Well, dear readers, those of you who’ve read the Kritzer books know of my love for a magical city called Los Angeles. Not the LA of today, mind you, but the LA of my youth. I wrote of many restaurants, movie theaters, stage theaters, and my neighborhood, as well as places I hung out outside of my neighborhood, like Pacific Ocean Park. I have a rather large collection of LA memorabilia from my childhood – menus, movie theater photos, POP ephemera, Helms Bakeries ephemera and I spent some time yesterday scanning a few things so I could share them. Of course, I can’t scan any framed photographs, but there were plenty that weren’t framed. I also scanned some menu covers – I have an absolutely incredible collection of LA menus, mostly from places I frequented as a child. So, today’s notes will not only be notes but a visual essay. I like the idea of a visual essay, although I did not like to do written essays whilst in school, mostly because they kind of dictated the content and I don’t like things that are forced upon me. So, let us begin our visual essay of the LA that was, shall we? First up, we have my favorite ride at Pacific Ocean Park – this ride (a beautiful painted version by Harvey Schmidt adorns my second book, Kritzerland) was my favorite – the Flight to Mars. Since I believed my parents WERE Martians, I felt right at home on this ride to their home planet. I believe if you click on the photos they will show up bigger so you can see the details.
And here is the interior of the ride. Note the high-tech seats and the even higher-tech TV monitors.
Today, the Grauman’s Chinese is surrounded by stuff – huge complexes that give me complexes – Hollywood and Highland and other stuff. But once upon a time, all the way into the 1970s, the Chinese was surrounded by – SPACE. Parking lots. Emptiness. No tall buildings or elephantine malls. Here is an aerial shot of the theater from the early 1960s – SPACE, baby – that’s what I’M talkin’ about.
I spent many days and evenings dining at the wondrous Ontra Cafeteria. I wrote about it lovingly in the books – we had two favorite locations – the one on Wilshire Blvd. in the Miracle Mile (near the El Rey Theater) and my personal favorite, the one in Beverly Hills, located on Beverly Dr. one block north of Wilshire on the southwest corner. It was a wonderful-looking building and, of course, it’s long gone.
And here’s the El Rey – the Ontra Cafeteria was just a block or two away from this movie theater. I didn’t go to the El Rey a lot, but it is where I saw Psycho the day it opened (which I spend a whole chapter on in Kritzerland).
I loved Westwood, especially its two movie theaters, the Village and the Bruin. Our very own dear reader Jane and her husband Keith worked at the Bruin. Here it is when What’s New, Pussycat was playing. I saw it at least six times at the Bruin, and another six at the Vogue, where it was playing in Hollywood. I was obsessed by this film.
Another favorite motion picture theater was the Four Star on Wilshire Blvd. a block east of La Brea. The building is still there – it was a church for a while, not sure what it is now. I spent my thirteenth birthday at the Four Star seeing The Angry Red Planet with some friends. Yes, out of all the movies playing that week, I chose The Angry Red Planet because it was in Cinemagic. I didn’t know what that was, but it sounded epic to me – it wasn’t. I also had my first real French kiss in the Four Star during Where the Boys Are.
I do hope you’re enjoying your visual essay – I know I am. In the year of my birth a restaurant opened that became a favorite of our family – I remember going there when I was five. It was on Pico in West LA and was called Kelbo’s, a Hawaiian Jernt with the best barbecue beef sandwich ever – I always had the combo – the beef sandwich and two spare ribs, also the best in the world, along with their dinner salad with the best thousand island dressing ever made. Here is the cover of their menu.
