Sambo's Restaurants

Sambo's was a national restaurant chain that specialized in pancake breakfasts. But also offered burgers and other fare.

It also found itself on the wrong side of history.

The name was created out of the names of the founders of the chain,  Sam Battistone Sr and Newell Bohnett. But they soon tied it into one of the most racist children's stories in recorded history, The Story of Little Black Sambo. 

But somehow, the founders didn't get the memo. They originally decorated their restaurants in stereotypical illustrations of a little African-American boy (the original story had depicted a dark skinned Indian boy, but the illustrations were of these stereotype images.)

But by the '60s, the illustrations had been neutralized to a lighter-skinned Indian boy with a turban (but that opened another can of worms.) They began emphasizing the tigers in the original story. But then there was that name. The African-American community had enough.

By the end of the '70s, the writing was on the wall. Soon Sambo's locations either changed names or owners or were closed by 1982.  

Only the original restaurant in Santa Barbara, CA remains......

Mr. Steak Restaurants

Mr. Steak was a chain of steakhouses, popular in the '70s.

They were pretty good, but couldn't survive the increasing competition from upstart steakhouse chains like Sizzler and Stuart Anderson's Black Angus and folded in the early '80s.

Kenner Close & Play Phonograph

I owned one of these as a child.

They were battery operated, portable record players with motors that fluttered the audio like crazy and the needle wasn't diamond or even sapphire. But a STEEL needle that actually DUG into the 45 RPM record you were playing. My mom listened to it and asked "Why does this thing sound so bad?" and she opened it and saw the shavings the needle had done to the grooves.

Needless to say, she quickly upgraded me to a REAL record player.

Sunny Jim Peanut Butter

Sunny Jim was a popular peanut butter west of the Rockies. The Sunny Jim name was also used for other food products such as bread, soda and canned foods. But they were best known for their peanut butter.

Novelty Radios