When I first saw this photo of a Punch and Judy ice cream parlor, it struck me how similar it looked to the one of the circular Chili Bowl restaurants that used to dot the LA cityscape in the 1930s and ‘40s. It turns out that at some point after WWII, Chili Bowl owner, Art Whizin, converted his restaurants (whose specialty dish was an open-faced burger smothered in chili and whose slogan was “We cook our beans backwards – you only get hiccups.”) to ice cream parlors. That character above the windows was their mascot and “Moron’s Ecstasy” was one of their featured dishes. Their menu had other weirdly named offerings like “Crocodile Sniffer Triple Scoop Sundae” and “Half Wit’s Pacifier” and the inexplicable “??WHY??” At its peak, there were 22 Chili Bowl restaurants in LA, so the one pictured here could have been any one of them.
Joe V. said:
When I was a kid we used to get Chinese food from a place called the China Doll on Valley Boulevard in Alhambra. It was in one of the old Chili Bowl restaurants, and the name had apparently been chosen for easy conversion of the existing neon sign. It is still a Chinese restaurant (not too surprising in Alhambra) though no longer called China Doll, and is the last of the old chili bowl locations still in use as a restaurant. In Google street view it also appears to have one of the last pay phones anywhere right out front. https://maps.app.goo.gl/fCAF2CD4Eqd1zf3w5
Advertisement for Punch and Judy ice cream parlor’s Moron’s Ecstasy:
I only knew of Art Whizin’s restaurant at Cornell Corners in Agoura. This was a wonderful insight into a dyed-in-the-wool entrepreneur.
Great find! This photo is new to me. Too bad it’s heavily cropped. The bottom photo appeared in Life magazine in 1947 as part of an article on the Punch & Judy stands, “Mammoth Sundae; fantastic new concoction costs teen-agers $1.” It mentions a chain of 18 stands, so a few may have closed/been demolished before the transformation. The number of actual Chili Bowls ranged from 18 to 23 in the books and articles I’ve read.