What kitsch Americana, American imagery and destinations do you love?

Pink plastic flamingos.

The Winchester Mystery House.

The Corn Palace, Mitchell, South Dakota

Route 66 signs and labels.

I really love drive-in movie theaters.

I love Gillette's Castle in CT. It's not kitsch, per se, but it's quirky and it can't really be called a castle since no nobility ever lived the, just the actor who played Sherlock Holmes on stage.

Diners and diner food. No pretentions of being gourmet; just hot, filling, and comforting food.

R6 I'm a big diner fan, myself. Not ironic diners (though those can be fun), real ones. I like when they have mini juke boxes at the tables.

Flea markets.

Boardwalk piers - this from Wildwood, NJ

Graceland.

State fairs and tractor pulls

Blatant "cultural appropriation". Paper Chinese lanterns and garish American Chinese restaurants, Tex-Mex, German Chalet aesthetic, Mediterranean style homes in the middle of New England, I love it all.

Paul Bunyan statues

County fairs

Army-Yale games

Harvard-Yale games

mini golf

roadside farm stands

tacky beach towns (too numerous to mention)

North Beach Miami architecture

Lake George motels

Jones Beach

apple stands with apple cider presses

local haunted houses if the price is reasonable (dirt cheap)

church sponsored flea markets

un-renovated museum cafeterias

any surviving candy/news stand built into an office or hotel lobby

shoe shine parlours

old beauty parlours

old barber shops

vintage long running diners and food trucks

staten island ferry (but not for a commute)

politically incorrect plantation house museums

spotless restaurants and bakeries in fading "little italy" neighbourhoods in big towns and small cities

Carnegie built public libraries

vanderbilt mansions

gatlinburg

travelling gospel and black theatre productions

halloween parades

Gingham table cloths. Harvard-Yale football game and crew competitions.

Old Cypress Gardens and Florida vacation destination places.

Old towns and saloons in dry, Western places.

Parades and marching band music

What r14 said

gazebos. bandstands, amphitheatres and boathouses in town parks, and gazebos on town greens.

romanesque armories

state history museums in the capitol, especially if un-renovated with dusty politically incorrect dioramas)

rather pointless, also-ran majestic monuments (Gateway Arch, San Jacinto, etc)

The Cabazon Dinosaurs

gentlemen's haberdasheries for black men.

dollar stores in fading strip malls

small town dirty book shops

clam bars

illuminated caverns

naive art/architecture/monuments Watts Tower

don't know if the still have them, but Indian Trading Posts

Angelyne

Palms Springs architecture

That gift store next to the redwood with a tunnel through it.

All the retro and themed motels in Wildwood Crest, NJ.

The Hollywood Sign and The Hollywood Bowl.

Bedrock City, Arizona

Route 66 in general

All Googie & Space Age architecture

The Neon Museum & whatever remains of vintage Las Vegas (less & less all of the time, sadly)

Tiki bars

Black Hills, South Dakota (Deadwood/Mt. Rushmore/Wall Drug/etc.)

Pink flamingoes

The Madonna Inn

Tinkertown, New Mexico

If you love this kind of stuff & aren't following Charles Phoenix, you're missing out. He's the ultimate kitsch queen & I would love to steal his job.

thanks R34

R34 Thanks for that link! I love the whole Roswell, NM and Area 51, Nevada culture, too. I also love The State and National Parks and old travel posters for them:

Lakeside destinations. This is Lake Arrowhead, CA. I also love old cafes that haven't been updated in forever.

Pea Soup Andersen's, a must-stop on the drive from San Francisco to LA

I love the crazy old Hollywood houses, like the Spadena House:

The Spelling "Manor"

Neon blue or purple lights, at night.

Roy Rogers and Disneyland style novelty ranches.

Old Town Greens in New England and gazebos in bunting:

The 4H section of county fairs... All those handmade and home grown things, the dioramas made by little kids, the farm animals...all that earnest effort.

American cars of the 1940s to early 1970s.

Golf courses. Not mini-golf and not the "sport" or game of golf. But the golf course as a landscape park. Regular American gardens tend to be a tad inferior to those of Europe and Asia, except in a few cases, and American parks though much larger and more numerous are usually ill-kept, but there is no question that American golf courses (for profit landscape beauty) are far superior to anything found overseas, as well as more numerous, with half the golf courses in the world in the USA. Furthermore, their surface uniformity convert them into a sort of American zen experience, like the spiritual apotheosis of the suburban lawn. Sadly, this is as endangered as the soda fountain. With the decline of the middle class, the numbers playing golf regularly have declined one-third since 2000 and the number playing golf ever declined by a fifth.

