The Eidetic Fugue (pt 2 of ??)

Note: If you are reading this in Facebook, please go to the bottom and click the "View Original Post" - Facebook just has the words, the blog has pictures and a little pizazz.

Before we went to the Bay area to buy provisions for the shop, we did some local provisioning. Bill M. knew of a device at the local used furniture store that would be great in the window. After he described it, we all had to go see it one sunny afternoon in later October. It was located on Silverton road, somewhere near where Lancaster is today. We entered the establishment. Bill obviously had been here before and led us through a series of rooms to a dark and dingy back corner. Tucked in amongst the lamps, couches and worn out end tables was a 4' tall box on a 3 legged steel stand with lots of fancy writing on it and a power cord coming out the bottom. It was made out of dark metal and pretty heavy. It had pictures of far away places on the sides and had lots of fancy script indicating it had the power to heal. We think it was probably used by traveling eye doctors in some different time and place. When you opened the top of the box (about 2'x2'), you could see a series of colored lens, mounted on a drive and a odd looking light bulb. The funny sized light bulb shined through the lenses as they rotated and the colored light was projected through mirrors and lenses onto the wall. I wish I had a picture of it or at least remembered what it was called. It was way cool though, believe me.

We had to have it.

So we offered half of the marked price, after plugging it in and testing it, carried it out to Mike's VW squareback and hauled it back to the shop. We knew where to put it. On both sides of the shop's front door were raised platforms. The shop opening was in a V shape with glass on all sides. We now had something for the podium on the right side.

We also found a long counter with a small 12"x2" slot in the middle and a wooden front. The back was open and had shelves and a good finish on the top. This ended up being the main desk that held the money, supplies, the stereo and general whatnot. Whoever felt like running the shop would sit behind this counter. In the same used furniture store was a large glass display case. Both pieces were really inexpensive and we bought them. Somehow we got these two pieces back to the shop. We measured the slot and ordered several rolls of paper from a local industrial supply outfit that just fit through the slot. We figured this plain brown paper would be the packaging for any posters, records, buttons, etc that we would eventually get in stock and sell.

We had nothing to sell yet, of course.

Before we opened the store, we needed to advertise. We thought of many ideas - we had lots of thinking capacity - and ended up deciding on a billboard in the freeway. One place for lots of customers. How else to get people to stop in Salem? Bill began drawing designs and was greatly challenged by the scale. How many artists get to put up billboards? We thought it was a gareat idea, but the price was too high for our budget. Maybe TV? No, too high also. How about radio? Sure enough, a repeating 30 second spot could be bought for pretty cheap back then on KBZY. We thought all the kids, especially the girls, listened to KBZY. Bill and Mike went to the studio with some good records and did a great job of recording an ad to introduce the shop. We set the date for the ads to run in late November.

But that was not enough. We needed posters and worked with Panther Press in Salem to print 50 black and white 12x16 posters. They were awesome - I put in image in the previous blog post (pt 1). The only words on the poster were the name of the store and the address - no products, no corporation logo; just the pretty lady, store name and the address. We decided we would put them up at Bob's, in a few downtown windows when the store opened. I remember running around in late November asking confused managers of local drive-ins if we could put this funny looking poster in their window. The ones we asked said "Sure". We ended up giving the rest away, I think. The only remaining Eidetic Fugue poster I know about is in my attic and the words have been cut off. Anyone have one?

And we decided we needed business cards. We had a hundred color ones made and, like the poster, I only know of one copy left. It is a little ragged around the corners. Bill M did the hand lettering and designed it. Notice the hours - noon to 10. This was genius. None of us wanted to get up early and neither did our customers. As we will find out in a later chapter, closing at 10 was not always easy. I had forgotten that we had a payphone installed also, which we used as the official store phone number. Turns out it was free too!

An old cigar box of my grandfathers was chosen to be the cash register and one of us built wooden dividers to separate the bills from the coins. A leather rocking chair was situated next to the stereo, inside the desk and, once we got records in stock, we figured customers would want to sit and listen for a while before buying. We knew we liked listening in the private booths at Meier and Franks to the crappy beach boy and pop music.

We struck a deal with the local beverage company and got them to install a Pepsi machine. We were pretty much hooked on Pepsi and thought it was a coup to have our own machine. And then they gave us the KEY! Can you believe it? I can still feel the excitement in the room when the installation guys laid the keys on the desk and walked out. Even before we opened, people put money in, took out a pepsi. We just opened it and got a cold can. And we got their money too! No one else seemed to understand how incredibly cool this was (especially since everyone seemed to know Pepsi would put a machine anywhere they could sell product).


And we still had nothing to sell, but we had a plan.


Next chapter we hit the road to the bay area in Mike's customized VW squareback to get stock. We knew Mike had connections and we still had some dollars to buy stuff to sell in the store. Besides in early November of 1967, lots was going on in San Fransisco and the rains were starting in Oregon. We needed to get out of town. There weren't any girls hanging around yet but we figured that would all change when the store really opened. We had started with 550$ and even after all of our purchases so far, we still had lots to spend...