SoCal with Val 10 03 25 Guests Charles Phoenix

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:23):
I have a confession to make. I thought I knew
southern California. I've driven the freeways a thousand times, eaten
at some of the diners, walked past the neon signs,
cruised through downtown like its Tuesday, and then I met
today's guest. Imagine this nineteen ninety two, a thrift store

(00:47):
somewhere in Los Angeles. A young man is digging through
racks of vintage clothing when he spots it, a dusty
shoe box shoved between old bowling shoes and a makrom planter.
On the box, someone had scribbled and faded in trip
across the USA in nineteen fifty seven. He opens it

(01:10):
inside coda chrome slides, hundreds of them, a family he'd
never met, roadside diners he'd never visited, station wagons gleaming
like spaceships, motel shaped like tps.

Speaker 2 (01:25):
And colors, Oh.

Speaker 1 (01:26):
My gosh, the colors so vivid they look like they'd
been dipped in liquid sunshine. That box changed his life.
Now he owns two hundred slides, two hundred thousand slides,
probably more. He's appeared on Conan, Martha Stewart, and Cake Wars.
He's host tours of downtown LA that proved we're all

(01:47):
living in a theme park and we don't know it.
He's got a YouTube series where he celebrates cars so
beautiful they make you weep. This man grew up on
a used car lot in Ontario, californ Hornia, learning to
identify every single make, model, and year of automobile. By
the time he was six, yes, six years old, While

(02:09):
other kids were playing with hot wheels, he was memorizing
tail fans and chrome bumpers like they were scripture. He
moved to La to become a fashion designer and got
fired from every single job. So he did what any
reasonable person would do. He became a vintage car dealer.

(02:31):
My guest can look at a nineteen sixty old mobile
and tell you it's dreams.

Speaker 2 (02:37):
He lives in an apartment.

Speaker 1 (02:38):
Where nothing, I mean nothing was made after nineteen sixty five,
and somewhere along the way, he invented a dessert so American,
so excessive, and so absolutely insane that the Wall Street
Journal called it the Turducan of desserts. Three pies, three cakes,
one glorious monstrosity. And this man is the profit of Polyester,

(03:01):
a wizard of mid century magic. And today he's ours.
So fasten your seat belts, adjust your rear view mirror,
and hold onto your vintage sunglasses because ladies and gentlemen,
Charles Phoenix, the King of retro, is in the house
and he's ours for the next few minutes on So

(03:24):
cow with Val Welcome Charles Phoenix to our show.

Speaker 3 (03:27):
Thankyeval for that amazing intro, you covered it all practically.

Speaker 2 (03:33):
Well, we are so glad to have you here.

Speaker 1 (03:36):
We all, i'm sure can relate and wish we had
some of the knowledge and background that you have. So
this is going to be a fascinating hour. I'm so
so excited to have you here. Start at the beginning,
of course, everybody wants to know.

Speaker 3 (03:49):
My dad had to use car lot and just as
from it early as I can remember, the sparkling cars
just captured my imagination. And I was very young when
I started to recognize, as you know, being individual and different,
and I just you know, it just kind of hardwired
me to really appreciate them. And my appreciation for the
classic cars then led to my appreciation for that whole

(04:12):
arc of that kind of mid century vintage that you
know was quite celebrated today and I'm one of the
main celebrators of it, although there are many, but you
mentioned also the vintage codochrome slides, so yes, that kind
of was the turning point when I was well, when
I was thirty, wait, thirty one, when I or no, thirty, sorry,

(04:34):
when I discovered someone else's code chrome slides in the
thrift stores you mentioned in the intro, and that really
really really changed my life. And I've been doing retro
slide shows since nineteen ninety eight, so that's really my
main gig is sharing these vintage slides and going in
search of some of the places that I see in

(04:55):
these slides and kind of telling the stories of what happened.
And you know, it's always kind of, you know, something
wacky happens or interesting or another discovery. So the shows
that I do are really about storytelling and just sharing
the glories and stories of mid century Americana. So and
it's so colorful. I just you know, it's such a

(05:18):
time rich with style and design, and everything was like hypercolorized,
like candy coated colors, the cars and just the furniture,
the whole world, fast food restaurants, diners, roadside attractions, theme parks,
everything was so colorful. We loved color. I love color
now and they loved color then. So yeah, I mean,

(05:40):
I don't know where I'm going with this, but yeah,
that's that's okay.

Speaker 1 (05:43):
No, my mom had My mom had olive green carpet
and the walls in our dining room were painted orange
and I'll never forget that.

Speaker 3 (05:51):
So yeah, I think we need more of that. I'm
really you know, not to bring it down, but I'm
really done with all this gray everywhere. It's like, why wan,
people don't know color. They just they don't know how
to use it. They don't know how to apply it.
It's like gray is the cop out. But I don't
mean to go I'm an optimistic person, So let's not

(06:11):
take it down to gray. Let's take it up to color.

Speaker 2 (06:14):
Okay, let's see that.

Speaker 1 (06:16):
So you had the cars, But when did you realize
that your obsession actually extended beyond just automobiles. When did architecture,
neon signs and all of it start clicking.

Speaker 3 (06:25):
Well, that's a good question. I'll tell you. When it
really kicked in is when I started through shopping when
I was fourteen. I'll never forget it. My mother walked
into the living room, and she said it was a
Saturday afternoon. I was sprawled out in front of the television,
and she's like, you know you're not good at sports,
so I've signed you up to try out for a
local production of Oklahoma at the Community Theater. And I thought,

(06:48):
I have no idea what that is, but okay, I'm
kind of I could sing because I sang in school
and stuff. So okay, we went down there and I
sang a song and they said, you've got a part
in the chorus. So they said, but there's only one thing.
You have to go across the street to the thrift
store and get a cowboy shirt. So I thought, okay,
I've never been in a first store before. I mean,

(07:09):
I'm a child of shopping malls. I went into the
thrift store. I threw open the double doors of the
former Buick showroom, and I took two steps in, took
one step back, looked around, and I said, this place
has my name on it. I was immediately struck and
inspired and interested in everything in the thrift store. So
that is when my thrift store shopping habit started. That's

(07:33):
really what began my journey on and beyond the cars
into clothes and furniture, and then later even architecture just
you know, the built environment, just the world of it all.
So I've spent my entire you know, since fourteen years
old really and even earlier with the cars, studying that

(07:54):
kind of you know, basically, it's the fifties and sixties
into the seventies and some forties, you know, post war.
You know, so once I you know, once we got
to the eighties, it kind of it kind of you know,
starts to wane a little bit. Is the sixties, the fifties,
the post war era of the forties. I mean, it's

(08:15):
just what I love about it more than anything. I mean,
we just talked about color. Color, color, everything's colorful. Is
the optimism. It was the era of optimism. It was
the era of empowerment, especially to well, let's just space
at the middle class. I mean, you know what was
afforded the middle class. Then it's just so incredible. The
cars that look like rocket ships and that were you know,

(08:38):
really just the different styles every year, so you know,
the furniture that the just everywhere you went. There was
a lot of whimsy in the world. I mean in
the United States, I'll just speak for the United States.
That's my expertise. But you know, just so much whimsy,
and you know, that's that's what I gom onto and

(08:59):
that's I try to share and celebrate.

