WEBVTT - Sunset Blvd: One Famous Road 0:00:01.440 --> 0:00:04.920 Welcome to Stuff You Should Know, a production of iHeartRadio. 0:00:11.119 --> 0:00:13.680 Welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh, and there's Chuck and 0:00:13.760 --> 0:00:17.080 Jerry's here too. Jerry's being quiet and this is Stuff 0:00:17.120 --> 0:00:22.200 you should Know, the hair metal Ish edition. 0:00:23.160 --> 0:00:23.560 Yeah. 0:00:23.680 --> 0:00:25.520 I mean, you know, we've done a lot of New 0:00:25.600 --> 0:00:29.400 York centric episodes over the years, and I feel like 0:00:29.400 --> 0:00:31.800 we haven't given La their due, a city that I 0:00:31.840 --> 0:00:33.000 know you love dearly. 0:00:34.440 --> 0:00:36.400 Yeah, the one other city in the world New York. 0:00:36.320 --> 0:00:40.080 In La No, I just La, and especially this episode, 0:00:40.159 --> 0:00:44.239 this Sunset Boulevard. The street there aren't many, you know. 0:00:45.040 --> 0:00:47.040 I mean, there's a handful of iconic streets in the world, 0:00:47.120 --> 0:00:49.320 and Sunset Boulevard is one of them because it's just 0:00:49.920 --> 0:00:54.440 been historically packed with I mean, it's not just like 0:00:54.520 --> 0:00:58.920 film stuff. It's music stuff, it's literary stuff, it's comedy stuff, 0:01:00.080 --> 0:01:04.600 all sorts of like iconic cultural staples on Sunset Boulevard. 0:01:04.640 --> 0:01:07.760 Right, And it was obviously very well known inside of 0:01:07.920 --> 0:01:12.880 LA for years, but it wasn't until the early twenty 0:01:12.959 --> 0:01:15.160 tens before the rest of the world heard about it, 0:01:15.200 --> 0:01:18.440 thanks to the Aaron Sorkin show Studio sixty on the 0:01:18.480 --> 0:01:19.319 Sunset Strip. 0:01:19.520 --> 0:01:22.080 Oh yeah, I actually watched that for a little while. 0:01:22.480 --> 0:01:24.440 It was unwatchable. 0:01:24.560 --> 0:01:25.480 Yeah, it wasn't very good. 0:01:25.760 --> 0:01:28.880 Somebody just breaking out into a moving soliloquy every seven 0:01:28.959 --> 0:01:33.240 minutes is the most unrealistic writing anybody could ever possibly do. 0:01:33.560 --> 0:01:35.399 That's Aaron Sorkin, baby, I know. 0:01:35.480 --> 0:01:37.320 But it only worked for West Wing. 0:01:37.480 --> 0:01:39.280 I didn't much West Wing at all, so I haven't 0:01:39.280 --> 0:01:40.520 seen a lot of Sorkin stuff. 0:01:40.800 --> 0:01:43.440 It really worked for West Wing, but it did not 0:01:43.600 --> 0:01:45.000 work for Studio sixty. 0:01:45.440 --> 0:01:47.120 I do love Sarah Paulson though she was in that. 0:01:47.720 --> 0:01:49.360 Sure, that's great. I felt bad for. 0:01:49.680 --> 0:01:51.520 Yeah, I did do a little bit. 0:01:51.640 --> 0:01:53.440 What was great is thirty Rock came out at the 0:01:53.480 --> 0:01:56.000 exact same time, and they would make fun of some 0:01:56.200 --> 0:01:59.120 Studio sixties like a plot line. 0:01:58.960 --> 0:02:01.960 Yes, in real time, Yeah, the whole what. 0:02:02.040 --> 0:02:06.000 Was the Janis Joplin story? They had to like rename her, uh, 0:02:06.800 --> 0:02:09.040 have rights to her life story? That was something that 0:02:09.320 --> 0:02:12.239 Sarah Paulson like, got it a gig do playing Janis 0:02:12.320 --> 0:02:18.240 Joplin on Studio sixty. So that's our Studio sixty episode, everybody. 0:02:18.000 --> 0:02:20.560 That's right back to Sunset Boulevard. 0:02:21.600 --> 0:02:25.360 Yeah, so yes, we should probably just say all jokes 0:02:25.400 --> 0:02:28.120 aside it's very long street. It's a very historic street, 0:02:28.400 --> 0:02:31.680 and it actually dates back to the eighteenth century, before 0:02:31.760 --> 0:02:35.960 the city of Los Angeles, as we understand, it was around. Instead, 0:02:36.400 --> 0:02:42.200 it originated in the Pueblo de Los Angeles, which was 0:02:42.320 --> 0:02:46.960 the little colony I guess or settlement of just eleven families. Yeah, 0:02:47.000 --> 0:02:51.840 that was the seed that germinated into Los Angeles, home 0:02:51.880 --> 0:02:52.640 of Joe Friday. 