Retro Mall Video: Members Only Jackets - One Jacket To Rule Them All

Members Only Jackets (1982)

Remember that hip and trendy must-have fashion accessory so popular in the '80s--the "Members Only Jacket"? If you were a teen back then living in the U.S., you definitely do. Especially if you were one of the "cool kids" who's parents could afford to get you a Members Only jacket.

I didn't have one.

Well actually, I had a Members Only knock-off version from Kmart or Montgomery Ward at the mall or something. While I certainly fancied myself as relatively cool (OK, very cool), the jackets came along at a really tight financial time in our household (and I couldn't wait, like every other cool kid I needed one NOW!) so I settled for a jacket that looked very similar to the real thing--unless anyone looked real close at the little front pocket label tag which was on the outside of all genuine Members Only jackets, bearing The Name.

That tiny little tag was quite the status symbol in those days. I forget what my knock-off said, but from a few feet away it looked close enough (and no one ever called me on it either). It was like "Member Only" (singular not plural) or something like that. Close enough. I felt cool (or cooler) and all was well.

So here's a 1982 TV commercial for Members Only Jackets, with Anthony Geary of General Hospital, who was a really popular daytime TV sex symbol in those days. Just look at him, can't you tell?

"When I put one on... something happens."

You look like an uncool idiot?

Watch more Retro Mall videos here!

Retro Mall Video: '80s Korvettes Toy Land

Korvettes Toy Land (1982)

Korvettes discount stores "Toy Land" TV commercial from 1982, featuring Mego and others! This is a fun companion piece to the other Korvettes commercial I featured before (and I have yet another vintage Korvettes spot on the way next time).

Watch more Retro Mall videos here!

San Antonio Shopping Center

Mountain View, California - 1982

Vintage early '80s view of San Antonio Shopping Center (aka San Antonio Center), an outdoor strip mall located in Mountain View, California (here's an aerial). Above Image and the following history both via MVPA:

"San Antonio Center has gone through many incarnations. It started in the 1950s as a stand alone Sears Department Store surrounded by bean fields. It grew over the years and became Downtown Mountain View's first major competition. By the 1970s the center had expanded into the pedestrian mall viewed here in this picture. During Christmas time this fountain was covered up and became a place to meet Santa Claus.

At its height in the early 1980s, the mall connected Sears, JC Penny's (which had moved from Mayfield Mall) and Meryvn's. It was also home to the Menu Tree restaurant, a strange two story international restaurant remembered for its use of dozens of cuckoo clocks for decoration.

The mall fell on hard times in the early 1990s and grand plans for its expansion fell through. Most of the mall was demolished to make way for Wal Mart and a parking lot, although a remainder of the mall can still be found behind Sears."