Hollywood Ups and Downs

1940: The world’s largest serve-yourself record store, Wallichs Music City, opens at 1501 N. Vine. This is the first store to seal record albums in cellophane and put them in display racks for customers. Owner Glenn Wallichs will go on to form Capitol Records with Johnny Mercer and Buddy DeSylva. The store will go out of business in 1978.

1940: L.A. Times publisher Norman Chandler commissions the Hollywood Palladium at 6215 Sunset. Lawrence Welk will appear here weekly for nearly 15 years.

1942: Marilyn Monroe marries her first husband in the Florentine Gardens, at 5951 Hollywood.

1947: Frederick Mellinger moves his lingerie business, Frederick’s of Fifth Avenue, to its new West Coast location, creating Frederick’s of Hollywood.

1949: A windstorm blows down the "H" in the Hollywoodland Sign. The Parks Commission decides to repair the first nine letters only and tear down the rest.

1954: Raymond Chandler’s The Long Goodbye is published. In it, Philip Marlowe drinks gimlets in the backroom of Musso & Frank. Marlowe’s office is Room 615 of the Cahuenga Building, on Hollywood near Ivar. 1954: The $55 million Hollywood Freeway, a.k.a. "the biggest parking lot in the world" (Bob Hope), is completed, connecting the three L.A.s: downtown, Hollywood and the Valley.

1956: The Capitol Records Building, resembling a stack of 45-rpm records, opens as the world’s first circular office building at 1750 Vine.

1958: The Hollywood Improvement Association is formed. ä

1960: Ground is broken for the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Joanne Woodward receives the first pink-terrazzo, bronze-engraved star.

1960: Future Starwood club owner Ed Nash opens a sandwich stand called Beef’s Chuck on Hollywood Boulevard.

1966: Found with a needle still dangling out of his arm, 41-year-old comedian Lenny Bruce dies of a drug overdose at his about-to-be-foreclosed home at 8825 Hollywood.

1966: William Frawley (Fred from I Love Lucy) dies of a heart attack on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

1973: The Hollywood Sign becomes Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument No. 111.

1975: Councilwoman Peggy Stevenson establishes the Revitalize Hollywood Task Force to attempt the turnaround of what has become known as "Sin City."

1976: The task force issues a report stating, "Hollywood is at a crossroads," calls for redevelopment, and recommends that the large gay community living in Hollywood be acknowledged and that law enforcement lessen its hostility toward homosexuals. The Community Redevelopment Agency gives the Revitalize Hollywood Task Force $100,000.

1977: The punk club the Masque opens just south of the boulevard on Cherokee, hosting such groups as the Germs, X and the Go-Go’s.

1978: After the Hollywood Sign’s "O" falls down the hill and an arsonist sets fire to the bottom of the "L," Hugh Hefner and Alice Cooper make significant contributions to help save the sign.

1978: Denis and Beverly Lidtke announce plans for the development ä

of a multimillion-dollar entertainment and production center at the Palace on Vine.

1978: The new Hollywood Sign is unveiled.

1980: Johnny Grant is named the honorary mayor of Hollywood.

1985: The Hollywood Boulevard commercial and entertainment district is officially listed in the National Register of Historic Places to protect the neighborhood’s important buildings and to ensure "that the significance of Hollywood’s past will always be a part of its future."

1986: City officials approve a 1,000-acre area for Hollywood’s redevelopment plans.

1987: During the Iran-Contra hearings, the Hollywood Sign is illegally altered to read "Ollywood." Later in the year, it becomes "Holywood" in honor of Pope John Paul II’s visit.

1988: The Hollywood Guaranty Building, a 12-story Hollywood landmark on the northeast corner of Hollywood and Ivar, where such legends as Charlie Chaplin, Al Jolson and Cecil B. De Mille once had offices, is sold for nearly $5 million to the Church of Scientology.

1991: Pacific Theaters — a division of Walt Disney Co. — restores the El Capitan Theater.

1991: The $48 million Galaxy Mall at Hollywood and Sycamore Street opens in December, featuring the first new movie house built on the boulevard in 50 years.

1991: The Hollywood Farmers’ Market begins to operate Sundays on Ivar between Sunset and Hollywood boulevards.

1993: In response to merchant complaints that drug dealers and prostitutes are driving business (i.e., tourists) away, the CRA hires security guards to patrol a 1.5-mile area of Hollywood Boulevard. The cost is $750,000.

1993: The Screen Actors Guild moves from its location at 7065 Hollywood to a new home on the Miracle Mile.

1994: Construction begins for the Vermont/Hollywood Extension of the Metro Rail Red Line Subway, which will run under Hollywood Boulevard from Vine to Highland. The entire Red Line project is given a budget of $4.5 billion, with the final Hollywood Boulevard station, at Highland and Hollywood, scheduled to open in the year 2000. August 1994: A nine-block stretch of Hollywood Boulevard sinks 9 inches due to water seepage during construction and tunneling for the Metro Rail Red Line.

March 1996: The CRA approves a $2 million loan for the Hollywood Entertainment Museum, which leases 33,000 square feet of space on the lower level of the Hollywood Galaxy Complex to house, among other things, original TV and movie sets and props. 1998: The city begins working to restore some 50 neon signs along Hollywood Boulevard.

December 1998: Frederick’s of Hollywood puts its landmark building at 6608 Hollywood Blvd. up for sale, citing rising real estate prices.