Sunset Blvd: One Famous Road

Sunset Blvd is a long road, but is most known for the 1.7 mile stretch called The Sunset Strip. But it's much more than that. See omnystudio.com/listener https://omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Speaker 00

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• 0:04Josh Clark?

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• 1:05Speaker 03

  Welcome to Stuff You Should Know, a production of iHeart Radio.

• 1:15Josh Clark?

  Welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh and there's Chuck and Jerry's here too. Jerry's being quiet and this is Stuff You Should Know, the hair metal-ish edition.

• 1:27Speaker 02

  Yeah, I mean, you know, we've done a lot of New York centric episodes over the years and I feel like we haven't given LA their due, a city that I know you love dearly.

• 1:38Josh Clark?

  Yeah, the one other city in the world, New York and LA.

• 1:41Speaker 02

  No, I just LA and especially this episode, this Sunset Boulevard, the street. There aren't many, you know, I mean, there's a handful of iconic streets in the world and Sunset Boulevard is one of them because it's just been historically packed with. I mean, it's not just like film stuff. It's music stuff. It's literary stuff. It's comedy stuff. All sorts of like iconic cultural staples on Sunset Boulevard.

• 2:08Josh Clark?

  Right. And it was obviously very well-known inside of LA for years. But it wasn't until the early 2010s, before the rest of the world heard about it, thanks to the Aaron Sorkin Show, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip.

• 2:23Speaker 02

  Oh, yeah. I actually watched that for a little while.

• 2:26Josh Clark?

  It was unwatchable.

• 2:28Speaker 02

  Yeah, it wasn't very good.

• 2:29Josh Clark?

  Somebody just breaking out into a moving soliloquy every seven minutes is the most unrealistic writing anybody could ever possibly do.

• 2:37Speaker 02

  That's Aaron Sorkin, baby.

• 2:39Josh Clark?

  I know, but it only worked for West Wing.

• 2:41Speaker 02

  I didn't watch West Wing at all, so I haven't seen a lot of Sorkin stuff.

• 2:44Josh Clark?

  It really worked for West Wing, but it did not work for Studio 60.

• 2:49Speaker 02

  I do love Sarah Paulson, though. She was in that.

• 2:51Josh Clark?

  Sure.

• 2:52Speaker 02

  She's great.

• 2:52Josh Clark?

  I felt bad for her.

• 2:53Speaker 02

  Yeah. I did, too, a little bit.

• 2:55Josh Clark?

  What was great is 30 Rock came out at the exact same time, and they would make fun of some of Studio 60's like plotlines.

• 3:03Speaker 02

  Yeah, in real time?

• 3:04Josh Clark?

  Yeah, the whole, what was the Janis Joplin story? They had to rename her.

• 3:09Speaker 02

  Oh, I don't remember.

• 3:10Josh Clark?

  Because they didn't have rights to her life story. That was something that Sarah Paulson got a gig do, playing Janis Joplin on Studio 60.

• 3:18Speaker 02

  That's funny.

• 3:19Josh Clark?

  So, that's our Studio 60 episode, everybody.

• 3:22Speaker 02

  That's right. Back to Sunset Boulevard.

• 3:25Josh Clark?

  Yeah. So, yes, we should probably just say, all jokes aside, it's a very long street. It's a very historic street, and it actually dates back to the 18th century. Before the city of Los Angeles, as we understand it, was around. Instead, it originated in the Pueblo de Los Angeles, which was the little colony, I guess, or settlement of just 11 families.

• 3:50Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 3:51Josh Clark?

  That was the seed that germinated into Los Angeles. Home of Joe Friday.

• 3:57Speaker 02

  That's right. In Sunset Boulevard, before it became Sunset Boulevard, like many famous streets, was originally used as something else. And in this case, it was a cattle trail from that downtown pueblo of Los Angeles, all the way to the Pacific. So it runs for 23 miles. You hear about Sunset Boulevard, you probably think of the Sunset Strip, which is a less than two-mile area. But Sunset Boulevard, I used to live on the east side in Silver Lake, and Sunset Boulevard over there is great in a whole other way than the Sunset Strip.

• 4:29Josh Clark?

  How so?

• 4:31Speaker 02

  Well, I mean, it's just a cultural seed of great restaurants and cafes and music venues. And it was sort of the hipster thing back in the day when hipsters were still a thing.

• 4:44Josh Clark?

  Yeah, Silver Lake, there's that Shaggy Dog mystery with Andrew Garfield beneath the Silver Lake, right?

• 4:50Speaker 02

  Oh.

• 4:51Josh Clark?

  That was pretty hipster.

• 4:52Speaker 02

  I think I saw that, maybe?

• 4:55Josh Clark?

  Yeah, it's worth watching, especially if you know it's a Shaggy Dog mystery going into it.

• 5:00Speaker 02

  Yeah, but a long way of saying that it was a cattle trail to begin with, and then like a lot of things like that would eventually become a real street. It became Sunset Boulevard about 100 years after that, I believe.

• 5:12Josh Clark?

  Yeah, so there's a couple of origin stories for where the name came from. I couldn't see what they called it, like the westward side of Sunset Boulevard, before it was Sunset Boulevard. But I think in 1887, there was a developer. There was a lot of land development going on in the late 19th century that built up Los Angeles. There was a bunch of different little towns, communities, that were independent, and then Los Angeles kept growing and growing and growing, and it would absorb them, and they became neighborhoods instead.

• 5:41Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 5:41Josh Clark?

  Well, there was one planned town called Sunset, and they planned for Sunset Boulevard, a different stretch of road to go right through the town. And so they apparently came up with the name Sunset Boulevard, but it was another developer who appropriated it and used it for the Sunset Boulevard after that town of Sunset never actually happened. It died on the drafting table, I guess, is what you'd say.

• 6:05Speaker 02

  Is that an industry jargon?

• 6:07Josh Clark?

  It is now.

• 6:09Speaker 02

  Yeah, and you know, surely you can see some, some great sunsets because Sunset, you know, if you're not familiar with sort of the Hollywood basin, there's a, it's very grid-like and there's a series of East West Streets, Hollywood, Sunset, Santa Monica, or some of the more famous ones.

• 6:23Josh Clark?

  Mm-hmm.

• 6:24Speaker 02

  And it, it goes downhill, you know, from the mountains, the Hollywood Hills, you know, there's the literal mountains and hills, but then it's still up kinda high and LA kinda goes down, down, down into the basin and Sunset is pretty high on that side. So yeah, you can see some great sunsets, I'm sure.

• 6:40Josh Clark?

  Yeah, and I think originally it terminated on the east end in Chinatown, or what's now Chinatown. And like you said, it goes through Silver Lake, it goes through a bunch of different neighborhoods, Echo Park, Pacific Palisades, Beverly Hills, Hollywood, West Hollywood. Like, all these great neighborhoods, I think are in part great neighborhoods because it's, it's a chicken or the egg thing. Is Sunset Boulevard great because these, these neighborhoods around it are great, or are the neighborhoods great because Sunset Boulevard ran through them?

• 7:13Speaker 02

  I think it's a chicken meets egg and they just shake hands and agree not to discuss it.

• 7:18Josh Clark?

  Let's never speak of this again.

• 7:19Speaker 02

  Uh, some film stuff, and we're kinda jumping around between things that made it famous, but generally in a timeline. But, uh, early on, it was obviously, um, Hollywood was the birthplace of the film industry and, and you know, we've said it before, if you've never been there, you might think Hollywood is just a euphemism for the film industry. It is that, but it is also a real neighborhood, right in the center of the LA basin there. And, you know, it was originally just like all the other suburbs, like you were talking about, they were dividing it up into lots. And I believe in the early 1900s, there was a guy named, uh, very 1900s name, H.J. Whitney, who kind of, I don't know if he, it wasn't

• 8:00Speaker 02

  officially incorporated, but he made Hollywood like a, a proper town and a place to live.

