"Capturing scenes of others 'not making it' as well"
July 31, 2014 11:59 AM   Subscribe

Hollywood Streets, 1979-1983 "I went to Hollywood to 'make it', but didn't, and ended up taking pictures of Hollywood, capturing scenes of others 'not making it' as well."
posted by scody (21 comments total) 26 users marked this as a favorite
 
This is how I picture the backgrounds to, like, half of Jaime Hernandez' comics.
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 12:10 PM on July 31, 2014 [7 favorites]


Never been to LA, and it's really something to see how Hollywood really looked compared to my mental picture of it, which is that it was and always has been pretty upscale. (I appreciated the link to the Google street view of Hollywood and Vine for the comparison.) It's also mildly astonishing that they had a porn theater still playing Deep Throat in the late seventies/early eighties.
posted by Halloween Jack at 12:13 PM on July 31, 2014


I put this album on in the background to listen to while I was looking at the pictures.
posted by mogget at 12:15 PM on July 31, 2014 [1 favorite]


Honestly, doesn't look like a whole lot has changed compared to today. Maybe that's just my take though.
posted by dogwalker at 12:25 PM on July 31, 2014


I want more!!!

Really, if someone had photos of Melrose in the early 80's I would pay real money for those. I used to hang out there and would love to be reminded of some of the denizens.

Also, dogwalker - my husband works across the street from the Chinese Theater. So much has changed!!! I mean, just on Cahuenga - what used to be a junkie haven (we had Clean Needles Now there) is now the hippest spot in Hollywood. It's all changed a lot, but it'll all change again.
posted by Sophie1 at 12:30 PM on July 31, 2014


Hollywood has become surprisingly upscale in the last few years. As someone who's lived here for over 30 years I've watched it go from what appears in these photographs to a west coast version of Times Square. Cranes now clutter the skyline as more and more new buildings go up. And many of the houses north of Franklin Ave. are strictly for the Brangelina set. This place was a dump in the 70s and 80s, but current rental rates would suggest otherwise.
posted by gallois at 12:31 PM on July 31, 2014


For some reason, this makes me think of John Cassavetes' Minnie and Moskowitz.
posted by Naberius at 12:51 PM on July 31, 2014 [1 favorite]


Parts of the valley definitely still look like this. These are the scenes from my parents' youth and young adulthood.
posted by Hermione Granger at 12:51 PM on July 31, 2014 [1 favorite]


This is how I picture the backgrounds to, like, half of Jaime Hernandez' comics.

I didn't place the name when I read your comment, but I knew you had to be talking about the person that did Love And Rockets.
posted by sourwookie at 12:52 PM on July 31, 2014 [1 favorite]


They're sub-Winogrand, but they're good sub-Winogrand, which is harder to do than it looks.
posted by yoink at 12:57 PM on July 31, 2014 [2 favorites]


There's a photographer in Hollywood now, Tom Andrews, who takes street photos that you might like to see an update of the same area.

Here's some stuff using a Lomo.

Here's his Flickr.
posted by cell divide at 1:03 PM on July 31, 2014 [2 favorites]


Also, dogwalker - my husband works across the street from the Chinese Theater. So much has changed!!! I mean, just on Cahuenga - what used to be a junkie haven (we had Clean Needles Now there) is now the hippest spot in Hollywood. It's all changed a lot, but it'll all change again.

Your definition of hippest spot is different than mine, I think.

It's funny because aside from the "everyone is vain" lady, the Mann's Chinese photo is the most "nothing's changed much" pic in this set for me.
posted by dogwalker at 1:03 PM on July 31, 2014


I lived in Hollywood for a couple years and still live about a mile from it and go about every day. It's an incredibly varied neighborhood socioeconomically speaking, and not nearly as uniformly upscale as the Hollywood metonymy suggests. The Hills/Beachwood Canyon are still pretty swanky, but everything else not so much.

Hollywood has indeed been pretty cleaned up since the 70s-80s. But then again, I wasn't there, and my conception of the neighborhood back then pretty much comes from The Decline of Western Civilization and Charles Bukowski's 1985 tour of his old East Hollywood neighborhood.
posted by joechip at 1:21 PM on July 31, 2014 [1 favorite]


> I put this album on in the background to listen to while I was looking at the pictures.

Oh yeah? Well I put this song on while I was looking at the pictures.


For me it was this song.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 1:24 PM on July 31, 2014


Still in Hollywood
posted by honestcoyote at 2:51 PM on July 31, 2014 [3 favorites]


Thirty years ago the people begging in front of the Chinese weren't wearing costumes.
posted by brujita at 3:04 PM on July 31, 2014


Don't forget this song!
posted by scody at 3:28 PM on July 31, 2014 [2 favorites]


Down in Hollywood, surely, if only for the increasingly amusing ways Chaka Khan sings "Standing on the corner just waiting for a sucker like you!"

Truly, though, "Down in Hollywood, better hope that you don't run out of gas/ Down in Hollywood, they'll drag you right outta the car and kick your ass" is an irresistible couplet on its own. Somehow, it makes me want to go to there.
posted by hap_hazard at 4:48 PM on July 31, 2014


I think the smog as seen in this shot is probably better these days.
posted by exogenous at 5:29 PM on July 31, 2014


I really enjoyed looking at these. Thanks for posting!
posted by DZ-015 at 5:04 AM on August 1, 2014


Luminous beautiful images, capturing the everyday in the middle of a dream place, making it look so pretty and so normal. Scuffed edges, melamine colours, rust, resilience. "Not making it', not making a dream, tied to bright reality. From this distance, looks like an achievement. Loved these pictures.
posted by glasseyes at 3:35 AM on August 3, 2014 [1 favorite]


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