0:01

Welcome to Stuff you Should Know, a production

0:04

of I Heart Radio. Hey,

0:11

and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh,

0:13

and there's Chuck and Jerry's hanging out

0:15

and this is Stuff you Should Know.

0:18

Are continuing Architecture

0:20

slash Design Suite Surprising.

0:24

Yeah, it's surprisingly interesting stuff. Huh.

0:26

Yeah. And this one, um,

0:28

I mean listen however you listen, but if you have

0:30

a choice, I really would urge

0:33

you to listen to this when

0:35

you can look at pictures of

0:37

things. Uh,

0:39

this one above many many episodes,

0:42

requires you to look at this

0:44

stuff as you're listening. Ideally,

0:47

Yeah, and so if you can do that, do that,

0:49

yeah, because we're gonna be mentioning specific

0:52

buildings that you could go check out and be like,

0:54

oh, this is what they're talking about. We're gonna

0:56

do our best, but we're going to be describing

0:58

structures. And it's just way easier to look

1:00

at the structure. You know, it's got a swoopy pointy

1:03

thing. Yeah,

1:05

that's basically it. Olivia was kind of enough

1:08

to insert hyperlinks into

1:11

what she sent us. I mean it's

1:13

super easy. I didn't even have to google

1:15

the googie and that is

1:17

what we're talking about. It's not a type of everybody. It's

1:19

Googy. It's a kind of architecture

1:21

G O O, G I E UM,

1:24

And it is basically the architecture

1:26

that you think of when you think of

1:28

the nineteen fifties, mid

1:31

fifties to the very early sixties

1:33

in America, well, the

1:35

fifties when they were thinking of

1:37

the nineties exactly, that's

1:39

a really good way that might look like. Yeah,

1:42

and they were way way off, but

1:44

I mean, how great would the nineties have been if

1:46

it looked like what they thought it was going to

1:48

look like in the fifties. I think it would have been pretty

1:50

cool. Because I am personally a really

1:52

big fan of Googy architecture. It's

1:55

nothing like I don't go tour the buildings

1:57

or anything like that. In fact, there's one

1:59

in Georgia, and I looked

2:01

up where that town is and I'm like, no, it's not worth

2:04

the drive, but I do like looking

2:06

at pictures of them. I might That

2:09

bank is three and a half hours from my house, and

2:11

I want to open up an account there just

2:15

so I can drive down to that amazing building

2:17

in the middle of nowhere southeast Georgia.

2:19

It is really the middle it's not near

2:21

anything, nothing nowhere

2:23

around it, but it does have a really

2:25

fine example of Googy architecture, which

2:28

we'll get to, which we should probably define

2:30

beyond it's the architecture that you think

2:32

of when you think of the fifties or sixties, right,

2:35

And before we define it, I just want to say that my love

2:37

affair with Googie started

2:40

out when I was a kid. When

2:43

I first honestly,

2:45

when I first went to Tomorrowland to Disney World,

2:48

and then when I started watching the Jetsons

2:52

and being in Georgia, I didn't see any

2:54

examples of Googy really growing

2:57

up UM, but took my first trip to l

3:00

l in nineteen eighty eight, I

3:02

saw a bunch of Googy. I was like,

3:05

I love this stuff. And then

3:07

in the n I

3:10

took my first trip to New York where I met my friend

3:12

Bob, and this is

3:15

was not exterior architecture, but

3:17

this was that early to mid nineties UM

3:19

sort of design, like kind of space age

3:22

bachelor pad design movement that's called

3:24

Populux. Yeah,

3:26

and that's sort of akin to Googie.

3:29

And Bob had his stuff like that, and I thought

3:31

it was so cool, and he told me about

3:33

googie. And that's the first time I had heard that

3:35

word was in That's

3:37

Hilarious. I heard the word the first time, like

3:39

this month. I think, well, really

3:43

well, I mean you don't. You don't hear it a lot, but

3:45

I think people that know it like to tell other people

3:48

and name it. And Bob was

3:50

one of those people because I remember when Google came

3:52

along when I was living in l A. And I

3:55

was like, like the architecture and

3:57

everyone went, huh So,

3:59

anyway, that's just a long personal

4:01

preamble. Uh should we define it? I

4:04

like it. Yeah, let's define it, chuck, have

4:06

at it, all right. So this was

4:09

this came about post World War two, and

4:12

I love how Livia put this. It was influenced

4:14

by the techno optimism

4:17

of that era, which

4:19

was the thing. It was like, Hey, this is

4:21

it was like Tomorrowland, this is what the future is going to

4:23

be like. And you know, they're

4:25

just gonna have like cool shapes and

4:27

things are gonna look like rocket ships and

4:30

cars can have these big fins and look

4:32

like spaceships. And we love

4:34

neon lights and we love these gentle pas

4:36

stels. And it was kind

4:38

of a a populous

4:41

movement and that it wasn't like

4:43

just meant for the rich. No, it wasn't

4:45

for the rich. And as a matter of fact, one of the other

4:47

big definitions of it is it was a

4:49

commercial movement. So like

4:52

you didn't really see anybody's house

4:54

constructed in Googie, but you would

4:56

see like a dry cleaner or a bowling alley,

4:59

or a coffee shop that was a big one, or

5:01

a diner. Um. So these were places

5:03

that like any American could

5:05

go to and did. So it was it

5:08

was really fun, eye

5:10

popping, bright colored space

5:12

age design and architecture

5:15

for the everyday person. And

5:17

that's definitely one of the things that made it

5:20

so lovable. But it's also conversely

5:22

one of the things that made like architecture critics

5:24

and like you know, the legitimate

5:27

I'm making square scare quotes architects

5:30

hate it because it was populist

5:32

in nature. Yeah, for sure. UM

5:34

it emerged in largely

5:37

state in California. It did. You know, we'll talk

5:39

about where it did branch out here and there

5:41

across the US, but it's really a California

5:44

thing and really a southern California thing,

5:47

and California at the time really UM

5:50

did sort of represent the future in a lot of ways.

5:52

Post World War Two. It was you

5:54

know, it was the far West, and it

5:56

was I think a city where

5:58

people moved to from the

6:01

East that saw possibilities in California,

6:04

the land of sunshine, the land

6:06

of the future. And uh,

6:08

the the whole idea of this commercial part

6:11

of it was let's design,

6:14

let's say a gas station that will

6:16

really stand out if you're it was a

6:18

car culture, you know, after World War Two, and let's design

6:20

something that can really be noticed when

6:22

you're speeding down the highway. Yeah, that

6:24

was a really big driving force for Googie.

6:27

Like if you, um, if you look at a Googie

6:29

building, you see it like a mile

6:31

away or many miles away because of the bright colors,

6:34

because of the weird angles. It really is

6:36

designed to stand out from its

6:38

surroundings. A lot of architecture is

6:41

designed to um complement,

6:43

blend, kind of be

6:46

seamless with its surroundings, whether that's

6:48

nature or existing buildings. Googie

6:50

did not take that into account at all and actually

6:52

went the opposite way. And one of the big

6:54

reasons was because in California

6:57

as a car culture, to get people's

6:59

attention as they're speeding past you kind

7:01

of have to use those design elements.

