January 25, 2026 • 32 mins
The historic Hollywood Center Motel was on the verge of being landmarked before a devastating fire tore through the Sunset Boulevard property early January 4 at 4 a.m. We break down what happened, the current state of the site, and what the likely next steps could be. Esotouric Tours joins the show to share insight into the motel’s history and preview some of their upcoming tours.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
This is Michael Monks reports on Michael Monks from KFI News.
The Hollywood Center Motel was moving towards being designated a
Historic Cultural Landmark despite being vacant and in bad shape
for years, but then it burned down. The operators of Esoturic,
which offers history and culture tours around La Richard Shave
and Kim Cooper, join us now to talk about it. Richard, Kim, Hello,
(00:27):
do you both? Thanks for coming back on KFI.
Speaker 3 (00:29):
Oh, always a pleasure.
Speaker 4 (00:31):
We'll take us.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
It's always my pleasure to have you both. You're so
well informed about not just the history of Los Angeles
but also the present, and I guess how that could
inform our future. But let's get started by going to Hollywood,
the Hollywood Center Motel. This is a historic property that
seems to have your attention certainly, and it got some
(00:53):
unfortunate attention from the government recently. Let's establish what this
property is.
Speaker 3 (01:00):
Slash was Slash was something completely unique and incredible. And
I actually grew up in Hollywood. I know, not many
people can say that I was born in Hollywood. I
grew up just a sunset boulevard, and for myself and
my cadre of classmates, this was our haunted house. It
was this haunting beautiful. I mean, as a child, I
(01:23):
didn't know what a nineteen oh five Queen Anne House was,
but I knew it was a big, old, spooky, haunted
house surrounded by bungalows with a kidney sheepe pool in
the back. And when I was growing up, it was
still a functioning motel. So it had this Neon sign
the breeze block wall, and like cool people stayed there.
There were a couple of rock and roll hotels in town,
you know, and that was one of them.
Speaker 4 (01:44):
It sounds like I always remember this from my childhood.
I always thought, isn't this like the motel from Psycho?
Speaker 1 (01:54):
And it wasn't.
Speaker 4 (01:54):
But that's what I always thought, because you've got this
this Queen Anne story, Queen Anne House would frame house
surrounded by bungalows and this mid century modern breeze block
wall with this amazing can the cans for the Neon
signage in this late fifties font, and it was just
(02:19):
like what it was so cool and this is so
this is Hollywood.
Speaker 3 (02:23):
It didn't make any sense. I mean what it was was,
this is something that should have been demolished and redeveloped
in the fifties and it wasn't. Instead, they just added
to it and over time that became incredibly cool.
Speaker 1 (02:34):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (02:34):
So it sounds like this place, in spite of its
warm connection to your youth, it's been an issue for
a while. It hasn't had a lot of life inside
of it for some time. So this is something that
I ask a lot of historic preservationists, for those of
us who are just leman in that respect, why does
this property matter?
Speaker 4 (02:54):
Okay?
Speaker 3 (02:54):
So the most important thing to understand about Hollywood Center
Motel is that although it hasn't been operating as hotel
probably for nearly a decade, the owner operators were living
there and it was a house and they lived there,
and they parked cars there, and there seemed to be
some kind of stuff going on with people coming and going,
but it wasn't for the general public. People have a
(03:16):
right if they own a historic structure that is a business,
but it's also a residence. If they don't want to
be in business, they can do that. So, you know,
people would peep over the fence and I'm not the
only person who's like, hey, what's going on in there?
And they never responded, and that's fine, But what no
one realized was that they were going into debt and
they seemed to have lost the property to foreclosure. And
(03:38):
the way that people realized this were there's a process
in the city of Los Angeles. It's fairly new that
if any building over the older than forty years is
going to be demolished, a prominent sign has to be posted,
and this is to give people in the community a
chance to know about it, to object if they think
it's historic. That's what happened with the Maryland row House,
(03:59):
although that signed did go up and that was a
whole other smacgeggy, But in this case, a bunch of
little signs went up saying notice of demolition. And because
this is on sunset, it's so prominent and people stop
every day to take a picture because it's just so
iconic and moody. We started getting alerts from people in
the neighborhood. And what we discovered was that the property
(04:21):
had changed hands off market, with no property listing, no
property photographs, no opportunity for what I've come to find out,
for many people who've been asking over the years, will
you sell me this property to become a new steward
and care for it.
