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BEGUILING HOLLYWOOD

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1948 COCKTAIL LOUNGE – DESIGNED BY JOHN C. AUSTIN (OF OBSERVATORY FAME)

July 21, 2015 by Vickie Lester

Categories: Architecture, Art, Blogging, Books, Culture, Design, DIY, Entertainment, fashion, Film, Friendship, Gastronomy, History, Hollywood, Life, Los Angeles, Movies, Story, Travel, Truth & Rumors • Tags: alcohol, Architect John C Austin, architectural rendering, architecture, bar, bartender, behind the scenes, cocktail, cocktail lounge, design, Griffith Park Observatory, history, Hollywood, interior design, Los Angeles, martini shaker, nightclub, Old Hollywood, photography, restaurant, Venice, vintage cocktails

14

GLAMOUR BOWL ~ A Short Story. | SCENTS MEMORY

June 9, 2013 by Vickie Lester

GLAMOUR BOWL Near death and on a constant morphine drip Theo passed from the hospital bed to his past on a regular basis. When cognizant of the present he knew what was happening. It is said when you die, your life flashes before you in an instant. He was on a slow slide towards death and instead of a flash card review he was, on and off, watching a disjointed, slow drug induced movie of his life. Theo was never […]

Categories: Art, Blogging, Books, Culture, Design, Entertainment, Fiction, Film, Friendship, History, Hollywood, Life, Literature, Los Angeles, Memoir, Movies, Music, Relationships, Short Stories, Story, Theater, Travel, Truth & Rumors, Uncategorized, Writing • Tags: actor, actress, AIDS, Artist, behind the scenes, Billy Wilder, Bowling, bowling alley, Classic Movies, cocktail lounge, design, fiction, film, first kiss, gay, Glamour Bowl a Short Story, history, Hollywood, Jack Lemon, Kim Novak, Lanier Smith, Los Angeles, movies, Scent Memory, Shirley Maclaine, short story, Southern California, The Apartment 1960, the laws of attraction, writer, young love

8

THE PALOMAR – ARCHITECT SAMUEL B. BIRD – BURNT TO THE GROUND IN 1939

March 23, 2013 by Vickie Lester

Categories: Architecture, Art, Blogging, Choreography, Culture, Design, Entertainment, Film, Gastronomy, History, Hollywood, Life, Los Angeles, Movies, Photography, Story, Travel, Truth & Rumors, Uncategorized • Tags: alcohol, Architect John C Austin, Architect Samuel B Bird, architectural rendering, architecture, bar, bartender, behind the scenes, cocktail, cocktail lounge, dancing and dinner, design, Griffith Park Observatory, history, Hollywood, interior design, Los Angeles, martini shaker, nightclub, Old Hollywood, photography, restaurant, The Palomar, Venice, vintage cocktails

13

SARDI’S ON HOLLYWOOD BLVD – 1932 – DESIGNED BY BALCH and SCHINDLER

March 23, 2013 by Vickie Lester

Categories: Advertising, Architecture, Art, Blogging, Culture, Design, Entertainment, fashion, Film, Gastronomy, History, Hollywood, Life, Los Angeles, Movies, New York, Photography, Story, Travel, Uncategorized • Tags: alcohol, Architect, architecture, bar, bartender, behind the scenes, Clifford Balch, cocktail, cocktail lounge, design, history, Hollywood, Los Angeles, martini shaker, nightclub, Old Hollywood, photography, restaurant, Rudolph Schindler, Sardi's, Venice, vintage cocktails

35

A LITTLE GROG IN VENICE – WITH A SHAKE FROM A NAUTICAL BARTENDER – 1935

March 23, 2013 by Vickie Lester

Happy Birthday to The Pink Agendist | by E.B. de Mas Feel free to light up your cigar and crack open the champagne. And here’s to many more.

Categories: Architecture, Blogging, Culture, Design, Entertainment, fashion, Film, Gastronomy, History, Hollywood, Humor, Life, Los Angeles, Movies, Photography, Short Stories, Story, Travel, Uncategorized • Tags: alcohol, architecture, bar, bartender, behind the scenes, cocktail, cocktail lounge, design, history, Hollywood, Los Angeles, martini shaker, nightclub, Old Hollywood, photography, restaurant, Venice, vintage cocktails

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It’s a good night when @kfullermendez calls me from the east to herald a moonrise over the west. #goodnight #supermoon #sweetdreams @heybillkuhn @antiquegoddess