Speaker 1 (09:02):
And even in the kitchen appliances, right, we had harvest gold, right.

Speaker 3 (09:07):
Oh, I mean you're you're just scratching the surface. I mean, yeah,
first there were the pinks and the yellows, the pastels
of the fifties, and then in the sixties they kind
of did the fall colors. The you know, we can
call it pumpkin spice then, but let's call it that now,
the pumpkin spices, the harvest golds, the avocado greens, or
the olive green. Yeah, classic, I mean, And you know

(09:29):
the thing is is if someone like really goes over
the edge now and does one of those color schemes
and a remodel of a kitchen or whatever, whether it's
new stuff or old stuff, people walk in the door
and that you know, it's stunning. I mean because ninety
nine percent of the people out there just have like
a gray a gray kitchen.

Speaker 2 (09:48):
Absolutely.

Speaker 3 (09:48):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (09:49):
So you've said that that thrift stores were the school
of style and museums of merchandise.

Speaker 2 (09:56):
Those I think are your words?

Speaker 1 (09:58):
Yes, so you loved go going there and just digging
through them.

Speaker 3 (10:02):
Oh, one hundred percent. I mean absolutely an education. I
mean when I used to thrift shop. I mean I
basically stopped thrift shopping at about thirty so well maybe
a little after that. But you know when I found
the slides when I was thirty years old, after having
thrift shopped since I was fourteen, I you know, I
studied everything. When I would go through shopping, I would

(10:24):
virtually look at everything. I mean, the one thing I
remember I didn't look at like kids clothes, and I
don't know, there was maybe a couple other things that
I didn't really look at, but I looked at the
men's clothed, the women's clothes, all the furniture, all the gadgets,
all the bric a brac. I looked at it all,
and I bought a bunch of stuff. I mean, I
cycled through so much. And I remember when I first

(10:46):
moved out to LA from where I grew up in Ontario, California,
I was nineteen new years nineteen years old, and this
was nineteen eighty two, and you know, I'm like, okay, great,
this is my opportunity finally to buy some of this
furniture I've been eyeballing all these years. So I did
the living room in a beautiful blend of Western ranch
and Chinese modern, and people like would come over and

(11:06):
they were like, ah, they didn't even know what to think,
I mean, because it was a little over the top.
But I loved it. I thought it was creative. I
thought it was interesting and resourceful and colorful and unique.
I mean, I my style is what I call e collected.
So if I gave you a home tour right now,
I would be able to show you. I mean, virtually
everything in my house has a story. It came from somewhere,

(11:30):
not like you know, a store or you know, I mean,
well you know a retail place. I mean it came
from like a vintage or a state sale or whatever.
So I started, you know, when I was about thirty,
I discovered a State sales. And that's really after I
had just discovered the slides, and that was really the
place where I found the bulk of my archive. So now,
after thirty three years of collecting other people's old slides

(11:53):
and twenty two years of my librarian, I call her
my assistant we have developed this amazing archive and I'm
very proud of it. I mean, it's a world class
archive of codachrome size. Everything is in their categories that
we have, you know, kind of figured out as needed
by me to create all these different shows that I
do with, you know, using many, many different topics that

(12:17):
I'm able to cull out of the slide show out
of the slide archive. And you can see my slide
shows there. Most of them or many of them are
on YouTube because during the pandemic, you know, we couldn't
go out or whatever, so I started doing online slide shows. Well,
they're all archive there. I mean, these are titles like
Southern California in the fifties, Long Beach, your producer Patrick

(12:40):
lives in Locky, Long Beachland, Florida, Land, New York City, Land,
San Francisco, Land, Colorado Land. I mean, it goes on
and on and on. There's some other kind of obscure
topics like supermarket superstars and Mad for mid Century, and
there's a Loha Lands, Hawaii. I mean, there's a lot.
There's a lot of shows you can just go on
right now. You can go on my website and click

(13:01):
on them. Charlespoenix dot com or you can just go
search me on YouTube and they will show up and
they're you know, you're kind of marathon shows because they
were from the pandemic when no one was going anywhere.
But anyway, it gives me an idea of my archive
and how I you know, curate the images that I
find specific to a topic and talk about them. And

(13:22):
you know, I could talk about this stuff all day long,
I mean, because it's also interesting and there's so many
points to cover.

Speaker 1 (13:29):
Well it is and as we talked off show, my
Mom is going to be one hundred and six actually
October eighteenth, and we still have so we had the
early slides. You know, we've got boxes of slide little slides,
and then we had one of those little.

Speaker 2 (13:44):
Viewers, yeah, with the slide in view. So we know
we need to get those.

Speaker 1 (13:48):
You have to have to talk again on how to
get those out of slide format into picture slidelt slide format.
But let's talk about Okay, so you're thrift shopping nineteen
ninety two, your thrifts.

Speaker 2 (14:00):
Tell me about the box.

