Harvey's Broiler Razed Illegally!!!!!!!!!!!!

I just looked the place up on Google maps and the ariel and the street level "drive by" pictures of the place show "Johnie's Broiler" in the bulldozed state of distruction.

What does it take to get Google maps to update it's pictures?
Is it something the local gov. gets done, the way countries tell globe makers what to name their country and where it's borders are?

Why do most of the pictures of residential streets have trash cans out in the gutters?
Do they take the pics from cameras on the trash trucks maybe?
(Us Paranoids need to know this trivia.)

I know mapping the World is a big job but I would think major updates in the landmarks of a major business street and highway should get a "redo" on their site?

Kevin,
Is this something in process already?

 

We emailed them, We'll see what happens? Having the "Friends and Family Day" before the Broiler reopens to the public. So many people have come by and it looks like it may do great! This may be my last post before it opens. We'll see???
Remember that it opens on Monday 10/19/09 and to come on out and check the place out. Weds night cruise is on! 5pm till whenever? hope to see you there!

 

What time is opening tomorrow? I will try and make it with the car and take pictures.

 

Kevin's sister and her grand-daughter at the new Bob's Big Boy!!!

 

Hey, Kev...how about a whole new thread?
It's time...
"Success..the Boiler reborn as Bob's Big Boy...Post your Stories and Photos here!"

 

Starting @ 7am Monday pst, I close the door on the Havey's Broiler Razed Story and The New Bob's Big Boy Broiler OPENS! Thread begins .

To each and everyone of you, The Coalition to Save The Broiler,The Friends Of Johnie's, The LAC MOD-COM And Adriene,Kevin and Analisa=aka . It just couldn't have happened w/o a HAMB-olution!

See ya on Monday!

Doug, Thank You for posting it, I love my nieces to pieces! aka Coconut! Sis Cherie and Bro Rick were here as well, I thank them for their support as well.

A new Broiler Era begins in the AM Monday after a 8 & 3/4yrs of hashing it out,Thank Goodness!

 

Thanks Kevin and all, this thread has been amazing!
Don't see how the new thread will compare as far as the up and down emotions of this one, but glad this one ends on a positive note, looking forward to being there in person soon...

 

Hey Kevin,

Can you shoot me a few pix of your Wednesday cruise night? Maybe some night ones.

Thanks,

 

kevin, i followed ths thread right from the beginning, and i watched the whole rebuild of the broiler. i'm glad that you guys were able to rebuild the place, and were able to restore a great piece of history.

in a couple years i'll be taking my '55 buick on a cross country trip on rt 66, and when i get to california, i HAVE TO go to the broiler!

 

Yea...probably me too! Used to go there on my Schwinn as a kid. You can ask PopaWolf,hahaha! I used to bug him about his Merc. My mom and dad used to go there and both my older brothers used to hang out there too. Wish my mom was still alive to be there with me.

 

I'd just like to close by choking back a few tears and saying an emotional thanks to all of you, and to Jim. Saving the Broiler has changed my life in many ways and become such a part of who I am and how I live my life. As we close this thread to transition over to the new Bob's Big Boy Broiler, let's always remember that it's up to us to fight for the things we love in order to sustain them for future generations.

 

Damnit this is just too damn cool.

Doug, if I ever make it down there to "El Lay" you and I are going for coffee!

 

Wed night will be a special night for me, the last time i cruised Harveys i was a kid and in a 26T sedan,with a 283/powerglide a buddy and i co-owned. I remember well waiting our turn in line to get under the canopy and order a burger and coke. We had a record player mounted under the dash and waited untill we cruised in to put on ur favorite tune. The problem was it skipped every time ya hit a bump. No record player this time and no radio but it will be neat to park my coupe under the canopy and once again order a burger and coke.

 

Hey Randy did you guys buy that T brand new!!!!

 

I hope I get the chance to meet you someday,what you all have done is something that needs to happen more.This for some reason was very important to me also maybe because we had a googie styled Johnnies drive-in that got torn down for another walgreeds drug store,and I had many good memories from that place......hope your feelin better.......

