Why, you may ask, am I quoting the great J. Wellington Wimpy?  Well kiddies, it's because I'm hear to talk about hamburgers.....sort of.


But first, a confession.  It is possible to live in a land like Hollywood and, even though a fiend for the history of the place, let certain historical landmarks slip through the fingers.  So my confession:  I've never been to the legendary Barney's Beanery.....until yesterday.

Early 70s looking much the same as today.

What a fool I've been and why, oh why, have I waited so long!  Maybe it was a hangover of feelings regarding 'the infamous sign' (though that was taken down before I even moved to town), but I'd like to think I'm not that shallow.

"Barney", 1964.

And besides, the story goes, Barney put up the sign in the late 40s to appease the LA Sheriff's Dept. and the Alcohol Beverage Control Board who where cracking down on certain 'behaviors' that were happening in certain restrooms of certain establishments all around town.  As there was a gay clientele that frequented the place between then and the mid 80s when the sign was removed, it's clear that nobody paid much attention to the thing.

What folks did pay attention to was great comfort food and drinks served up in an atmosphere of democracy that allowed no more special treatment to Lana Turner than was given to a local milk man.  Here (now as then) all customers are customers; and customers are king.

Okay, now that we've gotten the stupid sign thing out of the way, let's get into the wonders of this burger stand/road house/gin joint/billiard parlor/rock and roll paradise.  This calamitous cacophony of color!

Courtesy of Barney's website.

I was invited over by Barney's very own Historian (and part owner), Sheri Hellard.  Sheri and longtime server Dominique Kadison were my guides through this magical history tour.

Dominique and Sheri.

The first thing I was shown was the endless collection of license plates over the bar.



Back when this place opened in 1927, it was on the last leg of Route 66 and folks who were seeking a new and better life in the golden west began to rip the plate off their flivver and give 'em to Barney, symbolically claiming their arrival.  The gesture has continued over the years.

Along about this point of my visit, lunch was ordered.  Here's a little tip:  arrive hungry.  There are over 1000 items on the menu and you anti-gluten and anti-meat types will be just as satisfyingly stuffed as the rest of us.

For me, double cheeseburger with fries and a small side of chili please.

In this world of 're-imagined classics' it's really nice to scarf a plate of chow that tastes the same as it would have when it was made in the 30s!

I'm not going to go into a long accounting of the history of Barney's because I couldn't write anything better than Domenic Priore.  His article is on Barney's own website here, but I will share a couple of my favorite things from the place.  And I will also tell you that I'll be going back because, even though I was there for 90 minutes, I think I saw about 6% of what there is to see.


Favorite thing No. 1:  Morrison Plaque

The 'here sat Morrison' plaque on the bar tells only half of the story.  Jim left more DNA than just sweaty palm prints.  One night, in what I'm sure was performance art, Morrison relieved himself of the last half-dozen drinks on this spot.  Yes, The Lizard King peed on the top of the bar.


Favorite thing No. 2:  The not-quite-all-seeing-eye


Yup, it's an eyeball.  And, yes, it's nailed to the ceiling over one of the pool tables where, as legend has it, it was surrendered to the victor of a pool game when it was discovered that the One-Eyed Jack, didn't have enough jack to payoff the bet he'd just lost.

Favorite thing No. 3:  Table top Goddess


Once again, direct your eyes to the heavens.  Nailed to the ceiling to protect it from any further molestation is a former tabletop where is carved, "Janis Lyn 70"!  Anyone who knows me knows that Joplin has always been my forever number one.  And on the evening of Oct 3rd, 1970, Barney's was her last stop before boarding the train bound to Fabulon at the Landmark Hotel.

One last thing.  All things being in cosmic synchronicity in a place like Hollywood, at the same moment I was snapping the above picture, Janis Lyn Joplin was posthumously receiving her star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Barney's rules.....peace out.

1949

A story of American Independents.

Six years ago, during the renovation of the Hollywood Palladium a long buried secret emerged.  Under layers of renovated facade was found:


American Recording opened here in '59 or '60.  It was owned by Richie Podolor (who was also the in-house producer)  and Richie's best friend, Bill Cooper, was the engineer.  The biggest thing to come out of the place was "Alley Oop" on Lute records.  The label said it was by The Hollywood Argyles.  The Hollywood Argyles was really Gary Paxton and Kim Fowley and some $25 a day session players.  The story is that since the studio was on the corner of Sunset and Argyle in Hollywood, bingo, The Hollywood Argyles.