Speaker 3 (14:03):
Well, you know, here's what was happening. I mean, seriously,
this is this is the craziest story. So literally, I
was thrift shopping. I thought I was walking through the
thrist store, and all of a sudden, out of nowhere,
this voice inside spoke to me. This is exactly how
it all went down. Money of the story, this life

(14:23):
altering moment that happened to me in a thrist store.
I was okay, just as usual. I was thrift shopping,
and all of a sudden, out of nowhere, I got stopped,
like in the middle of an aisle, and like a
ton of bricks hitting me. The voice inside said, stop,
stop thrift shopping. You've had enough, you've seen enough, you've
been here, done that. Time to move on. And I

(14:46):
just like I just stood there, stunned, and I'm like, uh,
you know what am I? What do I do? And
and then I answered myself. I said, okay, you're right,
voice inside, I'll stop. I have had enough, I've bought,
I've collect did I you know what I didn't want?
I donated back whatever. You know, I'm done. But I said,
just just voice inside, give me five four minutes, I'll

(15:09):
and I won't be thrift shopping anymore. Well literally, in
really five minutes, I found that little blue shoe box
mark drip across the United States nineteen fifty seven, and
that is what pushed me over the edge and changed
my life. I opened the box up and it was
like I heard the angel singing like a choir. And
I held a slide up and I looked at it

(15:31):
and it was beautiful. We didn't have slides in my family,
so I wasn't I mean, I was familiar with them,
but you know, I held one up and it was
like some roadside attraction and the cars and the people.
And I held a couple more up and I put
the lid back on it, and I said, this is
a treasure with my name on it. I made a
bee line for that cash register before someone could say, hey,
those are mine or those aren't for sale today or whatever,

(15:52):
and I got them home. I looked at him like
driving in the car on the way home. Before we
were on the cell phone while we were driving, I was
on looking at slides on the way. So I started
collecting right away, and about you know, I'd say five
years later, I decided to have a slide show in
my living room for some friends. I thought, well, I
want to share these because I'm sitting here looking at them,
and so I picked out some of my favorites, and

(16:14):
I thought, I don't know if my friends are gonna
lie these or if they think I'm crazier what now?
This is the era before found photography had become a thing,
a thing. So I lined a few people up on
my you know, three passengers sofa over here, two passengers
sofa over there, and two side chairs, and I started
showing slides and they were like, these are amazing. And

(16:34):
that night a friend said, you know, at the California
Map and Travel Center in West Los Angeles, they do
a slide show every Monday night, and you should go
do a slideshow there. So I thought, okay, So I
went over there and I talked to the lady owner
and she's like, well, nobody would ever want to see
other people's old vacation slides? No way, uh huh. And

(16:55):
I'm like, you know, she says, we present, you know,
the slides of people have just gone to the Galopucos
or Easter Island or you know, Burma or whatever, but
old vacation slides. No. I said, I'll tell you what,
I'm going to bring some. I'll be back in a week.
So I brought a sleeve full of them with a
loop so she could see them. I said, this is
what I'm talking about, and she's like, oh, well yeah,

(17:17):
oh gosh, yeah, no that's oh these are yeah, Oh
it's okay. I booked the show, and I actually created
a show with the beginning middle inn and in it
was a trip across the United States. And what happened
was that night someone from the La Times happened to
be there from the home magazine remember well in Los
Angeles science magazine, and I guess they don't happen anymore,

(17:39):
but she wrote a big story about this, and she said,
in order for me to publish this story, though I
have to have you have to have another date for
a show. So I then booked it. At the there
was a travel store in a distant lands in Pasadena,
so I went over there and they said, yeah, we'll
do that, and so three hundred people showed up and
I was off to the races. So I was doing

(18:01):
shows and coffee houses and you know, anywhere that would
have me. And about six months later a guy I
was on the Third Street promenade doing a show in
a coffee house, and this guy came up to me
after the show and he said people would pay for this,
and I'm like, okay, but you know, here's the funny thing.
What I didn't realize, And it happened to the very
first slide show. I didn't realize I was serious about it.

(18:23):
But about the third slide in on the very first show,
I said something, the whole audience just burst into laughter,
and at that moment, another light bulb went off, and
I'm like, Okay, that's how you want to enjoy this,
So we want to not laugh at We're never laughing at,
only with and the joy of celebrating these beautiful images

(18:46):
and kind of the celebration of our collective experience and
our collective you know, Americana that we all share became
a very thrilling experience for me and the audiences. And
I've been doing these retro slide shows ever since the
first one was nineteen ninety eight.

Speaker 1 (19:06):
I have to ask a quick question, did you ever
find out who the family was who brought those slides?

Speaker 3 (19:10):
Never?

Speaker 2 (19:11):
No, too bad?

Speaker 3 (19:13):
Yeah no, but once in a while, I mean it's
happened a couple times where people recognize people in the slide.
It's like, that's my parents' best friend. That was my
drama teacher in eighth grade. It's happened.

Speaker 2 (19:24):
Interesting, interesting, that's fascinating.

Speaker 1 (19:27):
So then you started going to other places and did
they pay you for it?

Speaker 3 (19:31):
Yeah, I mean I started charging ten dollars and no
one ever said I'm not going to wells. People did
say I'm not going to pay they didn't show up,
but I mean I thought, you know, I need money
like everybody else. So you know, that's it turned into
an enterprise, turned into the business.

Speaker 1 (19:47):
So you started collecting more slides. So where did you
find them? What were you looking for?

Speaker 3 (19:52):
Where you were American? Anything? Mid century so slide codochrum.
Slide photography started you know, basically in the late thirties,
but it didn't really get into the hands of the
amateurs until post war so late forties, so you know
it documents color so well, So I mean it was
a very colorful era. So the heyday of it was
the fifties and sixties and seventies, and that's the era

(20:14):
that I collect because that's what's out there. And so
every collection that I get, I mean there's been you know,
countless collections over the past thirty three years. Basically I
go through every collection and I edit anything out that
I don't think would ever be of interest to me
or to anybody else for any reason, like out of
focus pictures of dirt gone. I never need to see

(20:36):
those again. And you know it's a lot of you
need a lot of eyepower to look at this stuff
because you're looking through a loop like this and anyway,
so yeah, so I just you know, I kept collecting
basically for about the first ten years of collecting. I
would go to a state sales and I could spot
them a mile away without even with blinders on. I

(20:56):
already know every estate sale the slides back in the day.
I don't know about now because I don't do a
state sales anymore. But they were always in a box
under a table. That's how they put them out, because
they weren't a thing or whatever. And you know, most
of the time the boxes were five dollars for all
the slides. And you know, I have found some amazing
slides over the years images and you know, those are

(21:18):
the ones that wind up in my shows and also
in my books. You know, I was able to do
several books over the last you know, I mean, this
is a long time of collecting. So you know, I've
done a lot already with these slides, and you know,
it's it's basically you know, gosh, I look in the
mirror and I say to myself, you're a very resourceful person.
You kind of took a pile of whatever and turned

(21:39):
it into you know, these shows and these books and everything.
So I'm really proud of what I've done, and I
you know, done something quite different than you know, it's
a creative endeavor that you know most people haven't done.

Speaker 1 (21:52):
You absolutely shouldn't be and you're one of those people
who saw an opportunity and didn't grab down to it.

