History Inglewood in the 1940's and 1950's - Photos and stories

Born in Glendale in 1944. Moved to North Inglewood after 1 month. Left in 1963. Worked at the BIG DONUT in high school, cruised A&W and the Wich Stand, J & J put a split manifold on my first car a 49 Chev pickup. Thurstons Top Shop replaced the convertable top on my dads 55 Ford. C & O put a stick hydro in my second car. Iskys shop was on Hyde Park Ave near the armory where we could shoot pool as kids. Went to El Camino in 62. (aka high school with ash trays) House doesn't look like that any more.....more photos to follow of mom and dad with his 29 roadster

 

Photos of mom and dad, probably in the early 40's. 29 had Chrysler grille, Craeger overhead conversion, dual exhaust down the right side under side splash then up and over rear axle about even with the top of the tire, black lacquer and a chopped top. He ran the auto section of Western Auto in both Glendale and Inglewood before becoming a Presision machinist for North American Aviation.

 

I wonder if the car scene history is why stan kronke moved the rams to Inglewood, ok I will quit couldn't help myself

 

Nice joke? Haha

 

It's awesome to see inglewood in the "good ole days" I was there a couple of weeks ago dropping off a rental car to hop on a plane and I saw the big donut place. Don't know if it's the original one.

 

Randy's today but the Big Donut when I worked there in 1961-2 was one of the originals. Not sure if it was the first but it was close. One was in Lakewood and another one was one Western east of Crenshaw.

 

There were 10 Big Donuts originally. There was one on Imperial in Inglewood and the one on Western and Marine (Compton Blvd). In Gardena is still there.

 

My brother and I were both born in that area while my folks were building airplanes for Douglas. He in '40 me in '45. We moved back to Texas soon after the war. We were in Northern CA when I was in high school and my dad and I took my '38 coupe to TJ for upholstery in "61. We saw lots of hot rods and customs on that trip. He took me by the house where we lived in Inglewood. I'll have to go through the pictures. I still have his machinist tool box from Douglas.

 

The Wich Stand was Iconic as a Hot Rod hangout and a race staging place. I was too young to experience that even though My sister was born in Inglewood in 1960, me in Westwood in 64, but my brother Robert who was born in 48, did hit these spots because we lived in West Los Angeles then and graduated from Venice High in 66.
The Wich Stand still exists (as Simply Wholesome), but is a health food restaurant/store. It's architecture remains remarkably intact down to the car canopy.

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I walked that lot while we were doing the Broiler and imagined what it must have been like to be in the lanes waiting for a spot to open up under the canopy. I've heard many stories from one of the fellow members of the 1st car club I was in the Old Timers of WLA back in the mid 80's. From what I've heard it must have been really a time to be into the cruising ritual.

 

COOL PICS THE GOOD OLD DAYS COOL

 

Do any of you guys know where exactly the Century Chevrolet Dealership in Inglewood was located?

 

I'm going to guess it was somewhere on Century Blvd. Used to cruise that area but don't remember the dealership.

 

It was located where La Brea split left and Market Street went straight thru downtown Inglewood. Heading north it was on your right side. La Palma drive was the street between the dealership and the A&P. I believe there is a car rental there now.
In 1961 a white Corvette sat in the showroom at the window all year without selling. 230hp 283 and a 3 speed with no radio. You could see it from any of the signal lights.
Bob Estes Lincoln/Mercury was at La Brea and Arbor Vitae; he sponsored a lot of race cars. George M. Sutton Ford was at the corner Market St and Florence Ave.

 

Hello,


When we started our hot rod/drag racing adventures, we went to the local tire supply stores after we saw what the local speed shops had in stock. A short drive west to Inglewood was the closest “slicks” manufacturer around. In order to get the right size to fit under our wheel well in the 58 Impala, we needed some 7 inch wide slicks. The Inglewood Slicks were good looking style, but they did not have the right size to fit under our wheel opening. There was no way to make them fit and we certainly were not going to radius the arch.

So, back to the local speed shops and our friend from Los Angeles had his own contacts in the tire business and called about a company named Bruce Slicks. They had a pair that would fit under our 58 Impala wheel opening without any modifications. Now, we owned a pair of real racing slicks similar to the Cook and Bedwell Dragster. Ours were just a few sizes smaller.

Then later in 1958-59, our constant neighbor in the Lion’s Dragstrip pits was none other than Bill Moxley from the tire company in Arizona. He was a fixture at Lion’s Dragstrip every weekend. He knew where the customers were. So, we started to compare his slicks that would fit under the rear wheel opening of the 58 Impala, to others on the market. We could run the Bruce Slicks on the Impala, but not in class eliminations.

