Re: Lyric Piano Company/Burger Chef
Spring quarter at OSU, I ran out of money and worked at the campus Burger Chef. Cooked up many a Big Shef and Super Shef.
One night a week was family night and we had one guy who was theatre major that dressed up like a fairy princess for the kids. He was a little too into it if you catch my drift wink-wink nudge-nudge.
I wore my Burger Chef uniform when playing softball for the 17th Ave. Cong Rims. Roy patrolled CF in the day when he still had wheels.
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I remember that building vp. I used to work downtown Cinci for 4 years (over by City Hall). If the weather was decent, I'd walk the city streets at lunch. I think I walked evey street south of Central Parkway all the way to the river, I-75 (and a little beyond) west, and over to Mt. Adams. You see a lot of interesting stuff. And a lot of weird stuff.
Re: Lyric Piano Company/Burger Chef
The Burger Chef that I remember was in Wilmington, just east of downtown on 22. My dad would scarf down Mushroom and Swiss Burgers like he was a man possesed.
I had at least, at LEAST 15-20 of the Burger Chef cards. They're gone.
My family was more of a "Frisch's" than Burger Chef. Even though we weren't the richest people in town, we always paid the extra to be served.
Re: Lyric Piano Company/Burger Chef
Actually my first offical job ever was at a Harrdees resturant. It was Burger Chef before then and I have many of the same childhood memories as you do. The best ever was a kids meal contraption that ended up being a big sailing boat. Even had a plastic hull and keel so you plop it in the bathtub.
There are a few Hardees resturants around. Actually, I kind of like their food. It used to be horrible, but now they make these "thick burgers" that are actual hamburgers (read: not paper thin patties) and their fries are decent too. I'm a fan of a mushroom and swiss myself.
PS: THANKS TO WOY FOR THE NEW AVITAR
PPS: Oh yea, nice building VP. :p:
Re: Lyric Piano Company/Burger Chef
I spoke before actually looking.
The disks I own are NOT of the Burger Chef order, but of Holiday Inn. However, they contain the exact same pictures as the BC discs...just with a different company icon. Sorry, FCB
Nonetheless, I did scan them.
Up first, we have your Cincinnati Reds, past and present at the time:
http://img246.imageshack.us/img246/9441/diskoneyl7.jpg
And, a collection of HOFers:
http://img246.imageshack.us/img246/3203/disk2fe4.jpg.
Finally, as a "sorry we have hijacked your thread" to VP, I have found a link of potential interest that may or may not have already been gone over:
A 2002 article in a column called "blight of the week".
Re: Lyric Piano Company/Burger Chef
Quote:
Originally Posted by
MrCinatit
I love it when the MLBPA stuck their own deals without MLB approval and they had to airbrush the logos from the hats. As a kid, I'd a pencil or marker and try to "draw" the logos' on the hats.
Marvin Miller would be proud.
Nice cards Mr.Cinatit.
Re: Lyric Piano Company/Burger Chef
Quote:
I love it when the MLBPA stuck their own deals without MLB approval and they had to airbrush the logos from the hats.
Coke bottle lids were the first IIRC
Re: Lyric Piano Company/Burger Chef
Quote:
Originally Posted by
MrCinatit
I spoke before actually looking.
The disks I own are NOT of the Burger Chef order, but of Holiday Inn. However, they contain the exact same pictures as the BC discs...just with a different company icon. Sorry, FCB
Nonetheless, I did scan them.
Up first, we have your Cincinnati Reds, past and present at the time:
And, a collection of HOFers:
FYI, those black and white photos appear to be MLBPA "stock" shots sold for advertising purposes. I have RC cans with those exact same photos of Foster and Bench.
Re: Lyric Piano Company/Burger Chef
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Johnny Footstool
FYI, those black and white photos appear to be MLBPA "stock" shots sold for advertising purposes. I have RC cans with those exact same photos of Foster and Bench.
Not only advertising, they are the head shots used in the TSN Baseball Register.
Re: Lyric Piano Company/Burger Chef
VP-
I don't know if the building you're wondering about is listed here, but I've found Emporis to be a great website for information on buildings and skyscrapers. They have a database on every major city in the world. The link to all o fthe bulding listings for Cincinnati is below, perhaps if you scroll through you'll find the building you're wondering about. Hope this is helpful!
http://www.emporis.com/en/wm/ci/bu/s...t=2&ht=2&sro=1
Re: Lyric Piano Company/Burger Chef
Backside of the building found at http://www.roadfood.com/forums/topic...9&whichpage=29
EDIT: Found with a Google search of "632 race" "cincinnati". Looks like there are some bizjournal references to the property.
http://www.roadfood.com/insider/photos/298.jpg
Re: Lyric Piano Company/Burger Chef
Quote:
Originally Posted by
westofyou
Not only advertising, they are the head shots used in the TSN Baseball Register.
I have a 10x14 Black and White Poster of the 1976 Reds and the photos look eeriely familiar with those above.
Re: Lyric Piano Company/Burger Chef
http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.d...WS01/312130015
Enquirer article on 2 upscale condo towers proposed next to the purple people bridge on the Cincy side. VP, you are running out of time!!!!
Re: Lyric Piano Company/Burger Chef
OMG I just got a tour. Will report back with photos after work.
PS This refers to the building, not a burger establishment.
PPS I loathe anything involving the blocking of river views. Bah!
