Put your glad rags on, join the hop.
August 26, 2015 7:27 AM Subscribe
Mark Havens photographs the out-of-season motels of Wildwoods:
1 // Kona Kai // palms
Wildwood Motels: Midcentury Modern for Everybody
via NY Times
The Doo Wop Preservation League urges you to Tour the Retro Motels of Wildwood, New Jersey's Miami Beach. Doo Wop is an architecture style you might also know as Googie.
Wildwood Motels: Midcentury Modern for Everybody
via NY Times
The Doo Wop Preservation League urges you to Tour the Retro Motels of Wildwood, New Jersey's Miami Beach. Doo Wop is an architecture style you might also know as Googie.
When I die I want to be smushed, pressed, and entombed in a cantilever.
posted by notyou at 7:56 AM on August 26, 2015
posted by notyou at 7:56 AM on August 26, 2015
Oh-h-h-h, you mean Googie. I've never heard the term "Doo Wop" used in this context. Looks to be local to NJ.
It's nice to see these photographed:
a) in good condition, rather than the popular urban decay style.
b) with contemporary colors. Just as you can get the impression that WWII was fought in monochrome, you might think the 1950s was all either technicolor movies or faded overexposed postcards.
By the way, if that's supposed to be a quote from Rock Around The Clock, the line is "Put your glad rags on, join me, hon'" (rhymes with "one").
posted by Herodios at 7:56 AM on August 26, 2015 [2 favorites]
It's nice to see these photographed:
a) in good condition, rather than the popular urban decay style.
b) with contemporary colors. Just as you can get the impression that WWII was fought in monochrome, you might think the 1950s was all either technicolor movies or faded overexposed postcards.
By the way, if that's supposed to be a quote from Rock Around The Clock, the line is "Put your glad rags on, join me, hon'" (rhymes with "one").
posted by Herodios at 7:56 AM on August 26, 2015 [2 favorites]
I had to look up the place we used to stay when I was in high school and college and found it was set on fire and then torn down. It wasn't really mid-century modern at all and, to be honest, was a dump. But I still have fond memories of it.
posted by interplanetjanet at 8:08 AM on August 26, 2015
posted by interplanetjanet at 8:08 AM on August 26, 2015
These places have always terrified me.
Chigurh is there, sitting quietly in a dark room, looking at the closed door.
posted by aramaic at 8:15 AM on August 26, 2015
Chigurh is there, sitting quietly in a dark room, looking at the closed door.
posted by aramaic at 8:15 AM on August 26, 2015
I think these are pretty great. Especially, as noted above, they aren't totally trashed.
Some very cool buildings.
posted by Windopaene at 8:55 AM on August 26, 2015
Some very cool buildings.
posted by Windopaene at 8:55 AM on August 26, 2015
I love these, and I love that the people who own them understand how cool they are and have resisted the temptation indulged almost everywhere else to destroy them by modernizing them beyond recognition. Especially the signs!
posted by Fnarf at 9:06 AM on August 26, 2015
posted by Fnarf at 9:06 AM on August 26, 2015
with contemporary colors. . . .
Clarification: I meant that the photos had been taken and presented via contemporary color photographic processing -- not that the buildings has been painted recently.
posted by Herodios at 9:19 AM on August 26, 2015
Clarification: I meant that the photos had been taken and presented via contemporary color photographic processing -- not that the buildings has been painted recently.
posted by Herodios at 9:19 AM on August 26, 2015
Wildwood! Mr. bowtiesarecool and I went there on vacation for our wedding anniversary, even though everyone we knew basically warned us off that part of the shore as hard as they could. They said it was trashy, seedy, or otherwise questionable and told us to go to Cape May or Ocean City instead. We LOVED it. Many of the motels there have been lovingly revitalized and the owner/operators take great pride in making them nice (if expensive during the season) places to have a vacation. If you've ever been to and enjoyed the Neon Museum in Las Vegas, you'd probably love Wildwood. The signage is impeccably preserved and still in use all over the downtown core.
I realize lots of people prefer beaches empty of people in quiet peninsulas, but Wildwood is just a great, compact little beach town where you can get a cheerful room in a colorful motel with some plastic palm trees shading the pool, walk down to the boardwalk for some water ice and a whirl on the swings or the waterslides, and then get your feet sandy. I would absolutely 100% recommend it to people with kids, or people who like old-fashioned beach-adjacent fun.
(Plus you can drive just a little bit north and visit this beauty!!)
posted by bowtiesarecool at 11:23 AM on August 26, 2015 [2 favorites]
I realize lots of people prefer beaches empty of people in quiet peninsulas, but Wildwood is just a great, compact little beach town where you can get a cheerful room in a colorful motel with some plastic palm trees shading the pool, walk down to the boardwalk for some water ice and a whirl on the swings or the waterslides, and then get your feet sandy. I would absolutely 100% recommend it to people with kids, or people who like old-fashioned beach-adjacent fun.
