[Lively music playing] Was Los Angeles invented for the automobile, or was the automobile invented for Los Angeles?

And was it a marriage made in heaven or in hell?

We'll see.

But we have the wide-open spaces, the year-round sunshine, no snow, seldom mud, lots of nearby fuel, and the restless urge to see and do.

So, away we went in our merry motorcars to make the first real driving city.

Everything we see and do and say and are begins and ends with our cars.

We were going to reminisce about some of the wonderful old drive-ins which aren't here anymore, but historian Alan Hess says they are more than nostalgia.

They are culture.

Alan: Over the decades, through trial and error, through experiment, Los Angeles got to know how to design for the car.

Buildings would be shaped for the automobile, the drive-in restaurants particularly, which came along in Los Angeles in the late 1920's, really had their heyday in the 1930's.

These were service stations on the roadsides for people who were living in their automobiles.

Ralph: The drive-in menu was burgers, fries, and a shake, but the delivery system was a beautiful, sexy Los Angeles invention, the carhop.

[Music playing] Carhops aren't here anymore, but all of us guys miss them.

Don't be offended if I say Los Angeles has the best and the worst architecture in the world and a lot of funny buildings in between.

We like edible architecture, hot dog stands that look like hot dogs.

But if we miss all of those funny old buildings, maybe somebody ate them.

[Music playing]