And from the “Let’s Not Be Subtle About It” file comes this color (possibly even Kodachrome) photo of a donut joint called the Big Do-Nut Drive In (although technically it looks more like a drive through.) It opened on July 10, 1950 at the southwest corner of W. Century Blvd and Normandie Ave in the Westmont area of Los Angeles, not far from LAX Airport. This photo was taken in 1951 just as a sleek black 1946 Cadillac was leaving with, I assume, a bag of freshly cooked donuts.
Miraculously, that location is still home to a donut drive-through. Even more miraculously, the giant donut has also survived. So hats off to Kindles Donuts! This image is from April 2022.
The one I remember is now Randy’s on the corner of Manchester and La Cienega.
Yeah, I thought Randy’s was the only surviving one with the “big donut” on top. When we were kids, we went to the one on Washington and Sepulveda. My brother had a paper route, and he and a couple of kids who also had routes, used to meet there around 3:00 (or 4:00?). They’d take turns buying one donut, because they knew it was when the red star would typically show up on the receipt. Getting the red star meant you’d get a half dozen free donuts. They’d get it almost every day. Fortunately, they were growing boys who could handle the calories!
My brother worked there at the time.
The Cadillac and the “bullet-nosed” Studebaker entering the drive-through are certainly better looking automobiles than the ones in the more current photo. No bars on the high-up back windows back then. Who would break into a do-nut shop? I guess somebody probably did prompting the installation of bars. Maybe they stole some holes, changing the product to no longer match the sign.
Those cars certainly are better looking, aren’t they?
Martin, I dispute your claim that the first Big Donut opened on July 10th, 1950. I’m guessing you based that on the newspaper photo of a grand opening; a sign gives the 7-10 date. If you look at a calendar, that date falls on a Monday. Every other Big Donut celebrated its opening on a Friday/Saturday. Also, the donut in that clipping faces right, while Kindle’s faces left. Finally, 7-10 falls on a Friday in 1953, when the 2nd Big Donut opened. If you have other evidence about the opening, I would love to hear it; I’ve been collecting info about the Big Donuts for decades. Odd factoid: I’ve been unable to find a confirmed photo of the Hawthorne or Van Nuys locations! Otherwise, I appreciate your love of LA history! Thanks!
Hi Don, if you’ve been collecting info about this for decades, then I willingly and happily bow to your experience. It’s been a while since I published this post, so I don’t know now here I got that info from, but I’d imagine that I found it out there somewhere on the internet!
Yes, there’s a lot of bad info out there on this topic. The big reference book on programmatic architecture is Jim Heimann’s “California Crazy.” In the recent edition, he has a photo of one of the big donuts labeled as the Inglewood location (what would become Randy’s). But if you look at it, the donut’s facing in the wrong direction. It’s actually the North Hollywood location, but if he doesn’t know that, we’re all in trouble!
You’re right. If Jim can get it wrong, there’s little hope for humanity!