(first posted 5/24/2016) Few things capture the aura of a bygone time like a photograph of an everyday scene. And this picture of a restaurant in Fairfax, Virginia from 1980 serves as a good illustration. Readers from the U.S. East Coast may recognize the restaurant as a Roy Rogers franchise, a fast food restaurant popular in the 1970s and ’80s. The parking lot provides a good snapshot of cars at a bustling restaurant 36 years ago.
The first car that jumps out from this picture is the Plymouth Fury taxicab in the foreground. This appears to be a 1972-73 model, making it the equivalent of, say, a 2008 Crown Victoria taxi today… still relatively common, but it won’t be for long.
In the row in front of the restaurant sit 7 cars – and 6 of them are two-doors. How many years has it been since two-doors outnumbered four-doors in any parking lot? First on the left is a Fox Mustang, which would have been virtually a new car when this picture was taken. Next to the Mustang sits a 1978-79 Corolla painted a shade of mustard yellow that had its brief moment in the sun during the late 1970s, along with kitchen appliances of a similar color. Although only two years old at the time this picture was taken, the Corolla looks downright dated sitting next to that new Mustang.
An avocado green Ford Maverick and a brown early-’70s Grand Prix come next – continuing our trend of two-door cars. Given that Roy Rogers was a family restaurant, it’s likely that several of these two-door cars carried families with a few kids – something that’s rarely seen any longer. Wrapping out the row is a Datsun B-210, a Monte Carlo and a Ford LTD, the row’s sole four-door.
As it name implies, Roy Rogers was a western-themed fast-food restaurant promoted by its namesake actor/singer. The exterior sign featured a covered wagon, and on the far side of this sign was apparently the designated parking area for full-size Oldsmobiles.
Rogers teamed up with the Marriott Corporation on the restaurant deal, and many Roy Rogers restaurants were re-branded from some of Marriott’s other chain restaurants. With an advertising/promotion boost from a celebrity, the Roy Rogers chain became very popular – and (speaking from experience) the roast beef, fried chicken and burgers were all very good.
As one would expect, Roy himself did much of the promotion work. Here he is shown at a Marriott hotel in nearby Arlington, with the hotel’s shuttle car (not a van as would be customary today, but rather a Ford Country Squire wagon), en route to a restaurant grand opening.
Times change for both cars and buildings. Today, the former Roy Rogers building contains an Einstein Bagels franchise – similarly popular, but with a vastly different focus. The cars are vastly different as well. One striking difference is that it looks like the world has been covered in volcanic ash – look at the somber paint colors. No more harvest orange or avocado green, just mostly austere hues of gray and blue. Six of the nine vehicles have a hatchback of some kind, while the Dodge Challenger is the sole two-door car in the lineup.
There’s something to be said for both old and new scenes here – both have their own sets of qualities. But if given a choice, I think I’d take a Roy Rogers roast beef sandwich with a side order of avocado Maverick.
I really dig “before and after” shots! As a “photographer” I always shoot some of these “every day” shots. I know most people take photos/movies of friends and family naturally, but even as I kid I would see something in the background that made me say “dammit, I wish I could see more of that car/building/street!” P.S. On the Corolla / Mustang: Cars have become so “international” now, It’s amazing to go back and see the differences between American, Japanese and European styling!
Back before child safe rear door locks, people bought coupes to haul their kids around, because they worried that a kid would open the door and fall out. At speed.
My mom had an Electra 225 coupe and later a Riviera for that reason.
“ people bought coupes to haul their kids around, because they worried that a kid would open the door and fall out”
This very thing happened to my Mother as a child circa 1967 (?) in her Father’s Buick wagon. The combination of a curious hand and a low speed curve resulted in my mother having a nasty encounter with the pavement, and perfect looking capped teeth since as a result.
I was in the back seat of a early/mid 60’s Pontiac Executive when my mom turned off the highway onto a side street. I was leaning up against the door at that moment and out I went! She drove over my arm(broke my arm) and missed my head by an inch. She didn’t stop either, just kept on going, didn’t even notice until my brother spoke up about a half mile down the road. Two other cars nearly ran me over as well and neither of them stopped either.
I was riding with a friend in a ’65 GTO while he was driving too fast on a twisty mountain road. His door popped open from the chassis flex and only a combination of me wearing the lap belt and grabbing his belt (around his pants) and him hanging on to the steering wheel as we spun out out of control kept him from falling out.
A few years later I saw him in a bar playing pool, with only one arm. He had gotten into a head on collision with a car on his Yamaha street/dirt bike, and it was torn off at the shoulder.
“Two other cars nearly ran me over as well and neither of them stopped either.”
What part of the world was this? If I were to guess, I’d say East Coast, but that’s my strong Mid-Western bias showing.
I thought they were bought because 2-doors were priced cheaper. Even if, as in Studebaker’s cars, the two-door was made by welding the rear door shut and installing a folding front seat.
It’s also before states enacted child/booster seat laws. These days if your gremlins are younger than about 12 in many areas you’re required to have a child/booster seat. Ever try to buckle a kid into one of those when you’re folding through a 2-door’s openings?
driver:
12 years old? Requires a booster? Should I learn how to do the Soviet march??
