Echo Park, Los Angeles - 100 Years Ago

Echo Park Lake - from a family photo album - July 1910

Echo Park Picnic - from a family photo album - July 4, 1910 or 1913

Echo Park Kodachrome slide - from Madge Donohue's photo album - 1959

My friend Madge in front of her Clinton St. house, Kodachrome slide - 1959

Echo Park Lake, digital snapshot from condo across the street - 2010

On a muggy day in July of 1910 friends and family gather at the Echo Park Lake in the city of Los Angeles for an afternoon of conversation, food and celebration. Among the lotus leaves, a three legged dog swims after a stick, propelled into the lake by his owner and just as quickly, returned to him for another go around. Two old men engage in a game of checkers on an old wooden board which is hand colored with black and red squares. They pass a flask back and forth and ponder each other’s next move on the homemade checkerboard. One is an out of work carpenter that will soon be working at the Mack Sennett Studios and the other is a drifter from Muncie, Indiana. On the other side of the lake, a group of girls gather under a palm tree and softly whisper to each other about a young man that is riding his bicycle around the lake. He is but 23 years of age, with a slim build and is wearing a straw hat and the only coat he owns, a wool button-down that is much more suited for the winters of Iowa where he has recently arrived from. The whispers quickly turn to giggles as his straw hat escapes him and blows into the lake where it floats away to the center of the water and away from reach. Off in the distance the humming of the oil derricks that are rich in Echo Park can be heard, as a lone Victorian home barely in its teenage years sits atop of the hill overlooking the festivities of the day. A loud bell is rung by the matriarch of the family that has gathered at the lake this afternoon signaling that food is being served. As two dozen friends and family members make their way to the picnic area, the drifter from Indiana abruptly ends his game of checkers and roams to the site of the picnic where he politely asks to be fed, his breath smells of rye.

It's July 1910 in Echo Park and a few years later the sounds of heavy construction will dominate the neighborhood as Aimee Semple McPherson’s Angelus Temple begins to take shape across the street from the lake on Glendale Blvd. In the mid century decade, the West Coast sounds of Art Pepper’s alto saxophone could be heard in the late evening hours as he plays his horn on the porch of his Echo Park craftsman residence. About the same time, my friend Madge Donohue arrives from Oswego, Kansas and moves into a house on Clinton Street overlooking the lake where she lives alone until her death in 2004. In the early 1990s, the sights and sounds of a film crew fill the conversations at the Pioneer Market located at the intersection of Echo Park Blvd and Sunset Blvd as Allison Anders’ “Mi Vida Loca” is being filmed in the neighborhood. Today, young bohemians transplanted from all over the country line up around the block to hear live music at the popular EchoPlex music venue on Glendale Blvd. It's mid July and the summer heat has arrived.

The Sunset Blvd Bowling Alley and KTLA Studios

The stylish Jack and Peggy Ament on their Honeymoon in front of the Sunset Bowling Alley - Hollywood, CA - August 1940.

Back of photo with Peggy's notes.

Longtime KTLA news anchorman, Mr. Hal Fishman

Located at 5858 Sunset Blvd in midtown Hollywood, The Sunset Bowling Alley was once known as the world’s largest bowling alley with 52 lanes to choose from and hundreds of bowling shoes to fit any size imaginable. One could bowl in a different lane every week for an entire year just to avoid the monotony amongst the happy hour social gatherings of struggling screenwriters, union gaffers, studio secretaries and sound stage runners. With its Roman columns, this massive structure was originally built in 1922 for the Warner Brothers to function as their West Coast headquarters. In 1927 this location was used as the filming site for the first “talkie“ film, The Jazz Singer with Al Jolson but when Warner Brothers acquired the First National Pictures property in 1929, Harry, Al, Jack and Sam packed it up and moved their operations from Hollywood to Burbank. The building remained unused until it was purchased in 1939 and turned into the "mother of all bowling alleys", where Jack and Peggy Ament spent part of their Honeymoon knocking down pins almost 70 years ago. In 1964 the singing cowboy Gene Autry purchased the building and made it the home of KTLA studios where it still operates to this day. Today, KTLA and KCET are the only Los Angeles broadcasters that are still based in Hollywood, California. Slowly over the decades, CBS, NBC and even ABC once located in the sleepy Franklin Hills area of Los Feliz have all moved out of the “Wood” and onto greener more suburban pastures.

