Years? I remember it being there in the 1960s and '70s, but maybe it was around a lot longer. I honestly have no idea.
Click above to watch this 1970s Korvette's commercial.
Korvettes was one of the earlier of the discount department stores. In the mid '60s, our family lived in one of the mobile homes in what used to be called Guidish Park (across the street from Southfield Shopping Center). Korvette's was probably the main department store for my mother during that period, though eventually (probably starting in the early '70s) Kmart trumped Korvette's for us. (And, as I wrote earlier, my father was always a Zayre man.) So, given that I was only two and three years old when we shopped there, my memories of Korvette's are a bit fuzzy.
(Note: The photo above is not our Korvette's. I thought I'd post it in case you forgot what the script looked like on the store's sign.)
One thing I do remember is buying -- or asking my mother to buy for me -- The American Breed album "Bend Me, Shape Me" at Korvette's, which I still own. (The American Breed was a band from Cicero, Illinois, by the way, and the song "Bend Me, Shape Me" was a huge hit in 1968 -- #5 on Billboard's Hot 100). From what I've been told, I was incorrigible, even as a baby, when it came to wanting (demanding) music, and when my mother accidentally broke the Bobby Darren 45 of "Splish Splash" when I was only a few months old, I cried for days until she bought a replacement; so I'm certain that by the time "Bend Me, Shape Me" came out, I was already something of a musicologist, albeit a two-and-a-half year old one (and if not a musicologist, well, then, a pain in the ass).
For those of you who haven't heard "Bend Me, Shape Me" in a while (or at all), here's a treat. This has to be one of the earliest music videos. (I love the exercise subplot, by the way. How bizarre.)
If anyone has clearer memories of Korvette's than yours truly, please share.
4 comments:
Korvettes did have a great record department, located up the escalator on the second floor. Or at least that's where it was when this geezer haunted it.
Bought quite a few albums there, including Beatles '65 (released toward the end of 1964), which I still have. About a year earlier, I had purchased the Beatles second album, Meet the Beatles, at Zayre.
Korvettes and Zayre were good places to but the latest albums at pretty competitive prices. Unlike some "real" record shops, you couldn't listen to records there, but what the hey. We already had heard them, thanks to WLS and WCFL. I'm starting to think Dick Biondi may live forever.
On the SW corner of 87th and Cicero there were two drive in theatres, Lowes, and E J Korvette paid $10,000 per acre for the land which was a record locally for the time, circa 1960
Does anyone remember Topp's at 79th. and Cicero!!
Does anyone remember Southfield shopping center on 87th and Harlem in Bridgeview? There was a great Kresges dept. store where you could find anything from small pets to snow cones. Of course Zayre was a great place to shop. There was Mrs. Santa during the holidays to take your Christmas list (white trailer outside of Walgreens and Kresges. Does anyone remember a store at 95th and Ridgeland called "Terrys"? It later becam Community Discount World (ugh!).
Post a Comment