From Housing Detainees to Retirees

MJ Malleck // 

It's a stinking hot day for so early in the summer, and I'm in the middle of a writers' challenge called #1000wordsofsummer. To write 1000 words a day, but today I am stuck and then I remembered: The box of Postcards. Still in my closet, a better prompt a writer couldn't ask for. 

I reached in and pulled, believe it or not on this day of 31 degree Celsius and a heat warning, this gorgeous card from Arizona. Clear, blue sky and palm trees. Taken in the 60s, a photograph, from a balcony it looks like (no drones for civilians then). No writing on the back.

I'm struck by how much concrete pad is poured around the pool. There are shuffleboard courts. A few people sunning (I'm thinking of sunburns and no sunscreen) and the people look older. All the women in one piece, modest suits. Some of the men bald or grey haired. I can see two children in the shallow end, but one is sitting quietly on the edge.

The back of the card tells me it is Del Webb's Kings Inn on Grand Avenue in Sun City, Arizona. "The Inn provides all modern facilities, air conditioned rooms and proximity to Sun City's four golf courses." This is a motor inn for visitors to Sun City. 

I'm looking at a postcard from the first retirement community built in the United States!  When Sun City opened it had five model homes, a shopping center, rec centre and a golf course. Today, Sun City has more than 26,000 homes and eight golf courses. You can buy a home and enjoy low property taxes and minimal association fees, according to a real estate site. 

But who is Del Webb? I'm guessing that his name might have been good marketing in the '60s, as until 1964 he was a part owner of the New York Yankees, bought in 1945 for $2.8 million.  By the time he sold his interest to CBS the Yankees had been in 15 World Series and won 10 of them. Webb himself played ball semi-professionally. (I'd compare the name recognition to our Tim Horton's in Canada, started by an athlete in the NHL.) 

Right after he bought the baseball club,  Del Webb was hired as the general contractor to build the Flamingo Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. His customer, mob boss Bugsy Siegal. Maybe Bugsy knew Bing Crosby or Barry Goldwater or Howard Hughes, all of whom Webb reportedly golfed with. 

Webb opened his namesake company in 1928 and got many military contracts in World War II. How'd he come up with the idea of building a self-sustained "community" like Sun City? Maybe from his contract to build the 3rd largest "city" in Arizona - a government internment center where 17,000 Japanese-Americans were housed. Or from the mining company town he built in 1953, which had streets, shopping centers, schools and parks for the residents. 

I'm studying this postcard and I see no visible minorities, no skin darker than sunburn. 

More than 100,000 people came to see Sun City during it's three day opening weekend January 1, 1960. I wonder how many of the original buyers were WWII veterans, retired from service. 

The name of the town came from a contest run by the Webb Construction Company, advertised in the Saturday Evening Post. The winner would win a free home. Doesn’t Sun City (an obvious play on Sin City) not seem like something a million people would suggest? Doesn’t it seem obvious? Mr. and Mrs. E. A. Britton won their home, and you can find a photo of them, standing in front of it. The 2 bedroom house was worth $8,500. They dressed for the photo: He’s in a suit and tie, she is wearing a button-up overcoat (looks too hot for Arizona, I’m wondering if they lived in a more Northern state) and she holds white gloves along with her purse. The surname Britton means “from Britain” and in 2022 it is popular as a first name for a girl or a boy.

The August 3, 1962 Time magazine featured a photo of Del on its cover, and a five page article on his company and Sun City. That same day, LIFE magazine featured the last interview with Marilyn Monroe, who had died before it hit the stands. Marilyn filmed the Misfits in Vegas and was photographed at the gaming tables. I wonder if Marilyn and Dell ever crossed paths.