7:04

And that was that was basically why Googy

7:06

came along. That's right. I mentioned the Jetsons

7:09

and that wasn't just ingest uh,

7:11

that was a real thing. It was inspired

7:14

by things like the Jetsons. If you

7:16

look at the original Hanna Barbera

7:18

studio building and on Kawanga

7:20

and West Hollywood, it was a

7:22

Googie building. Uh. It was sort of Googie

7:24

meets Art Deco, which Googie

7:27

has a little bit of its roots in Art Deco

7:29

in some ways. And also you

7:31

know, I guess we should talk about some other uh

7:35

kinds of architecture that it sort of sprang

7:37

from. Art Deco was one and then

7:39

one that is also super cool. It's

7:41

called streamline modern, and

7:44

that is if you look up any streamline

7:46

modern building, you might think you're

7:48

looking at in an ocean liner or

7:51

something. There are no squared

7:54

corners on these buildings. Like everything

7:57

which is also very Art Deco has these beautiful

7:59

round did edges, yeah, which is really

8:01

neat. There's also usually structures

8:04

that kind of suggest like an ocean

8:06

liners, smoke stacks or something. Um.

8:09

Sometimes they even put portholes in the buildings

8:12

like There was a Coca Cola bottling plant that

8:14

was streamline modern um in the

8:16

thirties I think maybe forties in l

8:19

A. And it has straight up portholes

8:21

on it, like it's meant to look like a ship. And

8:23

so this idea that you could make something

8:25

look like something else but also look very

8:28

elegant definitely kind of found

8:31

formed part of the foundation for googie architecture.

8:33

It's very cool. Another thing that

8:36

influenced it is called programmatic

8:38

or memetic architecture. This

8:41

is basically like how

8:45

you would see it today is if if you like see the hard Rock

8:47

Hotel in Florida, that it looks like

8:49

a giant guitar um. It is

8:52

something that is very intentionally sort

8:54

of like a gimmick designed to look

8:56

like something else and not just like but that evokes

8:58

an airplane. It's no, it looks like

9:00

an airplane or a giant hot

9:03

dog or something. Yeah. Very frequently, especially

9:05

with memetic um, it was like

9:07

it was the structure

9:10

was the thing that it was selling. So like

9:12

you might have an orange juice stand and like the

9:14

building was a giant orange um

9:17

yeah, or the brown Oh,

9:19

it's awesome. I saw pictures of an abandoned

9:22

one in Florida somewhere. I don't know where it is, but it

9:24

would be cool to go see um. And then

9:26

like the brown Derby, the very famous brown Derby

9:28

restaurant in l A. It's a brown Derby,

9:30

a brown hat, or like those

9:32

donut shops that are like a giant donut.

9:36

That is all memetic architecture. And

9:38

one of the reasons that that gave rise to Googi

9:40

is because that's what's called a vulgar

9:43

vernacular. It's the kind of thing

9:45

that you don't even need an architect to do. Like

9:47

the owner of the donut shop could could say,

9:50

hey, construction guys, I want this to

9:52

be a donut building for me out of whatever

9:54

you want to build it out of, and you didn't

9:56

need an architect at all, And that was a

9:58

big thing that kind of It was also populous

10:01

in that respect as well. Yeah, and Googie

10:03

that was away scale back version of that though,

10:06

you know, definitely yeah, I mean it would evoke like

10:08

a rocket ship. But if it was a straight up rocket

10:10

ship, then that I think it became a medic right.

10:13

Yeah, definitely transgressing across

10:15

that line for sure. One of

10:17

the first Googie Buildings is

10:19

from nine, which would

10:21

have put it really on the leading edge of that whole movement

10:24

um and it's still there. It's it's a great

10:26

place, like l A is a really

10:28

great place to drive around and see some of

10:30

this stuff. It made me miss living

10:32

there a lot because I would go to some of these places

10:34

and see some of these places on a daily basis.

10:36

But Bob's a Big Boy in Burbank

10:38

in ninety nine designed by Wayne McAllister,

10:41

who will pop up a couple of times in this episode.

10:44

Uh, and he built the l

10:47

Rancho in Las Vegas and

10:49

Bob's Big Boy in Burbank, which is

10:52

it's it's really known for its thirty five ft

10:54

high sign of depicting

10:57

Bob himself. Is that

10:59

who it's supposed to be in the red and white checkered

11:02

overalls. Yeah, there's some connection

11:04

to Shownees and I never really looked it up,

11:07

but it's like Showny's Big Boy.

11:09

That may have just been the franchise name or something. I think

11:11

so, because in Ohio it was fresh as Big Boy

11:13

and they all used the same the same big

11:15

Boy. Yeah, and

11:18

it was you let's be That's

11:20

who I aspired to be as a child, get

11:22

out your overalls. Uh

11:25

So, Bob's Big Boy is a landmark. Literally.

11:28

The California Office of Historic Preservation

11:31

declared it an official historic landmark

11:33

because they wanted to, of course tear

11:36

it down, which sadly happened to so many great

11:38

Googie and other buildings. Yeah,

11:40

but not Bob's Big Boy in Burbank, which is

11:42

a lot of bees. And the reason the

11:44

reason why it's considered the first Googie

11:46

building is one it was from, but

11:48

it follows so much of the Googie aesthetic.

11:52

Like you said, a thirty five ft sign, as

11:54

attention grabbing as possible, with flashing

11:57

lights, neon lights, um with

12:00

giant letters. Usually

12:02

the building is one story, I

12:04

believe. With Bob's Big Boy, the roof kind

12:06

of swoops in different different directions

12:08

or um they it will

12:11

go up and then down like in a zigzag. It

12:13

just the roofs do weird things in

12:16

a in a Googy structure. And

12:18

there's a bunch of other things too, like sweeping

12:20

arches or parabolas,

12:23

like the original McDonald's had two parabolas

12:25

on either side. There was the original golden arches

12:28

I think in in Downey, California. Yeah,

12:30

that was very googy uh inspired,

12:33

although I think it was even earlier

12:35

than than some of these other buildings.

12:37

I think, uh, yeah, we'll get to that one. I think it's right

12:40

all right, sure, Yeah. Like I said, roofs

12:42

can be candelevered up, swept, they

12:45

can look like curved themselves.

12:47

They're usually outlined in lights,

12:50

flashing lights, neon lights. Sometimes

12:52

it looks kind of spacey, like

12:54

you said, not exactly a rocket ship, but suggested

12:57

of it. Um, geometric shape

13:00

shapes that that suggest motion, like

13:02

boomerang shapes and starbursts.

13:04

That's huge too. Um. The fonts

13:07

that they use are really exaggerated and big

13:09

and attention grabbing. And um

13:12

again the signage really really

13:14

high, really really gaudy,

13:17

like sometimes many many times taller

13:19

than the building structure itself.

13:21

Yeah. So many of the roof Googy roof lines

13:24

really do seem to defy gravity. And that was

13:26

kind of one of the points, I think, was

13:28

to to make people wonder how

13:30

they built it. And there are buildings

13:33

in l A And we're going to talk about that gas

13:35

station in Beverly Hills that um

13:38

for back then. You know, now they have such lighter

13:40

and stronger materials but you know, you're talking

13:42

about building these things a lot of concrete in the nineteen

13:45

fifties, uh, and some

13:47

of these roofs that just swoop

13:49

up and extend to this tiny point, you know, fifty

13:52

ft above the ground, and you're just

13:54

wondering how in the world today accomplished this back

13:56

then, Yeah, that was They

13:58

just say it's good. That's

14:01

right. Should we take a break, Yeah,

14:03

let's take a break. All right, we'll be right back

14:06

with more. So

14:35

what's googie anyway? Where they get that name? Oh?

