When it became apparent in the early 1920s that Hollywood Boulevard would become the primary commercial and entertainment center for the town’s burgeoning film industry, one of the first orders of business was to create retail outlets for the industry’s main product: its movies. Within the Hollywood Boulevard Commercial and Entertainment District are a concentration of entertainment-oriented structures, employing a variety of styles, and significant as a group, both functionally and architecturally. This cluster of theaters on Hollywood Blvd, legitimate and cinematic alike, made the thoroughfare a popular destination for the surrounding communities, creating an aura of fantasy for residents of the area and a draw for tourists as well.

As part of establishing their brand, each of the studios wanted its own venue. The Warner Brothers were no exception. As they watched Sid Grauman’s affiliation with Paramount, Fox and United Artists grow, first at his Egyptian Theatre in 1922 and again at the Chinese Theatre in 1927, they also thought it wise to carve out land in the middle stretch of the Boulevard for their own “movie palace”, an elaborate four story business block on the northeast corner of Hollywood Blvd (6423) and Wilcox Ave.

To compete with the flamboyant “programmatic” architecture of Grauman’s Egyptian and Chinese, they chose an ornate construct of Spanish Colonial Revival style known as “Churrigueresque” which had its roots in the Spanish Renaissance. They hired well-known architect G. Albert Landsburgh, who already had a reputation for his stylish interior designs at the Shrine Auditorium and the El Capitan Theater. Their planning and well-publicized advertising campaign began in 1925, just before the groundbreaking of the Chinese. The Warner Brothers vowed to build “The World’s Most Beautiful Cinema” in an effort to reinforce the concept of Hollywood as the movie capital of the world.

The massing of the business block, while horizontal, shares similar decorative elements with the El Capitan. Elaborate detailing is evident on both the south and west facades. The classic facades are very symmetrical, with window bays placed between ornate vertical pilasters. Built of reinforced concrete embellished with concrete ornament, the building retains its original grill work above the shopfronts on the street level. The main entrance was dominated by an oversized marquee which jutted from the building. The original has now been replaced, but much of the detailed entrance, lobby, and interior remain. An elaborately ornamented arcade runs along the west façade. Medallions, gargoyles, Spanish conquistadores and cast floral ornament are characteristic of the style and feature prominently on the Hollywood and Wilcox facades. The entry’s ornate carved ceiling is another prominent feature.  

Through the lobby entry, an elegantly appointed auditorium with a large balcony greeted audiences. Great care was taken to provide every comfort and convenience to patrons. After 14 months of construction, the 2700 seat theater (then largest on the Boulevard) opened with much fanfare on April 26, 1928 with the premiere of Glorious Betsy starring Delores Costello and Conrad Nagle. From the start, this was a “talkies” venue, with the use of the Warner’s Vitaphone sound system. Like the Egyptian and the Chinese, a massive organ also was installed. The Warner Brothers were pioneers of radio broadcasting as well and thus incorporated two signature radio towers of their KFWB station on the roof. The towers were first used in 1929.

The theater was repeatedly adapted to new technologies over the years. The original proscenium was lost in the conversion to Cinerama in 1953; further changes accommodated 70mm screenings in 1961. In 1978, the balcony was divided into two smaller theaters.

Like many of the buildings on Hollywood Boulevard, the Warner has played a supporting role in many films, including Ed Wood (1994), and most recently The Nice Guys and Hail Caesar (2016). Closed as a full-time cinema in August 1994, the Hollywood community eagerly looks forward to a rehabilitation and re-use of The Warner Theatre in keeping with the successful reinventions of the neighboring Egyptian, Chinese, and Pantages. 

~ Christy McAvoy, Historic Hollywood Photographs

Sources: Bruce Torrence archives; losangelestheaterblogspot.com

Showman Sid Grauman knew how to draw a crowd. Beginning his career in San Francisco, he later arrived in Los Angeles where he built the Million Dollar Theater in downtown on Broadway in 1918. It was there that he dreamt up a concept called the “thematic prologue” - a stage show which preceded the movie screening and enhanced the film’s story. Grauman next set his sights on Hollywood, where motion picture studios were fast taking over the town and producers needed venues to premiere their latest offerings. Teaming up with developer Charles E. Toberman, he created a syndicate devoted to these ventures, financed by a local bank. He found property on the south side of Hollywood Boulevard at 6712 where a residence had formerly been located. The land cost $65,000, just the beginning of what would become an $800,000 investment to create Hollywood’s first bonafide “movie palace.” Eighteen months later, architects Meyer and Holler, and their Milwaukee Building Company, provided Grauman with an Egyptian inspired fantasy theater guaranteed to capture the public’s attention.