By 1961 Lawrence Welk (now the big cheese in residence playing 'champagne music' to hoards of unhipsters every weekend and taping the occasional segment of his television program out of the Palladium) told them they were too noisy and they had to leave.  So move they did.....to Studio City, in the Valley.

Podolor bought a little old building that had been a small Chinese Restaurant (which, incidentally, had been opened in 1940 by genius cinematographer, James Wong Howe!)  and American Recording Co. was reborn on the south side of Ventura Blvd. at Tujunga.

Before I go any further, American has a website with some amazing photos that they do not wish to be re-used and I intend to honor that, but make sure to visit their site.  I mean, check this out, Richie Podolor was the first one to ever place a mic inside a kick drum!

So, who recorded in that li'l ol' shack between the years of 1961 - 1981?  Well, do the names Donovan, Iron Butterfly, Steppenwolf, 3 Dog Night, Black Oak Arkansas and Alice Cooper ring a bell?  In fact, a lot of Steppenwolf and damn near all of 3 Dog Night.

So now, why am I doing this post?  Well, one day a few months back, I found myself wandering the location of Ventura and Tujunga, where there now exists.....wait for it......a strip mall, and I found on the sidewalk some love letters in the sand. (that is the closest I'll ever come to referencing Pat Boone, I promise)


 

The top photo has the hand written signature of Bill Cooper and the drawing of a guitar that was the symbol Podolor used as his signature.

Mike Curb was there in '63 working with Richie and Bill on The Hondells record along with a virtual Who's Who of the Wrecking Crew like:  Leon Russell, Hal Blaine, Tommy Tedesco, Carol Kaye, Larry Knechtel and Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart.

The irony of Curb's name here is that in the same year, 19 year old Mike Curb started his first company.  It was called Sidewalk Records!

In that same year there was another act working at American.  They too did a little sidewalk scrawin':


It was Frankie Lyman and the Teenagers that inspired 4 Canton, Ohio high school students to form a singing act they called The Triumphs in 1958. In '61, and now called (the less inspired) The Mascots, they recorded for the first time and got some regional radio play.

Things really started to break for them though when they moved to the coast with the new name, The O'Jays.  They were signed to Imperial Records and Producer H.B. Barnum took them into American Recording where "Lonely Drifter" (their first charting single) was immortalized in wax.  While there, their name was immortalized in concrete out front.  This was one of the first times the name The O'Jays was written anywhere and, if you take a walk down Ventura, these 50 years later, it's still there.

All of these names, these legends, in the music industry were once just kids with a dream, a 10 minute break and a block of wet cement.

My moment of demi-celebrity above comes from my participation in an MSN short series "re: discover".  I show off the Hollywood Heritage Lasky DeMille barn to Barney Burman and Amy Gray.  If you are so inclined you can see it here.

No, not that one.  We got a whole different Hazel on tap today.


If you are someday on a quiz program and you are asked (for a one million dollar prize) if a Caucasian movie actress ever appeared on the cover of Jet Magazine.........


You're welcome.

But, love Roz as I do, we need to take a closer look at the other woman with her......Hazel Washington.  What a gal.

Hazel was born in Dallas in 1915.  Somewhere in her early teens she came to Los Angeles and was, by age 16, married to Roscoe (Rocky) Washington.  There seems to be much higher ceilings (opportunity wise) for the Washington clan during those unenlightened days than for other minority families.  Rocky, a member of LAPD was the first uniformed African American to achieve the rank of Lieutenant on the force.  Rocky's brother Julius was a Captain in the Los Angeles Fire Department, and Rocky's nephew Kenny Washington was the first Black pro athlete to sign a contract with the NFL!  So, yes, the fellas did well, but Hazel was no slouch!