Sheez when I was 4 my folks migrated me from a kiddie car seat to a boat cushion in either the front passenger seat or the back – not belted in! That was, until my forehead hit the windshield and my front teeth hit the dashboard of a Buick my dad drove straight into a tree in someones front yard instead of stopping at the stop-sign to turn right! Police measurements of the day estimated we were going between 25-30mph at time of impact. The way it was… in 1977.
After about age 8 wouldn’t most places go on size with a 5′ absolute maximum cutoff for any type of special seat? Any taller than that, especially with a “four-door coupe” roofline and you risk running out of headroom with the kid’s head above the headrest and in line to smack into the rear window glass.
Well, no, instead of learning how to do the Soviet march you should maybe practice being a little less credulous and slower to get outraged at made-up factoids. In fact no state requires child seats for persons anywhere near the age of 12. Second reliable source here.
*Slow clap*
Age is 8 here in Illinois, either way, dodged that stupid bullet, I was riding up front in my Mom’s Jetta at age 4 or 5. Oh what horrible parenting!
My folks had a ’66 Impala SS 396 until I was four. Apparently as soon as I was stable on my feet, I liked to stand on the driveshaft tunnel and hang on to the bucket seats so I could see out the windshield. We also had a ’57 Lincoln, a ’62 Monterey, and a ’71 Chevelle. All 2-doors.
Roy’s used to be a favorite stop when I was a kid in the ’70’s. It was the only fast food restaurant with the added bonus of the “Fixin’s Bar” where you could stack the add-ons and sauces on your sandwich, thus turning simple over-the-counter fare into your own creation. Big stuff for a kid. (That’s long gone due to sanitary concerns, and likely because of people like my grandmother, who used to practically make herself a salad out of the lettuce, onions, tomatoes, etc. from that bar.)
Since 2-doors (or the lack thereof) are on our collective minds today, it’s a wonder, viewed in hindsight, but my own family didn’t own a single 4-door vehicle until I was in college. I’m the oldest of 3 brothers, but it never occurred to my parents to shop for a sedan, let alone a wagon. 2-doors were in style, and back in the days before seatbelt laws, child restraint laws, airbags, etc., it just wasn’t such an oddity to see a family of five in a coupe. Weird to think of today.
Not only was the “Fixin’s Bar” good, but Roy Roger’s hamburgers were a cut above the usual fast-food fare.
You may recall the placemats, too:
Make mine a Double R Bar Burger. It had sliced ham and something else I can’t remember.
We never went to McD’s because of the pickles that came on every burger.
The two Roy’s locations on the NY Thruway (I mentioned below) still have the Fixins’ Bar. It’s really no different than any other salad bar sanitarywise.
Both of my youngest sisters (twins) worked as hostesses at the Roy Rogers restaurant in the Tysons Corner Mall in McLean, VA. They wore western hats and boots w/ their uniforms to work. The food at Roy Rogers restaurants was particularly good.
After a near-death experience, Roys has actually made a bit of a comeback in recent years; after going from over 600 locations to under 20, they’re back up to over 50 now and most are new or refurbished. I frequently eat at several of the DC area restaurants; they all have the Fixin’s Bar, though the cafeteria-style serving line that many of them used to have (where you slide a tray down an aisle and pick up food waiting in racks, then pay the cashier at the end) seems to be gone. They also have modern amenities like a 150-flavor soft drink fountain.
I remember the Roy Roger’s back in my neighborhood circa 1970 that had been converted from a Hot Shoppes Jr. (Marriott’s initial foray into fast food). It was *very* Old West themed back then, lit with dim red lamps and aged wood beams that made it look like the inside of a barn. The staff was trained to talk like they were in an old Western movie. My favorite was their unique coffee-flavor milkshake.
More info on the decline of RR:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/09/AR2005100901075.html
and their recent growth:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/brothers-bring-back-roy-rogers-and-its-holy-trio-of-burgers-chicken-roast-beef/2016/04/17/e624caec-0172-11e6-b823-707c79ce3504_story.html
Roy Rogers website:
http://www.royrogersrestaurants.com/
Also, like those side-by-side pre-downsized Olds 98s in the second photo!
They would say “Happy Trails” after you picked up your food.
This is awesome! It is really cool to see the same shot at such different periods of time to see how our automotive world has evolved. I laughed out loud at the volcanic ash comment–I really do miss colors, some colors, any colors, anything but grey, white and black.
It is also interesting to see the Oldsmobile Ninety-Eights side by side. My mother had a ’71 and then got a ’75–this picture makes it so clear how much more massive the later car looked (not that the ’71 was small at all), with the huge chrome bumpers and chrome tail light surrounds.
What’s also interesting is how dated those Oldsmobiles – and other domestic full-size and intermediate cars from the early and mid-1970s – looked by 1980, thanks to the downsizing trend that started with GM’s 1977 full-size cars. They looked so rounded and bloated next to brand-new cars.
People today drive 10-15-year-old vehicles without much thought, and those vehicles effectively blend in with everything else on the road. In 1980, a six-year-old domestic full-size or intermediate car looked OLD, even if it was in perfect condition, because it was out of style.