The Egyptian theme would prove fortuitous. The team switched gears after first conceiving a Spanish Revival building, as Spanish architecture was all the rage in 1920s Southern California. But the news coming out of Egypt was that archaeologists were making spectacular discoveries in the Valley of the Kings (ironically, Howard Carter would open his biggest prize King Tutankhamun tomb just two weeks after the theater’s opening), so Grauman’s decision to go with a more exotic theme, that still aligned with his initial vision for the venue, paid off.

The large property accommodated a substantial outdoor courtyard entry with retail on both sides drawing theater patrons off the Boulevard and into another world. Oversized concrete blocks mimicked Egypt’s desert architecture. The tall walls were painted with colorful illustrations of the Sphinx, pyramids, and other hieroglyphics. Four massive, twenty foot tall columns marked the main entrance were reached through the landscaped 150-foot courtyard punctuated by oversize pilasters with lotus capitals. Specifically designed for the spectacle of “red carpet” premieres, the courtyard also became an outdoor advertisement for the latest film, with props often prominently displayed to attract patrons’ attention. Costumed attendants and guards completed the experience, guiding moviegoers through the foyer and lobby. The lavish interior was also highly decorated with Egyptian paintings; double columns with lotus capitals flanked the proscenium and auditorium walls. Seating over 1700, the auditorium had no public balcony, but there were private boxes flanking the projection booth.

Hollywood’s first ever movie premiere, Robin Hood starring Douglas Fairbanks, opened at the Egyptian on October 18, 1922. The film reportedly cost one million dollars to produce. Admission was $5. Regular evening admission started at $1, then $1.50. It was an exclusive engagement and no other theater in Los Angeles screened that year. Robin Hood was followed by Covered Wagon and The Ten Commandments. Showing only three films in its first eighteen months, the Egyptian set the stage for theaters as a destination for limited releases.

With the success of the Egyptian and its highly publicized conversion to sound using the Vitaphone system, Grauman moved west down the boulevard to develop a new venue in 1926, one that would eclipse his first foray with another equally exotic themed theater, this time of Chinese provenance. 

The Egyptian was subsequently leased to the Fox West Coast organization, which operated it as a “second run” theater until United Artists acquired it in the 1940s. In the 1950s, it became a premiere theater for MGM, playing that role until 1968 with the opening of Funny Girl. By the 1980s, the theater was in disrepair, reflecting Hollywood Boulevard’s overall decline. Acquired by the Community Redevelopment Agency, plans were made for its renaissance. As those plans proceeded, the theater was suddenly damaged in the 1994 Northridge Earthquake. It was then sold to American Cinematheque in 1996 for $1, with proviso that the venue be restored and reopened as a movie theater. The meticulous multi-million dollar rehabilitation re-opened on December 4, 1998 to much fanfare. As part of the completed substantial seismic retrofit and accessibility project, the auditorium was reconfigured to add a second 77 seat screening theater.

Like many other public venues, the Egyptian closed in March of 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic. In May, American Cinematheque announced the theater’s sale to Netflix. “Love for film is inseparable from Los Angeles’ history and identity,” said Mayor Eric Garcetti in the Los Angeles Times. “We are working toward the day when audiences can return to theaters - and this…will preserve an important piece of our cultural heritage that can be shared for years to come.” Amen to that.  

~ Christy McAvoy, Historic Hollywood Photographs

Sources: Bruce Torrence archives; losangelestheatersblogspot.com; Historic Resources Group archives; Mary Mallory, Los Angeles Times

Grauman’s Chinese Theatre, located at 6925 Hollywood Boulevard, is arguably the most well-known movie theater in the world. Commissioned by impresario Sid Grauman following the success of his Hollywood Egyptian Theatre which opened in 1922, the Chinese was the last of four edifices Grauman built in Los Angeles between 1917 and 1927.  He once again tapped Charles E. Toberman as his development partner, and the firm of Meyer and Holler as the architecture and construction firm. Raymond Kennedy was the project’s primary designer.

Grauman began planning for the 2000 seat theatre in 1924 and broke ground in January of 1926. Actresses Anna May Wong and Norma Talmadge took part in the groundbreaking ceremony. Just eighteen months later, on May 18, 1927, the theatre opened with the movie premiere of Cecil B. DeMille’s King of Kings.  It has since been the preferred home of many premieres, special events, and three Academy Awards ceremonies.

