GAUDY? Definitely! Eccentric and outlandish? Positively! Exciting, energizing and fun beyond words? Absolutely! And what, exactly, is gaudy, eccentric, outlandish and fun? Doo Wop – the music and architecture synonymous with the 1950s when Ike was president but Elvis was the king and the capital of the Jersey Shore was definitely the Wildwoods. It was the era of huge, gas guzzling cars with sweeping tail fins, drive-in movies, burger joints with car hops on roller skates and motels. In the Wildwoods, those motels sprang up with a look that years later would be labeled Doo Wop, a regional term that connects the building styles to the musical sounds that defined the 1950s and 1960s.

As "sh-boom, sh-boom and shoobee-doowop doo wah" reverberated around the country, the Wildwoods attracted people who could only dream of a vacation in exotic places, to hotels with names like the Waikiki, Tahiti, and the Royal Hawaiian.

Today, Doo Wop is getting its due. Over 200 Doo Wop-style buildings, most of them ablaze with neon, are clustered in this resort area famous for its boardwalk and beaches. The Satellite Motel is vintage Doo Wop, a Wildwood original with its blast off style. The Starlux is a new retro motel and boasts all the important Doo Wop elements – cheese holes, boomerang lettering and aqua glass, one of THE Doo Wop colors. And, of course, there are the Wildwood miracles, palm trees that grow out of concrete! •
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