I know in these crazy times, when our lives are a non-stop race against the clock, where the pace becomes more frenzied every day, it is almost impossible to imagine life in the 1960’s. A time when June Cleaver without her apron seemed racy. When a TV program named “Father Knows Best” wouldn’t sound sexist. A point where families ate their meals together, rather than texting each other across the table rather than chatting. Progress has made life wholly different. Sometimes better, sometimes not. I’ve mentioned before, i want a book in my hand. I have a Kindle, a Fire and an I-Pad and hate reading from them. My collection of book series brings me comfort and joy (not to sound like a Christmas carol). I can share them, pass them around to friends and family. That said, i spend way too much time on line...i suspect most of us do. It’s the curse of being engulfed in technology. Imagine how much better we would feel if “twitter” had never been invented? It is a catch 22 as we have become reliant/dependent on all things wired. Hell, if one of our adversaries wanted to destroy us, they simply need take us off-line for a week or a month and people would be jumping out of windows and off high balconies to end their misery. With those ramblings out of the way, let me take us back to a far simpler time. I mentioned earlier i had a copy (from the museum) of the first promotional magazine DEVCO did for their grand opening. I fell in love with the writing in their ads because they always were able to tug at the heart-strings. Create a mental imagine of a better way to live. Almost unthinkable in todays world of YouTube and instant downloads. This post is long enough and so i will break it in to multiples. Hopefully the photo i took will load in the next post, but i struggle with even that easy aspect of technology. Seems photo size need be a certain ratio and lord knows that is way above my pay grade.
There’s only a handful of these booklets around and this cover was pretty simplistic: Dang, got the picture but it’s sideways. Bummer.
Hopefully you won’t throw out your back trying to see it straight up. Inside cover is the Del Webb story. Impressive. The next page is a quick overview of the “New Active Way-of-Life.” The headers on paragraphs were clean and simple: “Beautiful Homes in a Country Club Setting.” “Everything You Want — Right At Home.” “The Nation’s Most Ideal Location.” “And The Freedom To Live As You Wish.” With those teasers out of the way, in the coming posts i will take each of the first 5 pages and reduce them to writing. Hopefully you will begin to understand why and how Sun City became so successful and why those who bought here fought so hard to make it work.
We’ll start simple here with those page two headers and the paragraph accompanying each: * Beautiful Homes In A Country Club Setting. Top-quality two and three-bedroom homes to be built to your choice of style in lovely neighbor-hoods bordering the fairways of a championship golf course. With unbelievable modesty, prices range from just $8,500 to $14,500, including all improvements. * Everything You Want — Right At Home. A complete and modern Commercial Center includes all kinds of stores with merchandise and services you want for everyday needs; medical offices are located here too. Then there is the new “edition” of Del Webb’s HiwayHouse Motor Hotels, with superb accommodations and fine food for which they are famous. These facilities have been constructed as an integral part of the community for the convenience of residents in this really complete new “town.” * The Nation’s Most Ideal Location. Set in sun-splashed valley of rich green meadowland, it’s encircled by golden desert rolling off to stately mountains which mark the horizon beneath the bluest of skies. Just 12 miles away, over a four-lane highway, lies the modern, progressive city of Phoenix, capital of Arizona, and twice winner of the “ All American City” award. Here snow is a rarity, rain is infrequent, humidity is the nation’s lowest, and every day is blessed with a measure of clear, dry, invigorating air. * And The Freedom To Live As You Wish. Into this miniature metropolis, Del Webb has incorporated everything which years of extensive research indicated you wanted most...for luxurious but economical living, for endless creative and recreational activity. Here, in this “town” restricted exclusively to the residence of America’s Senior Citizens, you will enjoy complete individuality, privacy, and the greatest freedom of all; the right to do what you want..when you want..to live exactly as you wish.
