Arizona Contractor & Community Fall 2015 V4 I3 | Page 60

John F. Long’s Maryvale Shopping City
Douglas Towne

I

magine Maryvale as a glamorous
destination
where
shipwrecked
millionaire Thurston Howell III of
Gilligan’s Island fame bowled a few frames
with developer John F. Long, cheered on
by a fetching future Bond girl and an iconic
mobster of the silver screen. Although
there are signs this west Phoenix
neighborhood is on the upswing, such a
scenario featuring Hollywood celebrities
kicking back in Maryvale today sounds as
unlikely as a nailing a 7-10 “goalpost”
bowling split.
But in 1959, things were a little
different at the opening of the Maryvale
Shopping City. At the time, it was the
largest shopping center between Dallas
and the West Coast. Not only did Maryvale
Shopping City feature department and

specialty stores typically found in malls,
customers had the convenience of picking
up a loaf of bread at two supermarkets and
unleashing strikes at the Bowlero Bowling
Lanes. The bowling alley rolled a perfect
300 game for its grand opening by
featuring appearances by John F. Long and
luminaries such as Jim Backus (of Mr.

Images courtesy of Arizona Contractor & Community

Mr. Magoo and a Bond Girl Too:

Magoo and Gilligan’s Island fame), Jill St.
John (the Bond girl Tiffany Case in 1971’s
Diamonds Are Forever), and George Raft,
the famed actor who played gangsters in
numerous movies.
This star-studded bowling spectacle
came about because of John F. Long’s
vision. He was in the midst of creating the
Maryvale subdivision named after his wife,
which featured affordable homes in an
area west of the Phoenix city limits in the
1950s. Long realized the new Maryvale
home owners would need a convenient
place to shop since it was a 20-minute
drive to downtown Phoenix stores.
Pleased with the success of Maryvale
Terrace shopping center completed in
1956, Long drew up plans for an $18
million dollar project that would become,
at the time, the largest shopping center
between Dallas and the West Coast. The
open-air mall, named Maryvale Shopping
City, was designed by the Los Angeles
architectural firm of Victor Gruen &
Associates and constructed on a 65-acre
site adjacent to Maryvale Terrace.
The project broke ground in 1958.
Local companies contributed to the
construction:
● Union Rock & Materials supplied the
concrete for slabs, structures, and
curbs,
● Bentson Contracting handled all the
grading and paving,
● Pioneer & Manufacturing Company
furnished the steel, and
● Merritt Electric Company of Glendale
did the electrical work.

Top: Jim Backus bowling with John
Long directly behind him at Bowlero during
the grand opening of Maryvale Shopping
City, 1959.
Right: Jill St. John signing autographs at the
grand opening, 1959.
Opposite page: Merritt Electric Company
installing a giant eight-prong
parking light, 1958.
sixty

Fall 2015