. I wonder why they left it up for so long? Was someone hoping that it was coming back?
Thanks for the vintage motel views, Major!
In January when my daughter took me to Disneyland, one of the first thrills I got was glancing out the window of the shuttle and seeing the Alpine Motel go by! I didn't even know it was still around!
Even though we stayed at the Disneyland Hotel (brag, brag), that little motel was the perfect "Welcome to Disneyland!"
Most people wouldn't get it, I guess...
Oh! Motels! I love old motels!
Major, thank you! You have unearthed two previously unknown (to me at least) and wonderful specimens.
The Pioneer shares some design features with the Madonna Inn in San Luis Obispo, Diamond-panel windows, scalloped fascia boards, lots of rock veneer. Classic stuff. Houses had similar treatments then too. I guess making motels like houses meant they were safe and home-like.
JB, you’re right. Luck will not stay in those horseshoes, it will just dribble out on the ground. Shameful waste of good luck.
I see the Luckymobile has the Disneyland logo in the approved typeface. Couldn’t get away with that today.
I’ve walked past Hotel Indigo, not impressed. I’d take the Lucky 7 anytime. Now I know why it’s not familiar, I don’t think we ever went that direction on Katella, it’s a little further east past the Harbor intersection.
Thanks Major, these are really nice reminders. Don’t forget the “Magic Fingers”!
JG
I was 11 years old, and we took our first extended family "vacation." We drove from Agoura to Anaheim, and checked into one of those glorious motels. I have no idea which one. It didn't matter--we were all together. The entire family--mom, dad, sisters, and grandma and grandpa. We were doing the works--Movieland Wax Museum, Knott's, and of course Disneyland! We had two rooms. Best of all, I got to sleep on the floor! I know I was 11, because in the Knott's train store, my grandmother bought me a 1:48 Monogram F4U Corsair kit--one of the planes from the best TV show ever created, "Baa Baa Black Sheep," which first aired in 1976! (I was born in 1966).
The heated pool was amazing, and I can still smell the chlorine. But laying on that wonderful motel carpet before bedtime, surrounded by family, marveling at the parts and pieces of my new Corsair, was about as close to Nirvana as I've ever been.
These pics joggle some memories loose. When we went to SoCal as a family, mom-dad-big brother-me, we stayed at a place called the Rustic Motel. I couldn't give you a location now to save my life, but our folks figured it was somewhere about half way between Disney and Knott's. Always thinking of ecinomy and convenience. I used to have a match book from there, have no idea where that went either. Nice place, single story, quiet, I don't remember there being a pool there, but we weren't pool people at all. And some type of eating place, Denny's? Sambo's? IHOP? can't recall, that was a short walk down the street. When Kai and I got married, we stayed with her folks out in Glendale and 'commuted' to the parks. We drove by the Rustic once, when the match book was still around for an address, and it appeared to have fallen on slightly tougher times.
Thanks for the yesteryear memory rush today, Major.
Lou and Sue, I’m glad you enjoyed these pics!
DBenson, “imitation AAA approved”? Really? Maybe they said it was approved by “AAAA”, that’s even more A’s! I’ll bet there were a few unheated pools around, but yikes, I don’t want to think about it. If I had a motel, I’d have a regular pool, and then an empty one for people who don’t know how to swim (old joke, I know). My family stayed in motels on our various summer road trips, and I don’t think I ever even knew about free postcards, but I wish I had!
Nanook, more credit cards! I always appreciate the opportunity to increase my debt. Wow, I would have never noticed those ashtrays (or even recognized what they were), but that certainly shows you how prevalent smoking was back then. I really love the Luckymobile, though I do wonder if it was actually used as a shuttle; you’d think it would be used all day long for various guests, and wouldn’t have much of a chance to sit idly. “Trumpet Gold”, awesome!
