Entertain Tucson

"Entertaining Tucson Across the Decades: Volume 1"

The 3-volume compilation, "Entertaining Tucson Across the Decades," reviews 50 years of Tucson local entertainment and music history.

Each volume contains published articles, interviews and stories about the over 2,000 musicians and entertainers who performed in Tucson, Arizona nightclubs and venues during the last half of the 20th Century.

The first volume of this series covers the years from 1950 through 1985. Read selections from Volume 1 and download a free PDF sample of all three volumes.

Entertain Tucson

Photo: Street Pajama, 1985.
  • Download FREE PDF 100 page sample of the 3-volume set of "Entertaining Tucson Across the Decades." Hosted on archive.org
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1950s

The newest fad– customizing cars in California– set the pace for a few local car clubs. Tucson’s “Banshees” beamed proudly with vehicles sporting fender skirts, flipper hubcaps and continental kits. Kids sure wanted to be 16 in a hurry to cruise about– even in an Edsel! Vroom! But, kids just rode their bikes and settled for a “transistor” sister radio hanging from the handlebars listening to KTKT-990 AM  – Tucson’s top rock and roll radio station.

1960s

Cruising Speedway (let’s make that speeding Cruiseway) was just as popular then as nowadays. We had our car radios pegged to KTKT-99 AM and KFIF-1550 AM, rocking all the way. The gang made the big circuitous route around town which included: Frank Kalil’s Teen Town on the north side, the HIHO Club on the east, and Sunset Rollerama on the south central side, near the Cactus Drive-In Theatre. They were all non-alcoholic clubs for teens back then. We cruised the four Johnnie’s Burger Shoppes and, when inside, pumped nickels in the mini-table jukeboxes. Brushing aside the glossy gossamers off mind’s memory, one recalls rising for high school to the radio alarm clock and the Guy Williams program of the city flagship rocker station KTKT.

1970s

Statesboro Blues Band

Statesboro Blues Band

1980s

1985

Neon Prophet

1994: Neon Prophet

Dean Armstrong and Billy Burkes

1991: Dean Armstrong and Billy Burkes

1990s

Contents

The Compilation

Contributors: Writers, Photographers

The Publishers: Robert Zucker & Jonathan L

  • Download FREE PDF 100 page sample of the 3-volume set of "Entertaining Tucson Across the Decades." Hosted on archive.org
  • Purchase copiesAd in print and ebook on Amazon.com.

Next: Volume 2 | Volume 3

Comments by Mike Hamilton, Entertainment Magazine

Original Entertainment Magazine Video 1991


"Entertaining Tucson Across the Decades"
 Volume One: 1950s through 1985

Purchase copiesAd in print and ebook on Amazon.com.

ISBN-13: 978-1-939050-06-9
ISBN: 19390500065

2014 © Southwest Alternatives Institute, Inc.
2014 © Entertainment Magazine /BZB Publishing, Robert Zucker.
2014 © Newsreal, Jonathan L.

Author Robert Edward Zucker published several Tucson, Arizona-based tabloid newspapers– Youth Alternatives, Youth Awareness Press, Tucson Teen, The Magazine and Entertainment Magazine.

Permission is granted to use quotes and cite references to the contents in this book with proper credit noted: “Entertaining Tucson Across the Decades,” © 2014 Entertainment Magazine.” All rights are reserved. These are the compiled works of contributed materials from writers and photographers previously published in the Tucson Teen, Magazine, Entertainment Magazine and Newsreal newspapers, and from Entertainment Magazine On Line (EMOL.org). No other part of the material protected by this copyright may be reproduced or utilized in any means, electronic or mechanical, without written permission from the publisher. First Edition: 2014.

Gina Torres-Vanasse, Intellectual Property Assessor

Email: publisher@emol.org
Web: http://emol.org/ and http://entertaintucson.com

Printed in the United States of America by Amazon.com.