But by the 70s the pace was slowing, Those 71 “C” bodies ran until 76s The very next “C” bodies, In Cadillac form “C/D”, If you will, ran until ’92. If the ’71-76s seemed old by 1980, Imagine how truly old a 1956 looked on a 1971 lot! (using the 15 year paradigm.)
True that. I drive an 09 Mazda6 because i’m completely happy with it and see no reason to replace it, and it doesn’t look out of place among newer mid-size sedans. In 1966, a 1959 Ford, Chevy, or Plymouth, looked positively Flintstonian.
Oh, and Roy Rogers was the bomb! Especially the roast beef sandwiches. They used an actual round roast, roasted and sliced. Unfortunately, Arbys’ chopped and re-formed beef was cheaper, and most people went for the dime cheaper sandwich over better taste, so Roy Rogers was doomed.
My family owned a ’78 Corolla coupe (2 door sedan?) in that very same mustard yellow in the mid 90s for a few years in Central NY. Originally a California car, it had already spent a decade or so in NY by the time my dad’s coworker sold it to us for $1. 4spd, manual steering, zero options of any kind. Trouble free car for the 2 years we owned it, it failed NYS inspection when it started to bend in half when our mechanic put it on the lift. Sold it to him for $1, and he sold it to some farm kid as a $50 field car.
It is so refreshing to remember what it was like to have a true beater car in the family. Strapping a ladder directly to the roof, my dad spray painting over the rust spots with bright yellow rustoleum, resulting in a truly odd looking mustard yellow with bright yellow spots.
I had a girlfriend with a ’77 Corolla 2Dr, In my foggy recollection, I think it’s a two door sedan. YMMV!
Minor detail, but that generation Corolla first came out in the summer of 1974, so yes, it does look a bit more dated than the Mustang, which was of course designed for a different role too.
Not to mention the new 1980 Corollas were very modern and crisp for the times. Not unlike the fox Mustang in coupe form:
That’s my favorite iteration of the Corolla. Handsome car. I also always loved the first-gen Datsun 200SX for the same reason. Just simple, clean coupe styling. They look lean and elegant at the same time as they convey a sense of muscularity and strength. Clean, spare, simple styling, very little adornment, but still attractive from any angle. Such a far cry from the overdone “character lines”, creases and crimps in the average car of today. I often wonder how long it will take for cars like the current Civic or Elantra (which I think started kicking off the over-styled madness about 3 generations ago) to start looking very dated. In 20 years we’ve gone from anonymous egg-like styling to way too much. Time for the pendulum to begin swinging back a bit, I think.
Correction: Not first-gen 200SX, I meant this one…
(It was the first generation of this model that crossed my consciousness. The earlier styling was…well…questionable, as outlined in the “say Something Nice” post of the other day.)
Man that Tbird style baskethandle roofline was a force to be reckoned with in the late 70s – 77 Tbird, Fairmont Futura, Dodge Mirada/80 Cordoba, and second gen 200SX coupe. I’ve actually grown a bit of a soft spot for the first gen in the “say Something Nice” post, say what you will it was certainly original.
Loved and still do, that first gen “200sx”.
Use of thinner sheetmetal to reduce curb weight is as much to blame (or to credit, depending on your opinion) for the “creases and crimps” in newer cars as any aesthetic choices being made by the designers.
The switch to thinner sheetmetal happened way before the jellybean era. The solution for door dings and the like back then were those perimeter rub strips like you see on that Fox Mustang, which are omitted by most makes today, which is questionable…. Relying on exterior skin for rigidity really isn’t the case for unibodies anymore, the internal bodystructure is where chassis engineering has really strived as far as making modern cars rigid and safe.
@XR7Matt above^^: The Thunderbird and Futura sported the true “Basket Handle” roofline with the “handle” wrapping the roof just behind the door glass), while the others simply used a C-Pillar window behind a roll-down (or stationary) rear side window to simulate a hardtop roofline as best they could while still adhering to rollover standards. The 200SX above looks a bit closer to the basket handle style due to its 2-tone paint scheme, which breaks at the line between the 2 rear side windows. The 78-83 Sapporo/Challenger were the last Japanese coupes to still retain a true hardtop roofline, IIRC, and even they used a wraparound rear glass treatment to move the C-Pillar forward enough to presumably meet rollover standards. (When my high school buddy did me the favor of rolling my ’82 Challenger into a swamp one night the effectiveness of that tactic came into question, believe me.)
Those black plastic strips in the ’80s were rub strips? Interesting; I never knew that.
Very much agree about the second generation 200SX. This period ad pretty much emulates your exact feelings about the car:
I like the 3rd-generation 200SX almost as much as the 2nd, particularly in hatchback form. Great interior on these. An oddity was how the dashboard strangely put the row of warning lights in front of the passenger rather than the driver, but that just gave it a unique flavor.
Rather have a Plymouth Saporro!
I owned a beater ’80 Corolla two-door sedan in the mid 90s. Scary rusty and I had to push or gravity-roll start it for months when the starter went and wasn’t worth fixing, but unkillable.
