First Taco Bell building may be demolished

The Downey Patriot ^ | 1/13/2015 | none

[chrisinoc]

The first Taco Bell was located nearby my parents and relatives' old grocery market. Glenn Bell offered my father and uncles a chance to franchise or invest. They thought Taco Bell would never be profitable and turn it down.

[dead]

Save the cat food!

[dfwgator]

Didn't you watch Demolition Man? Taco Bell won the Franchise Wars.

[SpaceBar]

Yum foods or frito lay or whoever owns it has enough money to have it packed in styrofoam peanuts and sent anywhere in the world with champagne and a movie.

[VerySadAmerican]

I saw a documentary where a motorcycle cop drove up to the location and Bell was working on the building. The cop asked Bell what he was doing. He told him and the cop said he’d like to invest some of his retirement money. He did and got rich.

Bell himself sold out years ago. It’s said that he like creating the business but he hated running it.

[smoothsailing]

[Jeff Chandler]

Taco Bell won the Franchise Wars.

Carls Jr. begs to differ.

[HonkyTonkMan]

It was probably decent quality food when he ran it. I ate there tonite and it was expensive and disgusting. I could not eat the beef meximelt - it was gross.

[Autonomous User]

[Aliska]

Richard and Karen Carpenter lived in Downey when they got their start in the music business. Maybe they ate there. Richard is still alive and living in Thousand Oaks so maybe he is on the conservation committee.

One problem is I think I read somewhere that the first home the Carpenter family purchased and lived in after they moved from New Haven, CT, was demolished for some urban development project, maybe a freeway.

Time marches on. America has demolished a lot of the old heritage in the name of progress. Fortunately some still remains. Europe has managed to modernize and preserve much of the Old World charm.

[jcon40]

Ahhhh....back when a bean burrito was 10 cents .....red or green

[Vendome]

Went there with a girlfriend when I was a wee lad.

I worked at the one in Santa Cruz and thought it would be fun to visit the original.

[Vendome]

He might have eaten there but, no way she did...

[Revel]

Is this where they did their recent Gay commercial.

[Vince Ferrer]

I don't know if people would be nostalgic about the first time they had diarrhea enough to keep this building

[PJ-Comix]

Richard and Karen Carpenter lived in Downey when they got their start in the music business. Maybe they ate there.

Karen Carpenter was just one beef burrito away from still being alive.

[Fiji Hill]

Downey was also the site of Downey Records. The biggest hit to come out of the studio at Wenzel's Music Town, a record store at Lakewood and Gardendale was Pipeline by the Chantays, in 1963.

By the late 1970's, Wenzel's Music Town was specializing in collectible records and became well-known to collectors throughout the Southland until it closed in the 1990's.

[chrisinoc]

The Carpenters’ father used to shop at the now abandoned Gemco on Florence in northeast Downey as they lived nearby.

Their first home was in the general area as my family's home in southern Downey and was taken out by the Century Freeway.

The Carpenters attended Long Beach State (just before me) and have the Performing Arts Center named after them.

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

Reminds me of when we were offered to invest in two new businesses. MINIE PEARL’S FRIED CHICKEN and WALMART.

One went belly up, the other...Well I know lots of people who wish they could kick their butts for not coming up with a few bucks.

[chrisinoc]

I used to go to Wenzel’s since I lived nearby.

Downey used to be a middle class, conservative city. With the closing of North American Rockwell and nearby General Motors and facilities the conservatives moved out and the area is now Dem stronghold.