Van Halen @ Detroit-area McDonald's in 1978

[68pongto]

The McDonalds pictured is without a doubt the one at 9915 Watson Road [[Route 66) in the Crestwood, a St. Louis suburb. I don’t care what people argue about snow or tour dates. I have no idea why Van Halen was in town and really don’t care. But KSHE 95, a legendary rock station was only a couple of blocks away from this McDonalds. Many rock stars stopped by there for interviews. Maybe Van Halen came in on an off tour date, who knows. As for the one guy who said he reversed his original opinion because of the elevation of the building he is wrong. YES, they did raise the front of that McDonalds 3 feet! It is the oldest McDonalds in St. Louis, it has many, many remodels on it, one of the original dining rooms was sunken, you had to walk down a few steps in the front room to get to it. Obviously handicapped people could not access it, so in the mid 80’s they rebuilt and raised the whole front of the building. As for the sign in the picture it was removed in the early 80’s. I have photos from 1967 from the Crestwood Fire Department of all the businesses up and down Watson road; they used them to identify commercial businesses. The photo they have of the sign says only 2 billion served, at that time, over 24 billion in the late 70’s. The Photo is looking east; the photos in question were taken looking west. The fire department also has pictures of the Site Gas station and sign [[a St. Louis Company) seen in the background. Also photos of the Shell gas station and sign. Both of the gas station signs can be seen in the background of the Van Halen/McDonalds photos. They are both gone now, a NEW Shell station [[built late 1980's) is where the Site station was, and a bank is now where the original Shell was. I also have aerial photos from St. Louis County from 1981 that show the gas stations. I also put a red X where Van Halen was standing when photographed. I have lived and worked in Crestwood my entire life, I am very familiar with all the changes along Watson Road throughout the years. Although I do not remember the original McDonalds in the photo I have included, I do know for a fact that this particular one has been remodeled and added on to many times throughout the years. As to why the photograph got labeled as being from Detroit? Who knows, peoples’ memories get foggy sometimes. Especially if you are going from city to city with a group, I’m sure they all start to look the same! Hopefully these photos will clear up any confusion.

[Colombian Dan]

Thanks so much 68pongto. Appreciate your contribution and history. The pictures are great.

[Colombian Dan]

ok.. and to add to this continuing mystery.. per the photographer... Richard Upper, I received an email from Chris Vranian this response to Question; 1978 Van Halen tour ITEM# VH-RU-001.
http://www.rockandrollgallery.com/catalog/VH-RU-001.html
From Richard Upper....Technically this Mcdonald's is not in Detroit. It's not even in the US. This was actually taken across the street or around the corner from a Warner Bros Records distribution warehouse in Windsor Canada. I was informed at the time by the manager of the warehouse -and resident of Detroit - that Windsor was "a suburb of Detroit". [[SIC) She was joking of course. But telling people the photo was taken in Windsor meant an explanation was in order. It has always been easier just to say - Detroit. However, fans who live in the area are always bickering about the location. I found a blog about the issue some years ago and tried to settle it with the above explanation.

Chris Vranian
Founder
RockandRollGallery.com
chris@rockandrollgallery.com
M)310-666-2045

[68pongto]

There is no continuing mystery. I have provided photos of two of the businesses in the back ground. They are all were in Crestwood MO. I don't know why the photographer would say Detroit or Windsor, but they are just simply wrong. Do you not find it odd that no one in the Detroit area can for sure say with 100% clarity where that exact location is? Yet I have picture from this strip of road that clearly show the background properties. Also no one in Detroit knows what a SITE gas station is? I can circle the matches in side by side photos if you like.

[68pongto]

Also why don't you ask the photographer if he ever remembers being in St. Louis with them and going to KSHE 95, that might ring a bell with him?

[Colombian Dan]

68pongto, I agree with you on this picture being in Crestwood MO. I have emailed the radio station as well, but no response. Yes, people do remember SITE gas stations but the issue has always been the McDonalds never matched up with the SITE gas stations. So I think most people from Detroit never accepted those pictures as being in Detroit. Also, the fact the original photographer also admits the location is not Detroit helps. Ideally a picture from KSHE 95 with a date would be perfect.