The theater’s exterior is meant to resemble a giant red Chinese pagoda. The design features a large Chinese dragon across the façade, two Ming Dynasty lions guarding the main entrance, and silhouettes of tiny dragons adorning the sides of the copper roof. The concrete walls are punctuated by arches, copper ornament, poster cases, stone fountains and planters, and a curving stairway to the roof.  The interior’s decorative paintings, ceiling and wall treatments are quite intricate and reflect natural elements frequently found in Chinese artwork. All of the murals, screens, furniture, and light fixtures were created to complement and enhance the building’s architectural features. Travertine columns and decorative medallions in the auditorium add to the elegant décor. Kennedy’s design concept was to give guests a sense of China, about which Americans knew very little at the time, by combining elements of Chinese architecture with his own fantasies and notions of exoticism. He was somewhat influenced by the style of English chinoiserie, particularly in regards to the creation of the furniture. While historians do not consider the results “authentically Chinese”, it was certainly a reflection of Grauman’s hobby and passion for “Oriental” objects.

The theater’s most distinctive features include the forecourt, a 60’ long by 140’ wide space paved with concrete blocks which bear the signatures, handprints and footprints of popular motion picture personalities from the 1920s to the present day. There have been many stories as to the origin of the tradition, and most can be dismissed as folklore. The most popular of these tales suggests the idea was sparked when Grauman witnessed Norma Talmadge step into fresh cement as she got out of her car while visiting the theater during construction. The true story, which may lack the glamour of other lore, is that Grauman himself was walking across the forecourt when his chief cement mason, Jean Klosssner, scolded him for treading into the freshly laid cement. Sensing a marketing opportunity, the showman subsequently asked Douglas Fairbanks, Mary Pickford, and Norma Talmadge to place their footprints in the new curbstone. The cement was nearly dry, however, and the impressions were too faint. Three weeks before the completion of construction, Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks were again invited back to formally place their prints and signatures in the center of the forecourt. A few days later, Grauman asked Talmadge make similar impressions next to those of Pickford and Fairbanks. Knowing that the grand opening was to occur on May 18th, Talmadge scribbled that date above her signature, rather than the actual date of her impressions. Since then, scores of celebrities have followed suit.

Grauman sold his share of the theater to the Fox Theatres chain in 1929, but remained its managing director until his death in December 1950. In 1968, the Chinese was designated one of the first Historic Cultural Monuments in the City of Los Angeles, and subsequently listed in the National Register of Historic Places. Leased in 1973 by Ted Mann, owner of the Mann Theatres chain and husband of actress Rhonda Fleming, the theater was renamed Mann’s Chinese Theatre. Subsequent owners, including Warner Bros. and Paramount Pictures studios, continued to manage the theater under the Mann name.

A major restoration program begun in 2001 reversed previous alterations on both the exterior and interior. Structural, seismic improvements improved lobby circulation. The restoration of certain decorative features, and the removal of later additions, such as the 1958 marquee, were also successfully accomplished. In 2002, the name was changed back to Grauman’s Chinese Theatre. In 2013, Chinese electronics manufacturer, TCL Corporation, purchased the facility’s naming rights and the theater is now officially known as the “TCL Chinese Theatre”.

~ Christy McAvoy, Historic Hollywood Photographs

Sources: Bruce Torrence archives; Historic Resources Group archives; losangelestheatersblogspot.com

The early years of the twentieth century brought a brand-new entertainment medium to the world: motion pictures or “movies”.  Supplementing vaudeville and live “legitimate” theater performances, moving images were recorded on film and stories were fashioned into “photoplays”.  In just two decades (1910-1930), motion pictures became the predominant form of public entertainment and early storefront theaters were replaced by purpose built and ever more architecturally elaborate viewing facilities.

As Hollywood became the epicenter of film production, its residents and visitors had a dazzling array of movie venues to choose from. The era’s architects competed to create the most fanciful facades and elaborate interiors to attract patrons. As architect S. Charles Lee noted, “The show starts at the sidewalk.”

The distinction of being the first movie theater in Hollywood goes to the Idyl Hour, which was established in late 1910 or early 1911, at 6524 Hollywood Boulevard, on the south side of the street. During its first year, the theater was little more than a converted storefront with chairs, a projector, and a screen. By 1913, the name was changed to the Iris Theater. One year later, it moved a block east to 6415 Hollywood Boulevard, and then again in 1918 to 6508, where a new 1000 seat theater was purpose built to house the Iris. That location, renamed the Fox in 1968, remains today, though the building was later converted to club space in 2009, now known as Playhouse Nightclub.

