August 25, 2010

Things that aren’t here anymore…

As time passes, my list of things that aren’t here anymore grows exponentially. Recently I visited an old friend in Beverly Hills. We toured downtown and relished remembering the things that weren’t here anymore. Baillie’s, Walters, Amelia Gray, Carl's Market, Harrgatay's, Café Swiss, The Saloon, Dan's Snip-n-Curl barber shop, Dorso, Mr. Guy, Eric Ross, Jurgensen's, La Chaumiere, La Bella Fontana, The Bistro, et al., all gone baby, gone. Edelweiss Chocolates was still here.


I ask the current owner, if the old chocolate factory is still at the back of the shop. She said yes, and would we like to come and see. We did.



A tidbit, Lucille Ball a faithful Edelweiss Chocolates customer actually used the chocolate conveyor belt that’s part of the Edelweiss’ factory as the inspiration for an “I Love Lucy” episode and I’m sure you know which one.


 
We enjoyed that, but it made me feel one hundred years old. Time to go. As we drove home, we passed one of my favorite “memorial sites”. 1021 North Roxbury Drive.

The house where George Gershwin and his brother Ira wrote some of the most important American songs ever composed and where Rosemary Clooney lived for over five decades was reduced to a pile of rubble.


The City's action, taken without public hearing, or any notification to community members who had launched a campaign of letters and pleas to the Beverly Hills Mayor and the Beverly Hills City Council, cleared the way for another “Persian Palace”.

It was here that George came bounding down the stairs of the living room to the piano saying jubilantly, "Hey Ira, it can't be A Foggy Day in London. It's got to be "A Foggy Day in London Town!" The house became a social center for Hollywood's (and New York's) most creative forces of the 1930's - including Moss Hart, Lillian Hellman, Harold Arlen, and Oscar Levant.


 
The Gershwin-Clooney house was one of the last remaining historic houses on the legendary street of North Roxbury Drive that once boasted the likes of Lucille Ball, Jack Benny, and Jimmy Stewart. Nick Clooney, brother of Rosemary, remembered, "I once sat on the floor leaning against the back of a chair where Bing Crosby was sitting as he sang White Christmas for an audience of seven."



 
Gary Shea’s road case in the pool house



Los Angeles has a transcendent feeling even amidst the pace that has kept it on the cutting edge of trend. There is a tenuous tie to the past. While so many of the legendary people are gone, the houses that remain can still bring back memories and inspire fantasies.

But with no preservation ordinance to protect its history, the cultural and historic legacies are left to the whims of homebuyers with cash. These historic houses are razed with the ease of dismantling yesterday's movie set. They don't have granite kitchens or a marble entries, but they have soul and history. There is no Take Two. No digital fix. When it's dead, it really is dead. Gone. Next.

22 comments:

C and C said...

Wow, that brought back an avalanche of memories. Thanks for jogging my little gray cells.

BH Ghost said...

My maternal grandparents built our house on Maple Dr. in the 20s. My uncle was in BHHS's first graduating class in 1929. My mom graduated in 1933, my sister in 1958, and I graduated from BHHS in 1966. I remember Rodeo drive when it was just a street, not a destination.
I have memories to last a lifetime.

Anonymous said...

Bring back The Saloon on little Santa Monica Blvd.!!!!!!

BH Native said...

How about going to the Beverly Theater (with that big dome) in the 70's to see 'Tommy', 'The Song Remains the Same', 'Fritz the Cat', etc....I miss that theater. Seeing Rod Stewart in almost every liquor store we would go into.....

BH born and bred said...

The Daisy!! There is a quick shot of it in "Shampoo" and the entire last scene of the movie is shot in the "Bistro." Thank goodness for movies.

David said...

Many people that I have run into over the years simply cannot believe that I lived in Beverly Hills, CA. They think of it as a stuck-up, conceited city with no morals or scruples. That might possibly be true today, but I tell them about some of these places and what our lives were like back in the 60's-70's. I miss ...Ah Fongs, Morley Drugs, Newberry's (where the best Halloween wax lips were), Hans Ort, Nibbler's, Toy Mart, the Magic Store on Beverly Dr., Hamburger Hamlet, the YMCA, Roxbury Park, the Fish Park on Canon with the best climbing trees in the world, sneaking into the LA Country Club for our nefarious adventures...you get the picture. :-)

Dan (Walden Drive) said...

" Uncle Bernie's Toy Menagerie" my favorite kinderwonderland!!!!

thanks for the memories

Elke said...

I loved the city...nothing like it!

Roger (still North Roxbury Drive) said...

The Factory - great place-great performers- I was totally blown away with the talented people.

Mrs. Guttman (Walden Drive) said...

Book Stores?
No More Martindales, Hunters, Brentanos, Rizzoli - not easy to buy a book in Beverly Hills today which says something very negative about the place.
And Ms Edna, we still call it Little Santa Monica.
And, yes, it is a total mess. There supposedly was some kind of Landmark Preservation committee because my uncle was on it - little good that did !!!

Barb (class of '74) said...

OMG!! Just looking at this post takes me back... way back... Beverly Park poney rides.. the scary house...Willrights Ice cream after school on the way home. Ok,ok enough!

Sarah (BH expat) said...

AHHHHH Frascati's - thank you, I've been going nuts trying to remember the name of that place. Sometimes Sammy Fein would come in and play his own music. What a treat.

great memories said...

"Do you live north or south, of the tracks"?
"Above or below Sunset"?

Anonymous said...

OK...this sucks..I'll be up all night remembering.............

Charles B. (little SM) said...

So many great memories! Let's keep them alive!!
Want to meet at Will Wrights for some ice cream?

BH expat in Paris said...

I remember once eating lunch at the Rodeo Cafe in the Rodeo Hotel. There was a very dapper, small man sitting at the next table. He asked his waiter for the check and when it arrived, he asked where he should sign. The waiter asked if had an account and he said one word. "Gucci." The waiter asked if he worked there. ...The man looked a bit astonished and said, "I am Gucci." It was the late Aldo Gucci.

yep, those were the days...

90210 expat said...

Does anyone remember trick or treating in Beverly Hills?
The Cadbury bars from Jimmy Durante, the armed guards at Lucille Ball's house keeping kids away (who the hell did she think made her famous?), Jimmy Stewart who answered the door, and Rosemary Clooney who kept us in sweets for weeks, and that scary elephant in front of Buddy Hackett's house.

Were those the days?

Anonymous said...

How much candy did we all swipe from Shapiro's?

Fitz (above Sunset) said...

GOD IM OLD

Anonymous said...

My Ex husband was the projectionist at the Beverly Theater. They showed "That's Entertainment" for a year until "That's Entertainment 2" came out!

Terri Freeman Harrison said...

My Uncle was the owner of Dan's -Snip'nCurl!

Fredde Duke said...

I write a blog that is a bit about food but a LOT about growing up in Beverly Hills. I was just researching and came across this wonderful post. You should know (in case you're interested) that there is a big documentary being made right now about the city. It's for the centennial. I spent a lot of time at 1019 North Roxbury Drive..can't believe some idiot tore it down!!