The other change between the 1980 photo and the current one, is that in the old photo, only two of the cars are Japanese, the rest American. The current shot shows a direct opposite, only two of the cars are American, the rest are Japanese. A sad commentary indeed.
I cannot agree with you more, and I do wonder how much this contributes to America’s huge trade deficit.
Well, most of the Japanese cars on the road today are built in North America, so in terms of trade deficits, not that much. Maybe in the 1980s motor vehicles were a big trade issue – which led to VRAs and the transplant factories.
Nowadays the biggest trade deficit for the USA is probably China.
The Honda CR-V in the photo was made in either Ohio or Canada, and the Honda Odyssey was made in Alabama.
Meanwhile, the Ford Fusion was made in Mexico, and the Dodge Challenger was made in Canada.
That parts basically true. Want an American built car with a lot of American parts…….Try a Toyota Avalon!
Yep to silverkris.
I was at a graduation party this weekend and should have pulled my camera out. It was being held at someone’s home and the driveway was littered with SUVs/CUVs and pickup trucks. The sole sedan was an old and well kept Diplomat SE.
I LOOOOV timewarp shots like this!
Amazing, in the later bagels version, the parked cars have grown so much in height it’s hard to see the front doors or through the front windows of the establishment.
There are still some Roy Rogers around, mostly in Western Maryland, Northern VA, and on NJ Turnpike rest areas.
http://www.royrogersrestaurants.com/find-a-roys/store-list
You have to love any restaurant that takes a hamburger, and tops it with ham.
No like the “RR” we all loved though. Boo.
Great comparison shots and Einstein Bros.! I had no idea that place still existed!
There used to be several around the Boston area we used to go to when I was little. They all disappeared right around 2000 or so. Good bagels from what I remember.
Well there is one common thing between them for me personally – There’s only 1 car in each photo like.
The old Roy Rogers facade was much nicer, as were most establishments. Einstien Bros Bagels otoh, boring name, boring food (seriously if I want an round coronary inducing food, doughnut > bagel), boring starbucks knockoff facade – no thanks. Matches the personality of most of the cars there perfectly
The one thing in comparison that struck me also was the distance left between cars in their parking spaces. Cars had some really long doors back then and parking spaces have shrunk pretty drastically. What a nice roomy lot.
This is one of the first things I noticed, too.
I guess spaces had to be bigger back then, obviously.
I drive a Crown Victoria and sure would like to see wide parking spaces again!
Loved this post!! I could almost smell the faint trace of coffee and secondhand smoke from inside the Roy Rogers. I seek out cool, mid-century places like these at every opportunity. A shame so many establishments like these are gone (i.e. Howard Johnson’s, etc.). Without the Mustang, this shot seems like it could have been from several years prior.
I wonder if the shift to 4 doors from two is somehow tied to the larger parenting role that people play now, the increased amount of shuttling of kids compared to the 70’s and 80s, when our parents sort of kept us safe and took us on vacations but were no where near as involved in the day to day lives of children. My parents (and those of my friends as well) were a couple first, parents a sure second, as good as I think my parent were. Now (and I’m guilty of this as well), the parenting role is far more prominent. As parenting styles have changed, and you’re taking your kids with you everywhere (or taking them everywhere), the convenience of four doors perhaps outweighs the niceness of a two door coupe for a couple.
Not a fully developed thought, just thought of it as I was reading.
Anyone who has ever tried hustling kids in and out of child safety seats fastened into the back seat of a two door car at every friggin stop understands the switch to 4 doors.
It’s not just a different style of parenting. By law children under a certain age must be fastened in some sort of child restraint seat.
We have two children, ages 6 and 4. I’d love a Mustang, but there is no way, at this point, I would consider a car that requires me to perform a series of contortions just to buckle and unbuckle the children in their safety seats.
I tend to do the same thing when I get auto dealer post cards (especially Rambler dealers as I am a big-time AMC fan) from the mid-century era. Once I confirm the address, I go on Google Maps, then Street View, to see what it looks like today.
This can be something of a time suck. But when researching a feature on a Cougar for Legendary Cougar Magazine (http://bit.ly/LCMV2I4Preview), if I have a Marti Report, I’ll try to locate something on the dealer, see if there’s a photo or post card, then see what the address looks like today. Because so many Lincoln-Mercury dealers shut down when the Mercury marque was eliminated in the great auto meltdown, this is getting harder and harder to do.
Here’s what I call Mercury Archaeology from Legendary Cougar Magazine. The larger image is an in-period photo of a L-M dealership, the smaller photo of the site today from Google Street View. Sometimes the original building remains, often empty but many times renovated for a different marque. But many dealer buildings have been knocked down and replaced, often, with a fast food restaurant.
Oh, Yeah…Killing time on Google Maps! Another “Map Sport” is seeing old ads/articles on Google News Archive and “exploring” via GMaps. I once found the real estate developer’s ad for the “plan” where my childhood home was built in the 1920s, The “land office” from where the lots were sold still stands! But today it’s a tattoo parlor! LOL! Great way to kill a rainy weekend!
Neat project. I can contribute one more to your collection.