Hollywood’s second movie venue was the eponymous Hollywood Theater, several blocks west of the Idyle Hour/Iris, just east of Highland Avenue at 6734 Hollywood Boulevard. Originally designed in 1913 by the local firm of Kremple and Erkes, this facility was given a major Art Deco facelift in 1931 by S. Charles Lee and Claude Balch. It now houses the Guiness Museum.

By the 1920s, movies were a permanent part of American culture. The industry grew exponentially, with major studio facilities located in Hollywood as well as the nearby communities of Burbank and Culver City. As production values and storylines became increasingly more elaborate, producers looked for spectacular theaters in which to showcase them.

Many movie moguls wanted Hollywood Boulevard to rival Broadway in downtown Los Angeles as a viewing destination. Showman Sid Grauman (whose downtown movie palaces, the Million Dollar and Metropolitan were already renowned) teamed up with community developer Charles Toberman to create two architecturally themed theaters: the Egyptian Theatre (6712 Hollywood Blvd), built in 1922, and the Chinese Theatre (6925 Hollywood Blvd), built in 1927. Both were created by the architectural firm of Meyer and Holler, each with elaborate courtyards leading into the auditoriums, featuring intricate antiques and props from the movies being shown to entice patrons towards the box office. To the east of the Grauman enterprises were two more “movie palaces”, the Warner Brothers Theater (6433 Hollywood Blvd) designed and constructed by G. Albert Lansburgh in 1926-27; and the Pantages Theater (6233 Hollywood Blvd) designed by B. Marcus Priteca in 1930.

By the end of the decade, Hollywood would boast over 50,000 theater seats. In addition to movie theaters, Hollywood also had several venues for live “legitimate” theater and musical comedy. The El Capitan at 6838 Hollywood Boulevard was a building developed in 1926-27 by C.E. Toberman, designed by Morgan, Walls, and Clement, with a theater designed by G. A. Lansburgh. The Hollywood Playhouse at 1735 Vine Street was designed by Gogerty and Weyl; The Vine Street Theater at 1615 Vine Street was designed by Myron Hunt; and the Music Box at 6126 Hollywood Boulevard was also designed by Morgan, Walls, and Clement. 

In addition to C.E. Toberman, other community investors in these theatrical enterprises included SH Woodruff, developer of the Hollywoodland residential neighborhood; the Christie Brothers of Christie Comedies studio; and the Beveridge family, descendants of one of Hollywood’s founding mothers, Daeida Wilcox. Complimenting the indoor screening venues around town were several renowned outdoor concert venues: the Hollywood Bowl, Greek Theater, and Pilgrimage Theater.

Today, the Hollywood Boulevard Commercial & Entertainment National Register Historic District contains over a dozen locations which were once motion picture and/or live theaters. Most of these theatre buildings still exist, although several of the auditoriums have been converted to storefronts or nightclubs like the Iris, Holly, Vine, Vogue, Ritz. The movie palaces still retain pride of place, although the Warner Brothers Theater now awaits the kind of renovation that has given the Egyptian, Chinese, El Capitan, and Pantages new life.

In the coming weeks, we’ll delve more deeply into the contributors and storied histories of each of these wonderfully ornate landmark theaters, so please subscribe to this blog or our FaceBook page, so you don’t miss a beat. 

~ Christy McAvoy, Historic Hollywood Photographs

Sources: Bruce Torrence archives; EO Palmer’s History of Hollywood; National Register nomination for Hollywood Boulevard; losangelestheaters.blogspot.com; our historian friends Bill Counter, Marc Wanamaker, and John Bengston

People come to Hollywood to reinvent themselves. Endless stories abound.  Many are prosaic and lost to history. Some become the stuff of legends.

Take for example, the story of Cora Irene Sund, a resourceful school teacher from Minnesota with big dreams and a knack for creative enterprise, who saved enough money to move to Los Angeles in the early 1930s. She took a job as a waitress at the Tick Tock Tearoom, a family owned restaurant on Cahuenga Boulevard.  She soon met another transplant, Ernest Raymond Beaumont-Gantt, a bartender at the Hollywood Hotel, who served exceptional rum drinks and went by “Don the Beachcomber”. Cora Irene and Gantt became an item and when they married, he began officially using the moniker, Donn Beach.

