Part 1 was just the warm-up act to Ed Ruscha’s drives up and down Sunset Boulevard. I find these very engrossing, so here’s the second of three parts from 1966, which will be followed by 1973, and 1985, so hang in there with me. This time he shot both sides of a segment of the strip further west than last time. Our trip heading east starts near Doheny and ends near Fairfax, covering a big chunk of what is the classic “Strip”, including the Whiskey A Go-Go and a few other iconic night spots.
This shot at the top is out of sequence, but it’s one of my favorites of this set. A hard-working El Camino framed by two Mercedes, including a rather rare 220SE coupe. Says it all.
Note: Ruscha did the shooting in two passes, so you will often see the same spot twice, but with different cars.
SO many mustangs!
Page 3, bottom picture, tail fins are of a Morris Oxford series VI.(1961-71).
Confirmed. As the once owner of a 1965 Oxford VI.
That sounds about right.
Wonderful pictures! Love it.
Page 5 – 9th and 10th photo, looks like an Austin Westminster (A99 or A110) or Wolseley / Vandenplas equivalent. If so a rare find then.
That Bentley could well be a Jaguar MkVIII or IX as also seen a few photos later.
I would like to rent a Beetle for a dollar a day, please! The other place is charging $3.49 per day. What a ripoff!
Eighth Picture Down on Page 1:
The guy in the ’65 or ’66 Mustang looks like he’s talking on his mobile phone.
I know California was always ahead of the rest of the country regarding new technology, buy c’mon!
Maybe he was…picking his nose??
My brother-in-law noticed, while beeping and creeping on the infamous Schuykill Expressway in Philadelphia, just how many drivers he would see doing that!
First page, 6th photo from the bottom the early Rover P6 2000 looks at home in front of the mock-Tudor building, but in that size and power bracket the gen 2 Corvair sedan two pics down would’ve been a better compromise between “interesting sporty sedan” and “something you can venture away from the city into the still-wild West in”.
Pic 88 on p 3: a ’38 or ’39 Caddy flatback. Those types were rare. Trunks dominated after ’36.
Most of the pics on p 2 include a loading ramp that would have been a supreme test for semi drivers, but it looks like they made it. No signs of hillside crashes.
I’m loving the Simca Aronde dead centre in the third last pic.
In all these images I can only see two people on the street, and they both look like they got out of the Rover. What’s that about?
Life in LA on a Sunday morning. Everyone drove, lots of free parking everywhere. A different time.
Paul is right, this is in the 60s not long after “The Jetsons” aired on TV. Exercise was passé for anyone over driving age in the middle class and above; it was thought that the future would feature robots, pushbuttons, and automation everywhere. No one in those photos would have known today’s meaning of the word “jogging.”
We had a ’56 Olds Holiday 88 (4 door) until 1992. One of the best looking cars of the 50’s. Hides its bulk well from a distance.
Page 2, pic 6: I didn’t know Cadillac sold a short deck convertible in ’63.
It’s not a short deck. Maybe the lens makes it look a bit shorter than it might otherwise, but the short deck was considerably shorter.
Really cool building shots! Neat to see when that architecture style was newer and cleaner from the wear of people and age.
Not too many interesting cars for my taste. Where are the Mercedes SLs? 356s? These are pedestrian cars for Hollywood…
Keep in mind that these were shot pretty early on Sunday mornings. And in 1966, SLs weren’t all that common yet. Wait until 1973 and 1985. All those endless Cadillacs had been traded in on Mercedes by then.
On my first visit to L.A. around this time, my brother in law took us to Sunset Strip at night when it was THE place to go. We finally found a potential parking spot on a side street — a couple of guys were sitting in an MG with the top down. My brother in law asked if they were leaving, and neither responded. He asked again, a little louder, and they both took off running. Some MG owner probably never knew how close he came to having his car stolen that night.
This Ed Ruscha guy was way ahead of his time. People in 1966 probably had no idea what he was doing or why. But I’m glad he did it.
