Metro Angeleno Baby Bomers: Helm's Bakery Vans

For those of us Metro Los Angeles raised baby boomers before the late 60s,  I'm sure you like me have pleasant memories of the daily Helm's Bakery yellow panel vans traveling throughout Los Angeles. Helm's Bakery catapulted to fame in 1932 when their Roman bread loaves was selected as the official bread of the  Olympics held in the L A Colisseum that year. 
 
Every morning the Helm's man would announce his arrival with their singular sounding horn-whistle tooting. Mothers and children would run out to meet him, the driver would stop, get out, walk around to the back of the van open the doors and pull out the extra long wooden drawers that ran the length of the van. They contained bread, rolls, buns, doughnuts, cookies, pastries, cinnamon rolls etc, all freshly baked earlier that morning in one of the 2 Helm's Bakeries, one in Montebello that served my home town of Pasadena and other San Gabriel Valley and east side communities, the main bakery was in Culver City-the west side and nowadays is a great jazz and music venue known as the Jazz Bakery.
 
After the demise of the Helm's Bakery :>) in the early 70s, i would see former Helm's Bakery GMC panel vans converted to surfers wagons, hippies vans and all sorts of utility trucks

Toot Toot!  Mike's coming, Mom!  Toot Toot!

I lived near the intersection of Venice and Sepulveda and Mike would show up around 4PM, five days a week.

Sure would love to have the recipe for their walnut squares.

Also loved the chocolate donuts.

Did you get to tour the Helms Bakery and get your little loaf of bread and cardboard truck?

The aroma of bread baking when driving down Venice Bl was the best!

mar52


Toot Toot!  Mike's coming, Mom!  Toot Toot!

I lived near the intersection of Venice and Sepulveda and Mike would show up around 4PM, five days a week.

Sure would love to have the recipe for their walnut squares.

Also loved the chocolate donuts.

Did you get to tour the Helms Bakery and get your little loaf of bread and cardboard truck?

The aroma of bread baking when driving down Venice Bl was the best!

 
My Helm's van man arrived around 8am, but I know folks that like you had a late afernoon delivery. Based on your location you got goods from the home bakery so maybe Mike was on the way back to the bakery ending his day when he stopped in your neighborhood. I drove by the main bakery with my parent and then eventually as a young adult in the late 60s and early 70s but I never toured it although I've been there many times in its present jazz club venue
 
My vans came from the Montebello bakery branch as I am a lifelong Pasadenan. I recall that for the days leading up to the Tournament of Roses Parade Helm's would bake some Rose Parade cookies with a candy rose petal on top, over the years Helm's had a float in the world's greatest parade held every January 1st.
 
You are correct, Helm's chocolate doughnuts were by far the best I've ever had, better than any of the well known national or regional doughnut stand chains or from any of the indy donuts shops I've had over the decades across the country in my travels.
 
Runner up were the original Van de Kamp's pastries
 


 

We lived near 154th and Crenshaw a couple of blocks from El Camino College. We had the same delivery driver for over ten years. Other than several school field trips to the Culver City Bakery (and Farmer's Market/CBS TV City) my one recollection of the Helms Bakery Driver was when I was home from SEA in 1962 on 30 days Recup.Leave, The HELMS Driver brought me a special "Purple Heart" cake (to my door) to welcome me home. He ordered it himself..not from my family. I really thought that was a big deal at the time.

Helms Bakery was a real special business in SoCal back in the 50's & 60's!

You were right.  It was and is still a big deal.

Remember the Bronze Helmsman out in front of the Bakery?  It was between the eastbound and westbond lanes of Venice.

We often drove by it and I always thought he was my uncle. When they improved Venice Bl it really troubled me.  I thought my uncle was gone for good.

Now he resides in the Marina down the street from me. 

I was a weird child.'

And you are also right.  I've never had a chocolate doughnut as good as those that I got from Mike and I've tried many across the country!

oh yes - I remember - truck would come by where I lived on 79th Street between Vermont and Normandie across the street from where Pepperdine College used to be located.  The beautiful wooden trays inside the truck that would pull out - loved the jelly doughnuts - took the tour on a school field trip - got the little loaf of bread.

did you know? the L.A. Museum of Science and Industry in Exposition Park had a restored Helms Bakery truck in its historic autos collection on the lower floor a few years ago - was fun to see - wonder if they still have it on display?

We lived at 118th and Yukon in South Inglewood, and I would anticipate that whistle with drooling mouth. I'll never forget the sweet smell that issued forth as the Helmsman swung open that back door and pulled out those long, wooden drawers. All I had eyes for were the maple bars, the rainbow sprinkled cake doughnuts, and the jelly filled raised glazed.

Nothing has changed. That's where my eyes go to this day when I'm in a doughnut store.


EDIT: On Sundays, my Dad would take us to The Big Donut on Manchester (now called Randy's Donuts) for a big, pink box of assorted cakes to take back home. He wouldn't let us eat in the car, so I'm pretty sure he could have been charged with child torture for making us smell those aromatic oliebollen on the trip back to the house.

I wasn't raised in SoCal, but my aunt lived there. She would bring us a box of Helms doughnuts, carried by her on the plane, several times a year when she visited. My favorite were the buttermilk.  Second place was the maple bars. They were soooo good.