0:02:53.000 --> 0:02:57.160 That's right in Sunset Boulevard before it became Sunset Boulevard, 0:02:57.240 --> 0:03:00.600 like many famous streets, was originally used as something else, 0:03:00.639 --> 0:03:03.400 and in this case, it was a cattle trail from 0:03:03.400 --> 0:03:07.360 that downtown pueblo of Los Angeles all the way to 0:03:07.400 --> 0:03:09.760 the Pacific. So it runs for twenty three miles. You 0:03:09.760 --> 0:03:12.040 hear about, you know, Sunset Boulevard, you probably think of 0:03:12.080 --> 0:03:15.440 the Sunset Strip, which is a less than two mile area. 0:03:15.560 --> 0:03:18.359 But Sunset Boulevard there, you know, I used to live 0:03:18.360 --> 0:03:21.240 on the east side and Silver Lake and Sunset Boulevard 0:03:21.280 --> 0:03:24.399 over there is great and a whole other way than 0:03:24.480 --> 0:03:25.360 the Sunset Strip. 0:03:25.800 --> 0:03:27.800 How so well, I mean it's. 0:03:27.639 --> 0:03:32.680 Just a cultural seed of you know, great restaurants and 0:03:32.760 --> 0:03:36.120 cafes and music venues, and you know, it was sort 0:03:36.160 --> 0:03:37.960 of the hipster thing back in the day when the 0:03:38.000 --> 0:03:39.320 hipsters were still a thing. 0:03:40.000 --> 0:03:44.040 Yeah, Silverlake. That's there's that Shaggy Dog Mystery with Andrew 0:03:44.040 --> 0:03:46.080 Garfield beneath the Silver Lake. Right. 0:03:46.800 --> 0:03:51.080 Oh, that was pretty hipster. I think I saw that maybe. 0:03:51.600 --> 0:03:54.120 Yeah, it's worth watching, especially if you know it's a 0:03:54.160 --> 0:03:55.840 shaggy dog mystery going into it. 0:03:56.080 --> 0:03:57.840 Yeah, but a long way of saying that, it was 0:03:57.880 --> 0:04:01.080 a cattle trail to begin with, and then like a 0:04:01.080 --> 0:04:03.920 lot of things like that, would eventually become a real street. 0:04:04.640 --> 0:04:07.480 It became Sunset Boulevard about one hundred years after that, 0:04:08.120 --> 0:04:08.640 I believe. 0:04:08.800 --> 0:04:12.560 Yeah, so there's a couple of store origin stories for 0:04:12.640 --> 0:04:14.800 where the name came from. I couldn't see what they 0:04:14.880 --> 0:04:18.360 called it, like the westward side of Sunset Boulevard before 0:04:18.360 --> 0:04:21.200 it was Sunset Boulevard. But I think in eighteen eighty 0:04:21.240 --> 0:04:23.440 seven there was a developer. There was a lot of 0:04:23.480 --> 0:04:26.360 land development going on in the late nineteenth century that 0:04:26.520 --> 0:04:28.919 built up Los Angeles. It was a bunch of different 0:04:28.920 --> 0:04:32.400 little towns, communities that were independent, and then Los Angeles 0:04:32.480 --> 0:04:35.080 kept growing and growing and growing, and it would absorb 0:04:35.200 --> 0:04:38.360 them and they became neighborhoods instead. Well, there was one 0:04:38.400 --> 0:04:42.600 planned town called Sunset, and they planned for Sunset Boulevard, 0:04:42.760 --> 0:04:46.200 a different stretch of road to go right through the town, 0:04:46.680 --> 0:04:49.760 and so they apparently came up with the name Sunset Boulevard, 0:04:49.960 --> 0:04:53.600 but it was another developer who appropriated it and used 0:04:53.640 --> 0:04:57.240 it for the Sunset Boulevard. After that town of Sunset 0:04:57.320 --> 0:04:59.960 never actually happened. It died on the drafting tape. 0:05:00.240 --> 0:05:02.360 I guess is what you'd say, is that an industry 0:05:02.440 --> 0:05:06.960 jargon it is now? Yeah, And you know, surely you 0:05:06.960 --> 0:05:09.280 can see some some great sunsets because Sunset, you know, 0:05:09.680 --> 0:05:12.120 if you're not familiar with sort of the Hollywood basin, 0:05:12.560 --> 0:05:15.119 there's a it's very grid like and there's a