Doesn’t that look delicious? The Priazzo was almost like two pizzas layered into one GIANT pizza from the looks of this press release:
Priazzo, a trademark of Pizza Hut, features a bottom crust and a top crust, with a variety of ingredients stuffed between. It’s then topped with additional sauce and cheese before baking.
The four types of Priazzo Roma, Florentine, Napoli and Milano […]
Roma, with Italian sausage, pepperoni, mushrooms, beef and pork, onion, and mozzarella and Cheddar cheeses, is most similar in taste to a pizza.
Florentine contains five kinds of cheese Cheddar, ricotta, Parmesan, Romano and mozzarella mixed with ham and spinach. It has a consistency much like a delicate quiche.
Napoli is a combination of four cheeses Parmesan, mozzarella, Cheddar and Romano topped with slices of fresh tomatoes. This is the lightest of the four Priazzo selections.
Milano is perhaps the heartiest of the four varieties with its bacon, pepperoni, Italian sausage, beef and pork fillings combined with mozzarella and Cheddar cheeses. 2
I’ve only found one source on why the Italian Pie was discontinued a few years later, that it just took too long to cook. Although, I don’t really trust those “slideshow” sites, because they simply don’t do their research.
(Unfortunately, these fighting sisters did not make your Priazzo’s)
Just like the fireworks factory explosion I brought up a few weeks ago, this is an event that is forgotten in disaster history. Maybe because it happened just days after the MGM Grand Fire in Las Vegas that killed 85 people, and perhaps people could not wrap their mind around another massive hotel fire that claimed so many lives.
The Souffer’s Inn in Harrison, New York was a newer hotel equipped to hold several conferences at once. That morning, meetings with executives of Nestle, and Arrow Electronics were being held in separate rooms. Around 10:30, fire erupted and spread quickly through the rooms as though they were made out of paper. The survivors jumped out of windows in the conference rooms, and rushed down stairwells. The victims died behind a Christmas tree where an emergency exit door didn’t work, died in a closet mistaken for an exit, and died of smoke inhalation before they could get to an exit. 26 people died. 4
Today, we take sprinklers in our motel rooms for granted, back then it wasn’t common. Gordon Vickery, head of the U.S. Fire Administration at the time said, “At the Stouffer’s Inn, the hotel section was fully sprinklered, but the conference center—where the fire started—was not. There were some graphic examples in both tragedies [MGM Grand & Stouffers] where the flames stopped exactly at the point the sprinklers began. Sprinklers are the answer. The problem is getting owners to install them and other safety equipment in existing buildings. “ 2
In the wake of the two fires, Popular Science suggested that people bring their own smoke detectors to hotels. That seems so ridiculous now, but it just shows how back then hotel fire safety was almost an afterthought:
At first in the investigation, it was believed that electric equipment that was being presented by Arrow caused the fire, Arrrow argued that no equipment of theirs was on when the fire started. Then, the blame leaned to a coffee waiter, Luis Martin, who prosecutors believed started the fire with liquid sterno (used under coffee carafes to keep coffee warm) so he could rescue people, or alert people to the fire so he could become a hero–and avoid being fired for immigration violations. However, during his 1982 trial, none of the witnesses testified that they saw Luis start the fire, and there was no physical evidence to link him to the fire. Remarkably, the jury found him guilty–but days later the judge set aside the verdict, and freed him. 5 It doesn’t end there, however, in 1984, during the settlement trial for the victims, and Martin, it was revealed that the manager and the Stouffer’s company withheld information about a giant stainless steel cleaner spill the night before the fire:
Mr. Herold [Martin’s lawyer] said, “It is now known that on the evening preceding the fire a party was held in the conference center by employees of the Arrow Corporation. At its conclusion,” he continued, “a housekeeping crew working in the immediate vicinity of where the fire started spilled a highly volatile stainless steel cleaner.”
“The fact of the spill became known to other employees before the fire and Mr. Ewoldt [the hotel manager] and others had the container of cleaner removed and did not report it to authorities,” Mr. Herold said. “If the prosecution had known about it they would have told us because it was potentially exculpatory for Luis Marin. An explanation for the cause of the fire or its spread would have been helpful.”