To showcase Donn’s mixology skills, Cora Irene (also known as Sunny Sund and Mama C.I.) borrowed money to open Hollywood’s first tropical themed establishment “Don’s Beachcomber Café” at 1722 N. McCadden Place in 1934. They moved across the street to 1727 McCadden Place in 1937 to expand the bar and add a restaurant, which then became “Don the Beachcomber”. They let their imaginations run wild, creating their very own tropical island “tiki” oasis, complete with artificial rainstorms which pitter pattered on the corrugated roof.  From the outside, the place was surrounded by bamboo and intentionally hard to find, making it all the more popular with the Hollywood elite, such as The Marx Brothers, Franchot Tone, Bing Crosby, Marlene Dietrich, Clark Gable, Vivien Leigh, and Greer Garson.

Small dining rooms with names like “Black Hole of Calcutta” and “Cannibal Room” were decorated with palm trees, coconut shells, wooden idols, and other Polynesian paraphernalia, collected in Donn’s travels and work on movie sets. Candles in net-covered vases sat on varnished wooden tables in the shape of islands. Chinese groceries, leis, and rum were sold in the gift shop.

Even with all the over the top décor, the true stars were Don’s intricate rum drinks, including such classics as the “Missionary’s Downfall”, “Vicious Virgin”, “Cobra’s Fang” and of course, the “Zombie”. Cora Irene hired Chinese chefs to create a South Seas meets Cantonese style menu whose exoticism far exceeded that of most standard Chinese restaurants in Los Angeles at the time. She found water chestnuts, bamboo shoots, lychee nuts; imported oyster sauce from China; and likely served the first pu pu platters and ramaki to enthusiastic Hollywood crowds.  

Though the business partnership flourished, the marriage did not. They would open an additional 16 locations, making Don the Beachcomber the first themed restaurant chain in the United States. When they divorced in 1940, Cora moved to Chicago to manage that operation full time, and by 1947 it was named one of the Top 50 US restaurants. Donn later moved to Hawaii where he would further expand his roster of tiki-themed entrepreneurial ventures. In 1958, Joseph Drown, owner of the Bel-Air Hotel and other elegant hotelleries, took over the business and added restaurants in Marina Del Rey and Newport Beach. The original Beachcomber closed in 1985 and was demolished in 1987, but the mid-century tiki culture that Donn and Sunny made popular, lives on to this day, more prolific and revered than ever.  

~ Christy McAvoy, Historic Hollywood Photographs

Source: Bruce Torrence archives

The Christopher Street Gay Liberation Day March, and the Christopher Street West Parade occurred on the same day, uniting East and West Coast gay and lesbian organizations in celebrating the 1969 Stonewall riots in New York. The Stonewall riots, though not the first opposition by the LGBT community (earlier demonstrations include Los Angeles’ Black Cat and San Francisco Cooper Donuts anti-police harassment actions), were the most publicized and symbolized the beginning of a more uniform movement to win gay civil rights. The Christopher Street West parade was held on Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood after lengthy legal struggles and opposition by then-police chief Ed Davis. With the substantial aid of the ACLA, the parade was allowed to take place. It was held on Hollywood Blvd. from 1970 to 1972, and then again from 1974 to 1978, before it was moved to Santa Monica Blvd. in West Hollywood.

~ Richard Adkins, Hollywood Heritage

To see all 80 photographs of the 1975 and 1977 Gay Pride Parades on Hollywood Blvd in our archive, please visit hollywoodphotographs.com.

Drive-ins and diners are a quintessential part of Southern California culture. These modest eateries were the destination for anyone who had access to a car. A trip to a drive-in was not just what’s for dinner, but an event; a small piece of theatre for a modest investment in a burger, fries, and a milkshake. They were particularly great for people watching, making new friends, and in some cases, hearing the latest music. Our warm weather made these iconic dining establishments available almost all year round.

The concept was developed in the 1920s when the ownership of cars and road trips became fashionable. Originating in Texas, the honor of being the very first goes to JG Kirby and his barbecue themed “Pig Stand”. The idea quickly proliferated throughout the Southwest and West. Their “architecture” was always easy to identify. Some were designed as Southern plantation houses or “programmatic” themed designs. Early examples were round or octagonal - the best configuration to serve the most cars from a central kitchen. In the 1950s, drive-ins became associated with their own “Googie” style, making use of curvilinear shapes and vertical pillar signs easy to spot from a car driving down the boulevard.  

