Radio Memories

Hard to believe that we used to listen to AM rock radio. The biggest  rock stations in the Valley during the 70s was KRIZ (AM 1230), KRUX (AM 1360) and 96 KUPD. Back in those days, you could call the station and actually get right through to the guy who was spinning the records (remember those vinyl things?)

KUPD: Don Christi (1976)

KRIZ: Final Minutes, Going off the air (1978)

Movie Theatres

There were so many great movies that came out during our time at Bourgade. Probably the most popular were Star Wars, Animal House, Close Encounters of the Third Kind and Superman.

Gone are the days when they actually showed double features (remember those?), and you could stay in the theater for the start of the movie all over again if you wanted to. Many of the theaters that we frequented in the Valley are long gone: the original Cine Capri, the UA6 Theaters inside Chris-Town, the MetroCenter 4 (next to the Farrell’s and above the ice-skating rink), and the Mann’s Chris-Town Theatres along 19th Avenue just south of Bethany Home Road.

For retro-cinema, there was the Sombrero Playhouse on 7th Street just below Camelback and the Valley Art on Mill Avenue in Tempe. Both showed the Rocky Horror Picture Show on Friday and Saturday nights.

Wallace and Ladmo Show

OK, so many of us thought we were too old to admit that we still watched Wallace and Ladmo in high school, but they were then, and still are, an Arizona institution. You can find out all about the show at a wonderful website we found at WallaceWatchers.com.

Shopping Malls

What were your favorite malls to hang around in? Around Bourgade, we had Chris-Town (19th Avenue and Bethany Home), Metro Center (the I-17 Freeway and Dunlap), Thomas Mall at 44th Street and Thomas, and Valley West Mall in Glendale.

Chris-Town

Metro Center

Phoenix is Destroyed!!!

On November 28th, 1978, NBC aired a three-hour made-for-TV movie called A Fire in the Sky (not to be confused with the 1993 film about the Travis Walton alien abduction). This film was shot in and around the greater Phoenix area as well as Kitt Peak Observatory in southern Arizona. Shown in the film is downtown Phoenix, especially the Hyatt Regency and Civic Plaza, as well as Sky Harbor and the National Guard facilities at Papago Park. Members of the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community (east of the Valley) are also featured.

The film starred Richard Crenna as an astronomer that discovers a comet is heading towards a collision course with Phoenix. Elizabeth Ashley is the KTAR-Channel 12 newswoman who is the only media person to give him a venue to warn the public. Local TV celebrities Pat McMahon, Sandy Gibbons and Bill Haywood have cameo roles.

The film has several fine special-effects shots of the destruction of the Hyatt Regency Hotel as well as the Phoenix Municipal Building.