14:37

Actually, it's named after a specific

14:40

U cafe that was built the same year

14:42

as Bob's Big Boy. It's also sometimes

14:44

considered the first googie uh

14:46

structure. And the reason why is because the

14:49

cafe was named Googies. The

14:51

owner, Mortimer Burton, named

14:53

it after his wife, whose family nickname

14:55

was Googie Um. And it

14:59

wasn't like he said, hey, create a whole new

15:01

architecture, John Lawtner, and we're going

15:03

to name it after my wife. He had no saying that.

15:05

It was just that this Googi's Um

15:07

coffee shop was a really good

15:10

early example of this new kind

15:12

of architecture that was starting to spread

15:14

in southern California. Yeah.

15:16

And John Lawtner is one of my favorite

15:18

architects of all time. Uh.

15:21

He was a protege of Frank Lloyd Wright.

15:23

Uh. He did most of his work in the south

15:26

Land there in southern California. Uh.

15:28

And because the you know, the weather is so great

15:30

there and the sun is always shining and all

15:32

the things that people hate about l A that don't live in l

15:34

A. UM, you can really do

15:37

big inside out

15:39

floor plans where the outside is brought

15:41

in and you've got you can have huge pieces of glass

15:44

and expose would and it

15:46

just everything. Weather is so much better out there,

15:48

So you're really freed up as an architect

15:51

to do things when you don't have to worry

15:53

about terrential downpours of

15:55

rain for many many days of the year and things like

15:57

that. Uh. And he

16:00

has built um some some of the

16:02

great houses in l A, some of the great modern

16:04

homes. UM. One which

16:06

I actually is one of my least favorite of his, but

16:08

maybe the most well known, is the Chemis

16:10

Sphere House. It's a

16:12

little too much for me, but I get

16:14

but I get it.

16:17

It looks like a spaceship. It's a favorite.

16:19

It's like it's almost like if Um

16:21

the eye piece

16:24

that LeVar Burton wore and Star Trek

16:26

the next generation was turned into a house

16:28

and then thrust into the side of

16:30

a hill cliff, that would

16:32

be the Chemo spherehouse. Um,

16:35

my favorite is was made very famous.

16:37

It's a famous house on its own if you're in architecture.

16:39

But I was made famous in The

16:41

Big Lebowski, which is the Sheets

16:44

Goldstein House, which

16:46

was Jackie Treehorn's house. So when

16:48

I started looking at um, I think I just

16:50

said chemosphere and that's way different the Chemis

16:52

spherehouse pictures. I was I was wondering

16:55

if it was that house, and I was like,

16:57

I don't quite think it is. But it's

16:59

not surprised in to me that that was from the same architect.

17:02

Yeah, it's a lot in her house. So just if

17:04

you have time in your indo architecture, just go check

17:07

out a bunch of lot in your homes. They're amazing. So

17:09

he is a really great architect, and

17:11

like you said, he was a protege of Frank Lloyd

17:13

Wright. That in and of itself automatically

17:16

made him a serious architect in the architecture

17:19

world. But he was kind

17:21

of into Googie as well. He designed

17:23

that first Googi's Cafe or

17:25

Googi's Coffee shop in the Googy style,

17:28

and so it was a criticism of

17:30

that work of Lautner Googi's Coffee

17:33

Shop. That guy named Douglas

17:35

Haskell, who was an architecture critic, wrote

17:38

wrote an architect or wrote wrote an article

17:40

in ninety two just like really

17:42

dripping lee satirical article. UM,

17:45

kind of the one of those things where you just talk about how great

17:48

something is, but you're you're discrediting

17:50

the narrator. So anything they're

17:52

saying, like all these all this praises actually

17:55

you know, um veiled criticism

17:57

or poorly veiled criticism. And he

18:00

was the one who coined the term Googy to describe

18:02

the architecture, naming it after that restaurant.

18:05

Yeah exactly. UM,

18:08

I mean it might as well just say every

18:10

tenth word in parentheses, I

18:13

roll right exactly, because

18:15

he did the very cowardly thing, which

18:18

is made a fictational character up

18:21

to explain what Googie. This ficational

18:24

character in this article was Professor Thrug

18:27

and it was just it was just dripping

18:29

with cynicism. Um,

18:32

you know that he was he was talking about or rather,

18:35

excuse me thrug. The character was

18:37

talking about um

18:40

some of the well, let me just read this

18:42

bit was saying that um Googi should

18:45

look both organic and be abstract,

18:47

featuring abstract mushrooms

18:49

or a geometric bird, or even

18:51

better, an abstract mushroom surmounted

18:54

by an abstract bird. It's

18:57

kind of hilarious. But one

18:59

thing he did say is he says

19:01

that the roof of Googie

19:04

starts off Googies itself, starts on

19:06

the level like any other building, but suddenly

19:08

it breaks for the sky. And he

19:10

wasn't kidding, Like, if you look up um

19:12

Googie's uh, the Googies

19:15

coffee shop on one side

19:18

of it, the the entire building, not just

19:20

the roof, but the entire building goes

19:22

up at an angle like it's on a hinge,

19:25

and the whole that whole side of the building

19:28

is is angled like it's gone up. It's nuts.

19:30

It's the only way you can say it. And so

19:32

he's he's critical of that, um,

19:35

but that really weird gravity

19:37

defying roof and in fact, gravity defying

19:40

building that became like a trademark

19:42

part of of Googie. And what's

19:44

funny is his Lautner was considered serious

19:47

enough that on the next page, after

19:50

Douglas Haskell's scathing

19:52

criticism in in the nine article

19:54

of House and Home is a profile of

19:57

Lautner in his work because he's a serious architect

19:59

and everybody knew it. Yeah, I

20:01

mean, that's sort of the trick of this thing is.

20:03

I'm sure the tongue was in cheek and maybe Haskell

20:06

was just trying to have a little bit of fun and I'm

20:08

taking it too seriously. Uh,

20:11

well, it was an obnoxious thing to do. First it

20:13

was. It was pretty obnoxious. But the takeaway is

20:15

that they wrote about it, and

20:17

um, they could have continued to ignore

20:20

it, but they even said that,

20:22

um though House and Homes editors would prefer to

20:25

not go nearly so far as

20:27

Lawtner does, they believe that serious

20:29

designer Lawtner should no longer be officially

20:31

ignored. So you know, we we'll

20:34

recognize you by making fun of it. It's

20:36

like House and Home were like the head of a high school

20:38

click or something, right exactly,

20:41

So, Lawtner's very much associated

20:43

with Googie, but he was not the only one. And what's

20:46

what's also what also makes Googie

20:48

so populist is that it was decentralized.

20:51

There were a bunch of different people working

20:53

in south southern California trying

20:56

to do the same aime, which was get as many

20:58

eyeballs onto their customers

21:01

building to bring that many more

21:03

people into the customer's business. Because

21:05

again, it's a commercial architecture movement,

21:08

and it was totally decentralized, and anybody

21:10

could push whatever envelope they wanted

21:13

to. Anything really went. Yeah, the Googie

21:15

almost had Gookie Houser the Googie.

21:17

The Googie house movement was much more limited.