If you grew up in Los Angeles in the second part of the 20th century, you probably caught the KTLA Channel 5 news at 10pm with its iconic anchorman Mr. Hal Fishman. Hal was one of the most durable and well respected broadcasters of our times delivering the news night after night for 40 plus years with his somewhat dry but very likeable delivery. Hal rarely showed emotions as broadcasters are trained to do but a few times a year at the end of one of those slow news nights, he would come out of his shell as he concluded the evening’s broadcast with the segment of the surfing chihuahua in Santa Monica or the champion who consumed 53 hot dogs at a hot dog eating contest in Malibu. Hal Fishman passed away in 2007 and of course the Los Angeles nightly news has never been the same since.

Wrong turn at Pickfair Way ? - The Pickfair Estate Beverly Hills

Al and Catherine on vacation in "Hollywood" Feb - 1946

Pickfair - Home of Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford - 1920

For a brief moment in the summer of 1979 I sold maps to stars homes in front of the old Famous Amos Cookie establishment on Sunset Blvd. This chapter in my life lasted about three days as it was much too hot to be standing out on the sizzling concrete selling maps to tourists searching out the homes of Milton Berle, Eve Arden and Shirley Temple. As the now famous (in my blog anyway) 42 Sunset bus would pass by every 20 minutes, I would envy my dear friend Johnny “Mac” as he made his way to Santa Monica Beach for a little surf, sun and girl chasing. On what was to be my last day selling these maps, a vacationing couple from Small Town USA purchased a map and went happily on their way, only to return a couple hours later outraged that the map that I had sold them did not have the correct address for Carl Reiner, the multi-talented actor/producer/director and creator of the Dick Van Dyke Show. I quit this gig about an hour later and headed to the soft sands of Santa Monica never looking back at star chasers again.

I recently raided the vacation photo album of tourists Al and Catherine as they toured Hollywood in February of 1946. Among the many great snapshots of the sharply dressed couple and their friends in front of all the "greatest hits" of that time period; The Brown Derby, The Chinese Theater and CBS Studios, there was an odd photo of them in front of a grassy front yard at 1148 Pickfair Way. I can only assume they were searching out the famous Pickfair Estate of silent film stars Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford located at 1143 Summit Drive, just around the corner from where they were so proudly posing for the camera. Al and Catherine were probably led astray by an outdated map much like that frustrated couple I encountered back in 1979. Built by famed California Architect Charles Neff and purchased by Douglas Fairbanks in 1919, Pickfair (an amalgamation of the names of its original residents Fairbanks and Pickford) was the fairytale home of the Hollywood couple until they divorced in 1936. Over the decades the estate was slowly reduced in acreage and eventually sold to Los Angeles Lakers owner Dr. Jerry Buss and then again to actress and singer Pia Zadora who had it bulldozed to erect the monstrosity that sits their today. Only the pool and the front gate remain from the glamorous original estate.

The Famous Amos store on Sunset Blvd is long gone today, but the vending machine at my work still sells the Famous Amos cookie brand, while I am again working on maps at my job but in a much different capacity. Mary Pickford continued to live at the Pickfair Estate until she passed away that same summer of 1979 leaving her third husband Buddy Rodgers and eventually Dr. Jerry Buss to deal with the hundreds of quirky vacationing couples that would arrive every summer at the famous estate searching out a photo opportunity. Back at home, Al and Catherine’s friends and family were none the wiser of the Pickfair geographical error made that day, as they enviously flipped through that 1946 vacation photo album of their trip to La-La Land.

Los Angeles Real Estate: "Do You Come Here Often, Baby ?"

Blissful Post War America at home - 811 W. 28th Street, Los Angeles CA - 1948

1264 W. Adams Blvd, Los Angeles CA - 1949

“For what you are paying in rent you could be owning” is what she said to me. The Real Estate Agent’s equivalent of the used car salesman’s “Are you willing to drive it off the lot today”, this opening line from a real estate agent of the 21st century failed to impress me. “Have you heard the Beatles broke up?” is what I wanted to say in return, but my mother raised a gentleman so I refrained from doing so. I recently visited a development of lofts in my neighborhood that have largely remained vacant since they went on the market over a year ago and I got the cliché opening line by the agent hosting the open house. The puzzling thing was that she did not know who I was, what my income or credit rating was, if I was employed at all, and more importantly what I was paying in rent, but she was willing to make the bold statement to capture my attention. After some small talk I made her a counter offer; if she could get me into this loft for exactly what I was paying in rent, then I would sign on the dotted line right there. The fine print to my counter offer was that my mortgage payment of “equal rent value” would have to include everything from the non-tax deductible home association dues, to the home owner’s insurance to the accrued property taxes, all at a very competitive interest rate. In reality when you add it all up, with a conservative 20% down payment my monthly housing costs would have more than doubled in exchange to live in half the space, without a yard, and share walls with neighbors that I could never get away from if they annoyed me in exchange for a very pricey loft with very little investment potential.