Stouffer’s and Mr. Ewoldt, in responding to the civil suit, have denied knowing that an unusual and large stain had been observed near where the fire started and before the flames were seen. They also denied that any container had been removed or that information had been withheld from investigators. 6
1. "Tragedy Hits N.Y. Hotel.“ The Milwaukee Journal, December 5, 1980, 6, part 2.
2. Bonnett, Margie. "Two Hotel Infernos Leave An Expert Smoldering Over U.S. Apathy on Fire Safety.” People, January 12, 1981
3. Beiswinger, George. “For Safer Traveling: Take Along Smoke Alarm.” Popular Science, January, 1982, 38.
4. "Victims Didn’t Have a Chance.“ Syracuse Herald-Journal, December 5, 1980.
There’s some classics here, and some critical bombs. I see one right away: Inspector Gadget. A couple of Falls ago, I was on a Matthew Broderick obsession, kick, and I made myself sit through Inspector Gadget. I’m trying to remember my favorite worst scene. I think it would have to be Inspector Gadget’s car, the one that had the voice of D.L. Hughley, and spit out I don’t know, Skittles and Citra on command.
No, wait it was Surge. Ha, can we blame Inspector Gadget for Surge’s demise in the early ‘00s? Is that the McDonalds logo above the skittles logo? What would happen if you pushed that button? A Happy Meal, and some orange drink would appear from the glove compartment?
The South Park movie, and Wild, Wild, West are both mentioned on this same page.
I love that episode of South Park where Cartman plays “Wild Wild West” while Shelley is babysitting him. I want to see a 12 year old in 2015 wonder why Cartman is playing some game called “Wild Wild West”.
There’s another South Park reference on this page too, Phil Collins’ lame song from Tarzan:
Now, I never go to the movies, but I did see The Phantom Menace, only because I was on vacation in Alaska with relatives that year, and it beat going to the yard sales with my mom and aunts. I don’t remember a thiiiing from it, except for the long ass race scene, only because Greg Proops voices the announcer. I can’t find it now, but I swear there was a video on YouTube of the just the entire race scene Rifftraxed. Here’s the best of reel though.
This page is chock of 90s classics, less critical bombs on this page than the previous. Mystery Men brought us the ever so annoying Smash Mouth song “All Star”, which is still used in every trailer for a kids movie.
I remember what a BIG DEAL Entertainment Tonight made of Eyes Wide Shut. Almost every single night that Summer, Entertainment Tonight would have a story on that film, always showing clips of this scene, like that was supposed to be the hottest scene in the movie. Once I Googled it years later though….
Entertainment Tonight finally stopped obsessing about this movie once Ally McBeal’s new season started, and with Ricky Martin hitting the scene, and then every night until early 2000, it was all about Ricky.
I would never listen to this song in 2015, but it always played on mom’s easy listening (101.3 2WD) station on the way to my math tutoring. I used to think that song was about a make out house, like the one that Jordan Catalano took Angela Chase to that one time. Damn did JCPenney play this song a lot.
For a brief time that summer, I would use an old tape recorder I bought at the thrift store to record songs off of the TV. This was one of them because VH1 would show this video 10 times a day.
From the “Val Kilmer Batman”, I remember this being Rick Dees’ #1 song for 1995. It’s 2015, and I still don’t know what this song is about. It was on Seal’s second 1994 album, so it wasn’t written specifically for Batman Forever. I asked my Facebook friends once if they knew the meaning, but of course they ignored me.
I watched this video for the first time in about 16, 17 years for this entry. I still remembered every single detail. Someone needs to do a cosplay of Michael and Janet in this video. Such iconic 1995 outfits.
Michael Jackson – Childhood
In the Summer of 1995, I had to go to this Summer School for kids who failed portions of the Literacy Passport Test, which was a standardized test that middler schoolers had to take in Hampton. There was this boy in my class who sang the “Have you sen my child’whood?” part exactly like Michael. I also remember him and this girl from my cheerleading squad, Sherrie getting in a fight for no apparent reason. ‘Just to have a few days off from Summer School.
1) Sharon stone Michelle Pfeifferwalking up to Coolio, turns the chair around, and she says, “YOU WANT TO TELL ME WHAT THIS IS ALL ABOUT?!” So bad ass.
2) I remember in one of those I Love the 90s shows, Hal Sparks said that L.V. looked like “those drawings of the wind”:
3. My “technology” (fancy word for “shop”) teacher Mr. Barnes was playing that song as we were coming into his classroom on the first day of school. Were we supposed to pretend we were in the movie?