• 8:05Josh Clark?

  Yeah, I think Hollywood or West Hollywood wasn't incorporated until like the 1980s. Is that right?

• 8:11Speaker 02

  I think that was probably West Hollywood.

• 8:13Josh Clark?

  Okay.

• 8:14Speaker 02

  WeHo, as they say.

• 8:15Josh Clark?

  Yeah, everybody knows that, thanks to Studio 60.

• 8:19Josh Clark?

  So yeah, so Hollywood, it was almost out of the gate. This is the early 1900s, 1910, when it merged with Los Angeles. The next year, film studios started popping up and they started popping up in a very specific area, the corner of Sunset Boulevard and Gower Street. And even still today, there's an original studio from that area called Sunset Gower Studios and they're still making shows. That's where Dexter was filmed. That's where Saved by the Bell, The College Years was filmed.

• 8:51Speaker 02

  Six Feet Under?

• 8:52Josh Clark?

  That's where, yeah, Six Feet Under, Dexter, The College Years, Heroes. A lot of really good shows have shot there and it's an old, old timey, original Hollywood studio from like the 19 teens.

• 9:06Speaker 02

  Yeah, I never shot there, but I got to, as a P A, got to run an air in there once during, while Six Feet Under was being shot. So I got to see those sets and it was pretty, pretty cool as a Six Feet Under fan.

• 9:17Josh Clark?

  What, did you take something to Diddy? Is that what it was?

• 9:20Speaker 02

  No, no, no, that was to his actual house.

• 9:22Josh Clark?

  Gotcha.

• 9:23Speaker 02

  Yeah, I disavow that entire delivery though. Poverty Row is what they called Sunset Gower at first because it was pretty low budget at the time, the things they shot there. But in the 1930s, they started shooting some like really kind of high quality things there. Notably, the movies that happened one night and you can't take it with you.

• 9:41Josh Clark?

  Yeah.

• 9:42Speaker 02

  And then Gower Gulch, I'm glad I never knew the history, but there's still a, a strip mall right there called Gower Gulch and it has a little old west theme. And that's where I saw Sherry O'Terry at a Starbucks.

• 9:56Josh Clark?

  Oh, yeah.

• 9:57Speaker 02

  And where there was a, hopefully it's still a print shop there where, you know, you could get scripts printed off and bound.

• 10:03Josh Clark?

  Oh, yeah.

• 10:04Speaker 02

  But now I know that Gower Gulch is so named because it was where all of the westerns were being filmed and a lot of dudes in like cowboy hats and cowboy boots would kind of hang around waiting to be cast there at that, I guess, whatever the stores were at the time.

• 10:19Josh Clark?

  Yeah, because Hollywood, especially this area where all the studios were churning out westerns left and right through the twenties and thirties. So, I mean, I'm sure there were other extras hanging around, but the ten gallon hat really makes you stand out. And if you put a bunch of them together, it's going to get a reputation for being a cowboy hangout. And they would hang out around the Columbia Drug Store.

• 10:39Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 10:40Josh Clark?

  Is that still there?

• 10:41Speaker 02

  I don't know. I mean, I feel like there's a Rite Aid and that's probably what that was, but I may be wrong, but you know, Gower Gulch lives on.

• 10:48Josh Clark?

  Did you ever go into that Rite Aid in Greenpoint? Yeah, in Greenpoint in New York, in Brooklyn?

• 10:55Speaker 02

  I don't think so.

• 10:55Josh Clark?

  That has like a disco ball still from whatever it was before.

• 10:59Speaker 02

  Oh, cool. No, definitely not.

• 11:00Josh Clark?

  It is kind of cool. But anyway, this Columbia Drug Store, they would hang out there because the owners of Columbia Drug Store had a telephone and they would let the extras use it to call central casting to see if there were any parts available for them. And there was a high-profile murder there too, right? Between a couple cowboys?

• 11:17Speaker 02

  Uh, yeah. I mean, I don't know if it was quite a, you know, take 10 steps and draw kind of thing.

• 11:23Josh Clark?

  Yeah.

• 11:23Speaker 02

  But there was a shooter over, I think they were both seen in the same Philly.

• 11:28Josh Clark?

  Yeah, and apparently one of them, Blackjack Ward, killed Johnny Tyke. He shot him down once and then he told them each reason he was shooting him and every time he did, he shot him again until his whole six shooter was empty. Like, he murdered that guy in broad daylight in front of a bunch of people and he still got off.

• 11:45Speaker 02

  And someone said, "Boy, cast that dude. That's incredible."

• 11:48Josh Clark?

  Yeah, I know.

• 11:50Speaker 02

  That should be out of a movie.

• 11:51Josh Clark?

  Yeah, they should make a movie about him, for sure.

• 11:54Speaker 02

  Uh, prohibition was when the party scene kind of moved in. It was called the County Strip at the time and it was unincorporated still at this point, but it was a stretch kind of between where Hollywood was, you know, a dry place because of prohibition and Beverly Hills is kind of where the Sunset Strip ends.

• 12:14Josh Clark?

  Yeah, well, um, but it keeps going to the Pacific, right? That, like, doesn't it basically just run out into the ocean? Or I guess the Pacific Highway?

• 12:22Speaker 02

  But that's not the Sunset Strip. It was just that.

• 12:24Josh Clark?

  Oh, the Strip, Strip. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Sorry about that. But yeah, I guess from the outset, the Sunset Strip was like mobsters, brothels, gambling rackets, nightclubs. It was huge during prohibition. Uh, and I guess the reason why is because it was unincorporated, so the LA County Sheriff was in charge of overseeing or enforcing laws. And I guess they weren't particularly inclined to enforce laws in that area, so that's where you went. And that is- In and of itself is like, worth mentioning, it's historic. But one of the reasons it's so famous, or the strip became the strip, is because on the other side, like you said, there's Beverly Hills. And that's where the stars had moved around the same time. So they would come into the county strip and party and then go back to Beverly Hills.

• 13:09Josh Clark?

  And the fact that there were all these world famous movie stars partying there.

• 13:13Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 13:13Josh Clark?

  Kind of really put a stamp on Sunset Strip that stayed forever.

• 13:17Speaker 02

  Yeah, that was, uh, eighty-four, seventy-seven Sunset had, um, four different mobster clubs, basically, where the, you know, mob owned and backed them. It was at first the Spanx, then the Han Club, then Club, uh, what would that be? Sokoloff?

• 13:31Josh Clark?

  Yeah, I think so.

• 13:32Speaker 02

  Sokoloff?

• 13:33Josh Clark?

  Sokoloff? Yeah.

• 13:36Speaker 02

  That's O-K-O-L-O-E-F-F. And then the Clover Club. And if you're wondering what eighty-four, seventy-seven is now, it's a weed dispensary.

• 13:44Josh Clark?

  Oh, that's appropriate.

• 13:45Speaker 02

  Yeah, like, it kind of feels right, doesn't it?

• 13:48Josh Clark?

  Yeah. Uh, because I'll bet it was a weed dispensary back in the thirties, too.

• 13:52Speaker 02

  Yeah, probably so.

• 13:53Josh Clark?

  But I'll bet it was some crap weed.

• 13:55Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 13:57Josh Clark?

  So, uh, yeah, no crap, like the kids say today.

• 14:00Speaker 02

  Right. I think it's no cap, isn't it?

• 14:03Josh Clark?

  Yeah, I think they just don't know what they're saying.