Never been there, but Google street viewed Sunset Blvd. It’s not so quaint and inviting today; a lot of the little mom & pop businesses (and quite a few of the buildings) have vanished. Some of the new architecture is really bizarre. You should see what they’ve done to the front of Hollywood High!
Billboard: “HE’S YOUR UNCLE, NOT YOUR DAD!” What does that mean?
“FEMALE IMPERSONATOR SHOW”–in *1966*!! Wow. As a long-time MAD reader I’m curious what THE MAD SHOW was like:)
It should say “Not your Aunt!”
Odd recruiting billboard during the Draft era.
Lots of 2 dr. full size and intermediate cars
For some reason, Gazzarri’s Supper Club caught my attention.
The wikinet says that the Doors and Van Halen played there as house bands before becoming major recording artists. Also, “Bill Gazzarri died in 1991 and the club closed down in 1993. In 1994, the building suffered irreparable damage from the Northridge earthquake. It was torn down in 1995..”
A cool piece of history is what all these photos represent. Thanks for sharing!
I can’t get enough of these, to me, pictures of people just going about their every day business are fascinating. Nothing staged.
A few things I noticed:
– the bed of an El Camino being used
– most convertibles with the top down
– most people have the windows down and arm propped on the sill
All so mundane but so interesting
One for Bryce. Page 6, shots 20, 21 & 24 there’s an ‘Audax’ Minx series 1 convertible.
Love them! That 5th shot from the top has to real oddities – the 62 Lark wagon of course, but also a 66 Galaxie 500 convertible with dog dish caps. The convertibles were not that uncommon and neither were those hubcaps, but they were almost never seen on the same car.
And did I see two separate 56 DeSoto 4 door hardtops? One in traffic and another parked.
And I love all the convertibles. The 64 Cutlass is a sentimental favorite and the 60 Lark is cute as a bug.
I anticipated some Plymouth love from you, sir – that 65(?) four door hardtop with fender skirts is a nice one – looks like a full passenger load as it is low to the ground. Some other nice late 50’s models, including a wagon.
Yes, you’re right about the two 56 DeSotos. Also I’m sure you noticed the 59 Plymouth sedan followed by the 65 Fury 4-door hardtop mentioned by CA Guy.
Paul – that’s Nudie the Tailor’s ’66 Bonneville convertible they are staring at in front of what became the infamous “Continental Riot (Hyatt) House”.
Correct, and it is still with us:
https://calgaryherald.com/life/swerve/the-car-pulls-to-the-west-nudie-cohn-customizes-cars-in-draw-dropping-fashion
I’d be curious to know what the market share of Ford and Lincoln in California were during this period. I see lots of first-generation Mustangs, and a fair number of 1961-66 Lincoln Continentals. I’m guessing that southern Californians were more open to switching to Lincoln from Cadillac after 1960 than their counterparts in other parts of the country.
Gene Autry’s Hotel Continental? The customized Pontiac convertible looks to have a rifle attached to the quarter panel and a continental kits…there has to be period photos of this monstrosity!
Other than the upscale names on the businesses, doesn’t look much different than a drive down any ‘miracle mile’ in the America of the times.
Later to be known as the storied Riot House or Rock and Roll Hyatt in the 70’s. It’s still there but more sedate in its golden years.
Check out Nudie Cohn, the man who made cowboys love rhinestones, he customized Pontiac convertibles for stars then
On the page 5 7th from the bottom that’s an English Ford Zephyr with the rear of the same car behind the Chevy convertible in the next pic. When I was a kid in the 1960s we had a 1959 Zephyr for our family car.
All those houses cantilevered off the edge of a LANDSLIDE ALREADY UNDERWAY. Who permitted those?
I love these , but I think the standout one is the Bank of America with the Cadillac on the first page , it looks almost staged, but just a brief random point in time, it’s perfect.