series 0:05:15.160 --> 0:05:18.440 of east west streets. Hollywood, Sunset, Santa Monica are some 0:05:18.480 --> 0:05:22.279 of the more famous ones. And it goes downhill, you know, 0:05:22.320 --> 0:05:25.640 from the mountains, the Hollywood Hills. You know, there's the 0:05:25.720 --> 0:05:28.560 literal mountains and hills, but then it's still up kind 0:05:28.600 --> 0:05:30.760 of high and La kind of goes down down, down 0:05:30.800 --> 0:05:34.360 into the basin and Sunset is pretty high on that side. 0:05:34.400 --> 0:05:37.120 So yeah, you can see some great sunsets, I'm sure. 0:05:37.279 --> 0:05:40.360 Yeah, And I think originally it terminated on the east 0:05:40.520 --> 0:05:44.760 end in Chinatown or what's now Chinatown, And like you said, 0:05:44.800 --> 0:05:46.440 it goes through Silver Lake, it goes through a bunch 0:05:46.480 --> 0:05:51.480 of different neighborhoods, Echo Park, Pacific Palisades, Beverly Hills, Hollywood, 0:05:51.760 --> 0:05:55.800 West Hollywood, like all these great neighborhoods I think are 0:05:55.920 --> 0:06:00.360 in part great neighborhoods because it's chicken or the thing 0:06:00.720 --> 0:06:04.760 is Sunset Boulevard great because these these neighborhoods around it 0:06:04.839 --> 0:06:07.919 are great, Or are the neighborhoods great because Sunset Boulevard 0:06:08.000 --> 0:06:08.640 ran through them? 0:06:09.279 --> 0:06:11.479 I think it's a chicken meat egg and they just 0:06:11.480 --> 0:06:14.120 shake hands and agree not to discuss it. 0:06:14.200 --> 0:06:15.680 Let's never speak of this again. 0:06:17.240 --> 0:06:19.920 Some film stuff and we're kind of jumping around between 0:06:20.040 --> 0:06:22.479 things that made it famous, but generally in a timeline. 0:06:23.000 --> 0:06:25.440 But early on it was obviously. 0:06:26.640 --> 0:06:30.159 Hollywood was the birthplace of the film industry. And you know, 0:06:30.200 --> 0:06:32.520 we've said it before. If you've never been there, you 0:06:32.600 --> 0:06:35.159 might think Hollywood is just a euphemism for the film industry. 0:06:35.200 --> 0:06:37.280 It is that, but it is also a real neighborhood 0:06:37.800 --> 0:06:40.760 right in the center of the La Basin there, And 0:06:41.200 --> 0:06:44.279 you know, it was originally just like all the other suburbs, 0:06:44.360 --> 0:06:46.200 like you were talking about, they were dividing it up 0:06:46.200 --> 0:06:49.440 into lots, and I believe in the early nineteen hundreds 0:06:49.440 --> 0:06:53.040 it was a guy named very nineteen hundreds name H. J. 0:06:53.160 --> 0:06:55.400 Whitby, who kind of I. 0:06:55.360 --> 0:06:58.120 Don't know if he wasn't officially incorporated, but he made 0:06:58.120 --> 0:07:00.880 Hollywood like a proper town and a place to live. 0:07:01.520 --> 0:07:05.520 Yeah. I think Hollywood or West Hollywood wasn't incorporated until 0:07:05.560 --> 0:07:07.479 like the nineteen eighties, Is that right. 0:07:07.600 --> 0:07:10.240 I think that was probably West Hollywood. Okay, we hope 0:07:10.280 --> 0:07:10.760 as they. 0:07:10.600 --> 0:07:13.960 Say, yeah, everybody knows that thanks to the studio sixty 0:07:15.800 --> 0:07:19.200 so yeah, so Hollywood it was almost out of the 0:07:19.280 --> 0:07:23.040 gate versus the early nineteen hundreds nineteen ten when it 0:07:23.120 --> 0:07:28.280 merged with Los Angeles. The next year, film studio started 0:07:28.320 --> 0:07:30.280 popping up, and they started popping up in a very 0:07:30.280 --> 0:07:34.080 specific area, the corner of Sunset Boulevard and Gower Street. 0:07:34.760 --> 0:07:37.880 And even still today there's an original studio from that 0:07:38.040 --> 0:07:42.760 area called Sunset Gower Studios and they're still making shows. 