Hollywood & the Best of Los Angeles Alive! (Alive Guides Series)

601 Pages·2002·5.07 MB·English

by  Robert White

Robert&PhyllisWhite
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©2002HunterPublishing,Inc.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be repro-
duced,storedinaretrievalsystem,ortransmittedinanyform,
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lisher.
Thisguidefocusesonrecreationalactivities.Asallsuchactivi-
tiescontainelementsofrisk,thepublisher,author,affiliatedin-
dividuals and companies disclaim any responsibility for any
injury,harm,orillnessthatmayoccurtoanyonethrough,orby
useof,theinformationinthisbook.Everyeffortwasmadetoin-
suretheaccuracyofinformationinthisbook,butthepublisher
andauthordonotassume,andherebydisclaim,anyliabilityfor
lossordamagecausedbyerrors,omissions,misleadinginforma-
tion or potential travel problems caused by this guide, even if
sucherrorsoromissionsresultfromnegligence,accidentorany
othercause.
Cover:LegendsofHollywoodMural(Gala/Superstock)
MapsbyToniWheeler, ©2002HunterPublishing,Inc.
IndexbyBarberIndexing
4 3 2 1
Preface
GreetingsfromHollywood!Wishyouwerehere!
Well, actually, greetings from Acton. I don’t quite understand
someone’sdesireto“seestars,”butyoucanseemeattheSham-
balaPreserveoneweekendeachmonth.Justcallandmakeares-
ervationforaspecial,one-of-a-kind“safari.”No,wedon’thavea
barnfullofoldbirds,butwedohaveover50endangeredbigcats,
andanAfricanelephanttokeepyouamused.
IcamebacktoLosAngelestotestfortheleadinTheBirds.The
yearescapesme...Icouldn’timaginethenwhatIwasabouttoget
into,butit’sallHollywoodhistorynow.Itwasthemovies,infact,
thatledmedownthepathIhavefollowedallthedayssincethen.
AfterworkingwithAlfredHitchcockandCharlieChaplin(and,
yes,ladies,RodTaylor,SeanConneryandMarlonBrando.How’s
thatfornamedropping?),ImadeamovieinAfricathatexplored
theendangeredfutureofthebeautifulandmajesticwildanimal
residentsofthatmassiveandproudcontinent.Notlongafter,we
began a movie project of our own that led to the founding of
ShambalaPreserve.Thatwasnearly30yearsago!
ButI’msupposedtowritesomethingabout“seeingstars”inLos
Angeles. I can’t imagine what I can add to this well researched
volumeofHollywoodtidbits,thoughIdorecallmanyyearsago
runningintoIdaLupinoandherhusbandHowardDuffshopping
in an all-night market. They were glamorously dressed, obvi-
ously on the way home after one of those legendary Hollywood
parties.Theywerefeelingnopain,andpushedashoppingcartup
anddownaisles,loudlyarguingaboutwhattheotherwastossing
intothecart.ButIdigress.
Thisbookisfun.Itreadsespeciallywellwithatubofbutterypop-
cornandaboxofGood&Plenty.Ireadwithinterestthatthere
areover60,000actorslivinginLosAngeles.Howdisconcerting.
No wonder I can’t get a job. Which reminds me... if you really
wanttoseestars,gototheHollywoodunemploymentoffice.And
getinline.Musicswells.Lightsfade.THEEND.
WithlovefortheWildOnes...
TippiHedren
About the Authors
PhyllisandRobertWhitehavelivedinLosAngelesmostoftheir
lives.Robertspentmuchofhischildhoodhere,andwenttoHol-
lywood High and Los Angeles City College. He started writing
scriptsforthenetworkswhileatLACC.Phyllis,afterattending
theUniversityofMinnesotaandworkingforCBSinNewYork
forseveralyears,alsoendedupinHollywood.Asacouplethey
workedatmostofthestudios,writingmanyprime-timetelevi-
sionshowsaswellasdaytimesoaps.Theyknowthemoviebusi-
nessandmanyofthepeoplewhoworkinit,andinHollywood,
fromtheinside.
These days, Phyllis and Robert write about travel. They have
written feature articles for the travel sections of several dozen
newspapersandmagazines.TheirpreviousbookforHunterPub-
lishing was Romantic Weekends: San Francisco and the Bay
Area.TheypresentlyliveinVenice,abeachcommunity10miles
westofHollywood.
About the Alive Guides
Reliable, detailed and personally researched by knowledgeable
authors, the Alive! series was founded by Harriet and Arnold
Greenberg.
Thisaccomplishedtravel-writingteamalsooperatesarenowned
bookstore,TheCompleteTraveller,at199MadisonAvenuein
NewYorkCity.
We Love to Get Mail
Thisbookhasbeencarefullyresearchedtobringyoucurrent,ac-
curate information. But no place is unchanging. We welcome
your comments for future editions. Please write us at Alive
Guides, c/o Hunter Publishing, 130 Campus Drive, Edison, NJ
08818, or e-mail your comments to comments@hunterpublish-
ing.com.Duetothevolumeofmailwereceive,weregretthatwe
cannotpersonallyreplytoeachletterormessage,butyourcom-
mentsaregreatlyappreciatedandwillberead.
Acknowledgments
Writingabooklikethisisgreatfun;atleast,ifyourpassioninlife
iswriting,itis.Butthefactstobechecked,andthehalf-remem-
bered stories to be double-checked and the research to be done
wouldmakeitanever-endingjobifthereweren’tsomanypeople
willingtolendahand.
Wecan’tthankeveryonewetalkedto,orwhocalledusbackwith
moreinformationorsentusaclipping;thatwouldtakeanother
bookthissize.ButwewouldliketomentionJohnDuelattheLA
Convention&VisitorsBureau,andourscreenwriterfriendswho
made suggestions about individual chapters relating to their
communities. We have special appreciation for the staff of the
MarinadelReyPublicLibrary,whowere,onceagain,incredibly
patientoveraperiodofmonthsastheylocatedobscureresearch
materialforus.And,ofcourse,LorryKingandAnneWhite,our
Internetmentors.
Dedication
ToRayWalstonandourdaysonMyFavoriteMartian,belatedly.
Contents
Introduction
HowToUseThisBook. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Geology&Geography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
History . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Climate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Environment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
FactsAboutLA. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
GettingHere . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
GettingAround. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
BestPlacestoStay . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
BestPlacestoEat . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
Shopping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
AfterDark. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
Pronunciation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
TravelingWithPets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
InformationSources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Downtown Los Angeles
Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
History . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