So, let me be blunt, the first copy i posted wasn’t all that enticing. It was good, not great. In fact, i almost didn’t use it other than for a set-up. These next several pages will be extraordinary compared to above. if we go back to the beginning, we know DEVCO had to paint that picture in a person’s mind. No small task given the land scams that were so prevalent in the 60’s in AZ and FL. Pages 3 and 4 were hand drawn sketches of residents enjoying the pool, golf, archery, shuffleboard and croquet. All outdoor activities and all with them involved in the “new active way of life” Sun City was promoting. Best of all, here was the header weaving through the middle of the two pages (enjoy, it’s that good so let your senses take over): “Paradise Found.” A warm breeze slips softly through your windows whispering you awake to the golden day. You open the shade and gaze proudly over your flower-bright yard and beyond where the external sunshine brushes to green brilliance the velvety fairways which border your quiet, peaceful, palm-shaded neighborhood. It’s morning..another bright, beautiful beginning to the unending treasure of perfect days, filled with interesting activity, which compose your new life in this dream-inspired community. You live in a beautiful house in which you have felt completely at home from the first moment when you turned your key in the door and stepped into the warmth and graciousness of its sun-lit rooms. It’s planned to make housekeeping a carefree and happy experience. It’s constructed to maintenance at a minimum through the years. And its design is as perfectly matched to your wishes as if you ha stood beside the architect. (Actually, you did, because it was your wants and desires that dictated every detail of the planning and design). Just a step away, down the winding street on which you live, a grassy park beckons your leisure with picnic grounds, archery, lawn bowling, shuffleboard, horseshoe and croquet courts. Nearby, a uniquely designed swimming pool of Olympic-size awaits your pleasure. Sloping from 3-foot to 5-foot depths all around, with special 12-foot diving extension, it has its own sunning terrace, covered cabana and bathhouse. For your club meetings and every type of social activity, there is the large community center amid beautifully landscaped grounds. Here there are attractively furnished rooms of various sizes, an auditorium with stage and dressing rooms, card rooms and a completely equipped kitchen. And laid out all around is the fine championship golf course, plotted and planned to capture the heart of the most particular golfer and complete even to a full-time “pro” to serve your needs. (A full nine holes are now complete and ready for play; the remaining nine will be added soon). Description of a rich man’s paradise? Beyond the reach of average budgets? On the contrary! All of these facilities, including the swimming pool, shuffleboard and horseshoe courts, lawn bowling, archery range, community center facilities, creative activity center and agriculture project, will be turned over, rent-free, to an organization composed exclusively of the citizens of the community for their own operation. The golf course will be operated and maintained by the developing company. This paradise is yours on a sliver platter...for just the modest cost of a home, $8,500 to $14,500, including all improvements. I don’t know about you guys, but this is pure sensory overload for me.
Hopefully everyone survived the holidays; hate to say it, but always happier when they are over. I know, “bah humbug.” Imagine having worked for the past 40 years in the same job, kids are grown and moved out of the house (that’s what they did back in the 60’s). You retire and suddenly your days are filled with what? You can only garden so much and the cost to do stuff around the community you live in isn’t cheap. Thank goodness television was invented or you may simply go nuts staring at the walls. It was on that premise the “new active way of life” was born. Webb himself was a man on the go, literally; New York in the morning, Phoenix mid-afternoon and Los Angeles for dinner. He couldn't/wouldn’t stop working, he lived for it. His people were smart enough to realize others wanted to retire and have something better, more fulfilling. Pages 4 and 5 from the first model home book focused on that. The page 4 header said this: Unlimited Activities. Then a amidst photo’s and sketches it went on to say this: “A sun-browned seamstress in a bright sun dress sits at a sewing machine hemming a luncheon cloth. A wall away, a distinguished-looking “carpenter” wears a smile of proud achievement as he views the coffee table gleaming before him. From the kiln next door, a beaming “ceramist” removes a gaily-colored piggy-bank, lovingly fashioned for her visiting grandson. Into a door, further down the long building, a man in Levis heads for a lapidary bench, intent on polishing “gems” the mineral specimens he just brought in from the treasure-laden desert.” “These and others like them, like you, are the people Del Webb had in mind when he incorporated this Creative Activity Center into his unique retirement community. He knew that to people with active hands and imaginative minds, the retirement from a 9-to-5 working schedules and chore-filled days to the uninteresting existence of purposeless activity poses an even greater burden. But here in this community, with such facilities as the Creative Activity Center, is the perfect answer. Here is an active new “way-of-life” where men and women can do exactly what they want in the company of contemporaries who share their interests and their dreams.” “Already the Activity Center” includes a complete wood shop with the finest power tools..a ceramic “studio” with kiln and working equipment..a sewing room with the newest machines, cutting boards and dress forms..and a lapidary shop with all the equipment and tools necessary to turn a “rock hound’s” findings into beautiful treasures. As other interests are expressed, appropriate and necessary equipment will be added.” I will break it there and finish page 5 next time. I love the way they draw you in and make you long for a more active, better way of life...brilliant.
