When The Mall opened, there were six anchors. Sears Outlet and J.C.Penny Outlet were the department stores. I actually worked at J.C. Penny for a Christmas Season. I was hired as a seasonal employee with the potential to be hired full time after the season was over. I was a terrible employee. I hated cleaning up the mess that people would make in the toy department. One time I went to walk down one aisle and it was literally covered from one end to the other in sleeping bags and toys that shoppers just left there. I turned a blind eye and walked away. When the season ended and they didn’t keep me on, I was shocked and disappointed. Hindsight is worth so much!
Redding China and Glass and Ports (Of The World) were two of the anchor stores. I don’t have a lot of memories about them. I am guessing that as a kid, those were not much fun to shop in.
Serving as the back corner anchor was Phar-Mor, a discount drug store. My mother went there all the time and I loved going with her. Not because it was a drug store, but up in the front right corner of the store was a section that sold CD’s and rented movies. The CD’s were not shrink wrapped and you could open the case. To prevent people from steeling them though, the CD’s were taken out and stored behind the counter. I would go in, open the CD’s and read the liner notes so that I could figure out some of the lyrics to songs. “Dude (Looks Like A Lady)” was one such song. Who the hell could understand that?!
Rented movies was the only other reason I went there. As a family, we would go pick movies out that we all wanted to see. Sometimes they had movies there that we had never heard of but had big stars in them. So, we took a couple of chances. I do not ever remember getting movies I didn’t like. There are two movies that I will always associate with Phar-Mor. The first one was “Clara’s Heart”, a drama starring Whoopie Godberg and a then unknown and very young Niel Patrick Harris. The other movie was a comedy starring Arye Gross, Kelly Preston and John Travolta called “The Experts”.
The last anchor in this modern mall of luxury was The 49th Street Galleria. They took an anchor location and turned it into a Parisian village. As you walked in, there were cobblestone streets that led you to each section. A two-story house was built in the middle. That was just the facade though because behind those walls were games as far as the eye could see. Arcade games, boardwalk games they had it all. There was a Pinball Pit, a state-of-the-art bowling alley, laser tag, simulator ride, a roller rink and a dance club all in one spot. If you were a teenager in the late 80’s-early 90’s, this was THEE place to be. Sadly, I was only 12 so I was a bit too young to hang-out there with my friends.
In 1989, soap opera star Michael Damian had a #1 hit record with his cover of “Rock On”. It appeared in the Corey Haim & Corey Feldman movie “Dream A Little Dream”. As part of the promotion, he made an appearance at The 49th Street Galleria. My mother brought me up to see him and the place was PACKED. The event was sponsored by the local Top 40 radio station Eagle 106. They gave out these rubber key chains with their logo on it that I had kept for years. When it was showtime, Michael Damian began his performance by walking down the grand staircase of the arcade. I’ve been told that other Pop-culture stars made various appearances in The Mall, but this is the one I remember.