Below is a 1985 picture of Brown’s Lincoln-Mercury in Fairfax, Va. (just a few miles from the Roy Rogers location). The site is now a Toyota dealership (address is 10287 Fairfax Blvd.). The building was just about brand new at the time this picture was taken; I think it was built in 1984 (that horizontal wood siding was common for car dealers in the mid-80s).
“Red Lobster” still down the block?
That’s part of Pickett Shopping Center. There was a Safeway back there that was damaged by a tornado in the 70s.
I used to eat at that Roy’s when I was a kid.
Thanks for the memory! Really a different and cool time to be in NoVa.
Yeah, Pickett Shopping Center, indeed. I can barely make out the sign for GIANT MUSIC in the first photo. I used to buy reeds for my saxophone there.
That tornado was on April Fool’s Day. The year was 1973, I think. Our family was at the indoor pool at Starlit swim club on the other side of Rte. 236. I have vague memories of all the windows shattering, and very clear memories of the fire department hosing down the Safeway afterwards (plus the trucking company’s antenna behind the shopping center that was bent in half). Scary stuff.
In those days, Roy Rogers restaurants only hired young men to work in the kitchen and young women to work the registers and serve the customers. The cashiers had to wear corny western outfits and cowboy hats. They greeted each customer with a “Howdy, partner,” and ended each transaction with a “Happy trails!”
One final memory: Roy himself made an appearance at that restaurant one summer. I didn’t attend, but the neighbor kids did. According to their account, some unruly kid threw something at Roy (a pie? a tomato? I don’t remember). The otherwise genial movie star didn’t find any humor in that and angrily said something along the lines of “Give me five minutes with that boy, and I’ll straighten him out!”
Lynne & Karl: Glad to bring back the memories! Pickett Shopping Center is still busy these days. I had no idea about the tornado!
And just to add a visual to your description of the servers, here’s a picture:
Remember that one.
I always heard it was a pie, but never heard the rest of the story. So you’ve filled a gap in my Fairfax knowledge. ;0)
There was another really nasty storm around 79 or 80. My father and I were heading back to Manassas from my grandparent’s house on Cedar Lane. We had to stop and pull over (in the ’78 Hornet wagon, haha) in Oakton to let the storm pass. I think that caused some damage out that way too.
Yes, there was a second tornado. The ’73 tornado hit the Woodson H.S. building in addition to the shopping center, doing a lot of damage. The second one was a little farther south, demolishing much of the football stadium (and some nearby houses) but not damaging the school building.
There were some homes that were damaged by both tornadoes. What are the odds on that?
I was thinking Hurricane Agnes, which knocked out the Occoquan Water plant for several days, was also in ’73, but it was ’72. I was also thinking Woodson was next to the Beltway, but that was were Starlit was, wasn’t it? I went there once for a miserable and ineffective swim class. My best friend was on their team for a few years.
Remember that one.(tornado)
Roy’s @ “Baily’s Crossroads” or “Bradlee Shopping Ctr”(in Alexandria) were the one’s we generally went too.
Great shots, especially the pairing of the before and after.
Looking at that first one reminds me of how much I grew to hate earthtones by 1980. I have grown to tolerate them due to their rarity now, but it has taken many years.
Roy never made much headway into the midwest (at least not in Indiana), but seems to have been more of an east coast thing. I remember seeing them in the Philly area, and ate at one precisely once – for the roast beef sandwich, which was pretty decent.
The cultural shift in car colors is something I still don’t really get, no matter how much I think about it. Perhaps what’s stranger than all the bland hues now is that so many average, non-enthusiasts were completely nonchalant about driving around in wacky green and orange machines back then. And it wasn’t just Corollas and VWs for the anti-establishment set, plenty of full size sedans for families and seniors were painted in wild shades too. Perhaps they were less concerned with resale value since they all became worthless rustbuckets in six years anyway? Or was the average person just less boring and risk averse then? Lots of people bought cars as appliances then, too, but they were unusually colorful appliances.
Today if a dealer stocks a lime green CUV, new or used, it’s an instant buyer repellent that’s guaranteed to be in inventory for six months minimum. It’s especially frustrating because if you’re looking for an already obscure car, like a stick shift model (another buyer repellent), good luck finding one in anything other than gray or black. Nothing is guaranteed to sit in the lot and require huge discounts quite like a bright red, manual trans Focus/Accord/Jetta/etc.
It’s not just car colors. In the 1970s, home appliances came in all sorts of wild colors – burnt orange, pale yellow and avocado green.
Now they seem to come in white, black or stainless steel.
We were looking at houses in 2013, and what struck me was how many houses had been occupied by an elderly person who had obviously moved into the house in the late 1960s or early 1970s, and then never changed the décor. It was possible to tell by the vivid colors and often wild patterns on the wallpaper and carpeting.