21:20

Uh, it just it doesn't you know, it's kind of cool, but it doesn't

21:23

fit houses as much as it fits like

21:25

a bowling alley, Yeah, or even like a dry

21:28

cleaner, like anything. You could just be like, give

21:30

me one of those buildings. Yeah. Uh.

21:33

So there was an architectural firm that

21:35

was hugely responsible for building

21:37

a lot of these buildings or designing a lot of

21:39

them. Uh. And it was our Mette and Davis

21:42

Open Inn by Eldon Davison,

21:45

I guess Louis are met and

21:48

they basically saw

21:50

a big opportunity in the commercial sector. I

21:53

think they were industrial designers initially,

21:56

and they started getting hired to build

21:58

these buildings and kind of one of the

22:00

really cool parts of their story is, uh,

22:02

they hired a junior

22:05

drafts person named Helen

22:07

Lou Fong, and

22:09

this was someone who graduated with a degree

22:11

in city planning from Berkeley

22:14

but could only get work as a secretary

22:16

because she was an Asian woman. And

22:20

Armatt and Davis gave Helen Fong

22:22

a chance um as a

22:24

junior drafts person, and she ended

22:26

up being kind of one of the sort

22:28

of central UH influencers.

22:31

And I used that in the old school use

22:34

of the term um of that

22:36

movement. Yeah, I thought that was really

22:38

cool that they did that too. UM. So

22:40

one of the first things they in Leash drawn was the

22:42

Clock restaurant in Westchester, which

22:45

is there's not that many images of

22:47

it, um, but yeah, so

22:49

if you can, if you can find it, it's pretty cool.

22:51

Like I saw an original sketch that I

22:53

guess Helen Fong must have done, um,

22:56

and it's just all sorts of angles

22:58

in one triangle jutting out of another triangle,

23:01

and it's it's just a really neat

23:03

building, Like I can only imagine being like a

23:05

junior architect and and

23:07

them saying like, go go nuts

23:10

like do whatever you want and they're done.

23:12

I love it. Um so she she

23:14

that was her first one. Her next one, in

23:16

the most famous one was Pans Coffee

23:18

Shop on La ta Hera. Am

23:20

I saying that right Latierra La

23:23

Tierrah. I got all fancy um

23:25

in in l a obviously, Yeah,

23:28

And that's probably not the technical way

23:30

to pronounce it, but that's how everyone says it. I think, No,

23:32

it's I mean, I get it. I'm I'm a prest

23:34

script no descriptionist. Uh.

23:37

It was built in nineteen had

23:40

as again one of those dramatically angled roofs

23:43

uses a lot of neon and

23:46

flagstone was a big deal with coffee

23:48

shops, or a lot of flagstone walls at coffee shops

23:50

back then, big plate glass windows

23:52

and a lot of these coffee shops. Uh.

23:54

And they described it as a place where George

23:56

Jetson and Fred Flintstone could meet

23:59

over a cup of coffee. Yeah, because you're using

24:01

flagstone amidst like four micah

24:03

and like boomerang and in space

24:05

imagery. That was a quote from a guy

24:07

named Alan Hess who's an architecture

24:10

historian who literally wrote

24:12

the book not once but twice on googie

24:15

and actually kicked off a googie preservation

24:18

movement in the late eighties. Actually, as we'll

24:20

see, hooray for Hess, right,

24:22

that's right up with hess uh.

24:25

They and we you know, we talked a lot about coffee

24:27

shops. It was actually kind of also called

24:29

coffee shop modern because

24:31

there were so many of them. Are Met and Davis

24:34

and Fong built or

24:36

I'm sorry, designed more than four thousand

24:38

of these coffee shops. Right, that's

24:40

crazy, that's like all the coffee shops. What's

24:43

funny is if you um there was a an

24:45

oh bit of Davis. I can't remember

24:47

when he died, but he he died

24:49

a very old man. Um and he had said

24:51

that he didn't really see much of a reason to preserve

24:54

these these buildings, which

24:56

I think is a little a

24:59

little modest because people are saying

25:01

like these are masterpieces, like they it's

25:03

just that the architectural world didn't appreciate

25:05

them. But they're great buildings and

25:08

people are destroying them. And the reason why

25:10

is because, as as Davis pointed

25:12

out, these are commercial buildings. And

25:14

I saw someone describe commercial buildings

25:16

as probably the architecture

25:19

that's under the most pressure to

25:21

reinvent and reshape itself

25:24

to keep up with the times. Like, you can't be

25:26

sentimental with your commercial building.

25:28

If Googie is out and it went out fairly

25:30

quick, you gotta scrap it and start

25:32

over and update, or else you're gonna people

25:35

are gonna think your building, your business is behind

25:37

and behind the times and out of

25:39

touch, and you just can't let that happen, or

25:41

else you're gonna lose out on business. So he

25:43

was saying, like, there's you know it was they were

25:45

commercial buildings, Like what what do you want? Of course

25:48

people are going to tear them down and replace them with something

25:50

else. Yeah, I never really thought about that. That's interesting

25:52

because unless you do something really revolutionary

25:55

and you you have a you know, Netflix

25:57

show about your house, Um,

26:00

you can go out in two and say I

26:02

want to build a colonial and no one will be

26:04

like really, I mean it may not be your particular

26:07

style, but they still build colonial houses

26:09

and craftsman's and all kinds

26:11

of houses from all sorts of eras. But I

26:13

think a commercial building that

26:15

really makes a lot of sense, Like you can't go out

26:18

and build a commercial building that looks thirty

26:21

years old. You might can go out

26:23

and build something it looks like fifty years old, if it's

26:25

some kind of cool retro thing. But

26:27

you can't be anywhere in Besween and

26:30

build something that looks dated. You know, no,

26:32

you can't. It can be classic, but it can't

26:34

be dated. I think that's the fatal flaws dated

26:36

and and Googy dated itself

26:39

very quickly, as we'll see. That's right.

26:41

And then there was Norms too. We mentioned

26:43

Norms. That was another Hell and Fong classic

26:47

too, which is just like a great example

26:49

of Googy architecture. I think Norms

26:51

is still there too. Yes, I believe

26:54

it was also designated a

26:56

Historic and Cultural Monument by the l

26:58

A City Council. Was it was going to

27:00

go under the wrecking ball, and they stepped

27:03

in and said, nope, you're not going to tear down this

27:05

norm So it is still there and it is an awesome

27:07

building. It's great on Los Angego right

27:09

there in Hollywood, like a lot of these buildings

27:11

are. Uh the Holiday Bowl,

27:13

this was a really special story. There's

27:16

a bowling alley on Crenshaw Boulevard in

27:18

Crenshaw in Los Angeles, and

27:21

uh Fong designed the interior and

27:23

there was a bar and they're called Sebeka. Sorry,

27:29

I bet it was hopping Man. Um. The cool

27:31

thing about this area at the time

27:33

was it it was one of the only integrated

27:35

parts of Los Angeles. The local

27:37

high school literally had one third

27:40

African American, one third Asian American,

27:42

and one third white kids. Yeah,

27:45

and that was what made the Holiday

27:47

Bowls so special, as you had

27:49

these different cultures and groups of people getting

27:52

together where they didn't do so

27:54

in most parts of Los Angeles at the time. Uh.

