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Panel Wants
Bowling Alley Preserved
Friday, July 7, 2000
Home Edition
Byline: JEFFREY GETTLEMAN
The Holiday Bowl, a kitschy '50s bowling alley valued by Crenshaw area
residents as one of the few watering holes where blacks and Japanese
Americans have come together, should be saved as a historic landmark,
the Cultural Heritage Commission has decided.
Lautner on
L.A.
Sunday, June 11, 2000
Los Angeles Times Magazine Section
Byline: ED LEIBOWITZ
When talking about Los Angeles, acclaimed architect John Lautner could
sound as bitter as a frustrated screenwriter. Alan Hess, author of the
recently published "The Architecture of John Lautner"
(Rizzoli), explains how Lautner, despite his misgivings, managed to
design such visionary Southern California residences as the Chemosphere
(pictured at right), Silvertop and Bob and Dolores Hope's Palm Springs
home during his five-decade career. Lautner died in 1994.
Wayne
McAllister; Architect Designed Restaurants, Casinos
Friday, March 31, 2000
Home Edition
Byline: MYRNA OLIVER
Wayne McAllister, one of the West's greatest unsung architects, who
designed pioneering playlands on the Las Vegas Strip, circular kitchens
and landmark eateries ranging from the Cinegrill supper club in
Hollywood to the concrete-crescent Bob's Big Boy in Toluca Lake, has
died. He was 92.
History and
the Style of the Future; Googie Architecture Is Obsolete, but Speaker at
Conference Urges Saving Slice of County's Past
Sunday, October 24, 1999
Orange County Edition
MARIA ELENA FERNANDEZ
The unique Space Age style that gave birth to most of Orange County's
architectural icons during the 1950s and 1960s is rapidly vanishing but
should be preserved, a student of the outlandish style said during a
local history conference Saturday.
'I'll Have the
Blue-Plate Special'
Thursday, October 14, 1999
Home Edition
MAX JACOBSON
Coffee shops are places where the sweet perfumes of beef stew mingle
with the yeasty scent of pancakes and a cup of good strong joe, where
waitresses wear name tags and where writers like me while away
afternoons at booths and counters, trying to think up a story angle.
Holiday Bowl: Strike or Spare?
Sunday, August 8, 1999
Home Edition
Los Angeles Times Magazine Section
Byline: Ed Leibowitz
For four decades, the Holiday Bowl has served a comparable
purpose--cultural, architectural, recreational--for the Crenshaw
district as the Hollywood Bowl has for the Hollywood Hills. Designed by
the firm of Armet & Davis, who defined '50s Googie architecture, the
Bowl was built by Japanese entrepreneurs as a combination bowling alley,
pool hall, bar and coffee shop in 1958 to serve Crenshaw's Japanese
enclave, which had not long before suffered Manzanar's internment camps
and a blanket racial ban by the...
The Uncommon
Man
Saturday, March 6, 1999
Orange County Edition
Byline: BENJAMIN EPSTEIN
Architecture aficionados revere John Lautner for his flying
saucer-shaped Chemosphere in the Hollywood Hills, his seminal Googie's
coffee shop on Sunset Strip, the expansive Bob Hope home in Palm Desert
and the elegant, imaginative Arango residence above Acapulco.
The End of the
Last Reel for the Cinedome
Saturday, January 30, 1999
Orange County Edition
Byline: ALLISON COHEN
The lights have dimmed for good at the Century Cinedome in Orange, a
30-year-old complex of domed movie theaters where several generations of
filmgoers viewed everything from "True Grit" to
"Halloween: H20."
New
Development Balance
Saturday, December 5, 1998
Home Edition
By mid-century, a development-driven Southern California was in full
stride, paving its bean fields, leveling mountaintops, draining
waterways and filling in wetlands. By 1980, Los Angeles was said to have
more private houses per capita than any other large city in the world.
None of this came without a price.
