Lost Twin Cities 2: Porky's Drive-Ins

Nothing better characterizes the evolution of modern American consumerism in the 50s, and its subsequent impact on American culture, than changes in the domestic auto industry. Black and brown sedans of utility gave way to two-tone cruising machines, complete with hood ornaments and chrome accenting. To use a term of the times, the new car lines were "futuramic" in body styling and features offered. Image and identity between car and owner would become entwined forever.

But in the 50s' revolution of the roadways, the auto was not the sole attraction. Greeting the new age of motorists was a new age of road signs, some as eye-catching and definitive of a changing culture as the four-wheelers themselves. That they represented a capitalist's bonanza or an eyesore to architectural purists was beside the point; in their loud theatricality and crassness they were, ultimately, fun.

But as Larry Millett, author of "Lost Twin Cities", points out, there was a certain "innocence in the tastelessness" that many of these signs displayed, "People just sort of put up buildings [and signs] that they thought would attract people, that would be loud and noisy and fun...and a lot of it was." Somewhere in the splendor and excitement of the times, we just let it all happen.

And it all came together at the roadside drive-in restaurant. Here, sharp cars and splashy signage combined in the ultimate convergence of Americana modernity. Enticed by the towering, multi-colored signage, people came to eat and meet, all the while remaining in or around their status symbol on four wheels. The food was fast, the atmosphere friendly and largely provincial: it was like a local scene of what's what, and who's who.

A former carhop remembers it this way: " To those who lived in White Bear, Jerry's was theirs. And then there was an A&W Root Beer stand that was out on Como and Snelling. ...The Midway didn't really have anything until Porky's opened up, and it just became an instant hit. ...The social part was the thing that kept people there."

The legendary Porky's drive-in restaurant first appeared in 1953 on University Avenue in St. Paul and was followed by three more, two on Lake Street and one on Lyndale. At Porky's, the movement toward not-so- subtle signage was taken to new heights by owner Ray Truelson, as his son Nels explains: "My father had minored in psychology, and he had learned that the most eye-catching pattern to the human eye was black and yellow checks. Previous to this, that had only been used for road hazard signs and such. So he made this garish black and yellow checked design on the first Porky's. He wanted people driving down the street to be literally forced to turn their heads because they couldn't help themselves. And it worked!" After solidifying his reign as Twin Cites Drive-in king, Truelson later toned down those checks to red and white.

But the same expanding consumerism that gave rise to the Drive-in restaurants was responsible for societal developments that over time made it impossible for establishments like Porky's to survive. As America slipped from the Electrolux Fifties into the Sixties and Seventies, the Drive-ins lost out to the Drive-throughs. Zoning laws tamed the wild roadside, and the old drive-ins were suddenly as out of date as tailfins and bobby socks. One by one each Porky's closed or converted to sit- down restaurants, until the last survivor, on University Avenue, flagship of the checkerboard fleet, fell into crumbling disrepair.

In 1949, Ray Truelson had seen the future in a car; fifty years later he saw it in nostalgia. In 1990 he re-opened the University Avenue Porky's without the car hops this time around, but the hotrods were back, and so were the twinburgers and skin-on fries. Ray Truelson died in 1994, but Porky's still stands, a living roadside museum to a time when cruising the Avenue was a teenage way of life.

Images marked with this logo are reproduced here courtesy of the Minnesota Historical Society. All images are for viewing only and subject to international copyright laws. Reproduction or publication of images is prohibited without written permission from the Minnesota Historical Society. Contact the Library and Archives Division for permission.