Vintage Ads...
Twistin’ Halloween
A night of Halloween twisting at the Paramount Theater in the early ’60s.
Super-Gruesome 11:00 PM show for the older ghouls.
October 31st, 2011 / No Comments » / by Tom Lundin
Garden of the Gods and Princess Moonbeam
1950’s-era Garden of the Gods brochure.
Princess Moonbeam was a mummy kept on display at the Garden of the Gods
Totem Pole Trading Post from the 1930s through at least the 1950s. Exploitation of
Native American remains formally ended with the Native American Graves
Protection and Repatriation Act in 1990.
(Images borrowed from the historical website And Everything Else Too)
October 4th, 2011 / No Comments » / by Tom Lundin
The Mad Doctor of Mt. Falcon
If you look out toward Red Rocks and see this white spot on Mt. Falcon, you are looking at mysterious Falcon’s Wing Estate of Dr. Charles Musès (aka Musaios), a fascinating local figure and a scientist whom I would suggest, was completely mad as hatters.
Dr. Muses certainly was a scientist, an author, a publisher, an archaeologist (arrested in Egypt for stealing artifacts in 1957) and a teacher of astrology, numerology and Egyptology.
In 1954, he built the 2 and a half story, 6,500 sq. ft. Falcon’s Wing Egyptian mystery school on a beautiful 640 acre lot on Mt. Falcon with possibly thee best view of Denver. He supposedly designed the structure on the convergence of seven “ley lines” and according to ancient sacred geometry, with each room designed to resonate different harmonics for different purposes. The walls were made of 8″ cement block with reinforced steel, not because these were inexpensive materials, but because concrete walls facilitated his idea that “human anatomy could be rearranged or altered by reaching a high spiritual state of consciousness, creating the body to resonate at a higher vibration, thereby allowing a human being to pass through the walls.” That said, Falcon’s Wing did have doors as well.
From the description when it went on sale years ago:
“6 bedrooms, 3 libraries. 3 fireplaces, a huge two story master suite, and a 22′ by 25′ ascension room with 18′ rounded ceiling and a cathedral window overlooking the Denver city lights. The living room is 20′ by 30′ and has natural woodwork and wood ceiling beams. The first floor living areas, including the kitchen, have oak floors.”
While he was running this mystery school, he also started a publishing company called Falcon’s Wing Press based out of Indian Hills, which published many esoteric books such as The Septuagint Bible, Prismatic Voices-Wings of Myrahi, and Esoteric Teachings of the Tibetan Tantra.
1959 Denver Post ad for Falcon’s Wing Press
He moved out of the school around 1961, but it continued as a mystery school for decades after. After leaving the school, the mad Dr. Muses went on to develop the concept of Hypernumbers (which you can boggle your mind by following this link), Chronotopology (where you learn to measure the “qualitative multidimensional structure of time waves”) and he developed a Shamanistic movement called The Lion Path, which still has it’s adherents today.
Maybe he wasn’t mad, maybe it’s just my limitations that keep me from being able to understand such high concepts. Here is a sample of complex papers and articles that this man wrote so you can decide: The Geometry of Equi-Infinitesimals, Inherently Solution Seeking Processes Irrespective of Initial Value, The topology of the zeroth dimension, Hyperspheres and dimensionality, The concept and calculus of an operational continuum, An explicit formulation for the value of a fractional factorial, A concept of integration capable of integrating the Heaviside unit function, Systemic stability and cybernetic control: an introduction to the cybernetics of higher integrated behavior, The noetic relevance of psychoactive molecules, Altering states of consciousness by mathematics, Fractional dimensions and their experiential meaning, Communication of Consciousness Necessitates the Vacuum as Transducer, Psychotronic Quantum Theory: A proposal for understanding mass/spacetime/consciousness transductions in terms of extended quantum theory, The use of infinite numbers to make explicit the poles of the factorial function.
July 25th, 2011 / 1 Comment » / by Tom Lundin
Sherman-Plaza apartments
The International-style Sherman-Plaza Apartments on Sherman.
Ad from 1959.
July 1st, 2011 / 1 Comment » / by Tom Lundin
Court House Square render
Nice render of Court House Square, just a little mangled by the pagefolds of the
publication it came out in in 1959. Still no Hilton yet in this illustration. (Click to enlarge)
It is interesting to contrast the difference between this illustration and the true building in
the Alan Gass photo below. They did seem to get the hyperbolic paraboloid right, though.
This outstanding piece of engineering was the widest concrete shell in the country at 132
feet by 113 feet.
June 13th, 2011 / 1 Comment » / by Tom Lundin
Mead & Mount Construction
Mead & Mount Construction ad from 1959.
Top left: 1959 State Services Building
G. Meridith Musick and Temple Buell, Architects
Earl C. Morris and Roland L. Linder, Architects
Top right: 1958 First National Bank
Raymond Harry Ervin, Architect
Middle: 1936 Albany Hotel
Burnham Hoyt, Architect
Temple H. Buell, Architect
(The 1936 date was when it was reclad. The hotel was first built in 1885.
Sadly, it has been demolished)
Bottom right: 1954 Denver Club Building
Raymond Harry Ervin, Architect
June 2nd, 2011 / No Comments » / by Tom Lundin
The Big One!
From Elvis’ first visit in 1956. He made $4,000 after selling 16,000 tickets.
Francis Melrose of the Rocky Mountain News gets the controversy flowing. I love how she put ‘Singer’ in quotes! I bet she wasn’t ready for the backlash of letters she received.
The rage begins:
There are so many great quotes in these letter columns: “Johnny Ray with St. Vitus Dance”, “He’d get up on stage a take a fit, and those crazy dames in the front row would take a fit right along with him”, “I think you’re jealous, or else you’re working for Faron Young“.
Aside from Faron Young, also on the bill were the killer Jimmy & Johnny duo and Queen of Rockabilly Wanda Jackson!
May 16th, 2011 / No Comments » / by Tom Lundin
Pilk’s Flaming Pit
Die-cut matchbook from Pilk’s Flaming Pit, run by Pilk Pilkington during the late-1950s
and ’60s. That drink ’strikes’ me as a bit dangerous!
This desirable block of Cherry Creek (175 Detroit) is now all newer construction.
(Scan borrowed from And Everything Else Too.)
May 12th, 2011 / No Comments » / by Tom Lundin
Design Center ad
Ad from 1959. I think this is the building that the Ginny Williams art gallery is in now.
May 11th, 2011 / No Comments » / by Tom Lundin
