User:Jsevush/Casa de cadillac

Casa de Cadillac is a Cadillac dealership located on 14401 Ventura Boulevard, in Sherman Oaks, CA. Due to its classic Googie architecture and tenure in the area since 1949, Casa de Cadillac has become an architectural landmark in the San Fernando Valley.

History
Casa de Cadillac opened in 1949 at 14401 Ventura Boulevard in Sherman Oaks, CA. The dealership has operated continuously in the same facility since that time until today. The original dealership was part of the Don Lee Cadillac operations, a dealer group that operated Cadillac dealerships throughout the state of California, including major cities such as Fresno, Sacramento, Oakland, San Francisco, Pasadena, and Los Angeles.

Ownership of Casa de Cadillac passed from Lee to Martin Pollard in the early 1950's. Pollard was influential in local business and an active member of the San Fernando Valley community. He served at various times as the President of Valley Presbyterian Hospital, President of the Sherman Oaks Chamber of Commerce, the first chairman of the Los Angeles Metropolitan Transit Authority. In 1959, Pollard was the first ever recipient of the "Fernando Award" in 1959, awarded by the Fernando Award Foundation, Inc. in recognition of outstanding community volunteerism in the San Fernando Valley. Upon Pollard's death in the late 1960's, the Sherman Oaks branch of the Los Angeles Public Library was named in his honor.

After Pollard's death, James Wilson became president of Casa de Cadillac and was active in its daily operations from 1963 until 2008. During that time Casa Automotive Group (the parent company of Casa de Cadillac) acquired several additional franchises (Buick, GMC, Saab, Subaru, Hummer, and Kia).

In 2008, Wilson passed ownership to his daughter and son-in-law, Susan and Howard Drake. Howard Drake currently runs daily operations for Casa Automotive Group and Casa de Cadillac.

Architecture
Designed by Randall Duell in 1948, Casa de Cadillac is now considered a prime example of Googie Architecture. It has been included in modern architectural walking tours organized by the Modern Committee of the Los Angeles Conservancy and Los Angeles Times and has become a popular location for photography and filming.

Popular Culture
- In Michael Bay's Transformers, the character Jazz drops down from the roof of the Casa De Cadillac dealership before transforming into vehicle form and meeting with the other Autobots and Bumblebee's location.

- In the 1985 Arnold Schwarzenegger action film, Commando, the character Cooke commandeers a Cadillac and drives it through the display window.