Charles Phoenix: The Guru of Americana/The King of Retro

Back a few months ago, at a wedding reception, a good friend of ours was commenting on our little camper and said, "If you guys aren't, you should be following Charles Phoenix." Charles Phoenix? We were not acquainted with this gentleman. But, we quickly learned about his passion for mid-century Americana and became instant fans.

Charles Phoenix has been transversing this country of ours for thirty years, rediscovering all things kitschy and unusual, that were probably mostly forgotten. Charles has a love of mid-century signage, cars, furniture, architecture, diners, roadside attractions....you name it, if it is from the 1950s-60s, he is most likely aware of it and in many cases, has seen it. :) He is somewhat of a mid-century-America, retro archeologist. He's a "Retrologist"! A new word - we just made it up. :)

But, what he is, is fascinating! He truly needs his own show on The History Channel, or something.

After becoming a follower of his on Instagram and Facebook, we found out that he was actually coming fairly close to Louisville. He was invited to give one of his retro slide presentations at The Kentucky Theatre in Lexington, KY on August 25. Well, this was meant to be. His home base is California and while he travels extensively around the country, having him appear in your town for one of his highly entertaining slide presentations is akin to hitting the jackpot!

We immediately reserved two tickets on line for his show which we attended this past Sunday evening in Lexington.

His slide presentation was fun and fascinating! His knowledge of the Lexington area with regard to the 1950s and 1960s was impressive. You could tell he did his homework. And, what he didn't know or couldn't uncover, audience members were more than happy to help out. For instance, there was a mid-century restaurant in the Lexington area that he discovered through photographs, had a large cow as a part of their "roadside marquis". After desiring to know more about WHERE this cow ended up, he asked the audience if anyone knew what happened to the cow?! A lady sitting right in front of us raised her hand and said she thought she knew where TWO of them were. "Two?", he asked. Ahhh...there were more. The lady told him she would make some calls and see if she could get some answers for him. Come to find out, there were FOUR of these large cows used outside of various businesses in Lexington in the 1950s. She had come up with leads on two of them, for sure. And, thought she could lead him to the other two. Well, Charles was ecstatic! Which, that is another of his attributes...he is genuinely excited about mid-century Americana. It is his passion, for sure.

We need to follow up and find out from Charles if he laid eyes on at least one of these cows! I'm betting he either has, or will at some point in the near future.

We were quite honored to be noticed by Charles as following the intermission and his question and answer period, he pointed us out and said, "I assume most of you have noticed that Lucy and Desi are with us this evening - looking fabulous. Stand up Lucy and Desi and let everyone see how fabulous you are." LOL! That kind of made the night pretty special.

Charles Phoenix is also an author and a cook. He has several books out that you can find on Amazon and other sites. We purchased his latest book, Addicted to Americana, and plan to add to that to what we plan to be a growing collection of Charles Phoenix books! We took the book with us to the event and had Charles sign it, of course. But, the signing also allowed us to spend a few minutes with this interesting man as well. And for the record, he is as genuine as they come!

So, if you are a traveler, like we are, and want to discover some of the lost treasures of mid-century America, the books of Charles Phoenix need to be a planned purchase. We have already put ours in The Not So Long Trailer and look forward to pulling it out soon, as we too, traverse the US in search of all things kitschy and unusual from our country's mid-century past.

You can follow Charles on Instagram at _charlesphoenix and on Facebook at Charles Phoenix.

#charlesphoenix #americana #midcenturymodern #addictedtoamericana

Jamestown, NY - Home Of Lucille Ball and The "Lucy Fest"

We once again traveled to western NY to Lucy's hometown for the annual Lucille Ball Comedy Festival! Admittedly, the festival may be one of the least publicized festivals in which we have ever attended or participated. It's something that we have questioned and inquired about from several of the locals in Jamestown. It's like one of those "best kept secrets". Most locals feel that the festival is not highly promoted because the town itself is very protective of Lucy and her roots. They are extremely proud, but it is not something they want to shout from the mountain tops.

I suspect that it probably has more to do with the fact that if they DID heavily promote it, they may have more response and attendance than this little town can handle. So, I can certainly understand that. With a population of just over 30,000 people, that number could easily be doubled, tripled or even multiplied ten fold with adoring fans of Lucille Ball. The infrastructure of the town just couldn't handle it. Still, people DO come from all over the world just to attend the festival. How they have found out about it generally varies, but most have to do a little searching and Googling to find news of the festival.

We honestly didn't know anything about the festival until we made stop into Jamestown on our way home from an east coast trip in October of 2016. Jeff had discovered that Jamestown WAS the birthplace of Lucille Ball and her childhood home was located in nearby Celeron. In discovering this, he found out about the museum, the park and the burial site that honors the beloved redhead. He surprised me with a stopover in Jamestown on that trip, which was before the new National Comedy Museum opened in August of 2018. It was then that someone mentioned that we needed to come back for the "Lucy Fest" (as the locals call it) in August. It is held near her birthday, August 6, each year. The Lucille Ball Comedy Festival, as it is officially called, runs Wednesday thru Sunday during the first full week of August. It generally features concert-type events by top-name comedians on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights. Some past participants have been: Jerry Seinfeld, Lilly Tomlin, Lewis Black, Jim Gaffigan, Jay Leno, Nick Offerman, Amy Schumer, Paula Poundstone, Kevin James, Robert Klein and John Mullaney, just to name a few.

The 2020 Lucille Ball Comedy Festival is scheduled on August 5-9. Which means, that the Thursday events will fall directly on Lucy's birthday. I'm sure there will be some special events planned for that day.

As for us this past year, we were invited to participate in the Saturday City Market during the festival. We opened our little Not So Long Trailer to the public so they could get a first hand look inside and we also did a few musical numbers during the four-hour market event. We met SO many avid Lucy fans, of course. And, everyone was very kind. We had one little incident where someone stole a small item from inside the camper, but nothing that couldn't be replaced. The store owners of Jamestown are always very accommodating and welcome us each year. We can't say enough nice things about the local small business operators of the town. The museum staff and comedy center staff are little less inviting, for some reason. We have never really figured that out. Perhaps they see us as a threat or something when we show up dressed as Lucy and Desi. It's a little strange that they generally just ignore us, but as I said, the rest of the town is most welcoming.

The following photos are some of the highlights of our trip to Jamestown for the 2019 festival.

I Truly LOVE Lucy

Yesterday, August 6, marked the 108 birthday of Lucille Ball. To celebrate, like so many others who have a deep admiration and love of Lucy, I celebrated at the theatre as five new colorized episodes of I Love Lucy were released by Fathom Events. It is such a great testament to Lucy that the theatre was completed sold out; and I understand that most all theaters around the country were as well. She is positively timeless.

Now, we are making our way up to Jamestown, NY on this Wednesday evening. Currently, camping just north of Columbus, OH at Berkshires Campground. Tomorrow we arrive in Jamestown, Lucy's hometown, and will set up camp for a few days and then enjoy the beauty of the Lake Chautauqua region, including Jamestown.

On Saturday, Jeff and I will be participating in the Jamestown Public Market with our Not So Long Trailer and plan to do a little entertaining as well. :)

SO looking forward to meeting others who, like us, have a passion for this iconic lady. She was a true gem that we will never see the likes of again.

Makeup on point and headed to see Lucy on the big screen!

My momma was able to join me at the theatre!

Spending the night north of Columbus, OH in our Not So Long Trailer and headed to Jamestown, NY tomorrow!