Speaker 2 (04:37):
This process to make something formally historic, not just calling
it that, but actually designating it formally, it is a
lengthy one and it requires a lot of documentation. I mean,
this is a process, and it does involve some maybe
city staff or somebody from a different organization going in,
taking photos, preparing a full report, doing reports on the architecture. Sure,
(05:00):
maybe the people who were connected to it and their
significance and the role that it might play even in
the streetscape. So this was something that appears to have
been underway before this tragic fire. Wish we'll get to
why should this property be going through that process of
being designated a landmark in the city of Los Angeles.
Speaker 3 (05:22):
Well, Hollywood Heritage produced this nomination, and some could argue
they wish they had done that many years ago before
it was an issue where someone wanted to tear it down.
And the new owner, by the way, doesn't have a project.
They don't want to tear it down for dense new housing.
They just want to get rid of it because it's
an attractive nuisance. And that was kind of heartbreaking, but
(05:43):
the nomination that was produced gave a lot of reasons
why the history of something a house that predates Hollywood
being absorbed into the city of Los Angeles, when Hollywood
was its own city, a city of gardens and churches,
and before the movie people got here, it was actually
a very peaceful, quiet place with a lot of interesting
(06:03):
intellectuals and retirees from the Midwest. I mean, it's a
different Los Angeles, a different southern California. And then over time,
you know that you add the commercial component, you put
the bungalows around in order to have some income property,
and then you're like, let's just have a motel. We're
in the heart of Hollywood. You put up a cool sign,
all of that, and the people who came out of
the wood were to testify. So many people are in
(06:25):
love with this, and I think this is important. Yeah,
the reason that it should be preserved is that every.
Speaker 5 (06:30):
Single unit there was housing, right, it was a motel, right,
And I think that's what needs to go at the
top of the table when people ask why do you
care about this?
Speaker 4 (06:41):
This This was rent, This is rent stabilized housing still
qualified as so we really need to be highly sensitive
to that because historic multifamily affordable housing is I believe
the only thing that's going to save Los Angeles from
its housing crisis. How US crisis right.
Speaker 3 (06:59):
And people say, oh, it's not very dense, Well, actually
it is. It was twenty two units and people double
up and triple up, and it had green space, had
a pool in the back. It was really a nice
place to live. And I'd like to have seen that happening.
Speaker 2 (07:14):
Well, were people living there recently?
Speaker 3 (07:17):
So the most recent people who were living there were,
as far as we can tell, the longtime owners. And
they seem to have lost it to a lender who
had some sort of not a bank, but they had
a relationship with them. And what happened next, and this
is so sad and so troubling and really upsetting, is that,
like so many properties that nobody really want to own,
(07:39):
they want the land, but they don't want the buildings,
this has been left wide open. I have never seen
a property go from sort of genteel decay that looked
good and worked for filming locations shoots to holy moly,
every unit is wide open. All of the stuff that
the former owners left behind is own out on the street,
(08:01):
there's tagging everywhere, fires are starting. I mean, this is
what we call demolition by neglect. The City of Los
Angeles is very bad at managing this. And by the
time the Cultural Heritage Commission heard this hearing on December fourth,
instead of hearing a bunch of people come in and
say this is a really cool place and you should
consider it a landmark, what they heard was, this is
(08:22):
a really cool place, you should consider it a landmark.
And the condition of this property is unacceptable. There will
be nothing left by the time you take a tour
if the property owner is not held account.
Speaker 2 (08:32):
Up next the fire that claimed the motel and basically
put an end to the quest. It designated a Historic
Cultural Landmark. When Michael Monks Reports continues.
Speaker 1 (08:42):
You're listening to KFI Am six forty on demand.
Speaker 2 (08:47):
This is Michael Monks Reports on Michael Monks from KFI News.
Our guests are Richard Shave and Kim Cooper of s
o Touric. They are local historic preservationist historians and they
lead these really amazing tours through Laws Angeles history all
the time. You can search for Sooturic online and find
all of their social media and their website. It's e
(09:07):
SOO t U r C SOO touric. Something really terrible
happened to this property. Forget about these years of neglect
and the questions about its future. All of that seemed
to come to an abrupt end earlier this month when
a massive fire broke out at the Hollywood Center Motel.