Don’t misunderstand me, selling Real Estate is difficult work and home ownership is very desirable and beneficial under the right personal and economic circumstances but to the millions of “Average Joes” living in Los Angeles, home ownership remains an Elusive Eden. With plummeting home prices, a double digit unemployment rate, and a failing economy straight out of a John Steinbeck novel, home ownership still remains out of reach for millions of Southern California residents. The American Dream was once to own your own home, but nowadays the American Dream is just to be able to sleep in one for the night.

“For what you are paying in rent you could be owning” she said to me, or was it “Do you come here often ?”, “What’s your sign baby ?” or “If I told you that your body is incredible would you hold it against me ?”. Opening lines have their place at work and play, they just need to be rewritten every century or so to keep the chase interesting.

Greetings from Cypress Park

Cypress Park Neighborhood, 1968

Cypress Park is a century old historic neighborhood located in North East Los Angeles. Situated along the Los Angeles River and the rail road tracks, it is a working class neighborhood originally composed of a large mix of Italian and Eastern European families much like its neighbor to the east, Lincoln Heights.

Today, Cypress Park is a proud Latino neighborhood with a strong ethnic culture that has kept itself under the radar and away from sprawling gentrification for years now. “Gentrification Happens” though and it has finally reached this community. With its close proximity to Downtown, Griffith Park, the Echo Park music scene and the freeways, many who are being forced out of Silverlake, Atwater Village and Echo Park are making Cypress Park a cool alternative place to live. Living in the right location in the hilly streets above Cypress Ave will guarantee you a great view of the urban sunsets and all the fireworks at Dodger Stadium. Cypress Park is a unique community with period craftsman homes, a diversified assortment of ethnic shops, businesses, eateries and a school named after Florence Nightingale, it still has that territorial edge among some of the many proud long time residents. It is also home to the LA River Center which operates Friends of the LA River (FOLAR). An incredible piece of land and architecture located on Avenue 26th and Figueroa, it was once the long time corporate offices and production facilities of the famous Lawry’s spice company and gourmet restaurant.

The original Lawry’s Restaurant is still operating in Beverly Hills and serves up the best prime rib in the city. They also own and operate the Tam O’ Shanter in Atwater Village which I assume shares the same prime rib recipe with its mothership. In the mid 1970’s former Los Angeles County prosecutor Marcia Clark was a waitress at the Beverly Hills establishment working her way through school. Somewhere I remember seeing a photo of a young Marcia Clark waiting on a frequent customer of the restaurant named O.J. Simpson. Twenty years later they were to meet again in a not so culinary setting and the rest of course is Los Angeles circus history.

Check out Cypress Park and The LA River Center and then treat yourself to a nice piece of prime rib in Beverly Hills which is a world away from North East Los Angeles but nonetheless worth the commute. If you would rather stay local on the so called “east side” then dine at the Tam O’ Shanter on Los Feliz Blvd for the equally decadent signature entrée.

I dedicate this post to my old friends Robbie and Nora who would dine and dash on occasion at the Tam O’ Shanter back when they were teenagers.

Pacific Coast Highway 1920s

Will Rogers Lighthouse Tower, Pacific Coast Highway 1920s.

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The tower was erected in 1912 and torn town in 1972. It was to be relocated to nearby Pepperdine University but it did not survive the attempted removal. Somewhere amongst the bathers and the sun worshipers in this photograph, there is a guy wearing a “Prohibition Sucks’ T-shirt, a “Lets Hope For Hoover” political button, carrying a flask full of moonshine and a screenplay rolled up under his arms that he knows is absolutely perfect for Charlie Chaplin.

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Bottoms Up !