• 14:05Speaker 02

  Okay.

• 14:07Josh Clark?

  So I mentioned brothels. That apparently was a huge foundation of Hollywood. So there's Hollywood that people think about as Hollywood. And then there was like real Hollywood, that the actual stars, how they actually lived their lives. And it was depraved and decadent, as you can imagine, during the golden era. It might have been the most depraved and decadent during the golden era, depending on what your moral views are. Um, and people just went buck wild. The brothels were a huge part of that. They were everywhere along Sunset Boulevard. They were in private homes, they were in apartment buildings, they were sometimes in commercial spaces. And, um, they even had some that, that imitated, or there were look-alikes of stars of the day, too.

• 14:51Speaker 02

  Yeah, that was, uh, one of the plotlines of L.A. Confidential, if you remember.

• 14:55Josh Clark?

  Oh, yeah.

• 14:56Speaker 02

  It was a, a brothel where, and except in that movie, they were, I think the line was like, they're cut to look like celebrities. So I think they had actual, like, plastic surgery.

• 15:05Josh Clark?

  Oh, got you, yeah.

• 15:06Speaker 02

  To look like Hollywood stars. And, you know, the rumors were that the studios were kind of funding these. To take investors, like foreign investors, there and they could sleep with a sex worker that looks like Vivian Lee.

• 15:17Josh Clark?

  That seems to be a really well-founded rumor. Like, I don't know that there's any actual documentation of it, but it seems to be pretty much accepted as fact from what I saw.

• 15:26Speaker 02

  Yeah, I believe it.

• 15:27Josh Clark?

  So, and actually, because this is Hollywood and celebrity, I guess, celebrity worship is just part of it and always has been, whenever some of the madams would get busted, they would become internationally famous as well. There were two that stick out. One's name was Leigh Francis. I think she might have originally worked under the other very famous one, the Black Widow, Ann Forrester. And by this time, the Hollywood movie studios were so powerful that both Leigh Francis and Forrester were busted with client information. One of them had essentially like an index card system, the other one had a black book. And both of those things disappeared before they could ever make it into the evidence locker.

• 16:11Josh Clark?

  And no one was arrested in any of the cases, even the guys who were caught in the act, because they just, you just kept people's names out of the paper. It just didn't happen in Hollywood. And I think that level of protection by the studios just fueled the lifestyle that the stars were living, because they couldn't get in trouble. They could not, there were no consequences for what they were doing. So people just did anything and everything there during that golden age, I guess, of the 20s and 30s and 40s, maybe?

• 16:43Speaker 02

  Yeah, and, you know, because of that, it was sort of a, you know, as Dave called it, kind of a blessing in disguise for the LGBTQ community. And, you know, that's, West Hollywood, or WeHo, again, is sort of the heart of the LGBTQ community in Central Los Angeles. But way before that, it was, it was where a lot of gay bars were, gay clubs, drag clubs. I think the first drag shows in the city, and probably some, some of the first in the United States, were at a speakeasy in 1927 called Cafe La Boheme. But there were also, you know, all kinds of clubs there. There was a very famous one called the Trocadero that opened in 1934, where Cafe La Boheme was.

• 17:25Speaker 02

  And it was opened by a guy named Billy Wilkerson, who was a publisher of The Hollywood Reporter, which I guess used to be News and like gossip and stuff, now it's like a, you know, fully sort of stand-up legitimate industry rag.

• 17:40Josh Clark?

  I know, they write about us pretty much constantly.

• 17:43Speaker 02

  I think we were in it once, actually.

• 17:45Josh Clark?

  We were selected for some honor of like, I think, powerful podcasters or something crazy like that?

• 17:50Speaker 02

  Yeah, we made that list a time or two, and we were in Variety once, too, a couple of, you know, feathers in our caps.

• 17:56Josh Clark?

  Yeah, so nice. I'd love to stroke those feathers sometimes.

• 17:59Speaker 02

  Well, it's easy to forget when they don't come calling, you know?

• 18:02Josh Clark?

  That's true.

• 18:03Speaker 02

  But he owned, Billy Wilkerson owned the Chocodaro, and it was another one of those things where he was like, hey, you come by the Chocodaro and we're gonna make sure that you get in the gossip column, you know, because at the time, you know, that was kind of good press.

• 18:18Josh Clark?

  Yeah, at the same time, the Chocodaro was set up to cater to stars and celebrities because autograph hounds and people who looked a little too hungry or thirsty to get in there were shut out of that to protect people inside, the celebrities inside, so they could relax and not have to worry about, I guess, being asked for their autograph, the worst thing that can possibly happen to you.

• 18:43Speaker 02

  And then the final one we'll mention here before the break is a nightclub called Siros. It opened in 1940, and I believe it was also Wilkerson who owned that one, and it was notable, it was just a very famous and popular nightclub, but it was, it made its name because Bugsy Siegel would go there a lot, the infamous mobster, and when he was in jail on murder trial, he got food from Siros delivered right there to his cell, because you could do that at the time.

• 19:08Josh Clark?

  Yep. Takeout food, can you believe it?

• 19:12Speaker 02

  So, we'll take a break now, yeah?

• 19:15Josh Clark?

  Yeah, I think it's a good idea.

• 19:17Speaker 02

  Great, and we'll come back and talk about the legendary Chateau Marmont, right after this.

• 19:36Josh Clark?

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• 20:39Josh Clark?

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• 21:57Speaker 02

  All right, we're back. We promised to talk of the Chateau Marmont. That is a very famous hotel, built in 1929. It's the one that sits right in the hills and kind of looks like a castle. A very European-inspired, luxury hotel. And its motto is still, if you go to their website, says "Always a safe haven, always open." And from the start, it was kind of like what you've been describing. It was a place where you could go and party hearty and ensure that your name wouldn't be in the news because of it.

• 22:28Josh Clark?

  Yeah, like, they had, and I believe still have, a strict policy among their staff. Like, you do not talk about what you see at the hotel. And the reason why is they figured out very early on that if you can provide like that level of discretion or privacy, you're going to be, you're in good. Like, the word of mouth alone is going to keep you in business for decades. And clearly, that worked out for more than a century, almost a century. And then conversely, if the staff started gossiping or talking about what they saw or started selling their stories to papers or tabloids, like, the Chateau Marmont would have gone out of business in six months, essentially.

• 23:09Josh Clark?

  So, they, I don't know how they managed to do it to keep people from, you know, rumor mongering or anything like that, but they seem to have quite successfully over the years.

• 23:19Speaker 02

  Yeah, and I was delighted to see today, and for a while, kind of during the early COVID years, I remember it was closed down and it was supposedly going to reopen as a, sort of like a members-only, you could buy places or maybe live in them long-term or something? I can't remember what the plan was, and it bummed me out because I'd never had a chance to stay there. But I went today and apparently it's a hotel again. I don't know if those plans are completely off or what, or what happened, but it looks like you can stay there. I have never stayed there, but I have mentioned before I have partied in the John Belushi bungalow like six or seven times.

• 23:52Josh Clark?

  Neat.

• 23:53Speaker 02

  It's just a pretty awesome, special place, the restaurant there and the bar. You just sort of feel, and it's not like I go there to, you know, get away with doing bad stuff, but it feels insulated when you're in there, like this little weird haven.

• 24:07Josh Clark?

  Yeah, I mean, like I said, apparently, it's still very much like that and it's very tight lipped.

• 24:11Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 24:12Josh Clark?

  Yeah, it's just, I mean, that's just such an iconic place that it almost, to me, stands apart from Sunset Boulevard. It's about as iconic as Sunset Boulevard itself, in my opinion.

