Vintage Los Angeles: Sunset Stripped
Remember the L.A.-based private eye series 77 Sunset Strip? The 1950s show was filmed entirely on the Warner Brothers lot, but the opening 30-second sequence was filmed in front of Dino’s Lodge,...
View ArticleVintage Los Angeles: The Moose is Loose!
On September 24, 1961, a gigantic revolving sculpture of the cartoon stars Rocky and Bullwinkle was erected across the street from the world famous Chateau Marmont Hotel, in front of the studios of Jay...
View ArticleVintage Los Angeles: It’s Christmastime at The Capitol Records Building
If there’s one holiday tradition that I enjoy every year, it’s spotting the historic Christmas tree that tops the iconic Capitol Records building on Vine Street in Hollywood. Designed by Ollsen...
View ArticleVintage Los Angeles: The Hidden Remains of Chasen’s Restaurant
If you moved to Los Angeles after 1995, you may not know about Chasen’s—although the restaurant had the stuff Hollywood legends are made of. Located at 9039 Beverly Boulevard near Beverly Hills,...
View ArticleVintage Los Angeles: The Tragedy of Hamburger Hamlet
Hamburger Hamlet in Pasadena will close its doors at 10 p.m. tonight. Tomorrow, the location will be taken over by Du-Par’s, and there will only be one Hamburger Hamlet left from the original...
View ArticleVintage Los Angeles: How Go-Go Dancing Took Off at The Whisky
The world famous Whisky A Go Go will celebrate its 50th anniversary on Thursday. Considered the first rock ‘n’ roll venue on the Sunset Strip to take chances by booking new and sometimes notorious...
View ArticleBack to Basics: Why the Academy Awards Should Return to the Music Center
Photograph courtesy Welton Becket archives Oscar night used to be cinema’s coolest cocktail party—not a glitzy PR campaign. For those golden years the Academy should thank the Los Angeles Music...
View ArticleVintage Los Angeles: Boys Near the Hood
Caption: Oscar-night chauffeurs watch the 51st Annual Academy Awards on a TV set atop an Eldorado Biarritz outside the Music Center Pavilion on the breezy night of April 10, 1979. Could that actually...
View ArticleVintage Los Angeles: Wild Times at the Safari Inn
The Safari Inn is one of Burbank’s most famous historical landmarks, and still open to the public. This Googie-style oasis has maintained its original retro décor, the recently restored neon sign has...
View ArticleVintage Los Angeles: Fish Shanty and the Kooky Wonderland That Was Restaurant...
The entrance to the Fish Shanty pictured in a screen grab from the 1965 classic The Loved One, starring Robert Morse, Sir John Gielgud, and Liberace A postcard of the exterior circa 1960 courtesy...
View ArticleFlight of Fancy: “Mad Men” Reveals LAX’s Stylish Side
For six seasons Matthew Weiner’s Emmy-sweeping Mad Men used the stark chicness of midcentury Manhattan as its backdrop, but things are getting groovy. The promotional campaign for the final installment...
View ArticleWhat I’ll Remember About Casey Kasem
For those who grew up listening to Casey Kasem on American Top 40, learning about his death (on Father’s Day no less) left a huge hole. Kasem’s career lasted more than four decades and he had millions...
View ArticleFinding the Beat with the Go-Go’s
No all-girl band had ever captured California’s pop and punk sensibility as successfully as the Go-Go’s, whose 1981 debut album, Beauty and the Beat, spawned the hits “We Got the Beat” and “Our Lips...
View Article1984 Didn’t End the World After All
1984 by Ed Ruscha When I drew 1984—in 1967—I was thinking about the book and the talk at the time that Big Brother was watching you. I put that together with these new funny numerals on my check...
View ArticleMötley Crüe Was Here
Since it opened in 1972, the Rainbow Bar & Grill has been one of the few places in Los Angeles where you can be guaranteed a celebrity sighting. Granted, that celebrity may be the bassist of a...
View ArticleThe Mystique of Melrose Avenue
Melrose Avenue was L.A.’s punk rock-era answer to London’s Carnaby Street. By 1983, it had become the gritty pinnacle of West Coast cool, attracting musicians, artists, tourists, and teenagers looking...
View ArticleColossus’s Last Stand: The Wooden Coaster Will Close August 16th
In 1978, the freeway speed limit was 55 miles per hour. Colossus—deemed the world’s fastest wooden roller coaster when it opened at Six Flags Magic Mountain that year—whooshed at a peak speed of 62....
View ArticleThe Viper Room Turns 21
It’s been 21 years since the Viper Room—a place famous for great drinks, legendary music performances, and being where actor River Phoenix tragically overdosed—opened its doors on August 14, 1993. To...
View ArticleThird Street Promenade Before the Gap Even Existed
It’s hardly recognizable (No Starbucks? No Gap?) but this is Third Street Promenade in the ’60s. In fact, the Santa Monica mall looked this way until its facelift in the late ‘80s. The Music Box....
View ArticleIn Memory of the Pan-Pacific Auditorium
The Streamline Moderne structure during the 1970s. Photograph courtesy jahsonic.com I fell in love at first sight on a trip to the Farmer’s Market during the ‘70s. The object of my affection: The...
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