View allAll Photos Tagged Googie
The iconic Flying Saucer restaurant in Niagara Falls, Ontario, has been serving “out-of-this-world food at down-to-earth prices” for more than 50 years. Originally opened as a carhop-style drive-in, waitresses would roll your order right out to your car on skates. The first structure was a single saucer, with the twin added later during expansion. Today, the restaurant and its updated yet retro-style sign stand as a playful example of Googie architecture.
I came of age in Niagara Falls, and back in the ’90s the Flying Saucer was the late-night spot. After the bars closed, everyone ended up there because it was the only place still serving food. The giant circular booths made it easy to cram in an entire crew, and when the dining saucer filled up by 3 a.m., the atmosphere was raucous. The food quality? Questionable at best. But the vibe? Unbeatable.
Places like this carry a kind of kitschy magic that’s hard to explain but I absolutely love. If you’ve ever been to the Peppermill in Las Vegas, you’ll understand exactly what I mean.
Have you ever visited the Flying Saucer? What do you remember?
The Caribbean Motel, located in the Wildwoods Shore Historic District in Wildwood Crest, NJ, is a historic Googie/Doo Wop motel dating from the 1950s. Besides the large cursive neon sign, other notable features include a levitating ramp.
There are a lot of old googie signs and buildings along old Route 66, but the Roy's Motel sign in the ghost town of Amboy, California is one of the most famous. It's big, it's brash, it's old, and it's lonely. The motel is empty and mouldering, but the cafe has been restored and is gleaming and shiny in chromed 1950's glory. Rumor has it that plans have been made to restore the motel, too.
Amboy lies slowly unravelling in the deep, high desert, halfway between Barstow and Baker. It's past the Pisgah Lava Fields, past the site of the leveled town called Bagdad (of Bagdad Cafe fame), near the Amboy Crater--a very volcano-looking extinct volcano on Route 66. On the other side of Amboy is the famous Shoe Tree. I have geotagged the position accurately and I recommend anyone who can visit should.
The only remaing googie architecture from the 1950's and 1960's when the Bayfair Shopping Center was in its prime years. This car wash is located on East 14th St. across the street from the Bayfair Mall in San Leandro,CA.
nikon N90s + 28-105mm + circular polarizer + fuji velvia RVP 50. lab: the icon, los angeles, ca. scan: nikon coolscan 5000. exif tags: lenstagger.
Taken just after the 1950's bowling lanes were torn down, and a few days before the sign was removed from the premises. Soon to reside at Valley Relics Museum in Van Nuys, CA.
Built 1961-1965 Architect - Viljo Revell .... in International style / Mid 20th Century "Googie" style .... Toronto City Hall, is the seat of Toronto's Municipal Government & is internationally recognized as an architectural masterpiece. Since its opening in 1965, Toronto City Hall has been one of Toronto's most famous landmarks. A very daring look for 1960s Toronto, it's a monumentally sculptural design, with two tall curved towers of unequal height embracing a low saucer shaped city council chamber....
Norm's Coffee Shop, 470 North La Cienega Boulevard,
West Hollywood. The Googie-style diner which opened in 1957 was designed by the architectural firm of Armet & Davis.
Neptune Submarine Sandwiches, 3301 North Classen Boulevard, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. This early 1960s building was originally the home to Quick’s Hamburgers. It originally had no dining room, and sold it's 15-cent hamburgers from a walk-up window. The lobby and dining area was added about 1974, when the restaurant was converted into a Neptune Submarine Sandwiches shop. The Neptune brand was founded in the early 1970s by an Oklahoma man named Ron Taylor, who sold franchises for the submarine restaurant concept across the Oklahoma City metro area. At its height, the chain had 17 restaurants stretching from Norman to Enid, Oklahoma. But the chain went bankrupt in the mid 1980s, and this is the only surviving restaurant.
Mid-Century Googie styled bowling alley established in 1958, not too many of these bowling alleys left anymore and this especially goes for the ones with googie architecture so it's always nice to see a survivor - www.bowlium.com/
"Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas," the iconic sign was installed in 1959 by Western Neon & designed by employee Betty Willis. In a nod to Nevada's nickname as "the Silver State," are white neon circles, representing “lucky” silver dollars. The circles each contain a red painted letter, outlined in neon, forming the word "Welcome." The design is characteristic of the Googie architecture movement.*
In 2008, Clark County sought to have the sign listed on the National Register of Historic Places; the National Park Service approved this in 2009. In April 2015, Betty Willis, died in Overton, Nevada, at the age of 91. On May 5, 2015, Clark County declared May 5 "Betty Willis Day."
