Fifty Years Ago This Week in West Rome - 9/21/1964 to 9/27/1964

The Coosa Valley Fair opened on September 21st, with Kunz Century-21 shows supplying the world's largest motorized midway, which included an expanded ("faster and wilder!") Tilt-a-Whirl. Carole Sewell represented West Rome in the Miss Floyd County contest.

West Rome went into their game against LaFayette with high hopes, but those hopes were dashed when LaFayette won the game 13-7; Dickie Sapp scored the only touchdown, but was stopped short on a second touchdown run.

BF Goodrich celebrated Coosa Valley Fair Week with a special on retreads for $9 each (do they even offer retreads nowadays? I haven't heard mention of them in years...), while Sears offered new tires for $9.88 to $15.88 each and Goodyear offered tires from $9.99 to $17.99 each. I'm still not sure how tires came to be associated with Fair Week...

Walter R. Thomas Jewelers closed its Broad Street location in September 1964—or more specifically, they sold their stock to Kay Jewelers, who took their place. Even so, they advertised a big store closing sale as they liquidated what inventory they could prior to the sale--so if you got any sort of jewelry as a Christmas gift in 1964, this might be the source!

Rome City Schools superintendent M.S. McDonald met with the Georgia Board of Education on Wednesday, September 23rd, to request $130,000 in building construction funds. Some of those funds were to be used construct an industrial arts workshop at West Rome High School. His pitch must have been most persuasive, because he came back with a $127,637 check, and planning of West Rome's industrial arts workshop was officially on the drawing board.

Piggly Wiggly had boneless Hotel Special steaks for 89¢ a pound, Mann's Golden Harvest wieners for 49¢ a pound, and turnip greens for a dime a pound. Kroger had pork chops for 59¢ a pound, grapes for 12¢ a pound, and five pounds of Colonial sugar for 39¢. Big Apple had Hormel sliced bacon for 57¢ a pound, Cornish game hens for 69¢ each, and red delicious apples for 12¢ a pound. A&P had bone-in rib steak for 89¢ a pound, Banquet 8-ounce frozen pot pies for 12¢ each, and frozen flounder fillets for 49¢ a pound. Couch's had sirloin steaks for 89¢ a pound, Pet-Ritz frozen cream pies for 29¢ each, and a one-pound box of Nabisco Saltines for 31¢.

The fall season television show rollout continued, with several great series debuting this week in 1964, including The Man from UNCLE (September 22nd), Daniel Boone (September 24th), The Munsters (September 24th), Gomer Pyle USMC (September 25th), and Gilligan's Island (September 26th). And yes, that means that Gilligan's Island debuted on a Saturday night! Back in 1964, entertainment choices were fewer, and networks offered a full line of original programming, including Flipper, Gilligan's Island, Gunsmoke, The Outer Limits, Mr. Magoo, Jackie Gleason, Lawrence Welk, and Saturday Night at the Movies, which featured television film premieres of major motion pictures.

The movie week began with The Chalk Garden at the DeSoto; Act One (with George Hamilton & Jason Robards) at the First Avenue; and nothing at the West Rome Drive-In (since it had begun closing except for weekends). The mid-week switch up brought Hamlet (starring Richard Burton, and shown "thru the miracle of ElectronoVision," according to the ad), to the DeSoto, Love With the Proper Stranger at the First Avenue, and a double feature of Heller in Pink Tights (with Sophia Loren & Anthony Quinn) and Ring of Treason (with no one worth remembering) at the West Rome Drive-In.

Roy Orbison took the number one spot this week in 1964 with "Pretty Woman." Other top ten hits included "Do Wah Diddy Diddy" by Manfred Mann (#2); "Bread and Butter" by the Newbeats (#3); "Dancing in the Street" by Martha & the Vandellas (#4); "Remember (Walkin' in the Sand)" by the Shangri-Las (#5); "GTO" by Ronny & the Daytonas (#6); "It Hurts to Be in Love" by Gene Pitney (#7); "The House of the Rising Sun" by the Animals (#8); "We'll Sing in the Sunshine" by Gale Garnett (#9); and "Save It For Me" by the Four Seasons (#10).

In a surprising show of schedule coordination, Gold Key Comics published the first issue of their Voyage to The Bottom of the Sea comic this week in 1964, meaning that the comic debuted at almost exactly the same time as the TV series that starred Richard Basehart and David Hedison. Of course, the comic book publisher had plenty of time to prepare, since both the show and the comic were actually based on the 1961 Irwin Allen film of the same name.