• 24:24Speaker 02

  Yeah, agreed. And it was right there at sort of that junction where the very famously had the big Marlboro Man poster ad for

• 24:30Josh Clark?

  Oh, yeah.

• 24:31Speaker 02

  Forever, that thing was up.

• 24:32Josh Clark?

  There was one other thing. Dave helped us with this and he turned up a quote from the guy who used to run Columbia Pictures, I think in the 30s. His name was Harry Cone. And he used to tell his actors, "If you must get in trouble, do it at the Chateau Marmont."

• 24:47Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 24:48Josh Clark?

  Because nobody's going to find out about it. Like, that hotel could even keep people's names out of the paper when someone died in their hotel. The death would get reported, but the papers would not report the person's name in a lot of cases.

• 25:02Speaker 02

  There's got to be NDAs.

• 25:03Josh Clark?

  I guess, but I mean, this is long before there were NDAs, you know?

• 25:07Speaker 02

  Oh, I don't know when those came along.

• 25:09Josh Clark?

  I mean, certainly, they weren't around in the 1930s, I wouldn't think. I think just the studio heads would send goons

• 25:15Speaker 02

  Break your legs.

• 25:16Josh Clark?

  Yeah.

• 25:17Speaker 02

  Down the street from the chateau was another very famous, well, eventually hotels, called the Garden of Allah. And you should look this place up if you're, you know, someplace where you're not driving and look at pictures of it. It was pretty wondrous. I think it was a few acres. Name for its original owner, it was a silent film star named Allah Nazimova. And Allah had a lot of money and bought a mansion there in 1918. And then when things, it was sort of like, hey, come and party. It was sort of like the New York salons at the time, like the elite would party there. And I think Nazimova was, coined the phrase sewing circles as code for lesbian and bisexual actresses at the time.

• 25:58Josh Clark?

  Yeah, I saw her described as the sapphic mother of Hollywood. Like, she is a LGBTQ icon from, still today, but from this era. And she was really famous and made a lot of money. Apparently, at one point, she was making $13,000 a week, which is $276,000 a week today. And so, according to the moral codes of the time, this was decadent and depraved. But it was a safe place for the stars, who were closeted lesbians or closeted bisexual, to like, come and like, have affairs or make relationships or whatever. It was just a really safe space. And Nazimova was the reason why.

• 26:42Josh Clark?

  Like, she managed to like, keep a lid on that as well, while still, like, everybody went and had fun.

• 26:48Speaker 02

  Yeah, totally. And, you know, it went from a private house, where she hosted these salons, to, after the silent film era, she didn't make the transition to the talkies so well. And so, was a little down on her luck financially. And remodeled it as a hotel in 1927. And it became sort of the same version of the same thing, but as a hotel.

• 27:08Josh Clark?

  Yeah, for sure. And I think as a hotel, it might have been less of a safe space, but probably still carried it on some. Like, from what I understand, when it was her house, like, it was lesbian central, essentially. And then, once it became a hotel, it was much more open to, I think, everybody.

• 27:27Speaker 02

  Yeah, for sure. It's now a strip mall. It was demolished, fully, unfortunately. But you can go look at great pictures of it. It was across from the very famous Schwab's Pharmacy, which was a lot of things. There was, I think, from the movie 1951 Sunset Boulevard, the great Billy Wilder movie.

• 27:46Josh Clark?

  That is such a good movie.

• 27:47Speaker 02

  Oh, it's unbelievable. William Holden, as a washed-up screenwriter, says, "After that, I drove down to headquarters." That's the way a lot of us think about Schwab's. Kind of a combination office, coffee klatch, and waiting room. Waiting, waiting for the gravy train.

• 28:00Josh Clark?

  Yeah.

• 28:01Speaker 02

  And that's what it was. It was this weird combo, where you could go see and be seen, and also sit around and, you know, wait for the phone to ring.

• 28:09Josh Clark?

  Yeah, they had this lunch counter that apparently was pretty good because a lot of stars went there, but they didn't discriminate. It wasn't like you could be an aspiring actor who's getting nowhere and you're sitting there almost literally rubbing elbows at this lunch counter with Marlon Brando or something like that. Like it was just people coming together from all walks of life. And I thought that was pretty cool, but it made it legendary. I mean, just basically anywhere that stars went on Sunset Boulevard automatically became legendary. And now they're all Rite Aids or Chase Banks.

• 28:41Speaker 02

  And Schwab's Pharmacy is where the famous story about Lana Turner being discovered there while skipping school. Her name was Lana Turner, but I think, I feel like we talked about this, that that wasn't true.

• 28:52Josh Clark?

  Yeah, it turns out, I mean, she was discovered skipping typing class at Hollywood High School, but she was discovered at the Top Hat malt shop, not at Schwab's.

• 29:01Speaker 02

  Right.

• 29:02Josh Clark?

  And I guess Schwab's just filled in for Top Hat because it was much more famous, maybe. I don't know.

• 29:06Speaker 02

  Yeah, probably.

• 29:07Josh Clark?

  But that same Billy Wilkerson who founded C-Rose and The Hollywood Reporter, he's apparently the one who discovered her.

• 29:13Speaker 02

  Oh, yeah, that's right.

• 29:15Josh Clark?

  It's all true, except for the Schwab's part.

• 29:17Speaker 02

  As we move into the 60s is when the Sunset Strip, you know, particularly became part of the, kind of the seated counterculture of Los Angeles. In the 1950s, a lot of money went to Vegas when Vegas was first opening up.

• 29:34Josh Clark?

  Yeah.

• 29:35Speaker 02

  And so rents fell lower on the Strip. So like some grittier nightclubs moved in. And I think you found too where Vegas, if you played in Vegas, you needed to at least like have a reputation in LA. So that's why a lot of bands played there?

• 29:48Josh Clark?

  Yeah, well, no, the mob had enough money that they could pay you just such a fat contract that part of the contract was you can't go play LA.

• 29:55Speaker 02

  Oh, you couldn't play, okay.

• 29:57Josh Clark?

  Right. So all of the entertainers and performers left the Sunset Strip and went to Vegas. So the club started having trouble.

• 30:05Speaker 02

  Ah, okay.

• 30:05Josh Clark?

  And then they started bringing in black acts, Motown, R&B. Otis Redding very famously played at, I can't remember what, what club with Bob Dylan watching him just agog. And sadly, the sudden appearance of black performers on the Sunset Strip actually depressed real estate values even further. And so as rock and roll kind of came along, young entrepreneurs who wanted to open rock clubs were able to afford these spaces along the Sunset Strip. And that's how it went from glamorous Frank Sinatra to grungy rock

• 30:44Josh Clark?

  clubs. There was a transition, a swing, from the R&B artists of the time playing the Sunset Strip for a little while in between those things.

• 30:54Speaker 02

  Oh, okay, that makes sense. So then it became more rock and roll because that's when the Whiskey a Go-Go opened in 64, a venue I've still not been to. They just don't have a lot of stuff that I'm into anymore. It's a lot of, still a lot of like metal and like metal tribute bands and stuff like that. But I'm gonna make it a point just to go at some point, just so I can be in that room. But that became sort of the epicenter of the counterculture and youth culture.

• 31:20Josh Clark?

  Right.

• 31:21Speaker 02

  And Whiskey a Go-Go, if you've heard of go-go dancing, it comes from the Whiskey a Go-Go, like literally.

• 31:26Josh Clark?

  Yeah, there was a DJ at the whiskey named Joni Labine, and the DJ booth was in a glass case. I'm not sure if it's still there or not, but it was several tens of feet off of the dance floor, just over it. And when she was spinning records, she would just kind of dance. And she had a certain way of dancing, and she would wear very short skirts and long white boots. And like, she started the go-go dancing trend of the 60s single-handedly, essentially. Everybody started kind of mimicking her. And it was all at the Whiskey a Go-Go.