Geeber:
I call them ‘unintentional time capsules’. 😀
It’s a phenomenon that’s arisen out of fashion trends coupled with the relative longevity of cars in recent years. Having grown up close to the auto sales industry I can recall the first time it hit home for me. While shopping for a new ride in the mid 80’s a family friend in the business suggested a pea green Pontiac Grand Prix, which I think was a 1979 model. It was literally pea green inside and out. It had low mileage, was in immaculate shape, and was deeply discounted because it wouldn’t move off the lot. Why? The color. Greens and browns had been all the rage in the 70’s, but in the 80’s they were poison. In the mid 90’s there was a resurgence of green, but only in select hues. I still wish I’d bought that car, but as a fashion conscious late teen, it just wasn’t happening. Leasing, the strength of the used car market (and the comparative profitability of used vs new car sales), and the propensity for vehicles of today to outlive their fashionability have killed color.
True about the 80s! I made sweet deals on a couple of Buicks that decade. because they had the “taint” of being IN COLOR including a yellow 78 LeSabre. (Sadly not a Palm Beach though)
That shade of pea green GM used in ’79-’80 was just awful. Especially something like the Grand Prix in two-tone pea green with the shiny velour pea green bucket seats. A very subdued green with grey and blue in it replaced that color for ’81-’82 which I had in my J2000 LE.
Back in the 70’s those ‘wild’ colors were common, and were a change from 1950’s white everything. Middle aged men got green leisure suits, etc.
Watch old reruns of game shows and see.
I wonder if part of it is because ordering cars is a lot less common than it used to be. If dealers are doing a lot of custom orders, manufacturers can offer oddball colors without dealers stocking them without a customer.
My previous vehicle was an ’06 Ford Ranger, in bright yellow. I got a pretty good deal on it. It had been sitting on the dealer’s lot for a full year based on the build date on the door tag.
Yes, that’s definately the main reason. Dealers will only stock colors that are popular and easy to sell, and with so few options now there’s not much incentive to custom order a car.
Fantastic photo-essay! One thing, though:
I don’t agree. The average age of a car on American roads was about 6.35 years in 1980; now it’s 11.4 years. So a ’72-3ish Fury, being about 8 years old, was at about 126% of the average in 1980. 126% of 11.4 is 14.36, so a car comparable to that Fury today would be more like a 2001 model.
Ok, so exactly the same Crown Victoria, built a different year. Following the same measure today (vs 2016) would also be the same Crown Victoria.
I really do think that CV was a better gift to media than we could ever recognize. Because of city shots in movies are likely to include cabs and police cars, everything from 1998 to basically today is aging together. Movies that are 20 years old today (and set in NYC) have aged incredibly well. I doubt that we’ll ever again have something like that, and media will again age quickly in just a few years.
This is one fantastic article! I love before and after shots. So cool to see the changes! I actually like the way the Roy Rogers looked better than the Einstein’s. It had some flair – the Einstein’s looks like everything else you see today – bland and boring.
I’ve had Roy Rogers a couple months ago on the New York Thruway (most surviving locations seem to be in highway rest areas). It was…ok, but I’d rather have an everything bagel to go in the six-speed Matrix XRS.
Kids were a lot rarer back then – it was the gap after the Baby Boom ended but while the first wave was putting off children for careers. I was 5 in 1980 and every classroom I ever was in had the back two rows empty. By ’85 the birth rate was well back up.
The last Roy Rogers in NYC closed in 2015. It was a restaurant across from Penn Station. I ate there a few times, the food was mediocre.
I bet that new Mustang was a big deal back then, even though it came out in ’79 and this one looks to be a four cylinder or six. The owner backed it in so they must have been proud. It looks like the most modern, “80’s look” car there.
At the time the picture was taken (36 years ago, yikes!) I was working less than 10 miles away. One of my colleagues had a new Mustang like the one in the picture. He was so proud of it until the day his wife opened the door and a gust of wind bent the door back and broke the hinges! Insurance paid for the repair, but of course it never work properly from then on. I think of that incident every time I see a Fox platform Mustang… over the years that is a lot of times.
I wonder if this building’s changed hands – I can’t find proof positive (it seems well hidden under rebrands and corporate-divisional bumf) but I get the impression from a few web searches that Einstein Bros. Bagels is also a Marriott brand.
The 2000 return to 1930 height also shows nicely in the pictures. In the ’70s all the car roofs were even with the wainscoting of the restaurant. The front window was fully visible. Now the car roofs cover the entire front of the restaurant.
Possibly exaggerated by camera angle, the lot having sloped away from the building more in the older pic that was filled in in repavings over the years, or even the height of the photographer. Compare the building’s roof in the two pics.
Doing some Wikipedia research reveals that that particular restaurant was the site of a fatal robbery in 1976 in which four employees were killed. I may be mistaken on the site as I am not familiar with Fairfax.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roy_Rogers_Restaurants
As far as the cars, I am definitely more partial to the 1980 image, make mine the C-Body Mopar, please.
There were a lot of Roy Rogers restaurants around here back then — that particular one was on the same road (Va. Rte. 236), but 7 miles to the east. That site is now a KFC.
It was the one just west of Shirley Highway (I-395).
We never had Roy Rogers restaurants here in Indiana that I know of, but we did have Hardee’s which at one time also owned Roy Rogers restaurants.
My first job when I was 16 was at Hardee’s and they had fried chicken with the same Roy Rogers recipe. They also had the Fixin’s Bar as well.
Never been to a Roy Rogers, but when I had a single-digit age, I thought dining out didn’t get any better than Howard Johnson’s!