The Clash - Combat Rock at the Hollywood Palladium, June 14, 1982

A found snapshot from my collection, Five soldiers on leave at the Hollywood Palladium 1943

My ticket stub from the Palladium, June 14 1982

The Clash - Combat Rock 1982

The Clash - “The Only Band That Matters” as they were referred to by their fans, the media and eventually themselves for most of their legendary and influential career.

In June of 1982 Joe Strummer, Mick Jones, Paul Simonon and Topper Headon were touring in support of their platinum album Combat Rock which contained the radio hits Rock the Casbah and Should I Stay or Should I Go along with the politically fueled tune Know Your Rights . When it was announced that the boys would be playing at the world famous Hollywood Palladium that summer there could not have been any reason for me not to be there other than death itself. By this time in my life I had gone to see many punk bands at venues such as The Whiskey, the Roxy and The Music Machine but did not consider myself to be a punk, just a fan of the music. I stayed clear of the mosh pits that formed at every show and enjoyed the music, the events and the scene.

As The Clash took to the stage at The Palladium on that balmy Southern California night, the wave of young enthusiastic punks pushed me over to the left front of the stage where I found myself at arms length from Mick Jones’ combat boots, but uncomfortably close to the amp that was positioned right in front of me. The juice of the guitars, bass and drums hummed in my ear all night long but I would not have had it any other way as I was up front at a potent Clash concert. The band had a forceful opening set as I recall with fast numbers such as London Calling, Career Opportunities, White Riot and Clampdown setting the tempo for the show. By mid-show, Joe Strummer slowed it down a bit, took out an acoustic guitar, got on one knee and started to almost serenade the fueled and passionate crowd with what I recall was a ballad called Bank Robber. At this moment in almost slow motion, a punk from front center hocked out a loogie projected right a Joe. From my vantage point it looked to be about 8 inches long and twisted slowly in circles in mid flight while being backlit from one of the stage lights. The projectile landed directly on Joe’s face and dangled from his ear much like a slime scene out of the yet to be released film Ghostbusters. Joe, the consummate punk, barely missed a beat where he did nothing but laugh as he wiped it off with his hand and continued with the song. When the show ended with the punk encore of “I fought the Law”, I was loaded with adrenaline, drenched in sweat and had a horrible ringing in my left ear, a consequence which continues to this day.

I had the good fortune to see The Clash two more times; in October of 1982 at the Los Angeles Coliseum as they opened up for The Who and then again in the summer of 1983 at the US Festival in San Bernardino, but neither matched the up front raw energy of the Hollywood Palladium show. The Clash broke up soon afterwards with Mick forming Big Audio Dynamite and Joe holding on to remains of The Clash for another year, before going solo and later fronting his own band called The Mescaleros. We lost Joe Strummer suddenly in December 2002 and the world has not been the same since. I still have the ticket stub from that night which is a bit odd since I was not nearly as nostalgic back in 1982 as I am today. Perhaps I knew someday 28 years later, I would still be talking about The Only Band That Mattered.

Road Trip: Seattle, Washington

Blind Date Meeting, Seattle Washington 1962

A man waits in frustration for his blind date from “Seattle Singles” to arrive. “Meet me in front of that tall space age looking structure” are his instructions to her. They never find each other that day and soul mates are forever lost. Years later this same man would create a place where singles could casually meet, drink coffee, and determine if they actually like each other enough for a second date….and Starbucks was born. In the 1990s Starbucks reproduced like rabbits here in Southern California, until the recession of 2007 forced them to use birth control and put up some stores for adoption.

Happy Easter

Happy Easter everyone from El Niño Angeleno.

"I must see a Beatle" - Paul at the Hollywood Bowl

Paul McCartney at the Hollywood Bowl, March 30, 2010

back of photo reads "Hannah Miller, Hollywood Bowl Nov, 1948"

