From 1956 until 1980, the Sears, Roebuck and Co. store was located on a large tract of land in the outskirts of downtown Huntington at Fifth Avenue & 29th Street. Sears moved from this location to a new store at the Huntington Mall in 1980.
In October of 1966, The Blue Beats were hired to provide music for an outdoor 'Fall Sales Carnival' on the Sears parking lot. The band performed for nearly five hours amid carnival-like displays. About the lot were placed giagantic tents where Sears merchandise was offered for sale, kiosks where food was being prepared and sold, carnival game booths, and other displays. The band set equipment in the midst of the activity on the parking lot near the glass storefront windows shown in the photo above.
Convinced that our loud music would shatter the glass windows in the Sears storefront, an assistant manager of Sears regularly inspected the glass panels throughout the morning and afternoon. Although the music was loud, no glass windows were shattered, and Sears paid us well for the event.
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Sears, Roebuck & Co.
Fall Sales Carnival
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At the time of the Sears event, The Blue Beats owned four Sears Silvertone amplifiers identical to those shown in the photograph above. The amplifiers owned included three Model 1484N units and one Model 1483N unit. In the late afternoon near the end of our performance at the Sears Fall Sales Carnival, a local teenager living over a mile away across the Guyan River in Guyandotte told us that he had been listening to our music for the past several hours through his open bedroom window.
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