nick f2007
Western End of the Sunset Strip, 1992
Just past the Chateau Marmont the Marlboro Man still towered over the West Hollywood city limit, some years before his banishment for setting a bad health example. Across Sunset in a typically old and quaint Strip building (8210) was a bar called the Sunset Social Club, which later gave way to the popular Union and was most recently Libertine.
Just west of the Marlboro Man is a building that is a celebrated part of the Strip's restaurant and club heritage. This three-level structure was built in 1940 as the Players Club, owned by Preston Sturges, a writer and director of sophisticated movie comedy ("The Lady Eve", "Sullivan's Travels"). Humphrey Bogart, Orson Welles, and Howard Hughes among others passed through. The Players Club closed in 1953 and a few years later was converted to the durable Imperial Gardens, a lavish Japanese restaurant.
By 1990 the space had given way to another kind of venue, one that paved the way for a new chapter for the Strip. The Roxbury (the short street up the hill is Roxbury Road) was the first of the newer, more boisterous clubs that featured DJs, separate dance floors and eating areas, and so-called "VIP lounges." Other places like the C& C club, Skybar in the Mondrian hotel, Dublin's (the old Marquis at Harper Ave) and Barfly a ways down attracted younger crowds than the curved part of the Strip had seen since the mid-sixties. Some residents on the hillside complained about noise and the occasional gunshot outside Roxbury, but that was nothing new given the street's history.
Several years later the Roxbury met its end in much quieter fashion than it premiered, and in fact by the early 2000s the Strip was supplanted by the-Cahuenga-Ivar-Schrader area in the heart of Hollywood as the new nexus of young clubbing. This building at 8225 Sunset again found itself turning Japanese and enjoyed a long run as Miyagi's until 2009. And after an extended period of construction and promotion the space began a new life in spring 2012 with the felicitous name of Pink Taco, a neo-Mexican restaurant where almost everything but the food is rendered in bubble-gum pink. Pink Taco (the original is in Century City) is the creation of Harry Morton, man-about-WeHo and the youngest of a family of eatery entreprenuers (Morton's, Hard Rock Cafe, Arnie Morton's).
For six or seven decades a small, but very real part of the fabric of Los Angeles is the sidewalk stand selling maps to movie and television stars' homes. It's been a hardy subject for photographers through the years, however ironically, and this hand painted "Star Maps Here" sandwich board was a fixture for a very long time--even years before West Hollywood was incorporated as a city.
Western End of the Sunset Strip, 1992
Just past the Chateau Marmont the Marlboro Man still towered over the West Hollywood city limit, some years before his banishment for setting a bad health example. Across Sunset in a typically old and quaint Strip building (8210) was a bar called the Sunset Social Club, which later gave way to the popular Union and was most recently Libertine.
Just west of the Marlboro Man is a building that is a celebrated part of the Strip's restaurant and club heritage. This three-level structure was built in 1940 as the Players Club, owned by Preston Sturges, a writer and director of sophisticated movie comedy ("The Lady Eve", "Sullivan's Travels"). Humphrey Bogart, Orson Welles, and Howard Hughes among others passed through. The Players Club closed in 1953 and a few years later was converted to the durable Imperial Gardens, a lavish Japanese restaurant.
By 1990 the space had given way to another kind of venue, one that paved the way for a new chapter for the Strip. The Roxbury (the short street up the hill is Roxbury Road) was the first of the newer, more boisterous clubs that featured DJs, separate dance floors and eating areas, and so-called "VIP lounges." Other places like the C& C club, Skybar in the Mondrian hotel, Dublin's (the old Marquis at Harper Ave) and Barfly a ways down attracted younger crowds than the curved part of the Strip had seen since the mid-sixties. Some residents on the hillside complained about noise and the occasional gunshot outside Roxbury, but that was nothing new given the street's history.
Several years later the Roxbury met its end in much quieter fashion than it premiered, and in fact by the early 2000s the Strip was supplanted by the-Cahuenga-Ivar-Schrader area in the heart of Hollywood as the new nexus of young clubbing. This building at 8225 Sunset again found itself turning Japanese and enjoyed a long run as Miyagi's until 2009. And after an extended period of construction and promotion the space began a new life in spring 2012 with the felicitous name of Pink Taco, a neo-Mexican restaurant where almost everything but the food is rendered in bubble-gum pink. Pink Taco (the original is in Century City) is the creation of Harry Morton, man-about-WeHo and the youngest of a family of eatery entreprenuers (Morton's, Hard Rock Cafe, Arnie Morton's).
For six or seven decades a small, but very real part of the fabric of Los Angeles is the sidewalk stand selling maps to movie and television stars' homes. It's been a hardy subject for photographers through the years, however ironically, and this hand painted "Star Maps Here" sandwich board was a fixture for a very long time--even years before West Hollywood was incorporated as a city.