By Talaina Kor In 1972, a world-famous band the Eagles released their first single, “Take It Easy,” which ended up becoming one of their greatest hits, peaking at No. 12 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and listed as one of The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll. However, this song shaped more than just the world of music. In it, a single lyric changed the future of a little Route 66 town forever. “Well, I’m standin’ on a corner in Winslow, Arizona…” put Winslow on the map in a whole new way. For the past 20 years, Winslow has commemorated this as well as the spirit the song captured with the Standin’ on the Corner Festival. Drawing crowds from all over the world, this celebration has been built over years of work by local community members. A foundation with the same name was organized and promotes the festival as well as appropriated the park erected in the song’s honor, located on the corner of Kinsley Avenue and Second Street. The park has become a major tourist attraction, drawing thousands of visitors every year. “The way that the foundation came about was it was originally named the La Posada Foundation,” recalled foundation member Dr. Greg Hackler, “It was the organization that found the buyer Allan Affeldt in a preservation magazine that actually saved La Posada. Then the organization decided that they needed to do more in the community to increase tourism and bolster our downtown. One of the ideas was to have a Standin’ on the Corner park.” Three years after the committee had the idea for the park did it begin to actualize. Joining together in 1997, 14 business and community members made plans for the park and began commissioning artists for the mural and statue that still stand today, according to the group’s website. It was at that point that the Standin’ on the Corner Foundation was formed. The foundation hired world-renowned muralist John Pugh to paint his rendition of a girl in a flatbed Ford, which is also mentioned in the song. “He did a 3D type of art. It was trompe l’oeil, which is a French term that means trick of the eye.” The foundation also wanted a statue for the corner and hired sculptor Ron Adamson to fashion a man with a guitar made of bronze. “We had to come up with an idea; who we wanted. There were images found of a man in a fedora from the 1940s on the corner leaning against a lamppost, but some believed he didn’t really embody the spirit of the corner.” There was also the idea of making the statue a cowboy, due to Winslow being in the southwest, followed up with the idea of him being a hippie, just someone passing through with a guitar in tow. “We kind of melded all of those ideas and came up with who we called ‘Easy’,” Hackler explained, “Ron had never done a human sculpture before. He had only done animals. So, there was a whole design process that happened with that.” The more the park began to come together, the more funds were needed. “We raised as much money as we could through various bake sales and things. Then, my wife, Connie, came up with the idea of selling bricks. We sold our first brick to John Galley. The people believed in the foundation and that we could do what we said we were going to do,” said Hackler. The bricks were sold for $50 a pop and were engraved with the name of the purchaser. Local businesses also donated money and are featured on plaques around the park. The fundraiser was enough to cover the cost of the mural and the statue. “We paid our way by coming together as a community,” said Hackler. In September of 1999, the park was dedicated and the first Standin’ on the Corner Festival took place. “At that dedication celebration we had a little stage and some vendors, we didn’t charge anything. It was up and down Second and Kinsley streets. We had some bands playing. We had a little festival; it was a one-day thing. Then everyone said ‘Well, that was fun, let’s go ahead and do that again.” The festival continued to be held at the park on the corner of Kinsley and Second for a few years but became too large for the space as it grew. “The festival kept growing, year after year. Truthfully what happened is that it was just too dangerous and packed. One year, about six weeks before the festival, Glenn Howeth walked me down behind the Hubbell building and said, this is where we are having the event,” said Hackler, which prompted the move to the entirety of First Street. The venue for the festival, appropriately named the Eagle Pavilion, has changed and evolved since that first event in 2005. There have been stages built, bleachers and ramadas installed, with the City of Winslow providing the foundation $40,000 to install permanent lighting at the pavilion. “People were very generous, donating money just to complete the double stage. A lot of people didn’t even charge us for their services. A lot of people have been very generous to make this all happen.” The Standin’ on the Corner Foundation is still going strong, with Hackler still a member. “I’m the last original member from the La Posada Foundation. My big push this year is to finish the renovation of the mural. We did have John Pugh come out several times after the fire that burned the building down where the Route 66 Plaza now sits on. And when that happened it compromised the mural so we saved it and had it repainted, but it just wasn’t the same.” Hackler added that Pugh has a new technique for screening mural onto the wall and hopes to have it be accomplished in October. Another bronze statue was added in 2016 to commemorate Eagle’s band member Glenn of Frey who passed that same year. Hackler also mentioned some interesting aspects of the corner that often go unnoticed. “If you actually look at the reflection of the Ford, the girl is actually sitting on the wrong side. It’s supposed to be a reflection in a window of the girl driving down the street. And the license plate actually says ‘IG7WOMM’ which means ‘I got seven women on my mind’,” which is another nod to the Eagles’ song. This year’s Standin’ on the Corner Festival will be held Friday and Saturday, Sept. 24-25. Admission to the festival is $5 for adults, with children 12 and under free. Gates open at 1 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 24, and 11 a.m. on Saturday, Sept. 25. Music performances begin at 4 p.m. on Friday and 11 a.m. on Saturday. The event is held at the Eagle Pavilion, located at 523 W. Second St., in Winslow. For more information, visit the Standin’ on the Corner Foundation website at standinonthecornerfoundation.org, also on Facebook and Instagram.
