Sunset Boulevard: More Than Just The Strip
Several galleries in our hollywoodphotographs.com collection depict sites located on Sunset Boulevard and for good reason: the street tells so many aspects of the Hollywood story - associations with the early film industry, entertainment venues, and key places where residents worked, shopped, and worshipped. Twenty-two miles in length, the winding and heavily trafficked thoroughfare includes portions of a centuries old cattle trail and sections which bridge several subdivisions of Los Angeles as it passes from downtown LA to the Pacific Ocean. The route runs through the neighborhoods of Echo Park, Silverlake, Los Feliz, Hollywood, West Hollywood, Beverly Hills, Holmby Hills, BelAir, Brentwood, and Pacific Palisades. The stretch from Hillhurst Avenue in Los Feliz on the east, to Sierra Drive in West Hollywood, has long been associated with the Golden Age of Hollywood. It’s so iconic, it even has its own movie: Sunset Boulevard, a classic made in 1950, directed by Billy Wilder, starring Gloria Swanson and William Holden.
Many early motion picture entrepreneurs set up shop along Sunset Boulevard’s eastern portion, one such studio survives at 4401 Sunset (now used by Scientology Media). While DW Griffith’s Intolerance set no longer towers over the intersection at Hillhurst Avenue, the Spanish Colonial Revival Vista Theater at 4473 Sunset (1923, Lewis A. Smith) with its delightful Egyptian interior remains. To the west, the first site of Warner Brothers in Hollywood (now known as Sunset Bronson) at 5800 Sunset still operates, as does the Columbia Studios complex (now called Sunset Gower). Across the street at 6121 Sunset, stands CBS Columbia Square (1938, William Lescaze and ET Heitschmidt, International Style), the brainchild of William Paley and epicenter of his West Coast radio empire. Paley built his complex on the site of the very first studio in Hollywood and a plaque commemorating that history still rests in the front courtyard.
Two entertainment venues - the Palladium (6215) and the Earl Carroll Theatre (6230) dominate the blocks east of Vine Street. Both are designated Historic Cultural Monuments (as is CBS) and associated with prominent architects and owners. At 6360, the modernist Cinerama Dome (1963, Welton Becket and Associates), was a slightly later addition to the street that continued the development pattern of restaurants, theater, and retail around Vine Street. The intersection of Sunset and Vine played a particularly prominent role in the radio and music industries from the 1930s through the 1960s.
As Sunset crosses Cahuenga, several institutions – the Hollywood Athletic Club (6525, Beaux Arts), Blessed Sacrament Church (6657, Spanish Colonial Revival), Crossroads of the World (6671, Robert Derrah, Streamline Moderne), and the Hollywood Reporter (6715, Hollywood Regency) – are just a few examples of early 20th century styles that made Hollywood famous for its architectural and cultural diversity within the community.
Located at Sunset and Highland, Hollywood High School was founded in 1903; its lovely Streamline campus designed by architects Marsh, Smith, and Powell dates from 1935. One block west, the corner of Sunset and La Brea was once home to the famous Tiny Naylor’s Drive-In. Further west through the historic neighborhoods of Spaulding Square and Sunset Square (designated Historic Preservation Overlay Zones), are the Director’s Guild at 7920, the former locations of Schwab’s Pharmacy at 8024, and the Garden of Allah Hotel at 8150 (soon to be a new development designed by Frank Gehry). The Garden was headquarters for transplanted writers during their stays in Hollywood, including Robert Benchley, Dorothy Parker (of New York Algonquin Hotel fame), and novelist F. Scott Fitzgerald.
The Chateau Marmont at 8221 (1928, Arnold Weitzman, Norman Style), just west of Crescent Heights, is the gateway to the “Sunset Strip”, the most famous/infamous section of the boulevard. Located in the city of West Hollywood, this part of Sunset was, and still is, a major hub of Los Angeles nightlife, known for its trademark array of colorful billboards. The mile and a half stretch running from Harper Avenue passed Sunset Plaza to the boulevard’s western border with Beverly Hills, is densely populated with trendy boutiques, restaurants, nightclubs and venues that have been social gathering spots of the entertainment industry and its fans for over eight decades.
