Following World War II, America began to experience a new way of living. Rapid change occurred as cities sprawled into suburbia. By 1955, the space age had arrived. Automobile design mimicked rockets and juke boxes mimicked automobiles. Appliances such as washers and dryers allowed push button automation and furniture took on the shape of amoebas. Within a 1950's and early 1960's home,one would repeatedly find the boomerang pattern on kitchen counter tops, draperies, flooring, coffee tables and ashtrays. Outer space expolration was not something that occurred only on television or in the news, but it could also be parked in your driveway. A person could drive a Rocket 88, a DeSoto Fireflite, a Futurmatic or a Dynaflow. America was forging ahead at the speed of light and the sky was the limit.
Entertainment was not excluded from this change. Movies were made in Technicolor and Cinemascope. Transistor radios made music more portable and more convenient. Big bulky phonographs were replaced by High Fidelity automatic record changers. The aural enhancement of stereophonic sound had arrived. Once high fidelity and stereo came on the scene, records clearly and boldly displayed labels such as "Hi-Fi" or "Stereophonic." The 33 1/3 RPM LP was a new means of providing the most advanced entertainment.
Music for a bachelor's den in HI-FI
DCC Compact Classics, Inc.
written by Paul Phillips, March 1995
"The euphoria about the future that followed World War II permeated the outlooks of architects, who, influenced by Frank Lloyd Wright and with ready access to remarkable new construction material and building techniques spawned by the war technologies, faced the intriguing prospect of redesigning the postwar world. Initially the futuristic designs were outrageous, and the only clients willing to risk such nontraditional structures were small commercial establishments focused on the emerging car culture who were unafraid to cast their lots with the controversial new images. The metal-framed angular designs, employing lavish use of glass, natural (and unnatural) stone, tile, and integrating landscaping became a cachet for the proliferating coffee shops and drive-in restaurants of the 1950s. Detractors labeled these structures the Googie School of Architecture after a particularly outlandish coffee shop in Los Angeles. Googie would seem far from outlandish today as those once controversial design elements have become commonplace in both commercial and residential architecture."
Googie:
Fifties Coffee Shop Architecture
by Alan Hess
The following are googie pages on the Historic Anaheim web site...
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