Libbyland Dinners

Boy the 70's sure were great. Kids got to eat what they wanted. Too bad what they wanted actually tasted worse than school food and left you feeling dirty and ashamed.

Libbyland Dinners were one of the worst meals made for kids. But... as a kid, ya gotta try it. After all, it offers up pirate fun and who eats better than pirates? Oh yea... everyone.
Libbyland Dinners, manufactured by Libby of course, were made in the early 1970's around the time McDonalds had their McDonaldLand campagin. In a time where the HungryMan dinner reigned supreme it was a breath of fresh frozen air to see a meal designed especially for kids. Too bad it offered up some creepy food. Artificial grape flavored scalding applesauce was my favorite! Each meal came with a package of powdered Pink Strawberry Quick-esque mix. Not a meal for the Sabbath but eh... its a meal. These frozen meals featured fantastic pop-up packaging that would provide minutes of fun while you choked down the partialy edible meal. The front pop-up panel featured hidden pictures ala HIGHLIGHTS for Children. This meal distraction was perfect for kids trying to hold back tear of disgust as they chowed down the vulcanized burger or "Fried Parrot" (It was really fried chicken but damn, it was a tough ol' bird.)
Not only did these dinners entertain you while eating they provided motivation to finish the prison-type food by embossing pictures into the bottom of the TINfoil tray. "Eat it all and you'll see the monkey!" If I heard that now I'd call the police and asked to be put in a foster home. It's amazing to think that a simple drawing of an animal actually motivated children to eat. Here, now, in this future we live in, the only way a kid would eat slop is if there was a free download code at the bottom of the tray or perhaps a picture of Pete Wentz's's's wiener.



They Always Come Back:
They are gone forever but crappy food marketed to kids is big.
Libbyland Meals were the granddaddy of Kraft Lunchables. If you want to know just how bad Libbyland meals were just pick up one of these kids meals and enjoy the moment that occurs 10 minutes after you eat it, when your mouth starts stinging and you taste benzine.

Magic Mountain Trolls

In 1969, the Newhall Land and Farm Company formulated the idea to create a more thrilling alternative to the Disneyland and Knott's Berry Farm amusement parks. The company selected Valencia as its location, and construction began that year. The park was a combined effort of Sea World and NLFC and cost approximately 20 million dollars to build. It was also a sneaky way to get people to realize Valencia could be a possible real estate option. With plenty of land to sell and a hot new amusement park in its midst, the town of Valencia was sure to thrive. When the park opened on May 29th, 1971, there were 500 employees and 33 attractions. The admission price in 1971 was $5 for adults, and $3.50 for children between the ages of 3 and 12.

In the 1971 season, Magic Mountain obtained permission from Warner Bros. to use the Looney Tunes cartoon characters. However, the park did not begin using these characters for nearly ten years. Instead, in 1972, they began using trolls as the park mascots.
The trolls Bleep, Bloop, and King Troll, and the Wizard became a recognizable symbol of Magic Mountain. These characters were used until 1985. The trolls (and wizard) were the mascots of change. Disneyland at the time was using the ticket system. You received a ticket book upon entering Disneyland and had to surrender a ticket every time you wanted to go on a ride. The tickets were graded A-E. "E" being the most popular and also the fewest in the book of tickets. You were forced to buy more tickets if you wanted to ride all the good rides. The troll-filled park offered up a new option. One admission price-NO TICKETS. Once you paid to enter the park you could ride all day for free. The trolls represented freedom. Freedom to do whatever you wanted and not be taxed by the mouse. Magic Mountain's admission policy was one of the reasons Disneyland no longer works on the ticket system. The Magic Kingdom had to drop that policy in order to remain competitive. Bless you Trolls (and Wizard.)


They Always Come Back:
The Trolls will never return. They are gone forever. So... it looks like I'll have to force them back. You can get a Troll emblazoned shirt here. The troll shirt contains a very special message.

Kelbo's

In the ever shrinking world of Tiki bars Kelbo's was ranked among the best. While it didn't feature any truly original drinks and the food was sub-par the atmosphere was spot on.

