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![van nuys_7912](https://www.alleewillis.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/van-nuys_79121.jpg)
Bright and early the Sunday before last, my #1 day-trip accompanist, Charles Phoenix, and myself tooled down Van Nuys Blvd. looking for a 1950’s diner we heard about called Beeps. For neither of us to know about a place of this nature that’s remained authentic is unheard of. In order to get to it we drove down the main drag of the Valley, Van Nuys Blvd.
![IMG_0359](https://www.alleewillis.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/IMG_0359.jpg)
No question Van Nuys is pumped full of Arbys, KFC’s and McDonald’s, but thankfully there are quite a few vintage buildings left as well as some newer cheese palaces that make our hit list. We hit the boulevard at Magnolia because there was no way I was going to miss one of my favorite rooflines in the city:
![van nuys_7815](https://www.alleewillis.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/van-nuys_7815.jpg)
The vintage streetlights look so happy with their taller brother palms:
![van nuys_7817](https://www.alleewillis.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/van-nuys_7817.jpg)
Tall palms accompany many of the vintage buildings on Van Nuys Blvd.
![van nuys_7840](https://www.alleewillis.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/van-nuys_7840.jpg)
![van nuys_7813](https://www.alleewillis.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/van-nuys_7813.jpg)
Although mostly 1960’s and later, older Deco gems pop up too…:
![IMG_0362](https://www.alleewillis.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/IMG_0362.jpg)
…as well as Deco wannabes, in this case vintage 1975:
![IMG_0368](https://www.alleewillis.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/IMG_0368.jpg)
There are many great murals along the way, like this one under an overpass,..:
![van nuys_7831](https://www.alleewillis.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/van-nuys_7831.jpg)
…and this one on a dying building where it’s nice to see life…:
![IMG_0379](https://www.alleewillis.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/IMG_0379.jpg)
….and this one where it’s nice to get money.:
![IMG_0360](https://www.alleewillis.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/IMG_0360.jpg)
There’s also a lot of art like this lining the boulevard:
![IMG_7837](https://www.alleewillis.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/IMG_7837.jpg)
Then there’s buildings like this that are art itself:
![IMG_0388](https://www.alleewillis.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/IMG_0388.jpg)
And then there’s a type of ‘artful’ building way down at the other end of the tip, like this superstore that looms like a Mayan ruin:
![van nuys_7850](https://www.alleewillis.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/van-nuys_7850.jpg)
![van nuys_7852](https://www.alleewillis.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/van-nuys_7852.jpg)
![van nuys_7853](https://www.alleewillis.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/van-nuys_7853.jpg)
Though not quite as towering as that ‘ancient’ Mayan statue. this is even more impressive to kitsch seekers such as Charles and myself:
![IMG_0370](https://www.alleewillis.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/IMG_0370.jpg)
A chicken dressed as a cowboy standing on top of a building is one thing. But a store name on top of a building that can only be seen from one side of the street and only in full from a fairly far distance doesn’t seem like the most effective signage. Especially with an ‘I’ that looks like a ‘T’ and an ‘S’ that’s hidden by a tree:
![IMG_0372](https://www.alleewillis.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/IMG_0372.jpg)
The color palette on these two buildings is pretty great:
![van nuys_7870](https://www.alleewillis.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/van-nuys_7870.jpg)
You probably think it’s the pink building with the 70’s supergraphic relief that I like most.
![IMG_0418](https://www.alleewillis.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/IMG_0418.jpg)
But it’s the ancient Greek ruin next to it that makes my kitsch heart spin like a drunken roulette wheel:
![van nuys_7871](https://www.alleewillis.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/van-nuys_7871.jpg)
Ancient Athens is also alive in this statuesque motel sign down the street:
![van nuys_7911](https://www.alleewillis.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/van-nuys_7911.jpg)
This building may not have Greek columns but that fake wall is pretty classic:
![van nuys_7898](https://www.alleewillis.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/van-nuys_7898.jpg)
I love round buildings when they come with a matching car:
![van nuys_7880](https://www.alleewillis.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/van-nuys_7880.jpg)
That scalloped fence would make a nice companion piece to this rooftop:
![van nuys_7935](https://www.alleewillis.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/van-nuys_7935.jpg)
Normally I would be pointing out the features on the 1950’s motel in back of me but all I can see is the crazy position my lips are in, as if someone Photoshopped them on:
![IMG_0471](https://www.alleewillis.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/IMG_0471.jpg)
Let’s pull in tight on that:
![IMG_0471-aw-lips](https://www.alleewillis.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/IMG_0471-aw-lips.jpg)
I’m assuming there are a fair share of lips in weird positions at The Godfather Gentleman’s Club too, just down the street.
![van nuys_7930](https://www.alleewillis.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/van-nuys_7930.jpg)
And finally, there it was, Beeps, the 50’s diner neither of us knew about until hanging a left off of Van Nuys at Sherman Way and spotting this pulsating pillar of pinkness:
![IMG_0502](https://www.alleewillis.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/IMG_0502.jpg)
Double cheeseburger, fries and kitschtastic interiors coming up tomorrow. See you then!
![IMG_0421](https://www.alleewillis.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/IMG_0421.jpg)