Tell me what L.A. was like back in the 1950's/1960's

[nmnita]

Originally Posted by Astral_Weeks

Here is a bit of LA musical trivia. Not circa the 50's or 60's but the early 70's.

Billy Joel, the kid from Long Island, did a stint in Los Angeles in the early years of his musical career before he became famous. He had a contractual dispute which caused him to want to find a place to sort of hide out for a while until he'd no longer be under the unfavorable contract. This was in the early 1970's.

So under the stage name Bill Martin he did a stint as the main singer and piano player at "The Executive Room" which was a piano bar on Wilshire Blvd. in Koreatown. On Wilshire Blvd. a few blocks west of Western. That is the place that inspired him to write the song "Piano Man".

The Executive Room has been closed for years but it was still open in 1980 when 20/20 did this story on Billy Joel. The clip below is an interview from 1980 with people in the actual Executive Room being intervirewed who remembered Billy Joel from his stint there.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tM59T-l1zEs

Thanks for sharing.

[CA4Now]

Originally Posted by Astral_Weeks

So under the stage name Bill Martin he did a stint as the main singer and piano player at "The Executive Room" which was a piano bar on Wilshire Blvd. in Koreatown. On Wilshire Blvd. a few blocks west of Western. That is the place that inspired him to write the song "Piano Man".

A talented musician. There was a thread here about him playing at that bar.
//www.city-data.com/forum/los-a...-la-story.html

[nmnita]

Originally Posted by Bert_from_back_East

I read somewhere that Los Angeles was the whitest, most Protestant major city in the entire country at the 1960 US Census. That really caught me by surprise, since LA is probably the least white Protestant major US city in 2017, a little less than 60 years later.

could have been: there were a lot of Roman Catholics with the Mexican population starting to grow and the relatively high number of Italians in parts of the city, but remember, Los Angeles was not a city people from Europe settled and it was a young city compared with the east coast, Chicago and Detroit. I think in the early 50s it was the 5th largest city in America. It may have been the forth, behind Detroit, NY and Chicago.

In our high school graduation class we had one Asian student, he was our class president. His parents owned a small grocery store. We had 1 boy who came to America from Italy after the war; his parents had an Italian restaurant in our little community and we probably had a 1/2 dozen Mexican kids, all from America as far as I can remember.

[Char Fisher]

I was born in the Culver City Hospital in 1949 and then we lived close to the beach in the Venice area. Then when I was about 5yrs old we moved to the Palms area of LA....does anyone remember Palms: Motor Ave,etc....Charnock Rd Elementary School? When I turned 11 years old my parents divorced and my mom and I moved to Culver City to an apartment on Overland Ave. The best memories I have was always something to do...whether it was bicycling on safe streets, making our own skateboards out of old metal skates, taking the bus...two transfers to get to Santa Monica Beach when my best friend and I turned 13 yrs old. We never felt unsafe and sometimes the bus would let us off at Tito's Tacos on Washington Blvd...and we would zip over there to grab a couple of tacos to eat on the next bus. The best freshly made Salsa I have ever had. Drive in movie dates, romantic dinner with my boyfriend at Marina Del Rey, endless walks and sunsets on the beach, and always in Culver City you had soft breezes from the ocean and could actually smell the ocean some days. Summers spent at the Municipal Plunge in Memorial Park in Culver city. Learned to body surf and ride a surboard....no lessons....just bought a used board for $25 when I began working at Baskin & Robbins in Westwood Village at the age of 16....and that is all my friends and I lived for...beach, surfing, and lots of fun! I don't remember smog being a problem at all in CC in the 60's...we always had the breeze and anyone living near the beach...was always clear except for foggy mornings. As I remember it when I got married and moved to the San Fernando Valley/ Tarzana..in the 70's...then it began to settle in that valley. We stayed there for 3 years and then moved to Westlake Village, farther out into Ventura County and there was nothing but clear skies and easy breathing. I loved CA when it was manageable to drive, to breathe, oceans were clean, and people had good paying jobs. That is the CA I want to remember. I have since been back as I now live NC...and when I get off the plane at LAX...and see how run down the airport is....the air is horrible...smells like garbage...I can't wait to get back to the lush greenery and all the trees we have in NC...and thank God everyday that I didn't have to stay in CA to see it go down the tubes. Really does break my heart.

[VintageTrip]

Originally Posted by majoun

Priore, who does the Dumb Angel blog, has written books about the Beach Boys and a book that I just finished reading called "Riot On Sunset Strip" , about youth movements, rock music, nightlife, and the overall sociocultural context in 1960s SoCal, which for those of us like myself were children in the 1960s really does capture what made Los Angeles a magical place at the time. The book focuses on the Strip but covers the entire L.A. area (there's a great deal on East L.A. of that era which even most of the older people on this forum wouldn't have experienced most likely) and even goes as far afield as OC, the IE, Ventura, and SB. As I said in a thread on the California forum, the main thing that seems to have characterized that period which is gone now (besides the good economy of the time) is a shared sense of hope and a shared belief in a better future. One interesting thing about the book for me is that - unlike virtually every adult I knew and my own family when I was a kid, and unlike virtually every history of L.A. in that period - Priore doesn't demonize Sam Yorty. He views Mayor Yorty as a politician who was in a very difficult position not of his choosing due to the changes in L.A. at the time, who greatly valued stability, who had to walk a very thin line trying not to offend various interest groups and powerful figures, and who tried as best he could even if ultimately unsuccessful. This is a view of Yorty that I've never encountered in any other account of L.A. history nor from any people who were adults when he was active in politics. And here I thought the only people who held sympathetic views of Yorty were his own friends and family.

You should see the movie "Riot on Sunset Strip" Soundtrack mainly provided by the Standells. Its Far Out.

[itssunnyhere]

[quote=Cameron Cayman;7685747]Do we have any CD members here who are of age to remember Los Angeles area (or even O.C.) back in the 50's/60's? I have family there and, the times that I have been to visit, I have, of course, only seen the modern day urban, sprawling So.Cal.

I'd be very interested to know what it was like back then, in simpler times, when L.A. and SoCal wasn't so over populated, etc....I'll bet it was totally awesome back then.[/QUOTE

I really enjoyed seeing these pictures of LA in the 50s & 60s.

Thanks for the pictures.

[victorhernandez]

Originally Posted by Ms. Intelligence

After reviewing this thread I can see and understand how your state was once great but this was decades ago. Today Kalufurnya appears to be a pathetic state overun by illegal immigrants, unchecked crime, out of control grafetti, traffic nightmare and just a sorry bunch of American haters who love to protest and cause chaos. I am so glad I don't live in this once great state anymore.

I'm sure you never did.
And California is still the best and most interesting state in the USA by far.
The most beautiful, richest, one of the most progressive, with the best beaches and best lifestyle, always creating the most popular and copied trends...
Sucks for you in Kansas or whatever place you're from to live with that LOL