I remember this song being in commercials for The Babysitters Club moviethat Summer, and thinking about how redic it was that there was a movie about Babysitters Club, because I remember the series becoming less popular around that time. I guess theatergoers thought the same thing, because the movie only made $9 million in the box office that Summer.
For some reason, this video isn’t on YouTube, I had to find it on another site, Video Detective. You can’t see it in the video I posted because the quality is so bad, but the video had its own captions. It also had the longest song title back then.
I loved this video that Summer. I loved videos that had twinges of the 1960s in it, like the old TVs the ‘Surfers sang around, and the chick with the raincoat at the end of the video. The dancers in purple are my favorite, though.
I would record songs of the radio obsessively back then, and I recorded this montage my radio station z104 did of people calling in requesting “that Barbie song”. Just call after call of girls going. “can can can you play that ‘Barbie song’?”
I don’t care what anybody says, I still love this video. The band member that plays Ken, René, is on point.
I have the Letterman article in a .pdf. Dave didn’t think a show with David Hyde Pierce was good enough? Shaame. I mean, he talked to his dog:
DHP: Well, it’s just red-eye city. I’m… I have to get back, uh… today’s my dog’s birthday. [audience laughter] DL: Congratulations to both you and your dog. DHP: Thank you. Emma the dog is one year old today. DL: Wow. [applause] What kind of dog is Emma? DHP: Emma is a Wheaten Terrier which is like a cross between a sheep and a loaf of bread. [audience laughter] DL: [laughs] That sounds just great! And… DHP: She’s watching now. DL: The dog is watching now? DHP: She’s watching now. [Looks directly into the camera] Emma, Emma, off! Off! Emma, Emma, sit. Good. Emma, down. Stay. [audience laughter] DL: Many of these commands apply to our audience as well. DHP: [laughs] DL: Now, will the dog know that you’re not even in the same city or state with her on her birthday? DHP: Well, if she watches the show, she’ll get the idea, but see, that’s the idea. I get out of here, I go back. Hopefully, I’ll be home before the birthday’s over.
DL: No, no, no. Thank you very much. So now, you’re going to race right back to the airport and fly home. DHP: Yes, I’m gonna race back, get back to… [stared into the camera] …Emma. [audience laughter] DL: Oh, I don’t think the dog is still watching. [audience laughter] DHP: The commercials are her favorite part. She’s sticking around. DL: The dog may be with Mr. Koppel now. DHP: [laughs] DL: I have kind of that feeling about things. I can’t thank you enough for taking the trouble and the annoyance and the inconvenience to come out here and visit with us tonight…
Also, David mentions that he played Celebrity Jeopardy! with Markie Post from Night Court.
A 100 disc CD changer. Or as we call it today, our iPhone, iPod and iTunes.
George W. Bush (back then known as “George Bush Jr.”, which just sounds off) accidentally shot a endangered bird.
Speaking of bumbling, some guy back in ‘86 thought he understood the real reason why Dan Rather was beaten by two guys who said, “What’s the frequency, Kenneth?”
“First, let me establish the motive. I’m reasonably certain that both of these well-dressed men were gay, a persuasion that is not unknown in that part of Manhattan.
"And one of them has a boyfriend named Kenneth who lived quite near the scene of the attack.
"This fellow suspected that Kenneth, on the sly, was seeing another man.
"He believed that because the second man had recently caught a glimpse of someone sneaking out of Kenneth’s apartment and had tipped the first man off.
"As I said, he had caught only a fleeting glimpse of Kenneth’s visitor. He did not actually see his face. But he did know that he was of medium height, had dark hair, and wore aviator glasses and casual clothes.
"So the jealous boyfriend and his tipster were waiting near Kenneth’s apartment, hoping to catch the rival making a visit to Kenneth.
"Now, along comes Dan Rather, who knows nothing of all this. But, because it is the weekend, and he has been with friends on Long Island, he is wearing jeans, a striped sport shirt and aviator glasses.
"As Rather approaches, the tipster mistakenly says to the suspicious lover: ‘That might be him.’
"The other man, consumed by his jealousy, says something to Rather. Rather doesn’t understand what the man is talking about and says: ‘You got the wrong guy.’