Speaker 2 (21:59):
You're a magic nation.

Speaker 1 (22:00):
Took you to another place that no one had been
to before, and you did something with it.

Speaker 2 (22:06):
And you're right. It's really a.

Speaker 1 (22:07):
Very short window because they started using photography and slides
and now they don't, right, So it's very it's a
very short window really in the scope of life.

Speaker 2 (22:17):
Yes, and so that's also what makes it very unique.

Speaker 3 (22:21):
Yeah, totally. I mean slides yet ended. I mean they
stopped developing codochrome I think in two thousand, well eleven,
I think, so there is no more codochrome. It doesn't
exist anymore. You cannot it just you can't process it.
And I hate to say it, but I mean, and
though I'm not a super like chemical kind of person,
but I'm pretty sure I could be wrong, but I'm

(22:44):
ninety five percent sure. I hope I'm wrong that processing
codochrome film caused nuclear waste.

Speaker 2 (22:50):
Oh do you think so?

Speaker 3 (22:52):
Well? I hope I'm wrong, but I mean it's kind
of crazy. I should know. I should know. But you know,
I'm not really a mechanical person. I'm not an engine
I'm not technical really. I mean, I can do the
stuff that I need to do, but I'm more of
a visual person. I learned from Disney, Like I literally
learned from Disneyland. That's where that was where my brain

(23:12):
got hardwired. And there was one particular I mean, well,
I'll just back up a second. You know, the themes.
Everything every place you go practically has a theme. Everything
has a theme, so you know, kind of and so
you know, I by the time I'm five years old,
I'm like, oh, I totally get it. This is like
Main Street USA theme, like vintage, you know, turn of

(23:35):
the century Americana. And I would see these themes that
are places we went like restaurants or you know, other
theme parks or whatever. I'm like, oh not, it's very
farm that's like Frontierland, I get, it's all kind of western,
uh huh. Or you know, Adventureland is kind of teaky,
you know, exotica, and then you know, Fantasy Land's kind
of old world, you know, Whimsy Tomorrowland is futuristic. So

(23:57):
everywhere we would go, I would like, you know, what
style is this? I mean, even though I wasn't really
using that word, but that's where my brain really got
hard wired to be so visual and to really be
able to recognize styles and designs and kind of categorize it.
And then as I went forward, it just all kind
of fell into place. But the one attraction at Disneyland
that really knocked me out, that really finally gave me

(24:20):
the spine to really hold it all together. The knowledge
in my head was this attraction called the carousela progress,
which is where it's long gone. Now it's been gone
for fifty years, but where you went through time. You
went through a household progress starting about late eighteen hundreds,
and then they were in the twenties, then they were
in the like forties, and then they were like in

(24:42):
the sometime beyond the year of nineteen seventy three or whatever,
and it just knocked me out to see progress. I
love time. I love time capsules, I love time warps.
But my mind files everything by theme and mostly more
than any by numbers, which is time. So the years

(25:03):
of everything. I'm really good in that mid centry era
of saying, you know, that piece of furniture is probably
from about nineteen, you know, fifty five, nineteen sixty. I mean,
I can really nail it down usually within a couple
of years, even like care dues and stuff, because of
seeing all these slides and seeing the dates on them.
I mean that's why when I watch like The Road

(25:24):
Show or whatever it's called, you know, Anti Crotel, and
someone's like, well, this is from the Byzantine era of whatever,
seventeen forty two to seventeen sixty five, and I might yeah,
they know that because they've studied that. And it's like
I feel the same way about what I've studied. I
can tell you, you know, because it's just things move
so quickly. Things change so quickly, materials and styles and fads.

(25:49):
So I love it, love it.

Speaker 2 (25:51):
Do you think any of that in your early years.

Speaker 1 (25:54):
Really early years came from seeing new model cars come on.

Speaker 3 (25:58):
Well, I mean that was part of it. I mean,
you know, kind of noticing how they changed, you know,
virtually every year back you know, in the fifties and
sixties and seventies, so I mean the progress of time.
I remember my brother was in school, so it would
be me with my mother and my grandmother, and they'd
take me shopping, and I really paid attention at the mall. Oh,

(26:18):
because every everywhere we went, like my grandmother would say, oh,
the hemn lines are up an inch this year. I
mean that's how it used to be. I mean, you remember,
probably so and I would go like, oh, that's interesting,
you know, or whatever. Or I would notice the trends
as we as the time went by, going to the
mall or to the yeah, the shopping malls, you know,

(26:41):
or they would say, oh, the toes are all square
on the show shoes this year. I mean I can
remember that was a really big deal. It was like
so crazy to me, but it just made sense for
me to be able to understand and follow that kind
of stylistic the trends and the fads. You know, it's
just it's just so interesting to me to see the
evolution of it all.

Speaker 1 (27:02):
And so it's very clear that you're celebrating the area era.
You're not mocking it.

Speaker 3 (27:07):
Oh no, I'm crating, and I hope I'm not mocking it. No,
I'm not mocking it at all. No, I respect it.
I'm putting pride out there, Pride of Americana, pride of
all the beauty and glory and the stories of all
of this this stuff and our lives. I mean, it's us,
you know, it's like a celebration of our own selves

(27:29):
when we look at all these places, all these spaces,
all this stuff, stuff, these things, you know, I mean,
you know we had it. We made it. You know,
we were our relatives and our friends and neighbors and
fellow Americans and whatever made this stuff. They I mean,

(27:50):
this is like, this is our culture. Let's we own it.
This is part of our history. And you know there's
this weird kind of like strain in our culture of
you know, well planned ops a lessons for sure, and
then anything kind of you know, out of date is
low class or TACKI well, some people feel that way,

(28:11):
but I don't. And people who collect vintage or antiques
or whatever. We don't really use the word antiques that
much anymore, but you know, old stuff or whatever. You know, collectors,
you know, I you know, often apologize. I meet a
lot of collectors and they're like, oh, I know, I've
collected so much. No, celebrate yourself. Pat yourself on the back.
I mean, celebrate what we've done, what we've created. I

(28:34):
mean the good, not the bad, but the good, you know.
And one thing I learned a long time ago. I
was at a guy's house in Venice Beach and he
had this amazing warehouse, just beautifully curated and displayed collection
of all kinds of things. And as I left, he said,
the art of being a good collector is being a

(28:55):
great editor. And that that hit me like a ton
of bricks. And I'm like, you're right. I mean, so
I've always kind of been one too. I'm not a hoarder,
and I'm not mad at hoarders. I mean, as long
as they're not damaging the stuff. But you know, I've
always been one to try to trade up. Well.

