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Amazing owl action over at A Harem Of Peacocks (via @lilyvanillicake) – I can’t believe this was demolished!!!
Children enjoying ice cream at the Hoot Hoot I Scream hut in Los Angeles, CA – c. 1930s
The head rotated; the eyes, made from Buick headlamps, blinked; the sign: Hoot hoot, I scream, used elements of a theater marquee. For over 50 years, Tillie Hattrup ran this L.A.-area refreshment spot designed and built by her husband, Roy in 1926-27. It was demolished in 1979.
I saw a picture of this owl shaped building many years ago (it must have been end of the Sixties) in “De Narrenkap”, a Dutch periodical from 1939 that my uncle had saved all those years. He had them bound in a large book in which I was allowed to browse as a kid when we visited him. The specific article which showed this owl-shaped icecream stand featured some examples of all the remarkable things one could see in the United States. Considering the article was written in 1939, I concluded as a kid that the USA must be a pretty amazing place, to have such oddities already in those early days. It made a deep impression on me as a kid. Maybe that is the reason I moved to the States permanently many years later.
The article also featured the Hat Restaurant on Franklin Avenue in LA, with the “Eat in The Hat” neon sign on the top. I also found this back on the internet: http://franklinavenue.blogspot.com/2005/11/eat-in-hat.html
Both places are demolished fairly recent it seems,a shame of course. Apparently when I read about them in 1969 they still existed.
Another American “peculiarity” that I remember from the article was a tree with large sausage-shaped fruits hanging from it. I recently have seen this tree in Fort Myers on the Edison estates museum. Unfortunately it was out of season and the tree did not bear the sausage shaped fruits at that time of the year. I will have to go back again it seems…