posted April 25, 2006 11:44 AM               

The Satellite Motel was a bit further along the road with its satellite/earth globe on the hotel ad pole!

Also, the Wooden Nickel 'shack' that served pretty good - and much cheaper than motel/hotel - food! Us Brits in those early long haul charter days were on a tight budget!

A lot of the big aerospace companies (NAA,McD,Boeing,Grumman) would take over hotels for week or two to have their PR people giving news handouts,freebies etcetera and organising site visits. Also, soem of the countdown and support staff would be housed in them.

posted April 26, 2006 06:55 AM               

quote:

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Originally posted by Blackarrow:
What became of the Atlantis? What is it now?

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Certainly doesn't appear in any hotel listings or Cocoa Beach under its original name.

posted April 26, 2006 07:20 AM               

quote:

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Originally posted by Canaveral:
I wonder what ever happened to the Satellite Motel display on the main strip

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While doing some research for a book I was working on I talked to the owner of the motel about it and he let me have some nice pieces from it (all fiberglass).

posted April 26, 2006 08:48 AM               

Other popular motels were: Satellite motel, Polaris, Vanguard, Sea Missle, Holiday Inn, Silver Sands, Sea Air (sp?), Astrocraft, and the Cape Colony Inn, to name a few.

The Cape Colony Inn hosted a full news center in 1964 with offices for "Life", "National Geographic" "NBC", "CBS", and the wire services.

Romon's was a popular restaurant for Cape workers back in the 50's, and was built in 1958. Fat Boys was a popular place that the Mercury astronauts would eat at. Gus Grissom loved their ribs and would make a point to fly down there just to get them. This was told to me by Betty.

As I said in my last post a really great book about the early Cape and the Cocoa Beach area is titled "The Missilemen" by Mel Hunter. It was published in 1960 by Doubleday and reminds me of the film of "Growing Up With Rockets"

Another good history book to get about Cocoa Beach is titled "The City Of Cocoa Beach: The First Sixty Years" by Glenn Rabac.

One interesting note: A sign was put up that read "Cocoa Beach 8 Miles From Confusion" and was paid for by the Cocoa Beach Booster Club. Locals didn't like it because of the word "Confusion".

The story behind the motels at Cocoa Beach is quite interesting. At the time the Cape was being built there was nothing there and a lot of motels had to go up in a hurry to make up "motel row". The last time I was down there the "Silver Sands" motel was still there and so was the Sea Air. They both look a little out of place, but glad they are still there.

Another thing, Guenter Wendt would put up the Mercury astronauts at his place when they wanted to get away from the press.

posted May 03, 2006 12:22 AM               

quote:

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Originally posted by Rick Boos:

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If my memory has not failed, I'd say the above picture was taken after Hurricane David brushed by Florida in 79. I remember that both of the smaller, spheres were still in place prior to that storm.(though the upper one had already "migrated" down the rod by that point)

posted June 01, 2006 09:09 PM               

I was a bit of a latecomer - was in Cocoa Beach as a part-time student, part-time Cape worker 1970-72. I'm about 100 miles downrange now and still go up for launches but had not thought about these old haunts for years. Thanks to Rick for posting the Satellite pics- the "Pillowtalk Lounge" there was a noted pick-up joint in those days- LOL. I remember Lee Caron's Carnival Club and see that its famed pink elephant is now at a little waterslide park up in Canaveral next to Zachary's restaurant which was the Camelot Inn back in those days. Across the street from the Mousetrap that Sy mentioned was George's Steak House that had a couple framed Chesley Bonestell original paintings in its decor! A little south of that was the CAC Building that become Hydrospace Technical Institute- a division of F.I.T. I attended from '69 to '72. I think the core building is still there being converted to a condo now?

Since I was a student officer in the local Marine Technology Society chapter as well as a wire jockey for some preliminary Skylab work at the Cape, I got assigned to a contingent to tour Jacques & Philippe Cousteau around while they were VIP guests for the Apollo 14 launch. Could not remember what hotel they stayed in- but after reading the posts here, pretty sure it was indeed the Atlantis Beach Lodge.

posted July 19, 2006 01:35 PM               

I've recently gone nuts about the American space programme and feel like I've spent more money on learning about the race to the moon than NASA did to actually get there! I now really want to visit all the places of historic interest in Cocoa Beach while I also visit Kennedy Space Centre...

posted July 24, 2006 01:52 PM            

Holiday Inn wanted to expand (years ago) and they were limited by their location, so they bought the property directly across A1A and moved there.

posted August 05, 2006 05:36 PM               

quote:

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Originally posted by bshockley123:
I often stayed at the Satellite (and the Holiday) and often dined at the Mousetrap until I was slicing off a piece of bread at their bread table and a cockroach ran out from under the bread, which unfortunately my wife saw. That was my last visit!

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posted January 10, 2008 09:35 PM               

Any clues as to Gus' old room number?

posted January 20, 2008 10:07 AM               

The astronauts stayed at the Holiday Inn where Henri Landwirth was a manager, he was replaced by Larry Koen, Ed Wilson and Jack Bovard during that period.

When the 7 astronauts "invested" in the Cape Colony, they stayed there. When NASA frowned on their participation in the hotel, they went back to the Holiday Inn. The Lounge was one of their hang-outs, another was the Ramada's Wolfie's for late night snacks after partying. Also the Ramada featured entertainers, such as Frank Sinatra, Jr and Trish who was a popular folk singer etc.

The Cape Colony was very popular because of Mark Wayne's band with Johnny Bolan at the piano. They kept the place "hopping" and always full.

Ramon's, the Surf, Alma's & the Mousetrap were the best resturants to be seen or to just indulge.

The Holiday is still there, Ramada became the Carriage House, the Cape Colony is now LaQuinta, the old Hilton is gone.

Alma's, Ramon's & the Mousetrap is no longer and the Surf is under new owners.

There were other restaurants & places of entertainment but the ones mentioned above where the most prominent.

I lived there during that time and have lots of fond memories of each and every place mentioned.

posted July 19, 2009 08:21 AM               

I understand that there are such hotels as the Holiday Inn, La Quinta and the Best Western Hotel but can anybody recommend a hotel that they think reflects the time of Apollo, firstly as it will be a fitting end to a holiday in my favourite place in the world, , plus my daughter and I will be celebrating our birthdays as well, in fact my daughter's birthday is on the day of the actual launch itself (not forgetting its the 40th anniversary of Apollo 12 as well).

I myself quite like the idea of La Quinta or the Super 8 Motel in Titusville near the Kennedy Space Center but any advice as usual is always gratefully received.