27:57

And they had not only were they bowling, but there was

27:59

a cough shop on the premises. And

28:01

when we keep saying coffee shop, these were coffee

28:04

shop like the pulp fiction they were. They're like diners

28:06

basically. Yeah. I saw that they were a step

28:08

up from diners, but not you know,

28:11

as as nice as like a regular restaurant.

28:14

Yeah. Yeah,

28:16

that's that's a good way to put it. But at

28:19

the Holiday Bowl Diner, I'm sorry, the Holiday

28:21

Bowl coffee shop. Uh,

28:23

they had all kinds of food.

28:25

They had oudon, they had grits

28:28

in southern uh,

28:30

like soul food. They had straight

28:32

up burgers and fries. I read an article

28:34

where people were saying like this was you

28:36

know, the first time they ever had sushi in their life,

28:38

and this was in the nineties, fifties and early sixties,

28:41

which was crazy. Um or.

28:43

I don't know if they had sushi that early, but at least

28:45

at some point they did. Uh. It was seven

28:48

place where people could go hang out.

28:50

They could drink at the Bowling Alley, go to this coffee

28:52

shop after uh. And it was

28:55

actually protected during the La Riots and two

28:58

like residents of Crenshaw lined outside

29:00

of the holiday bowl so people wouldn't

29:02

touch it. So um. I saw

29:04

that it was demolished, but I also saw a picture

29:07

from three years after it was supposedly

29:09

demolished, and it was still there. But

29:12

the coffee shop is now a Starbucks

29:14

and the Bowling Alley is now a Walgreens. It

29:16

looks like yeah, So what they did was they

29:18

did destroy the actual Bowling Alley part

29:21

and rebuilt it as a Walgreens,

29:23

but that exterior coffee shop

29:25

facade is still attached and it

29:28

is a Starbucks. Yeah, but it's

29:30

still googy. Yeah. It looks cool.

29:33

So um. There were some other ones we mentioned.

29:35

The original or one of the earliest

29:37

McDonald's from Downey, California nine

29:42

I think right, low building

29:44

parable is on either side. Yeah.

29:46

And that McDonald's, like you mentioned, is in Downey

29:49

and we talked about it in the McDonald's

29:52

episode Taco Bell one too. I think,

29:54

oh really, okay, I thought you were making

29:56

a joke. No, no, for real, the

29:58

Taco episode we talked about Taco

30:01

Bell and like, there are a bunch of ones from Downey,

30:03

California. But

30:05

it's an amazing looking restaurant

30:08

and it's got a it's got a really cool little

30:10

museum, McDonald's Museum next door, so you

30:13

can still walk up. It's a it's just a

30:15

sort of counter not counter. I guess

30:17

it is counter service, but you can't go in. You know, what

30:20

do you call those? A walk out, a walk up

30:22

take out? Sure, any of those?

30:24

I think someone said they built a finally

30:27

built a drive through, but I don't think you

30:29

can dine in. Still boy, they

30:31

I guess they're the first McDonald's to

30:33

have a drive through. Then, No, I think

30:35

more recently built a drive No, it's just teasing,

30:37

okay. One of the other things you mentioned,

30:40

the Holiday Bowl and bowling alleys, were just

30:42

like begging to be made into

30:44

googie structures. And another

30:46

good example is the Covina Bowl

30:48

in Covina, California, which I guess

30:50

is around Los Angeles, and

30:53

um, it is, it still remains, It's

30:55

still there. It's up for grabs

30:57

exactly what's going to happen to it. Um.

31:00

But they're they're in talks

31:03

to somehow preserve some of the

31:05

facade or structure or sign or

31:07

something as they redevelop it, I think

31:09

into condos. But it was divine designed

31:12

by a firm that created fifty

31:14

bowling alleys throughout California

31:16

in the seven years between nine and

31:19

sixty two. And I mean,

31:21

I think, actually this is what gave me the

31:23

idea for this episode, Chuck, because I

31:25

was looking at old bowling alleys bowling

31:28

yeah, and I came across the term googie

31:31

um, because I was like, this is just such a cool

31:33

looking bowling alley, and sure enough it was

31:35

googy And it just led to one thing led

31:37

to another, and here we are, well

31:40

that Hollywood Star Lanes where the big Lebowskio

31:42

shot was very googy. Uh.

31:45

And I was just meant to mention

31:47

during the Latner segment. Uh,

31:50

I saw that they just a few years

31:52

ago one of the Latner homes

31:54

was up for sale, which is a rarity

31:57

in and of itself, but it was, and

31:59

I say, only two and a half million bucks.

32:01

That's a lot of money for a house, to

32:04

be sure, But I just thought

32:06

with l a southern California

32:08

real estate anyway, and it's

32:10

this historic building and an

32:13

historic architect and it's amazing.

32:15

I thought it would be like twelve million

32:17

bucks. Yeah, you definitely think that, So,

32:19

yeah, it was. I was very surprised. I mean

32:21

it seemed like a steel I didn't have I didn't

32:24

have the cash on me, but it

32:26

looked pretty amazing. And we should mention

32:28

the ship's coffee shops as well, right, those

32:30

the little tiny three coffee

32:32

shop chain. Yeah, um, they

32:35

were kind of boomerang shaped

32:37

from what I could tell. I couldn't see like a

32:39

really good picture of those

32:41

guys, but I thought what was kind

32:43

of cute is apparently every every location

32:46

had a toaster on every table. Best

32:48

idea of all time, except for the liability. Probably

32:50

the liability, but also like every

32:53

once in a while there's a crank that would come in and be like,

32:55

well I want to discount since I have to toast it

32:57

myself. Man, Because

32:59

I can think of at that means that there's a possibility

33:02

I might have been that guy. Just

33:04

I want to make my own toast and restaurants more than

33:06

anything. It does seem

33:08

like a good idea, for sure. It's a very specific

33:11

thing how people like their toasts made. So I

33:13

love that idea. But hats off the ships

33:16

for that one other one too. That's kind

33:18

of an icon of googie you

33:20

mentioned before, that Gulf seventies six station.

33:23

Um that's in Beverly Hills. Uh.

33:26

And it apparently the design

33:28

of it, not the Gulf station itself, but the design

33:31

of this roof. It's um been likened

33:33

to a flying carpet and it really

33:35

kind of looks like when it's got some

33:37

of the most amazing curves I've ever seen that

33:40

just don't make any sense whatsoever

33:43

for a roof, but it really looks cool.

33:46

Um. And once you understand that it was

33:48

supposed to be part of the l

33:50

a X Airport, and then you're

33:52

like, okay, that makes sense. But apparently it got

33:54

cut out the design. But the designer

33:56

Jin Wong was like, this is too cool

33:58

to just not do. Just turn it into a gas

34:01

station instead. I've gotten gas

34:03

there. Every I mean I wasn't in Beverly Hills much,

34:05

but I tried to

34:07

get gas there when I could. It's at Crescent Drive

34:10

and Little Santa Monica Bolivard in Beverly Hills,

34:12

and it is a very very cool

34:14

gas station. I

34:17

shot at one of these out in the

34:19

desert, which I guess leads no,

34:22

no, no, no no no. We we shot a TV commercial

34:24

at one roadside gas

34:26

stations, like a Root sixty six type

34:28

of deal out in the middle of nowhere.

34:31

That looking back was super googie um.