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Welcome_to_Fabulous_Las_Vegas_sign
*Googie—exemplifies the collision of car culture & the Jet Age futurism that bloomed after WWII — cantilevered roofs, starbursts, and hard angles…..All three traits can be seen in the building that gave the style its name: a coffee shop called Googies in W. Hollywood, designed by John Lautner and built in 1949.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Googie_architecture
la.curbed.com/2017/9/29/16384732/googie-southern-californ...
Sony a6400. Sony E 18-135mm f/3.5-5.6 Lens. 46mm, f/5, 1/80 sec, ISO 1000. Thanks for viewing.
The Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas sign is a Las Vegas landmark funded in May 1959 and erected soon after by Western Neon. The sign was designed by Betty Willis at the request of Ted Rogich, a local salesman, who sold it to Clark County, Nevada. The sign is located in the median at 5100 Las Vegas Boulevard South, north of the historic stone pillars of the old McCarran Airport on the east side, and across from the Bali Hai Golf Club and the (closed) Klondike Hotel & Casino on the west side. Some consider the sign to be the official southern end of the Las Vegas Strip. The sign, like most of the Strip, sits in Paradise and is located roughly 4 miles (6.4 km) south of the actual city limits of Las Vegas. (Such distinctions are usually ignored by both locals and tourists, who refer to the entire metro area as "Las Vegas".) The sign is a 25-foot-tall (7.6 m) classic roadside pole design, mounted offset on two flat poles which are joined by a cross piece at the top. The poles extend above the top of the sign. The sign is a horizontally stretched diamond shape, with the top and bottom angles pointed while the side angles are rounded. It is double-backed, internally lit, with a border of flashing and chasing yellow incandescent bulbs outside around the perimeter. In a nod to Nevada's nickname as "the Silver State," across the top of the sign are white neon circles, designed to represent silver dollars. The circles each contain a red painted letter, outlined in neon, which together form the word "Welcome." Crowning the sign, located between the two poles and just under the crosspiece is an eight-pointed, red-painted metal star outlined with yellow neon. The intersecting vertical and horizontal lines of the star extend over and wrap around the frame that is created by the two poles and the cross piece, which give the star a dynamic, explosive appearance. The cabinet is faced with translucent white plastic and covered with blue and red painted text. The south side of the sign reads "Welcome" inside the silver dollars, with "to Fabulous" in blue, in a 1950s-style cursive, underneath. The words "Las Vegas" are on the next line in red, all capitalized, and large, almost filling the width of the sign. Under "Las Vegas" is the word "Nevada" in blue, all capitalized, in a much smaller font. On the back or north side, which is less frequently photographed and thus is lesser known, the sign reads "Drive" on the top line and "Carefully" on the second in red capital letters, with "Come Back" in blue on the third line, in script, and "Soon" all capitalized in blue on the fourth line. The design is characteristic of the Googie architecture movement. Betty Willis intended to design a sign that was unique in its shape, style and content. Legend has been written that “Willis considered this her gift to the city and wanted it to be in the public domain.” In fact, Young Electric Sign Company (YESCO) currently owns the sign, which leases to Clark County. The sign has never been copyrighted; this has resulted in the image being ubiquitous on Las Vegas souvenirs. In 2007, Clark County installed decorative artificial turf inlaid with four playing cards underneath the sign. In late 2008, Clark County employees sought to have the sign listed on the National Register of Historic Places; the Nevada State Historic Preservation Office officially nominated it, and the National Park Service approved the designation on May 1, 2009. On December 6, 2013, the State Historic Preservation Office for the State of Nevada announced that the "Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas" sign had been added to the State Register of Historic Places. On April 19, 2015, the designer of the sign, Betty Willis, died in her home in Overton, Nevada. She was 91 years old. On May 5, 2015, Clark County commissioners declared May 5 "Betty Willis Day" honoring the designer of the sign. Commissioners issued a proclamation to her daughter Marjorie Holland.