Stayed there for ten days’ each in Jan 1962, & January 1964, with my late Mum. I just swam all day, & half the night in the pool! Two of my happiest holidays’ spent there…… At 10.00am everyday, they started selling THE most beautiful Chocolate Eclairs’ at the Kiosk! All of us kids’ were lined up ready, with our money!
Oh - Those notes - If every youth today were to hear those notes - there is simply no question that we would have better emotional development - the young would not be trying to find happiness in careers or in drugs or in outlandish posturing - and we would have a new generation of great performers!
El Dorado was built and operated by Greg Graham and his wife and family. They went on to build the Quality Inn chain of motels/hotels Iluka, Ten the Esplanade, Apollo and Chateau ( I think the latter two still stand). These were amongst the early high rise buildings in Surfers Paradise. He also bought the old Travelodge and added a new wing to it, which is also still standing and known today as The Island. That Mercedes 280 SL was his.
I loved holidays on the Goldy when I was a kid. Driving from Southport through Surfer's, seeing all the quirky motels and kitsch advertising. My parents usually rented a house at Burleigh.
Just before I found your clip I was playing a recently downloaded copy of the album "A Swingin' Safari" by Bert Kaempfert. That album featured heavily during my childhood years when we lived in Surfers Paradise. Indeed my grandmother lived across the road from the El Dorado Motel at Pagan Court on Monarco Street, Pagan Court is still standing today. She lived there from 1964 to I think sometime in the 1980's. con't
She must have been a great gal - Great mood - I saw some film of Surfers Paradise-the Gold Coast which was recorded in 1960-67 (?) - The way the people conducted themselves - as well as the pleasant facades of 1920s-1940s hotels and weatherboard residences - conveyed such a distinctively superior and civilised mood.
I found your clip and started watching it. Suddenly the track "A Swingin' Safari" started playing from the computer speakers, again? I thought I'd turned the music off? con't
And now here's something pretty spooky for you! Readon.... If you go to 2 minutes and 20 seconds into your video and check out the dark headed bloke, foreground, left side of the image, his right hand extended, he is I believe, my father! No way to confirm it 100% as he died last October 2008. Spookier still is how I came to find your video. con't
