Photos: Life in Tucson in the early 1960s
See what Tucson residents saw and experienced in 1960-61.
Campbell Plaza
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Thousands attended the formal opening of the new $2 million Campbell Plaza shopping Center at the northeast corner of North Campbell Avenue and East Glenn Street on April 7, 1960. Originally, the parking facilities was designed to handle 850 vehicles but it was overflowing for the event. The plaza is situated on 18 acres and has 18 tenants.
Tucson Rodeo
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A bullrider crawls away from a bull, probably as fast as he can during the 1961 La Fiesta de los Vaqueros.
Tucson Rodeo
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A saddle bronc rider takes a header into the ground as the pick up man, background, rides up to catch the horse during the 1961 La Fiesta de los Vaqueros.
Ted DeGrazia
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Tucson artist Ted DeGrazia in April, 1960, next to "Los Niños," which was chosen as the official Christmas card by UNICEF in 1960.
Aerospace and Arizona Days parade
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During the Aerospace and Arizona Days parade on February 3, 1961, a Boeing Bomarc anti-aircraft missile makes its way north on Stone Avenue in front of The Arizona Daily Star and Tucson Daily Citizen building. The downtown parade displayed units from Davis-Monthan Air Force base where the remainder of the celebration took place over the weekend.
'Thunder of Drums' filming in Tucson — Charles Bronson
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Thunder of Drums movie. April 8 1961.
Downtown Tucson
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Downtown Tucson buildings on Pennington Street looking west from Scott Ave towards Stone Ave, ca. 1960. Pennington Drugs is at left.
Downtown Tucson
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Downtown Tucson buildings taken 1960.
University of Arizona astronomy
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October 11, 1961 — Telescope automation comes to astronomy as Dr. Waler S. Fitch looks into a photometer that measures the brightness of stars and adjusts controls for the automatic punch unit that will put the information on cards. In the background is the University of Arizona's 36-inch telescope.
"Bockscar," the Boeing B-29
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"Bockscar," the Boeing B-29 bomber that dropped the atomic bomb on Nagasaki, Japan, in 1945, shown in storage at Davis-Monthan AFB, Tucson, in 1955. It was transferred to the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force in 1961.
Ernie McCray
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Ed Nymeyer, left, and Ernie McCray, former Arizona basketball star, in March, 1961 in Tucson.
Duke Ellington in Tucson
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Jazz performer and composer Duke Ellington interviewed on Sept. 15, 1961 in Tucson.
University of Arizona Homecoming
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The caption for this 1961 UA Homecoming parade photo in the Tucson Citizen was both sweet and sexist: "Four beaming coeds set the tone for the slogan put on the Pi Beta Phi float in the annual University of Arizona Homecoming Parade. The girls also, as a lesson in economics, carry symbols of items which Arizona produces, along with pretty girls."
Hiway House Motor Hotel
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Poolside and patio area at the Hiway House Motor Hotel at 1601 N Miracle Mile Strip in May 1961.
Horse racing at Rillito Park
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Snow across the Santa Catalina Mountains as the horses run at Rillito Park in January, 1960.
Kennedy-Johnson presidential campaign in 1960
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Sen. Lyndon Johnson's campaign plane at Tucson International Airport on Sept. 15, 1960, during a Kennedy-Johnson presidential campaign event. His motorcade is assembled in foreground. Johnson flew first to Phoenix. He "hand-shook and child-hugged his way through a small crowd," according to the Tucson Citizen.
Kennedy-Johnson presidential campaign in 1960
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Sen. Lyndon B. Johnson speaking at the Pioneer Hotel in Tucson on Sept. 15, 1960 during a campaign stop for the Kennedy-Johnson presidential campaign. He lauded Arizona Sen. Carl Hayden (Johnson is pointing to him the picture) and said he has "done more for Arizona than any five men." He also said former Arizona Sen. Ernest McFarland "taught me all I know." He went after the Republicans: "The future of the West has languished in a pigeonhole at the Republican Bureau of the Budget and the West will not forget."
Kennedy-Johnson presidential campaign in 1960
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Sen. John F. Kennedy stepped off his DC-3 campaign plane and was greeted by about 150 people and given a sombrero and "an undersized cowboy hat," according to the Tucson Citizen, at Tucson Municipal Airport in April 1960, during an appearance in Tucson, Ariz.
Building the road to Kitt Peak National Observatory
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Building the road to Kitt Peak National Observatory in May, 1960: Workers slip explosives into holes to blast away rock.
Tucson Rodeo Parade
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The Pomeroy Elementary School band marches along Congress St. in front of the Fox Theater during the 1961 Tucson Rodeo Parade.
SS Kresge Store
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The new S.S. Kresge Store at the Oxford Plaza Shopping Center on East 22nd Street near South Wilmot Road was one of several new businesses in the area in October 1961.
The Powers Affair
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Tom Powers, left, and John Powers sit on a hued at the Arizona State Prison in Florence in 1960. They were convicted for the murders of three sheriff's deputies in 1918.
The Copa
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The Copa at South Craycroft and 29th Street in Tucson, pictured in November, 1961, featured 24 bowling lanes, liquor and free babysitting.
Southern Arizona Bank and Trust Co.
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Southern Arizona Bank and Trust Co., Tucson's first "motor bank," according to the Tucson Citizen in Aug. 1961. (Possibly southside of Alameda, east of Church Ave.)
Fallout shelter
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Dr. and Mrs. A. Russell Aanes check their civil defense rations as they start a two-week stay in an above-ground fallout shelter at KGUN-TV studios in October, 1961. The couple said they were "looking forward to catching up on long-delayed reading, napping and being away from the telephone." The TV station had a remote camera and would periodically monitor the couple inside.
Fallout shelter
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John Stufflebean and family in their fallout shelter in Tucson in April, 1961.
Harlow Nursery
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On December 8, 1961, workers from Harlow Nursery plant Joshua and fan palm trees in front of a business at 82 S Stone Ave. Photo by
Tucson shopping in years past
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Thousands of vehicles in the parking lot of the new Montgomery Ward store in El Con Shopping Center on its first day of business in February, 1961. Photo taken from the historic El Conquistador Hotel, which was demolished by 1968 to make way for mall expansion. Tucson Citizen
Winterhaven Festival of Lights
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Time exposure of Luminaria Lane in the Winterhaven subdivision in Tucson in December, 1961. Residents along Greenlee Road and Stewart Avenue placed hundreds of traditional Mexican luminarias around their homes.
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