Paradise Center
Fresno, CA
Photo courtesy Mary Patterson

Cruising along Fresno’s busy Blackstone Avenue, check out the space-age sign for Paradise Center. The tall roadside marquee originally featured several yellow plastic balls mounted on metal stalks, giving the whole thing a playful Googie look. It must have been hard to miss when all those “ballies” were still hanging around.

The sign probably dates from the 1950s or 1960s, when shopping centers used towering shapes and bright colors to pull motorists off the road. Paradise Center remains an active neighborhood shopping strip, with longtime tenant Paradise Liquor helping keep the old name alive.

Over the years, however, the marquee began losing some of its character. One yellow ball disappeared between 2008 and 2013, and the others eventually followed.

UPDATE: By 2020, all of the yellow balls and their supporting poles had been removed. The stripped-down sign still stands along Blackstone Avenue, though it has lost much of the space-age decoration seen in the earlier photo. 09-26

United Artists Cinema (Gone)
Fresno, CA
Photo by RoadsidePeek.com

Fans of Alan Hess and his classic book Googie: Fifties Coffee Shop Architecture may recognize this towering sign for the United Artists Cinema in Fresno. With its sweeping lines, sharp angles, and giant UA letters, the marquee looked like something ready to launch from the side of Blackstone Avenue.

The sign became a familiar example of California’s space-age roadside style, gaining a little architectural celebrity after appearing in Hess’s book. It continued advertising movies long after signs this dramatic had fallen out of fashion.

UPDATE: The United Artists theater closed during the late 1990s, and the property was eventually redeveloped. Unfortunately, its famous Googie sign was removed and demolished rather than preserved. 09-26

Westgate Plaza
Merced, CA
Photo courtesy Jimmy Bowman

Standing tall in a Central Valley parking lot is the old sign for Westgate Plaza in Merced. The big pylon once helped announce that shoppers had arrived at one of the newest places in town. Even with its tenant panels changed over the years, it still has the unmistakable look of an old neighborhood shopping-center sign.

Westgate opened around 1960 and is remembered as Merced’s first suburban strip mall. Its early lineup included Gottschalks, Newberry’s, Thrifty Drug, Karl’s Shoes, and Purity Grocery. That was enough shopping to keep local families busy without having to head into downtown.

There is also a little Central Valley weather history connected to the property. An earlier Westgate sign included a clock, but it reportedly blew down during a powerful windstorm on February 26, 1973. The sign seen here may have been its replacement.

UPDATE: Westgate Plaza remains open with a new generation of stores. The surviving sign may or may not still be there. 09-26