Record Stores in the mid-1960's, Part II

Probably during the Christmas seasons in 1965-67, Mike and I would become more adventurous and take the bus beyond Huntington Park into downtown LA to do our Christmas shopping.  Our primary destination was The Broadway Department Store, on Broadway.



One year, likely 1965, we were both wow'ed by the pretty young, dark-haired woman who worked at the perfume counter, who spoke English with a lovely, and very romantic, French accent.  This might have been the year I bought dad a collection of colognes called Nine Flags, each fragrance in a small bottle for each of the countries, most of them European, represented by its national flag.  Dad, always old school, had probably never gotten cologne before and did not seem to know what to make of this present when he opened it that Christmas. 

The Nine Flags men’s cologne collection came out in 1965, it was still being sold well into the early 1970s. It was distributed by the Colton company of Boston, Massachusetts and was marketed by Gillette in the United Kingdom.

Each bottle held 2fl oz of cologne and was ball shaped and had a long neck covered with a brushed aluminum screw cap. The name of the cologne is on the bottle part of the cap and on the label on the base.

This ingenious collection was full of international flair and each cologne was named after its own country and scent. Each scent was tinted with a different color. I have also seen these in atomizer bottles, but more commonly in the splash type bottles.

Before Nine Flags, teenagers seemed drawn to Jade East cologne.  That's the fragrance I owned, perhaps the year before, 1964, when it was introduced.










But enough of colognes.  We were often at the Broadway to also buy records, more specifically record albums.  Two albums come to mind when I recall our visits to The Broadway:  Jefferson Airplane's SURREALISTIC PILLOW and Vicki Carr's IT MUST BE HIM.



This was one of those albums, apart from a greatest hits collection, in which I liked every cut.  We Five's YOU WERE ON MY MIND, and the Beach Boys' PET SOUNDS were two others.  And, of course, most Beatles albums.

When we were finished with our shopping during the day on a weekend, we would have lunch at Clifton's Cafeteria, across the street and down the block from The Broadway.  Mike invariably would order spinach, which I thought was absurd to actually, you know, pay for.

Another place we would buy records was at the Sears store on Bullis Road in Lynwood.  Checking google maps, it no longer appears to be there anymore.  A couple of the albums I remember buying there were The Beatles white album and The Mystic Moods Orchestra's MYSTIC MOODS OF LOVE.




Difficult to see the album here.

And, not all that surprisingly, it did have a romantic fragrance when you slid your fingernail down the plastic cover and opened it up.  Well, it was the 60's.

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