[Margaret “Mick” Kelly (Sondra Locke), store clerk. From The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter (dir. Robert Ellis Miller, 1968). Click either image for a much larger view.]
The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter was filmed on location in Selma, Alabama. That has to be a genuine Woolworth’s.
My one and only Woolworth’s stood at 4318 13th Avenue, Brooklyn. I remember the candy display and the tables with all sorts of inexpensive stuff. I remember buying Christmas presents for my grandparents: a comb, a hand mirror. (I was a little kid.) I remember buying Silly Putty for myself, packaged in what looked like a television set. (I was a little kid.) I remember retail density, the thing I still most admire in hardware and housewares stores. S. Feldman, I’m thinking of you.
That’s my shopping for today.
Friday, November 26, 2021
Woolworth’s
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The late Nanci Griffith sang about a Woolworth's in "Love at the Five and Dime." She talked a bit about the chain in her intro to this live version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2GK462XnRjQ&t=4s
What a beautiful song. Thanks, Chris.
There was a Woolworth's near where I grew up. Two memories about it: the parakeets and other birds that were for sale; and, the lunch counter, where, if we could afford it, my mom would treat us to a banana split. When the check came, we'd have the opportunity to pop a balloon that hung from a stainless steel rod at the counter. Inside the balloon was a small slip of paper, not unlike a fortune cookie, with a price that we were charged for the banana splits. I think we got free banana splits one time.
That’s a good way to sell more banana splits. : )
The lunch counter is something I can’t recall at all. Good Humor, charlotte russe, and (just sometimes) a slice of pizza were the treats when we shopped. But now I wish I’d been to the lunch counter — not that I would have been allowed to have a banana split.
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