GettingHere . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
GettingAround. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
WhoLivedHere? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
OnLocation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
BestPlacestoStay . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
BestPlacestoEat . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
ShopTillYouDrop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
SunuptoSundown . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
AfterDark. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
DowntownAtoZ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
Hollywood
Overview. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
History. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
GettingHere&GettingAround . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
WhoLivesHere? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
OnLocation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
viii Hollywood & The Best of Los Angeles Alive!
BestPlacestoStay. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
BestPlacestoEat . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
ShopTillYouDrop. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
SunuptoSundown. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
Recreation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163
AfterDark . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176
HollywoodAtoZ. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184
West Hollywood
Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187
History . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188
GettingHere . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190
GettingAround. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191
WhoLivesHere?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193
OnLocation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194
BestPlacestoStay. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194
BestPlacestoEat . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202
ShopTillYouDrop. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211
SunuptoSundown. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221
AfterDark . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 222
WestHollywoodAtoZ. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 232
Beverly Hills
Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235
History . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235
GettingHere . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237
GettingAround. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 238
WhoLivesHere?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 240
OnLocation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 244
BestPlacestoStay. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 244
BestPlacestoEat . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 252
ShopTillYouDrop. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 259
SunuptoSundown. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 271
AfterDark . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 275
BeverlyHillsAtoZ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 277
The Glamour Communities
Bel-Air. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 281
History . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 282
GettingHere . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 284
GettingAround. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 285
WhoLivesHere?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 286
Contents ix
OnLocation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 287
BestPlacetoStay. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 287
BestPlacetoEat . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 289
Shopping. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 290
AfterDark. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 290
Brentwood . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 291
History. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 291
GettingHere. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 292
GettingAround . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 293
WhoLivesHere? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 294
OnLocation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 296
BestPlacestoStay . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 296
BestPlacestoEat. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 298
ShopTillYouDrop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 300
SunuptoSundown . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 302
PacificPalisades . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 305
History. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 306
GettingHere. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 310
GettingAround . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 311
WhoLivesHere? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 312
BestPlacetoStay. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 313
BestPlacestoEat. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 314
Shopping&Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 316
SunuptoSundown . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 317
TheGlamourCommunitiesAtoZ. . . . . . . . . . . . 320
Below the Foothills
CenturyCity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 323
History. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 323
GettingHere. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 325
GettingAround . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 326
WhoLivesHere? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 326
OnLocation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 327
BestPlacestoStay . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 327
BestPlacestoEat. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 329
ShopTillYouDrop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 331
Westwood. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 331
History. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 332
GettingHere. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 333
GettingAround . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 334
WhoLivesHere? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 334
OnLocation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 335