[68pongto]

I will try to e-mail Mark Klose, he is an original DJ with KSHE. He still works there part time and actually grew up in Crestwood. It wasn't uncommon for KSHE to pick artists up at the airport in a van and bring them to the studio back in 70's, just ask Gene Simmons about the KSHE kite fly in Forest Park. The old DJ's tell some pretty crazy stories about these 70's rock groups. Billy Joel also tells a story of how he hitch-hiked to KSHE with an album to try to get them to play his music. KSHE was a early FM rock pioneer. Just about every big act from the 70's early 80's was there at one time or another. So it wouldn't be out of the question for Van Halen to be in Crestwood in the late 70's.

[Colombian Dan]

Photographer Richard Upper confirms these pictures were taken in Crestwood Missouri.....

Hey Daniel and Ruby,

This is Richard Upper. I think you may be on to something here. We went to several cities on that
promotional tour for "you really got me". And yes we did go to St Louis as one of the stops.
I reviewed all of the McDonald's in Windsor, Canada and could not find the one we stopped at to take
that picture. I then went to Crestwood and low-and-behold there's the location. I spent a long time verifying that to be true and found too many similarities - even 40 years later- to insist on Windsor any more. Your right, it must be St. Louis! I've had those negatives in the wrong folder for all these years.
You rock Daniel and Ruby, thank you

Richard

[cmwiley2]

Hey 68 Pontiac GTO thanks for your detective work. I'm a Crestwood resident myself. Those pics you found are great. I contacted John Ulett and Favazz and Klose was going to be next on my list. Favazz said he wasn't old enough to remember and Ulett just said it didn't look like Crestwood to him. Rick Balis never replied. Still trying to pinpoint the date based on the snow. There's an earlier link in this thread to STLTODAY and the weather in '78 and how there were record breaking snowfalls that year. I'm guessing this was early March of '78. You don't by chance work at Walnut Park auto-body, do you?

[68pongto]

Yes, I do work at Walnut Park Auto Body. Joe Sonderman got a bunch of pictures of Watson Road businesses from the Crestwood Fire department. We got digital copies from him. Mark Klose would probably have the best memories of that McDonalds since he grew up in Crestwoood.

[cmwiley2]

Yes, I do work at Walnut Park Auto Body. Joe Sonderman got a bunch of pictures of Watson Road businesses from the Crestwood Fire department. We got digital copies from him. Mark Klose would probably have the best memories of that McDonalds since he grew up in Crestwoood.

By my sleuthing, this photo was probably taken March 5th, 1978. Based on weather records, STL had a 4.5” snowfall on March 2nd. VH kicked off their World Tour in Chicago as the opening act for Journey/Montrose on the 3rd, and played in Springfield IL on the 4th. Their show on the 5th in Indy was postponed which left them with 2 open dates the 5th and 6th before they were to play in Madison WI on the 7th. So the boys had a couple open dates and were only 100 Miles from STL and a visit to KSHE in Crestwood. Makes sense to come to STL to promote their show scheduled for April 4th at the Opera House in STL. Also explains why the car they were driving had IL plates too. https://www.stltoday.com/news/archiv...a9d8e0896.html

[jmpatrick]

R.I.P. Edward Van Halen

[Danny]

Van Halen R.I.P.

[Maof]

I feel so bad about this. RIP Eddie

[jmpatrick]

I was a little late to the VH party and didn't get to see them live until the Cobo shows in August of 1982. I managed to get tickets for two of the shows [[a first for me seeing a band on consecutive nights). Back then, the lineup to get tickets at the box office was a party all by itself.

I'm curious if anyone here saw them 3/10/78 at the Masonic Temple when they played with Journey and Montrose. That was their first time in Detroit.

[CassTechGrad]

Valerie Bertinelli &Eddie Van Halen’s wedding day, April 11, 1981.

[Ann_Shamrock]

i 100% agree with you. the side by side photos cant lie also SITE oil company is Missouri.

[Ann_Shamrock]

i don't know why I'm so fascinated with this photo? but Trivia is only fun i guess when you get it right.

[Ann_Shamrock]

Dear Columbian Dan i just saw the comment from Richard Upper. id say that's great validation. The mystery McDonalds can finally be put to rest. it was indeed the one on Watson rd in Missouri.

[Ann_Shamrock]

see photo below

[Ann_Shamrock]

[Ann_Shamrock]

[Ann_Shamrock]

wow!! that's a great validation! if its really Richard

[EastsideAl]

I'm curious if anyone here saw them 3/10/78 at the Masonic Temple when they played with Journey and Montrose. That was their first time in Detroit.

I wasn't at that show, but I was at the show when they came back to Detroit that September and opened for Black Sabbath at Cobo.

[CassTechGrad]

So can't ya see me standing here
I got my back against the record machine
Ah, might as well jump