Googie Nights

Call it what you like: Populuxe, Doo-Wop, Coffee Shop Modern, Jet Age, Space Age. The mid-century Southern California architectural style, with its ski-jump roofs, starbursts and kidney-shaped signs, is still all Googie to me. Named for the jet-age lines of John Lautner's famous 1949 Googie's coffee shop at the corner...

By Susan Froyd

May 8, 2008

What happens on the ground matters — Your support makes it possible.

We’re aiming to raise $17,000 by August 10, so we can deepen our reporting on the critical stories unfolding right now: grassroots protests, immigration, politics and more.

Contribute Now

Progress to goal

$17,000

$3,700

Audio By Carbonatix

[
          {
            "name": "GPT - Billboard - Slot Inline - Content - Labeled - No Desktop",
            "component": "23668565",
            "insertPoint": "2",
            "requiredCountToDisplay": "2"
          },{
            "name": "STN Player - Float - Mobile Only ",
            "component": "23853568",
            "insertPoint": "2",
            "requiredCountToDisplay": "2"
          },{
            "name": "Editor Picks",
            "component": "17242653",
            "insertPoint": "4",
            "requiredCountToDisplay": "1"
          },{
            "name": "Inline Links",
            "component": "18838239",
            "insertPoint": "8th",
            "startingPoint": 8,
            "requiredCountToDisplay": "7",
            "maxInsertions": 25
          },{
            "name": "GPT - 2x Rectangles Desktop, Tower on Mobile - Labeled",
            "component": "24956856",
            "insertPoint": "8th",
            "startingPoint": 8,
            "requiredCountToDisplay": "7",
            "maxInsertions": 25 
          
          },{
            "name": "Inline Links",
            "component": "18838239",
            "insertPoint": "8th",
            "startingPoint": 12,
            "requiredCountToDisplay": "11",
            "maxInsertions": 25
          },{
            "name": "GPT - Leaderboard to Tower - Slot Auto-select - Labeled",
            "component": "17676724",
            "insertPoint": "8th",
            "startingPoint": 12,
            "requiredCountToDisplay": "11",
            "maxInsertions": 25
          }
        ]

Call it what you like: Populuxe, Doo-Wop, Coffee Shop Modern, Jet Age, Space Age. The mid-century Southern California architectural style, with its ski-jump roofs, starbursts and kidney-shaped signs, is still all Googie to me. Named for the jet-age lines of John Lautner's famous 1949 Googie's coffee shop at the corner of Sunset Boulevard and Crescent Heights in Los Angeles, Googie is pop culture personified, direct from a primordial birthplace of said culture. You couldn't ask for a better pedigree.

Like any kid who grew up in the '60s (I did), living in a car town on a steady diet of White Spot, Azar's Big Boy restaurants and The Jetsons, Googie was an integral part of my developmental landscape. And I still have to smile when I come across a remnant — topsy-turvy, stacked neon lettering or a roller-coaster roof — while driving through town. Harder and harder to find, Googie still lives in Denver if you know where to look. Among other things, the exhibit Googie Architecture, opening today at the Aurora History Museum, provides a pictorial view of some of those local parabolas and boomerangs of the past, many of them still located on the Colfax strip. But it also provides a general overview of the style against which one can couch the local angle. I wouldn't miss it for the world.

Googie continues through July 13 at the museum, 15051 East Alameda Parkway in Aurora; see www.auroramuseum.org or call 303-739-6666 for more information.
May 14-July 13, 2008

Susan Froyd started writing for Westword as the "Thrills" editor in 1992 and never quite left the fold. These days she still freelances for the paper in addition to walking her dogs, enjoying cheap ethnic food and reading voraciously. Sometimes she writes poetry.

A message from Culture Editor Kristen Fiore: If you value independent journalism, please consider making a contribution to support our continued coverage of Denver’s vibrant culture and arts scenes.

Support Today