Servers delivered menus to the car, often on roller skates for fun, faster service. Most “carhops” were women with their uniforms often themed to match the architecture of the establishment, although “tray boys” were a feature at A&W Root Beer. Special metal trays hooked outside your open window.  

Hollywood, already a destination for tourists because of its association with the movie industry, had numerous drive-ins and diners beginning in the early 1930s. Several were arranged on Sunset Boulevard, one of Hollywood’s most popular thoroughfares that linked downtown Los Angeles to Santa Monica. Carpenter’s at Sunset and Vine was an octagonal building that was one big advertisement with the menu printed right on the façade. In the 1940s, the Brown Derby opened a dedicated “Car Café” located on Los Feliz Boulevard for lovers of the famous restaurant chain. Scrivner’s, at the intersection of Cahuenga and Sunset, was a hot destination in the 1950s. Tiny Naylor’s Restaurant, a Googie style building, anchored La Brea and Sunset for decades until its demolition in 1984. All these venues and many more were popular well into the 1960s, when land use permits intensified and the advent of ubiquitous “fast food” chains like McDonald’s began to signal their demise.

Our collection contains over 50 photographs of drive-ins located in Southern California. One of our favorites, outside of Hollywood, is the quintessential Carl’s at the Beach on Pacific Coast Highway. Sun, cheeseburgers, salty air, and ocean waves… What more could any true Angeleno want?

~ Christy McAvoy, Historic Hollywood Photographs

Source: Bruce Torrence archives

Schwab’s Pharmacy was the stuff of legends. It was perhaps the most famous drugstore in America during the Golden Age of Hollywood. The Hollywood branch of Schwab’s at 8024 Sunset Boulevard was the first store in a chain founded by Leana Schwab to support her six children. During its over five decade run, Schwab’s operated seven different locations in Hollywood and Beverly Hills, and all six children worked to make the business a success. Son Jack founded the Sunset Boulevard location in 1932. His brother Leon, after earning a degree in pharmacology from USC, took over after Jack’s death. Leon promoted the pharmacy’s proximity to the studios, set up delivery and charge accounts, and ran “tabs” for out of work actors. He encouraged publicity through columnists, film shoots, and accommodating tourists.

A lot happened here. Contrary to popular lore, Lana Turner’s discovery was not one of them. The true stories are even more interesting. The soda fountain was the big attraction and meeting spot. Gossip columnist Sidney Skolsky made it and the adjacent phone booth his office, using the tag line “From A Stool at Schwab’s” in all his write ups. He filed stories about Orson Welles, Ava Gardner buying lipstick, William Randolph Hearst picking up medicine for Marian Davies. Some stars were allowed behind the counter to make their own sodas or grab a cup of coffee. Marilyn Monroe, James Dean, and Judy Garland all got their prescriptions filled there. Charlie Chaplin and his sons were also regulars.

Schwab’s was officially etched in the pantheon of popular culture when it was featured in Paramount Studios’ movie Sunset Boulevard starring Gloria Swanson and William Holden, making it instantly world famous and a tourism magnet. The nearby Garden of Allah apartments also helped the trade. Its residents included many actors and writers like Robert Benchley and F. Scott Fitzgerald who would often pop in for a quick meal.

When it was torn down in November 1959 and replaced with a retail complex, the residential nature of that section of Sunset Blvd further declined and Schwab’s nearby customer base dwindled. By the 60s, the Strip as a whole was changing fast. Schwab’s closed at midnight while other restaurant and nightclubs stayed open 24 hours. Many regulars felt uncomfortable being around the new club scene, but Diane Keaton, Jack Nicholson, and others continued to patronize the pharmacy.

February 1982 marked the 50^th anniversary of Schwab’s Sunset location. It was a major event, but as the press was reporting on Schwab’s illustrious past, in reality Leon was struggling to keep the business afloat. The iconic gathering spot eventually closed for good two years later and the building was demolished in 1988. Thankfully, its memory lives on through photographs, like those found in our collection, as well as film and TV shows that continue to re-create its glory days for today’s audiences.

~ Christy McAvoy, Historic Hollywood Photographs

Source: Bruce Torrence archives

Not many businesses, let alone restaurants, can say they have been in business for over 100 years. Not many restaurants can say that members of the founding families still operate them today. Nor can many say their old school continental steakhouse entrees (flannel cakes, chicken pot pie, Welsh rarebit) that have been on the menu since the restaurant first opened, still draw patrons who pine for a fix if they’ve been absent too long. Few can claim there have only been three executive chefs in their entire history, or that the first one (Jean Rue) stayed for 53 years. Nor can they say that their headwaiter (Jesse Chavez), who began as a busboy in the 1920s, later became part owner for a time. Or that a bartender like Manny Aguirre could literally make your day better with his classic gin martini (stirred with ice) and legendary smile. But Musso and Frank most certainly can.