0:07:42.920 --> 0:07:46.040 That's where Dexter was filmed, That's where Saved by the Bell, 0:07:46.160 --> 0:07:49.800 the College Years was filmed. That's that's where yet six 0:07:49.840 --> 0:07:55.160 feet under Dexter, the College years. Heroes, A lot of 0:07:55.240 --> 0:07:57.960 really good shows have shot there, and it's an old, 0:07:58.360 --> 0:08:02.400 old timey, original Hollywood studio from like the nineteen teens. 0:08:02.680 --> 0:08:02.880 Yeah. 0:08:03.200 --> 0:08:04.840 I never shot there, but I got to as a 0:08:04.840 --> 0:08:07.160 PA got to run an erran there once during while 0:08:07.200 --> 0:08:09.080 Six Feet Under was being shot, so I've got to 0:08:09.080 --> 0:08:11.880 see those sets and it was pretty pretty cool as 0:08:11.920 --> 0:08:12.880 a six Feet Under fan. 0:08:13.320 --> 0:08:15.440 What did you take something to Diddy? Is that what 0:08:15.480 --> 0:08:16.360 it was? No? 0:08:16.360 --> 0:08:18.000 No, No, that was to his actual house. 0:08:18.560 --> 0:08:18.760 Good. 0:08:19.240 --> 0:08:24.800 Yeah, I'd disavow that entire delivery, though. Poverty Rose what 0:08:24.840 --> 0:08:27.440 they called Sunset Gower at first because it was pretty 0:08:27.440 --> 0:08:29.840 low budget at the time the things they shot there, 0:08:29.880 --> 0:08:32.000 But in the nineteen thirties they started shooting some like 0:08:32.080 --> 0:08:35.160 really kind of high quality things there, notably the movies 0:08:35.160 --> 0:08:37.199 That Happened One Night and You Can't Take It with You. 0:08:37.840 --> 0:08:40.320 Yeah, and then Gower Gulch. 0:08:40.520 --> 0:08:42.959 I'm glad I never knew the history, but there's still 0:08:42.960 --> 0:08:46.400 a strip mall right there called Gower Gulch and it 0:08:46.440 --> 0:08:47.720 has a little Old West theme. 0:08:48.760 --> 0:08:51.920 And that's where I saw Cherio Terry at a Starbucks. 0:08:52.800 --> 0:08:55.720 Oh yeah, and where there was a hopefully it's still 0:08:55.840 --> 0:08:57.760 a print shop there where you know, you could get 0:08:57.800 --> 0:09:00.760 scripts printed off and bound. Oh yeah, but now I 0:09:00.840 --> 0:09:04.400 know that Gower Gulch is so named because it was 0:09:04.800 --> 0:09:06.960 where all of the Westerns were being filmed, and a 0:09:06.960 --> 0:09:09.360 lot of dudes and like cowboy hats and cowboy boots 0:09:09.400 --> 0:09:11.960 would kind of hang around waiting to be cast there 0:09:12.000 --> 0:09:14.760 at that I guess whatever the stores were at the time. 0:09:15.080 --> 0:09:19.160 Yeah, because Hollywood, especially this area where all the studios 0:09:19.200 --> 0:09:22.000 were churning out Westerns left and right through the twenties 0:09:22.000 --> 0:09:24.520 and thirties. So I mean, I'm sure there were other 0:09:24.559 --> 0:09:27.120 extras hanging around, but the ten gallon hat really makes 0:09:27.160 --> 0:09:28.720 you stand out. And if you put a bunch of 0:09:28.720 --> 0:09:31.440 them together, it's going to get a reputation for being 0:09:31.480 --> 0:09:34.200 a cowboy hangout. And they would hang out around the 0:09:34.320 --> 0:09:36.560 Columbia drug Store. Ye Is that still there? 0:09:37.040 --> 0:09:38.160 I don't know. 0:09:38.960 --> 0:09:40.800 I mean I feel like there's a right Aid and 0:09:40.800 --> 0:09:42.720 that's probably what that was, But I may be wrong, 0:09:42.760 --> 0:09:44.480 but you know, Gower Gulch lives on. 0:09:44.840 --> 0:09:49.080 Did you ever go into that right Aid? And green Point? Yeah? 0:09:49.120 --> 0:09:51.679 In Greenpoint in New York and Brooklyn. I think that 0:09:51.760 --> 0:09:54.840 has like a disco ball still from whatever it was before. 0:09:55.080 --> 0:09:56.600 Oh cool, No, definitely not. 0:09:56.800 --> 0:09:59.480 It is kind of cool. But anyway, this Columbia drug 0:09:59.480 --> 0:10:01.960 store they would have out there because the owners of 0:10:01.960 --> 0:10:04.600 Columbia Drugs are had a telephone and they would let 0:10:04.679 --> 0:10:07.280 the extras use it to call Central Casting to see 0:10:07.280 --> 0:10:10.040 if there were any parts available for them. And there 0:10:10.040 --> 0:10:12.520 was a high profile murder there too, right between a 0:10:12.520 --> 0:10:13.280 couple of cowboys. 