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To the right, a study in blue - a face floating above the Whisky a Go Go on the Sunset Strip. It's kind of iconic, isn’t it?
It's sometimes hard to get a feel for the Strip. It's not 1964 - the Doors are long gone, Jimmy Morrison at rest in that Paris cemetery, near Oscar Wilde. Buffalo Springfield morphed in Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, and disappeared long ago. Neil Young comes out of retirement to sing now and then, but he's an old man. For what it's worth, there has not been a riot on the strip since 1966.
As for the really old days, Schwab's Drugstore at the Laurel Canyon corner is gone too. It was closed in 1986 and ten years later replaced with a fancy complex anchored by a Virgin Megastore, with a six screen movie place and a California Pizza Kitchen. F. Scott Fitzgerald had a heart attack at Schwab's in 1940, while buying a pack of cigarettes. Harold Arlen wrote "Over the Rainbow" by the light of the Schwab's neon sign. Charlie Chaplin and Harold Lloyd used to play pinball in the back room. Gone. The Trocadero Ballroom - the center of jitterbug in the thirties - is long gone too, as are its patrons, Fred Astaire, Bing Crosby, Cary Grant, Myrna Loy and Norma Shearer. Bette Davis' fancy nearby apartment, however, is for sale now, if you miss those days.
The Strip has changed. Glance at the promotional material.
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