Great photos! Love the wagons and the ’65 Furies! I’ve never been too much of a tailfin guy, but that Caddy passing Bank of America sure looks nice. The Dodge van brings back memories of many a little kid carpool in one owned by some neighbors and the spiffy pop-out step on on the side doors.
Talk about a time machine! So many Mustangs, Beetles, and even Karmann Ghias. Also lots of full-size Chevys and Fords. And Lincoln Continentals and Cadillacs. Plus T-Birds, mostly late-model but a couple of 2-seaters.
Amazing how popular Buick was back then, and it seems the Oldsmobiles outnumbered the Pontiacs. Lots of Darts and Corvairs also. Chevelles and the other B-O-P compacts/intermediates are well represented.
Even among the lower priced cars, it seems hardtops outnumber sedans.
Page 1, photo 23, shows an issue that we no longer have to deal with today. Not matching new black wall tires to old existing white wall tires or even matching the width of the white walls or the number of stripes. These were real issues before the advent of Facebook and Twitter and Chicken McNuggetts.
Loved seeing all the cars, and the hazy/smoggy distant air that was noticeable in many of the shots. However, seeing the 2 young fellows riding on the (65-66?) Honda 305 Scrambler really caught my beedy lil ol Mk Is!! I ran, err…..cruised Sunset numerous times on weekend liberty down to L.A. on my ’65 Honda 305 Super Hawk.
The parked Triumph 650 caught my attention, too. Altho it wasn’t until the Summer of ’68 I started going on the Strip with my by then “modified” ’57 Triumph 6T, 650. The SMOG by then had become a real eye burner on that bike, in lieu of the clean hi-desert air I enjoyed 5 days a week out at MCB 29 Palms, CA.
Some weekends I would take my first car, a ’64 Pontiac Tempest Custom 215ci 6 powerhouse to the Strip. Driving the car wasn’t as much fun as riding the bike. My soon to be (1969) wife and I while on the Triumph never got caught in the HEAVY traffic which could snarl to complete halts on Friday and Saturday nights. That happened to us once while on the Triumph; to help alleviate the jam I took the Triumph up onto the sidewalk for @ 2 blocks; rapidly left the stoppage behind us!!
This look back is fascinating; keep them coming! Rather makes me wish for MR. PEABODY’S WAYBACK MACHINE to get a real steal (like the $600 it cost me to buy that Tempest in Spring of ’68) on some of those 4 wheeled beauties!!! 🙂 DFO
Very last photo, to the right of Schwab’s is architect John Lautner’s Googie’s Coffee Shop from the late 40’s, which gave its name to the Googie school of angled and exaggerated coffee shops all over southern California.
Opel, Fiat, Simca, English Ford, Sunbeam/Hillman, the import boom models were still hanging in in ’66, though interestingly (and I’m sure, tellingly), no Renaults. Ofcourse, the “”winner” of the imports, a plague of Beetles, is well on the march. Not to mention a Rover and Borgward Isabella, pretty much the only ones in LA, surely!
I reckon that the most exotic and expensive car aside from the gorgeous Bentley Continental peeking out of the Marmont has to be the chic Alfa 2600 convertible.
My uneducated guess as to the unidentified car with sunroof open is an early Volvo PV444.
Apart from a tiny few, nothing here is more than ten years old, and the majority well-newer than that. Such was the lifespan of cars then.
I find it interesting, there is a different car in between the pictures supposing to be in a movie like order. Particularly page 5, slides with the FLY UNITED JETS billboard, there is sitting still 64 Chevrolet Impala convertible to be replaced with 56 Desoto in the next slide and then again back to Chevy. All other cars on the parking lot seem not to move afoot, make it even weirder.
Otherwise, a great series of a long time gone era. Closest to the get to the point of streets being fulled up with classics, I have to travel to Sweden to so-called big power meeting. Outstanding event with thousands of cars coming from mainly Scandinavia during the summer, where the atmosphere is getting very close.
And there is the Desoto