But, as slick (pun intended) as his sales talk was to us about “cheater slicks.” We could not spend our teenage dollars without comparing the brands and types. So, we went back to Inglewood Tire and asked if they sold our size in stock, now. They did and we almost bought a pair. In our talks weekly with Bill Moxley, we were comparing the size, the cost and availability of the “Cheater Slicks” vs. real slicks.

Inglewood Tire finally had our size and was very tempting to buy them. But, our Lion’s Pits friend was relentless and gave us a super deal. My brother spent his money on a pair. They fit, they looked good and after a few runs with no significant time/speed improvements, they got banned from all “stock class” competition as they were not a factory stock item. So, we sold them to a friend who was going to use them on the streets as part of his daily driver.

Jnaki

Several years later, when I wanted wider tires for our El Camino, we went to see the Inglewood Tire Company’s Pos-a-Traction Tires that were wider than any accessory stock tires. They had a Redline on the blackwall and with the Red El Camino, looked great. The deal was to trade in the factory Firestones and the discount for the Firestones was higher than any other brand. At the time most of the cores were Firestones for the slicks and wide Pos-a-traction tires.
PHOTO: V Nak
Inglewood Pos-A-Traction Tires with Redlines.

With all of the miles I/we put on the Inglewood wide Pos-A-Traction tires, I went through three sets from 1965 to 1976. They served me well in the dry desert dirt roads during our desert racing motorcycle days. The tires never got stuck in the soft sand at any beach parking or shoreline areas that allowed cars to drive right up to the sand.

On the highways, the balance and alignment kept everything in running order, but I did have all three sets shaved for tire roundness. That was a key, and no they were not completely round. When the tire shaving was finished, with the expert balancing, wheel alignment, the El Camino was one of the best handling road/highway worthy vehicles. Tracked straight, could let go of the steering wheel and it never swayed to either side.

The one thing was that due to the wide tread. When it rained in So Cal and all along the coastline on our up/down Northern California road trips, we had to remember to let off of the gas to get settled back in the groove. The wide tires caused some hydroplaning and shallow puddles caused some swaying until the gas pedal was let off. Then, it tracked like the great tires that it was for us.
...still owned by the original owner, Jay Krech

The Pos-A-Traction Tires are no longer sold, but they have some on display. Since the late 50s, they have moved several times, but still in Inglewood. This time several blocks from the latest, newest pro football stadium, So-Fi Stadium.

Inglewood Tire & Auto Services Inc
635 S La Brea Ave, Inglewood, CA

 

Old Inglewood Tire was located across from Inglewood Park Cemetery and east of Centinela Park on Redondo Blvd which was 2 blocks long. Every year after the Indy 500 they would have a lot of used tires and sell them to the dry lakes Bonneville racers. There was always midgets and champ cars there too. I grew up on the north west side of the park and would go over there just to look at the cars. I got ran out of there more times than I could count.

 

Wow Jimmy, good memory. I knew it was at the split but I was confused what the street names were, looking at current maps. Got a bunch of small SBC parts there over the years. My neighbor bought a complete 340 hp 327 for his ‘56 there in ‘63-64.
I was a regular at the Big Donut and the Pup n Taco behind it. I worked at the Chevron station nearby at Florence and Manchester.
We lived on 111th St in Inglewood for a few years (right under the LAX flight path). I used to go with Dad to Jiffy Auto Parts on Prairie to get what he needed when working on his two blue Hudsons. Mom doesn’t remember why they had two Hudsons, she didn’t drive until much later. Dad was an engineer at Douglas Aircraft. About 1955-6 they moved us to east Westchester near the intersection of LaTijera and Airport Blvd, on the other side of the the Big Donut and C&O Hydros. Lots of hot rod action in that neighborhood too.
My first car, a ‘40 Ford coupe got a used pair of Inglewood slicks. I too cruised the A&W, Foster’s, Wich Stand route. First with my neighbor Gene in his ‘56 with the new 327, later in my Olds powered ‘47 Ford coupe, again with Inglewood slicks.
This is what Gene’s ‘56 looked like. I recreated it a few years back. (Except the M/C and radiator)

Gene’s car had Corvette rams horns with cut-outs done by J&J muffler in Inglewood so I had to have ’em too.

 

bchctybob, The Big Donut Corp owned the “Big Taco”. John sold off all of them and bought property as close as he could to high schools and started the “Pup N Tacos” and made a bigger fortune. A friend of mine Jack Underwood and Frankie McPrange were in the construction business and built many of them for him.
I lived off Centinela on Stepney St. My dad was a wind tunnel model maker precision machinist for North American Aviation right after the war then opened his own shop on Hawthorne Airport (120th & Prairie) in 1949 first then had 2 different shops in Inglewood. After I graduated from HS I worked for Sears Inglewood then Std Oil of California in Baldwin Hills. It’s a small world. I did a lot of light to light on Hawthorne Blvd that had a C&O hydro by Gene in a 62 ChevyII with a Rochester injected 290” engine. Fun days.