By the early thirties, Hazel found employment as a 'movie maid'.  To call the position a maid is really a bit of a misnomer.  The people who did these jobs were really a combination of servant, star chef, personal assistant, and (before the costume departments became unionized) wardrobe mistress.  In quick succession, Hazel worked for Virginia Bruce, Ginger Rogers and the Great Garbo.  But in Hazel's case, the number 4 was the charm.  When Garbo went back to Europe, Rosalind Russell was her next employer.   Russell had been looking for a replacement maid.  Her previous one was a tad, shall we say, star struck.  Roz said that when she would sit down to chat with Clark Gable on a set, her maid would park herself right next to them so she wouldn't miss a word that Gable said.  Further, the woman was fascinated by the camera.  "She wound up in more shots than me!"  None of this was an issue with a seasoned pro like Washington and, as Russell was willing to pay her year round and not just when she was on a picture, Hazel stayed. 

Hazel and Roz (being the women they were) found in short order that they had become good friends in addition to their employment arrangement.  Garbo's entreaties to come back to work for her fell on Hazel's deaf ears.  One day in '36 Hazel came to work carrying a beautifully stylish leather handbag.  Russell raved, wanting to know where it came from.  Hazel told her that she had seen one in a magazine and swooned.  She realized that she could never afford it, so she went to a leather and findings shop, purchased materials and made a copy of it for herself!  Flabbergasted at the workmanship from someone who didn't know the leather goods business, Roz told her friend that she wanted her to go to night school and study the craft and further that Russell would pay for it.

Then in early '41, in the most unlikely of places, Beverly Hills......

The Afro American newspaper, March 14, 1942

For a little perspective, that $100 bag mentioned in the article would be $1500 in today's dollars.  And it was on the low end of prices in the shop.  All of Hollywood flocked to the place.  Bette Davis, Lana Turner, Joan Crawford, Ann Sheridan, Mary Livingstone, and Lena Horne were clients.  Hazel did a custom order of gloves, made to measure, for Gable.  There was a portable bar in black kangaroo skin for Van Johnson at $250.  Picture frames in powder blue suede.


The shop didn't last very long, but not because of poor sales.  It was because leather became increasingly difficult to get during the war.  While planning their next business move, Russell and Washington continued the old arrangement of Star and maid.  Around this time (because apparently there was nothing Hazel couldn't do) Washington also became the first licensed hairdresser hired by the studios to do black hair for such films as "Cabin In The Sky" and "Stormy Weather".

Finally, as both Hazel and Roz were a wiz with the knitting needles, they started a business of handmade luxury cashmere knitwear trimmed, typically in beads, sequins, lace or fur.  That is the business that the Jet cover article above talks about.  You can read the full article here.

Hazel Washington's fabulous life doesn't stop there.  I found continued mentions about her. 

1959 - Rocky and Hazel celebrate their 28th wedding anniversary at Lionel Hampton's opening at Hollywood's Moulin Rouge.

1965 - Hazel has a furrier design a full length lavender mink coat.

1966 - While attending a Shriner's convention in Manhattan, the Washingtons occupy the duplex penthouse of the New York Hilton at a cost of $500 per day.

And this little item from 1962:




The last mention I can find anywhere of Hazel was squib in the Baltimore Afro-American from 1979.  It said that Hazel was planning, with the help of a Paul Gardner, to write her biography.  It doesn't appear that the book ever happened though.  And that, dear readers, is certainly our loss.

Twenty years ago (how on earth can that be) I worked as the Costume Supervisor on the short-lived "Ben Stiller Show". 



Being a sketch comedy show, especially one fueled by the rapid-fire minds of Ben; Judd Apatow; Jeff Kahn; Janeane Garofalo; Bob Odenkirk; etc., my memory of it is one fast blur.  I don't think I sat down once during all the months of the job.

We shot on what is called, the Hollywood Center Studios.  It's a little, nondescript independent lot on Santa Monica Blvd. at Las Palmas Street.


As an indie lot, it may have had something of a scrappy, cheesy reputation.  And yes, during that hallowed, banner year of 1939 while the big guys were churning out history like Gone With The Wind and Mr. Smith Goes To Washington our little lot was creating the epic, Sunset Trail with Hopalong Cassidy and Gabby Hayes.  But Make No Mistake:  history - important history - happened there too.


