On the southwest corner of Beverly Blvd. and La Cienega now stands a monolithic shopping center, The Beverly Center. But for those years in which Los Angeles was smaller, and more innocent, it was the home of Beverly Park, a small amusement center for young children replete with pony rides. It was the perfect outdoor venue for kid’s birthday parties and outings…and for divorced dads to take their toddlers when it was ‘his’ day.
Behind Beverly Park, west on Beverly Blvd. was a large Yellow Cab facility and behind that Adohr Farms. Adohr is Rhoda spelled backwards, an homage to the owner’s daughter. But to the south, off 3d street, was my favorite…Columbia Records, a plant where they actually pressed records. You remember those black round plastic things with grooves before CD’s and cassette tapes, and Beta…they produced those 78 rpms that gave us the Swing age of Artie Shaw, Glenn Miller and Benny Goodman, the voices of Johnnie Mathis and Doris Day.
All this was before the mega-and-still-growing Cedar Sinai hospital, complex et al.
On La Cienega, just north of Beverly was the original Tail of the Pup, a creative hot dog emporium shaped like a hot dog bun and next to that, a popular night club, The Cave, where Don Rickles got his comic start insulting customers.
If you went south three blocks you found yourself in the heart of ‘Restaurant Row’ featuring Tail of the Cock, Lawry’s Prime Rib, Richlor’s for seafood, Stear’s for steaks and an all night eatery called Ollie Hammond…great steak sandwich. There were more, one after another both sides of the street all the way to Wilshire Blvd.
Things have changed through the years but then we all have. I enjoy looking forward but sometimes it’s sweet to lay back and remember yesterday.