My favorite block in Los Angeles is probably the most generic looking thing you’ve ever seen. You’d drive right past it. It sits across the street from a big new hotel which is far fancier and prettier than the Pantages Theater that sits on my favorite block. You’d probably be looking at that if you drove by. You’d probably keep going further down, into the maelstrom of Hollywood & Highland, you’d probably want to check out the Chinese Theater.
Infact, there’s not much going on my favorite block. There’s the Pantages Theater, and next to that there’s a little place that sells hot dogs after the shows let out. Tourists empty out onto the streets and most take the ten step walk to the awaiting bus, then back to their hotel, telling everyone back in Kansas how Hollywood is so very Hollywood, without having so much as walked a mile on the streets. They have the same looks on their faces dogs have in kennels. Not that I was never a tourist; shit, everyone’s a tourist at first.
Pantages Theater started out as a vaudeville theater and during the Great Depression became a first-run movie theater. Walk out of the theater and look up to the second floor. There, in 1949, Howard Hughes opened his personal offices. Soon after moving into the allegedly haunted building, Hughes spent four months locked in his screening room living off of nothing but chocolate and milk. He’s said to haunt his old offices, apparently liking the building too much to leave. A ghost haunts the main theater space – often singing along with the shows from one of the balconies, where she died during a performance in 1932. The theater stands now as a live-action theater space, hosting various runs of Broadway shows such as Wicked, Spamalot, and Legally Blonde: The Musical. A far cry from Howard Hughes. Hence the busses full of tourists.
Some plucky tourists occasionally venture next door to the shoebox sized bar called The Frolic Room, a bar that opened in 1939 and hasn’t had a makeover since the early 1960′s. It’s Bukowski’s favorite hangout, he sat at the end of the bar, by the wall, right by where you walk in, just in front of the cigarette machine. If you sit there you’ve got a great view of the whole place – which isn’t that much bigger than a two car garage in the first place. The mural on the right side shows caricatures of various stars that must’ve been all recognizable in it’s heyday – now, most of the faces are unrecognizable but to the most arduous film fanatics. The drinks are cheap and the crowd is too. It opens in the early morning, some guys sit there all through the day. It’s the best bar in the city, in my opinion.
Take a walk outside and look back at the bar. The sign has never been changed. Now turn to your left, facing Vine Street. This was the first intersection in the city. This whole place used to be a lemon grove.
But you probably wouldn’t notice it. You’d probably just keep driving.
