Googie architecture is a type of futurist architecture influenced by car culture, jets, the Atomic Age and the Space Age. It originated in Southern California from the Streamline Moderne architecture of the 1930s, and was popular in the United States from roughly 1945 to the early 1970s.
Westchester is a neighborhood in the City of Los Angeles and the South Bay Region of Los Angeles County, California, United States.
Mel's Drive-In is a term referring to two American restaurant chains, the successors of a restaurant founded in 1947 by Mel Weiss and Harold Dobbs in San Francisco, California. It is closely associated with the film American Graffiti.
Hope International University is a private Christian university in Fullerton, California. It enrolls around 1,140 students. While Hope is non-denominational, it has strong ties to the Restoration Movement and the Christian churches and churches of Christ. Hope is accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC). Hope International University's Fullerton campus sits adjacent to California State University, Fullerton, with which it has contract programs. Enrollment stands at just under 1,200 students.
Johnie's Broiler, originally known as Harvey's Broiler and currently operating as Bob's Big Boy Broiler, is a restaurant located in Downey, California. It first opened in 1958 by Harvey Ortner, a former partner in the Clock Broiler restaurants chain in the Los Angeles area. Due to its 1950s Googie style, the restaurant became featured in several films and TV shows. The restaurant was then renamed Johnie's Broiler in 1968 before closing in 2001. From 2002 to 2006, the building and parking lot housed a used car dealership. The building was largely demolished illegally in January 2007 by its then-lease-holder without obtaining the proper permits. The restaurant was reconstructed in 2009 with the help of preservationists and other supporters and re-opened as part of the Bob's Big Boy chain while retaining the original building's look and design.
Norms Restaurants is a regional chain of diner-style restaurants in Southern California. Founded in 1949 by used-car salesman Norm Roybark, some restaurants are open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. As of May 2024, the company operates 23 locations in Greater Los Angeles, with plans to expand into Las Vegas, Nevada.
Armet Davis Newlove Architects, formerly Armét & Davis, is a Californian architectural firm known for working in the Googie architecture style that marks many distinctive coffee shops and eateries in Southern California. The firm designed Pann's, the first Norms Restaurants location, the Holiday Bowl and many other iconic locations.
The Holiday Bowl was a bowling alley on Crenshaw Boulevard in Los Angeles, California. It was founded in 1958 by five Japanese-Americans and was a significant part of the rebuilding process of the Nikkei community after internment during World War II. The owners of the Holiday Bowl sold shares throughout the community to finance its construction."
Wich Stand was a '50s-style coffee shop restaurant and diner in Los Angeles, California, featuring a tilting blue roof and 35-foot spire (11 m), designed by architect Eldon Davis.
Johnie's Coffee Shop is a former coffee shop and a well-known example of Googie architecture located on the corner of Wilshire Boulevard and Fairfax Avenue in Los Angeles, California. Architects Louis Armét and Eldon Davis of Armét & Davis designed the building, contributing to their reputation as the premier designers of Space Age or Googie coffee shops—including the landmark Pann's coffee shop in Ladera Heights, Norms Restaurant on La Cienega Boulevard, and several Bob's Big Boy restaurants.
Eldon Carlyle Davis was an American architect, considered largely responsible for the creation of Googie architecture, a form of modern architecture originating in Southern California. Googie architecture is largely influenced by Southern California's car culture and the Space Age of the mid-20th century. Davis was a founding partner of the Armet & Davis architectural firm which championed Googie architecture, including the original Norms Restaurant, a Googie coffee shop designed by Davis. For his work, the Los Angeles Times called Davis, "the father of the California coffee shop."
Louis Logue Armét was an American architect and strong proponent of Googie architecture during the mid-twentieth century.
