When LA Was Still Fun

When LA Was Still Fun
I planned to name 100 places, but this is enough. If you know these spots as a minimum, you know your way around. I left out a lot of places the ‘60s Lancer just doesn’t need to know about – Grauman’s Chinese Theater. Hollywood Boulevard, continued

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Continued -The Watts Towers, the Gehry Music Hall, Rodeo Road, The Capital Records Building, Olvera Street, Chinatown, Staples Center, Ocean Park, Fox Hills Mall, the Pantages Theater, Good Samaritan, the Nuart ..

1 Union Station, east end of Sunset.

2 Shrine Auditorium, Exposition Park

3 Memorial Coliseum, Exposition Park

4 University of Southern Cal, Exposition Park

4A. The Original El Cholo's on South Western near Venice. I will guess Deb Westlund, Luanne Launer, Gordon Carter, Dave Murphy, Bev Brauner and Caren Bishop went there 20 times a week as SC students! 10 minutes from Troy back in the day ..

5 Museum of Natural History, Exposition Park. Dinosaurs.

6 Music Center, Downtown

7 City Hall, Downtown. The Dragnet Building.

8 Farmer John meat-packing plant, industrial area southeast of Downtown. Paintings of cows in a pasture on exterior walls.

9 former site of US Steel, industrial area where some Lancer dads and granddads once worked, 20 miles west of Fullerton.

10 Former site of Wrigley Field, 43rd & Avalon, South LA ("Home Run Derby" TV show was filmed here in 1950s)

11 Olympic Auditorium, 18th & Grand, Downtown

12 Griffith Park Observatory, northwest of Downtown

13 Hollywood Bowl, west of 13

14 Bullocks Wilshire, Wilshire District, Now the Southwestern School of Law library.

15 39th & Norton, where the body of the Black Dahlia was found, 1947, a mile from Coliseum

16 Perino's Restaurant, Wilshire & Norton. Classy. Did Dad take you?

17 Hancock Park, Wilshire District, J. Paul Getty home

18 Wiltern Theater, 1930s movie palace, Vermont & Wilshire. Some '60s SHHS people went to movies here as children.

19 Los Angeles High School, Olympic Boulevard, Mid-City, where many parents of '60s Lancers went

20 Ambassador Hotel, Cocoanut Grove - Wilshire

21 Wilshire Boulevard Temple (synagogue), Wilshire District. Many Orange County towns didn't have a temple until 60s or 70s. and Jewish people went here on High Holidays.

32 LA County General Medical Center, East LA. H-U-G-E, where USC Medical School is. Se habla Espanol!

34 Paramount Studios, on Melrose. Drive by familiar entrance.

35 May Company Department Store, Fairfax & Wilshire. Classic Streamline Moderne and Art Deco.

36 Beverly Hills Hotel, Sunset Blvd, Beverly Hills. Polo Lounge.

37 Greystone Mansion, built by Edward Doheny around 1925, above Sunset. 411 acres of Beverly Hills originally. Majestic views.

38 Cedars Sinai Medical Center, ultra plush, Makes Hoag in Newport seem like a dump! Ha ha. (Well, it really does.)

39 Cantor's Delicatessen, Fairfax District, Since 1940s, 24/7 musician's hangout. Dylan included.

40 Museum of Intolerance. Olympic Boulevard

41 Farmer's Market and CBS Television City, Fairfax. Touristy to the max, but ..

42 Restaurant Row, between Beverly and Wilshire on La Cienega. (Captain's Table, Bantam Cock, Tail O' The Cock, Lawry's). Did Dad take you? Uncle Fred and Aunt Mabel?

43 Faithdome/old Pepperdine University, 82 & S. Vermont. South LA. All Caucasian neighborhood until 1962. Then Rumford Fair Housing Act changed that. No more redlining.

44 Crescent Heights & Sunset Blvd, site of old Pandora's Box rock nightclub

45 Laurel Canyon Country Store, above Hollywood

46 Melrose & La Cienega, Troubadour site

47 Park on north side of Santa Monica Boulevard above Rodeo Road. On this small grassy park by the busy street around 1970-1975, Rick Nelson and Elvis Presley had teams for tackle football in sweatshirts and jeans! Those 2 guys played quarterback on Sunday morning games. HOTLY competitive and as time wore on, they recruited some "ringers" to play with the musicians. Bloody noses, broken ankles, shoulder separations, sometimes fistfights. True!

48 Echo Park, where Jackson, Noonan, Copeland, Ronstadt, future Eagles lived around 1970

49 Tommy's Chili Burgers, Beverly & Ramparts, west of Downtown, gushy, messy, sloppy, all night

50 Mulholland Drive, Bel Air, up near top, Marlon Brando. Jack Nicholson

51 Tiger Tail Road, high above Brentwood -- READ Haywire by Brooke Hayward.

52 Mt. St. Mary's College, high above West LA, great views

53 UCLA, below Sunset, a ways east of 405, Bel Air is above

54 (New) Muscle Beach, Boardwalk, Washington Boulevard, Venice (BECAUSE SOME LANCERS ARE INTERESTED, NOT ME)

55 Temescal Canyon, above PCH on the way to Malibu. Where Steve Van Gelder memorial was held

56 Hungarian restaurant, 1930s-1980s, North Vermont Los Feliz. Ultra-rich food, elaborate pastries