Speaker 1 (29:13):
I think it's also celebrating the really the minds of
the creators. I always find it fascinating trius I always
wonder what was what is that person like, who's somewhere
in their mind it sparked the design of a car, right,
or the use of certain colors, and so I like

(29:34):
the idea of you having maybe a more neutral background
and still popping your colors.

Speaker 2 (29:39):
I mean that's also really great.

Speaker 1 (29:41):
And I think that when you talk about, you know,
all the things that are created. Also, I think it's
amazing to think of the people who actually did it, right.
I mean, like how many people have been through a
thrift store and seen slides and nobody saw it the
way that you did.

Speaker 3 (29:56):
Well. I mean now people have, but you know, they
they saw Now it kind of became a thing. But
you know, I mean basically it's it's all really, I mean,
at the end of the day, the whole modus operandi
here is consumerism, you know, productivity and consumerism. But the
the pop culture explosion of style and design and color

(30:19):
and you know and optimism that happened after World War
Two in this country is second in scale only to
the Big Bang. I mean, it was just massive, you know.
I mean we're still on it. We're still we're still
you know kind of happen. It's still happening. But I
mean at the beginning in the fifties and stuff. I mean,
you know, you could get cars and you know, one

(30:41):
hundred and forty two different color combinations, and you know
they came in, you know, all these color and red, green, blue,
turquoise interiors, you know, all these just it was just
wild with variety and all that. So you know that's
that's a really big deal to me, and you know,
I want to celebrate that. I mean, and so so

(31:02):
much more. I mean you mentioned, like, you know, appliances
and stuff. I mean the same thing. I mean, like
what color do you want? I mean, how do you choose?
There's like, you know, six or eight colors to choose from. Now.
You know, it's kind of great. So I'm not saying
it was a better time. I'm not really, that's not
my message. I mean, I don't think i'd want to
go back in time because if I did, I'd be

(31:23):
shocked at how you know, I mean the bad stuff
that we kind of like know of, But you know,
it's interesting to study the good stuff. The stuff, you know,
the stuff is fun. Just the design and the style.
I mean, that's what I really consider myself as a
style and design expert mid century more than anything.

Speaker 2 (31:46):
Absolutely.

Speaker 1 (31:47):
So you've written books specifically about the Ammona Valley A.

Speaker 3 (31:51):
Well one, yeah, my first book. I grew up in
the Pumento Valley and I moved to La Silver Lake
when I was nineteen, and I just moved away from
there just a couple of months go for the first time.
So I lived there a long time. But you know,
it was like in the late nineties, you know, I
was kind of fed up with people going like, you're
from Ontario, ooh, you know, and I thought, wait a minute,

(32:11):
now there's I mean, yeah, I left for a reason.
I wanted to be in the city to kind of,
you know, enjoy what all the city has to offer.
And I did and I still do. But I thought,
wait a minute, now, there's some amazing places in Ontario, Like,
you know, there's some amazing buildings and some amazing you know,
cultural treasures, and Upland has some, and Clare Mount has

(32:32):
a bunch, and those those La County Fairgrounds, and Pomona
has some amazing you know, mid century and thirties architecture.
All this stuff had never been covered in a book
at all. So yeah, I wrote a book called Cruising
the Pomona Valley nineteen thirty through nineteen seventy art culture
and architecture in the Wait, what did I call it? Yeah,
cruising the Pomona Valley. Yeah. I then I said, yeah, art,

(32:55):
architecture and culture is something like that. In the Horn't
a Plenty, I called this era a horn of plenty.
Little did I know that I would come back here. So,
but here I am. You know, it's like weird how
life works.

Speaker 2 (33:07):
But you're right.

Speaker 1 (33:08):
I mean we talked before about me working in upland
you go up and down Euclid and the old gorgeous
old houses, in the old buildings and all the history
from that whole area.

Speaker 2 (33:19):
It's pretty amazing that people don't think about. They don't
it's pretty incredible.

Speaker 1 (33:25):
So if someone's listening now and thinking, well, I want
to see California, southern California through Charles Phoenix's eyes, where
would they start?

Speaker 3 (33:34):
Well, boy, that is about the biggest question I've ever
been asked, I swear, because you know, it takes a
lifetime to see it all, so you know, it kind
of depends. I mean, you know, that's that's a big
giant question. I mean, you know, literally, It's like my
first question is, well, you know, was there something you've
always wanted to visit or a place you've always wanted

(33:55):
to see that you haven't. Let's start with there, because
anytime anybody says I'm coming to californ when you where
should I go? I always say, you know, well, first
of all, that question, well, is there must be something
you've already heard of you want to see? How long
are you going to be here? How much driving do
you want to do? And it's all about planning logistically,
Like if you're going downtown La, I mean there's enough

(34:16):
you know, you could spend months downtown La, you know,
in that vicinity, or you could spend a day, So
I mean how much time do you have? But you know,
I mean I like all the classic attractions. I mean,
let's just start with one of the the oldest tourist
attraction in all of Los Angeles, the Librea tar Pits.
That literally is the oldest tourist attraction, if not the

(34:36):
San Gabriel Mission, but the Librea tar Pits where you
go and there's oil bubbling up in the ground. Alvera Street.
I love Alvera Street. I love old Chinatown I love
Little Tokyo. You know, of course not. It's very farm
as iconic. I mean, are you going to Disneyland? Are
you Disneyland people? You know? I can recommend several diners.

(34:59):
We used to call them cough shops. Now we call
them diners. Norms on los Enega is an iconic Googi
style diner. Google style represents or means, you know, mid
century modern gone wild. So we have Pans Coffee Shop
near Lax.

Speaker 2 (35:15):
If you're going to be I video of you there.

Speaker 3 (35:18):
Yeah, yeah, you're going to go to Pans at Lax.
You got to go to see the giant donut Randy's Donuts,
which is when yeah, I mean it's the giant doughnut
on top of the little donut stand. Built in nineteen
fifty one. There were nine of them originally four of
them still exist, but only one is called Randy's. Originally
they were called the Big Donut Drive In, but you
got to see that. I mean, to me, the Big

(35:39):
Donut Drive In Aka, now Randy's. For decades, it's been
over fifty years. It's the most important commercial building of
the twentieth century, hands down. There's no more important building
in the United States. Than Randy's Donuts. And we could
get into that, but we shouldn't right now because we're
talking about other places to go. I mean, yeah, it's
just there's too many. So it's like what area are

(36:01):
you going to be in? You know, That's that's how
I answer, you know. I mean there's other restaurants. The
Magic Lamp in on Route sixty six. Have you been
to Chris and Pitts Barbecue in Bellflower? I mean I'm
talking about highly not in belfour.

