Joel Spivak (RIP)

joelspivak.com

Joel Spivak.

Joel Spivak is described by Hidden City Philadelphia as follows:

I found him. Joel “Space Man” Spivak is still tethered to Planet Earth. It’s been years since he manned his unique space toy store, Rocketships & Accessories, at 623-625 South Street. His obsession, however, is still going strong.

From 1981 to 1989 Spivak built a career out of collecting Space Age toys–much of which was loaned to the Smithsonian for the “Yesterday’s Tomorrows: Past Visions of the American Future” traveling exhibit in 1984. Although he’s parted with the bulk of his collection, he still owns more than your average number of rayguns, movie posters, space cadet uniforms, sweaters, and ephemera, all accompanied by countless anecdotes while orbiting South Street.

Spivak’s store was an oasis for bygone-era science fiction fans. Davy Krieger, former habitué of Rocketships, fondly shares his memories of the store. “A lot of it was the atomic age tin-toys from America, but there were also Japanese imports which, at the time, were extraordinarily exotic. I loved that store. I can still smell the aged cardboard of the garishly illustrated boxes, the muggy Philadelphia summer night, the wet street outside,” recounts Krieger. “As a weird kid in a time before the internet, Rocketships & Accessories was like a little outpost that let me know I wasn’t alone. There were other space-and-monster-obsessed people out there. We had a little capital on South Street, and it was glorious,” he says.

In The News

• What's Out There? South Street's Beloved Space Station, Hidden City Philadelphia, December 23, 2014.
• One Activist’s Theory Of Historic Preservation: 'Do Shit And Make It Work', Hidden City Philadelphia, February 26, 2013.
• Historic Levis' Sign Being Relit For National Hot Dog Month, CBS-3, July 18, 2012.