Randy's Donuts is a bakery and a landmark building in

Inglewood, California Inglewood is a city in southwestern Los Angeles County, California, in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. As of the 2020 U.S. Census, the city had a population of 107,762. It was incorporated on February 14, 1908. The city is in the South Bay ...

which is near

Los Angeles International Airport Los Angeles International Airport , commonly referred to as LAX (with each letter pronounced individually), is the primary international airport serving Los Angeles, California and its surrounding metropolitan area. LAX is located in the W ...

. It is built in a style that dates to a period in the early 20th century that saw a proliferation of programmatic architecture throughout

Southern California Southern California (commonly shortened to SoCal) is a geographic and cultural region that generally comprises the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. It includes the Los Angeles metropolitan area, the second most populous urban ...

. This style had its heyday from the mid-1920s to the mid-1930s. By the 1950s however, the trend of designing structures in the shape of the product sold there had changed to focus on signs rather than architecture itself. Randy's is represented by a giant doughnut on the roof of an otherwise ordinary

drive-in A drive-in is a facility (such as a restaurant or movie theater) where one can drive in with an automobile for service. At a drive-in restaurant, for example, customers park their vehicles and are usually served by staff who walk or rollersk ...

that is a dedicated doughnut bakery. The building was designed by Henry J. Goodwin. Colossal donut signs atop Randy's stores vary in size. Most locations use a diameter version that sits atop the building and faces an intersection. In ''Roadside Giant'' by Brian and Sarah Butko, the Weintraubs climbed on top of the doughnut with a tape measure and confirmed the measurements for the authors. The Bellflower and Reseda locations, however, feature a smaller version of the doughnut on top of a pole in front of the building. This may be in diameter, as is widely reported. The 24-hour drive-in is at 805 West Manchester Boulevard and it intersects with

La Cienega Boulevard La Cienega Boulevard is a major north–south arterial road that runs between El Segundo Boulevard in Hawthorne, California on the south and the Sunset Strip/ Sunset Boulevard in West Hollywood to the north. It was named for Rancho Las Cien ...

. It is near the Manchester Boulevard off-ramp of the San Diego Freeway (

I-405 Interstate 405 may refer to: * Interstate 405 (California), a bypass of Los Angeles, California * Interstate 405 (Oregon) Interstate 405 (I-405), also known as the Stadium Freeway No. 61, is a short north–south Interstate Highway in Portl ...

History

In the late 1940s, doughnut machine salesman Russell Wendell founded a chain of drive-in doughnut shops named Big Donut. The first location opened in 1951 in Westmont. The second location which is now a Randy's Donuts, was opened in 1952. Designed by architect Henry Goodwin and structural engineer Richard Bradshaw, the rooftop doughnut is constructed out of rolled steel bars covered with gunite. In 1976, after shifting focus to his Pup 'N' Taco chain (bought by Taco Bell in 1984), Wendell sold the Big Donut Inglewood location to Robert Eskow who renamed the location "Randy's Donuts" after his son. In 1978, Eskow sold the shop to Ron and Larry Weintraub, who decided to retain the name for the business. In 2015, Randy's Donuts was purchased by lawyer and entrepreneur Mark Kelegian. Since that time the brand has added franchise locations in Southern California,

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...

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, and

Las Vegas Las Vegas (; Spanish language, Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the List of United States cities by population, 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the U.S. state, state of Neva ...

. File:Randy's Donuts, Inglewood, California LCCN2017709530.tif, Randy's Donuts, Inglewood, 1991 File:Endeavour-Randy's Donuts 10 12 12.JPG, The Randy's Donuts sign alongside Space Shuttle ''Endeavour'' as it is ferried through the streets of Los Angeles on Friday, October 12, 2012. File:Randy's Donuts, Los Angeles.jpg, Actor and comedian

Jimmie Walker James Carter Walker Jr. (born June 25, 1947) is an American actor and comedian. Walker portrayed James Evans Jr. ("J.J."), the older son of Florida and James Evans Sr., on the CBS television series '' Good Times'', which ran from 1974 to 197 ...

with brothers Ron and Larry Weintraub, 2013 File:Randy's Donut LA seen from Air.jpg, Randy's Donuts can be seen from airplanes landing at LAX (center left, near cars waiting at

Manchester Boulevard Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The two ...