"The jealous lover, taking the denial to be a mere evasion, indeed, an admission of guilt, flies into a rage and pops Rather in the chops, knocking him down.
"He keeps repeating the same phrase, over and over, as the two of them keep punching and kicking Rather, who flees into the apartment building lobby.
"And, in their minds, that is even further proof of the man’s guilt, since it is the lobby of the very same building in which Kenneth lives. They assume that he is trying to reach the sanctuary of Kenneth’s apartment.
Rather believed that his attacker was William Tager, who later killed a Today show stagehand in 1994 because he thought the media had him under survellance.
I think Merry Go Round went out of business about a year later. I know the one at my local mall shut down at the beginning of ’96. I only knew what a Merry Go Round was back then because Mallory from Babysitters Club mentioned it once in the series. I think Mary Anne bought her cool new clothes from there after she got her cool new haircut too. Ha, I guess "hobo” was Merry Go Round’s reply to Ralph Lauren’s “polo”.
I can only imagine middle schoolers thinking that Rolling Stone clothes were cool. I mean, who would want a shirt with a giant Rolling Stone “R” on it?
A brighter place due to glow from our lit Virginia Slims.
Remember when chanting albums were a thing in 1993, 1994? Remember Blockbuster Music? I bought my first CDs there on the last day of school in 1995. Brandy’s self titled, and Mariah Carey’s “Emotions”.
I have several SciFi commercial breaks from this era. Back in 2006, I volunteered at my local library, and someone donated a bunch of tapes that they recorded the two am Planet of the Apes rerun on. Here are some commercial breaks from that era: (1) (2)
I work at the same library system now, I’ve been there since April and nobody has donated a huge box of tapes yet. I’m totally devastated.
I almost forgot about this. In the middle of this two week issue, there was also a Sony catalog. Most of these things were definitely on most young people’s Christmas lists, I’m sure.
Sony was still trying to get the public to buy LaserDiscs. It never suceeded.
Another 100 disc CD changer.
I’m still trying to understand this, but from the looks of it, Sony wanted us to buy 8mm movies and play them on our camcorders hooked up to our televisions. I can only make out The Big Chill.
Speaking of small things, Sony also tried to sell albums to play on MinDisc players. I can spot Indigo Girls. These are still hot collectables on eBay.
(from eBay seller “wizofoz244-half”)
I can’t believe I thought this was a 8mm camcorder+radio at first. No, its just a radio and a monocular (like a binocular, but just one view).
I’m going to end part 2 right here because I only have 15% battery, and its 10 till 1am, and I have work in a few hours.
I somehow forgot how wide Rolling Stone used to be, sometime in 2008, I think, Rolling Stone became standard magazine sized. However back in 1994 Rolling Stone was still huge, and doesn’t fit in a household scanner. I had to make do, so most pages are cropped, or I had to take pictures of two page spreads.
David Letterman was Rolling Stone’s Man of the Year for 1994, months before he was a disastrous Oscar host. Dave had been hosting the Late Show on CBS for just over a year. I’m going to .pdf the article for part 2.
I love this illustration of Dave and Madonna:
“Der, I ❤ my backpack!”
Newt looking like an adult three year old as always.
What’s wrong with listening to MJ and Mariah Carey, S.R.M?!
Does this remind anybody else of that time on The Critic where Jay’s dad was banging a drum at some Native American themed father son bonding retreat, and Franklin said, “Quiet son! I’m trying to make it rain Harvey’s Bristol Creme!”
Meatloaf: Sweats like a pig.
The Breeders’ “Cannonball” came on strong in January of the 5th grade.
Beck’s “Loser” came on strong just a few weeks later in the winter of 5th grade. I remember being 10 and thinking he was the nastiest thing I’d ever seen in the “Loser” video. Because I was 10.
I need to watch that Madonna interview again. I’m sure it’s so tame for 2015 standards.
Howard gave up his Gubertorial campaign after he wouldn’t give up his tax details to the public. There’s an entire chapter about it in his book Miss America.
Sheryl is a new face that I wish faded away after 1994.
I was one of those 11 year olds that liked Green Day.
I didn’t know that Boys II Men had a VHS. Gotta look for that at the thrift store.
Remember when Left Eye burnt down her boyfriends’ house? She burnt her bf’s sneakers in his tub, and then the roof was on fire. Then she had to appear in court wearing a church lady dress.
saleintothe90s 