Space and Time, Neon
and Asteroids
His Futuristic Designs Defined a Style in L.A. Eateries and
on the Las Vegas Strip. At Long Last, a Celebration of Wayne
McAllister.;
Sunday, November 8, 1998
Section: Los Angeles Times Magazine
Byline: ED LEIBOWITZ
Ed Leibowitz is a frequent contributor to the SoCal section of the
magazine
The Las Vegas Strip was an empty canvas when architect Wayne McAllister
began sketching the outlines of the El Rancho hotel. In April of 1941, a
full five years before Bugsy Siegel completed his Flamingo, McAllister's
fanciful dude ranch opened its rustic doors to greet the Strip's first
suckers. With its chuck-wagon murals, rambling bungalows and cowpoke
casino, McAllister's El Rancho was the first of its kind in a city that
has already demolished 10 times as many theme hotels as most countries
will eve
Yes, You Can Still
Buy the Real McCoy
Thursday, September 11, 1997
Section: Life & Style
In its furniture, the 1950s era was characterized by a "high"
style of mainstream modernism and a more popular "low" style,
variously dubbed "contemporary," "Populuxe" or
"Googie."
Hook, Line and
Sinker
EATS: Restaurant Reviews and News
Bahooka isn't Polynesian. It's a beached ship, complete with fish tanks,
Cantonese ribs and silly, wholesome fun.;
COUNTER INTELLIGENCE;
Thursday, March 27, 1997
Section: Calendar
Byline: CHARLES PERRY
TIMES STAFF WRITER
Alas for Polynesian cuisine, they say; alas for Don the Beachcomber's,
the Luau and all the other tiki palaces that ruled L.A. in the '50s. All
that's left (apart from Trader Vic's in Beverly Hills) is the Bahooka.
Strip Search
L.A. Ruins; SoCal
Sunday, December 15, 1996
Home Edition
Section: Los Angeles Times Magazine
Byline: Mary Melton
When Ben Frank's--the wee hours retreat of post-clubbing hair bands and
caffeine-swigging screenwriters, the diner with the nerve to ban Andrew
Dice Clay from ever munching on its scrambled eggs again--quietly closed
in July, there were no formal protests. The restaurant, built in 1962,
remains one of the city's finest examples of high Googie architecture.
Rumors range from Mel's Diner to--gulp--Barnes & Noble eyeing the
spot, though preservationists who worry about a redesign see an
opportunity for a re
TOURS DU JOUR
Sunday, September 15, 1996
Home Edition
Section: Los Angeles Times Magazine
The letter bemoaning "another in a never-ending series of pieces on
Googie" ("Googie Woogie," by Stuart Cohn, So SoCal, June
23) prompts me to rise to the defense of the "Tour du Jour"
series, which included "Googie Woogie." (How could the letter
writer not like the picture of the drive-through Donut Hole?)
Cities' Towering Signs
Coming Down to Earth
Monday, August 26, 1996
Orange County Edition
Section: Metro
Byline: SHELBY GRAD
A campaign by urban planners to spruce up commercial districts by
removing tall signs from gas stations, banks and other roadside
establishments is gradually transforming Orange County's street scape.
Lose Some
Sunday, August 4, 1996
Section: Los Angeles Times Magazine
Is the date I'm reading correct? Are you sure the June 23 issue is a
1996 edition of the magazine? A rather tedious piece on Howard Stern,
America's least-interesting person. Something about Sony (but I'm not a
shareholder or an aficionado of Japanese business). Reviews of eating
places 3,000 miles from where I live ("New York Marathon," by
S. Irene Virbila). And another in a never-ending series of pieces on
Googie ("Googie Woogie," by Stuart Cohn, So SoCal), hardly a
memorable architectural "style." The
Let's Put an 'n' to It
Sunday, August 4, 1996
Section: Los Angeles Times Magazine
About the reference in "Googie Woogie" to Johnie's Broiler:
It's seldom mentioned that the tatty Taj Mahal was built in 1958 as
Harvey's Broiler and stayed as such until about 1969, when it was sold
and its name changed to Johnie's Broiler. The single "n"
caught my eye, too, and it struck me as obvious that there wasn't room
on the sign for another "n." The length of the sign is as it
always was; only the word "Harvey's" was replaced.
Kitschy Kitschy COOL
Tiki became tacky after its
heyday in the 1950s and '60s. Now the style is back, in all its
campiness.
Saturday, July 20, 1996
Orange County Edition
Section: Home Design
Byline: KATHRYN BOLD
Tour the older neighborhoods and business districts of Orange County,
and you'll see remnants of a paradise lost.