34:34

And that leads us to a break, because we're gonna come

34:36

back and talk about the desert and Las

34:38

Vegas. Okay,

35:08

Chuck, you set us up maybe better than we've ever

35:10

been set up before. And

35:12

if you've been sitting here listening to us describe

35:15

Googie architecture, even going and looking at

35:17

some of the photos, you might be like, man, this seems

35:19

really Vegas to me. You would be right

35:21

about that, because it got exported to Vegas

35:23

pretty quick and took off like a rocket there,

35:26

starting with the Sands Uh in nineteen

35:28

fifty two. It was the first Googie

35:31

esque structure there because before that

35:34

it was all like Bolero ties and wagon

35:36

wheels and then yeah,

35:39

and then the Sands came along and said, you Hicks,

35:41

we're gonna start something new where the mafia,

35:43

where the trend setting is Mafia of all time.

35:46

We're gonna take you into the space age.

35:49

Uh. And that Sands was I think you

35:51

said, built in fifty two. And that brings

35:54

back Mr Wayne McAlister into the picture,

35:57

who designed that Bob's Big

35:59

Boy and her Bank just a few years before

36:01

that. Uh. And you know, just

36:03

look up any image

36:05

of the old Sands casino sign

36:07

and it had that egg carton grid was

36:10

really tall. It was like close to sixty ft

36:12

in the air, very geometric

36:14

shapes, and the script

36:16

was super Googy as well. And

36:18

I think Vegas took notice and said, you

36:21

know, I don't know who those mob guys are talking

36:23

to, but uh, they're onto

36:25

something here. And Googy started

36:27

popping up everywhere, including

36:30

probably most famously in that

36:32

iconic welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas

36:35

sign. Yeah, that is super

36:37

Googy. I mean like if you if you're ever

36:39

talking to somebody about a Googy design and

36:41

they ask you what you're talking about, to say, the like

36:43

the designer the lass welcome to Las Vegas

36:46

sign that's it's it's

36:48

it's hits basically every

36:50

chord on that like big

36:52

exaggerated fonts, different kinds

36:54

of fonts, they're starbursts, there's geometric

36:57

shapes, there's a whole bunch of different colors.

36:59

It's it's googie and it's deepest

37:02

soul it is. It's a great sign

37:05

um. While I was looking all this stuff up,

37:07

I was in my head, I was like, wait, I feel

37:09

like they were old Howard Johnson's

37:12

motels that were kind of googy.

37:16

And I looked and I looked, and I couldn't find any. And then

37:18

finally I did, and sure enough,

37:21

a handful of those Hojo's from

37:23

that era had these big,

37:25

swoopy, pointy triangular roofs

37:28

that went all the way down to the ground, kind of like an a frame

37:31

and jutted way out over the roadway.

37:33

And uh, I knew I had seen those in

37:36

my past, but I don't. I don't think there's a lot of them.

37:38

But it just kind of goes to show where how

37:40

Googi spread um

37:42

beyond California and Las Vegas.

37:45

And we're gonna talk about a few more of those places.

37:47

Yeah, I mean, there's different, It just pops

37:50

up in some random places, like apparently the

37:52

northwest side of Chicago was developed

37:54

later than the rest of it, and it just so happened

37:56

that googy was having its heyday.

37:59

So there's some random googie

38:01

structures. Trim and Tidy Cleaners. Uh,

38:04

super Dog Pride Cleaners

38:07

is really cool looking. Um, I

38:10

think it's I think that's the one that it looks like a

38:12

It's a giant triangle with the points

38:14

sticking out street word if I'm not mistaken.

38:17

Um, it's it's really neat to see. And

38:19

then the Ohio House Motel is

38:22

what's called it's like a subset of googie

38:25

architecture called phony Cologne,

38:28

like fox Colonial and

38:30

that awesome of that term.

38:33

You a funny coloni. Uh,

38:36

it's gonna be my latest, my newest insult. Um.

38:40

The wild Woods Resort area

38:43

of New Jersey has a quite a few googie

38:46

kind of motels. They would say,

38:49

uh, they would call it doo wop style

38:52

because that's sort of the nine fifties rock

38:54

and roll seen there in the Jersey Shore

38:56

at the time. But if you look up what

38:59

the Moray family m O. R. E. Y designed

39:01

a number of those motels kind of

39:03

near the Jersey Shore seaside, and

39:06

they're really cool looking. They're they're not quite

39:08

as out there and space shippy,

39:11

but they're definitely googie. Uh.

39:13

And then there's a newer win I think, you know. Now

39:15

people are building the occasional kind

39:18

of modern googie throwback look

39:21

and the star Lux Hotel there is

39:23

one pretty great example of that. Yeah.

39:25

I found a really great website called

39:27

Modernist Architecture and

39:30

they have a post from two thousand fifteen

39:32

called Wildwood the East Coast Capital

39:34

of Googi I mean doo wop,

39:37

and it is a comprehensive photo

39:40

spread of all these googie structures

39:42

in Wildwood on the Jersey Shore, and

39:45

it just looks like an amazing place

39:47

to wander around. But it's googie

39:49

through and through. I saw that. I think in that blog

39:51

they said that it's probably the densest concentration

39:54

of googie architecture left in the country.

39:57

Yeah, and it kind of fits those seasides

40:00

to feel, I think, with the pastels

40:02

and it just sort of all works together,

40:04

I think. Yeah. Um. There's

40:06

also some in Phoenix and Tucson.

40:08

Probably most famous in Phoenix is what used

40:11

to be called the three hundred bowl a bowling

40:13

alley again and I read that

40:15

no one is exactly sure who designed it

40:18

um, what firm, or what architect designed the

40:20

three hunder Bull, but is a classic example

40:22

of of Googy architecture. UM.

40:24

There's also Paris Laundry and dry cleaning

40:27

and the Rainbow car wash there. It's

40:29

pretty cool stuff. These episodes are fun

40:31

because there's an know there's people all over the country

40:34

that love their little buildings get shouted

40:36

out in their towns totally. The

40:39

Biff Burger Drive and Chain and clear

40:41

Water this was right in that sort

40:43

of middle of that era in the nineteen fifty

40:45

six. Lots of Googy

40:47

inspired stuff there. And then

40:50

there's a shopping center of the south Gate

40:52

Shopping Center in Lakeland, Florida, also

40:54

mid to late fifties. Another

40:56

great example. Yeah, you gotta look up the Biff

40:58

Burger Um, Like look up Biff

41:01

Burger nineteen fifty six. And one of the big

41:03

Googie things they have is like they're signed, is

41:05

like different like different geometric

41:08

structures like separate from one another, and each

41:10

one like holds a letter or a little message or something.

41:12

They're all really brightly colored. It's just really

41:14

cool and neat looking and we mentioned

41:17

that great. Yeah, those are great signs. I'm looking at

41:19

them now. Uh, that great bank.