In 1919, Jasper Johns, a former associate of Charlie Chaplin, built three production stages and several bungalows on a 16.5 acre site in Hollywood and named it Hollywood Studios Inc. The first stages resembled hot houses with steel frames, cloth walls, glass roofs and clerestory windows.  It also had one of the first 'sound' stages in town, built for the princely sum of half a million dollars in late '26.  Other studios would rent it for production while their own sound facilities were being built.

It was once the home of Monogram and of Educational for a few minutes until it settled into a long run under the name of General Service Studios (catchy name).

Funny business happened here in spades.  Silent comedy legends Charley Chase and Harold Lloyd made merriment here.  And during the sound era Mae West, Laurel & Hardy and The Marx Brothers made movies here.

It all wasn't just a barrel of laughs though, Howard Hughes film (first as a silent, then reshot with sound) Hell's Angeles was made here with baby Jean Harlow. As well as the Korda Brothers setting up camp for Larry and Viv in That Hamilton Woman.

The 70s saw the productions What's The Matter With Helen, Save The Tiger and Shampoo. In the early 80s the lot was the property of Coppola's Zoetrope.  The Outsiders and Rumblefish were produced here.

But it's real claim to fame is the Golden Age of Television!  Get a load of this list:

Perry Mason, Mr. Ed, The Addams Family, The Beverly Hillbillies, Petticoat Junction, Green Acres, Ozzie & Harriet, Our Miss Brooks, and The Lone Ranger to name a few.

We shot on Stage 2, which is more commonly known as:


Yep. That's right, I got to breath that rarefied air that Lucy, Desi, Viv and Bill used for the first two seasons of the show.

In the picture below, we see the inside of Stage 2 and the blackened doorway on the left of the first floor build-out was my office. (it's still there!!) The door on the right next to it was used by the Art Department and if memory serves me, those upstairs rooms weren't built yet.



TV got it's start there from the jump when George Burns brought he and Gracie's show onto Stage 3 in 1948.


45 years after he first walked onto that lot, and at the tender age of 96, Mr. Burns still had an office in a courtyard on the lot that he would come to for about an hour or so every day.  I know this first hand because one day, in the middle of a typically hectic day, I found myself in here:


peeing next to George Burns!  And, all kidding and snarky-ness aside, it was one of the most amazing moments of my life.  "How ah ya taday kid?" he wanted to know.  We exchanged small talk and as I was leaving, I stuttered out, "Goodbye Mr. Burns, have a terrific day." to which he replied, "Kid, at this age, what else am I gonna do?  See ya."


I hadn't thought about this stuff in so long when right before Christmas, my dear friend and neighbor, Charlie, and I were running around one day.  Charlie now works on a show on that lot and he wanted to run by to pick up his paycheck.  We were walking around the place swapping stories about what it was like working there now, versus 20 years ago, and he said, "how long has it been since you visited the sidewalk in the courtyard?"

Well wouldn't you know it, he showed me something I'd never seen before.


Here, in the lovely courtyard of writers and producers offices (where I'm convinced the celestial light rays indicate that George is still here), scrawled into the sidewalk from the long ago afternoon of November 6th, 1954:

In 1928, the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce came up with a brilliant idea to drive up shopping traffic along their big commercial corridor of Hollywood Blvd.  A Christmas Parade!!!

So they got America's Sweetheart to do a little advance press and Viola!  Hollywood Blvd. magically became Santa Claus Lane.


Decorations festooned the corridor and crowds gathered for what, as it turned out, wasn't much of a parade.


That first year, aside from the lovely decorations, the 'parade' consisted of what you see above, one sleigh pulled by a couple of union reindeers from the Screen Reindeers Guild and the loot in the sleigh was a little known starlet named Jeanette Loff and.......Santa Claus.

Well Santa Claus was the star of this show, and he delivered the shoppers, and so the Santa Claus Lane Parade became an annual tradition.  Santa's appearance was always the climax of the parade that sent the crowds into paroxysms of glee.  It grew every year until it included big-named stars by the score.  And there is the famous story of Cowboy Star Gene Autry riding in the parade just in front of Santa in 1946.  After a couple of blocks of hearing children shrieking "Here Comes Santa Claus! Here Comes Santa Claus", Autry gets a notion and, a new Holiday Carol is born.