Googie Woogie
TOUR DU JOUR; So SoCal
Sunday, June 23, 1996
Section: Los Angeles Times Magazine
Byline: Stuart Cohn
Named for a now-demolished coffee shop on Sunset where the Virgin
Megastore stands, Googie is the exuberant building style redolent of an
age that couldn't conceive of the word downsize--roof lines thrusting
into outer space, neon arrows pointing ever forward. With Googie
standard-bearers like Norm's and Ships coffee shops lionized within an
inch of their nerdy souls, here are some of Southern California's
lesser-known classics of the genre.
Walking Through the
Ruins
Essay / Robert A Jones;
Wednesday, April 17, 1996
Section: Metro
Byline: Robert A Jones
The Society for Commercial Archeology has encamped in Los Angeles. Its
members have come to examine the geegaws that made our city famous,
architecturally speaking: the giant doughnut in La Puente, various
bowling lanes sporting the luau concept, perhaps Bob's Big Boy in
Burbank.
Appeal to Save Googie
Thursday, January 4, 1996
Section: Metro
It was good to see Fred Seibert from Hanna-Barbera stating that historic
and interesting architecture is worth preserving (Commentary, Dec. 26).
Unfortunately, it is a sensibility completely out of tune with
ever-evolving Los Angeles. Los Angeles, it seems, is a city that cannot
acknowledge its past. I encourage Seibert to see what is happening in
the Hollywood historic district as a guide to what will happen to prized
examples of Googie architecture. Famous and beautiful buildings in this
district neari
PERSPECTIVE ON
ARCHITECTURE; The Wrecking Ball That Ate L.A.
Our classic buildings are a
paean to the future, a mixture of high tech and high hopes. Let's
preserve them now.
Tuesday, December 26, 1995
Section: Metro
Byline: FRED SEIBERT
Fred Seibert is president of the cartoon company Hanna-Barbera
The term retro is a popular one; the fascination our culture has with
its past runs deep. Everything from our days of yore has become
"classic." Is there a television show from the 1960s or '70s
that hasn't been made into a feature film? Bell bottoms. The Beatles.
Woodstock. "The Brady Bunch." The art of reviving slices of
pop culture seems to be in our cultural DNA, and nowhere more than in
Los Angeles.
Eatery Perks Back to
Life--With a Twist
Ships coffee shop, whose demise
was widely lamented in August, quietly reopens in Culver City--but with
non-union waitresses.
Saturday, October 21, 1995
Section: Metro
Byline: NORA ZAMICHOW
When the last two '50s-style Ships coffee shops shut this summer, tears
fell for yet another piece of Los Angeles history and the loss of yet
another slice of quirky culture.
Space
Aged; 'Googie' Style Goes From Warp Speed to Time Warp
Monday, September 18, 1995
Orange County Edition
Byline: SHELBY GRAD
Along bustling thoroughfares such as Beach Boulevard and Katella Avenue,
a piece of Orange County's architectural heritage is quietly dying.
Boulevard of Dreams
To know L.A. you need to know
Wilshire, its uniquely Angeleno mix of grandeur and sheer trashiness.
All 16 miles of it.
Thursday, August 31, 1995
Byline: LEON WHITESON
One hundred years ago, when the eccentric socialist millionaire Henry
Gaylord Wilshire gave his name to the beginnings of the boulevard that
has become Los Angeles' main urban thoroughfare, he envisaged a grand
avenue that would confirm the young city's ambition to become the
capital of the West.
Adrift Without Ships;
Closure of Landmark Westside Coffee Shop Saddens Many
Thursday, August 31, 1995
Byline: NORA ZAMICHOW
TIMES STAFF WRITER
At 4 p.m. Wednesday, another small piece of Los Angeles died.
It's Toast
Thursday, August 24, 1995
Section: Food
Byline: JONATHAN GOLD
I don't know about you, but I've never had a Steak-O-Bob, a skewered
meat thing that has been on the menu at Ships at least since I was first
taken to the place sometime around 1966. At the beginning, I think, I
pretty much stuck to the onion rings and chocolate malts that any sane
kindergartner would prefer; later, I mostly got half-pound Ship Shape
burgers or fresh-baked chicken pot pies.
WINDSOR HILLS; Happy
Days to Health Food for This Landmark
Renovation: A '50s-style coffee
shop, the Wich Stand, gets new life as a Simply Wholesome store.