“These stories seem at times to be stories of a long-lost world when the city of New York was still filled with river light, when you heard the Benny Goodman quartets from a radio in the corner stationary store, and when almost everybody wore a hat. Here is the last of that generation of chain smokers who woke the world in the morning with their coughing, who used to get stoned at cocktail parties and perform obsolete dance steps like “the Cleveland Chicken,” sail for Europe on ships, who were truly nostalgic for love and happiness, and whose gods were as ancient as yours and mine, whoever you are.” . I picked up a sweet #volume of short stories in the new year, continuing my #love affair with fictional Manhattan. . . . . . #stories #manhattan #nyc #johncheever #bookbliss #bibliophile #exploretocreate #empirestatebuilding #architecture #streetscape #citylife #literature #author #writer #bookstagram #bookstoread #cityscape #skyscraper #bluesky #writerslife #thestoriesofjohncheever

Traveling SW I promised @heybillkuhn I’d take pictures... Over breakfast in the dining car I learned how to bet the horses. Sharing a meal with people I’ve never met is now one of my favorite things to do. . So relaxing watching the country roll by, thinking about what to make for Christmas dinner back home. #Pavlova? #ChocolateMousse? For recipes check out the link in the profile. . . . . . #trainstation #exploretocreate #artofvisuals #waiting #portrait #citylife #architecture #homewardbound #urban #dawn #interior #graphicdesign #art #lifeisbeautiful #journey #style #friends #everyonehasastory #itsinhiskissbyvickielester #amwriting another #hollywood #novel

Sometimes places look #enchanted — because they are. This town sends me. There’s a little free library in front of the police department, #design students everywhere you turn, early risers who stroll around the park, and #bookstores like @thebookladybookstore where you can browse and talk for hours — discovering #treasures. All that and I had a eureka moment working on my manuscript. Where am I @williee64 ? In #Savannah! Thank you @heybillkuhn for giving us a proper introduction 😘. . . . . . #bibliophile #books #amwriting #library #exploretocreate #historichome #federalarchitecture #architecture #december #hollywood #novel #author #southerncharm #style

It’s the #morning before #Thanksgiving in #Savannah and I found lady bountiful on my #walk to the market. It’s #bright and beautiful and last night on the #movie set they made it snow — glorious fluffy frosty stuff — which I can’t share pictures of, but I can share stories and a #recipe for a #delicious #dessert, link in the profile. . #goodmorning! . Am #onlocation with my #beloved #writing another #Hollywood #novel.

“Eloise, if you keep touching those rocks we’ll never get to the park...” So said an exasperated mom to an exploring toddler, exceptionally layered against the cold, as the wind cut down 72nd street. She was dressed for an expedition but this LA dame certainly wasn’t... However, I did get to bask in some #maxfieldparrish blue. #thankyou @kfullermendez . . . . . #centralpark #cityscape #exploretocreate #nyc #bluesky #pond #fredericklawolmsted #design #garden #urban #autumninnewyork #fallingleaves #water #artofvisuals #eastside #manhattan #citypark #westcoastmeetseastcoast #autumncolors

“I felt better knowing he was only a bus ride away, a straight shot down Fifth Avenue; and in the night when I woke up jarred and panicked, the explosion plunging through me all over again, sometimes I could lull myself back to sleep by thinking of his house, where without even realizing it you slipped away sometimes into 1850, a world of ticking clocks and creaking floorboards, copper pots and baskets of turnips and onions in the kitchen, candle flames leaning all to the left in the draft of an opened door and tall parlor windows billowing and swagged like ball gowns, cool quiet rooms where old things slept.” . And yes, I will be journeying east from #losangeles with a traveling companion that weighs a little more than my computer, but ever so much more engaging. . . . #bookstagram #bookquotes #bibliophile #reading #thegoldfinch #newyorkcity #novel #goodreads #literature #dickensian #shelfie #library #bookish #author #bookworm #painting #design #shadowandlight #artofvisuals #exploretocreate #october #autumnmood #flashofdelight #nothingisordinary #wordswilltakeyouthere

The wind knocked the power out in the dark of #MondayMorning and at first light I turned to coffee and #EdithWharton. “I read the other day in a book by a fashionable essayist that ghosts went out when electric light came in. What nonsense!” All Souls’ and After Holbein, short stories in the #spooky #Halloween #spirit. Ah, and what do you know, the whir of electricity and we’re back on the grid. . . . . . #shelfie #bookstagram #author #writersofinstagram #bookworm #bookshelf #bibliophile #library #ghosts #goodmorning #goodreads #october #autumn #pumpkin #painting #homedecor #artofvisuals #postitfortheaesthetic

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