California Crazy and Beyond: Roadside Vernacular Architecture [Paperback]

Jim Heimann (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 2001

In 1980, Los Angeles historian Jim Heimann wrote a book about the oddball roadside architecture that has dotted the American landscape since the advent of the auto. Published by Chronicle Books as California Crazy, it stayed in print for nearly 20 years. Finally, here is the greatly expanded new edition of that sought-after classic. California Crazy and Beyond is packed with madcap restaurants, motels, service stations, and many other businesses shaped like hot dogs, animals, airplanes, pianos, and other architectural anomalies. Over the years, Heimann's continued research has uncovered a multitude of new pictures and forgotten buildings. With over 380 photographs and an illuminating text that tracks the subject well beyond the bounds of the West Coast, California Crazy and Beyond is an authoritative document of a style born in America and spread to all corners of the world.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

A hot-dog joint shaped like a puppy, an antique store replicating a Japanese temple, Van de Kamp's windmill-shaped bakeries, houses resembling beached boats these are just a few of the architectural curiosities featured in Jim Heimann's California Crazy & Beyond: Roadside Vernacular Architecture, an expanded edition, including 386 color and b&w illustrations, of his California Crazy of nearly 20 years ago. SoCal pop culture devotee Heimann (Sins of the City, May I Take Your Order?), a graphic designer and historian, has tracked down more examples of the "California Crazy concept" from all over the country. He maintains, however, that it originated and still exists mainly in Southern California.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

It's hard to beat Minnesota and Wisconsin for great big fiberglass fish and game deployed as roadside advertising, equally hard to outdo the Left Coast for imaginative commercial edifices. Unfortunately, the king-size kitsch, most of it built in the first half of the twentieth century, that Heimann showcases is vulnerable to changing patterns of development and humorless crusaders for good taste (back to your castle, Prince Charles!). Heimann shows the Pup, a hot dog stand in the shape of a giant, spotted mutt, in its pristine original form and as it looked in 1940, festooned with signage and an odd carbuncle on its snout. The visually arresting contrast says much about the mutation of commerce and commercial display over the decades. Although the book is mostly illustration, the accompanying text is vital and incisive. Anyone who has ever been dumbstruck by a giant cement statue of Paul Bunyan or a restaurant in the shape of a hat ought to love this album of outre architecture. Mike Tribby
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Paperback: 180 pages
• Publisher: Chronicle Books; First edition. edition (June 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0811830187
• ISBN-13: 978-0811830188
• Product Dimensions: 10.1 x 7.6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #515,621 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Jim Heimann is a resident of Los Angeles, a graphic designer, writer, historian, and instructor at Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California. He is the author of numerous books on architecture, popular culture, and Hollywood history, and serves as a consultant to the entertainment industry.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fun and Informative, July 6, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: California Crazy and Beyond: Roadside Vernacular Architecture (Paperback)

This book is a must-have for those of us who love the lure of the road and all it has to offer. It's sad that a lot of these wonderful icons of Americana are vanishing, but it's great that people like Jim Heimann are preserving it for future generations to see. I highly recommend this book -- lots of great photos and interesting history in a nicely organized book!

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fun-tecture, April 18, 2002

By 

Robin Benson - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: California Crazy and Beyond: Roadside Vernacular Architecture (Paperback)

I bought this book when it first came out in 1980 and I recently noticed that a new addition was available. Well worth getting too, more pages, extra subjects (cars for instance) updated bibliography and a sparkling new layout. Author Heimann feels that architectural historian David Gebhard's term 'Programatic' does not quite capture the flavor of these buildings, I propose calling them FUNTECTURE.

A new chapter, not in the original book, is 'Current Condition' which has twenty-two photos, in color, of buildings now standing and they all look very smart and well cared for but wait till you see the photo on page 169, this shows the amazing headquarters of the Longaberger company in Newark, Ohio, famous for making baskets and that is exactly what the building looks like, seven stories high with two carrying handles reaching up to the sky...only in America! You can see and read about this lovely bit of whimsy on their website.

You will really enjoy this book if you are a fan of roadside America, especially if you have lived in California and maybe remember some of the weird buildings that are no longer around.

***FOR AN INSIDE LOOK click 'customer images' under the cover.

4.0 out of 5 stars California Crazy and Beyond, August 1, 2011

By 

Rick - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: California Crazy and Beyond: Roadside Vernacular Architecture (Paperback)

I remembered that I was kid to saw the dog building site at the front cover. It was location Washington Blvd and now it was gone. I really loved to see the historical sites!