Adventure Car Hop, Revered 1950s Monument, Rediscovered.

Should you be constructing a memorial to the Golden Decade of Rock and Roll here in Boston, your temple might closely resemble the Adventure Car Hop in Saugus.

Growing up in Greater Boston during the 1950s and 60s, we were barraged nightly with a jingle which you,  like I, can most surely remember and sing today.

"Adventure Car Hop is the place to go
For food that's always right.
Adventure food is always just so.
(You'll relish every bite!)
Out on Route One in Saugus,
Come dressed just as you are.
Adventure, where the service is tops,
And you never get out of your car."

Adventure was not the only car hop in the area, I recall other ones at Fresh Pond in Cambridge, in Natick, in Medford, and in Hampton Beach, but I am certain there were many more.  The Adventure advantage was the region’s most famous disk jockey, Arnie Ginsburg, whose show on WBOS in 1958 opened with his signature tune.

"Gather 'round, everybody; 'cause you're about to hear

The show that's gonna make you / smile from ear to ear

It's Arnie Ginsburg / on the Night Train show

At 16-hundred...on your radio." 

Arnie dropped the last sentence in 1958, when he moved his show to WMEX, AM 1510. Here is  Freddie Boom boom Cannon from Lynn singing the Arnie Ginsberg theme from WMEX radio, the most popular rock & roll station in Boston in the '50s and early '60s. Freddie appeared on Dick Clark's American Bandstand more times than any other artist. I last saw him play at the Revere Beach Centenary a few short years ago. 

Perhaps his most creative promotion for Adventure Car Hop was the Ginsburger, as recounted by bobstudley01821in a Yahoo Group of formerlynners.

“Hi there, this is Arnie Ginsberg telling you that Adventure Car Hop presents for the first time anywhere the GINSBURGER!  That’s right; the Ginsburger is now being served at Adventure Car Hop.  I designed it, I planned it, I tested it, but you’re going to eat it.  And what a delicious mouthful it is.  And adventure Car Hop is serving the Ginsburger on a record which you get to keep for your very own.  If you say Woo-Woo Ginsberg with your order, you get another Ginsburger free of charge.  So how can you miss, stop by the Adventure Car Hop, Route One in Saugus!”

With these promotions, on a summer night Arnie could draw a couple of thousand teenagers to the place.

A couple of years ago, driving up Route 1 from Boston, I tried to remember exactly where Adventure Car Hop (now long gone) had been located.  No one I asked could recall either. With the advice of Arnie Ginsburg, I recently located the site and recorded the location on my iPhone.  If you copy @42.485481,-71.018295 into Google Maps you find yourself in the parking lot adjacent to the Continental, which is at 266 Broadway (Rt. 1) in Saugus. 

 

I thought I’d give you the coordinates in case the Continental is replaced some day in the future, as have many other Route 1 favorites.  By the way, if you do use these coordinates with Google Maps, the satellite view shows you the parking lot quite clearly.  The street view  points you toward the restaurant, but panning to the right shows you  the correct location

 Woo-Woo Ginsburg!