• 31:59Speaker 02

  Yeah. If you've heard of the rock band The Doors, the rock band without a bass player, featuring Jim Morrison.

• 32:07Josh Clark?

  Mm-hmm.

• 32:07Speaker 02

  And others, Rayman Zarek.

• 32:10Josh Clark?

  I remember how excited I was in 8th grade when that movie came out.

• 32:13Speaker 02

  Oh, I was a freshman in college.

• 32:15Josh Clark?

  I was so psyched.

• 32:15Speaker 02

  Yeah, I was too. That's cool that you were psyched at that age, because it felt like college is when everyone got into the Doors for a couple of years.

• 32:23Josh Clark?

  Mm-hmm.

• 32:23Speaker 02

  And that was definitely me. And the whiskey certainly featured heavily because they were the house band for basically a summer in 1966.

• 32:32Speaker 02

  And, you know, everyone of the day played there. It's not a very big venue either. I don't know what the capacity is, but it feels like, just by looking at it, it's probably under a thousand.

• 32:42Josh Clark?

  Oh, yeah, I would definitely say that. I mean, imagine seeing Led Zeppelin or Jimi Hendrix, like, in a small room like that.

• 32:48Speaker 02

  Yeah, I mean, I can't imagine seeing them, period, much less in a small room.

• 32:52Josh Clark?

  And then one other thing about the Whiskey Gogo. I think it's probably the greatest club name of all time. And I looked up why or where Gogo came from, and apparently "go" for a little while was slang for fashionable, and it just kind of morphed into Gogo.

• 33:08Speaker 02

  That's super fashionable.

• 33:09Josh Clark?

  That meant kind of fashionable or cool. Right, doubly fashionable. So the Whiskey Gogo was very fashionable, I guess.

• 33:15Speaker 02

  A rare in-show look-up. It's a capacity of 500, so yeah, that's amazing.

• 33:20Josh Clark?

  Oh, wow, yeah. That's like a Stuff You Should Know show in our hometown of Atlanta.

• 33:27Speaker 02

  Wow. In the mid-'60s is when cruising the strips became like a real thing with, you know, basically, people just would get in their cars, get in their convertibles, get on their motorcycles, and just drive up and down the Sunset Strip. If you've ever seen the movie American Graffiti, even though that drive-in was filmed in on Van Ness because Mel's Drive-In is a small chain, I think it was supposed to be the one on the Sunset Strip, if I'm not mistaken.

• 33:56Josh Clark?

  Yeah, definitely. That whole LA youth culture and car culture that produced the Beach Boys and all that, that's when it was set, right? And I think it actually, Happy Days was essentially spun off of American Graffiti. What's his name?

• 34:12Speaker 02

  Bonzi?

• 34:12Josh Clark?

  Richie Cunningham.

• 34:13Speaker 02

  Richie Cunningham. Ron Howard, baby.

• 34:15Josh Clark?

  Yes, he was in American Graffiti, essentially playing Richie Cunningham.

• 34:19Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 34:20Josh Clark?

  Right before Happy Days started, so.

• 34:22Speaker 02

  I never thought about that, yeah.

• 34:24Josh Clark?

  One little thing about that, I was looking up Mel's Drive-In and American Graffiti, and I ran across, there was a list of suggested names from the studio instead of American Graffiti, and it's even on, like, Lucasfilm Stationery or something like that. And one of them was Burger City. They considered naming that movie Burger City.

• 34:45Speaker 02

  Wow, we should write a script called Burger City, see if we can get it developed.

• 34:49Josh Clark?

  Yeah, I think that'd be great.

• 34:51Speaker 02

  Or Good Burger, that'd be an equally weird name.

• 34:54Josh Clark?

  Isn't that Keenan and Kel?

• 34:56Speaker 02

  Yeah, I was just kidding.

• 34:57Josh Clark?

  Have you ever seen that movie?

• 34:58Speaker 02

  I never saw it. Was it a movie or a show?

• 35:00Josh Clark?

  It was a movie. It was like the Keenan and Kel movie.

• 35:03Speaker 02

  Oh, okay.

• 35:04Josh Clark?

  Yeah.

• 35:05Speaker 02

  Yeah, he's the best. Well, I don't know much about Kel, but Keenan's awesome. I love that guy.

• 35:09Josh Clark?

  Yeah, I agree.

• 35:10Speaker 02

  Uh, 66 was when a club called Pandora's Box famously became the sort of heart of what was known as the riot on Sunset Strip. The LA Sheriff's Department had forced a 10 o'clock curfew for teenagers, basically, anyone under 18. And on November 12th of 66 is when thousands of young teenage hippies protested. They sat down in the street in front of Pandora's Box, blocked traffic. And it ended pretty violently. Cops came in and Stephen Stills wrote the famous protest song, For What It's Worth, because he witnessed that event.

• 35:48Josh Clark?

  Yeah, they just came in with police batons a-flying, cracking heads. It's like, LAPD, will you ever change?

• 35:56Speaker 02

  Hmm, maybe, maybe not.

• 35:59Josh Clark?

  The signs are not pointing to a definite yes at this point yet.

• 36:03Speaker 02

  And if you're thinking, I don't know the song For What It's Worth, it's the song, you better stop, hey, what's that sound? Everybody, look what's going down. You just probably don't remember it as having the name For What It's Worth.

• 36:14Josh Clark?

  No, because it's one of those, those songs that just, the title just doesn't fit the other part, I think, but.

• 36:21Speaker 02

  Buffalo Springfield.

• 36:22Josh Clark?

  Yeah, it's a good song.

• 36:24Speaker 02

  Love it.

• 36:24Josh Clark?

  Stephen Stills. Did you see that?

• 36:30Josh Clark?

  Thanks, Dave.

• 36:31Speaker 02

  Oh, did he not put the T in there?

• 36:32Josh Clark?

  No, Stephen Stills. I loved it.

• 36:35Speaker 02

  Crosby, Stills.

• 36:38Speaker 02

  Nass and Yawn.

• 36:40Josh Clark?

  Oh, man, we love Dave here. We love him.

• 36:42Speaker 02

  Uh, so we should talk a little bit about the Black Cat Tavern, because Black Cat Tavern was the home of one of the first major LGBTQ protest in the United States, certainly, a couple of years before Stonewall even.

• 36:56Josh Clark?

  Yeah, two years before Stonewall, you said, right?

• 36:59Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 37:00Josh Clark?

  And I think on New Year's Eve, the cops came in, the LAPD again, or the sheriff's office, I'm not sure which one, they started cracking heads. They started just beating up the gay patrons there for being gay. They accused them of lewd conduct or whatever. I think you turned up that two men were caught kissing, and that's essentially what started the beatings. Is that correct?

• 37:21Speaker 02

  Yeah, I mean, they ended up arresting 14 people, but those two men ended up getting convicted and had to register as sex offenders for kissing each other. The Supreme Court of the United States refused to hear their appeal. And so they took away their liquor license in May, I believe, of 67, shortly after the protest on February 11th because of the raid on New Year's Eve. And they had to shut down. I think it reopened as several other gay bars over the years until 2011, when it reopened in 2012.

• 37:53Josh Clark?

  As a Rite Aid?

• 37:54Speaker 02

  As the Black Cat. It was a restaurant this time. They paid honor to its roots, A, by naming it that and having kind of the same logo, but just the historical significance is on display there with photographs and a plaque. And this is in the Silver Lake side. This is not on the strip. And in 2022, it was a duplex in a very small, sort of two-sided building. Shake Shack opened up on the other side, in the adjacent space, and apparently dominated with their signage. And everyone got really, really mad at that. And it didn't last long. Shake Shack there is now closed.

