Dinosaur Gertie's Ice Cream of Extinction was built as a tribute to Gertie the Dinosaur, one of the first well-known animated cartoon stars. Gertie first amazed vaudeville audiences in 1914 when she was projected life-size onto a screen and shared the stage with her creator, Winsor McCay. The building's themed style is known as California Crazy architecture, a style that became popular in the 1930's and was designed to attract the attention of potential customers in a big way.