JB, we used to get free TVs in cereal boxes, I guess you are too young to remember. I was surprised to find so many postcards for the Pioneer Motel, sometimes it is a challenge to find even one for certain motels. I agree, the horseshoes are hanging the wrong way - I said this before, but I seem to remember some sort of rationale for why that was supposed to be the right way, but I can’t remember what it is. You don’t see grandpa because he is taking the photos! Is “Indigo” exotic and mysterious? I mean, blue jeans were (and maybe still are) dyed with indigo dye. Blue jeans!
JB, you are welcome.
TokyoMagic!, it does seem strange that the Pioneer Motel sign remained after the hotel itself was gone. It seems like a strange oversight, though I’m glad I got that screen grab showing it still there, since you said it is now gone.
Stu29573, ooh-la-la, the Disneyland Hotel, I guess some of us wear top hats and monocles all the time! “Pinkies up” when drinking Fresca. Yes, the Alpine Hotel is one of the few surviving classic motels, it might be fun to stay there, as long as it isn’t too worn out.
JG, I have at least two other vintage Anaheim/Buena Park motel images to share in the future, so stay tuned for those. I’ve been to the Madonna Inn, but never to stay - I’ve met friends for drinks, and went there for dinner once or twice, and (as usual) I was too lame to observe the finer details of the architecture. One of my best friends loves to go to the Madonna Inn once a year to stay in one of the crazy rooms. There is a famous men’s room with a waterfall for men to “go” into, and I saw a group of women walk in just to see it. I’m sure they surprised somebody! The Hotel Indigo looks perfectly OK, I just miss the mid-century charm of old motels like the Lucky 7. I need to install “magic fingers” on my home bed.
Steve DeGaetano, it’s so funny how things that would be thought of as an inconvenience when one is an adult might be thought of as an adventure when one was a child. Getting to sleep on the floor! Very cool that you got to do all those things, too bad you didn’t go to the nearby Alligator Farm, or Japanese Deer Park, but you might not have had time. “Baa Baa Black Sheep” was a favorite in our house, my brother was crazy about WWII airplanes, especially the Corsair. And hey, Robert Conrad, James West himself. That chlorine smell is one of those things that takes me right back to learning to swim at the YMCA when I was very young. Then I took more swimming lessons when we lived in Huntington Beach, and I remember that our teacher was a very pretty young woman! Yes, I noticed even at the age of seven.
Warren, sorry, you were commenting while I was commenting! Once I started getting a bit more interest in the Anaheim-area motels, I learned about SO MANY that I’d never heard of. Somebody on eBay was selling amazing vintage collections from many of them, as if this person had saved the “tourist packet” that every motel gave to prospective customers. I was outbid on nearly all of them, boo. I’m almost certain that there was a packet for the Rustic Motel. There was definitely a Denny’s near Disneyland, and possibly an IHOP too (maybe later?). Glendale to Disneyland, just like the Imagineers! It’s not “next door”, but the drive isn’t too bad if you avoid rush hour.
While I have many memories of staying in motels in vacations with family very few Anaheim motel visits happened since we lived in San Diego. There were two Disneyland Hotel trips and a few times we would go up to OC in the weekend with my grandparents hitting Knott’s & Disneyland … but I was fairly young . I have a memory of one visit where there was a restaurant connected to our motel and I remember seeing the multicolored landscape lights on the building and shrubbery… and a statue of “Peter Pan” …. Does anyone know of a place like that once in Anaheim or Buena Park maybe?