Dinosaurs at gas stations.

Town that still have the old street lamps

Downtown department stores and downtown shopping districts

College football games and goofy team mascots

Vintage diners

Motor court hotels

Amazon Women of Auburn, California

County fairs! A county fair in a rural area can be a lovely thing, with interesting crafts from local artists on display, pleasant gardens and agricultural stuff, food that's very bad for you, shopping for stuff that isn't usually available, and of course getting sick on the rides. And if you're particularly lucky... DEMOLITION DERBY!!!

And yes, R28, there are still Indian trading posts. A female friend drove through Arizona and stopped at several. Said some are rural places where she could get good deals on turquoise jewelry, and some were amazing kitschy tourist traps full of seniors arriving by the busload.

R49, I have a friend who lives near Auburn, has for nearly ten years.

He refuses to believe there are statues of giant naked Indians on a side street.

Santa Cruz Boardwalk, the only beach amusement park left on the west coast.

Cooperstown, NY.

Cooperstown is gorgeous.

Woodminster, the Hollywood Bowl, Chastain, Ravinia, Blossom, Tanglewood, the open air cultural venue.

R46 Have you seen this? I think you would like it:

Coco's Bakery restaurant in Palm Springs. I love their menu which has photos of all the food.

South of the Border! Food wasn't bad, either. Not gourmet, but not bad.

Presque Isle State Park

St. Augustine, FL

Cape May, NJ

Lighthouses in general

The Donut Hole in Southern California. Don't know why, but even as a kid I loved driving through it.

Lava lamps and Kit-cat clocks.

The original Holiday Inn signs.

Howard Johnson

Wigwam motels

Illinois' highway rest areas were over the highway so the diners could watch the traffic, which was considered scenic and diverting.

My old pal. I see him quite often.

Airstream trailers

The huge coffeepot in Bedford, PA

I remember as a kid growing up in the 1970s how exciting it was to stay at a Holiday Inn. As soon as we checked in, my sister and I would put on our bathing suits and jump in the pool. Those were the days when families took big road trips every summer. Good times.

The Big Freeport Indian, off the highway outside a former "trading post" store in Freeport, Maine. His is known by his initials B. F. I. - which of course also led to him being known as The Big Fucking Indian. When we were kids the sight of this Indian told us the long car ride was almost over and we were nearly at our grandma's.

Cave Tours!

..................;(

Blucifer, the Murderous Mustang of Denver Airport.

^ Another photo - close up.

Black and white checkerboard floor tiles. I always wanted a kitchen done with these tiles. Maybe someday...

The classic Ford Thunderbird, a good cup of joe, rollerskating at the rink on weekend nights, 50s drive-ins, sock hops.

Bob's Java Jive in Tacoma, Washington.

The Teapot Dome gas station in Zillah, Washington.

The Hat and Boots in Seattle. The hat was the gas station office and the boootys were the restrooms. They were left to decay but were moved to a city park and restored.

The Twin Teepees Restaurant in Seattle, torn down a few years ago and replaces with apartments.

The legendary original Hilltop Steakhouse in Saugus, Mass., with its giant neon cactus sign and life-sized cow statues on the front lawn. A sure sign that you were almost in Boston if you were driving down Route 1 from points north. Hard to believe it went out of business.

I guess Taylor Kitsch doesn't count, since he's Canadian.

Coney Island

Chainsaw sculptures.

Vegas Vic. Fremont Street.

R69 The statue of Hiawatha in Ironwood, Michigan is over twice as tall. Some 54-ft.

Signs on the highway leading to Little America.

The Theme Building at LAX.

Tommy's at Rampart & Beverly in the middle of the night.

LOL R83

Lucy the Elephant (in Margate City, NJ)

ooooh! Border Fence!

Red barns

NYC Greek coffee shops.

Phone Phone

Root Beer anything.

Friday night high school football games

See Rock City barns

The street lamps in Hershey, Pennsylvania.

....

R81 I'd gladly visit Taylor Kitsch when he's in The US, any time he wants me to.

Kitsch is a beautiful word....

I loved Frontier Town but I never wanted to go to Gaslight Village. I always thought about poor Ingrid Bergman.