). Click on photo to see larger version.

In popular culture

The building was featured in the films ''

Earth Girls Are Easy ''Earth Girls Are Easy'' is a 1988 American science fiction musical romantic comedy film that was produced by Tony Garnett, Duncan Henderson, and Terrence E. McNally and was directed by Julien Temple. The film stars Geena Davis, Julie Brown ...

'', '' Entourage'', ''

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'', '' Into the Night'''', '' Stripped to Kill'', ''

Problem Child 2 ''Problem Child 2'' is a 1991 American black comedy film, and a sequel to the 1990 film '' Problem Child''; a continuation of the exploits of Junior ( Michael Oliver), an adopted orphan boy who deliberately wreaks comedic havoc everywhere he goes ...

'', ''

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'', '' The Kissing Booth 3'', ''

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'', ''

2012 File:2012 Events Collage V3.png, From left, clockwise: The passenger cruise ship Costa Concordia lies capsized after the Costa Concordia disaster; Damage to Casino Pier in Seaside Heights, New Jersey as a result of Hurricane Sandy; People gather ...

'', ''

Iron Man 2 ''Iron Man 2'' is a 2010 American superhero film based on the Marvel Comics character Iron Man. Produced by Marvel Studios and distributed by Paramount Pictures, it is the sequel to ''Iron Man'' (2008) and the third film in the Marvel Cinem ...

'',Geoff Boucher
Sweet! The story behind that ‘Iron Man 2′ doughnut scene
Hero Complex, Los Angeles Times, 2010-04-10 ''

Get Shorty ''Get Shorty'' is a 1990 novel by American novelist Elmore Leonard. In 1995, the novel was adapted into a film of the same name, and in 2017 it was adapted into a television series of the same name. Plot summary The story centers on Ernest ...

'', ''

Volcano A volcano is a rupture in the crust of a planetary-mass object, such as Earth, that allows hot lava, volcanic ash, and gases to escape from a magma chamber below the surface. On Earth, volcanoes are most often found where tectonic plates ...

'', ''

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'', '' Escape from Petropolis'', ''

Blood In Blood Out ''Blood In Blood Out'' (also known as ''Bound by Honor'' and ''Blood In Blood Out: Bound By Honor'') is a 1993 American epic crime drama film directed by Taylor Hackford that has become a cult-classic film with a cult following among the Mexican ...

'', '' Dope'', and '' Love Letters''. It can be seen briefly with other world-famous monuments in the '' Futurama'' episode "When Aliens Attack". It was also featured in the music videos for

Becky G Rebbeca Marie Gomez (born March 2, 1997), known professionally as Becky G, is an American singer and actress. She first gained recognition in 2011 when she began posting videos of herself covering popular songs online. One of her videos caught t ...

's " Becky from the Block",

Randy Newman Randall Stuart Newman (born November 28, 1943) is an American singer-songwriter, arranger, composer, and pianist known for his Southern-accented singing style, early Americana-influenced songs (often with mordant or satirical lyrics), and vari ...

's "

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" and The Prodigy's " Wind It Up", as well as the music video for

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' " Californication". Similar buildings with giant donuts, under different names, are featured in the video games '' Midnight Club: Los Angeles'', '' Need for Speed: Most Wanted'', ''

City of Heroes ''City of Heroes'' (''CoH'') was a massively multiplayer online role-playing game which was developed by Cryptic Studios and published by NCSOFT. The game was launched in North America on April 28, 2004, and in Europe by NCsoft Europe on Febru ...

'', and '' Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas'' as well as in "

Marge vs. the Monorail "Marge vs. the Monorail" is the twelfth episode of the fourth season of the American animated television series ''The Simpsons''. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on January 14, 1993. The plot revolves around Springfie ...

", an episode of ''

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'', and in the film ''

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''. Garth can be seen slurping jelly from a Randy's Donut in

Wayne's World "Wayne's World" was originally a recurring sketch from the NBC television series ''Saturday Night Live''. It evolved from a segment titled "Wayne's Power Minute" (1987) on the CBC Television series '' It's Only Rock & Roll'', as the main characte ...

. In ''

Steven Universe ''Steven Universe'' is an American animated television series created by Rebecca Sugar for Cartoon Network. It tells the coming-of-age story of a young boy, Steven Universe ( Zach Callison), who lives with the Crystal Gems—magical, miner ...