When I was 6 years old, the night before a planned trip to Disneyland I would never sleep. I would be up at 5am ready to go while my parents would still be in bed hours away from a departure time to Anaheim. Well into my forties now, I had that same feeling awaiting to see Paul McCartney at the Hollywood Bowl on Tuesday Night. I still get up at 5am as part of my daily ritual of getting ready for work, dog walking and catching public transportation to my job. As an adult in the working world I found the day to go by quickly and at 4:30pm my journey to the Bowl commenced. Arriving promptly at Hollywood and Highland at 7pm via the Red Line and making the short walk up to the Bowl, I was finally seated at 7:30ish despite “Beatle, People, Scalper and Traffic Mania” at the front gate. As a side commentary, if one is a young and/or able bodied person and needs a shuttle to go from Hollywood and Highland to the Bowl, then I would really hate to see what your bathroom looks like.
The show started at 8:30 rather than the 7:30 ticket time which is now very common for a concert in the congested City of the Angeles. With his longish hair, Paul looked like the vintage 1974 Wings Paul, very incredible for a 67 year old rock icon. The show did not disappoint, with Paul digging into his extensive Beatles, Wings and solo catalogue for a rich two hour plus show. Highlights included paying tribute to those no longer with him; Linda McCartney (My Love), George Harrison (Something), John Lennon (Give Peace a Chance) and an instrumental version of Hendrix’s Foxy Lady paying tribute to his late friend, as Paul jammed on the familiar riff using his Lefty Les Paul. I have never seen Paul before but I have seen Bruce Springsteen many times, and Paul shared candid stories before many of his songs much like Bruce does. Stories included how Jimi Hendrix was playing Sgt. Peppers live at his own shows just two days after the Beatles released it, how the elements of Blackbird were written in a touching story with George, never being able to say the things he wanted to say to John with Here Today, bringing out the original guitar he used to record Paperback Writer and of course how the Fab Four played the Bowl back in 1965. Sharing the stage with him were four incredible musicians, Rusty Anderson, Brian Ray, Abe Laboreil Jr and Paul Wickens and they ruled the stage climaxed by a pyrotechnics display during Live and Let Die. My favorites of the evening were Blackbird, All My Loving, Jet, Something (with Paul on a Gibson Ukulele, a gift from George) and I Got A Feeling from Let it Be, where they rocked the house with Paul on the Lefty Gibson once again. Although everyone expected him to be there, Ringo Starr was not in the house.
The encore included, Day Tripper, Lady Madonna, Get Back, Yesterday, Helter Skelter and Sgt. Peppers with all 5 musicians looking as if they could play into the morning hours. “I must see a Beatle” as my friend Mike L recently put it and now I have finally seen one. If you want to experience this you must hurry though, as time and our choices (only 2 left) are running out. Paul plays again tonight at the Hollywood Bowl, don’t miss it. Thanks Paul for an incredible and memorable evening.

I like Ike - Who wouldn’t have liked Ike?

President Dwight David “Ike” Eisenhower, January 1953
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“I like Ike“ was the presidential campaign slogan for General Dwight David “Ike” Eisenhower in 1952. Who wouldn’t have liked Ike? He was the man in his day and had more impressive titles than any other person in mid-century America. Being “Tight with Ike” meant that you ran with the in crowd at the Pentagon.

Among the many titles he held in his career:

Supreme Allied Commander Europe
Military Governor of the American Occupation Zone in Germany
Five Star General of the Army
Commanding General European Theater of Operations (ETOUSA)
Supreme Commander Allied (Expeditionary) Force of the North African Theater of Operations (NATOUSA)
Commander in Chief
President of the United States
President of Columbia University

More than likely he was also President of the local chapters of the Elks Club, the Rotary Club and Supreme Commander of the PTA. He was even a real estate broker as he brought in a couple extra states for us (Hawaii and Alaska) to make it a nice even number of 50. I am sure Ike never had a problem getting a table at his favorite nightclub back then. A conversation with the maitre d' would have gone like this: “You remember that D-Day invasion at Normandy back in ’44? well, I was in charge of that whole operation, now how about a table for two right next to Sinatra and Brando."

The snapshot in this post was taken in January 1953 during his inauguration parade back in a time when we could get close enough to capture a candid moment in history without the fantastic telephoto lens. Thanks to the actions of Squeaky Fromme, John Hinckley, Sirhan Sirhan, Mark David Chapman and the fictional Travis Bickle (from Taxi Driver) the whole up close and personal feel to these events is a thing of the past. In June of 1968 we were living on Beverly and Kenmore in Los Angeles about a mile north east of the Ambassador Hotel when Bobby Kennedy was shot and killed in the pantry of the hotel. I don’t remember a thing since I was about 4 years old but years later at a neighborhood reunion party, a neighbor from that time recalled hearing the small caliber gunshots that day from several blocks away, through Wilshire Blvd traffic and from the inside of his apartment. We just poured him another Johnnie Walker on the rocks and humored him.