41:21

And in the

41:23

middle of nowhere Georgia and Alma, Georgia,

41:25

the Alma Exchange Bank, Uh, nineteen

41:28

sixty six. You really need

41:30

to look this one up and imagine this in um

41:33

sort of rural southeastern

41:35

Georgia between Atlanta

41:37

and Jacksonville. It is really

41:40

something else. Uh. And there's a cool place

41:42

right here, a newer place UM

41:44

in the Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta

41:47

called Googie Burger. And it's

41:49

open about twelve years ago, in twenty and

41:52

it's a really cool modern

41:54

take on a googie style and it's it's awesome. I didn't

41:56

even know it was there. And then also took one

41:58

of the other things, you know, we've been talking about, things like

42:00

dry cleaners and car washes and bowling alleys

42:02

like it. It appeared in some like legit

42:05

big structures like the

42:07

theme building, the Iconic building

42:09

at l a X that looks like a

42:12

War of the World's UFO basically on

42:14

stilts. Um. That is

42:17

about as googy as it gets. Um

42:20

that when it's not like a dry cleaners, that's

42:22

super Googy Building. Yeah, that

42:24

one, um people probably you might

42:26

have heard it called the Encounter because it had

42:29

a restaurant and bar called the Encounter in it, but

42:31

it is called the Theme Building. And it

42:33

was there when I was there and open, and you know, it was

42:36

kind of a fun thing to go and like grab a cocktail

42:38

before you pick someone up on an

42:40

airport run and just kind of like drinking

42:43

that vibe for a half hour

42:45

or so. Uh, and then it

42:47

closed in because there

42:51

was always just a it was right

42:54

there by the airport, so usually

42:57

it was airport people, but

42:59

like, youn't go early enough if

43:01

you were like flying somewhere just to go

43:03

to a restaurant outside the airport because it's

43:06

not you know, you can't check in and then go

43:08

back out to the Encounter and then

43:10

going afterward. Like maybe I think

43:12

once I might have picked someone up that had just come

43:14

into town who had never been to l A. It's

43:17

like, hey, the first thing we'll do is go to the Encounter. But

43:20

it it was it was just sort of had a problem of

43:22

no one quite new whin to go, right

43:25

because it was so tied to the airport. You

43:27

didn't want to go there if you had nothing to do with the

43:29

airport because you didn't want to be in the airport

43:31

traffic, which is notoriously bad

43:33

in l A. So it eventually kind

43:35

of closed down because of this problem in it's

43:38

pretty sad. Yeah, it is a little sad,

43:40

but it is super It was a very inconvenient

43:43

place for sure. What about Tomorrowland

43:46

that I mentioned Tomorrow

43:48

and everybody, I don't want to say everybody,

43:50

but almost everybody's been to either Tomorrowland

43:53

at Disney World or Disneyland, and

43:55

it's just like this retro future googie

43:57

architecture. It was at first, and I

44:00

didn't know this, but apparently it

44:02

was originally meant to mimic what

44:04

what they thought it was gonna look like in nineteen eighties.

44:07

Six. Yeah, that funny what the people

44:09

of nineteen six would

44:11

look like. Yeah, And you know I took

44:13

I mentioned not too long ago, I took my first

44:16

visit to Disney World since I was a kid

44:18

recently, and um,

44:20

I was shocked how little things

44:22

had changed all throughout the park

44:25

until I sort of stopped to think about it. Because didn't

44:27

Disney people like they don't want anything different

44:30

about that particular park. They They're fine

44:32

with like adding new things, but like, you

44:34

don't go in and change Tomorrowland and

44:37

get rid of those creddy race cars

44:39

in favor of something better. You just leave

44:41

the people mover. You leave it alone. Yeah,

44:44

and let's the I agree with that. I think that they

44:46

should until it falls apart, until the people

44:49

Mover like falls off of the cable

44:51

and kills a bunch of people.

44:53

Well, I think his Disney largely

44:56

deals in the business of nostalgia, definitely.

44:59

That's why John Hodgman hates that place. One

45:03

another way, the t w A Flight

45:05

Center at jfk uh

45:08

Aero saran In designed it

45:10

and it's amazing, so

45:13

we don't need to say anything else about it. But

45:15

it was built in ninety two. Just

45:18

go to the Curbed New York website

45:21

and search for explore the t w

45:23

A Terminal um and

45:25

it will it's this is amazing photo spread

45:28

from years back from a photographer named

45:30

Max Twoey who was granted access

45:32

to this abandoned but totally

45:35

preserved nineteen sixty

45:37

two. UM Gooey

45:40

like like terminal for t w A. It's

45:42

the most amazing thing you'll ever see.

45:45

It is a googy

45:48

did I, well,

45:51

the floor is made of molasses. Well

45:54

that that Isn't that the same spot that they

45:56

have now opened the new T D T w

45:58

A Hotel. Yes, because

46:01

it was like perfectly preserved. I don't know

46:03

how they did it, but I think somebody was like, this thing,

46:06

we can't do anything with this. It's just too amazing.

46:09

We can't not mention the space Needle in Seattle

46:12

probably their most favorite. I don't I don't know what Seattle

46:15

people think of it. I don't know if they're tired of it or what. But

46:18

it is there, you know, kind of one of their iconic

46:20

buildings. Just ask Fraser Grain. Uh,

46:23

it's right there in the skyline and those opening

46:25

credits. But it was built in nineteen

46:27

sixty one for their worldfare uh,

46:30

and Seattle Hotel executive named

46:32

Edward E. Carlson gave it its iconic

46:35

name, and its chief engineer was

46:37

a gentleman name John Menascian

46:40

who actually worked for NASA and

46:42

designed rocket gantries.

46:45

Pretty cool. Yeah, I think definitely legitimizes

46:48

the space needle for sure. So what

46:50

happened to Googy? Well, like we said, it

46:52

dated itself and Googie

46:55

came along technically

46:57

in nine, but really it started

46:59

to take off in the mid fifties, say

47:02

um, And it was based on like like you're

47:04

saying, techno optimism of the post World

47:06

War two economic boom um

47:09

and us getting to space and just trying

47:11

new technology, and we actually did

47:13

all that stuff. Like those promises

47:15

of the future actually came true pretty quick,

47:18

Like we ended up on the moon in nineteen sixty

47:20

nine, and once we got there, humanity

47:22

was like, we've been there, We've done that, and

47:25

like the whole that techno optimism like

47:27

kind of faded pretty quickly because

47:29

it became every day in commonplace,

47:33

and since Googie was the architecture

47:35

associated with that that future that

47:37

now would become everyday in commonplace, it got dated.

47:40

I think that's kind of sad but also

47:42

hysterical. Yeah, that like when

47:45

people walked on the moon, like that next week the

47:48

dry cleaner sat down with a designer to build their

47:50

new dry cleaner. Was like they were like,

47:52

well, what do you want to do? Just build me a dry cleaning

47:54

Yeah, you know, he was like, I'm ruined.

47:58

We've been to the moon. Who cares. That's one of Glen

48:00

clothes. I saw one of the things that really

48:03

signaled the death knell. Uh.

48:05

Maybe not earliest, but pretty early

48:07

on was that McDonald's radically changed

48:10

its design from parabolas

48:13

and up swept you know, angular

48:15

roofs to um houses

48:17

like a brick house with a mansward roof.

