1959: Oh, Those Fashionable Fifties

Fly Them to Kearny Mesa: “Fashion Flights,” the third annual Golden Avenue School PTA fashion show fundraiser, was such a novel idea that local TV stations requested personal appearances by the models. The show's flight theme featured 15 models, ages six to adult, portraying travelers garbed for trips to distant lands.  

Casual to formal fashions from Lemon Grove shops included leopard printed jumpsuits, frilly party dresses, snappy suits with peplum jackets, the ubiquitous hats with veils and flowers without which no self-respecting woman left home in those days, and plenty of Samsonite luggage.

The Lemon Grove Review ran a front page photograph of seven models piling into a “woodie” station wagon for the trek to KFMB, San Diego's first TV station, established 1949, up Kearny Mesa way.

Fly Them to Paris:  Not to be outdone, the PTA of Vista La Mesa School held its fifth annual fashion show, “Ooh La La,” in the cafeteria, which had been transformed into a Parisian sidewalk café. As models strolled past signs reading “St. Germain,” “Right Bank” and “Christian Dior,” pianist Betty Means and the Balladears warbled a medley of French songs. Frank Black was the commentator and parents and kiddies modeled stylish stuff from area shops.

Fly Them to Vegas: A “Three-Day Las Vegas Vacation for Two,” sponsored by the Lemon Grove Chamber of Commerce, boded well for the group's annual budget with nearly 2,000 raffle tickets sold, reported Chamber president Larry Folda.  

Western Airlines contributed the flight tickets, the Desert Inn the digs, the Chamber $300 in spending money, Michael's Steak House a filet and champagne dinner, and local shops an array of baubles, shoes and swell duds.

Ransack 1959 issues of the Lemon Grove Review though we will, we can't find the winners of this snazzy getaway. It's been 50 years, but if you're out there, sing out.

Fly Them to Harvard:  Seven Lemon Grove students made the Dean's List at San Diego State College (SDSU) with grade point averages ranging from 3.8 to 4.0. To qualify students had to carry 12 units and maintain a GPA of 3.5 or higher.  

The envelope, please: Barbara Proppe (straight As), James Henderson, Richard Sheresh, William Glazebrook, George O'Hare, Michael Roehm and Barbara Edwards.

Fly Them to Hollywood:  A trio of Lemon Grove Ford salesmen, Leon Floquet, E. E. Grable and Kenneth Dewey of Spears Ford, 7220 Broadway, were inducted into the Ford 300-500 Club in a ceremony held at the Moulin Rouge in Hollywood.  

Jim Spears, owner of the dealership, hailed the pitchmen for their “energy and smart sales technique” and predicted they would make the trip to L.A. in 1960 as their sales records were “well ahead” of everyone else in the Southern California Ford market.

The Moulin Rouge Theatre and Night Club lives on in neon splendor at the corner of Sunset Boulevard and Vine in the heart of Hollywood. When it opened in 1953, you paid $5.50 for a deluxe dinner, floor show and dancing.

Fly Her to the Moon: And let her wish upon the stars. She could be as wrinkle-free on Jupiter or Mars. Dorothy Haizlip, owner of Haizlip's Pharmacy, 7801 Broadway, ran a woman-to-woman ad in the Review, promising to rid milady's chops of pesky lines and dryness.  

“Tiny unnatural lines are robbing you of your true beauty,” wrote Haizlip. “Polyderm by Prince Matchabelli can be the answer. This wonderful new face cream developed by chemists and doctors for women with dry, lined skin takes but seconds to apply at bedtime. Please stop by tomorrow and let me tell you more about Polyderm. $2 and $3.50 plus tax.”

The real Prince Matchabelli was once the Russian ambassador to Italy. He and his wife, Princess Norina Matchabelli, fled to the U.S. after the Russian Revolution and launched a perfume and cosmetic line in New York. It was later sold to Saul Ganz, then to Vicks Chemical, then to Chesebrough-Ponds, then to Unilever, then to Parfums de Coeurs.  

Today, Matchabelli perfume bottles sell on eBay for $10 to $300, while Polyderm is the name of a wound dressing used on battlefields and in emergency rooms.

Fly Him to Madison Square Garden: Archie Moore, light heavyweight champion of the world, addressed the Lemon Grove Men's Club at Michael's Steak House. Then 42 and a Madison Square Garden favorite, Moore was fresh from his 1959 win over Sterling Davis by a knockout in the third round.  

Moore still holds the record for the most wins by knockout (131) and is in an elite group whose boxing careers spanned four decades. He retired to San Diego and started a film career, garnering praise for such roles as Jim, the runaway slave in Michael Curtiz's production of “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.” Honors continued to accrue to “The Old Mongoose,” as he was nicknamed, until his death in 1998, age 82.