SAN FRANCISCO – Snap-E-Tom tomato cocktail was a product of the Pioneer Ortega company, and later Heublein, and today owned by Del Monte. Made with chile peppers, onions and tomatoes, it was a Bloody Mary mix that advertised itself as the Big Brother of the Bloody Mary, Bloody Thomas. Snap-EMORE HERE
REDWOOD CITY, Calif. – A group in Redwood City, Calif. failed to save a landmark sign that was the marker for the headquarters of Ampex, the nation’s pioneer maker of audio and video recorders. Through the latter part of the 20th century, the word Ampex was synonymous with technology leadership andMORE HERE
MARINA DEL REY – There are thousands of family businesses in the U.S. that were once considerable enterprises, so it is refreshing to see some of them come back, even if they are but modest start-ups. To wit, Cohen & Sons Apparel. I don’t know much about the original, butMORE HERE
Last week, I was in a Wells Fargo branch, looking at a beautifully produced booket/story of the company. It included an explanation of how it ran stagecoaches and ran money to the West, and detailed many of the innovations of the hundreds of banks that made up what is nowMORE HERE
LOS ANGELES – What guy doesn’t want to be Jim Rockford? Well, perhaps living in the trailer was a bit tiresome (how come they let him keep it in the parking lot?), but the rest of the life as L.A. private eye is way cool. It would be fun toMORE HERE
There is one person we need to know more about; it is Richard Whorf (1906-1966), the sometime actor who was director of the Beverly Hillbillies. Whorf was also a dancer, a designer, a producer and a writer. Whorf has a whole world view that we rather appreciate; traditional with aMORE HERE
Catching the film Escape from the Planet of the Apes on Planet of the Apes weekend on Fox Movie channel, we could not help but notice a few cool brands. I am sure there are more, but these were the ones I noticed immediately, just after Zira and Cornelius, previouslyMORE HERE
LOS ANGELES – One of the great modern hotels, The Century Plaza, is potentially going to be demolished. I say potentially because the owner, developer Michael Rosenfeld, is only applying for permission to tear it down for another real estate development. The Hyatt Regency Century Plaza (click on the poolMORE HERE
SARASOTA – Many of us can recall when IHOP wasn’t cool. Somewhere between 1980 and 1990, the chain got into the category of undesirable. It was so much so that the chain became a joke; comedienne Paula Poundstone’s “IHOP: It was a dream, I made it happen” routine about workingMORE HERE
PALM SPRINGS – Any person who owns a silly little motel by the side of the road ought to look at Hope Springs Motel Resort in Palm Springs, California. It’s an utterly nondescript motel that has turned into a Travel & Leisure favorite. The recipe? A hip approach, minimalist designMORE HERE