Yeah, there’s like two remaining HoJo’s restaurants now. They used to be ubiquitous at every highway interchange along I-95. Lots of distinctive things, like the ice cream scoops that left a flat spot at the top, or HJ branded candies and a small gift shop. But during the decline the service became excruciatingly slow and we stopped eating there.
We even had one in our small wstrn PA town, until about 1978ish.
The baby blue coupe (Ford Mustang) caught my eye…at a quick first glance, I thought it was a Chrysler LeBaron GTS/Dodge Lancer sedan. I didn’t see the rear half of the car to know that it was a coupe. I thought it was strange that the sleek and modern-looking H-body was parked next to relics from the early 70s.
Then I started to read the article. No, it’s not an H-body, and the photo was from 1980. In 1980, the H-body didn’t even exist, and the K-car had about a year to go before it rolled off of the assembly line. I’m a little disappointed. It’s a Mustang I almost forgot even existed.
To someone who doesn’t know better, it seems as if Ford stopped production of the original 1964 Mustang back in 1968 or so, waited fifteen years, and brought it back. I know that’s not the case, every other Mustang in between ’68 – ’85 or so seemed to disappear for good.
That’s what happens when I leave out my eye contacts.
So many of the chains have dissapeared over the years. My grandmother owned a DOG-N-SUDS in Ft Walton Beach Fla many years ago. I loved the root beer that was, by the way, made on the premises. It was desrtoyed by a hurricane in the 60’s and not replaced (no insurance). I also still have a wooden token for a 10 cent cup of coffee from Sambos, Don’t think I will be using it any time soon 🙂
As part of a new millennium (or rather, new century) promotion in 1999, my local Pizza Ranch gave out “wooden nickels” (cardboard tokens) for a $1 garlic bread, with an expiration date of 12/31/2099. I wonder if anyone who recieved one will be still around to redeem it then, or if Pizza Ranch will still be around…
There’s a Sambo’s in Santa Barbara.
The building looks like a Mike Brady design !!! & I mean that as a compliment.
The “now” picture could just as easily be in Australia given the sameness of car models wordwide, even the Challenger is not so unusual here, as a few have been imported and converted.
It would have looked more American with a fullsize pick up or two though.
Fullsize guys never park next to the building. See any big box parking lot.
Roy Rogers restaurants used to be everywhere. My wife and I loved their Double R Bar Burger.
I grew up in Fairfax and pounded-down quite a few Double R Bar Burgers there…so many that I’m surprised that my ’71 Pinto isn’t in that picture!
The April 1973 Tornado narrowly missed this Roy Rogers and there are many pics on the net showing the damage…most dramatic is the School Bus that was blown into the ABC Storefront and the collapsed front of the Safeway. Woodson High School directly across the street took a direct hit and was closed for repairs until the following semester. Ironically the school stadium was destroyed by yet another tornado in 1979.
Now back to cars…Pop always wanted only a two-door even with the 3 of us brats. He finally got a 4-door only after he joined a carpool and the riders moaned and complained. By that time we 3 were driving our own cars…two-doors of course!
Great comparison!
As for the hotel shuttle being a station wagon, I have often wondered about that. When you take your car in to a dealer for service, if they offer a shuttle, it’s most usually a van or CUV. I have thought that they should be offering rides in their nicer vehicles, cars, SUVs, whatever they see as they want to push that week in sales. A ride in a nicer vehicle might make the customer think about that, in the coming months or year or two when they want to replace old Betsy with a newer vehicle. It would be a strategic marketing technique, more costly, perhaps, but worth a try.
Those that do concierge pick ups and drop offs of your car have the best idea in my mind.
Einstein’s bagels is no substitute for Roy Rogers.
The Fox Mustang made all of the other cars in the parking lot look dated, not just the Corolla.
I like the juxtaposition of the mustard-yellow Corolla and avocado Maverick. Those two colors were ubiquitous on ’70s kitchen appliances, before becoming wildly out of fashion a decade later. I did several kitchen remodels back in the day for people trying to rid their kitchens of harvest gold or avocado appliances, which were invariably doubled up on loud wallpaper patterns (which sometimes extended to the ceiling as well).
Still love Roy’s! There are three near where I live.
I can’t believe I did not comment on this one back in 2016… I DO recall reading it however, Eric. Nice post as usual.
All the comments about 2-door cars for families back then are spot on. My Dad (once we were old enough to potentially reach the door handles of his ’60 Dodge) switched to 2-door cars exclusively until about 1984 or so when he inherited my great uncle’s ’84 LeSabre. Even then, he did not personally buy one until his 1994 Concorde. He cited the same thing everyone else did back then regarding child safety, even though, like me, he preferred 2-door cars.
Personally, I’ve never owned a 4-door car, unless you count the ones that various wives have owned, making me an indirect owner. I have a feeling those days are numbered however, as reasonably priced 2-door coupes are becoming exceedingly rare.
As to Roy’s? Well, you can still get you fix on if you live in or around Western Maryland. When I travel out that way, I usually stop at the one on Patrick Street in Frederick.
