Years ago, I found an amazing print in a box of old family photos. It was undated, unlabeled, and probably taken to show off my grandparents’ new car. But the star of the photo for me was the gigantic pumpkin building in the background. It was one of those roadside oddities (often referred to as…
He’s a local celebrity, “the world’s largest Jack-O’-Lantern,” and the city of Wilmington’s annual Halloween tradition since 1952. Smilin’ Jack, aka oil tank #304, is located at the Phillips 66 Los Angeles oil refinery. Every year, the 3-million-gallon tank is covered with at least 21 coats of orange paint and transformed into a huge pumpkin….
Angelenos will often tell you that that Halloween brings the hot, gusty Santa Ana winds. Whistling and powerful, they blow trick-or-treating witches and goblins down the streets, send ghost costumes madly flying, and raise the hair on your head, crackling with electricity. The air even smells charged and different. Branches, leaves and other untethered objects…
It was California’s first, as well as the fourth in the entire USA. The Pico Drive-in theater . . . seen in the photo below . . . opened on September 9, 1934, at 10850 Pico Boulevard and Westwood Blvd. It was demolished in 1943. Today, the Westside Pavilion Mall near UCLA occupies the original…
It was a veritable juggernaut—the number and variety of roadside novelty (“vernacular,” “programmatic,” or “mimetic”) buildings that once dotted the urban landscape in Los Angeles. Like the examples featured in an related earlier post, these “hey-you-can’t miss-me!” buildings were made to pull automobile drivers right off the road—to eat, shop, or stay the night. Quirky,…
