How a Retro-Futurist Spends 3 Days in L.A.
November 9, 2017 9:34 AM Subscribe
Similar to the Coca Cola Building, my wife and I have long lusted for the streamlined Bohn House here in Austin...
posted by jim in austin at 10:50 AM on November 9, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by jim in austin at 10:50 AM on November 9, 2017 [1 favorite]
I was prepared to reflexively hate this, but you know, a few quibbles aside, I think there are worse ways to see LA. (Looking at theme building right now from across the freeway)
Amazing to think that the Bradbury was the work of a first timer. I woulda thrown Union Station in there while you're in the area but that's because it's my favorite building in LA. And I look askance at the assertion there are only 8 Googie restaurants left in LA.
posted by drewbage1847 at 11:01 AM on November 9, 2017 [1 favorite]
Amazing to think that the Bradbury was the work of a first timer. I woulda thrown Union Station in there while you're in the area but that's because it's my favorite building in LA. And I look askance at the assertion there are only 8 Googie restaurants left in LA.
posted by drewbage1847 at 11:01 AM on November 9, 2017 [1 favorite]
I know it's not right down the street from LACMA, so it'd mean a drive instead of a walk, but they really should have used the Burbank Bob's Big Boy as their Googie Coffee Shop example.
Also, the Grand Central Market is right across the street from The Bradbury Building. It's a great place to grab lunch.
The Cardiff Oil Site made we think that there aren't many of the "oil wells made to look like a building" buildings left in LA. I'm 37, and as a kid I remember seeing one between Roscoe/Sherman Way off the 170 and it couldn't tell you how many years ago they tore it down.
posted by sideshow at 11:12 AM on November 9, 2017 [2 favorites]
Also, the Grand Central Market is right across the street from The Bradbury Building. It's a great place to grab lunch.
The Cardiff Oil Site made we think that there aren't many of the "oil wells made to look like a building" buildings left in LA. I'm 37, and as a kid I remember seeing one between Roscoe/Sherman Way off the 170 and it couldn't tell you how many years ago they tore it down.
posted by sideshow at 11:12 AM on November 9, 2017 [2 favorites]
OK - the Googie Restaurants in L.A.
Pann's
Norm's on La Cienega
Bob's Big Boy in Burbank
Mel's Diner
Chip's in Hawthorne
The original McDonald's in Downey
What are the others?
posted by Sophie1 at 11:55 AM on November 9, 2017 [2 favorites]
Pann's
Norm's on La Cienega
Bob's Big Boy in Burbank
Mel's Diner
Chip's in Hawthorne
The original McDonald's in Downey
What are the others?
posted by Sophie1 at 11:55 AM on November 9, 2017 [2 favorites]
Sharky's up in the Valley (aka the former Twains)
There was Goodie's up in San Gabriel, but that's become a golf store in the last few years.
Curbed put together this list a few years back.
posted by drewbage1847 at 12:01 PM on November 9, 2017 [1 favorite]
There was Goodie's up in San Gabriel, but that's become a golf store in the last few years.
Curbed put together this list a few years back.
posted by drewbage1847 at 12:01 PM on November 9, 2017 [1 favorite]
Great list, except it’s missing the Museum of Jurassic Technology. Don’t miss it.
posted by Carmody'sPrize at 12:08 PM on November 9, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by Carmody'sPrize at 12:08 PM on November 9, 2017 [2 favorites]
I take pride in the fact that, in my 40+ years living in various parts of L.A., I visited a majority of the sites noted, including the banks of the L.A. River, as part of an on-air stunt pulled by my radio mentor. Having been moved from his Morning Drive timeslot to Middays, he went off monologueing on all the social luncheons he'd attended that went "straight down the sewer" and decided to stage a luncheon that started off "In The Sewer". He couldn't get any local sewage authorities to authorize anything, but he did get a permit to use a then-very-dry stretch of the L.A. River. He held drawings for 50 people to attend and auditioned "sewer-worthy luncheon speakers"; I got on the program doing a "slide show without a projector" ala Jackie Vernon's classic comedy routine (bonus absurdity: it WAS part of a radio show). But still, I helped put on a show in the L.A. River in the same area where years later Terminator 2 staged its iconic chase sequence.
But considering I grew up in the San Fernando Valley suburbs, I was slightly disappointed none of the iconic enclosed shopping malls were on the agenda. But then, they were farther out-of-the-way (when we first moved in, the biggest mall was Topanga Plaza, six miles west ''as the freeway flies"), and most of them have since been remodeled/converted out of any recognizable form (including the Sherman Oaks Galleria of Zappa's "Valley Girl" fame, which didn't even open until after I went away to college and has since been turned into a half 'outdoor mall'/half office building). And the nearest landmark to my childhood home was the Ralph Williams Ford ('World's Largest') car lot, which by the time I was in high school was being turned into a row of office buildings and the 'World's Largest' McDonald's.
posted by oneswellfoop at 1:36 PM on November 9, 2017
But considering I grew up in the San Fernando Valley suburbs, I was slightly disappointed none of the iconic enclosed shopping malls were on the agenda. But then, they were farther out-of-the-way (when we first moved in, the biggest mall was Topanga Plaza, six miles west ''as the freeway flies"), and most of them have since been remodeled/converted out of any recognizable form (including the Sherman Oaks Galleria of Zappa's "Valley Girl" fame, which didn't even open until after I went away to college and has since been turned into a half 'outdoor mall'/half office building). And the nearest landmark to my childhood home was the Ralph Williams Ford ('World's Largest') car lot, which by the time I was in high school was being turned into a row of office buildings and the 'World's Largest' McDonald's.
posted by oneswellfoop at 1:36 PM on November 9, 2017
I think the true midcentury aspect of this itinerary is all the driving you'd have to do.
posted by lilies.lilies at 2:21 PM on November 9, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by lilies.lilies at 2:21 PM on November 9, 2017 [2 favorites]
Topanga Plaza and Ralph Williams Ford were absolutely midcentury San Fernando Valley (and I arrived there in 1963 at the age of 8).
posted by oneswellfoop at 2:38 PM on November 9, 2017
posted by oneswellfoop at 2:38 PM on November 9, 2017
If I started my day as a tourist in North Hollywood and was then directed to go to Beverly Hills from there for the second half of my day, I would fire my tour guide and pan on Yelp SO HARD.
posted by carsonb at 3:33 PM on November 9, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by carsonb at 3:33 PM on November 9, 2017 [1 favorite]
Another thing: You want to talk retro-futurism and have me look at the Bonaventure but don't want to mention the Pedaways? Pah!
posted by carsonb at 3:34 PM on November 9, 2017
posted by carsonb at 3:34 PM on November 9, 2017
Twain's turning into Sharkey's really got my "get off my lawn" megaphone all tuned up to 11.
posted by Sophie1 at 12:24 PM on November 13, 2017
posted by Sophie1 at 12:24 PM on November 13, 2017
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posted by thelonius at 10:11 AM on November 9, 2017 [1 favorite]