• 38:24Josh Clark?

  You know, one of the most interesting things I've ever seen is a story about Shake Shack, the original one in whatever park it's in in New York.

• 38:32Speaker 02

  Okay.

• 38:33Josh Clark?

  You, me, and I were there. We were in line, very long line, and the line goes through the park. So there's a lot of trees overhead.

• 38:39Speaker 02

  Oh, yeah, I know that one.

• 38:40Josh Clark?

  This guy, I'm not sure what park it is. I guess it doesn't matter. But this guy, who was either one or two behind us in line, suddenly was surrounded by bird poop. It just formed like a halo around his body. And everyone like turned around looking for the poop that had surely gotten on the guy. And he had nothing on him. Somehow, the poop had all magically fallen within inches of his body, all around him, without actually getting on him. And everyone in the line who knew what happened was just like, "That is one of the most amazing things I've ever seen." That guy was so happy. He was not covered in blood.

• 39:17Speaker 02

  Yeah, go buy a lottery ticket.

• 39:18Josh Clark?

  Yeah, exactly.

• 39:19Speaker 02

  That's amazing.

• 39:20Josh Clark?

  That's my Shake Shack story.

• 39:21Speaker 02

  I don't think I've ever heard that. I didn't know that was the first one either.

• 39:24Josh Clark?

  Yeah, I think it's the first one. It was just in the park.

• 39:27Speaker 02

  Yeah, it's like it's near Union Square. I don't know where the park is either, though.

• 39:31Josh Clark?

  And then one other thing about the Black Cat Tavern, it's, you know, obviously like, people are like, "This happened, you know, before the Stonewall raid." It might have even happened before the Comptons Cafeteria riot. And the fact that it's compared to Stonewall, it makes you think that there was a riot involved. It wasn't. It was a dignified, organized protest. But it's the first recorded LGBTQ protest in American history. That's what, that's its big claim to fame.

• 39:59Speaker 02

  Amazing. I feel like that's a great time for a break.

• 40:02Josh Clark?

  Totally.

• 40:02Speaker 02

  And we'll segue into the 70s right after this.

• 40:21Josh Clark?

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• 40:30Speaker 02

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• 40:43Josh Clark?

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• 40:59Speaker 02

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• 41:24Josh Clark?

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• 41:41Speaker 02

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• 41:56Josh Clark?

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• 42:09Speaker 02

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• 43:13Josh Clark?

  Okay, so the 70s, which we just segued into. This was where the rock clubs like kind of transitioned from hippie rock to all sorts of different stuff. Proto-punk, glam rock, eventually hair metal, as we'll see.

• 43:29Josh Clark?

  And there were three big clubs, rock clubs, that were around at the time. There was the Roxy Theater, Rodney's English Disco, and Gazzaris. Those were the three that were like, the three big rock clubs in the 70s that kind of kicked off that transition, from what I understand.

• 43:49Speaker 02

  Yeah, and Gazzaris is best known for, Van Halen, baby. Van Halen was known for two things in their early days, before they put a record out. It was playing backyard parties in Pasadena, where they lived, and being the house band at Gazzaris for like, years.

• 44:04Josh Clark?

  Did you know that Van Halen was from California?

• 44:08Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 44:08Josh Clark?

  I didn't know. I always thought they were a Dutch band.

• 44:11Speaker 02

  No, I mean Eddie and Alex were Dutch by heritage, and I think they were even born there, maybe.

• 44:17Josh Clark?

  David Lee Roth isn't Dutch?

• 44:19Speaker 02

  No.

• 44:19Josh Clark?

  Have you ever heard him talk?

• 44:21Speaker 02

  Sure. (speaking Dutch)

• 44:24Josh Clark?

  Right, that's Dutch.

• 44:26Speaker 02

  I think you're right. I mean, I'm a big Van Halen guy, so I've studied and read all the books, but there's one in particular, oh god, is it called Becoming Van Halen? It's the most intense, like, I don't know how this guy got this information, but it's the most intense detailing of pre-record contract Van Halen that I've ever heard of in my life.

• 44:47Josh Clark?

  Oh wow.

• 44:48Speaker 02

  It was incredible how much this guy knew about their Pasadena backyard party days.

• 44:53Josh Clark?

  Well, since you know so much about Van Halen, answer this for me. It's a question I actually carry around with me. What was the deal with Eddie Van Halen slamming Michael Anthony as a bad bass player, like, I think about, upon Michael Anthony's death?

• 45:06Speaker 02

  Oh, you mean Eddie Van Halen's death?

• 45:09Josh Clark?

  No, Michael Anthony's. Okay, well, for some reason Eddie Van Halen came out and said that he thought Michael Anthony was a terrible bass player.

• 45:17Speaker 02

  Oh, Eddie, you know, he's one of the greatest, and RIP for sure, but he could be unkind at times to people. I think Michael Anthony's one of the greatest, and he had the voice that kind of helped to make Van Halen with those backing vocals, and he's still crushing it, because I went and saw Sammy Hagar and Michael Anthony in Vegas, played not too long ago, for the second time in a year.

• 45:36Josh Clark?

  Were you the guest of our good friend Aaron Hagar?

• 45:39Speaker 02

  No, I wasn't a guest this time. Aaron, I was hoping he could meet there, and I could finally have a chance to meet his pops, but Aaron showed up the week after I was there. But Adam Pranica, friend of the show. The Greatest Generation podcast, met me from LA and we played a little golf and saw Sammy and just had a great time. It's a really good show. Those guys are still killing it. And Michael Anthony is, besides his talents, is known as one of the nicest guys in rock and roll.

• 46:04Josh Clark?

  Nice.

• 46:05Speaker 02

  Which really stinks if Eddie said that, because Michael Anthony has always taken the high road.

• 46:10Josh Clark?

  Oh, he did. He did say it. It was a big deal. And Sammy Hager came out and said, "I don't know what Eddie's talking about."

• 46:17Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 46:17Josh Clark?

  He was basically being an idiot. Michael Anthony's the best bass player I ever worked with, so he's whooped in.

• 46:22Speaker 02

  All that band stuff just makes me sad, fighting like that.

• 46:25Josh Clark?

  Yeah. I'd like to circle back to Adam Pranica.

• 46:28Speaker 02

  Okay.

• 46:28Josh Clark?

  For people who aren't familiar with him, I would say go listen to the Greatest Generation podcasts. But if you ever get a chance to meet Adam Pranica, you should consider yourself hashtag blessed, because he is one of the greatest human beings you will ever meet in your life. Like legitimately, through and through, just a great dude.

• 46:47Speaker 02

  Yeah, agreed. He's the Michael Anthony of podcasting.

• 46:50Josh Clark?

  He definitely is, man.

• 46:52Speaker 02

  Along with his co-host Ben Harrison.

• 46:54Josh Clark?

  No, Ben's great, too. He's no Adam Pranica, though.

• 46:57Speaker 02

  Ben's gonna like that burn. The Roxy opened in 73. David Geffen, very famous sort of record label owner and early on music producer, and Lou Adler, legendary producer, opened the Roxy. And it was legendary for a lot of reasons. I mean, the biggest of the big played there, and this, again, a small club. But the very first staging in the US of the Rocky Horror Picture Show.

• 47:21Josh Clark?

  Yeah.

• 47:21Speaker 02

  This is when it was just a stage musical, played at the Roxy.

• 47:25Josh Clark?

  Yeah. And Pee Wee Herman debuted his show, what became the Pee Wee Herman TV show, his live stage version of it that came out first in 1981 at the Roxy.

