CITY OF GIANT THINGS

Wendall -- every other Thursday

Los Angeles is getting a lot of bad press this week, so I wanted to revisit one of the posts that shows how much and why I love it.  For anyone who doesn't know the city, the protests are taking place in an area that's less than one square mile and most of the time only encompass a few blocks. The city has survived much, much worse over the years and I know it will survive this.

The greater Los Angeles area:  activity on the news is only in the red circle.

 

 

Here's my original post. 

Some people have nothing but contempt for the city of Los Angeles, but the attitude I’ve always had about this complicated place is that everything here is either beautiful or hilarious. And sometimes, surreal.

 

One of my favorite things about the city is its celebration of the "oversized" and its tendency towards hyper-literal or whimsical representations. It cracks me up. Many of these signs, statues, buildings, and installations have disappeared in the almost forty years I’ve lived here, but a few survive. Here is a sampling of some of my favorites.

 

The original Brown Derby.

 

One of the most famous examples of whimsical architecture is the Brown Derby Restaurant. This Hollywood icon—built in the shape of a giant bowler hat— was part of a chain started in the 1920s by Robert H. Cobb and Gloria Swanson’s husband, Herbert Somborn. The first LA location was financed by Jack L. Warner in 1926 and opened on Wilshire Boulevard, across from the famous Ambassador Hotel. It was moved about a block away and expanded in 1936 and was frequented by, among other luminaries, Ed Wood, director of Plan B From Outer Space.  

 

The expanded version.

 

A second location was built on Vine Street in 1929 and its proximity to the movie studios made this one even more celebrity-centric. It retained the name and echoed the bowler hat on its sign, but was built in the Spanish Mission style. It is purported to have invented both the Cobb Salad and the Shirley Temple. Various other franchises opened across the city, but all of them closed by the end of the 1980s. Bizarrely, the top of the hat from the original restaurant—almost unrecognizable—now sits atop The Boiling Crab in a mini-mall at its old address.

 

Vine Street location.

 

The current state of the giant bowler, alas.

When I first came to the city, I almost had a car accident the first time I saw the thirty-two foot Randy’s Donuts sign. Happily, not only is Randy’s alive and well, they are about to open a new location within walking distance of our apartment. I love LA.

 

 

Who doesn't want a giant donut?

For a long time, when I worked on the westside, one of the delights of my commute was passing the largest light bulb I’d ever seen, about twenty-five feet high.  It sat above a lighting store on West Pico Boulevard for years, but has sadly gone. This was the only image I could find, but you can get a sense of the scale by the power lines behind it. . .

 

My daily "bright idea" for a few years.

 

Another LA icon which has appeared in many films is the Tail O’ the Pup, a hot dog stand shaped like a hotdog and originally opened in 1946. I frequented this gem for many years, when it sat just off Beverly Boulevard. It closed in 2005 and the building was stored, sold, and resold, and finally reopened in a new location on Santa Monica Boulevard in 2022. Long live the pup.

 

In its new location.

 

One of our neighborhood bars, The Idle Hour, was built in 1941 in the shape of three oversized barrels, inside and out, and currently has a bull-dog shaped structure in its courtyard—modeled on a former cafe on W. Washington Blvd.

 

The exterior of the bar on Vineland Ave.

The barrel-like ceiling in the main seating area inside.

James lurking in front of the giant bulldog.

The original bulldog spot.

 

And then, of course,  there are the giant chickens and giant chicken-adjacents. There are multiple poultry markets and fast food chicken restaurants in Los Angeles that feature an oversized chicken or rooster on their roof. 

 

One of my favorite buildings in Chinatown.

These kinds of statues occur all over America, but only Los Angeles has Chicken Boy.

 

Chicken Boy!

 

Chicken Boy’s story began in the 1960s, when the twenty-two foot tall fiberglass figure was put atop the Chicken Boy Restaurant on Broadway to overlook downtown Los Angeles. When the building was about to be torn down in 1984, the statue was rescued by a local designer. In 2007 it found a new home on the roof of her Future Design and Style Gallery on Figueroa Street in Highland Park.

 

You can find the whole hilarious history of Chicken Boy here:

https://www.chickenboy.com/the-true-story-of-chicken-boy.html

 

In addition to permanent, or semi-permanent oversized fixtures, the Los Angeles area has also welcomed large public art installations and we try never to miss one. Here are two of our encounters.

Visiting Amanda Parer's amazing inflatable rabbits.

 

Rubber ducks in Long Beach Harbor

We don't take many selfies, but it was the only way to get us all in the picture.

If anyone has a hankering to see a selection of the giant items Los Angeles, and America, has to offer, this website has a lovely selection:  http://giantthings.com/

If you want Randy Newman's tour of the greater Los Angeles area, you can find it here. I love LA: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KcADqxnQA_4

 

---Wendall 

Sky

Wendall -- every other Thursday

The world is in such turmoil at the moment that it seems quite hopeless. So, I am sharing one of the small but powerful things that is keeping me going here in Los Angeles.

The sky.

 

 

Although we live in a stupidly urban area, surrounded by concrete and power lines and overlooking a busy LA freeway, we are lucky enough to have a balcony where, every day, I see something in the sky that is gorgeous and restorative. 

 

 

So I’m sharing some of the photos I’ve taken from our balcony over the past year, in hopes the images might be a balm to all of you as well.