Re: Lyric Piano Company/Burger Chef
First of all, thank you everybody for the architectural-related information provided on this thread. I have much internets surfing to do. Thanks for all of the Burger Chef crap too (very entertaining, really). The one thing for which I'm still really at a loss is anything regarding the Lyric Piano Company itself. The only thing I was able to turn up was an outdated ebay listing for a Lyric piano in the Phillipines, and nobody I've asked seems to remember it. This is going to involve a trip to the library, I think.
So today I walked over the the building to take a couple of pictures (not many, since I am, as I believe I have mentioned, Earth's worst photographer). I tried to study the front a little more closely. Believe it or not, it looks to be in very good shape. It's brick, it's holding up well, it's not even very dirty. That facade is indeed marble, it isn't cracked and in the sunlight it is almost gleamy. The windows are unbelievably gorgeous, entirely intact and seemingly all old, and there are flowers in the flower boxes. When I crossed the street to take a picture from a distance, I noticed that a window was open and there was a worklight on in one of the rooms. i mentioned this earlier, but for anyone who missed it, I found on the auditor's site that Burger Chef sold the building to Hardee's in 2005 (a legal name thing I assume, since the companies seems to be one and the same and the restaurant was long closed by 2005, though that 99-year lease was still in effect), and Hardee's sold the building to a couple in October for $150,000. With the recent purchase, the worklight and the flowers all there despite the fact that nobody's inhabited the building for years, clearly someone's doing something here.
http://static.flickr.com/134/321793836_26afb4f49f.jpg
(I can send anybody a bigger picture of this if you like, because the detail is amazing)
http://static.flickr.com/140/321793841_e64fa596a4.jpg
Then I walked to the back to investigate and see whether the beloved Burger Chef sign is still painted back there. As you can see there is an alleyway running right alongside the building. Behind the building there is a little lot, and behind that, a parking garage, so there's actually a little bustle of activity back there. The first thing I see on my way back is this funny little looking thing that, in my vision of my sound studio/baseball card shop life, is referred to as the "henhouse". I wish I had taken a picture of it in context because it just looks like a little house thing with a roof stuck right in the middle of the wall just behind the facade on the side of the building. It's hard to explain. But awesome. Makes me think the building was added onto at some point, of course, and the henhouse was left there, although I'm baffled given the fact that the facade takes up most of the width of the front of the building. There are also, appropo of nothing, painted awnings above some of the windows, because, you know, awnings were developed for aesthetic purposes only. What is it with Cincinnati and painted buildings? The stairway-and-statue building, the gorilla building. Awes.
http://static.flickr.com/129/321793851_d623725f9f.jpg
http://static.flickr.com/133/321793845_e6a39e55e7.jpg
And then I got to the back, and what do you know: there at the back door is a van with a workman standing by it. So I started talking to him. he was supernice and answered all my questions and let me take pictures. He said that the man who bought it is turning it into apartments on the top two floors (and I didn't pay attention to whether he said "apartments on the top two floors" or "TWO apartments on the top floors", which is bugging me because I'm curious; those top two floors could easily hold more than one apiece). The guy who bought the building is going to live in one of them. The second floor is to be office space, and he hasn't decided what to do with the first floor yet (cough sound studio baseball card shop cough). And I was a little excited when I made my last post; I did not actually get a tour. But I think I could...the reason he didn't let me go in very far today was because they were taking down part of the ceiling just inside the back doorway. "It's going to be a garage..." he told me, and then gave me A Look: "...for his Porsche." :laugh: He said some other things too. I tell you though, the Guy is smart; not all buildings downtown have driveable pavement right behind them, but this one happens to because of the parking garage back there, so Guy can drive straight up to his house, park in his garage, and never pay for parking.
http://static.flickr.com/135/321793850_0a5065fb12.jpg
Since i knew from the auditor's site that the building was sold for only $150,000, and that CityBeat article made it sound like the whole building was falling down, I was very surprised at his answer when I asked what kind of shape the building's in. He said it's in very good shape, structurally sound, good wood floors and all that. He doesn't know how soon it's going to be ready but that's only because there's some indecision about choices and all that. $150,000 for a building that beautiful and it's in good shape. Man, we all missed the boat on that one.
However, the man standing in front of the building next door did offer to sell it to me for the bargain-basement price of $3 million. He also offered me a diamond ring, though, so I take it with a grain of salt.
And so finally, just for you guys, the coup de grace, the moment you've all been waiting for and all those cliches:
http://static.flickr.com/139/321793848_2217f6c571.jpg
But you'd better all get your little tails over there fast or I suspect there will be nothing to see but the wrong side of a Porsche house.
Re: Lyric Piano Company/Burger Chef
Thanks for the write-up, vp. Burger Chef jokes aside, you've got me interested in the goings-on of the Lyric Piano Building. Part of me hopes the new owner keeps the Burger Chef art. When I visited Berlin in the mid-90s, they had this cool club called "Obst und Gemuese" (Fruits and Vegetables) in the former East Berlin. It got its name because the building used to be a produce market and the folks who turned it into a club decided to keep the old sign out front.
As far as the Lyric Piano Company itself goes, acccording to this website and Northern Illinois University, it looks like a Lyric Piano Co. was in existence at least from 1909-1937, dissolving in 1937 (look at the listing for Box 1, Roll 2 of Wurlitzer Co. Records Microfilms in the collection inventory). Without looking at the microfilms (or the original documents supposedly donated to the Smithsonian), we can't be sure if it's the Lyric Piano Co. you are looking for. That's the best I got.