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Image / Simons Drive-In Restaurant on Wilshire

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Title
Simons Drive-In Restaurant on Wilshire
Alternative Title
Los Angeles Photographers Photo Collection;
Creator
Schultheis, Herman
Contributor
Made accessible through a grant from the John Randolph Haynes and Dora Haynes Foundation
Date Created and/or Issued
Circa 1937
Contributing Institution
Los Angeles Public Library
Collection
Los Angeles Public Library Photo Collection
Rights Information
Images available for reproduction and use. Please see the Ordering & Use page at http://tessa.lapl.org/OrderingUse.html for additional information.
Description
Title supplied by cataloger.; Herman J. Schultheis was born in Aachen, Germany in 1900, and immigrated to the United States in the mid-1920s after obtaining a Ph.D. in mechanical and electrical engineering. He married Ethel Wisloh in 1936, and the pair moved to Los Angeles the following year. He worked in the film industry from the late 1930s to the mid-1940s, most notably on the animated features Fantasia and Pinocchio. His detailed notebook, documenting the special effects for Fantasia, is the subject of a 14-minute short-subject included on the film's DVD. In 1949, he started employment with Librascope as a patent engineer. Schultheis was an avid amateur photographer who traveled the world with his cameras. It was on one of these photographic exhibitions in 1955 that he disappeared in the jungles of Guatemala. His remains were discovered 18 months later. The digitized portion of this collection represents the images Schultheis took of Los Angeles and its surrounding communities after he relocated to the area in 1937.
In the 1930s Wayne McAllister designed circular Simons Drive-in Restaurants in the Streamline Moderne style with a three-layer roof and neon advertising pylon. McAllister was the original designer of this style of circular drive-in, which was copied throughout the country.
A carhop talks to chefs through the pickup window while a couple of cars wait at this Simons at Wilshire Boulevard and Hoover Street. According to signs, there is a full fountain and in addition to the sandwiches, spaghetti and chili are also served.
Type
image
Format
1 photographic print :b&w ;15 x 11 cm.
Photographic prints
Identifier
00098008
Herman J Schultheis Collection; Los Angeles Photographers Collection;
N-007-500 8x10
CARL0005076913
http://173.196.26.125/cdm/ref/collection/photos/id/37329
Subject
Simon's (Restaurant : Los Angeles, Calif.)
Restaurants--California--Los Angeles
Drive-in restaurants--California--Los Angeles
Cooks--California--Los Angeles
Automobiles--California--Los Angeles
Waitresses--California--Los Angeles
Neon signs--California--Los Angeles
Art deco (Architecture)--California--Los Angeles
Lost architecture--California--Los Angeles
Wilshire Boulevard (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Schultheis Collection photographs
McAllister, Wayne,1907-2000

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