 

John, your on fire this morning. LMFAO

.

 

John......your in rare form as usual. Actually its kinda of a cool story that goes with that car. An old man in Long Beach owned the car, it was sitting in his back yard. My buddy and I had asked him several times to sell the car and he wanted 500 bucks which was a lot of money in those days. So we sneaked over there and "borrowed" the fenders off it late one night. We waited for about a month and then approached him to sell the car again. He said he would but the fenders had got stolen. So we acted very upset and told him how hard it would be to find a set of fenders. Anyway we got the car for 150 bucks and promptly hauled it off to make our hot rod. We didnt know to much then so it was sorta gloomed together with a junk yard 283/powerglide and some very poor welding. We painted it a mettalic green and black fenders. It looked cool but was probalby in acuality a death trap . But it was our Hot Rod and we had a blast with that car. We cruised Harveys and evey other popular spot in those days with that car.

 

Well I said that I would close thos this thread this morning at 7am when the Broiler officially opened to the public, but I still haven't made it there.
Goodbye to the HARVEY'S BROILER RAZED! Hello and Welcome Bob's Big Boy Broiler!!!
Long May You Serve Cars Under The Canopy of History!
Moderators You may now close this thread!

Above all,Thank you so very much Ryan for allowing this thread to run.

 

I was there this weekend and I'll be there "later today."

 

Here is the new thread about the Bob's Broiler:

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=409637

.

 

Bye Bye to the ORIGINAL Boiler thread! Here's to the new thread...

 

I dont like good bye, lets just say that I will see ya later

 

Is there anything in the works for a cruise night type thing, I lived in Artesia back in the day now I'm up near Sacramento but I'd drive down for that, I have the sinking feeling I may have missed it already.

 

I've been told i'm a pretty tough guy, but that shit HURT me to look at right there. I HATE so called progress!!!!

 

I did not READ the whole thread did you????

 

What great news, hope everyone supports the new reincarnation. That fudgy food example posted looks pretty tasty. Rock on folks! ~Sololobo~

 

We're having a "Day de la Demolition" cruise night on Friday the 7th of Jan from 5pm till whenever you decide to leave to honor the passing of what was once Harvey's-Johnies Broiler and the re-birth of Bob's Broiler.which at the time 4 yrs back seemed like was impossible to many. Thanx to Jim,Lindsay,Karen and of course the A's we have back a new incarnation of Harvey's
Glad that we have had the H.A.M.B. as a form of support and getting the word out.
If you haven't seen this post before, scroll back and look @ the pics of what happened and what can be done if we all work together. It makes for a great read.

 

Will be there. This must be the Night of the Dead Thread, wasn't this one to end. It seems alive to me.

 

The thread was supposed to be dead, but it's been given a new lease on life, just like "Our Broiler" So all that haven't had a chance to read it can read from front to back and add what they'd like, See Ya There Johnie Gee~

 

10 years ago today my life was changed forever!!!!!
I listened in horror to how a a personal memory was wrongfully terminated.......Or so the perpetrator thought!!!!
Harvey's Broiler was destroyed in the matter of basically 3 hours as damage was inflicted upon its steel framework with stucco facade. Well that building took a helluva a beating that 7th of January 2007.
I was on a mission to right that wrong, one can go back and read that in previous posts throughout the build process. I felt compelled to give something back to the Rod & Custom community, this was my way. I sought out Adriene and her Friends of Johnie's. We formed the Coalition To Save and Rebuild Harvey's Broiler.

So many "Great HAMB"people reached out and helped us make this become a reality. Being in the Automotive Industry along with manufacturing, I was able to connect with many in the Automotive Publishing industry that made sure that this story was told.
I have to pass along a story related to this ten year milestone. In Dec of 2007 Steve Weiss of Mel's Drive-In fame was just about to open the former Parasol Restaurant in Seal Beach as a Circular Mel's Drive-In.
I had built a little brown binder filled with the history of HARVEY'S Broiler.