-Dixie truck stop in downstate IL -everything in Wisconsin Dells -Circus Museum in Baraboo, WI -Mall of America

Mail Pouch tobacco barns in PA

Covered bridge tours

You can't make this stuff up.

[quote] Mail Pouch tobacco barns in PA

Beat me to it! There's quite a few all over PA, WV, OH, IN, MI

I LOVE those "fundraiser" cookbooks from churches,fraternal organizations, ethnic groups, etc. My favorites are from a Mennonite church and the Polish American veterans.

Cheesy carnivals---the CREEPY ones with dangerous looking carnies, rickety rides and deep-fried-food-on-a-stick.

PA Dutch Country - especially all the cheesy "family style" restaurants and fattening food

Geneva-on-the Lake, OH

New York's LGA aka a 3rd world country airport

Cock rings Abercrombie and Fitch caps Rainbow anything AOL chat rooms Cruising in Parks

The Atlantic City Boardwalk

The Madonna Inn

The big blue bug

I love this thread!

The Taco Bell in Pacifica, CA

The Red Caboose Motel

Donut Phones

''

Someone above mentioned the retro and themed motels in Wildwood Crest NJ - but the kitschiest by far are the ones with the faux palm trees.

Hula girl lamps and tiki/polynesian crap

Swim-up bars

Bloomie's Bears

....

Nobody does it like Carvel

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The 19th century tent houses in Ocean Grove NJ

....

''

An orange Pacer with wood siding.

I always loved wood paneled station wagons.

[quote]I always loved wood paneled station wagons.

Me too. I'd have one today given the chance.

Barbra's private underground shopping mall and doll shop.

deserves two posts

another great donut shop in Southern California

Thanksgiving. All the traditions even though phony such as the pilgrims and cornucopia etc.

Halloween. Pumpkin patches, haunted houses, apple cider, candy corn....

Christmas tree lots.

....

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Hole In The Rock in Moab, Utah. It's actually a home / gift shop / trading post built inside the rock formation made courtesy of some dynamite blasting. So cheesy and even has a Mt. Rushmore like carving of FDR by the entrance.

R129 You know those dolls come alive once they close and night falls.

The Little A'Le'Inn

I second the Madonna Inn, the most GLAMOROUS place on earth!

Mystery Spots

Wall Drug

Vegas lounge singers, a dying breed

Waltzing waters

And before I die, I will see the queen of all kitsch destinations...

WEEKI

WACHEE

MERMAIDS

R116 That was me and we stayed in the Royal Hawaiian Motel when we vacationed there. Check out those faux palm trees on the concrete island in the middle of the pool. We spent hours swimming back and forth under that slab of concrete, and I remember how slimy that concrete was underwater.

^ Better photo, where you can really see the cheesy plastic palms.

The menu at Hippo Burger

[quote]The Hamburger Sundae....$2.30 - A hot nudeburger smothered with cool ice cream - topped with hot fudge, chopped nuts, and a red cherry. Garni of kosher dill pickle - don't knock it if you haven't tried it!

[quote]The Californiaburger....$2.95 - A hamburger steak - with chopped onions inside - torpedoed on a 1/4 loaf of hard crust sourdough French bread. The true test of dentures!

[quote]The Liberationburger.....$110.69 - A whole roast male chauvinist pig - "chaud-freud" [[italic]sic[/italic]] - sliced thin - and laid on a waterbed - by a California girl - presented with bunches of organics! Served by a streaker....add .25

Anything with poodles: Wallpaper, skirts, toilet roll covers & toilet brush holders, figurines, cookie jars, lamps, purses, brooches, etc.

Hawaiiana...with bonus points for Hawaiiana chalkware.

Large wooden forks and spoons used as wall decor in kitchens

Yesteryear...but how many here had one of these in their kitchens?

I know someone earlier mentioned miniature golf, but this thread is all about the pics - and this one says it all.

There's the kid with a "Get me the fuck out of here" look on her face, a miserable looking father and in the background, a fake elephant.

I love the Essex Steam Train and riverboat ride in CT.

I love local general stores with a vintage vibe:

The amount of weird and interesting stuff in Southwest Wisconsin is fascinating. The House on the Rock, Taliesin, The Don Q Inn, Grand View, American Players Theater, not to mention all the weird charming towns along 151.

One of the sculpture groups at Grand View; the entire front of the house and yard is filled with mosaic sculptures, they are quirky and unrefined.