The interior was the creation of Eli Hedley. "One of the weirdest businesses in California, where weird businesses are a perfectly normal thing, is run by a 42-year-old ex-grocer ... who makes a living out of things the Pacific Ocean throws back," began a story in Life magazine in January 1946. As his beachcombing decor found favor on Hollywood sets and in the homes of stars, celebrities often dropped by the San Pedro home. "They'd come down there and disappear from Hollywood," Bassham says of the stories he's heard from his mother and three aunts. "The way he was, he'd pull a copa de oro flower off the vine, fill it with champagne and say, 'Here, drink this.' " Actor Raymond Burr was a close friend, who at one point optioned daughter Marilyn Hedley's book, "How Daddy Became a Beachcomber." The business grew, and by the 1950s, Hedley was in demand as a tropical decorator. He worked on tiki-themed Los Angeles nightspots, such as Don the Beachcomber and Kelbo's. The hostess area of Kelbo's featured what could only be described as a glowing Lucite wall filled with crap. Matchbooks, forks, knives, starfish, you name it encased in a glowing wall. A monolith to be discovered by some future civilization lies in a landfill somewhere. The ceilings were draped in fishing nets that held a virtual museum of sea bounty. Yes, Fugu were included. The preserved blowfish with a solitary Christmas light in the belly. The Pico location had a dance hall called the Coco-Bowl. It was a great room, dark, with palm trees and tiki's and a bandstand at the far end. For a while, Kelbo's had Francis Ford Coppola as a dishwasher until he was fired. His mind seemed to be elsewhere.

Kelbo's was the creation of Thomas KELley and Jack BOuck. They opened two locations in Southern California. Kelbo's-Fairfax. 101 north Fairfax Avenue across the street from CBS Television City. (Home of the Twilight Zone series) That location featured an outdoor garden and wishing well. The wells first coin was dropped by Lucille Ball with Desi standing at her side.

The other location was Kelbo's-Pico. 11434 West Pico Boulavard. That location closed almost 20 years ago and is now the home of FANTASY ISLAND Gentleman's club. Nothing remains of the spectacular interior.

They Always Come Back:
Kelbo's sadly will not be resurrected. I wish there was better news. In honor of Kelbo's, They Always Come Back has created some products based on the Kelbo's cocktail napkin logo. You can find them here. (Along with some other goodies.)
If you would like a close approximation of what Kelbo's was like visit BAHOOKA in the city of Rosemead California. The creator of Bahooka learned the Tiki Restaurant business while working at Kelbo's for ten years. Bahooka opened in 1967. It is more nautical than tiki but the spirit of Kelbo' lingers there.
R.I.P. Kelbo's

Naugles

Naugles was a fast-food Mexican restaurant chain that existed from 1970 to 1988. It was founded by former Del Taco employee Dick Naugle. The first Naugles restaurant was located in Riverside, California.
Harold Butler bought Naugles in 1971 when the chain consisted of three restaurants. He built it up to 225 restaurants by 1985, when he sold the chain to Collins Food International. Naugles merged with Del Taco in 1988.
However, this meant that Del Taco inherited the litigation that was being pursued against Naugles by former franchisee Vylene Enterprises Inc., run by Debra Vylene Green. The rapid expansion of Naugles had caused the franchise to make a mis-step. Vylene had been running a Naugles restaurant in Long Beach, California, when Naugles licensed a second restaurant to someone else, less than two miles away. A huge court battle was begun which lasted twelve years, until 1996, when a San Francisco federal court ruled that Naugles, now Del Taco, had breached its "covenant of good faith and fair dealing", awarding almost three million dollars to Vylene. This case was very closely watched by the entire fast food franchise industry, and the ruling sent all of the major franchises into deep contemplation of the terms "covenant of good faith and fair dealing." It is common now for franchises to conduct economic impact and viability studies anywhere that a new franchise is proposed.

Despite the legal issues, Del Taco has had no problem recruiting new franchisees. There are more than two hundred new franchises planned over the next two years. Taco Bell has saturated most markets, and Del Taco advertises better returns for franchise owners than Taco Bell restaurants, despite being the smaller of the two chains. Del Taco has most recently made its way into Texas, and continues east across the country at a phenomenal rate, giving closest competitors Taco Bell, McDonald's, and Rubio's a good run for their money.


In the Naugles TV commercials, the character of Señor Naugles was played by character actor Avery Schriber.

They Always Come back:
And then again... Sometimes they don't