Today I'm posting photos of two Space Age wonders from the Orange Public Library's history collection. The first image (top) shows the Cinedome movie theater under construction in 1969. The second image shows the Luer Meat Rocket (no jokes please), in Orange's 1956 May Festival Parade. (The Soviets had rockets in their May Day parades too, but that was kinda different.)
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Charles Phoenix writes, "Luer was a meat-packing house that started in downtown Los Angeles in 1885. The 1950s era rocket ship was to them what the weenie mobile is to Oscar Meyer. It made countless appearances in local parades, super market grand openings and other civic events promoting their "quality meat" products. You could actually go inside of it... Surprisingly, fifty years later, this rocket still exists. Last I heard it’s old and weathered and sitting in a yard in Prescott, Arizona."
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One of my regular reads, the Viewliner Ltd. blog, has had some especially interesting posts lately, including historical glimpses of the Pacific Electric Railway, Knott's Berry Farm, Newport Beach, Laguna Beach, Huntington Beach, Disneyland, and more Disneyland.