• 47:36Speaker 02

  Amazing.

• 47:36Josh Clark?

  Have you seen that documentary yet?

• 47:38Speaker 02

  Still haven't seen it, because we were on vacation, but it's on the list.

• 47:41Josh Clark?

  And then Rodney's English Disco. I don't know why those three words together are hard for me to pronounce, but that was Rodney Bingenheimer's club that opened in 1972. So think about how ahead of the curve he was by naming it a disco. There was no disco around yet.

• 47:57Speaker 02

  Yeah, that's a good point. He was a legendary DJ at K-Rock in LA from 76 to 2017.

• 48:03Josh Clark?

  I'm sorry, Chuck, it's K-R-O-Q.

• 48:06Speaker 02

  And was very famous for breaking, like, the list of bands that he broke on air is incredible. Like, just look it over sometime. I don't have time to go over all of it here because we're running long, but it's just really impressive. And he was a, there was a great documentary about him called The Mayor of Sunset Strip. He is a star on Hollywood Boulevard, and it's just like, wow, what a guy. And then, very disappointingly, a couple of years ago, Carrie Chrome of The Runaways filed a lawsuit and said, "He sexually assaulted me when I was 13 years old."

• 48:39Josh Clark?

  Man, those poor Runaways, they got

• 48:41Speaker 02

  I know.

• 48:42Josh Clark?

  just totally exploited and just used up. It's sad.

• 48:46Speaker 02

  Just young teenage girls, and Kim Thalet, their manager, seems like a horrible human.

• 48:50Josh Clark?

  Yeah.

• 48:51Speaker 02

  Took part in that assault. And then, five more women came forward after that, including Jane Weedlin of The Go-Go's, and said, "Yeah, Rodney sexually assaulted me, too." And there hasn't been a result of that lawsuit yet, but it turns out, not a good guy.

• 49:04Josh Clark?

  Well, good for them for standing up to that dude.

• 49:07Speaker 02

  Totally.

• 49:08Josh Clark?

  We couldn't mention the Sunset Strip without mentioning, especially during the era of the 70s, the Continental Hyatt House, which had-

• 49:15Speaker 02

  You stayed there, by the way.

• 49:16Josh Clark?

  I have?

• 49:18Speaker 02

  I'm almost positive that we both stayed, as now the Andaz, in one of our LA Podcast Festival appearances.

• 49:26Josh Clark?

  I do not recall that. I remember seeing it at the SLS. Is that what you're talking about?

• 49:31Speaker 02

  No, this is the Andaz. I mean, I definitely stayed there. I thought you did. But it was the Continental Riot House.

• 49:36Josh Clark?

  Yeah.

• 49:36Speaker 02

  It was the Hyatt House officially.

• 49:37Josh Clark?

  Right.

• 49:38Speaker 02

  If you've ever read the Led Zeppelin book, and there's that picture of Robert Plant standing on the balcony, saying, "I'm a golden god," that was the Riot House.

• 49:47Josh Clark?

  Yeah. And the Continental, just as a little aside, that's from the original name of the hotel, the Continental, which was owned by Gene Autry.

• 49:58Speaker 02

  Oh, wow. Didn't know that.

• 49:59Josh Clark?

  Yeah, it's kind of a weird transition, right?

• 50:01Speaker 02

  Yeah, totally. All right, as the tour goes forward, we're gonna take a little stop here at the Rainbow Bar and Grill on Sunset.

• 50:06Josh Clark?

  Mm-hmm.

• 50:07Speaker 02

  Opened in 72, and it was the people who owned the Whiskey-a-Gogo that opened the Rainbow. And the Rainbow was just a den of debauchery disguised as a not-too-great Italian restaurant. But that was where the Hollywood vampires hung out, the kind of silly, looking at it now, drinking club, founded by Alice Cooper, as members of which were Keith Moon, Ringo Starr, Mickey Dolenz, and the debaucherous and great Harry Nilson.

• 50:34Josh Clark?

  Yeah, and they're now kind of a band with Alice Cooper and Aerosmith guitarist.

• 50:41Speaker 02

  Oh, Joe, uh, oh geez, what's his name? Steven Tyler and the other guy, I'm just blanking.

• 50:50Josh Clark?

  Well, anyway, Johnny Depp is in it. There's like a couple other people too. I think one of the dudes from Guns N' Roses might be in it too.

• 50:57Speaker 02

  Uh, maybe. I don't know if they're any good, are they?

• 51:00Josh Clark?

  I don't know. I think they're more a novelty act.

• 51:05Speaker 02

  Uh, maybe. I mean, you know, it's got Johnny Depp in it.

• 51:08Josh Clark?

  Right, right. I think that kind of makes it a novelty act as far as musical acts are concerned.

• 51:14Speaker 02

  Joe Perry.

• 51:15Josh Clark?

  Joe Perry.

• 51:16Speaker 02

  I kept on saying Joe Elliott, but that's Def Leppard.

• 51:20Josh Clark?

  Oh, yeah, that's right. That's the lead singer.

• 51:21Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 51:22Josh Clark?

  One other thing about the Rainbow Bar and Grill, that's where John Belushi ate his last meal.

• 51:27Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 51:27Josh Clark?

  In 1982, before he died of a drug overdose at the Chateau Marmont, and had he gotten the speedball from Schwab's, it would have been a Sunset Boulevard trifecta.

• 51:39Speaker 02

  Oh, yeah, I guess you're right.

• 51:41Josh Clark?

  Uh, and then I guess moving on, Chuck, we can't talk about Sunset Boulevard without talking about comedy clubs because it was essentially the place where the whole concept of a comedy club was born.

• 51:52Speaker 02

  Yeah, thanks to Polly Shore's mom, Mitzi Shore.

• 51:55Josh Clark?

  Is it his mom? Because I looked it up and I couldn't find that. Was it his mom?

• 51:59Speaker 02

  Really? Oh, yeah, that's funny because he like, he was like a kid roaming around those parts.

• 52:03Josh Clark?

  That's awesome.

• 52:04Speaker 02

  Yeah, she, Mitzi Shore opened the Comedy Store in 72, where Tiro's used to be, and it was, like you said, it was the very first stand-up only nightclub in the world. Which is crazy to think about.

• 52:17Josh Clark?

  For sure. And so Mitzi Shore became very famous for considering the Comedy Store as a comedy workshop where up and comers could work on their material, work on their acts. And because it was a comedy workshop and not a comedy club, she didn't pay them, especially the up and comers. There are very few big name acts that would come through and she would pay them. But if you were working on your stuff, and we're talking like legendary people here, we're talking like Jim Carrey, Howie Mandel, Gary Shandling, Andy Kaufman, Robin Williams. Michael Keaton, for some reason, apparently was a stand-up.

• 52:51Speaker 02

  Oh, yeah, yeah.

• 52:51Josh Clark?

  I did not know that.

• 52:52Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 52:53Josh Clark?

  He's just so serious now, you know?

• 52:55Speaker 02

  Yeah, but I mean, he started in comedy movies and you can get his early stand-up. It's kind of fun.

• 53:00Josh Clark?

  Yeah, no, I know his comedy movies. I've seen, um.

• 53:03Speaker 02

  No, I mean the stand-up.

• 53:04Josh Clark?

  Dunho.

• 53:04Speaker 02

  You can watch.

• 53:05Josh Clark?

  Oh, gotcha. Um, so like, these were people who all had their careers launched, thanks to the Comedy Store. But they were paid in exposure and eventually they were like, this is not worth it. We're going on strike.

• 53:17Speaker 02

  Yeah, they went on strike in 79, which opened a door for another club.