Speaker 2 (36:17):
There was one I think in Anaheim.

Speaker 3 (36:19):
Moment to that, yeah, there was one in Anaheim, but
not as Onombiyonsacle. That's a word I made of on
Beyonsacle as the one of Bellflower. That one's so painted
like a log cabin on the outside and it is
absolutely stunning. So I mean, you know, oh you like gardens, Okay, fine,
then you got to go to the Huntington Library and gardens.
We're here in Clermont, we have the Botanical Garden. I

(36:40):
mean in Long Beach you've got a Rancho Los Amigos
and Rancho Low's Weight. What's the other one called Bixby Ranch.
I mean there's just so much. You want a boat ride? Fine,
go to Catalina Catalina avalon unbelievable time capsule. I love Kathleen,
you got to go there and spend the night and
do all the two is the glass bottom boat. I mean,

(37:01):
talk about a time capsule. I love heritage experiences. I
like places that have a story. I like to walk
in the door and go, what decade are we in?
You know, I'm not that interested in going in new
places at all. I mean I go sometimes because I'm
with people or whatever and that's where they're going or whatever,
But not me on my own. Uh uh. I want.

(37:23):
I want layers of time. That's what I like. I
like to look through the layers of time. That's what
I want. I want a story. I want a glory.
Have you been to the north Woods Inn in Rosemead
with the fake snow on the roof the giant log
cabin restaurant. There's also one in Comma, So you know
there's stuff everywhere all over the place. I mean, yeah,

(37:44):
they're kind of going falling like flies. But I mean
I don't mean that in a negative way, but I mean,
you know, as time goes by. We've been to Vince's
Spaghetti in my home down of Ontario. They've been serving
spaghetti since nineteen forty five, the world's artest spaghetti house.
Have you been to? I mean Logan's Candy in my
hometown of Ontario, California, where they've been making candy since
nineteen thirty three. World class. You know, I like heritage,

(38:09):
I like history, I like time honored. That's me. So
you know, these are the places that I'm going to go.
And if you're hanging out with me, that's where we're going.

Speaker 2 (38:18):
And that sounds exciting. So let's talk.

Speaker 1 (38:20):
I want our viewers and our listeners to hear about
your and comparison is not the right word. And all
my time, how you you've you've taken downtown Los Angeles
and turned it into the viewers' eyes of its own Disneyland.

Speaker 3 (38:39):
Well, I've been a tour of downtown LA starting it
was about two thousand and four to two thousand and fourteen,
I think, or maybe, well anyway, those are about the dates.
Anyway about you know, six times a year, I would
get a big bus full of people and you know,
we would we would I would compare and show them
Downtown LA as though it were a theme park. Union

(39:01):
Station train station they have a train station to Disneyland.
We'd ride the gold Line to Chinatown. And the way
that gold Line is up on the beam, and the
way banks and everything banks exactly the same way the
monoail banks at Disneyland, so we were on the monorail.
China Town was like, you know, kind of adventure landish
if you will, Old Chinatown. We'd have an egg roll

(39:23):
there in the Pagoda restaurant and you know, see several things,
go into one of the old gift shops, go into
the first Chinese lawyer's office. We would go to Alvera
Street and have taketos and see the oldest house in
Los Angeles and have a whole you know, unfolding of
Valvera Street. We went go to Clifton's Cafeteria when it
was still serving. That was kind of Frontierland. We would

(39:46):
go to the Bob Baker Marionette Theater that was you know,
like fantasy Land and see a little puppet show. I
would feed everybody that strawberry whipped cream cake from the
Phoenix Bakery. I mean that's not a theme, but I
just you know, people love that cake. I love that cake. Yeah,
And if you want a Great Cake, Phoenix, Fake Red
Downtown Los Angeles. No relation. They've been around since in

(40:08):
nineteen thirty eight.

Speaker 2 (40:10):
But you also did tours of Palm Springs that correct.

Speaker 3 (40:12):
I do. I still do the tours of Palm Springs
during Modernismweek dot com. Yeah, that's happening. We do a
double decker bus tour. It's about two and a half
hours and we go east, west, north and south in
Palm Springs and you know, I kind of show you
that they're there there of you know, a lot of stuff,
not everything you can't see at all. But yeah, that's
a good introduction to Palm Springs. I also do a

(40:33):
big retro slide show every year at Modernism Week. And
there are two Modernism Weeks in Palm Springs. One is
in October, the other one is in feb Brewery And yeah,
that happens. That's fun. We have a good time.

Speaker 2 (40:47):
We have one coming up I do.

Speaker 3 (40:49):
They're all sold out. But I also have some other
shows coming up and I wrote them down so I
wouldn't forget you tell us about them. What, Okay, October
the twelfth, that is uh oh wait to oh the
home tour in Claremont. My home is on tour. That's
why I might get to pull it together so it
looks really together. So yeah, that's Claremont Heritage dot org.

(41:11):
I think Claremont Heritage. This is their fortieth annual home Tour.
And when I moved in, they came over and five
minutes later and they said, your home's on the home
tour this year. I'm like, I can't. I just moved in.
No no, no, no, no, it's on. It's on. It's on.

Speaker 2 (41:22):
I'm like, it'll be fine, it'll be fine.