Steve : I have a similar story of the Knott’s Model & Train Shop…: on a visit in 1975 or 1976 I saw there selection of Preiser HO scale horse drawn wagons ( these were very detailed plastic miniatures intended for model railroaders) and they were 3.50 each …. My parents at first says that was too expensive ( that was pretty high compared to a matchbox car of the day that was maybe 60 cents!!) somehow I convinced my parents to let me select ONE. I wanted a StageCoach really bad but they only had a few yellow ones left - the red coaches had sold out . There were so many different choices .. delivery wagons , ore wagons , buckboards , even fancy black Victoria coaches and hansome cabs! So I was I selected a covered wagon … it had a blue body, grey wheels and a white cover … 4 oxen and a standing “teamster” figure. I remember throughout the rest of the day I kept having my mom show it to me to make sure it wasn’t broken. After we returned to San Diego we went to JIMS TRAIN DEPOT and MINICITY HOBBIES and discovered that the Knott’s Preiser Wagons were a bargain at $3.50 each as the other hobby shops priced them at $5.00 each!! Preiser still makes several of their HO horse drawn wagons … and I used them on historical models now and then but they cost about $45.00 each in 2024!!!
Mike, there was a Peter Pan Motor Lodge in Anaheim....have you Googled that to see if it looks familiar? Let us know if you solve the mystery....
Feeling that mixture of summer heat--with a bit of 'musty-smelling' cool air from a window AC (especially when it first hits you)--brings you back to these fun summer days of the past.
Steve, ha! I do remember when sleeping on the floor was FUN.
Major: The AAA travel guides warned us about imposters, and I noticed some motels -- not the ones we stopped at -- were approved by the AMA (not the medical one) and the ATA, with signs that aped the AAA's yellow color and overall design.
Back in the day fancy grown-up hotel rooms would have stationery and envelopes with their letterhead -- don't know if that's still the case. I remember drawing pictures on them. In the same period motel rooms would have two or three of those postcards instead.
Still remember the wax paper bags over the glasses by the sink and the fabled "Sanitized for Your Protection" sashes across the toilet seat. If I'd ever seen that phrase on a sweatshirt I probably would have bought and worn it.
Sue thanks! I suspect that was probably it. My stay would have been in the very early 70’s … and I don’t see a restaurant or coffee shop attached… most of the posted pictures look to be from the early 60’s or even earlier. Maybe the restaurant was added later. Maybe my memory of a Peter Pan statue is confused with the one on the motel marquee ?? Sue your SMEMORY description of the motel
Air is SPOT ON!
Mike, to make it "spot on," we need to add the LOUD humming/buzzing sound!
Back in the latter half of the ‘60s, my dad was flying out across the Pacific from the Seattle area about twice a month. Many of the missions were flying cargo into South Vietnam, but it was never a straight flight - there was always other stuff that needed to be moved around to other locations and the planes didn’t have “long enough legs” to fly direct with any appreciable amount of cargo (the C-141 wouldn’t receive air refueling capability until the early ‘80s and the piston-engined C-124 never had it).
Crew duty days were (and still are) limited to 16 hours (24 with an augmented crew with extra members) with a 10-hour rest period between crew duty days. The entire crew duty day isn’t spent flying - it starts with reporting for briefing and pre-flight, which can be hours before “wheels up” and continues through any stops where cargo or passengers are loaded or unloaded or the plane needs to stop for fuel. Components fail and need repair or replacement (although, oddly, planes tended to break more in garden spots like Hawaii for some reason).
All this to note that my dad ended up “R-O-N-ing” (“Remain Over Night,” a.k.a. “Laying over”) in a lot of different hotels all around the Pacific - both on- and off-base - when he was “flying the line.” He would always send my grandparents the hotel postcards and bring home the stationery to m /mom.
My grandmother would rubber band the postcards together and kept them on the windowsill in the kitchen. Every morning she would take the top postcard, put it on the bottom of the stack, and have a fresh new view of some exotic or fun locale to enjoy.
My mother used the stationery to write letters to family. I remember receiving letters from her at Scout camp, the Air Force Academy, civilian college, and when I was stationed in England written on stationery from the Ilikai in Honolulu or the Guam Dai Ichi Hotel. Some of these letters were written 30 or more years from when the stationery was actually acquired.
Great memories, Major. Thanks!
I left an anonymous comment yesterday that has disappeared. I’ll restate it.
Thank you everyone for leaving your motel memories, many of which pinged similar ones for me. Most appreciated.
JG
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