An early episode of the sitcom Happy Days had the Fonz character played by Henry Winkler endorsing Ike in the 1956 re-election campaign. The Fonz gave a quick speech at a rally that went like this: “I like Ike, my bike likes Ike….heeeeey”. The Fonz gave Dwight Eisenhower his two thumbs up approval that night and the rest of America soon followed.

Flooding, Filming and The LA River

Flooding on the streets of Los Angeles 1930's

Flooding on the streets of Los Angeles 1930s

Los Angeles River 2009

Glendale Narrows 2009

Catastrophic flooding in Los Angeles in February of 1914 and in March of 1938 prompted the US Army Corps of Engineers to line the Los Angeles riverbed with concrete thus turning it into the flood control channel we see today. There are a few stretches of the river where natural wetlands and wildlife still exists and we are lucky enough to have one of these areas east of Griffith Park called the Glendale Narrows. If you have not yet done so check out the Glendale Narrows but please be respectful not only to the wildlife but to the residents of the Elysian Valley neighborhood, many of whom have a backyard facing the river.

Although many have labeled the “concrete river” as an eyesore, John Travolta would never have had that cool drag race in the movie Grease without that flat smooth gray surface and Edward Furlong and Governor Arnold would never have had their motorcycle chase in Terminator II without the concrete bed but the giant ants in the 1956 movie “Them” would have been indifferent about colonizing on concrete or on a natural riverbed, both paid union scale.

Help support the Friends of The Los Angeles River at http://www.folar.org/.

The Wiltern Theatre 1943 and The Nothing Maker

Three friends in front of the Wiltern Theatre, Wilshire Blvd - Feb 21, 1943

My Mom, El Nino and my siblings - Wilshire Blvd/Hobart Blvd 1966 (The Wiltern is right behind us in green)

As a photo collector nothing makes me happier than to see documentation with a vintage found snapshot. A person’s name, a date or a location description adds to the voyeuristic engagement of a stranger’s photo album. The first photograph on this post of three fashionable people in front of the Wiltern Theatre in Los Angeles is dated on the back “Feb 21, 1943“, 67 years ago this weekend. Although we were right in the middle of a war in 1943, jobs were plentiful and people sought out entertainment as a diversion from front page news. A day on Wilshire Blvd may have included a matinee at the Wiltern, lunch at the Ambassador Hotel‘s coffee shop, an afternoon at the La Brea Tar Pits or shopping at the May Company department store (now LACMA West). Everything you see in this photo from the cool period clothes to the automobiles were made and built right here in the USA with American sweat and pride.

A Los Angeles Art deco masterpiece, The Wiltern Theatre with its terrazzo façade and the adjacent Pellister building were originally built in 1931. The theater had its heyday, changed hands a few times and eventually was neglected and fell on hard times in the 1970’s. The building was saved from demolition by the Los Angeles Conservancy in one of their first victories to presevere the historic architecture in the City of Angels. In the 1960s and early 70’s my family lived in the Ambassador section of Wilshire Blvd (second snapshot) until we planted roots in The Sunset Junction Neighborhood of Los Angeles. The Wiltern has rapidly become one of my favorite places to see live music. The theatre has cozy unimpaired seating, a great sound system a nice warm and up close feeling and of course that great urban and historical experience that one gets there. In 2008 I went to see former Kink’s front man and legend Ray Davies put on an amazing show to support his new record, The Working Man’s Café. In March of 2009, I witnessed the incredible Chrissie Hynde and the Pretenders rock the theatre with a set list that included the classics and several new songs from their then new record, Break Up The Concrete. In her knee high boots, Chrissie left no doubt that at age 57 she had not lost a step as she wailed away on lead vocals while mastering her Telecaster. As far as I was concerned it was 1979 all over again. Coincidentally Ray Davies and Chrissie Hynde have a daughter together from a long term realtionship they had years ago.

One of the songs absent from the set list that night was The Nothing Maker written by Chrissie about an ordinary man living in the backdrop of a not so ordinary industry. Touching and real, it is perhaps my favorite modern Pretenders song and it so much about the ordinary that it did not even make it to Los Angeles and the Wiltern Theatre show that night, but I did. Here are the lyrics:

The Nothing Maker

by Chrissie Hynde

________________

He doesn't Make Shoes
Or Design a New Shirt
Or Take Photographs
But no one gets hurts
And he doesn't look Trendy
Like guys in Magazines
You won't see him at parties
He's not the Face behind the scene.