Speaker 3 (41:25):
So I said, well, maybe it's a good, you know,
a good way for me to really have a goal,
because goals are everything to me. Not I need deadlines.
And then October twenty fifth, I have Halloweenland that's part
of the Anaheim Fall Festival, which features my show Halloweenland
and the annual Halloween Parade that's been going on about

(41:45):
one hundred years, one hundred years in Anaheim. So yeah,
to get tickets for any of these things, you can
go to my website, Charles Phoenix dot com. Except for
the home tour that you have to go to. I
believe it's Claremont Heritage. But Halloweenland. October twenty fifth Anaheim
that you go to my website Charles Phoenix dot com.
November first, I'll be in Torrance for an evening with

(42:06):
Charles Phoenix. That's going to be fun the Torrents Civic Theater,
the James Armstrong Theater. So I'll be celebrating, you know,
all the stuff that I celebrate, and you know, I'm
celebrate it with the audience. It's not just me up
there like going on. It's it's a back and forth.
I mean, you know, the audience fills me and I
feel the audience. You know, that's kind of how it goes,

(42:26):
so you know, kind of escape into a wondrous world
of you know, where everything's fine. That's kind of the
place I take it. These are slide shows. I stand
on stage with a microphone and a spotlight and a
big screen next to me, and I click through and
I commentate, you know, and it's like stories. It's storytelling. Really,

(42:47):
it's storytelling, and I'm telling you what's wonderful and why
we should be interested in what we're looking at. So
in the audience, you know, they can tell because you
know they you know, that's why I you know, I
have this catchphrase that I use I know, I know,
you know, I know. I say I know a lot
in my shows, and it's basically sure, I know, you

(43:09):
know because you do know you know. It's like it's
like I'm not the only one that can see this.
I'm the one presenting it because I mean just the
way you're sitting there, I can see all their faces,
you know, in the reflected light of the screen. They're
all like, you know, it's like they're happy to see
all this stuff. I mean, it's fun. This is a
feel good and.

Speaker 1 (43:30):
They're nudging each other and going, look look at that,
look at that, right, remember that?

Speaker 2 (43:35):
Remember oh we had one of those cards.

Speaker 3 (43:37):
Right, people like we went there and I feel like saying, okay,
please not so loud. I never said that, Yeah we.

Speaker 2 (43:44):
Have one of those cards. Oh my mom had one
of those. Right, my mom had a dress like that?

Speaker 3 (43:49):
Right? Yes, I yeah, all of that. And you know,
even for the generations that didn't even live through this,
I mean, you know, if they're visually minded, they enjoy it.
You know, if there's i'll mind it. I mean, kids
people bring their you know, kids who have an attention span.
I mean often kids, you know, parents will know or
to not bring a kid or to bring their kid,

(44:11):
and kids like it, the grandparents like it. I mean,
my shows move quickly. The subjects change quickly from you know,
one image to the next. We don't linger too long,
so it moves right along. And it's like whoa, whoa, whoa,
you know, And I really tailor the shows, so one
image kind of informs the next, the next, the next.
And you know, I really enjoy putting these shows together.

(44:32):
They all have the beginning and a middle and an end,
you know, and I don't know, it just kind of happens.

Speaker 2 (44:38):
And you're so entertaining and so interesting to listen to.

Speaker 3 (44:40):
Well, thank you. I mean, you know, I just I'm
I'm being honest and being you know, I don't have
a script. I just you know, speak from my heart
really and my brain and my gut.

Speaker 2 (44:53):
And your love for all of.

Speaker 3 (44:54):
The things that yeah, exactly.

Speaker 2 (44:56):
I love this thing that you've brought to life.

Speaker 3 (44:58):
I mean, it's a privilege for me to get up
there and share this stuff, and for how to have
a whole theater full of people show up and give
time out of their busy lives to kind of just
share this. So it's a shared experience.

Speaker 1 (45:12):
We have to be sure we include in our show
to date your chair pump all time.

Speaker 2 (45:17):
Talk to us about this chure pumple that's.

Speaker 3 (45:22):
I invented verry pumpkin and apple. Yeah, I mean basically
I did invent this dessert. I have a whole arm
of my kind of octopus of things that I do,
which is I used. I really haven't done it lately,
but the test kitchen and all of these recipes, well
they're kind of basically edible centerpieces, and they're all in

(45:42):
my book Holiday Jubilee, which was published six years ago.
You can get an online Holiday Jubilee if you're getting
that when you might as well also get Americana the Beautiful.
That's another story altogether, but yes, yes, but anyway you
can get on get them on Amazon. But what I
was going to say was, oh, the your pumple so well, yeah,
three pies cherry, pumpkin and apple, each one stuffed in

(46:03):
a different layer of cake, apple and spice, pumpkin and
yellow and cherry and white, and then you stack and
frost with cream, cheese frosting. It is out of this world.
It is so good. It's big, it's heavy, it's bold,
but it is delicious, and I kind of figured it out.
I figured out to do that because you know, our
family on Thanksgiving we would always have I mean weirdly,

(46:24):
we would have those three pies always, and then we
would also have we would also have this cake that
my mother made, which was one layer of spice and
one layer of yellow. And it was just a family tradition.
And so I like, I'm like, wait a minute. Now
we have all these everyone wants a sliver of everything,
and they keep grazing. And there was a pile of

(46:46):
paper plates taller than me, and I'm like, you, guys,
I said, we need to have a family meeting. This
is after Thanksgiving one year. I said, look, we are
not a green family. We need to be a green family.
Too many paper plates. This is totally wasteful because every
time any one of you come back to get another
sliver of this dessert or that pie or that cake
or whatever, we're using another plate. So I said, that's it,
no more. I'm putting them all the desserts together next year.

(47:08):
So I put the cherry pie, the pumpkin pie, the
apple pie, and the cake together. I just needed one
more layer of cake, the white layer for the cherry
pie and boom, the chir Pumpu cherry pumpkin and apple
pie stuffed cake was born. So it kind of became
a cult thing. It's been about fifteen years ago now,
but yeah, the chriir Pumple.

Speaker 2 (47:27):
And the people send you pictures of theirs. Do they
make them in send picture totally?

Speaker 3 (47:31):
Yeah. They were like chr pumple drops contests and you
know all of that. So the thing is, though, if
you make a chripumple, there's two things you have to bake. Basically,
there's Sarah Lee pies. And it's funny because not to
not to talk whatever about Sarah Lee, but over the
years from the beginning to like, you know, just it's
been a couple of years since I've made one, but
I saw the pie filling, the amount of pie filling,

(47:53):
and the Sarah Lee pies go from like this to this,
I know. But anyway, the pies you have to bake
them first and then you you know, they put you
put the batter down and then you detend the pie
and you put it in there and put more batter
on top. That's how you bake them. But the pies
never know they've been baked twice. They just don't know
it and you want and then do you ever?

Speaker 1 (48:11):
Then is there a and I know I could go
in the cookbook and we've only got a second left.

Speaker 2 (48:14):
But then you put it like an icing hunter, which you.

Speaker 3 (48:16):
Oh yeah, no, cheese frosting. That's it. That's the crowning touch.
But the weird thing is is like the thing is
it might fall fail or hemorrhage, and if it does,
that's great. Yeah, I mean, perfect cakes are so overrated.
Perfection is so overrated. I almost set underrated. No, it's overrated,
like because like the cherry might start dripping out of
the side or whatever, the whole thing might go like
that or whatever. It's okay, it's okay. It's not about perfection.