COMMUNITY NEWS: WESTSIDE
Sunday, April 9, 1995
Section: Westside
Byline: CAROL CHASTANG
TIMES STAFF WRITER
The resurrection of a vacant '50s-style coffee shop with the tilting
blue roof and a 35-foot spire began last week during groundbreaking for
a Windsor Hills health food store.
Back to the Future
Architecture: L.A. Conservancy
tour will visit Modern buildings constructed between 1945 and 1964, a
unique, optimistic period, guide Pete Moruzzi says.
Sunday, April 10, 1994
Section: Metro
Byline: LARRY GORDON
TIMES STAFF WRITER
Touring Los Angeles with Pete Moruzzi is like traveling with a fervid
believer on a pilgrimage through a holy land. In his case, the religion
is Southern California architecture in the 20 years after World War II,
and the shrines include the Capitol Tower, the Cinerama Dome, the
Palmdale House apartments and Ship's coffee shop.
Theme's Like Old Times
Thursday, November 4, 1993
Section: Food
Byline: JONATHAN GOLD
To heck with Rebecca's; fie on Rex: The most spectacular-looking
restaurant in Los Angeles is that giant alien-looking thing that squats
in the middle of LAX--the flying-saucer-shaped restaurant caught under
the parabolic arches of the airport's Theme Building like a many-eyed
insect clutched to the thorax of a spider. The Theme Room Restaurant,
apex of the Los Angeles Jet Age Terminal Construction Project, is the
summit of Jetsonian futurism in the city of Googie churches and the
A Shrine Where Drivers
Can Worship the Four-Wheel God
Thursday, August 26, 1993
Section: Westside
Byline: AARON BETSKY
Carwashes are our temples to automotive culture. Although obviously just
places of convenience, they manage to have a certain aura about them.
Instead of being white buildings faced with columns, they are modernist
shacks with fins that march across the front facades. Unlike temples,
you enter these precincts of chrome from the back. There you find no
solemn space filled with incense, but the silent and slow progression of
your car through the stations of cleaning, which you watch
You Can Still Get a Cup
of Nostalgia at L.A.'s . . . Coffee Shops Modern
Thursday, April 1, 1993
Section: Metro
Byline: AMY WALLACE
TIMES STAFF WRITER
There was never a better place to sip a cup of joe.
Interest Percolates for
'50s Coffee Shop
WINDSOR HILLS
Community News: Southwest
Sunday, January 24, 1993
Section: City Times
Byline: ERIN J. AUBRY
An ongoing tug of war between preservationists seeking to save the
historic Wichstand coffee shop and owners seeking to raze or redevelop
it has raised a call from neighborhood residents to settle the fight.
ARCHITECTURE; Center
West Building on Wilshire Is Just Another Boxy Monstrosity
Thursday, October 22, 1992
Section: Westside
Byline: AARON BETSKY
Aaron Betsky teaches and writes about architecture
Westwood's Center West building, a sleek, planar structure with a skin
of deep red granite, appears to be blushing. And those who have
lived in the area for a while know the source of its shame: It displaced
one of the finest examples of "Googies Architecture" ever to
have graced Los Angeles. Long before Center West was ever conceived, the
site was home to an exuberant celebration of fast food and modern living
known to generations of UCLA students as Ship's.
Angular Pann's Is a
Throwback to '50s Days of Experimentation
Thursday, October 31, 1991
Section: Westside
Byline: AARON BETSKY
A building can be as simple as one gesture. If that gesture is
absolutely right, it will be great architecture.
Short Future for
Futuristic Coffee Shop?
Architecture: Although the
Wichstand was granted historic landmark status by Los Angeles County,
the Googie-style building may still face the wrecking ball.
Monday, September 10, 1990
Byline: LEON WHITESON
In 1957, Jackie Robinson retired from baseball, Humphrey Bogart died of
cancer, Ford launched the Edsel and the Soviet Union launched Sputnik,
black students were barred from Little Rock's Central High by the
Arkansas National Guard, and the Wichstand coffee shop opened on Slauson
Avenue in Windsor Hills.
Many Reasons for
Landmark Designation
Saturday, February 3, 1990
Valley Edition
Regarding your weekly news quiz Jan. 6 asking, "What was the real
reason behind the opposition to closing a carwash in Studio City?"
Your correct answer was: "a. Residents do not want the mall planned
for their neighborhood."
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