0:10:13.640 --> 0:10:15.480 Uh yeah, I mean I don't know if it was 0:10:15.559 --> 0:10:18.640 quite a you know, take ten steps and draw kind 0:10:18.640 --> 0:10:22.079 of thing. Yeah, but there was a shooter over I 0:10:22.080 --> 0:10:23.640 think they were both seeing the same Philly. 0:10:24.240 --> 0:10:28.360 Yeah, and apparently one of them, Blackjack Ward, killed Johnny Tyke. 0:10:28.720 --> 0:10:31.120 He shot him down once and then he told them 0:10:31.160 --> 0:10:33.160 each reason he was shooting him, and every time he did, 0:10:33.160 --> 0:10:35.880 he shot him again until his whole six shooter was empty. 0:10:36.280 --> 0:10:39.600 Like he murdered that guy in broad daylight in front 0:10:39.600 --> 0:10:41.480 of a bunch of people, and he still got off. 0:10:41.679 --> 0:10:45.120 And someone said, boy, cast that dude. That's incredible. Yeah, 0:10:46.200 --> 0:10:47.360 that should be out of a movie. 0:10:47.559 --> 0:10:49.520 Yeah, they should make a movie about him. Sure. 0:10:50.920 --> 0:10:54.079 Prohibition was when the party scene kind of moved in. 0:10:54.520 --> 0:10:57.240 It was called the County Strip at the time, and 0:10:57.400 --> 0:11:00.319 it was unincorporated still at this point, but it was 0:11:00.320 --> 0:11:03.680 a stretch kind of between where Hollywood was, you know, 0:11:03.760 --> 0:11:07.240 a dry place because of Prohibition, and Beverly Hills is 0:11:07.679 --> 0:11:09.600 kind of where the Sunset Strip ends. 0:11:10.880 --> 0:11:14.280 Yeah, well but it keeps going to the Pacific, right that, like, 0:11:14.320 --> 0:11:16.719 doesn't it basically just run out into the ocean. I 0:11:16.760 --> 0:11:17.959 guess the Pacific Highway. 0:11:18.080 --> 0:11:20.400 But that's not the Sunset Strip, the strip strip. 0:11:20.520 --> 0:11:22.959 Yeah, yeah, yeah, sorry about that, but yeah, I guess 0:11:23.040 --> 0:11:29.800 from the outset. The Sunset Strip was like mobsters, brothels, gambling, rackets, nightclubs. 0:11:30.000 --> 0:11:33.480 It was huge during Prohibition, and I guess the reason 0:11:33.480 --> 0:11:36.840 why is because it was unincorporated, so the La County 0:11:36.880 --> 0:11:40.960 Sheriff was in charge of overseeing or enforcing laws, and 0:11:41.000 --> 0:11:43.760 I guess they weren't particularly inclined to enforce laws in 0:11:43.800 --> 0:11:46.720 the area. So that's where you went. And that in 0:11:46.800 --> 0:11:51.200 and of itself is like worth mentioning. It's historic. But 0:11:51.400 --> 0:11:53.680 one of the reasons it's so famous or the strip 0:11:53.679 --> 0:11:55.680 became the strip, is because on the other side, like 0:11:55.760 --> 0:11:58.680 you said, there's Beverly Hills, and that's where the stars 0:11:58.679 --> 0:12:00.800 had moved around the same time, So they would come 0:12:00.960 --> 0:12:04.679 into the County Strip and party and then go back 0:12:04.720 --> 0:12:06.760 to Beverly Hills and the fact that there were all 0:12:06.800 --> 0:12:09.680 these world famous movie stars partying there. Yeah, kind of 0:12:09.720 --> 0:12:12.680 really put a stamp on Sunset Strip that stayed forever. 0:12:13.200 --> 0:12:16.080 Yeah, there was eighty four to seventy seven. Sunset had 0:12:16.480 --> 0:12:19.680 four different mobster clubs basically where the you know, mob 0:12:19.760 --> 0:12:22.240 owned and back them. It was at first the Sphinx, 0:12:22.920 --> 0:12:26.000 then the Han Club, then Club what would that be 0:12:26.040 --> 0:12:27.120 so Soco Luff. 0:12:27.480 --> 0:12:30.000 Yeah, I think so SoC Socoloff. 