PRIME / MB , Thanks for confirming that times were so much different back then.
Sometimes I feel that those good old days are merely a figment of my imagination ..... but I think that these younger GetBiggers will be feeling likewise about thetr "good old days'" as time progresses.
The first month I got my California Driver's License, I took my dad's car (a prime and spacious '41 Ford, 4-door sedan .... and myself and four of my friends drove down to LA to see if we could crash into one of the major movie studios.
My mom's cousin was big and upcoming movie star back then so we figured we'd just go to work with him one morning.
But he was off on a location shot in Arizona so that 'studio pass' went out the window, so are did our best to sneak into the both Century Fox lot on
PICO(?) ... only to get escorted out with a warding from the gate guard crew..
It was only a few years later when I was a personal guest of the major movie studios with permission to visit any stage I wanted to see.... providing that the red light went off before I entered..
But to get back on track, we could almost drive all the way from San Francisco to Los Angeles with the small change we could always find behind the back seat which was easy to move.
We were young and ran around Hollywood but never had a problem of any sort. And that's when the Hollywood area was booming with bars and nightclubs and theaters and hookers and old guys in suits selling watches that were lined up neatly inside full length overcoats regardless of the summer heat.
I guess that alcohol was a problem back then but there never was a sign of drugs of any type until a a few years later ... and I was smart enough to know the difference and see the changes in many of my associates.
But those few 'peaceful' years turned out to the "lull before the storm", followed soon thereafter by a huge upturn in the cost of living, the importance of drugs (ever smoke a baked banana peel??), and unlimited sexual activity
And the cost of dieting would soon follow.
So it's good to see that someone recalls those good old days.
I carry those remembrances with me and bring them to mind when good friends and associates pass away due to some bad 'stuff' we never even knew existed back then.
When my parents had a little Spanish bungalow on Ilona in West L.A. very near Rancho Golf Course, which was just down the street on Pico from Century Studios, my mom and I would hit State Beach via San Vincente Blvd. There was always that moment when she'd round the last bend and down the hill to the beach that we'd know if the weather was cloudy or had "burned off" yet.
Did you know that the police and I suppose the lifeguards patrolled the beach sometimes measuring the sides of men's swimsuits which had to be either 5" or 7" (can't remember which)? Back then my mom wore a two-piece bathing suit which just barely showed her navel and had a "modesty panel" in the front. She was very daring! There's a lot of chatter about the "thongs" muscle folks wear these days, but bodybuilders were just as brazen in the 1950's, all things considered.
In my dad's business, some of his customers were movie stars. I have a photo of him and Cary Grant standing out by Mr. Grant's pool. My dad was so proud of that photo. He also did work for Judy Garland when she was married to Sid Luft and lived in a big English Tutor style mansion in Holmby Hills. Some of my parent's friends were in the entertainment business too, but as writers, set decorators, editors and such. I think it is accurate to say we were all a little star struck back then.
My wife and I met when we both worked for Robinson's department store in Beverly Hills. It too was located pretty near Century Studios.
I remember cheap gas. Those were the days. My first car was a 55 Chevrolet Bel Air convertible with a straight 6 engine. That car got me back and forth to the beach many times. By then my parents were living in Encino so the trip was over Sepulveda Canyon or sometimes down to Topanga Canyon. Too bad they didn't keep the home in West L.A. it was a lot handier getting to the beach, although it didn't have a pool like the Encino house did. Pools are okay but the beach rules!
