Early Americana

Inspired by a drawing of King Arthur's court eating pizza, Round Table Pizza was a restaurant founded in 1959. It went out of business in 2011 but in 2019, was reborn as Royalty Pizza.

Pup 'n' Taco was a popular fast food chain in Los Angeles. It served featured hot dogs (thus the "pup" tacos, tostadas, pastrami sandwiches, burgers, and fries. Russell Wendell started in the restaurant business in 1956 with Big Donut. He introduced Pup 'n' Taco in 1965. In 1984, most of...

Camelot was a chain of mall-based record stores founded in 1956 in Massillon, Ohio. At its peak, it operated over 450 stores in 37 states. In 1998 it was acquired by rival Trans World operators of Record Town among other chains. Most surviving locations...

GrandPa Pidgeon's, also known as simply GrandPa's, was founded in 1954 by Tom and Mildred Pidgeon.??Over the next decade, several more GrandPa Pidgeon's stores opened in the St. Louis metropolitan area. At its peak in the early 1990s, the chain had a total of...

Chippewa Lake Park was an amusement park in Medina County near the junction of US 224 and I-71. Named for the lake by which it was built, the park was open from 1875 to 1978. Many of the old rides still sit abandoned at...

Edgewater Park was a 20-acre amusement park at Grand River and Seven Mile Rd on Detroit's West Side that opened in 1927. For over 50 years its visitors enjoyed such attractions as the Wild Beast roller coaster, the 110-foot Ferris wheel, and the Hall...

The Tennessee Rats were a black baseball team formed in 1910 in Holden, MO by W.A. Brown. Primarily a barnstorming team, they played until 1926. They mostly toured Missouri and surrounding states. *Design is officially licensed from the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum

In the 1920s, three Swedish immigrants and brothers, Hans and Gunnar Lenell and their friend Aagard Billing, launched Lenell's, a Swedish bakery offering cakes, breads and cookies. The bakery was later renamed Lenell's Cookies, and later Maurice Lenell's Cooky Company, it remained family-run through...

The Pittsburgh Shamrocks played in the old International Hockey League for the 1935/36 season. After losing $40,000 in their lone season, the team folded. In the fall of 1936, the Detroit Olympics moved to Pittsburgh to become the Hornets.

Burger Chef was a fast-food hamburger chain that started in Indianapolis in 1958. At its peak in the mid 1970s, it was second only to McDonald's in the number of nationwide locations. The chain even made inroads into Canada. In 1982, the chain was...

Captain Penny entertained children weekdays at noon on Channel 5 in Cleveland from 1955 to 1971, showing cartoons and talking to the occasional in-studio guest. Around the holidays, Mr. Jingeling would stop by frequently. Captain Penny was portrayed by Ron Penfound who originally had...

The Columbus Panhandles football club was established in 1901. In 1904, they joined the Ohio League, before becoming charter members of the American Professional Football Association (later called the National Football League) in 1920. They changed their name to the Tigers in 1922 and...

The Providence Steam Rollers played in the NFL from 1925 to 1931. In 1928, they became the first football team from New England to win a league title. They remain the last defunct team to win an NFL championship.

The original Bills football team was established in 1946 in Buffalo as the Bisons in the All-America Football Conference (AAFC). In 1947, after a name-the-team contest, the new name was selected. In 1949, the NFL absorbed several AAFC teams but, oddly, the Bills were...

The first three pro football teams to call Dallas home played in the Cotton Bowl, starting with the 1952 Dallas Texans. The city's surviving gridiron squad, the Cowboys, moved into Texas Stadium in 1971. The facility's most unique feature is the hole in the...

The??Birmingham Black Barons??played??Negro League Baseball from 1920 to 1960. They alternated home stands with the??Birmingham Barons??in Birmingham's??Rickwood Field, usually drawing larger crowds and equal press. *Design is officially licensed from the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum

The Stars were a Negro league baseball team that called Detroit home from 1919 to 1931. Starting as an independent team, they played in the Negro National League from 1920 to 1931. CHECK OUT OUR ENTIRE NEGRO LEAGUES COLLECTION, AS WELL AS MORE SHIRTS...

The Havana Sugar Kings were a AAA minor league baseball team based in Cuba's capital from 1946 to 1960. They were members of the International League and their parent club was Cincinnati. Their home field was??El Gran Estadio del Cerro??(also known as Gran Stadium) in Havana....

The Royal Giants were a Negro league baseball team based in Brooklyn from 1905 to 1942. They were an independent team for most of their existence but also played in the Negro National Association in 1907 and 1908 and the Eastern Colored League from...

Before the NHL's Islanders called the area home, the Island had this Eastern Hockey League (EHL) team to cheer for. The Ducks played from 1959 until 1973 (a year after the arrival of the Islanders), when the EHL folded. Their home ice was at...

Burger Chef was a fast-food hamburger chain that started in Indianapolis in 1958. At its peak in the mid 1970s, it was second only to McDonald's in the number of nationwide locations. In the late '70s, animated spokespersons Burger Chef and Jeff were introduced....

The Columbus Red Birds began play in 1902 as the Senators in the AA American Association. In 1931, the team was purchased by, and became a farm team of, the St. Louis Cardinals, changing their nickname to Red Birds. In 1946, the Red Birds...

Dick the Bruiser was a legendary professional wrestler from Indiana. He was born William Fritz Afflis in Delphi, Indiana and grew up in Lafayette. Before becoming a wrestler in 1955, he was lineman for the Green Bay Packers for 4 seasons beginning in 1951.

The Indianapolis ABCs were a Negro League baseball team that played both as an independent club and as a charter member of the first Negro National League from 1913 to 1926.

The Providence Reds (also known as the Rhode Island Reds) started in the Canadian-American Hockey League in 1926. They continued with that circuit when it became the American Hockey League in 1936. In 1976, the became the Rhode Island Reds, before moving to Binghamton,...

Founded in Cincinnati in 1943, King Records was one of the most important independent record labels in music history. One of its sibling labels, Federal Records, was the original home of James Brown. King was purchased by Nashville's Gusto Records in 1974.

The??Jacksonville Red Caps??were a??Negro league baseball??team based primarily in??Jacksonville, Florida. They played the??Negro American League from 1938 until 1942. ?? *Design is officially licensed from the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum

Founded in Lexington in 1957, Jerry's Restaurant offered fast-casual dining and through the '70s grew to have locations throughout the Midwest and South.

The Whistl'n Pig opened in 1947 at??818 S.W. Broadway in Portland. In 1954, it became Bruer's Coffee Shop.??Whistl'n Pig moved to 8640 S.W. Canyon Rd. and became the Whistl'n Pig Bar-B-Q Restaurant.

The Seattle Metropolitans played in the Pacific Coast Hockey Association from 1915 to 1924. In 1917 they became the first American team to win the Stanley Cup before that trophy became exclusively associated with the National Hockey League in 1926.