'', a building known as the "Big Donut" was shown in the show. The iconic structure was shown on the

History Channel History (formerly The History Channel from January 1, 1995 to February 15, 2008, stylized as HISTORY) is an American pay television network and flagship channel owned by A&E Networks, a joint venture between Hearst Communications and the Dis ...

series ''

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'', showing what would happen to the building without human repair. The building was shown in the ''

Masked Rider The Masked Rider is the primary mascot of Texas Tech University. It is the oldest of the university's mascots still in existence today. Originally called "Ghost Rider", it was an unofficial mascot appearing in a few games in 1936 and then became ...

'' Episode "Ferbus Maximus" where an overgrown Ferbus takes the giant doughnut and tries to eat it, only to reject it for being fake. The building's famous doughnut can be spotted in the scene changes of the

Nickelodeon Nickelodeon (often shortened to Nick) is an American pay television television channel, channel which launched on April 1, 1979, as the first cable channel for children. It is run by Paramount Global through its List of assets owned by Param ...

sitcom ''

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''. In the episode " Pier Pressure" of ''

Arrested Development The term "arrested development" has had multiple meanings for over 200 years. In the field of medicine, the term "arrested development" was first used, ''circa'' 1835–1836, to mean a stoppage of physical development; the term continues to be use ...

'', in a sequence showing Buster's medical trial for

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, medical marijuana, a picture is shown of Buster standing next to Randy's Donuts on the roof attempting to eat his way through it. The doughnut sign appears in the animated short film '' Logorama''. The store was mentioned in ''

The Big Bang Theory ''The Big Bang Theory'' is an American television sitcom created by Chuck Lorre and Bill Prady, both of whom served as executive producers on the series, along with Steven Molaro, all of whom also served as head writers. It premiered on CBS ...

'' as Howard (

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) tells of a prank pulled on Sheldon (

Jim Parsons James Joseph Parsons (born March 24, 1973) is an American actor. From 2007 to 2019, he played Sheldon Cooper in the CBS sitcom ''The Big Bang Theory''. He has received various awards, including four Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Lea ...

) while pretending to be Dr. Stephen Hawking to meet at the Randy's Donut at 2 in the morning. The building was used in Ken Block's "Gymkhana 7" video. On 4 July 2017, Inglewood

rapcore Rap rock is a fusion genre that fuses vocal and instrumental elements of hip hop music, hip hop with various forms of rock music, rock. Rap rock's most popular subgenres include rap metal and rapcore, which include heavy metal music, heavy metal ...

band

Fever 333 Fever 333 (or the Fever 333) is an American rock band formed in Inglewood, California, United States, in July 2017. The three-piece band was founded by former Letlive vocalist Jason Aalon Butler, former the Chariot guitarist Stephen Harrison ...

had their first public performance in a

U-Haul U-Haul is an American moving truck, trailer, and self-storage rental company, based in Phoenix, Arizona, that has been in operation since 1945. The company was founded by Leonard Shoen in Ridgefield, Washington, who began it in the garage o ...

truck in the shop's parking lot. In the pilot episode of ''

The Bernie Mac Show ''The Bernie Mac Show'' (often shortened to ''Bernie Mac'' in syndication) is an American sitcom television series created by Larry Wilmore, that aired on Fox for five seasons from November 14, 2001 to April 14, 2006. The series featured Berni ...

'', in '' Californication'', and in ''

Runaways Runaway, Runaways or Run Away may refer to: Engineering * Runaway reaction, a chemical reaction releasing more heat than what can be removed and becoming uncontrollable * Thermal runaway, self-increase of the reaction rate of an exothermic proce ...

''.

References

External links

* with additional photos
Map of (Former) Big Do-Nut Drive-Ins that are still standing

Photo of the original chain founder and owner Russ Wendell

Newspaper Photo of a Big Do-nut Drive-In from the 1950s
{{Inglewood, California Bakeries of California Buildings and structures in Inglewood, California Doughnut shops in the United States Individual signs in the United States Landmarks in Los Angeles County, California Novelty buildings in California Restaurants established in 1953 Restaurants in Greater Los Angeles Tourist attractions in Inglewood, California 1953 establishments in California

History

In popular culture

See also

References

External links