A Pig, a Pup, and a Very Large Shoe

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When the Tail o’ the Pup hot dog stand closed in 2005 after being evicted from its longtime location, Angelenos mourned the loss of this Southern California icon. Where else could they buy a frankfurter from a stand shaped as a frankfurter? The iconic stand had opened in 1946 and was an instant hit. But what many don’t realize is that the mimetic architecture of the Tail o’ the Pup reflects an era when many buildings, though certainly not all, were built to look like something other than a standard building.

There is no one word that describes the style of these funky buildings. I might call them whimsical or Pop, whereas an architectural historian like David Gebhard might choose a more academic descriptor such as “programatic” (now commonly spelled programmatic). These buildings might fit within author John Chase’s category of consumerist architecture, though not all consumerist buildings are mimetic. One thing is certain--laughter is crucial. Buildings such as the Betsy Anne Ice Cream Stand do not take themselves seriously as examples of high art architecture; rather, they choose to be humorous and light-hearted, which in this case means forcing customers to enter the store by walking under a lady’s skirt. Even a slightly morbid example, such as the Dugout Sandwich Shop or the Jail Cafe, brings a touch of humor, as well as shock and irony.

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According to Jim Heimann, whose book is probably the most comprehensive study of this architectural style (as well as an enjoyable read), the golden age for programmatic architecture was from the mid-1920s to the mid-1930s. Though more examples were built in Southern California than anywhere else in the country, giant milk bottle buildings and the like popped up across the United States. David Gebhard, in his introduction to Heimann’s book, suggests that programmatic buildings were built for the modern, driving culture. They were meant to catch your eye as you sailed by in your automobile so they were massive, colorful, and unusual. According to John Chase, business owners intended that the “exaggerated popular imagery” of the buildings would “spur the natives into patronizing the businesses housed in them.”

While such odd and nontraditional buildings might be seen as “a direct route to escapism and a recipe for kitsch” to some, they were built with the public in mind. Consumers had an “appetite for novelty” so buildings that chose the fantastic over the mundane had a competitive edge precisely because they were unusual and interesting. These bizarre architectural gems were an advertising ploy, as well as an expression of Southern California’s whimsical, occasionally kitschy culture.

Just as there is no one word to describe this style, there was no one image used. The varied building designs sometimes reflected symbols of modernity, especially transportation such as trains, cars, and airplanes. The Airplane Cafe took the approach of imitating the key features of a plane, in an age where air travel was romanticized and cutting-edge, whereas the Zep Diner modeled itself after a zeppelin, more commonly known as a blimp.

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Other buildings were built to imitate the products sold inside, such as The Tamale, the California Piano Supply Company (later the Big Red Piano), and the Darkroom, which has been turned into an Indian restaurant in the image below. These buildings operated as “extensions of the products offered inside them,” to use John Chase’s words.

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Still other buildings were designed as containers for the product sold inside, such as Arthur Whizin’s chain of Chili Bowl restaurants and the Hollywood Flower Pot. The Sanders System drive-in restaurants were all adorned with a giant coffee pot, which spouted steam to illustrate that coffee was sold inside, as well as typical diner fare.

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Many businesses chose to represent not their products but their names with programmatic architecture. Over a hundred year ago, this would be accomplished with a simple sign illustration, such as a cutout of a horse’s head for The Head of the Horse pub. But in the modern era, businesses took name illustration to another level. The finest examples include the Hoot Owl Cafe, with a rotating owl head and blinking eyes, the Pig Cafe, the Pup Cafe in Venice, the Mother Goose Pantry in Pasadena, and of course the classic Brown Derby on Wilshire Boulevard.

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Sadly, most of these whimsical and oddball buildings, which at one time dotted the Southern California landscape, are now a distant memory. Hopeful locals await the reopening of the Tail o’ the Pup, but anyone scouring the streets for a giant pig, dog, or flower pot will be severely disappointed. Though the style persists through occasional revivals (see The Hamburger that Ate L.A.) or large three-dimensional road signs (see Babe’s Mufflers in San Jose) or the streets of Las Vegas, it has for the most part, been abandoned. For now we can look at pictures of what used to be and record our own time’s architectural anomalies and eccentricities.

For more examples of this unappreciated architecture, search the dazzling photo collection at the Los Angeles Public Library with the keywords MIMETIC or PROGRAMMATIC or checkout Jim Heimann’s wildly interesting book California Crazy and Beyond: Roadside Vernacular Architecture (2001) from Chronicle Books.


Happy hunting!

Lauren Gaylord

Getty Intern

Los Angeles Public Library - Photo collection

Sources:

Chase, John. 1991. “The Role of Consumerism in American Architecture.” Journal of Architectural Education 44, 4: 211-224.

Chase, John. 1993. “The Garret, the Boardroom, and the Amusement Park.” Journal of Architectural Education 47, 2: 75-87.

Heimann, Jim. 2001. California Crazy and Beyond: Roadside Vernacular Architecture. San Francisco: Chronicle Books, LLC.