So the parade is only one night but for almost a month each year, Hollywood residents and visitors alike have been treated to a sweet and magical "Santa Claus Lane"


Just Look!:







No matter how seedy and downtrodden Hollywood ultimately became, the old girl still got tarted up and stirred a little sparkle.  By the mid 1980s, when Hollywood and the Boulevard were little more than an open air drug bazaar, and looked like Beirut on a rough day, from Thanksgiving on at least, there was still a little shiny-shiny going on:



At the beginning of the new century, the word was: Hollywood is experiencing a rebirth!  And Santa Claus Lane jumped on board tying together Holidays and the Cinema!:



So by 2012, you must be thinking, it's got to be STUPENDOUS!  Well, brother, would you ever be wrong.  I took this picture today from the northeast corner of Hollywood and Cahuenga looking west and, as you can see, zilch!


It could be any ol' day of the year, but certainly not smack in the middle of the Holiday Shopping Season!  Why even the sky looks like it's going to cry.

So Hollywood Chamber Of Commerce, what are you doing with aaaaallll that money you charge folks to be members, that you can't string up a few damn lights and a strand or two of tinsel?  Huh?

Dateline:  Los Angeles, Thanksgiving Week


I just checked the weather.  Mid 70s to low 80s all week and through the weekend.

Are you visiting here?  Do you live here and have friends or relatives in for the holiday?  Or are you having a life-as-usual week and looking for a little something to brighten it up?  Well then this is probably the ideal week to find out exactly what "The Best Hollywood Walking Tour" is all about!

It's brainy, it's funny, it's fascinating and there's not a cheesy tourist-trap on the whole darn thing.  I will be closed on Thanksgiving day because even a researcher likes a little cranberry sauce but, other than that - tours, tours, tours!


So why not join Fred, Rita, Van, Me and all the other spirits that we'll awaken from the legendary days of Film, Radio, TV and Records for a walk.  You could use a walk in the fresh air with all you'll be eating this week anyhow.

Last evening, I wandered up to Hollywood Blvd. to attend a book signing.  Great fun it was, too.

Me and Author Randy Schmidt

Randy is the knowledge king of The Carpenters and his books are terrific.  His latest is “Yesterday Once More-the Carpenters Reader, (revised & expanded)”.  This book, along with his Karen bio, “Little Girl Blue”, will tell you everything your Karen and Richard lovin' heart need to know!



We all know that Hollywood is, and always has been, the home of movies, radio, records and television.  But here's the funny thing, for years Hollywood Blvd. was actually a mecca for..........books!  That's right, book buyers and book readers could browse by the hour though any number of terrific (and now legendary) bookshops along the boulevard like Pickwick, Stanley Rose, Larry Edmunds, Cherokee and Book City.   However, between corporate booksellers and, finally, the internet, the civilized recreation of book shopping is almost as extinct as the wide-track Pontiac.

There is one remaining holdout on the Boulevard and it's a beaut:


Let's walk in shall we.



The Larry Edmunds Bookshop opened in 1938 in a Cahuenga Blvd. location.  But it was sometime in the 1950s when the magic happened.  It was now located on Hollywood and the owners wife, Git Luboviski, hit on the idea of putting together a small brochure of featured books that all had one theme in common -- they were all cinema related.  And when all the titles sold out lickety-split a new Larry Edmunds was born.  By the mid '60s it was exclusively a cinema bookshop.  Hey, let's meet the proprietor!


This is my friend Jeffrey Mantor.  An employee of the store since '91, Jeff has been the owner for the last several years.  And yes, he has a Rita Hayworth tattoo on his arm.  Maybe the Anita Ekberg tattoo needed company.

These days, in addition to film, the shop offers titles on tv, music and theater as well.  And books aren't the only thing on offer, by a long shot.  An incredibly comprehensive inventory of collectible memorabilia, in all price points, is on hand too!

Just a few of the hundreds of files containing 8x10 stills

These are copies and are only $6 each!  There's zillions of originals too.

Vintage Fan Magazines anyone?

Posters, lobby cards, one-sheets!

If you live in the area or are planning a visit, scamper over to 6644 Hollywood Blvd., treat yourself to civilized browse and buy yourself a present.  You deserve it and the bookstore deserves your business.