Historically outside of the Los Angeles city limits, in an unincorporated area of the county of Los Angeles, these blocks of Sunset were policed by the less vigilant Sheriff’s Department rather than the heavy hand of the LAPD, thus the area was perceived to be more permissive of public behavior. It was illegal to gamble in the city, but legal in the county. This fostered the building of a wilder concentration of nightlife than Los Angeles proper would tolerate in the 1920s. As a consequence, a number of nightclubs and casinos moved in along The Strip, attracting celebrities and other more liberal-minded locals, as the alcohol continued to flow in back rooms during Prohibition.
Glamour and glitz especially defined The Strip in the 1930s and 40s, as its renowned restaurants and nightclubs became playgrounds for the rich and famous. Movie legends, power brokers and everyone who was anyone danced at such legendary clubs as Ciro’s (8433), Mocambo (8588), and the Trocadero (8610). Some of its more expensive clubs and restaurants were said to be owned by gangsters like Mickey Cohen, earning the Strip a mention in Raymond Chandler’s Philip Marlowe novel The Little Sister. Most were owned by Hollywood insiders, such as Billy Wilkerson (publisher of the Hollywood Reporter) and director Preston Sturges. The publicity machine of the studios required their stars to be visible to the public, so gossip columnists like Hedda Hopper and Louella Parsons were also regularly in attendance to report on the events and star sightings at these high profile venues.
By the early 1960s, The Strip seemingly lost favor with movie people, but the restaurants, bars and clubs continued to attract out of town visitors and locals. In the mid-60s and 70s, the area became a major hang out for the counterculture and rock music scenes, as well as the epicenter of the Sunset Strip curfew riots in the summer of 1966, which inspired the Buffalo Springfield song For What It’s Worth. Go-Go dancers performed nightly at such hotspots as the Whisky-a-Go-Go (8901), while bands such as The Doors, The Byrds, Frank Zappa, Van Halen, Motley Crue, Guns ’n Roses, and Whitesnake all played at the Roxy (9009), Pandora’s Box, London Fog, Rainbow Bar & Grill (9015), and Viper Room (8852).
As The Strip became a haven for musical artists in the 1970s and 80s, the Continental Hyatt House (8358), also referred to as the Riot House (now Andaz), became a second home for touring rock bands such as Led Zeppelin, The Rolling Stones, and The Who. Consequently, the hotel became associated with notoriously debaucherous behavior for a time, many of its most outrageous legends later retold in Hollywood movies and TV shows. The Chateau Marmont (8221) and Sunset Tower (at 8358; Leland Bryant, 1931 Art Deco/Streamline Moderne), also share a long history of housing transplant artists during their stays in Hollywood, serving as film sets, and receiving mentions in literature, music, and pop culture.
The Comedy Store (8433), the former site of Ciro’s, gave many comics like Jim Carrey, Sam Kinison, David Letterman, and Jay Leno their starts, while bonafide comedians like Richard Pryor, Whoopi Goldberg, Eddie Murphy, Jerry Seinfeld, and Robin Williams would often try out their new acts in front of crowds.
Tales of Sunset’s history and significance are as long as the boulevard itself. We could easily go on. From the early 1900s to present, Sunset Blvd has been one of Hollywood’s favorite destinations to create, work, play, and shop; the variety of buildings and legends clearly reflect that. Regardless of your actual location, you too can take a trip down Sunset Blvd via hollywoodphotographs.com right now! Please enjoy exploring all the galleries we’ve linked to in this post and be sure to stay tuned for even more in-depth stories of other magnificent Hollywood locations soon to follow.
~ Christy McAvoy and Carly Caryn, Historic Hollywood Photographs