There were people trapped inside. You were talking moments ago, Kim,
(09:31):
about people basically having access to it rather than this
genteel decay as you described it, to this wide open
chaos happening on the property and then it erupts into flames.
Take us to that day and what happened there.
Speaker 4 (09:44):
So around four am on Sunday, January fourth, LAPD put
out a call to Los Angeles Fire that there was
a fire at this Queen An the nineteen oh five
two story wood frame residents, which is distinc from a
fire about a month earlier at the southern southwest west
(10:06):
most bungalow on this compound, which took out that bungalow
January four, four am. Eleven engine crews were dispatched it.
It was a big fire, and around six thirty or
seven am a call went out to the heavy Equipment Division.
(10:27):
The Heavy Equipment Division is the name for the division
that has the giant back home And Kim, I think
you understand this narrative better because we've been getting we've
been parsing, perusing the calls out in this between four
am and eight am on the pop.
Speaker 3 (10:45):
Yeah, I mean, just to jump in, I'll remind you
that it was it was a Sunday, and as soon
as this property was taken under landmark consideration, the flag
went into the city system and anyone that's called that
this address knows this has historic preservation review. There can
be no demolition, no work at all can be done
until the second hearing is held and they determine if
(11:07):
they're going to send it on to full city Council
as a potential landmark or they're going to say, eh,
you know, we toured it, it isn't worth it. And
that's a process and a lot of people are invested
in that process. But this fire broke out and the
call that went out to the fire department said this
isn't a building that is burned. Previously that wasn't true.
But when they arrived, what they found was people were yelling,
(11:27):
they were inside and there was a fire in this
two story Queen Anne house. Fire departments seemed to be
a little scared of what they might find inside, and
they chose to simply put a ladder up, and they
yelled for someone to get themselves out, and a man
broke a window and he came down the ladder and
he was I think badly injured, because there was By
the time we got there, just around noon, there was
(11:49):
blood and a T shirt on the sidewalk and there
was clear that someone had gotten hurt there, but the
fire department had not gone inside. This man was taken
away in an ambulance. The fire was out. I've seen
video footage a stringer named ax Sam News was on
the scene shooting the whole thing, and they're just standing
around and there's smoke, and I'm like, oh, well, at
least the house survived. And then suddenly two huge blasts
(12:12):
of flame come from the second story and this burns
hot and it burns long, and it takes several minutes
for the firefighters to realize what's going on, because it
looked as if they thought they had put this fire out,
but there was something else happening while this fire burned,
and it burned for gosh, almost twenty minutes uniform police
officers showed up to watch. They're in the shot as well.
(12:34):
I mean, there's just a lot going on. And ultimately
they put the fire out and the house is still standing.
And we've seen this again and again with these good
old houses built of redwood. Redwood is dense, it's strong,
and a house can burn and still hold its shape
and be restored.
Speaker 4 (12:54):
But that happened because wood has inherently different properties than
steal when heated. Yeah, so Kim, what happens. Richard Gee
is head of the heavy Equipment division. He gets called
about six thirty am and they roll on to site
about eight am with the bulldozer and.
Speaker 3 (13:10):
So well with this backoe, and we've talkened to him before,
you know, I mean, he's he's a really dedicated firefighter
and he knows his stuff. But when he gets called out,
I mean, it's because they've determined something is dangerous. So
I'm just wondering why. Because the house was standing, it
was step back from the street, it was protected under
the landmark designation. The Cultural Heritage Commissioners, well, they were
(13:34):
about to tour it, except Karen Bass just removed the
commissioner who was most interested in the problem.
Speaker 2 (13:38):
I know you're you're pretty upset. I know this is
kind of getting into the weeds for folks, but there
is no no, no, no, no, no no. That's okay. That's
exactly what I'm asking you for. And that's why your
guest here is because you're so knowledgeable, not just about
the properties in question, but a lot of the inner
workings at city Hall. In fact, as we're recording this,
I know that you've been documenting the councilman current price case.