The weird/fascinating Don Q Inn, featuring an actual airplane as one of the suites for rent. From the website:

[quote]One of the unique attractions at the Don Q Inn is a Boeing C-97. The plane flew to its present location adjacent to the hotel. Farah Fawcett signed the fuselage after filming a TV commercial there long ago.

A & W drive-in restaurants. I worked at one in the 70's. Root beer in frosted mugs.

Stuckey's restaurant pecan log rolls.

Martha's Dandee Cream ice cream stand in lake George

I like the congress hotel in tucson too.

The Polar Beverages polar bear in Worcester, MA.

Tiki architecture outside of Polynesia...like this one in Columbus, Ohio.

The Big Chicken

[quote]The amount of weird and interesting stuff in Southwest Wisconsin is fascinating. The House on the Rock, Taliesin, The Don Q Inn, Grand View, American Players Theater, not to mention all the weird charming towns along 151.

It's not just businesses either. When I used to drive through that area on a regular basis I would see the damnedest things in people's yards. I've seen airplanes, carnival rides, even a military tank and a railroad caboose. They're free thinkers with lots of space to store stuff, and giant pickup trucks to trailer things home with.

Harold Warp's Pioneer Village outside Minden, Nebraska.

Meramec Caverns, Missouri.

All of Gallup, New Mexico.

Any part of Niagara Falls - either side - that predates 1960.

Coney Island. What's left of it.

Gus' (sic) Pretzels on Arsenal Street in St. Louis, with a view of the Busch Brewery.

French Lick, Indiana.

Remnants of the Catskills' resorts.

Atlantic City

R20

You need to check out the state Museum of Black History in downtown Boise.

South of the Border

This!

[quote]kitsch Americana

You asked for it, OP...this thread will never end.

Tiki bars

TWA @ JFK

Graceland, America's shrine to tackiness.

Pam An ~ JFK

Another one for lighthouses. Maine ones are really lovely.

The "Make Way for ducklings" sculpture in Boston.

The ducks at the Peabody hotel

Giant tea or coffee pots

Shit r147 are you from Newtown?

What lovely memories here! I especially related to the poster upthread who was nostalgic about those family car trip vacations when you counted the minutes and the miles until you arrived at the Holiday Inn and raced to the pool!! Good times.

The Genoa Wonder Tower in Genoa, Colorado. Close now, alas.

Barbecue Joints with huge pig signs out front. Bonus points if the pig sign is in neon and a bit rusted.

R173 And the rustier the pig sign, the better the BBQ.

Rain Lamps. Very popular in 60s and 70s suburbia. Usually had a nude Venus de Milo (with or without arms) in the center. The rain lamp is filled with about 2 pints of oil that is pumped from the bottom of the lamp into a basin in the top. The oil leaks through drip holes in the top oil basin, powered only by gravity, and runs down individual strands of fishing line. The light shining on the moving oil creates the effect of rain falling. It doesn't get any classier than this. And they looked particularly beautiful if the lamp hung over a small table that had glass grapes on it.

One of my favorite pieces of Americana is the Arrowhead Signs at all the U.S. National Parks. Seeing them reminds me of family camping trips in Yosemite and Yellowstone, petting the mules at the Grand Canyon, driving through redwood tunnels in Sequoia, etc. All the park rangers had the logo on their hats too. Anytime I see them now I'm taken back to my childhood.

Salt water taffy, fresh calamari, fish & chips, and clam chowder in a sourdough bread bowl on Fisherman's Wharf in Monterey.

The Pub in Pennsauken, New Jersey. Still the best place for a steak in the Philly area.

The Louisville Slugger Factory in Louisville, Kentucky.

The Dewey, Cheetham & Howe window in the Car Talk brothers' office in Harvard Square.

Didn't some Chinese guy just buy that building, r180?

Howard Johnson's white and milk chocolate lollipops that depicted historical events and landmarks.

Lobster barley lollipops

Rock candy lollipops on wooden sticks

Summer meals consisting of clam cakes, Del's lemonade, and a sandy Buried Treasure for dessert.

R181, Gerald Chan owns the abutting building (and virtually everything else in Harvard Square) but I don't think the building in question has closed yet. It went on the market in April but I haven't been paying attention to much of anything this summer. As a funny aside, in an epic display of hubris Casey Affleck (with Ben, Joaquin Phoenix, and a cast of thousands) allegedly attempted to stage a coup late last year to outbid GC on the Harvard Square Theatre...allegedly. Gerald Chan is the new owner of the Harvard Square Theatre.

