image Archives

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

“Any actor who opens a restaurant should have his head examined.” Dean Martin, of Dino’s on the Sunset Strip

December 29, 2014 by Vickie Lester

Once upon a time the King of Cool, otherwise known as Dean Martin, was a partner in a restaurant on the Sunset Strip. The restaurant was a hit in the 1950s and his friends had credit there: By the 1960s Dean and his partners had been to court and Dean said, “Any actor who opens a restaurant should have his head examined” – the partnership was dissolved. The Rise and Fall of Dino’s Lodge by Kliph Nesteroff – WFMU’s Beware […]

Categories: Advertising, Architecture, Art, Blogging, Books, Cooking, Culture, Design, Early Television, Entertainment, fashion, Film, History, Hollywood, Humor, law, Life, Literature, Los Angeles, Marriage, Movies, Music, Photography, Relationships, Story, Theater, Travel, Truth & Rumors, Uncategorized • Tags: 77 Sunset Strip, Alpine Lodge, behind the scenes, Dean Martin, Dino's Lodge, John Wayne, Kookie, nightclub, Sunset Strip, The Rise and Fall of Dino's Lodge by Kliph Nesteroff, WFMU

The bored and dissolute nightclub crowd – in many incarnations – ghosts of 1926

December 29, 2014 by Vickie Lester

Club Casa Del Mar opened in 1926 – Whoa – this image… The bored and dissolute nightclub crowd, the possibly under-age cigarette girl, the gentleman… or mobster center frame… Brushing the cobwebs away I can state the facts, the Casa Del Mar is now a luxury hotel, prior to that it was a rec center for enlisted men in WWII, the headquarters of Synanon (a bogus drug rehab program and later a disbanded “church”). Prior to it’s latest incarnation it […]

Categories: Architecture, Blogging, Books, Culture, Design, Entertainment, fashion, Fiction, Film, History, Hollywood, Life, Literature, Los Angeles, Movies, News, Photography, Relationships, Sports, Theater, Travel, Truth & Rumors, Uncategorized, Writing • Tags: Architect Charles F. Plummer, behind the scenes, Club Casa Del Mar, ghosts of 1926, Lifeguard, mobster, nightclub, Renaissance Revival, The bored and dissolute nightclub crowd

Bobbing for apples at the Cock and Bull in Hollywood – a long time ago… Photographer, Lee Weber

October 29, 2014 by Vickie Lester

Categories: Culture, Entertainment, Film, Halloween, History, Hollywood, Los Angeles, Photography, Uncategorized • Tags: 1949, bobbing for apples, Cock and Bull Nightclub, Halloween, Hollywood, Hollywood history, nightclub, Photographer Lee Weber

Kenneth Turan, Robin Williams’ rise no surprise to a writer dazzled by unknown comic

August 12, 2014 by Vickie Lester

…He took on different characters with different accents, roamed to all kinds of locations, both physical and metaphysical, made lightning-fast comic connections in time and space that were at once hysterically funny and like nothing I had ever experienced before. It was no surprise people in the know were buzzing about Robin Williams, no surprise at all. After the show Williams and I had a quick bite in a bustling place on the Strip called the Copper Kettle. It was […]

Categories: Architecture, Art, Blogging, Culture, Design, Entertainment, Film, History, Hollywood, Life, Movies, Photography, Theater, Travel, Truth & Rumors, Uncategorized • Tags: #comedystore, #RobinWIlliams, #sunsetstrip, altruism, appreciation, Depression, genius, improv, Kenneth Turan, lightening-fast, nightclub, Robin Williams, Robin Williams young, spark, tsunami, wit