Man takes retro slide show tour of Southern California in the '50s and '60s

By: PATRICIA MORRIS BUCKLEY - For the North County Times | Wednesday, March 21, 2007 10:52 AM PDT ∞

It's seems like the most unlikely idea for an evening of theater: one man, a projector and screen, and 175 slides from the '50s and '60s. Even its creator, Charles Phoenix, is surprised by the show's success.

"The whole thing came about because I had been collecting old slides from the '50s and '60s and thought the images were amazing," Phoenix said from his home in L.A. "I thought that I wanted to share these with people."

So Phoenix, an expert in midcentury design and American culture, showed his slides at an L.A. map and travel store in 1998. He couldn't have been more surprised by the reaction of the audience.

"Everyone started laughing," he said. "I thought I was being serious, but what I had was a comedy."

In fact, the audience found the ancient images and his humorous commentary so amusing that it became a touring show. The slides are images of everything from architecture, cars, fashion and interior design to family photographs over the years.

"It's the iconic and the ironic," he said. "No detail is too small for me. If these images aren't from our lives, they're from our parents' lives. There's something in them that we all recognize in ourselves, whether it's a dress your sister had or a place that you used to visit."

A perfect example of this irony are the shots of Tomorrowland at Disneyland. It's totally unrecognizable from what that section of the park looks like today.

"It looks completely different," he said. "For instance, the House of the Future is nothing like our homes today. Tomorrow didn't end up looking like what they had thought."

Phoenix, who grew up in Ontario and has a background in fashion design, has collected more than a half-million slides from thrift stores, flea markets and estate sales.

"They end up there because slides are out of style," he said. "Or people no longer have projection screens. But it's such a luxurious medium. Kodachrome is so beautiful and rich, like Technicolor. They are 100 times better than any snapshot, can be enlarged so everyone can see them, and they're clearer than home movie theaters. So this is a colorful show."

Phoenix's original slide show grew into a series of shows that have played the New York Fringe Theatre Festival and the Walt Disney Concert Hall and Getty Museum in L.A., and his slides are now featured in a coffee-table book. Among the themes of his various slide shows are an all-Disneyland show, a "la la land" show about retro Los Angeles, a holiday photo show and the original "Retro Vacation Slide Show Tour of the USA."

While he guides the audience on a journey to scrutinize midcentury America, he hopes that the trip is one that revives good memories.

"I'm so enthusiastic about what I'm saying and the commentary is so upbeat that it makes people feel good," he said. "It's a very joyful show and in a way, a reality show. I'm only telling the truth about what I'm seeing, and only occasionally speculating. These are simple, little bits of our own history, and seeing them leaves viewers feeling enriched."

"Charles Phoenix's Retro Slide Show Tour of Southern California"

When: 8 p.m. March 23-24; 2 p.m. March 25

Where: California Center for the Arts, Escondido, 340 N. Escondido Blvd. Escondido

Tickets: $20, general; $17, seniors

Information: (800) 988-4253

Web: www.artcenter.org