0:12:31.320 --> 0:12:34.600 Yeah, that's okay, l O E F F. And then 0:12:34.800 --> 0:12:37.480 the Clover Club. And if you're wondering what eighty four 0:12:37.480 --> 0:12:39.679 to seventy seven is now, it's a weed dispensary. 0:12:40.480 --> 0:12:41.680 Oh that's appropriate. 0:12:41.920 --> 0:12:43.960 Yeah, it kind of feels right, doesn't it. 0:12:44.160 --> 0:12:47.160 Yeah, because I'll bet it was a weed dispensary back 0:12:47.160 --> 0:12:47.920 in the thirties too. 0:12:48.200 --> 0:12:49.200 Yeah, probably so. 0:12:49.440 --> 0:12:53.680 But I'll bet it was some crap weed. Yeah, so 0:12:54.280 --> 0:12:56.920 let yeah, no crap like the kids say today. 0:12:56.840 --> 0:12:59.000 Right, I think it's no cap it'sn't it. 0:12:59.800 --> 0:13:03.760 I think they just don't know what they're saying. Okay, 0:13:03.880 --> 0:13:08.280 So I mentioned Brothels that apparently was a huge foundation 0:13:08.440 --> 0:13:12.240 of Hollywood. So there's Hollywood that people think about as Hollywood, 0:13:12.240 --> 0:13:14.440 and then there was like real Hollywood that the actual 0:13:14.520 --> 0:13:17.920 stars how they actually lived their lives, and it was 0:13:18.080 --> 0:13:22.360 depraved and decadent, as you can imagine during the Golden Era. 0:13:22.800 --> 0:13:25.600 It might have been the most appraved and decadent during 0:13:25.640 --> 0:13:28.040 the Golden Era, depending on what your moral views are, 0:13:30.080 --> 0:13:32.320 and people just went buck wild, and the brothels were 0:13:32.360 --> 0:13:36.319 a huge part of that. They were everywhere along Sunset Boulevard. 0:13:36.360 --> 0:13:38.800 They were in private homes, they were in apartment buildings, 0:13:38.800 --> 0:13:42.920 they were sometimes in commercial spaces, and they even had 0:13:42.920 --> 0:13:46.680 some that imitated or there were lookalikes of stars of 0:13:46.720 --> 0:13:47.320 the day too. 0:13:47.880 --> 0:13:50.840 Yeah, that was one of the plotlines of La Confidential 0:13:50.840 --> 0:13:53.960 if you remember, Oh yeah, it was a brothel where 0:13:54.000 --> 0:13:56.320 and except in that movie they were I think the 0:13:56.360 --> 0:13:58.760 line was like they're cut to look like celebrities, So 0:13:58.800 --> 0:14:01.480 I think they had actual like plast surgery, oh got 0:14:01.520 --> 0:14:04.360 youa yeah, to look like Hollywood stars. And you know, 0:14:04.400 --> 0:14:06.680 the rumors were that the studios were kind of funding 0:14:06.720 --> 0:14:10.560 these to take investors, like foreign investors there and they 0:14:10.559 --> 0:14:13.520 could sleep with a sex worker that looks like Vivian Lee. 0:14:14.000 --> 0:14:17.120 That seems to be a really well founded rumor, Like 0:14:17.200 --> 0:14:19.400 I don't know that there's any actual documentation of it, 0:14:19.440 --> 0:14:21.480 but it seems to be pretty much accepted as fact 0:14:21.520 --> 0:14:22.240 from what I saw. 0:14:22.480 --> 0:14:24.240 Yeah, I believe it so. 0:14:24.440 --> 0:14:29.120 And actually, because this is Hollywood and celebrity, I guess 0:14:29.160 --> 0:14:32.040 celebrity worship is just part of it and always has been. 0:14:32.560 --> 0:14:35.160 Whenever some of the Madams would get busted, they would 0:14:35.160 --> 0:14:39.040 become internationally famous as well. There were two that stick out. 0:14:39.080 --> 0:14:42.200 One name was Lee Francis. I think she might have 0:14:42.240 --> 0:14:44.920 originally worked under the other very famous one, the Black 0:14:44.960 --> 0:14:49.280 Widow and Forrester, And by this time the Hollywood movie 0:14:49.280 --> 0:14:53.560 studios were so powerful that both Leif Francis and Forrester 0:14:53.920 --> 0:14:58.240 were busted with client information. One of them had essentially 0:14:58.280 --> 0:15:00.280 like an index card system, the other one at a 0:15:00.320 --> 0:15:04.760 black book, and both of those things disappeared before they 0:15:04.800 --> 0:15:08.600 could ever make it into the evidence locker. And no 0:15:08.640 --> 0:15:12.160 one was arrested in any of the cases, even the 0:15:12.200 --> 0:15:14.760 guys who were caught in the act, because they just 0:15:15.000 --> 0:15:17.000 you just kept people's names out of the paper. It 0:15:17.120 --> 0:15:20.960 just didn't happen in Hollywood. And I think that level 0:15:21.000 --> 0:15:25.680 of protection by the studios just fueled the lifestyle that 0:15:25.720 --> 0:15:29.440 the stars were living because they couldn't get in trouble. 