You've been sitting in court all day like proper journalists, frankly,
(14:00):
and we appreciate you for that, but I did want
to give you a moment to expand upon that thought. Actually,
because we mentioned the long arduous process of getting a
property named as a historic cultural landmark. This was in
that process. One of the pieces of that is going
before the city's Cultural Heritage Commission and this board basically,
(14:20):
which is the step before it goes to city Council
for final approval. These are people who are appointed to
those seats, and you've been upset that somebody was not
reappointed who had a particular interest in this Hollywood Center
motel case.
Speaker 3 (14:35):
So I was very surprised that right after making the
motion to take this under consideration, Gail Cannard, who has
sat on this commission for sixteen years. As long as
we've been involved in this, we have seen her very
thoughtfully take properties under advisement. She doesn't always think they
deserve landmarking, but she always has something thoughtful to say.
(14:56):
Her father was an architect, she grew up in the industry.
She cares about Los Angeles, and she, hearing people testify
on December four about how this was housing, said I
think it's really important that this property is housing. And
I know this property very well. I'm from Hollywood, and
I was like, oh, I'm so glad that she's going
to be one of the two commissioners who goes and
(15:17):
does the walkthrough, because you have to be kind of
sensitive to be able to look at a place that
is at this point kind of trash because waters have
been going in and out and see what its potential is.
But Karen Bass, who is the mayor and has the
authority to take people on and off this commission, she
nominated a new commissioner and without even giving Gail Cannard
(15:37):
an opportunity to say goodbye to her colleagues and the community.
After sixteen years, She's off and that was kind of
a surprise. I don't know if there's any connection.
Speaker 2 (15:46):
So what does the future hold for the site of
the Hollywood Center Motel Now that it's burned and suffered,
demolition will continue With Richard Shave and Kim Cooper from
ESO Touric.
Speaker 1 (15:55):
You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand.
Speaker 2 (16:00):
This is Michael Monks reports on Michael Monks from KFI News.
The Hollywood Center Motel was a typical mid century building
used in numerous movies and TV shows, and though it
had fallen into disrepair over the course of many years,
preservationists were working to designate it as a historic Cultural
landmark and then it burned. Him Cooper and Richard Shave
(16:21):
from Esoturic, which offers history and culture tours around Los Angeles,
are with us. So what happens now for this property?
It was already in the midst of this process. It's
very curious that this fire. Obviously I'm not suggesting any conspiracy,
but it's just very unfortunate timing that this fire happens
as it's in the midst of this, it's getting all
this attention. And then there's a fire and I guess
(16:43):
a little bit of post fire demolition taking place on
a site where none of this stuff is supposed to
be happening. What's the state of this property now?
Speaker 4 (16:51):
Right? So, just to backtrack just a few hours in
this narrative, Claul goes at about four am, LAFD arrives,
a of engines, Heavy Equipment Division arrives, Someone above Heavy
Equipment Division makes the decision that this structure is unsound
and cannot stand, and it is demolished by the Heavy
(17:14):
Laft Heavy Equipment Division by eleven am, which is about
when we arrive, and it's left in rubble. And the
Cultural Heritage Commission arrives two days later for their site visit,
expecting as the new year is rung in, they're expecting
an extant nineteen oh five structure and there's rubble, and
(17:37):
so what happens from there camp well.
Speaker 3 (17:39):
I mean, and then so there's these incredible signs that
are on the breeze block wall, and you know, one
of them is quite tall, but most of them are
simply bolted to the wall. They've been there since the
mid nineteen fifties and after the fire, which got a
lot of news coverage, and you know, some bloggers and
tour guides who not asked, who said, oh, Hollywood Center
(18:00):
Motel has been destroyed, which it wasn't. I mean, it's
a large compound. One portion of it was torn down.
I think that people who just thought the signs were
on their way to the dump decided to sort of
rescue them, and so bits have been disappearing, and it's
very troubling because as of today, there's almost nothing left
of the character defining signage because there's no one there
(18:24):
to stop them, and people feel entitled to do it,
and so day by day folks are sending us photographs
and it's worse every photo we get.
Speaker 2 (18:33):
Does that end the quest for historic cultural landmark status?
Speaker 1 (18:37):
Yes?
