Thursday, May 08, 2008 – Formerly Famous

Drive south from Hollywood Boulevard on Gower. Cross Sunset and Santa Monica Boulevards, until Gower ends at Melrose. As you sit at the light, the big globe teetering over your left shoulder marks the old RKO studios where they filmed all those old Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers musicals – Flying Down to Rio, and all that.  But that's now part of Paramount. All the blocks to the left are Paramount Studios and their lots – the new Star Trek movie is underway somewhere in there.  The light turns green and you turn left. And what is this at the very next intersection? 

It seems to be "I Love Lucy" Square.

Maybe you had to be there, on November 21, 2007 -

The intersection of Melrose and Plymouth avenues will be forever designated as "I Love Lucy" Square. On Thursday, Councilmember Tom LaBonge was joined by friends and supporters of two of Los Angeles’ most loved Lucys - Lucille Ball and Lucy Casado - to unveil the new signs marking this Hollywood corner in their honor.

On the north side of Melrose was once Desilu Studios, where some of the early "I Love Lucy" shows were shot. On the south side of Melrose is Lucy’s El Adobe restaurant made famous in the 1980s when then-Gov. Jerry Brown frequently dined with girlfriend, singer Linda Ronstadt. She flew in from Arizona for the ceremony and was joined by a handful of longtime musician-friends including singers Jackson Browne and Johnny Rivers and songwriters J.D. Souther and Jimmy Webb. Many spoke of Lucy and Frank Casado’s warmth and generosity forgiving tabs for meals and drinks when they were struggling to make it decades ago. …

Hollywood is an odd place, and then the is Lucy's –

It was here at Lucy's that Linda Ronstadt was introduced to California Governor Jerry Brown (by the restaurant's owner), leading to a lengthy and well-publicized romance between the singer and the presidential candidate. Brown is still a fan. In fact, Lucy's still proudly displays a large photo of Jerry Brown in its front window. In 1968, the late owner convinced Vice President Hubert H. Humphrey to stop by for lunch when he was visiting KCAL studios across the street.

We're told two members of the Eagles – Don Henley and Glenn Frey – hung out here all the time, and that patrons of Lucy's include Kevin Costner, Michael Keaton, Warren Beatty, Diane Keaton, Jack Nicholson, Carole Kane and the late John Candy.  John Belushi was here a few weeks before his death, and Orson Welles dropped by now and then. The list goes on and on – Bernadette Peters, Henry Winkler, Lily Tomlin, Connie Chung, Winona Ryder, Lyle Lovett, Phil Collins, and so on.

See Rock and Roll Roadmap – "Pretty much anyone that recorded for Elektra/Asylum hung out here, including The Eagles and J.D. Souther."

Apparently the food is awful.

Across the street –

But next door to Lucy's, the past is, well, past –

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Technical Note:

Photographs after March 3, 2008, were taken with a Nikon D200 – or a Nikon D70 when noted. All previous photographs were taken with the D70. The lenses used are (1) AF-S Nikkor 18-70 mm 1:35-4.5G ED, or (2) AF Nikkor 70-300 mm telephoto, or (3) AF-S DX Zoom-Nikkor 55-200 mm f/4-5.6G ED. Photography here is modified for web posting using Adobe Photoshop 7.0.  The earliest photography in the archives was done with a Sony Mavica digital still camera (MVC-FD-88) with built-in digital zoom.

All text and photos, unless otherwise noted, Copyright © 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010 - Alan M. Pavlik