Mad Anthony back in 2016 commented on this above. His link is broken, so here’s a new one…
https://www.royrogersrestaurants.com/locations
It would seem that their numbers are growing again! Hopefully, they’ll come back to the Baltimore/Washington area soon. The closest two seem to be new locations in Gambrills and Eldersburg, MD.
You could always count on them for Hardee’s breakfast as well. When many of the Roy’s locations went away, many became Hardee’s, but then they went away as well. There are a few Hardee’s locations left in Maryland, but not that many, and none near me sadly. The one in Hancock, MD is especially nice.
I think back then, Roy’s and Hardees were the same company, perhaps both under Marriott’s wing in those days. Sounds like a trip to Wikipedia is in order. 😉
> It would seem that their numbers are growing again! Hopefully, they’ll come back to the Baltimore/Washington area soon.
There are several in the B/W corridor, including Burtonsville, Aspen Hill, and Rockville. When I was a University of Maryland student, the Roy Rogers in the Student Union building was the largest one in the country. There’s still one there although that building seems to get renovated beyond recognition every few years, and the current RR is in a different place and smaller. The Hardees breakfast thing was short-lived; basically Marriott sold RR to the parent company of Hardee’s which then switched most RR locations to Hardee’s. Those did badly except for their breakfast items, which RR wasn’t well known for. So they switched all of the Hardee’s back to Roy Rogers with a small banner on their signs adding “with Hardee’s breakfast”. They didn’t stick around long either, and many RRs were sold off to McDonalds and other fast food places. They almost disappeared completely, but new management has revived the chain to some extent. Their plan seems to be to drop restaurants in decent-sized exurbs and smaller towns that aren’t well served with fast-food joints already, and there are a surprising number of such places. The Wikipedia article on RR restaurants is pretty good.
Thanks la673. Yeah, since I live on the northeast side of Baltimore in Baltimore County, my hope is that Roy’s opens up one in my area or nearby Harford County.
Also, immediately after I posted this, I went down the Wikipedia Rabbit Hole and read about the Roy Rodgers’/Hardee’s connection. I had no idea it was so short lived, as I was in my late twenties/early thirties during this transition, and it seemed to last longer.
It was also interesting to read about Carl’s Jr., which is apparently what Hardee’s is called on the Western side of the country. I remember seeing that controversial Super Bowl commercial for them years ago and thinking to myself, ‘What’s a Carl’s Jr., and why are they using a Hardee’s logo?’
This kinda remined me of when I was a kid, and all the Esso stations became Exxon, as there were Esso Stations with the name Enco in other places, and one other name I now forget. Imagine my surprise when I found out the classic Esso name and elliptical logo are still used up there in the Great White North!
Hoping all the ‘grayscale’ paint jobs on cars go the way of Harvest Gold someday.
Who misses “Gino’s” too? ((and “Jack in the Box”)) lol That B210 at Roy’s brings back memories!!
The “Datsun dealer” was still in the “Clarendon section” of Arlington then.There was one in Tysons Crnr as well.
There was also a Datsun dealership in Fairfax – at Fairfax Circle on a small parcel that’s now a Chick-Fil-A. The local Gino’s was at the intersection of Lee Highway and Chain Bridge Rd.
When I was very smol (as the hep young people say today) there was a Roy Rogers nearish our house in Wyncote, Pennsylvania. I know because I remember my three-years-older sister going to a birthday party there—we called it “Rogers”—and all I could do was look out the rear door window of the car when she was dropped off and picked up; my request to join in was denied on account of my being too little.
I’m guessing that Roy Rogers was on Old York Rd. in Abington… about 10 minutes away from Wyncote. We used to eat there often.
If I had known that Roy Rogers birthday parties were a thing, I bet I would have loved to have one!
We called Roy Rogers burgers “Trigger Burgers”.
If you want Roy Rogers chicken in the Midwest, the closest is the Hardee’s fried chicken, which is still very good.
I miss colors on cars.
Finally, two door cars were the fashion. Adults with families buying coupes were following the fashion. I never put much stock in the “child safety” claim. Fact is, Mom wanted a Monte Carlo, not a freaking ugly four-door GM Colonnade Chevelle. Dad wanted a Thunderbird, not a ugly Torino four-door sedan. Intermediate size 4-doors were UGLY back in the 1970s – coupes were popular.
Most economy cars were coupes and frugality caused many families to end up with a two-door subcompact car. Most of us learned how to climb between a driver’s seat and the door jam into the back seat without pushing the front seats forward. Kids weren’t fat little dumplings back then – perhaps it was the second hand Pall Mall/Marlboro cigarette smoke that kept us thin?
Four door cars arrived during the 1980s due to a change in design language. Purposeful car design arrived, and having an economical Swiss Army knife-like efficient ride became the pertinence for 10 MPG Brougham sleds that sat two comfortably. Efficiency made 4-door cars and minivans popular during that era with their square Volvo-esque and VW Golf design language.
Here y’go, from a 1966 Mopar accessories catalogue. Read the description of the child safety lock.
It is curious how in the first photograph there is no car more than fifteen years old, while in the second there is a Subaru Impreza from approximately 1995, this in 1980 would have been equivalent to a car from 1953