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AirTalk

What are California’s craziest roadside attractions?

By AirTalk Staff
Published Aug 29, 2018
The giant donut on the roof of Randy's Donuts is adorned with a mini US Space Shuttle, strung up in the donut hole, on October 11, 2012 in Inglewood, in southwest Los Angeles County, California, along the route the US Space Shuttle Endeavour will pass in coming days from Los Angeles International Airport to a permanent home at the California Space Center. Endeavour, which flew more than 185 million kilometers (115 million miles) in its two-decade career, completed its final mission last year. AFPHOTO / Frederic J. BROWN (Photo credit should read FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP/Getty Images)
The giant donut on the roof of Randy's Donuts is adorned with a mini US Space Shuttle, strung up in the donut hole, on October 11, 2012 in Inglewood, in southwest Los Angeles County, California.
(
FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP/Getty Images
)
Listen 17:48
What are California’s craziest roadside attractions?

The boom of the auto industry in the U.S. went hand in hand with the rise of a more peculiar American staple: the roadside attraction.

From Big Donut Drive-In in Inglewood to an ice-cream parlour shaped like an owl in San Gabriel, California was and is home to some of the strangest roadside anomalies, meant to entice drivers to stop in for a snack or just to snap a photo.

The new edition of “California Crazy: American Pop Culture” (Taschen America, 2018) pays tribute to these kitschy structures and the history they represent.

Guest:

Jim Heimann, executive editor for TASCHEN America and author of “California Crazy: American Pop Culture” (Taschen America, 2018)