Speaker 4 (18:38):
So when Kim says all the character defining features, almost
all of them are gone, what she means is the
nineteen oh five house has been demolished by heavy equipment
et a city. The character defining features of the of
the mid century breeze block wall with the signage for
the location.
Speaker 3 (18:57):
We're all still there.
Speaker 4 (18:59):
So what we're trying to say is that they are
all these awful things that have happened, and this conspiracy
of coincidences and the confederacy of dunces that exist in
the city have conspired. And if you ask us for
a very high level, simple answer to the question whose
(19:21):
fault is this, Hugo Soto Martinez.
Speaker 2 (19:25):
Now this is the councilman who represents Halloween representative.
Speaker 1 (19:29):
You go, call, you go.
Speaker 4 (19:32):
Hugo's office has been getting outreach from preservationists for at
least nine months about this, if not earlier. This has
been on the table affordable housing RSO units. It's RSO units,
not affordable. There are a RSO units landmark status in
the queue before the landmark application. Serious issues with vake
(19:53):
with with vagrancy trespassing. The trespass order was only put
up days ago.
Speaker 3 (20:00):
It's really easy to say, oh, you know, there's so
many homeless people with nowhere to go and we can't
keep them out, But that's just not true. You know,
the LAEDBS is completely capable of showing up and securing
a property if a property owner won't do it themselves,
and there could be policies by which there are well.
City of Santa Monica just initiated a vacant Building ordinance
(20:23):
that just starts this year, and they have very strict rules.
You can't use plywood to board up a building. You
need to put you know, glass that you can see
into that you can't break, so people can check and
see that no one's inside. And if you don't do that,
there are cascading consequences and fines and properties can even
be taken away if you're serious about not having your
(20:44):
entire city be blighted. And let's not even get started
with what was in that building that burned that everyone breathed.
It's just not right. I mean, it doesn't have to
be this way. These are good buildings, these are good places.
Folks care about them. The hearing is still happening on
February fifth, will be at City Hall along with our
preservation Palace from Hollywood Heritage. And I think a lot
(21:05):
of people who care. And I know what the Cultural
Heritage Commission's going to say, there's not enough there to
save and our answer, our answer to that is, of
course there is. We're hearing all the time about houses
being moved to Alta Dina. Let's move a house to
where El Nido the nest was a beautiful big house,
and let's turn this place back into what visionary Angelinos
(21:29):
who want to buy this place see it as, which
is a really cool rock and roll in where Jannis
Joplin and cap'n Beefhart and the Buffalo Springfield hung out,
which appears in the Rockford Files, and Perry Mason, and
all that signage that was stolen can be recreated, and
the bungalows, which are all screwed up, can be cleaned up.
It's really kind of heaven on earth in the heart
(21:51):
of Hollywood. And I don't want all this talk about
how screwed up and blighted it is to get in
the way from you know, the fire is the greatest
thing that ever happened. I finally got to walk the
parcel and it's the most beautiful thing I've seen in
Hollywood in a.
Speaker 4 (22:04):
Long long time. So, Michael, I don't want people to
think this is an isolated incident. You can go literally
every block in Hollywood has this exact problem. We just
twenty twenty five. Was one of the salient problems of
twenty twenty five for us was situations like this in
(22:24):
East Hollywood on Taft and Wilton and Streets just a
few blocks to the east and west of those two streets.
This is going on everywhere in Hollywood and in the city.
And again it's the council district where whatever council district
atten it is in, it is the council district member's
fault that these things fall through the cracks. People have
(22:47):
to be more proactive and the council office has to
be do a better job of doing outreach to their
constituents and protecting the assets which are historically significant multifamily
affordable housing.
Speaker 3 (23:01):
And beyond that, I mean, we're in the tourism business.
People come from all over the world and this is
what they want to see. They want to see things
that they've seen in the movies and on TV. They
want to see things that aren't like what's at home.
And a Victorian or early in Edwardian house in the
middle of a nineteen twenties bungalow court with a grooving
(23:21):
neon sign that's been in La confidential, I mean, people
want to look at it, they want to take a picture.
If they could stay there overnight, they certainly would. It's
so cool and it's so much cooler than a vacant
lot or anything they could propose there.