Firmin “Frank” Toulet opened Fran’s Café on September 27, 1919 at 6669 Hollywood Boulevard. To put this in perspective: the motion picture industry had barely been in town ten years; WWI had just concluded; there was a nationwide pandemic known as the “Spanish flu” still sweeping the nation; and Hollywood Boulevard was a mixture of Victorian mansions and brick storefronts. Toulet later changed the name to Frank’s Francois Café, and when he partnered with Joseph Musso in 1923, renamed it Musso and Frank Grill. Four years later, the restaurant changed into the hands of John Mosso and Joseph Carissimi, a team who operated other restaurants in Portland, Oregon and Sacramento, California.

The original room, a dark paneled dining space with a long counter and open grill on one side, housed red leather booths for maximum privacy on the other. One of the first public telephone booths on the Boulevard was at the rear.  By 1936, the restaurant had expanded to include a private “back room” and moved its front door to 6667 Hollywood Boulevard. Expanding again in 1955 (when it took over the space occupied by the Stanley Rose Bookstore to the east), the “new room” was added, creating the configuration that patrons are familiar with today. That room now contains the same ornate bar, fixtures, and furniture from the “back room” and little has changed in six decades.

The restaurant grew alongside the burgeoning film industry and was also a favorite haunt of literary icons and other artistic patrons from the get go. Beginning with Charlie Chaplin, who reportedly loved the roast lamb kidneys and always occupied a corner booth, Musso’s served all the movie stars and moguls including Greta Garbo, the Warner Brothers, Pickford and Fairbanks, Rudolph Valentino, Bette Davis, Humphrey Bogart, Claudette Colbert, Edward G. Robinson, and Orson Welles, to name a few. The business community joined them, represented by developer Charles E. Toberman, who lunched there well into his 100s, and regularly brought his family for dinner. With the Screen Writers Guild conveniently located across the street, and Stanley Rose Bookstore right next store, it was a natural home base for Hollywood’s literati transplants, especially those from the East Coast, seeking a familiar New York style atmosphere. California’s preeminent historians Carey McWilliams and Kenneth Starr chronicled their visits, with Starr saying that the list of authors who dined there was “the list of required reading for a sophomore survey of the mid-20^th century American novel.”  Legendary wordsmiths like William Faulkner, William Saroyan, Nathanael West, Dorothy Parker, Dashiell Hammett, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Thomas Wolfe, and Ernest Hemingway were recruited by the studios to write screenplays in the hopes their fame would sell tickets. They prized Musso’s ambience and as such, the restaurant made cameos in their work, with quintessential set and setting descriptions of its scene appearing in Nathanael West’s Day of the Locusts and Bud Schulberg’s What Makes Sammy Run?

Guided by generations of Carissimis and Mossos, Musso’s has been a constant in the ever-changing landscape of the Boulevard. New generations of celebrity patrons including Johnny Depp, George Clooney, Brad Pitt, and Keith Richards have sung the restaurant’s praises, keeping Musso’s legendary status intact and visits to it, a traditional right of passage for anyone worth their salt in Hollywood. It has starred in movies and television shows like Ocean’s Eleven, Mad Men, and of course, Once Upon A Time in Hollywood. Just as important, it is a community treasure, beloved by residents and visitors alike. For the price of one of those martinis, an order of flannel cakes or filet of sanddabs, you too can step back in time and be part of Hollywood history, still. Cheers to another 100 years…

~ Christy McAvoy, Historic Hollywood Photographs          

Sources: Bruce Torrence archives; Musso and Frank Grill website; The Dream Endures by Kevin Starr

The Brown Derby was a chain of famous Los Angeles restaurants founded by three entrepreneurial Hollywood transplants - Wilson Mizner, an acerbic wit, man-about-town, playwright turned developer from New York and Boca Raton, with a long checkered past; Herbert K. Somborn, film producer/distributor and husband of Gloria Swanson; and their silent partner financier, movie mogul Jack Warner. Despite its notoriety for wealth and glamour, the three were less than impressed with Hollywood’s food and restaurant scene. They were determined to fill the void and create a social epicenter that served “good hardy staples like Dunstan’s in NY” and a first-class establishment where “actors of lofty eminence could dine in relative privacy”. Legends of how the restaurant got its name vary, much like playing a game of telephone, but it’s said that Somborn believed, “You could open a restaurant in an alley and call it anything, even something as ridiculous as the Brown Derby, if the food and service were good, the patrons would just come flocking” or Mizner might’ve mused, “If you know anything about food, you can sell it out of a hat”.