48:20

Um. That that really iconic

48:23

seventies and eighties McDonald look um

48:27

that the whole restaurant style was all the same. Yeah,

48:29

yeah, it was very close. Although I looked it up. Pizza

48:31

Hut's roof is different kind it's not

48:33

a mansward roof like camera, but

48:37

but yes, it is very similar, and it was meant

48:39

to evoke home, which is totally

48:41

different from like a you know,

48:43

a coffee shop that starts taking up towards

48:46

the taking off up towards the sky

48:48

like this. It was a different feel in a different

48:50

vibe, and it also tied into the ecology

48:53

movement, right Yeah, I mean I think,

48:55

you know, uh, one

48:58

might argue that some of this gooogy stuff is can

49:00

be wasteful in terms of materials,

49:04

um to build a roof that extends, you know, sixty

49:06

feet to a point to the sky when you

49:08

just need a regular roof. Really, so I

49:10

think taste sort of we're tamed down a little

49:12

bit. Um using more

49:15

uh sort of sensible materials

49:18

I think played a part, uh,

49:20

going to the outer space played apart all this

49:23

stuff, and like you know, sort of any

49:25

thing that doesn't end up being a classic

49:27

design, it's gonna come and go,

49:30

especially one that's kind of radical like this,

49:32

So you know, it was bound to have its

49:34

moment and then leave and then be looked

49:37

back upon with fond eyes years

49:39

later. Uh. And that's what's happened largely

49:42

sadly during you know, of course

49:44

the eighties, a lot of these buildings in

49:47

l A and the South End were demolished. Um.

49:49

But towards the end of the eighties, UM,

49:52

certainly with the publication of the eight six

49:54

book from Hess Googie Colon

49:57

fifty Coffee Shop fifties coffee

49:59

shop arc texture that sort of helped

50:02

um reignite like an appreciation

50:04

for these buildings in this architecture, and

50:06

more and more were protected that had not been

50:08

demolished. Yeah, and they're still being demolished.

50:10

I saw that something like a third of them are gone now

50:13

already, which is really high um

50:15

as far as demolition goes for a specific

50:18

kind of architecture. But they are getting

50:20

protected more and more, which I think is good totally.

50:23

I saw one other thing that led to the demise

50:25

of Googie. Um. So, Googie design was

50:27

meant to attract the eyes of

50:29

southern California drivers as they were passing

50:32

by, so that they would turn in and be like, yeah,

50:34

I could go for a cup of coffee and a piece of

50:36

pie right or I could get my shirt dry

50:38

cleaned right now, who knows. So

50:40

that's what I was designed for. But then in the highway

50:44

acts started building highways

50:46

rather than surface streets, so people weren't

50:48

on the surface streets anymore, and they were going way

50:50

faster and they were going faster

50:53

than Googie architecture could catch their attention,

50:55

and that that was a big part of it too. Yeah.

50:58

I mean that's uh, as evidence in our sixty

51:00

six podcast and

51:03

to bring it for full circle that abandoned

51:05

Googie gas station on Route sixty six

51:07

that we shot at, I'll

51:09

stopping there for gas. It was closed. Yeah,

51:12

that's true. That's what happens. The highway killed

51:14

it. High we killed it. Uh,

51:16

you got anything else? I got nothing. If

51:19

you want to know more about Googie architecture,

51:21

just go spend some time looking up googie buildings.

51:24

It's a lot of fun. They're just so colorful.

51:27

And since I said they're colorful, it's time for a listener

51:29

mail. I'm

51:32

gonna call this what will It will be the first

51:34

of two Appalachian Trail emails.

51:38

And by the way, I'm doing

51:40

the Georgia portion next spring.

51:42

Oh nice, man, I'm

51:45

doing it. Me and my friend Eddie and my

51:47

friend Clay have all dedicated

51:49

to do it. And so this is not only a personal

51:52

life goal that I had never accomplished,

51:55

but a personal fitness goal because I

51:57

can't go out there right now and do that in the shape

52:00

and so losing

52:03

weight it's never worked, like, oh I got that wedding

52:05

this fall. I need to look good for like that stuff

52:07

never worked for me. But I

52:09

can't do this like

52:12

and be successful without

52:14

getting in shape, like I will die on the side

52:17

of a mountain. Right, You

52:19

really need to read into the Woods because

52:21

one of the characters is exactly in that

52:23

same position. All right. So it's a health goal

52:26

and just a life goal, and we're gonna do it next

52:28

March. You're going

52:30

with Eddie as in Eddie the fest Strangler,

52:33

Eddie, Eddie, I don't know if that's

52:35

such a good idea. We're

52:37

gonna start in North Carolina at the border

52:39

and go sobo to Springer

52:42

and act like we hiked the whole thing. That's

52:45

also when we get at the end. So

52:48

it's pretty cool. Anyway, I've been getting a

52:50

lot of great emails and true stuff. You

52:52

should know, fashion unplanned,

52:55

but very serendipitously. That episode was

52:57

released on Naked Hike Day. Yeah, we

53:00

didn't know that was gonna happen, but

53:02

sometimes it works out that way. Yeah, so

53:04

this is from this is a really cool and from a

53:06

man named Arthur Sparrow. Oh

53:10

she had to put in a pronunciation guide yourssic.

53:13

That's what I'm gonna say.

53:16

Hey guys, a long time listener, and

53:18

I'm elated about this a T episode because

53:21

it changed my life. It was

53:23

the best crazy thing I ever decided

53:25

to do when I threw hiked it. It's been about

53:27

a decade battling opioid addiction previous

53:30

to my through hike in UH

53:32

and when I left, I knew I needed

53:35

to change many aspects of my life. I'm

53:38

a college grad from a good family, had a good job,

53:40

but I was just self destructing, and the A T

53:42

changed all that. The community in the

53:44

trail where everything I needed and helped me,

53:47

saved my life from a downward spiral when

53:49

it's supplied hope for me when I needed at

53:51

most. Uh. Simultaneously, it showed

53:53

me how much we are truly capable

53:55

of when we support one another on our journey.

53:58

Six months and three years later, still

54:00

opioid free, I started

54:03

my own business after doing my hike, doing

54:05

work that I believe in, and now I'm

54:07

living and loving my journey on and off

54:09

the trail. I hope there are a few people like

54:11

myself that hurt your episode and like me, decided

54:14

to do something crazy and change your lives for the better.

54:16

It will be the best crazy thing that you ever did,

54:18

too. I can assure them of that. All

54:20

the best, gentlemen, keep up the great

54:22

work. And I got permission from Arthur to read

54:25

this. Uh. He's the owner and operator

54:27

of Green Team Junk and

54:30

UH the way to go. Arthur. That's amazing.

54:33

I'm so glad that you got

54:35

it together, and I'm glad that A T was a part of that experience.

54:37

It's really great. Yeah, congratulations Arthur.

54:40

That's amazing and thank you for the email. I

54:42

wonder if Green Team is a reference to that.

54:45

Will Ferrell and Michael Riley

54:47

and um Adam McKay, like

54:50

short, what

54:52

was that? It was called Green Team.

54:55

I don't why does that ring a bell because you've

54:57

seen it. It was, It made the rounds. It was

54:59

viral like any years ago. Just look up Green

55:01

Team. It's crazy. And I think he's

55:04

I think I said he was in the Sacramento area. I'm

55:07

trying. It looks like it's recycling and we're using uh

55:10

and hauling away stuff for people. Nice.

55:13

But that's what I gathered, like green junk

55:15

removal, right, That's what I figured.

55:17

I mean, the guy hiked the a T for pize's sake. Yeah,

55:20

it's not Brown Team junk right. Well,

55:23

thanks again, Arthur, fantastic congratulations

55:26

and thanks for writing in. And if you want to

55:28

be like Arthur and share your personal successes

55:30

with us, we want to hear them.

55:32

You can send us an email to Stuff

55:34

podcast at iHeart radio dot

55:37

com.

55:40

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55:43

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