Speaker 2 (23:35):
Esoturic has a slew of cool tours coming up, sure
to catch your fancy exploring the history and culture of
Los Angeles. We will hit the highlights when Michael Monks
Reports continues.
Speaker 1 (23:47):
You're listening to KFI Am six forty on demand.
Speaker 2 (23:52):
This is Michael Monks Reports on Michael Monks from KFI News.
Our guest are Richard Shave and Kim Cooper of Esoturic
Tours into the Secret Heart of Los Angeles. So so
TOURK is spelled e s O t O your ic.
You can search online for their website and their social media.
Not only are they a wealth of information for current
events in general in the city of Los Angeles, but
(24:12):
very specifically those related to history, historic preservation, architecture, and
neighborhood character. And not only are they great at talking
about it on the radio with me when they're so
kind to give me some of their time, they're great
at doing it out on the street. That is the
main purpose of their businesses so TOURK, and they have
some really interesting tours coming up. I've been on one
(24:32):
of their tours and I can't recommend them enough. I'm
looking forward to a lot of these things. I hope
I can get to on your list. But let's start
with some of the stuff that's coming up. You're taking
folks to Alvarado Terrace and South Bonnie Bray tracked time
travel trip walking towards a mouthful.
Speaker 4 (24:51):
What is it?
Speaker 3 (24:53):
It is kind of a mouthful, isn't it? But I
felt like it is time travel. You know, there are
neighborhoods south of the Arthur Park in the West Lake
slash Pico Union District. They're on the National Register and
they're off the main drag. But if you've driven around
that neighborhood, you've taken Pico, You've taken Olympic. If you've
never turned off those main drags, you don't realize that
(25:16):
there are Victorian Edwardian time capsules, incredible, sweet little blocks
that will blow your mind and if you walk through them,
you can really experiencing experience some the way that Old
Angelina's did.
Speaker 2 (25:30):
And so that's coming up on January thirty first, Richard,
you're taking folks into the Hollywood Noir Walking tour. On
February seventh and.
Speaker 4 (25:40):
Kim's birthday, were giving our second run of our new
tour out of the Hollywood Western Neighborhood, East Hollywood, that's
the seventh of February, and it's a tour about film noir.
We really use Double Indemnity as the the backbone for
(26:00):
this tour, the storyline of the film and the making
of the film, and the forces that acted on the
novel and the film, like Clifford Clinton, the Cafeteria Kid,
one of the great early reformers. And we just end
up in Los Fela's on Franklin and Franklin Boulevard, Los
(26:22):
Fela's Boulevard down to Hollywood Boulevard, and the last third
of this tour is just just this wonderful slosh through
Hollywood Boulevard in East Hollywood with the Residency, with the hotel,
the Hollywood Downtown are.
Speaker 5 (26:39):
There.
Speaker 3 (26:39):
There are locations associated with the Black Dolia Murder down there.
There's a black Magic coven down there. There's there yes,
Schidro Slasher k what really?
Speaker 4 (26:55):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (26:57):
Oh yeah, that's right. I mean, we keep putting we
keep putting stuff together, and then you know, you've got locations.
I forgot you out. You've got There used to be
a miniature golf course in what's now one of these
really great tigh Town mini malls. That Jumbo's Clown Room.
It's a layered history, but I think the key to
the whole thing is that you know everybody, everybody who's
(27:17):
keeping an eye on city Hall. They complain about the corruption.
They're like, what do you do? And I think the
only way that you can have any sense that we're
going to get through this in la is going to
be okay again is to look through the past. And
Clifford Clinton, who ran this cafeteria downtown, Clifton's Cafeteria, he
and his friends read a story in the Reader's Digest.
(27:39):
Because they were busy people, they weren't reading books, you know,
and the Reader's Digest there was a story and it said, Hey,
I'm an old circus hand named Riley Cooper, and I
know everything there is to know about how cities work.
And if you see these things in your city, you
can be sure that your city is corrupt you should
do something about. And so all these like business people
(28:01):
got together and they're like, well, we see all that stuff,
like you can't walk down the street without a taxi
driver saying do you want a woman? You can't buy
a newspaper at a news stand in Hollywood without the
guy saying, hey, do you want to play some bet
on a pony? So they knew that there must be
something dirty in city Hall and they decided to do
something about it.
