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Which bar is the oldest in Los Angeles?

By Chris Nichols — Fri, 26 Oct 2012 16:25:00 GMT

Photograph courtesy of Cole's

Vintage joints such as Town House and the Golden Gopher claim pre-Prohibition lineage, but since it’s impossible for me to pin down the illegal in-between era of speakeasies, I’m limiting this to “oldest operating bar”—starting with the day booze became legal again. On Tuesday, April 4, 1933, the Board of Police Commissioners granted 69 beer and wine licenses in L.A. The first one— for bars still serving today—went to Cole’s; next up were the Biltmore Hotel, the King Eddy Saloon, El Paseo, and La Golondrina (in that order). I shall raise my mug to King Eddy because the skid row haunt is closing soon for renovations. Meet me for last call!

Valet parking is said to have originated at either the Brown Derby or Lawry’s the Prime Rib. Do you know which one it was?

By Chris Nichols — Fri, 05 Oct 2012 17:09:00 GMT

Photograph courtesy flickr.com/Loren Javier

Neither, actually. Lawry’s has offered the service since the day it opened on La Cienega in 1938. However, Sally Cobb, the late owner of the Derby chain, claimed that her restaurant on Vine provided valet parking effective with its 1929 opening. That’s because her celebrity customers were used to such pampering, which was already provided at movie premieres and downtown garages.

I just watched Jerry Lewis in the 1960 classic Cinderfella. What’s the location of the crazy mansion where they shot the film? Is it intact?

By Chris Nichols — Fri, 21 Sep 2012 17:14:00 GMT

Photograph courtesy ioffer.com

The Kirkeby Mansion in Bel-Air was a popular filming location. Lewis toiled for a wicked stepmother outside the same beaux arts estate that would go on to be the TV home of Jed Clampett and his hillbilly kin. In 1986, TV tycoon Jerry Perenchio demolished much of the manse to build an even bigger one with an underground parking lot.

I hear that cult leader Jim Jones had a church in L.A. Did he preach here?

By Chris Nichols — Fri, 31 Aug 2012 16:16:00 GMT

Photograph courtesy skyscrapercity.com

Six years before he led a mass suicide in Guyana, Jones and his People’s Temple purchased an ornate old church at Hoover and Alvarado streets. The Romanesque landmark was built in 1912 as the First Church of Christ, Scientist and became the Iglesia Adventista Central after Jones’s departure in 1978. Like generations of mystics and spiritualists before him, Jones also rented the Embassy Auditorium at 9th and Grand for his preaching. That location is slated to become a boutique hotel; the auditorium will be reincarnated as a concert venue, with faith healers replaced by rock stars.

Why aren’t Lucille Ball’s handprints in front of Grauman’s Chinese Theatre?

By Chris Nichols — Fri, 24 Aug 2012 16:27:00 GMT

I love Lucy, you love Lucy, but the owners of the Chinese reserved their wet concrete for the mitts of stars from the big screen, like Marilyn Monroe and James Cagney. Ball had a modest film career before she found success in the ’50s on the rival medium of television. The 1964 World’s Fair did feature a replica of the Chinese Theatre, which included Ball’s cement handprints, but the whereabouts of that slab are unknown.

There’s a famous story about Orson Welles going to Pink’s and consuming 17 hot dogs. Is this true?

By Chris Nichols — Fri, 15 Jun 2012 18:04:00 GMT

Illustration by Jason Schneider

Paul and Betty Pink opened their Hollywood hot dog stand in 1939, just before Welles began work on Citizen Kane. While the legendary actor-auteur was an enthusiastic patron, it’s unlikely he publicly enjoyed a double-digit wiener binge. Welles confidant Peter Bogdanovich tells me the director was a “secret eater” who preferred indulging in private. “People loved to gloat over his weight,” Bogdanovich says, “because they felt it would diminish his genius in some strange way.” For the record, Merv Griffin once told (with relish) a version of this story in which a chauffeur carries the goods to a car, but it’s a little light on details. I agree with Bogdanovich: This tale probably has a few fillers.

I just saw a 1930s photo of Marion Davies’ beach house in Santa Monica, and the ocean almost touches the property line. These days the Pacific seems to be about a quarter mile away. What happened?

By Chris Nichols — Fri, 08 Jun 2012 16:49:00 GMT

Photograph courtesy joeruggiero.blogpspot.com

A big pile of rocks happened.The Santa Monica breakwater opened in 1934 to accommodate yachts and all other amenities the big neon pier sign promises. In later decades seaside construction projects dumped unwanted sand there. The beach had quintupled in size by the 1960s, when the estate that William Randolph Hearst built was flourishing as a private club. Now anyone can frolic at the Annenberg Community Beach House that replaced it.

Do you know who made the blue tile on the William Mulholland Memorial Fountain?

By Chris Nichols — Fri, 01 Jun 2012 16:28:00 GMT

Photograph courtesy flickr/ClintonSteeds

Dedicated in 1940, the moderne memorial to the man who brought water to Los Angeles sits about a mile from the site of legendary tile manfacturer Gladding, McBean. Its coveted Franciscan tile once lined the fountain, which makes lavish use of water and power with a 50-foot column of rainbow-lighted liquid. By the 1990s, the tiles had deteriorated to such a point that they needed to be replaced with replicas from Heath Ceramics in Sausalito. Today Heath has a showroom on Beverly Boulevard; the original Gladding, McBean factory is a Costco.

Ever since I was a kid, I’ve been amused by the pictures of the Peanuts characters that line the bridge over Wilbur Avenue in Tarzana. Good grief! How did they get there?

By Chris Nichols — Fri, 04 May 2012 00:34:00 GMT

Photograph courtesy icanwritefunny.blogspot.com

Thirteen lifesize panels featuring Charlie Brown and the rest of the Peanuts gang were welded to the bridge when it was built in 1969 to protect children from the floodwaters that swept through Tarzana in the era before storm drains. Charles Schulz signed off on the drawings, and these days the City of Los Angeles keeps them looking fresh.

Is it true that Denny’s is a Los Angeles creation?

By Chris Nichols — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 17:55:00 GMT

Photograph courtesy www.imommies.com

The home of the Grand Slam was born in a midcentury holy land—the quintessential insta- burb named Lakewood, which essayist D.J. Waldie describes as “A place built all at once” and “settled all at once.” Harold Butler and Richard Jezak opened Danny’s Donuts at 4917 Bellflower Boulevard in 1954, quickly added a grill, and expanded the menu to resemble the one we see today. That outpost mimicked a modernist ranch house, as did about a baker’s dozen of Danny’s other locations that were built before 1959, when the name changed to Denny’s. In 1965, the Bellflower Boulevard operation became Lakewood’s first KFC, and it’s still open.