I thank him for providing me his valuable time especially on a"cold call". Upon reviewing the binder and hearing my spiel re:HARVEY'S landmark status, large Drive-In feature and movement behind its need for a reemergence in Googie history, he passed citing reasons of demographics and just that it's time had past.

HAMB member "Burny" met me there after I had met with Steve. I felt all the more reason to make this dream that people called me "nuts" for having a reality. Upon learning that our moratorium for doing anything to that property was about to expire, we went into depression mode....

At that point we were like "Man, What Now?" Well Chappell Architects were hired in order to determine what exactly was historically significant and savable and what was not. At the same time or nearly then we heard that Acura Downey was pulling out of the city, but a new tenant would take over the property.

That tenant was Bill owner of Downey Nissan.
His son in law is Jim Louder.=Former Owner of Big Boy Torrance.
I had looked into attaining a "Big Boy" franchise for this property at 7447 Firestone Bl. I understood that the franchises in So Cal were licensed to this set of brothers and they were planning to open 55 "Big Boy" restaurants in the next few years. That was a dead end street.

Meanwhile the Big Boy in Torrance had re-opened in Dec of 06 so I heard that Jim might be interested in the HARVEY'S Property... I did another cold call, Jim was really digging the 70 foot long signage which in itself is Landmarked. The day I "cold called" Jim was at his other restaurant a Marie Callender's, but his lovely wife Karen was there.

She gave me her time listened to my spiel and looked over the book with myself and "C'Deuced".
As she looked it over, she asked questions, studied all of the images intently and took all of my info to forward to Jim.

Jim called for a meeting and had his realtor "Harry" in attendance, but was a bit apprehensive as he had heard that we were diligent in making the Broilers return a reality. He also read the book, looked at the images, heard about Alan Hess' "Googie & Googie Redux" books which includes Harvey’s Broiler in the 1st book, but also had the Broiler front and back of Redux, helped to get there by means of Adriene. Jim was stoked when he found out that we had a copy of the original blueprints including a version that included a lounge that was never realized until we built the "Starlight Polar Lounge".

We created a great relationship and later partnership and with the City of Downey's help our dream became a reality. But let's no forget The HAMB. The Downey and Los Angeles Conservancy's and so many others that have for the past 10yrs. had been a part of this becoming a restaurant again.

I remember anticipating our opening day, there was a bunch of excitement in the air, media and ribbon cutting ceremonies which I did not attend as “Adriene,Analisa and myself were one entity”. Adriene was getting ready to have major back surgery and Analisa was teaching young College Students.
If they weren't going to be able to attend, neither would I till later.

I opted to wait till 3pm so that I could be a part of the re-birth of our beloved Drive-In in all of its neon glory. . It was bittersweet as Mel's Drive-In Seal Beach closed on our opening day.
We supported that restaurant out of our passion for all things "Googie" and Hot Rod & Custom related.
It's been repurposed as a Panera Bread.

Adriene and I both have gone back to our respective lives, her continuing an endless role in saving Neon, Googie and Americana. Myself in continuing Cyclone Racing Equipment and of course Automotive Americana and writing about it.
Analisa resides so close to her beloved Johnie's that she can see him from her back door. How nice it is????

(As a side note on this 1st Day of January 2019,Re: Steve Weiss-Mel’s Drive-In-Los Angeles. Well in the early 90’s a Googie Style Coffee Shop in Santa Monica off of the 10 Fwy @ Lincoln Bl. was closed as a restaurant and repurposed as a Dentsl office. It name was the Armet-Davis designed 1959 Penguin, well the lesse left the penguin at the top of sign. That meant that there was hope that it could return as a restaurant again in the future which eventually it did as a Mel’s Drive-In Santa Monica I'm not sure just how much influence Adriene had in collaboration with Steve Weiss and it being returned to most of its “Googie Glory” or perhaps Steve took note that The Broiler which he thought may not have
been a good bet that Dec day in 2007 really did have some good market value in all of its Googie and Rod & Custom history????)