(48:38):
It's about presentation. It's about heart and soul. It's about
gathering everyone around. I have the first big cut. You know.
People love that. So it's fun. It's fun.

Speaker 2 (48:47):
Yeah, absolutely, it sounds amazing.

Speaker 1 (48:49):
The fact we need to make one and my mom makes,
as I mentioned you, my month a little older and
then so I'm sure that she'll love making one for Thanksgiving.
It will probably make one for Halloween too. Maybe you
one for her birthday.

Speaker 2 (49:00):
I don't know. So I'm gonna ask you some questions
as we wrap this up.

Speaker 1 (49:04):
You've been on Conan, Martha Stewart, Jay Leno's garage.

Speaker 2 (49:07):
It's one of my favorites.

Speaker 1 (49:09):
Storage Wars and a cake store also, yep, So what
was your favorite?

Speaker 3 (49:16):
Well, I would have to say, I mean the one
that I well, I mean all of them. I mean well,
Martha Stewart, Jay Leno, and Conan. I mean they're all legends.
I will tell you Martha up close, you're this close.
She's gorgeous. Jay Leno couldn't have been nicer. I spent
four hours with him driving around. And then the other one.
I'm Conan, very different off stage than on, very poised
and intelligent acting off stage on stage, the crazy Conan.

(49:39):
So two kind of personalities there, but oh wonderful.

Speaker 2 (49:42):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (49:43):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (49:44):
Any moments from any of those shows, any disasters during me?

Speaker 3 (49:47):
Well, Martha, I was showing Halloween vined Halloween slides and
I showed a picture of a Bridezilla, and I don't
know what happened. I said, Martha, you could be Bridezilla,
and she said, I would never be Bridezilla. She like
snapped out and I'm like, oh. And then there was
another one off someone painted a pumpkin pink. I said, oh,
you could paint a pumpkin pink. She said, I would
never paint a pumpkin pink. I mean she like snapped

(50:08):
at me a couple of times. But it was it
was all on good fun.

Speaker 1 (50:11):
Yes, And I heard you talk about a little behind
the scenes and being a judge on the Cake Wars
about how you chose which cake you were going to
do is based on how good it looked on TV.

Speaker 3 (50:22):
Well, yeah, I mean we were choosing one winner, and
then the producer said, look at how it looks on
camera versus in person, and the one that chose doesn't
look as good on cameras the other one, and they
were right. So, you know. Weirdly though, on the show
that I was on Cake Wars, I mean, there was
virtually no cheating. The only cheating was when they said
you've got three hours. That meant three and a half hours.
You have, you know, an hour, that meant you had

(50:43):
an hour and a half. I mean that was it.
There was really no cheating. I mean it was real
and done in real time too, so it was it
was I mean interesting to see behind the scenes of
those shows. There was like seventy five people on the
staff or even eighty. It's a lot.

Speaker 1 (50:59):
I have to ask of all the things that you've done,
which is amazing and fabulous, and you've been able to
use your mind and create things that came from your
mind and your heart and your soul, which I think
is one of the greatest experiences of life when you
can do that, rather than just be in a box
and have to go to a job every day. You've
been able to build this amazing life. What's next? What

(51:22):
would you still like to do?

Speaker 3 (51:24):
Well, that's a very good question. You know, more of
the same, more of the same, I mean, just keep
evolving it. I want to do another couple of books.
Books are the hardest thing to do by far, I mean,
on every level. But more shows, you know, take it
around the country even more than I already have. I
mean I've played all over the country east, west, north
and south, but you know, go travel even more to

(51:44):
do my live shows. Celebrate and celebrate this country. Just
celebrate I mean, you know, so, I mean, be a
voice of uplifting voice. And if that's celebrating you know,
classic and care classic and Kitschee American Life and Style.
That's what it is. That's what I do. That's what
I'm proud to do. That's what i was born to do.
So that's why I'm doing it.

Speaker 2 (52:03):
And what a great thing.

Speaker 1 (52:04):
What a great great experiences and life and fun that
you bring and the joy that you bring to all
of us. Charles, thank you for being with us today.
What a delightful experience. I was so excited. I could
hardly believe that you had agreed to be on our show.
And I know that some of your friends have been
our guests as well, and all the experiences. I certainly

(52:26):
will be there in November, and I'll come to Anaheim
and watch you.

Speaker 2 (52:29):
That's close by us, the King of Retro.

Speaker 1 (52:32):
Ambassador of American. Oh, before we leave, I'm going to
interrupt myself. One thing is I saw you do cameos.
Talk to us about how someone can contact you and
you'll send a birthday or greeting wish to their loved one.

Speaker 2 (52:44):
I need to do that for my mom.

Speaker 3 (52:45):
Be telling me.

Speaker 2 (52:48):
So they just go on your website and order that.

Speaker 3 (52:50):
Click on cameo on my website. Charles Phoenix dot com
is my website and that's you know, I'm on Instagram
and Facebook and all of that. I'm just search Charles
Phoenix and you'll find me. But for cameo, you have
to go to my website and click on cameo and
I'll take you right there, and you order a greeting,
you know, and tell me a little bit of background.
No one ever says enough background. I always wish there
was more background. They fill out, you know, a form,

(53:12):
what's this about? You know, what's the subject? Tell me?
I want to know more. I always want to know more.
Where you're from, where you're you know, where are you
at that I can talk about the area because I
travel all over, so I always love to refer like
if they're from Seattle, well then I'm going to mention
something about the space needle or whatever or wherever.

Speaker 1 (53:28):
So yeah, So if you'd like Charles to send a
birthday greeting or a holiday greeting or anything like that
to any of your family members, going to his website
and order camera.

Speaker 2 (53:36):
It's very delightful.

Speaker 1 (53:37):
I saw some of them, and we're certainly going to
use that for my mom's upcoming birthday. But at any rate, Charles,
thank you the King of Retro, the Ambassador of Americana,
the Chancellor of Cheese.

Speaker 2 (53:47):
Thank you for taking us on this wonderful joy ride.

Speaker 1 (53:49):
Today has been an absolute blast in my pleasure and
we wish you all the best and we do hope
to see you very soon.

Speaker 2 (53:56):
Thank you, very very much.

Speaker 3 (53:57):
Very much appreciated. Thank you, Y