They opened original Brown Derby restaurant at 3427 Wilshire Boulevard in 1926, a prime location Somborn had recently purchased, just across the street from the Cocoanut Grove at the Ambassador Hotel. Whimsical architecture was fashionable at the time, and its distinctive ‘derby hat’ shaped design readily caught the eye of passing motorists.

The first restaurant was such a success that in 1929, Somborn agreed to opened a second location, The Brown Derby Hollywood, at 1628 N. Vine Street, just south of Hollywood Blvd and the Walk of Fame. It was designed by architect Carl Jules Weyl, a former art director for Warner Brothers, in a distinctive Spanish Colonial Revival style that was popular for commercial establishments in Hollywood’s central core. Though its exterior was perhaps not as sensational as the first locale, the Brown Derby Hollywood was considerably larger and with its proximity to nearby radio, TV, and movie studios, it quickly became the place to schmooze, strike deals, and be seen. 

Columnists Louella Parsons and Hedda Hopper were regularly on hand to gather gossip and report on the celebrities in the room, such as Ronald Reagan, Cesar Romero, Dorothy Lamour, Betty Grable, Shirley Temple, Glenn Ford, George and Gracie Allen. Legend has it that Clark Gable proposed to Carole Lombard there. Many civic and community leaders, such as Charles Toberman and his wife Josephine, could also be seen dining on a regular basis. A lion even celebrated his third birthday to much fanfare at the Derby! The anecdotes are endless. The Derby had its own public relations firm, led by Louella Parsons’ cousin Margaret Ettinger, who saw to it that there was a perpetual presence of autograph seekers out front at all times. A select group of professional photographers were given access inside to snap shots of the illustrious clientele. Most didn’t mind as it was an accepted part of the territory; the publicity machine being advantageous for both studios and stars alike.

Like many venues in Hollywood, the Brown Derby often played its own starring role in film and television. Most memorably, in L.A. at Last, the first of the I Love Lucy Hollywood episodes, Lucy, Ethel, and Fred go for lunch at the Brown Derby. During one of their typical misadventures, the trio finds themselves in a booth next to actors Eve Arden and William Holden. Lucy tries to surreptitiously sneak peeks of Holden over the back of the booth, attracts lots of attention while struggling to eat long strands of spaghetti, and then everything famously goes awry when Lucy inadvertently causes the waiter to hit Holden in the face with a pie.

One of the unique features of the Hollywood Brown Derby was that most of the booths had telephones, so busy executives could make or receive calls while dining off the lot. This successful ploy brought in a lot of business and contributed to the already theatrical atmosphere. The celebrity caricatures that covered the walls, most of which were drawn by Jack Lane and Eddie Vitch, were another feature unique to the Derby. It was also the birthplace of the Cobb Salad, which was said to have been hastily assembled from leftovers by Robert “Bob” Cobb, a combination steward, cashier and occasional cook, who later became owner of both the Wilshire and Hollywood restaurants, after Somborn’s death in 1934. Another signature dish of note - the Turkey Derby, served on their Pumpernickel bread that was apparently "to die for”.

Capitalizing on the chain’s success, a third Brown Derby was built in 1931 at 9537 Wilshire Blvd in Beverly Hills. In 1940, the fourth Brown Derby opened at 4500 Los Feliz Avenue, the only one to have both a fine dining restaurant and a 'drive in’ at the same location.

By 1975, the Wilshire location had lost its popularity. It closed and the building was demolished, except for a portion of the original 'derby hat’. The Beverly Hills location closed in 1982 and was demolished the following year. The Los Feliz Brown Derby closed in the early 1990s, though other restaurants and clubs continued to utilize the building in the years since. The Hollywood Brown Derby remained open until 1985. The building was badly damaged by fire in 1987 and it was demolished in 1994.  

Thankfully, its legend lives on through all the colorful stories, films, and photographs that have been recorded and preserved. Our particular archive contains over 150 images, of all four Derby locations, spanning six decades, available for your viewing pleasure at hollywoodphotographs.com.

- Christy McAvoy and Carly Caryn, Historic Hollywood Photographs

Sources: Bruce Torrence archives; Out With The Stars by Jim Heimann