Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Old Photo of Boarded Up Atlas

Follow the link to find an old photo of the Atlas Theater boarded up and for sale. The Atlas closed in 1976. I suspect the photo dates from sometime in the 1980s.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Is the car parked out front a 1994 Plymouth?

Anonymous said...

Late 80's Buick Century I believe

Sen Nonny said...

You are all wrong. It is a Pontiac 6000. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pontiac_6000

The 80s were not a good time for American car design, especially for GM. The cars all looked alike.

I would date that picture as being after 1990 since the phone number has ten digits. From what I recall, that is when ten digit dialing became the norm in this area.

oboe said...

The 80s were not a good time for American car design, especially for GM. The cars all looked alike.

That's the least of the problems. :)

There was a great episode of This American Life in which they covered a small group of American car workers who were sent to Japan in the late-70s early-80s for training as part of a partnership with Toyota.

Some of the stories of QC from those days are incredible.

Sen Nonny said...

I take it back. It could be a Chevrolet Celebrity. Those cars had some craptacular design. I owned a Buick Century from that time period, and the lines around the back were a little different. It was an awful car, and I'm glad that it is gone.

@oboe. I'm not sure which was worse, the quality control or the designs. Both led to GM losing market share and to the stigma that remains against their passenger cars to this day.

I remember that you had to look at the nameplate on the car to differentiate whether it was an Oldsmobile, a Buick, or the equivalent Pontiac, or Chevy.

Anonymous said...

It's totally a Celebrity. I had a friend that had one and that rear end is definitely the celebrity.

And it was a horrible car. My friends was complete with velour seats, bench seats, column shifter. And none of the power windows rolled up.

oboe said...

@oboe. I'm not sure which was worse, the quality control or the designs. Both led to GM losing market share and to the stigma that remains against their passenger cars to this day.

Good point. Though I think it's still safe to say it was QC. That's what happens when the managers decide to go to war against their employees. Great stories of guys at the end of the assembly line throwing a couple of bolts into the door, then securing the door panel.

I think something like 1 in 3 of the cars that rolled off the line were immediately shunted off into a holding lot to be repaired in some way.