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 pace Age Lodge. Gila Bend, Arizona.
This motel and a more extreme version of it just a block from Disneyland in Anaheim, California, were opened by Leo Stovall in 1965 and are known as Stovall’s Space Age Lodges. A plaque above the Anaheim registration desk reads: “On behalf of the Stovall’s, we take great pride in presenting a new motel concept and creation, The Space Age Lodge, for your comfort and luxury while you’re at Disneyland and the Magic Kingdom. “The Space Bubble dividers, new styrene lights and panels, grape plaques, bubble mirrors and lights, fallout detectors, new acetate spreads and drapes with exciting new colors make The Space Age Lodge the pacesetter for motels in the future. “These creations along with the geometric trim, thousands of space spheres combined with aluminum and jet-age metals on stairs, railings, pool, and atrium, all made by the Stovalls to make this your best and most memorable vacation.” The dining room, used by the Rotarians for weekly luncheons, features a wall-length photo mural of Earth seen from outer space. Parabolas of aircraft-tubing arch over the front portico, and merry spacemen prance along the eaves overlooking the parking lot, with satellites stuck to the roof like cockleburrs. Perforated waferlike aluminum, a metallic Swiss cheese, encases the banisters and railings. A sign on the geodesic dome sheltering ice and Coke machines out by the swimming pool boasts that the structure is a replica of the first building erected on the moon. Framed pictures of planets and moon photographs are mounted above the beds in each room, while red and orange planetlike globes hang in corners and along the windows. The motels were recently bought by the Best Western chain, and the new owners have toned down the more unusual aspects of Leo’s decorative scheme. |
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By Douglas CurranForeword by Tom Wolfe 62 illustrations, 28 in full color 144 pages • 10 x 9" • Cloth ISBN 0-7892-0708-7 • $35.00 Buy Now at Abbeville.com 
• UFO Landing Port • Space Age Lodge • UFO House • New Age Foundation Convention • EP7 • Highway 1 Flying Saucer   
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