Jack Laxer (1927–2018) was an American photographer best known for his work in stereoscopy. His photographs of California modern architecture have been published in magazines and books, displayed in museums, and included in educational programs since the 1950s. He photographed the homes of Lucille Ball and Harold Lloyd with the Stereo Realist camera. His clients included the architects Paul Revere Williams, William F. Cody, Arthur Froehlich, Ladd & Kelsey, and Armet & Davis, best known for their Googie coffee shops. Beginning in 1951 he documented the designs of Louis Armet and Eldon Davis including Norms, Pann's, and the Holiday Bowl. These images were included in Alan Hess's book Googie: Fifties Coffee Shop Architecture, setting off a revival of interest in the style beginning in the 1980s.
Corky's was a restaurant in Los Angeles, California's Sherman Oaks neighborhood. It was designed by Armet & Davis and built in 1958. It has a sweeping roofline characteristic of Googie architecture. It was remodeled in the 1970s and has been restored in recent years. It originally opened as Stanley Burke's Coffee Shop on Van Nuys Boulevard and became Corky's in the early 1960s as it transitioned to being open 24-7. Billy Joel played piano at the eatery in the 1970s. After 25 years as Corky's, it became the Lamplighter, and was used in 2010 as a filming location for A Nightmare on Elm Street. The restaurant is now restored and renovated as a renewed Corky's.
Helen Liu Fong was an American architect and interior designer from Los Angeles, California. Fong was an important figure in the Googie architecture movement, designing futuristic buildings like Norms Restaurant, the Holiday Bowl, Denny's, Bob's Big Boy, and Pann's Coffee Shop that helped usher in an era of boomerang angles, dynamic forms and neon lights. Fong became one of the first women to join the American Institute of Architects, and worked with Armet and Davis on many of her most well-known projects. Many of Fong's best-known building designs feature large glass fronts and bold colors on interior walls, designed to stand out and entice potential customers.
Googie's Coffee Shop was a small restaurant located at 8100 Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles next door to the famous Schwab's Pharmacy at the beginning of the Sunset Strip. It was designed in 1949 by architect John Lautner and lent its name to Googie architecture, a genre of modernist design in the 1950s and 60s. Interest in the style was revived by the 1986 book Googie: Fifties Coffee Shop Architecture by Alan Hess.
Tiny Naylor's was a restaurant chain in Southern California started in 1949 by William Wallace "Tiny" Naylor and later run by his son Biff Naylor. W.W. Naylor had previously owned more than a dozen Tiny's Waffle Shops in Central California. Naylor moved to Los Angeles and hired architect Douglas Honnold to design an eye-catching drive-in restaurant at the corner of Sunset Boulevard and La Brea Avenue in Hollywood. Actor Humphrey Bogart compared the slanted canopy roof of the building to "a huge bird about to take off.". The restaurant featured Googie architecture and carhop service, and claimed to be the birthplace of the Patty melt. Naylor died on August 17, 1959, while at the Del Mar racetrack. The original location closed on March 11, 1984 and was demolished. The site is currently a shopping center.
W.W. "Biff" Naylor is a retired restaurant owner in Los Angeles, California. He was born in Oakland, California in 1939 and graduated from Pennsylvania State University. His father W.W. “Tiny” Naylor started Tiny's Waffle Shops in Central California in the 1920s, and operated a chain of more than 40 Tiny Naylor's and Biff's restaurants in Southern California. Biff Naylor took over operations of Tiny Naylor's after his father's death in 1959 and was still operating at least one location in 1999. The Biff's restaurant chain of the 1940s was a "forerunner to all the modern coffee shops," Naylor told the San Jose Mercury News in 2016. Those restaurants employed modern architecture in the googie style, and innovations that would be adopted widely through the restaurant industry including open exhibition cooking kitchen, stainless steel counters, refrigerated pie cases, and plate "lowerators" that warmed or cooled plates as needed. In 2017 Los Angeles magazine food critic Patric Kuh called the longtime restaurant operator "Diner royalty". Saveur magazine wrote that Biff Naylor created "The best damn coffee shops ever" in their "Saveur 100" list