If you’ve read the Kritzer books you know that I loved C.C. Brown’s, the home of the hot fudge sundae. My first memory of going there was after I saw the Martin and Lewis movie, Pardners, at the Paramount Theater, which was across the street and which is now Disney’s El Capitan Theater. I went to C.C. Brown’s sporadically throughout the 60s and 70s, but became a bona fide regular in the 80s, going two or three times a week, and dragging everyone I knew there. The owners, the Schumachers, and their kids, who all worked there, became like family to me. When they closed in the 90s (after the dad passed away), the loyal regulars were all invited to a final private party to have one last hot fudge sundae. I was one of those, and even though I was in New York doing an album, I flew back to attend. It was the end of an era, although they did sell the hot fudge online and at Gelson’s – but that wasn’t the same. Eventually, they sold everything to Lawry’s, which is now the only place you can get a C.C. Brown’s hot fudge sundae – it’s nice, but isn’t the same because they don’t have the ceramic hot fudge holder and the silver ice cream dishes. Here is the cover of the C.C. Brown’s menu and the inside so you can see some of what they served.
We had two favorite coffee shops in our neighborhood – one was called Stat’s, which was on Pico near Robertson, and the other was called Gaby’s, which was on La Cienega, two blocks south of Pico. That location still houses a restaurant – the Cuban Versailles. Gaby’s also had a location in Toluca Lake, which is now Paty’s on Riverside. It looks exactly as it did when it was Gaby’s – even the sign. Here’s the menu cover for Gaby’s.
As most of you dear readers know, I am a Musso and Frank Fanatic and have been since the early 1970s when I began to frequent it. I was always very impressed that they touted it was the oldest restaurant in Hollywood. Interestingly, they could make that claim all the way back in 1937, and here’s the proof – a Musso and Frank menu from that year, touting that very thing.
Finally, for those who’ve read the Kritzer books, you know that my father owned a wonderful steak house – in the book it’s called the Erro – in real life it was called the Kiru and was located near the Wiltern Theater on Wilshire and Western, at the corner of 8th and Serrano. Here is an authentic matchbook cover from the Kiru.
Well, wasn’t that a fun trip back in time? Now I guess I should write some notes. So, let me just say that yesterday was a Sunday. I was up at eight-thirty, had a somewhat irritating start to the day, did a three-mile jog, then met the Staitman clan for lunch at CPK. I had the half Caesar, which is only 250 calories, so I’d already jogged that off. We had fun, then I came home and did some work on the computer, and also scanned all these lovely images, which took quite some time. Then it was time to mosey on over to The Federal for dinner and a show.
I got my usual table (the perks of doing a monthly show there and being friends with the fellow who runs it) and had Adryan Russ with me. I had the fried chicken breast with mashed potatoes – 800 calories and yummilicious. Adryan had the same thing. I said hi to all sorts of folks I knew, including Jackie Joseph, Mary Jo Catlett, Andrea Marcovicci, Shelly Markham, director Joel Bishoff, who I hadn’t seen since we recorded the show he directed, I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change, and a few other folks I knew. Then the show began. It was Eileen Barnett’s cabaret show – she did our last Kritzerland show. It was a very nice show, with good patter and good song selections. She did A Little Lift by Billy Barnes and used our What If ending to it, which I created for Susanne Blakeslee – it’s nice to see it’s become a popular way to end the song and it worked just as well as it did for Susanne. She couldn’t have had a better musical director – the great John Boswell, who musical directs all our Outside the Box episodes. So, all in all, a very nice evening.
I then came home and watched the season finale of Mad Men. Nothing earth-shattering save for the very end – it will be interesting to see how far they jump ahead in time and where it’s going – I’m presuming it’s coming back next year at some point.
Today, I shall do a jog, I have some packaging to proof and then send in, I’ll hopefully pick up some packages, I’ll eat something light but amusing, and then do some other work that I need to do concerning Sandy’s act – and then I’ll begin the busywork that will consume the next few days. I’ll spend no more than an hour a day on it – that will make it less annoying.
Tomorrow and the rest of the week is all meetings and meals, a work session, and errands and whatnot and yes, more damn liner notes.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, do a jog, proof some packaging, hopefully pick up some packages, eat, and do other stuff. Today’s topic of discussion: Talk about your favorite places growing up – the restaurants, the movie theaters, etc. Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, where I hope I have my recurring dream of being back in the LA I loved.