Post #551321 by aquarj on Tue, Aug 31, 2010 1:25 PM

Shopping Can Be Fun, 1957

Youtube film from the folks (folk?) at Malls of America, this is an amazing 17+ min overview of the Hillsdale Mall in San Mateo, CA. Includes a year's worth of special mall events, from a hula girl appearance for a camera store photography contest to an archery contest.

I wasn't sure about posting this because it's largely local interest, for locals like me. Hillsdale Mall is literally blocks from the Villa Plaza with the brand new Villa Hotel and the once great Lanai restaurant which was built 7 years earlier in 1950. Also the Bel-Mateo Bowl, with its beautiful googie sign facing El Camino on one side and its giant steel totem pole on the other (totem not tiki, mind you). Although the Lanai and the bowling alley don't show up in this film, you can just feel how they all went together in this slice of midcentury mid-peninsula life!

-Randy

[ Edited by: aquarj 2010-08-31 13:28 ]