California Crazy, by Jim Heimann and Rip Georges

California Crazy, by Jim Heimann and Rip Georges. 1980 softcover. 139 pages, nice condition.

Roadside Vernacular architecture. At the dawn of the automobile age, Americans' predilection for wanderlust prompted a new wave of inventive entrepreneurs to cater to this new mode of transportation. Starting in the 1920s, attention-grabbing buildings began to appear that would draw in passing drivers for snacks, provisions, souvenirs, or a quick meal. The architectural establishment of the day dismissed these roadside buildings as "monstrosities" - gas stations, cafes, businesses, and roadside stands in California designed to look like giant animals, machinery, and objects, as well as foreign architecture.

Yet, they flourished, especially along America's Sunbelt, and in particular, in Southern California, as proprietors indulged their creative impulses in the form of giant, eccentric constructions -- from owls, dolls, pigs, and ships, to coffee pots and fruit. Their symbolic intent was guileless, yet they were marginalized by history.