Author Topic: Packard's question  (Read 7897 times)

Offline BLeafe

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Packard's question
« on: December 22, 2012, 08:07:25 PM »
A friend in California who used to live around here forwarded an email to me that he received from someone else about Packard's:

"I was in the Packard's store a number of times because Butch worked there for about 8 yrs when Kings Supermarket owned the store inside. The two towers was the transmitter for the first broadcast radio station in the NYC metro area and the Packard's store was one of the first "supermarket" style grocery stores in the country. One of the members of the Packard family was actress, Lee Remick(remember her?)."

Aside from the part about "Butch", is everything else true? I don't think I've heard that about the towers before.

(Lee Remick was a babe!)


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Offline Homer Jones

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Re: Packard's question
« Reply #1 on: December 22, 2012, 08:45:20 PM »
Never heard the story about the radio transmission towers.
The supermarket story is true as was related to me by oldtimers. Various purveyors of food items such as fruit and vegetables operated individual stands in the building and shoppers could purchase these commodities  under one roof as you can find in ShopRite or similar chains. I don't believe they had a centralized checkout for all the items that were sold.
I understand that Lee Remick  might have been married to Frank Packard at one time.

For $64,000 payable in S and H green stamp rewards at the Packards redemption center, who can guess where the Bamberger in Packard Bambergers came from?

Offline irons35

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Re: Packard's question
« Reply #2 on: December 22, 2012, 10:37:54 PM »
I have one of the last pieces of the building, a 10 inch section of the floor with an enormous nail sticking out of it. 

Offline BLeafe

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Re: Packard's question
« Reply #3 on: December 22, 2012, 11:25:16 PM »
For $64,000 payable in S and H green stamp rewards at the Packards redemption center, who can guess where the Bamberger in Packard Bambergers came from?

Founded in 1893 by Louis Bamberger as L. Bamberger & Company in Newark, New Jersey, in 1912 the company built its landmark flagship store designed by Jarvis Hunt at 131 Market Street, Newark, NJ (Hunt would also design the Newark Museum following a gift from Bamberger).


I found something that may clear up the radio towers thing:

WOR radio was started by Bamberger Broadcasting Service 1922 in an effort to sell more radios. The broadcast studio was located on the sixth floor. The radio station was included as part of the sale to R.H. Macy Co. in 1929, and Bamberger Broadcasting Service became a division of the company.

The towers look similar to Packard's, so maybe that's what my friend's friend was thinking of.

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Offline Editor

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Re: Packard's question
« Reply #4 on: December 23, 2012, 05:45:22 PM »
Apparently, the towers at the Hackensack location were meant to serve the same purpose:

"Packard's holiday decorations were another delight, the most notable of them being a giant lighted image of Santa on his sleigh suspended between the two cone-shaped radio towers on either side of the store's roof."

From: http://www.hackensacknow.org/index.php/topic,2573.msg7787.html
« Last Edit: December 23, 2012, 06:15:38 PM by Editor »

Offline BLeafe

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Re: Packard's question
« Reply #5 on: December 23, 2012, 07:45:36 PM »
I still can't find any information to that effect, so I've emailed the writer of the article, Bill Ervolino, to see what he knows.
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