Book Reviews

Palm Springs Tiki: Polynesia in the Desert
By Sven Kirsten and Peter Moruzzi
Kaysville, UT: Gibbs Smith, 2024
Hardcover, 200, $35
Reviewed by Andy Panda Montero

The midcentury modern era and Tiki Polynesian pop culture flourished in the U.S. for several decades following World War II. Who would have considered combining them in Palm Springs, the desert oasis of California? That’s precisely what occurred, and authors Sven Kirsten and Peter Moruzzi bring this unexpected pairing to life in their stunning book, Palm Springs Tiki: Polynesia in the Desert.

"Looking Back at the Future: Photographing Vintage Leftovers of New York’s World’s Fairs
By Gloria R. Nash
New York: NRG Press, 2024
Softcover, 123 pages, $29.95
Reviewed by Douglas C. Towne

With the stars of the 1939 Fair, such as General Motors’ “Futurama” exhibit and Trylon and Perisphere, the oversized obelisk and globe practically in my DNA, it was with great interest that I read SCA member Gloria R. Nash’s recent book documenting the remnants of the 1939 and 1964- 65 New York World’s Fairs.

Nash, too, carries the World’s Fair DNA from her childhood, as she watched in awe the light shows and fireworks from the 1964-65 Fair from her family’s apartment in Queens. She was also a frequent fair visitor. “Even at ages 10 and 11, I sensed the fair would be among the highlights of my life,” Nash writes. “More than a group of buildings, they represented an energy that defined the pinnacle of the era’s creativity in architecture, art, design, engineering, industry, and technology.

Bowlarama: The Architecture of Mid-Century Bowling
By Chris Nichols with Adriene Biondo
Angel City Press, 2024
Hardcover, 176 pages, $40
Reviewed by Ronald Ladouceur

[See: SCA Zoom Recording by Bowlarama’s co-author, Chris Nichols] A chatty and charming companion to Thomas Hine’s Populuxe (1986) and Alan Hess’s Googie: Fifties Coffee Shop Architecture (1986). Bowlarama, a handsome, fact-filled book chronicles the entire history of bowling, but focuses the half-decade between 1957 and 1962, when separate streams of technology, suburbanization, and entertainment culture combined to fuel the development of fantastic and monumental architectural confections throughout the west and across the country.

Vintage Georgia Signs
By Tim Hollis
Charleston, SC: The History Press, 2024
Softcover, 160, 26.99

Lost Attractions of Georgia
By Tim Hollis
Charleston, SC: The History Press, 2021
Softcover, 144, 23.99
Reviewed by Peter Glaser

With a staggering 40 books under his belt, Birmingham native Tim Hollis is a veritable publishing industry. Having written on a diverse range of subjects, his focus is generally divided between pop culture history and explorations of Southeastern regional tourism. Hollis first caught my attention with the publication of his second book, the fantastic Dixie Before Disney: 100 Years of Roadside Fun (University Press of Mississippi, 1999). In it, he celebrates Southern “home-grown theme parks and whimsical roadside showplaces” before the arrival of Orlando’s Disney World in 1971. Since its publication, he has written several books in the roadside realm exploring Florida springs, Rock City, Stuckey’s, theme parks, and Birmingham department stores.

UnStuck: Rebirth of an American Icon
By Stephanie Stuckey
Dallas: Matt Holt Books, 2024
Hardcover, 240 $28
Reviewed by Ralph S. Wilcox

As a child whose family made numerous road trips during the 1970s and 1980s, we likely stopped at Stuckey’s during our stays at Holiday Inn and our meals at Howard Johnson’s. I didn’t, however, then take much notice of Stuckey’s and its distinctive buildings. However, that changed while working on listing a Stuckey’s building in the National Register of Historic Places in 2022. I accomplished this with Stephanie Stuckey’s generous assistance, along with documenting the chain’s remaining buildings in Arkansas.

Who Knew? Roadside Revelations in Western Massachusetts)
By Robert E. Weir
Amherst, MA: Levellers Press, 2021
Softcover, 266, $18.95
Reviewed by Frank Brusca

At first glance, Who Knew? appears to be a guide to roadside oddities found in western Massachusetts. The cover shows a gigantic roadside Tin Man statue from The Wizard of Oz, and the following few pages include photographs of a teepee structure, a giant milk bottle, and a large, politically incorrect statue of a Native American. Readers interested in roadside attractions may find the book’s lure hard to resist. However, a deeper dive into the book reveals a much broader range of points of interest for the region. The book is a nice record of the region’s landmarks, including dinosaur fossils, geologic wonders, historic sites, unique cultural sites, covered bridges, scenic views, statues, and museums.

Meet Me by the Fountain: An Inside History of the Mall
By Alexandra Lange
New York: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2022
Hardcover, 310, $28.00
Reviewed by Harold Aurand, Jr.

Before World War II, most Americans shopped downtown or along the commercial strips that had grown up along the major access roads into cities. When places like Levittown started to appear, further out than the traditional suburbs, few thought this would change. Instead, the suburbs gave birth to shopping centers and malls. These were islands of retail development, surrounded by parking lots and cut off from residential and industrial areas. For years, they dominated the commercial landscape. Now, they seem to be going away. In 2017, Credit Suisse predicted that a quarter of American malls would close in the next five years, and that was before COVID-19.

Hollywood Signs: The Golden Age of Glittering Graphics and Glowing Neon
By Kathy Kikkert
Santa Monica: Angel City Press, 2023
Hardcover, 176, $40
Reviewed by Paul Sherman

Movie stars aren’t the only names up in lights in Hollywood. Kathy Kikkert’s delightful Hollywood Signs: The Golden Age of Glittering Graphics and Glowing Neon stylishly salutes the ballyhoo afforded to such customer-craving attractions as greasy spoons, cocktail lounges, coffee shops, motels, bowling alleys, and, yes, movie palaces. The structure is simple. After an overview of sign making and neon as both industry and art—specifically in southern California—Kikkert focuses on a succession of signs/businesses at a particular location (think Hollywood & Vine) or a specific business type. Each sign gets a portion of a page or a whole page with a photo and a paragraph about the sign and the business. Neither solely historical nor merely a current accounting, Hollywood Signs mingles the long gone with the still active.