• 53:22Josh Clark?

  Yeah.

• 53:22Speaker 02

  Uh, the world famous Laugh Factory opened in 79, just a few blocks away, uh, by a 16-year-old, which is amazing, uh, Iranian immigrant, also amazing, named, uh, Jamie Masada. And he ended up opening Laugh Factories all over the country.

• 53:36Josh Clark?

  Yeah, and he was like, uh, how about this? You guys come play here and I'll share some of the cover charge with you. Like, I'll actually pay you. And apparently, the original name of the Laugh Factory was Joke on Yolk, like egg yolk.

• 53:50Speaker 02

  Really?

• 53:50Josh Clark?

  Yeah.

• 53:52Speaker 02

  Joke on Yolk? I don't get it. Was there a Yolk Street?

• 53:55Josh Clark?

  I think he thought that was funny.

• 53:57Speaker 02

  Oh, okay.

• 53:58Josh Clark?

  It rhymed, so it's funny.

• 54:00Speaker 02

  Well, I guess he was a better business owner than comedian.

• 54:02Josh Clark?

  Right, yeah. Well, he was an aspiring comedian. That's why he opened that club.

• 54:06Speaker 02

  Yeah, joke on yolk, get it?

• 54:08Josh Clark?

  Right. So, uh, one other thing circling back, Mitzi Shore finally resolved the strike after a few weeks by agreeing to pay the comedians $25 a set, which is a whopping $110 today.

• 54:20Speaker 02

  Yeah, that's not too bad, if you're getting up there and doing seven minutes.

• 54:23Josh Clark?

  Eh, I don't know. You can buy like a pack of cigarettes with $110 today.

• 54:28Speaker 02

  All right, we're gonna move into the 80s and you gotta talk about the 80s because you gotta talk about hair metal. And if you're gonna talk about hair metal in the Sunset Strip, you gotta start with Motley Crue.

• 54:38Josh Clark?

  Yeah, I guess they were the ones who like started the whole thing on the Sunset Strip. I'm sure you knew that because you probably read 10 books about Motley Crue.

• 54:45Speaker 02

  Uh, no, just two.

• 54:47Josh Clark?

  Okay.

• 54:48Speaker 02

  Yeah, I mean, they lived right above it. They could walk down there and, you know, have big parties at their disgusting place that they shared above the Sunset Strip. But yeah, they were, if not the first, one of the first to kind of bring that scene there. And, you know, Poison, LA Guns, Faster Pussycat, eventually Guns N' Roses would start out there in the mid 80s. But, um, yeah, the whiskey kind of had a bunch of different lives from hippie stuff to sort of what we would view as classic rock, to eventually hair metal, and now, I guess, hair metal cover bands.

• 55:21Josh Clark?

  Yeah, right. And in between then and now, grunge came along and killed hair metal, which was a sad day, I think.

• 55:29Speaker 02

  Yeah, you can still go see those bands. They're around.

• 55:32Josh Clark?

  You can see the tribute versions of them.

• 55:34Speaker 02

  Uh, and other ones. I'm going to see Judas Priest a little bit.

• 55:36Josh Clark?

  Oh, nice.

• 55:37Speaker 02

  I've never seen them, and I got tickets on a whim to go see them this fall.

• 55:41Josh Clark?

  Uh, speaking of Judas Priest, I just have one more place I want to mention, but Judas Priest has one of the cooler documentaries around. It's called Parking Lot or something like that.

• 55:51Speaker 02

  Have you met at Parking Lot?

• 55:52Josh Clark?

  Yes. Have you seen it?

• 55:53Speaker 02

  Yeah, I mean, it's not just about Judas Priest. It's just about, Penelope Sviris directed that. It's kind of a legendary documentary.

• 56:01Josh Clark?

  Right, okay. Well, I guess I'm the only one who saw it, but I love that documentary. It just takes place at Parking Lot before Judas Priest's show.

• 56:09Speaker 02

  Oh, I don't think I even remembered it was Judas Priest.

• 56:11Josh Clark?

  I'm almost positive it is Judas Priest.

• 56:14Speaker 02

  It probably is, but yeah, it really encapsulates that culture at the time.

• 56:18Josh Clark?

  It totally does.

• 56:19Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 56:20Josh Clark?

  Uh, the last place I wanted to mention was the Beverly Hills Hotel. Apparently, it was around before there was even a Beverly Hills.

• 56:27Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 56:28Josh Clark?

  And old Hollywood used to hang out there, blah, blah, blah. The thing that makes it noteworthy to me is you know that iconic banana leaf wallpaper that you kind of see? It's like, kind of, oh, that's where it debuted, or that's where it became big. That pattern is called Martinique, and I think it was in the mid, late 40s that this decorator papered the Beverly Hills Hotel with that, and it just took off from there.

• 56:51Speaker 02

  Wow. I've never been there, but that's one of those places I want to go, like, have dinner, just to, you know, kind of like Tavern on the Green style.

• 56:58Josh Clark?

  Yeah, it looks amazing, actually. Their bar looks amazing, too.

• 57:02Speaker 02

  Yeah, it's still got that kind of mid-century charm, doesn't it?

• 57:04Josh Clark?

  Mm-hmm.

• 57:05Speaker 02

  LA style?

• 57:07Josh Clark?

  I guess that's it for Sunset Boulevard?

• 57:09Speaker 02

  Yeah, I mean, there are so many things we couldn't get to because we didn't want to do a two-parter. But if you want to look up stuff on Hollywood High School and the weird crossroads of the World Shopping Center, or the Hollywood Palladium, certainly do that because there's still a lot more about the Sunset Strip. And it's, you know, you go to LA and you're into touristy stuff, you should go check it out.

• 57:31Josh Clark?

  Yeah, for sure. And there's a lot of good writing out there. People love writing about the Sunset Strip, for sure.

• 57:36Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 57:37Josh Clark?

  And thanks again to Dave for helping us out with this one. Good job, Dave. And since I said, "Good job, Dave," that means it's time for listener mail.

• 57:49Speaker 02

  And this one actually is a listener suggestion, so we wanted to shout out Sayerdelk for Sunset Boulevard.

• 57:56Josh Clark?

  Man, that's a great name.

• 57:57Speaker 02

  Yeah, I mean, not for making the road, but, you know, for giving the suggestion.

• 58:02Speaker 02

  Hey, guys. Long-term listener who wants to, "Thank you for keeping me entertained during work, school, travel, and pretty much any excuse to have a podcast on for the past few years." "The reason I write is in 2022, you talked about rock, paper, scissors. You didn't think it was possible to play with more than two people. You may be interested to know that my friends and I used to play three- to four-person games at work as landscapers. In the mornings, we were weed-eating on the property, and we'd come across items that only required the work of one person. And we would play rock, paper, scissors, and this is how you do it. We would simply all throw at once, like a normal game, and a three-person game. If anyone beat all the other players, then they would step out, and the other two would play again. So it's sort of like a knockout tournament. If two players beat the others on the first game, then the loser lost immediately.

• 58:45Speaker 02

  After many games over the weeks and months of strategies, alliances, and yes, some game theory, all made the work quite fun and competitive. Love the show. All the best to you and your families. Respectfully." That is Austin from St. Louis, Missouri.

• 58:59Josh Clark?

  Nice work, Austin. You cracked the code, finally. Thank you for that. Thanks for letting us know, too. And if you want to be like Austin, right?

• 59:07Speaker 02

  That's right.

• 59:08Josh Clark?

  If you want to be like Austin, then send us an email, and you can be like Austin. Send it off to [email protected].

• 59:19Speaker 03

  Stuff You Should Know is a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts, iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.

• 59:34Josh Clark?

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