Burbank Installs Time Capsule; Wilt Chamberlain Debuts in L.A., February 1, 1959

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The people living in 1959 had noble expectations for Burbank: Atomic power! Monorails! I wonder if anyone plans to actually pop it open this week. This is the bridge that spans the Golden State Freeway, the railroad tracks and the river channel. Detroit promises to address two major complaints about cars: Poor workmanship and fuel economy. Yes, The Times once led the nation in newspaper advertising. Wilt Chamberlain scored 40 points in what The Times called his Southland debut, leading his team to an 85-74 victory at the Pan Pacific Auditorium. Wilt's teammates spent most of the night clowning around. The Harlem Globetrotters have been about basketball and comedy for a long time, so Chamberlain must have been an unlikely part of the cast. "It's difficult to say how well the great Chamberlain will fare in the NBA off his Trotter showing," Mal Florence wrote in The Times. "But one thing for sure, the big fella is agile and knows what to do under the basket." Here's a quick look at Wilt with the Trotters. --Keith Thursby

Comments

[Carole Reeser]

I was only 4 when the time capsule was planted, and never knew about it. The funny thing is, I worked next to that bridge for 13 years from 1976 to 1990, running the office of Terminal Refrigerating Company, later changed to Americold Corp. A large cold storage facility used by small and large companies like Baskin Robbins, Zacky Farms, Huntsinger Turkeys, Pepperidge Farms,etc. It was south of the bridge and west of the freeway and next door to Burbank Lockers who rented freezer lockers to small companies and families. They rented their store from us. Both companies are now gone. The building is empty. Across the street is Aries Beef still open was also a customer. If you pan the view west, the top windows of the building are the upstairs windows of my office. My co-workers and I watched from those windows a filming of "Matlock"?? where he jumped off the bridge onto a pile of mattresses on top of a truck. He was much shorter in person. I just recently heard about the time capsule because my best friend Brian who was a driver for Pepperidge Farms on Magnolia heard about it. I stil livel in Burbank, and Love it.