I Will Gladly Pay You Tuesday For A Hamburger Today......

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

An 'American' Original.....

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.

The Mystery Gets Revealed!!!

Alright, this one was, shall we say, perhaps a little left field.


The beauty in question is Margaret Field.

Margaret has a list on imdb of 91 performances!  They begin in 1945 and conclude in 1973.  She belonged to that grand tradition of "working actor".  If you turned on series or anthology television in the 50s and early 60s you would frequently find Margaret.

As a young divorcee with two small children in the early 50s, Margaret married stuntman/actor Jock Mahoney and so you might also see her work credited to Maggie Mahoney, and handle she sometimes used.

Sadly, many people don't know or recognize Margaret, but they're almost certain to be familiar with her first born child, Sally.

Margaret, at age 89, passed away November 6, 2011, on Sally's 65th birthday.

You See?

Even they knew.

Feliz Navi.......Nada!

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?

Unmasking The Mystery!

You've got to be quick on the draw to be a smart Cookie.  Sure enough, he quickly revealed our Mystery Gal to be the one and only miss Kitty Carlisle.

Though I found his Peggy Cass malarky a bit suspect.  C'mon Cookie, "Tell The Truth"

Sisters under the mink?

A Programming Note For Sunday Evening....

Do Not be fooled by cheap imitations.

Insist on the genuine original!

The Army Sure Changes A Fella...

Take Elvis for instance.  He entered the Army as a mere boy, but he came back as.................

G.I. Blues soundtrack rehearsal

.....Sinatra!

**Dig the fedora and Gucci loafers.

Priscilla And Elvis....

As time went on, the hair (and lashes, and sideburns) just kept getting bigger. 

You Know, Black and White Can Be A Good Idea.....

4th of July Perfection

Whilst minding mine own business, my neighbor Charlie just phoned and ordered me outside.  And there, across the street........

The most scrumptious '66 Chrysler 300!

Roll out those lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer................

Wallenda, Schmallenda!

I would congratulate Nik Wallenda for his feat of walking over Niagara Falls on a tightrope (with a safety harness), but really, whatever.......

The Flying Mershons.  Myself and my big brother Mike in 1967.  See any safety wires here?  No, I thought not. 

She'll Take Manhattan

1965

Even The Most Manly Stars.....

Have a more artistic.....

Mr. James Coburn

.....and flamboyant side.

Mr. Coburn's home (designed by Tony Duquette)

Drove From Paris To The Amsterdam Hilton.....

The bed-in began 43 years ago today.