0:15:29.520 --> 0:15:32.240 They could not there were no consequences for what they 0:15:32.240 --> 0:15:35.560 were doing, so people just did anything and everything there 0:15:35.840 --> 0:15:38.360 during that golden age, I guess of the twenties and 0:15:38.360 --> 0:15:39.680 thirties and forties. 0:15:39.280 --> 0:15:40.280 Maybe, yeah. 0:15:40.360 --> 0:15:42.280 And you know, because of that, it was sort of 0:15:42.280 --> 0:15:44.280 a you know, as Dave called it, kind of a 0:15:44.320 --> 0:15:49.160 blessing in disguise for the LGTBQ community. And you know, 0:15:49.240 --> 0:15:52.160 that's West Hollywood or we HO again is sort of 0:15:52.200 --> 0:15:55.560 the heart of the LGTB community in central Los Angeles. 0:15:55.600 --> 0:15:58.680 But way before that it was it was where a 0:15:58.680 --> 0:16:02.880 lot of gay bars were, gay clubs, drag clubs. 0:16:02.880 --> 0:16:05.560 I think the first drag shows. 0:16:05.240 --> 0:16:07.520 In the city and probably some of the first in 0:16:07.560 --> 0:16:10.960 the United States, were to Speakeasy in nineteen twenty seven 0:16:11.000 --> 0:16:14.680 called Cafe Loabom. But there were also, you know, all 0:16:14.760 --> 0:16:16.400 kinds of clubs there. It was a very famous one 0:16:16.400 --> 0:16:19.600 called the Trocadero that opened in nineteen thirty four where 0:16:19.640 --> 0:16:24.000 Cafe Lobohm was, and it was opened by a guy 0:16:24.040 --> 0:16:27.640 named Billy Wilkerson who was a publisher of The Hollywood Reporter, 0:16:27.840 --> 0:16:31.200 which I guess used to be news and like gossip 0:16:31.240 --> 0:16:34.200 and stuff. Now it's like a you know, fully sort 0:16:34.200 --> 0:16:36.320 of stand up, legitimate industry rag. 0:16:36.800 --> 0:16:38.960 I know they write about us pretty much constant. 0:16:39.400 --> 0:16:40.320 I think we were in it once. 0:16:40.320 --> 0:16:43.640 Actually we were selected some honor of like I think 0:16:43.720 --> 0:16:46.040 powerful podcasters or something crazy like that. 0:16:46.240 --> 0:16:48.080 Yeah, we made that list of time or two and 0:16:48.480 --> 0:16:50.720 we were in Variety once too. A couple of you know, 0:16:50.840 --> 0:16:51.920 feathers in our caps. 0:16:52.240 --> 0:16:55.440 Yeah, so nice. I'd love to joke those feathers sometimes. 0:16:55.840 --> 0:16:57.800 Well, it's easy to forget when they don't come calling, 0:16:57.920 --> 0:17:01.800 you know, it's true. But he owned Billy Wilkerson owned 0:17:01.920 --> 0:17:04.760 the Trocadero, and it was another one of those things 0:17:04.800 --> 0:17:06.600 where he was like, hey, you come by the Trocadero 0:17:07.200 --> 0:17:09.639 and we're going to make sure that you get in 0:17:09.680 --> 0:17:12.760 the gossip column, you know, because at the time, you know, 0:17:12.840 --> 0:17:13.959 that was kind of good press. 0:17:14.520 --> 0:17:18.200 Yeah. At the same time, the Trocadero was set up 0:17:18.560 --> 0:17:22.520 to cater to stars and celebrities because autograph hounds and 0:17:22.560 --> 0:17:25.159 people who looked a little too hungry or thirsty to 0:17:25.200 --> 0:17:28.320 get in there were shut out of that to protect 0:17:28.480 --> 0:17:32.000 people inside, the celebrities inside, so they could relax and 0:17:32.000 --> 0:17:34.760 not have to worry about I guess being asked for 0:17:34.800 --> 0:17:37.240 their autograph, the worst thing that can possibly happen to you. 0:17:39.480 --> 0:17:41.159 And then the final one we'll mention here before the 0:17:41.160 --> 0:17:44.439 break is a nightclub called Ciro's. It opened in nineteen 0:17:44.520 --> 0:17:47.400 forty and I believe it was also Wilkerson who owned 0:17:47.400 --> 0:17:48.960 that one, and it was notable. 