There's still an A&W drive-in off Rt. 7 in Middlebury, VT. It's been there since the '60s.

Are there any others still around?

The Swan Boats in Boston's Public Garden

Branson

Great book for everyone interested in this thread is The Lost Continent by Bill Bryson. It's laugh out loud funny as he sets out to relive all the kitchy Americana driving trips of his childhood. Those were our family vacations too.

I still have a soft spot for the old Chicago Midway airport as seen the North By Northwest. It actually still looked like that into about the early 80s. You could just park across the street and stroll right in. If you were the one flying you just walked across the tarmac and climbed the roll up stairs to the plane. Seemed so glam back then.

Yet another vote the Madonna Inn. All very elaborate theme rooms and so goofball silly. Hearst Castle is also nearby and huge blast of movie/celeb nostalgia.

[quote]laugh out loud funny

God how I hate that expression.

I thought it was Bryson's weakest travel book. The only good one was the one about Britain.

R170 Connecticut. I didn't purposefully mean to put-up Newtown's General Store but that sort of stuff happens all of the time, without realizing it. That event is always there, lurking in the background.

R186 I love Bill Bryson! I loved "A walk in The Woods", "In a sunburned Country" and "I'm a Stranger here, Myself"

Mammy's Cupboard, outside of Natchez, Mississippi

Wall Drug

Christmas light-up blow-molds, particularly chior kids.

[quote]Rain Lamps. Very popular in 60s and 70s suburbia . . . . The light shining on the moving oil creates the effect of rain falling. It doesn't get any classier than this. And they looked particularly beautiful if the lamp hung over a small table that had glass grapes on it.

Our town's mall had a giant oil fountain when it first opened. We all stood and stared in slack-jawed wonder. Sadly, that was back in the days when you could still smoke inside, and after a few months the oil took on the color of used motor oil, and the entire fountain looked like a science film on lung disease and the dangers of smoking.

It was removed within the first year.

Las Vegas--the old Vegas that's still identifiable around Fremont Street, with the tiny, rundown slot parlors and casinos like Binions. Still some unadulterated bad taste there, and it's both amusing and oddly comforting in that it's hanging on for so long without being replaced by chain restaurants and monster "resorts" for deluded social climbers.

R188 Oops, didnt mean it like that, I should have been clearer. I'm from Newtown and spent a ton of time in that teriffic general store when i was a kid. I was just going to say hi to a fellow Newtowner if you had lived there.

The Palm, Las Vegas.

and La Palm Motel, Las Vegas.

I love the Americana thing of adding Le & La to things to make 'em sound classy & exotic.

The Motel Capri in San Francisco.

Long may it live!

R194 It is a great general store or was; I haven't stopped by to check it out in a while.

[quote] Those were the days when families took big road trips every summer. Good times.

Truthfully, I never heard of big road trips til I saw National Lampoon's vacation. But I lived on an island and we had tons of beaches -- ocean, bay, sound, lake -- woods with campgrounds, mansions that were turned into arboretums and nature preserves, a colonial village, a couple of lighthouses, summer beach communities where you could rent a house, drive in movies, swamps, creeks, canals, small rivers. The city and some mountains weren't too far away by train and tour boat or ferry. Lots of swimming, fishing, hunting, snorkeling, clamming, crabbing, water skiing.

When I saw Vacation, I thought the Griswolds were insane to drive all over the place in a car. I didn't know it was a real thing.

Long Guyland?

[quote] That event is always there, lurking in the background.

I love Newtown.

In-laws of mine moved there for a few years after the shooting and I loved the place. I'd move there in a heartbeat and get a condo somewhere south for winter, but my husband's work is where we live now and we can't move. Beautiful town, nice people. I've always liked CT.

All of New Harmony, Indiana.

High school football games were my favorite as a stoned teenager. I can still remember a friend saying, "can we hurry up and get to the game? I've just remembered that I'm a cheerleader." No, you aren't a cheerleader, Josh. However, the whole idea of a cheerleader is pretty kitsch.

Skinny dipping at the Snyder pond.

Mammy's Cupboard restaurant, Natchez, Mississippi.

Mammy used to be painted darker.

I LURV OLD TIMEY 2015!!!! And now there's a TWAT to bump every thread of that golden year!! Joy!

DOLLYWOOD!!!!!