(Plus you can drive just a little bit north and visit this beauty!!)
posted by bowtiesarecool at 11:23 AM on August 26, 2015 [2 favorites]
Anaheim used to be like this; seemed like most of it had been churned under for either bigger or boxier, neither of which was particularly better.
posted by Ogre Lawless at 12:35 PM on August 26, 2015
posted by Ogre Lawless at 12:35 PM on August 26, 2015
As cheesy, and sometimes just plain seedy, as some of it was; oh how I miss the old motels of Anaheim. At least it was fun, now it is indeed just generic.
posted by BigHeartedGuy at 1:49 PM on August 26, 2015
posted by BigHeartedGuy at 1:49 PM on August 26, 2015
I love Wildwood, and it was instrumental in me learning how much of a jerk my older brother is. The last time I was ever beaten up was in Wildwood, in front of Jimmy's (or was it the Beach House? I was drinking all day, and it is hard to be sure). My friends and I had been drinking all day, Red Bull and vodka, and were shooting pool in the back of the club. We had made some kind of bet on the match, five bucks a man or a pitcher of beer or something like that, but then decided after we lost that we didn't want to pay. It wasn't fair, really, because we were so drunk. They took advantage of us in our drunken state and that should invalidate the bet.
Of course this made them angry, so we argued a bit. Finally, we went outside because the argument wasn't going anywhere. We stood in front of the club debating where to go next when the guys we refused to pay came out and started punching on us. The thing was, I was so drunk that I was unable to fight back. Actually, I didn't even realize that someone punched me right away. I just suddenly was on the ground and just assumed that I had fallen down in a stupor. So I got up right away, and then was suddenly on the ground again. Third time is the charm, I figured as I stood again. Finally, the third time I fell down from being punched I realized what was happening and decided to stay on the ground for a while.
Within a couple of seconds the bouncers and police were there, and the people beating us hightailed it. There were three of us, and myself and another friend were totally fine, but the third friend was knocked out. The cops started hassling us about being drunk outside and causing trouble, so I knew we had to hightail it out of there. I grabbed my friend under one armpit, and my other friend grabbed him under the other armpit, and we started walking down the street as quickly as possible, yelling "He's fine" to the cops over our shoulders while the KOd friend's feet dragged on the ground between us. Fortunately the police didn't really seem that interested in giving us too hard a time because they let us walk away.
Oddly, as we rounded the corner, my older brother came walking out of the shadows asking what happened to us. This is odd because he was actually with us in the bar and should have been beaten up too, but obviously ran away. What a jerk.
To make matters even worse, we were staying at another friend's house over in Stone Harbor. This is a guy I had known since I was in kindergarten. Anyway, I get woken up at like 6:00am the following morning by my brother. He is frantically telling me we need to split before anyone wakes up. I am like what, no, I am supremely hungover and want to eat at the pancake house for breakfast. He is insistent that we skedaddle, so whatever, I get up and get ready. Turns out that during the night he vomited all over the bed and bedsheets in the room he was staying in, and wanted to get the hell out of dodge before being confronted with it. Sadly, I never talked to that friend again, and it has been about fifteen years now. What a jerk my brother is.
posted by Literaryhero at 3:22 PM on August 26, 2015
Of course this made them angry, so we argued a bit. Finally, we went outside because the argument wasn't going anywhere. We stood in front of the club debating where to go next when the guys we refused to pay came out and started punching on us. The thing was, I was so drunk that I was unable to fight back. Actually, I didn't even realize that someone punched me right away. I just suddenly was on the ground and just assumed that I had fallen down in a stupor. So I got up right away, and then was suddenly on the ground again. Third time is the charm, I figured as I stood again. Finally, the third time I fell down from being punched I realized what was happening and decided to stay on the ground for a while.
Within a couple of seconds the bouncers and police were there, and the people beating us hightailed it. There were three of us, and myself and another friend were totally fine, but the third friend was knocked out. The cops started hassling us about being drunk outside and causing trouble, so I knew we had to hightail it out of there. I grabbed my friend under one armpit, and my other friend grabbed him under the other armpit, and we started walking down the street as quickly as possible, yelling "He's fine" to the cops over our shoulders while the KOd friend's feet dragged on the ground between us. Fortunately the police didn't really seem that interested in giving us too hard a time because they let us walk away.
Oddly, as we rounded the corner, my older brother came walking out of the shadows asking what happened to us. This is odd because he was actually with us in the bar and should have been beaten up too, but obviously ran away. What a jerk.
To make matters even worse, we were staying at another friend's house over in Stone Harbor. This is a guy I had known since I was in kindergarten. Anyway, I get woken up at like 6:00am the following morning by my brother. He is frantically telling me we need to split before anyone wakes up. I am like what, no, I am supremely hungover and want to eat at the pancake house for breakfast. He is insistent that we skedaddle, so whatever, I get up and get ready. Turns out that during the night he vomited all over the bed and bedsheets in the room he was staying in, and wanted to get the hell out of dodge before being confronted with it. Sadly, I never talked to that friend again, and it has been about fifteen years now. What a jerk my brother is.
posted by Literaryhero at 3:22 PM on August 26, 2015
I like these a lot. Aren't they some kind of modern-day vanities ?
posted by nicolin at 1:15 AM on August 27, 2015
posted by nicolin at 1:15 AM on August 27, 2015
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We were poor growing up, so we would often see these places in the off season. I still think of it as desolate and beautiful in a way that becomes tawdry during tourist season.
posted by evilDoug at 7:44 AM on August 26, 2015 [1 favorite]