Adventure Car Hop is the Place to Go

[markwa1ion@aol.com]

In the summer of '61 when I was 12 I heard an ad on Ginsburg's show for 
a "giant weather balloon" available at the Adventure Car Hop if you 
said "Woo Woo Ginsburg".  I assumed this was going to be like the 8 ft. 
helium ones advertised in Popular Mechanics and Popular Science, of 
which I was an avid reader.  So one Saturday afternoon I pestered my 
mother to take a ride over to Saugus (from home in Arlington).  There 
was shopping to do nearby so it wouldn't be a total waste of time.

Even at that young age, 6 years before I got a ham license, I had 
radios and antennas on the brain and the plan was to deploy the "giant" 
balloon to hoist a wire at least a hundred feet in the air over the 
house and neighboring Menotomy Rocks Park.

Imagine my disappointment when the balloon turned out to be nothing 
better than typical kid's birthday party material, something which 
might have cost a nickel at Woolworth's at the time.  Utterly useless 
to raise a wire one foot, much less a hundred.

Despite all that, I did get a blast out of my first visit to Adventure 
Car Hop because of the connection to WMEX's night time star, not to 
mention the car hop girls and food that was at least adequate.

I should add however that in Arlington and Belmont WCOP-1150 was king 
with the kids in '61.  I'm sure the transmitter being in Lexington 
helped.  After school, most transistor and table radios tuned in to 
Eddy-Eddy-Eddy Mitchell!, a true whacko who was zanier than Ginsburg 
and at least on par with similarly-crazed Chuck Stevens out of RI 
(550).  Both Mitchell and Stevens joked about other stations' DJ's 
(e.g. "Carl DeSnooze") and interrupted records with sound effects and 
loony comedy clips (Spike Jones, Dickie Goodman, Stan Freberg, etc.).  
They slowed down ("killed") songs they thought were wimpy.  "Jimmy 
Love" by Cathy Carroll was a good example: a daft tragedy song where 
the boyfriend gets zapped by lightning just before the wedding day.

Ginsburg (and WMEX in general) definitely did have popularity in 
Arlington, despite the less than commanding signal out of the old 
Quincy 5 kW set-up.  And of course when all the kids went to Revere, 
Nahant, Wollaston, and Nantasket beaches during the summer they found 
that WMEX was the blaster and, by comparison, WCOP was a bit on the 
weak side.

Speaking of "bogus" records being given away at Adventure Car Hop, I 
remember a similar thing about Eddy Mitchell of 'COP.  In the summer of 
'61 he appeared in Belmont Center in a Karmann Ghia plastered with WCOP 
stickers.  Kids mobbed the car as an assistant tossed 45 rpm singles 
out to be caught (or smash on the hot pavement, as a fair number did).  
Not one of the singles was a hit or even anything that anyone could 
recall as ever having been played on the radio.  In other words, total 
dogs.  They were passable frisbees I guess.

Mark Connelly, WA1ION - Billerica, MA

dlh@donnahalper.com wrote

> I had asked if any of you recalled the Adventure Car Hop Jingle, and 
some of you did. SO, since I am working on a short article about 
Adventure Car Home and about Arnie Ginsburg, that reminds me: Sid wrote 
that he went there years ago and "...still have "Beep Beep" by the 
Playmates, which was the "plate" for my Ginsburger. Did anyone else go 
there, and if so, do you recall what record you got when you ordered 
the Ginsburger? :-P

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