 

 

Take care of yourselves out there and hope to see some of you at Left Coast Crime. You can find me here:

Speed Dating with Matt Coyle Thursday March 13  9-11am

"Been There, Wrote That" panel Thursday March 13 3:45-4:30pm Confluence C

Moderating the "Best Novel" panel Friday March 14 11:00 -11:45am Confluence C 

--Wendall

Welcome to the Birthplace of the Oscars

Wendall--every other Thursday

Since the 96th Academy Awards are airing this weekend, I thought it might be a good time to post about the place they were born: The Biltmore Hotel (now the Millennium Biltmore) in downtown Los Angeles. 

 

The Galleria of the Millennium Biltmore Hotel

  

The Founding Banquet for the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences, 1927.

Happily, since my journalist husband, James Bartlett, has often written about the hotel and is somewhat of an expert on its history, he’s allowed me to quote from some of his pieces, so the quotes in italics are his.

 

“The Biltmore was actually the first home of the Oscars. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences was founded over lunch in the Crystal Ballroom in May 1927, and it’s said that MGM art director Cedric Gibbons sketched the design for the Oscar statue on a napkin.”

 

It's said the original design for the Oscar statuette was sketched on a napkin in the Biltmore's Crystal Ballroom.

 

“Eight Oscar ceremonies were held in the Biltmore Bowl room in the 1930s and early 1940s, and in 1977 Bob Hope hosted the Academy’s 50th Anniversary here.”

 

Oscar Banquet 1937. So many famous faces. Look for Henry Fonda and Walt Disney down front.

Oscar Banquet 1939.

Best Actor winner Clark Gable in the ballroom in 1935.

Spencer Tracy and Bette Davis winning in 1939.

The hotel opened its doors to the public on October 2, 1923 and was considered “as beautiful, as colorful, as vibrant as the city with which its destiny is linked.”  

Opening program from 1923.

The Crystal Ballroom, empty, in 1923.

 

“Visitors and guests still marvel at its murals, marble floors, wood paneling, frescoes, fountains, and chandeliers, and it is said you can find 1000 “Biltmore Angels” (representing the City of Angels) everywhere from the carpet to the ceilings.”

 

Angels, angels everywhere.

Including on the glass door.

Rendezvous Court from the stairs. It was the original lobby.

Looking the other way. I get to stand on the staircase Betty Draper came down in Mad Men.

The current lobby used to be a restaurant.

 

The original Gallery Bar. Gimlets, anyone?

 

You’ve seen glimpses of this amazing hotel in more films and television shows than you may realize. It’s appeared in the original Ghostbusters, Chinatown, Vertigo, Beverly Hills Cop, The Sting, Splash, Bugsy, Spider Man, and In the Line of Fire, and this year’s Oscar nominee Oppenheimer, to name a few. 

 

Peter Venkman has arrived!

They used the side of the hotel to shoot the scene where Evelyn Mulwray hires Jake Gittes in Chinatown.

Eddie Murphy checks out the scene in Beverly Hills Cop.

It’s also stood in for a myriad of locations in Mad Men, Bosch, The Catch, Glee, The West Wing, Columbo, and dozens of other shows. 

Mad Men shot all around the hotel.

 

Harry Bosch waiting for trouble in the Gallery Bar.

And, though I hesitate to give Taylor Swift more oxygen than she already has, her music video “Delicate” was shot in the hotel and offers great views of the lobby, ballrooms, and central hallway. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tCXGJQYZ9JA). 

You can find a more complete list of Biltmore appearances by scrolling down on its Wiki page: (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millennium_Biltmore_Hotel)

It's also a part of Los Angeles history in many other ways. It dedicated its second floor for military personnel during WWII, hosted the Democratic National Convention in 1960—where John F. Kennedy was chosen as candidate—boasted a Beatles stay during their first US tour in 1964, and was headquarters for the Los Angeles Olympic committee in 1984.

 

JFK was nominated from here.

The hotel also has a crime—and crime fiction—connection, since it was here that the victim of Los Angeles's most famous unsolved murder, Elizabeth Short, was last seen alive on January 9, 1947. 

 

Elizabeth Short, the Black Dahlia.

 

Her gruesome murder a few days later became Hollywood’s most notorious after she was nicknamed the "Black Dahlia." The Gallery Bar, which until about five years ago still felt like a place you could drink a gimlet with Raymond Chandler, now has mounted television screens which kill the illusion a bit, but its design is still stunning-- and you can lift a Black Dahlia cocktail to Elizabeth Short and the LA that used to be. 

The Black Dahlia cocktail: Citrus Vodka, Chambord, and Kahlua.

 

We were beyond privileged to be invited to its 100th anniversary black tie celebration in the Crystal Ballroom last October, where, as noted above, the idea for the Oscars was born. 

The stage in the Crystal Ballroom awaits its Big Band.

Getting ready in our room!

 

This involved our finding a tux for James in the local store “It's a Wrap!,” which features second hand film and television costumes, and my digging out a 1920s beaded top. The hotel was kind enough to give us a room. 

Our table.

The ceiling!

 

In addition to cocktails, dinner, and a live big band, the event sought to recreate the famous black and white photo of the ballroom's opening in 1923. We can't believe we are in it!

Biltmore opening Gala, 1923

100th Anniversary Gala 2023 (see red arrow).

If you’re visiting Los Angeles, I highly recommend a drink or high tea in the hotel, or better yet, a stay in this part of movie history.

---Wendall