I know nothing about the Clock restaurant other than it stood at 6710 La Tijera Blvd, Los Angeles, not far from LA International Airport, and was built in 1951. But oh my goodness, look at the sign at the front entrance. I bet it looked even better lit up at night. I don’t know if this one qualifies as a Googie-style restaurant, but it’s every bit as striking as the others.
** UPDATE ** – The Clock was a chain of restaurants throughout Los Angeles:
Menu from The Clock Supper Club, Long Beach, California:
Advertisement for The Clock’s Chubby the Champ hamburger:
Architectural drawing by Louis Armét, Eldon Davis, Clock Coffee Shop, Glo-Dial, Perspective View, Westchester, CA, Architects Armét & Davis A. I. A. (1947).jpg
The location is now home to Pann’s. This image is from February 2021:
I remember That location always as Pann’s. I went there more like the mid 50s. It might have had a reconstruction but that sign is not the way I saw it then.
What style!!!! Why do we not see this type of imagination anymore? We live in a very blah world these days. Life was fun years ago.
Clock was the first googie coffee shop created by the masters of the style, Armet & Davis, in 1951. They were very proud of the design and it influenced their later work. Armet & Davis were also responsible for Norms, Pann’s, Ships on La Cienega, Penguin in Santa Monica, Googies downtown, and most of the great googie coffee shops of the 1950s and 60s. This Clock restaurant was short lived and demolished in the early 1960s. The Clock was owned by Forest Smith (1912-1990) and part of a small chain with more than a dozen drive-in locations mostly in the southern areas of the county, including Long Beach and Bellflower. Smith also owned the Clock Country Club (now Candlewood Country Club) in Whittier, and clubs in Yorba Linda and Newport Beach.
Hey Chris, thanks for stopping by and for all that interesting info. I’ve heard of Norms, Pann’s, and Ships, but The Clock was a new one to me.
Hi Chris, Thanks for sharing all of this info. How could anyone stand demolishing such a unique building? So sad, and it makes me so mad that the citizens did not fight to keep these icons, or did they?
Chris, Why was the Clock building demolished in such a short time from being built? Does anyone know? It was a much cleaner design than Panns? Anyone out there who knows please leave me a comment. By the way I love Norm’s restaurant. I hope it never goes away.
Hi Martin! The Googie-inspired ‘Pann’s’ coffee shop (1958), at 6710 La Tijera Blvd., is still open. ‘The Clock’ diner (1951) was at 6821 La Tijera Blvd., about two blocks away. Over the years The Clock’s former corner location has been extensively renovated — a strip mall and a modern automobile oil-change business occupy the site today.
Thanks for that extra info, John. Much appreciated.
Just what we needed, another strip mall and lube place (what a waste)
Interesting write-up for part played by Helen Liu Fong in all this: https://www.metalocus.es/en/news/googie-dream-helen-liu-fongs-absent-presence
I agree, Steve. you can see the address right above the door in that picture. I’m pretty sure the Clock was replaced by a dark, depressing place called “The King’s X”. Pann’s was right down the street from my house growing up. I could see it from my bedroom window. It was on that triangle-shaped lot, and if you were looking at the parking lot at Pann’s, there would have been a Mobil gas station on the far side. The Clock was next to a shopping center with some nice little shops. Pretty sure a Von’s was the anchor. I still have tools I bought at the auto supply near where it was, and the far side of the strip mall was Marina Savings and Loan, which handed out free kids’ matinee tickets to the Loyola Theater, on Sepulveda near the southern end of La Tijera.
It was actually on the opposite side of the street from Pann’s. On the sw corner of La Tijera and Centinela..
The Clock Drive In I wrote about stood alone on the corner of La Tijera and Centinela! Wonderful high school memories of so many hours spent there!
I looked it up in the LA building archives
It was owned by “Kaiser Community Homes”
New building permit dated 6/14/51
Architects Arnet & Davis
Address 6821 La Tijera
Certificate of occupancy 5/23/52
There was some sign work done as late as 1957
Interesting, it appears to have been displaced by the Standard oil station and the new shopping center along that area.
There was, for a time, a clock restaurant at or near the entrance of LAX. somewhere on Sepulveda. (1960’s?) It was a monument to ugliness that I will never forget. On the east side of Sepulveda.
I’ll keep an eye for it!
I graduated from Inglewood High School in 1955. This was our hangout after school, after football games, after Friday night dances, after dates..you were nobody if you didn’t go there. It was great and just like in the movies! Unforgettable!
Sounds wonderful, Donna!
It was!
I remember The Clock restaurant well. There was one in Temple City. Home of Chubby the Champ. That was way back in 1956. The owners lived in Arcadia. Forest Smith and his family. 2 sons that I went to Arcadia High with me. They owned a huge home in North Arcadia. I went to a party there once. Forest Smith’s wife was a beautiful blonde lady and in the living room was an oil painting of her.
The hamburger at The Clock was delicious. I would like to relive those times…..
I remember Mom talking about Forrest Smith. HB’s were the best. I loved their berry cobbler also.
My Mom was a car hop at the Carousel mostly but also worked for other restaurants of the chain. She knew Bob of Bob’s Big Boy. She loved working there.
My uncle was Forrest smith. My father Rod Rogers was his general Mgr of all of his burger places, and dinner houses and country clubs.
I worked at all of them as a young boy.
The blond lady was Forrest s wife Rosemary. She was miss Catalina
I loved going up on the carousel and going across to the Weatherby store
to look at the guns the stuff game animals , when I was young my dad and I would visit different resturants on the weekend
Hey Gary, that sounds like an ideal childhood!
Let’s contact David Mc Glenn and Roger McCormik Arizona 1942. Let’s redefine William Faulkner. Nemoy is
Nemoy is Logical
Let’s contact David Mc Glenn and Roger McCormik Arizona 1942. Let’s redefine William Faulkner. Nemoy is LOGIC Glee.
Remember going to the Clock with school mates after Hawthorne High sports nights to have their deep dish fruit pie ala mode, good times for sure.
This was a wonderful restaurant. We would go there sometimes when we went to visit my Aunt Mattie who lived in Venice. She was sort of an Aunite Mame to me. Full of life and adventurer.
We all need Auntie Mames in our life, don’t we? Mine was Auntie Doris!
Indeed we do.
I remember Mom talking about Forrest Smith. HB’s were the best. I loved their berry cobbler also.
My Mom was a car hop at the Carousel mostly but also worked for other restaurants of the chain. She knew Bob of Bob’s Big Boy. She loved working there.