Ga-ga over Googie Roadside Retro
Be it space-age, cocktail or tiki, Orange County has gobs of Googie.


The Orange County Register, June 27, 1998

Googie is architecture for the masses — the bright neon, swooping roofs and endless glass walls of diners, motels and bowling alleys. Even the name came from this roadside world: Googie's was a chain of coffee shops in Los Angeles during the 1940s and '50s.

The style encompasses everything from oversize signs to curved, padded booths in turquoise and salmon shades. It is flagcrete and dingbats and terrazzo. There are Turkish-style screens and woodsy A-frames. Spaceships, martini glasses and tiki torches bump elbows. About the only word that defines Googie is kooky, daddy-o.

Bulldozers and developers are razing Googie in Anaheim and Garden Grove, but aficionado John English says some examples of the style remain in Orange County. Call him at (213) 980-3480 to arrange a tour, or load the cats into the convertible and get with it yourself, like fast.

Anaheim Professional Building
1120 W. La Palma Ave., Anaheim
Bland on the outside, funky on the inside. About a foot from the windows is a pockmarked metal screen, used to keep the building shaded. In the main lobby, a staircase of terrazzo blocks — small chips of marble set into concrete. The two-story glass lobby wall and staggered chandelier are typical of Googie style, English says. Across the street, you might also notice some long poles with metal diamonds mounted outside an apartment building. These decorations are called dingbats, "and are there for no reason," English says.

Baskin Robbins
616 W. La Palma Ave., Anaheim
Blue-and-white A-frame includes pink girders that jut out the front. What were they thinking? Who knows? But when the fluorescent lights embedded behind the signs are lighted, the whole place glows.

La Palma Chicken Pie Shop
928 N. Euclid, Anaheim
From the giant neon sign beckoning weary travelers, to the glass walls buttressing flagcrete (concrete shaped to look like flagstone), this place is Googie to the max. And unlike most buildings still standing from the '50s and '60s in Orange County, this one hasn't been remodeled beyond recognition on the inside. Experience padded luxury in the burnt-orange booths and marvel at the bulbous lighting dangling from the ceiling like a stage prop for "The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour."

Linbrook Bowl
201 Brookhurst St., Anaheim
Little touches make this one of the best examples of Googie in all the county. There's volcanic rock on the outside (harking to the tiki infatuation of America in the 1950s); terrazzo in the very hip coffee shop; a curving bar; and a cocktail-glass decoration studded into the black padded door to the bar. And the neon sign out front — with the spinning bowling pin and gigantic letters — is brilliant.

Pitcairn Motel
11751 Harbor Blvd., Garden Grove
Like the Satellite sign before it (the Sputnik homage on Katella that was torn down in May), the huge tiki god sign outside this motel is getting demolished today. Rush over to see it one last time, as well as the A-frame lobby and pool in the shape of a spacecraft. English and others will be trying to save the sign for preservation.

The Parasol Restaurant
12241 Seal Beach Blvd., Seal Beach
Built in 1967, this is a late example of Googie, but one of the most dramatic. The entire restaurant is in the shape of an umbrella, curving lines of white and pink. Upside-down umbrella chandeliers hang over half-moon booths of brown folded vinyl with studs. Wood screen panels obscure the kitchen, and salmon-colored bunting matches the restaurant's vases.

OTHER GOOGIES

Anaheim Convention Center
800 W. Katella Ave., Anaheim
Like an oyster shell turned upside down, the front auditorium is a treasure of curving concrete. While the rest of the warehouse-like center is undergoing a $150 million expansion, officials promise to keep the Googie dome alive.

Beach-Lin Hand Car Wash
126 S. Beach Blvd., Anaheim
Spokes of white steel poke out of the roof, linked to each other and the building by elegant cables. Fluorescent lights make your car glow as it glides through this red-and-white tunnel.

Covered Wagon BBQ & Saloon
2191 S. Harbor Blvd., Anaheim
The folded-plate circular roof (it looks like a bent lazy Susan) is trimmed with neon. A former Van de Kamp's, it now has a Western decor.

Bob's Big Boy (now Coco's)
12032 Harbor Blvd., Garden Grove
The spiked sign, volcanic rock piles and oversized roof are all that remains of the Big Boy style. Inside, it's been gutted in favor of Coco clone.

Eden Roc (now Parkside Inn)
1830 S. West St., Anaheim
Check out the flying-wing drive-through check-in, the rock roof and the kidney-shaped pool. Oh, and the fluorescent white lights encased in turquoise thatchwork cylinders (they look like giant bug zappers).

Inn at the Park (now WestCoast Anaheim Hotel)
1855 S. Harbor Blvd., Anaheim
The interior has been renovated and ruined, but step under the white half-dome on the front drive and you'll know what it's like to live in a turtle shell.

Stoval's Inn
1110 W. Katella Ave., Anaheim
The lobby has hanging rectangular glass lights, pyramid mirrors on the walls and pillars with neon halos.