0:17:49.280 --> 0:17:50.280 It was just a very. 0:17:50.200 --> 0:17:53.439 Famous and popular nightclub, and it was it made its 0:17:53.560 --> 0:17:55.560 name because Buggy Seagull would go there a lot, the 0:17:55.600 --> 0:18:00.000 infamous mobster, and when he was in jail on murder trial, 0:18:00.280 --> 0:18:02.879 he got food from Ciro's delivered right there to a 0:18:02.960 --> 0:18:04.520 cell because you could do that at the time. 0:18:04.920 --> 0:18:07.520 Yep, takeout food, can you believe it. 0:18:09.560 --> 0:18:12.000 So we'll take a break now, Yeah, yeah, think a 0:18:12.040 --> 0:18:13.919 right good idea great, and we'll come back and talk 0:18:13.960 --> 0:18:16.359 about the legendary Chateau Marmont right after this. 0:18:41.359 --> 0:18:42.080 All right, we're back. 0:18:42.119 --> 0:18:44.760 We promised talk of the Chateau Marmont. That is a 0:18:44.840 --> 0:18:48.040 very famous hotel built in nineteen twenty nine. It's the 0:18:48.080 --> 0:18:50.159 one that sits right in the hills and kind of 0:18:50.160 --> 0:18:54.160 looks like a castle, a very European inspired luxury hotel, 0:18:54.800 --> 0:18:57.879 and its motto is still if you go to their 0:18:57.920 --> 0:19:02.200 website says always a safe, even always open, and from 0:19:02.240 --> 0:19:04.520 the start it was kind of like what you've been describing. 0:19:05.600 --> 0:19:08.560 It was a place where you could go and party 0:19:08.600 --> 0:19:10.960 hardy and ensure that your name wouldn't be in the 0:19:11.040 --> 0:19:11.760 news because of it. 0:19:12.200 --> 0:19:15.240 Yeah, Like they had and I believe still have a 0:19:15.440 --> 0:19:19.200 strict policy among their staff, like you do not talk 0:19:19.240 --> 0:19:23.119 about what you see at the hotel. And the reason 0:19:23.160 --> 0:19:25.440 why is they figured out very early on that if 0:19:25.440 --> 0:19:30.480 you can provide like that level of discretion or privacy, 0:19:30.800 --> 0:19:33.440 you're going to be you're in good Like the word 0:19:33.440 --> 0:19:35.280 of mouth alone is going to keep you in business 0:19:35.320 --> 0:19:37.719 for decades, and clearly that worked out for more than 0:19:37.760 --> 0:19:42.439 a century, almost a century. And then conversely, if the 0:19:42.520 --> 0:19:45.440 staff started gossiping or talking about what they saw or 0:19:45.480 --> 0:19:49.400 started selling their stories to papers or tabloids like the 0:19:49.560 --> 0:19:51.760 Chateau Marmont would have gone out of business in six 0:19:51.840 --> 0:19:54.880 months essentially. So they I don't know how they managed 0:19:54.920 --> 0:19:58.600 to do it to keep people from you know, rumor 0:19:58.680 --> 0:20:01.000 mongering or anything like that, but they seem to have 0:20:01.280 --> 0:20:02.879 quite successfully over the years. 0:20:03.200 --> 0:20:05.760 Yeah, and I was delighted to see today. And for 0:20:05.840 --> 0:20:08.639 a while kind of during the early COVID years, I 0:20:08.720 --> 0:20:10.840 remember it was closed down and it was supposedly going 0:20:10.880 --> 0:20:13.520 to reopen as a sort of like a member's only 0:20:14.160 --> 0:20:17.640 you could buy places or maybe live in them long 0:20:17.720 --> 0:20:19.359 term or something. I can't remember what the plan was, 0:20:19.400 --> 0:20:21.159 and it bummed me out because I'd never had a 0:20:21.240 --> 0:20:23.840 chance to stay there. But I went today and apparently 0:20:23.840 --> 0:20:25.959 it's a hotel again, and I don't know if those 0:20:26.040 --> 0:20:28.240