He Makes Nothing
He's the Nothing Maker
He's the Maker of Nothing
He's the Nothing Maker

And he doesn't paint pictures
Or Write poetry
Or act on a stage
For others to see
and he don't expect much
Santa Claus knows
Cause he doesn't make list
Of toys and new clothes.

Everyone's Chasing

A reason to live
Mostly they take more than they give
The Succeeder Justifies
Why he's better than the rest
He believes his own lies
And thinks he's the best......
but my guy

Doesn't make Movies
To suit an audience's whim
He lives by a code
Known only to him
And he doesn't make money
to Buy watches and cars
Cause there's no time and no place to go
For a man who has nothing to show

He Makes Nothing
He's the Nothing Maker
He's the Maker of Nothing
He's the Nothing Maker

Bohemian Rhapsody, Los Angeles style

"A Little Party, Los Angeles, Cal." 1919

I enjoy small cozy gatherings with old friends, good food, good wine, good conversation and good live music amongst that gathering. The gentleman on the right in this old photo probably belted out a few songs on his guitar before posing with a swarm of groupies to capture this wonderful moment in time. He has not one, not two but a choice of six beautiful women who are competing for his attention. Later on, he and the lucky lady he chooses will probably walk on over to a nice speak-easy bar on the dusty unpaved Sunset Strip for a little face time. I know a couple of girls well into their forties, old neighborhood friends of mine whom I have known for decades now. If they are not dating a musician then their world will simply implode upon them. Dating a banker, an aerospace engineer or that guy with a mega successful plumbing business will simply just not do it for them. Maybe it’s that “what will my friends think” thought process, I honestly don’t know. It’s all quite silly, but they are my friends and I really hope they find their own personal John Mayer, Tommy Lee or Meat Loaf (the singer not the food) to make them happy. Here’s to the beauty and the power of three chords on the guitar and everything that comes with it. Personally, I can belt out a rough version of “Smoke on the Water” on my Fender but my neighbors are quite sick of it. Happy Valentine's Day.

Disclaimer: (In all fairness, it could have been the woman in the front row with the ukulele who was the musical star of the party.)

Super Bowl blowout at the Sunset Junction

Football in the front yard, Pasadena, CA 1916

The most memorable Super Bowl I can recall was the 1979 version with the Los Angeles Rams playing the Pittsburg Steelers at the Rose Bowl. The game was not only memorable for me because it was the first time the Los Angeles Rams went to the Super Bowl, but while we were watching the game at our Silver Lake/Sunet Junction home on the big console Zenith TV, someone pulled up to our next door neighbor’s house in a van and cleaned them out. Both of our homes were packed tightly together with our patio adjacent to the driveway but we did not see or hear a thing. We recall a van being backed up into their driveway during the game but that was about it. They took furniture, the TV, all of their clothes, musical instruments, jewelry and even their pet parakeet, cage and all. The next day we found out that there was a string of break-ins that afternoon in our neighborhood in what would be known as the Not So Super Sunday in the 90027 zip code.
The Final Score that day:

Thieves and Raiders: 56
The Sunset Junction Neighborhood: 0

Going Green way before Going Green

Going Green way before Going Green - Los Angeles, CA 1968

An elderly woman I knew in Los Feliz in the early 1980’s had an electric car just like this one parked in her garage for years. From what I understand, she was environmentally conscious even back then and purchased the car in the late 1960s for $3,000. When I met her she was well into her 90s and did not drive the car so it just remained parked in the garage gathering dust. She was gracious enough to allow me to keep my motorcycle in her backyard for a couple of years as strict family rules did not allow motorcycles at my own home. During this time I would keep late hours coming home from places like the Palace (The Avalon today) or the Seven Seas Nightclubs and she would never complain about the noise from the cycle entering her driveway at 3am. Her name was Helen Cummings and she lived alone and played cards with her friends at her immaculate home on Ambrose Ave. She came from a very well to do family in Los Feliz that developed the Cummings Estate Laughlin Park off of Los Feliz Blvd where people like Cecil B. DeMille once called home. Helen passed away around 1987 at the age of 101. I don’t know what became of her electric car, but today there is one parked in front of a duplex on Rowena Ave in Los Feliz. When I drive down Rowena today, I think of Helen zooming down the street in that little car to meet her friends for a game of cards.