Speaker 2 (28:19):
Well, there has been for a long time. And I
know that you've got all of those stories. But you know,
here at KFI, I talk a lot about city Hall
and what's going on at LA City Hall. And as
I was learning about Los Angeles City government, I'm a transplant,
but I've been here three years now, and I did
a bunch of research on the history of the city
government and the building itself and the people who serve there.
Speaker 1 (28:39):
Y'all.
Speaker 2 (28:40):
It's like there hasn't been a single decade since I
guess nineteen twenty five when this form of government started,
that people weren't hauled out of there in handcuffs.
Speaker 3 (28:49):
And you have to remember that because it's the only
thing that gives us hope when they're being so nasty
to you.
Speaker 4 (28:54):
No, there's one more thing that gives you hope. And
we bring this up on the Hollywood No Wors Tour
in our film Noir, our Downtown La Film no Tour
at least captains in the Los Angeles Police Department don't
plant bombs. That's five citizens' homes to let them know
that they're barking up the wrong.
Speaker 2 (29:11):
That's fair. Well, I hope that's covered on tour. I'll
tell you before we get off of here. You've got
a Valentine's Day tour wish. I'm going to have to
join because this is a neighborhood that I'm fascinated by.
I've seen an occasional listing on Zillo and I had
to look up what this place is and I've got
to join you all for all of the history Angelino
Heights and Carol Avenue time travel walking tour. These are
(29:35):
the Victorian homes that you really don't expect to see
in Los Angeles. What can we expect on that one?
Speaker 3 (29:42):
Right?
Speaker 4 (29:42):
And again Victorian? We sometimes call them Queen Anne, like
I've been calling Elnito in Hollywood. This tour is really
important because the Los Angeles is about to host the Olympics,
and the narrative of this architectural historical walk on this
beautifully preserved nineteenth centuryighborhood is all about This neighborhood is
(30:02):
still here because of the elected officials and appointed officials
responsible for the nineteen eighty four Olympics making some very
good decisions. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (30:12):
I mean the incredible thing when you walk down Carol Avenue,
you're like, oh wow, this is like Bunker Hill. It's
a perfect Victorian neighborhood. Well, if you walk down that
street in nineteen seventy, you wouldn't see what you see now.
There were a lot of empty spaces, there were things
that have been demolished, there were parcels that were quite decayed,
there were you know, it was not what it is now.
(30:33):
And as the Olympics were coming up, policymakers in the
city and you know, we had a redevelopment agency back then,
and also the council president was the council member John Ferraros,
so they had a lot of juice. They said, you know,
we're going to come up with a few things, maybe
ten things that'll make people come to Los Angeles for
the Olympics and go, wow, the city has really got
(30:54):
it together. And one of those things was we're going
to create a historic preservation overlay zone. We're going to
create tax incentives for people to move houses to the
empty spaces on this lot. We're going to underground the
electricity and put up old fashioned street lights and gollies.
Secondary benefit. Now suddenly we have a filming location. If
(31:14):
you've seen the thriller video, you've seen Carol Avenue.
Speaker 2 (31:17):
Well, let's end this on that happy note. How about that.
We've got plenty of pain to talk about in Los Angeles,
that's for sure. But that was a good one. Lots
more tours coming up. If you're not familiar with SOO tour,
get familiar with them. They are deeply knowledgeable about La past, present,
and probably future. S O touric is e s O
t o u ric. You can go to sootur dot
(31:40):
com or just search foresoturk online and you're sure to
find their website, their blog, and all of their social
media a wealth of knowledge. Richard Shave Kim Cooper, thanks
to both of you for the generosity of your time.
Yet again, I hope that if I hope to see
you on February fourteenth for the Angelino Heightstore. If not,
I hope we get together again to talk about other
issues facing the city of La.
Speaker 4 (32:00):
Michael will see you soon. Thank you, Thank you.
Speaker 3 (32:03):
We're definitely going to see you on Carol Avenue. You're
gonna love it.
Speaker 2 (32:06):
And we'll catch you next Saturday at eight pm for
another edition of Michael Monks Reports on Michael Monks on
KFI AM six forty
Speaker 1 (32:15):
KFI AM six forty on demand
You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
This is Michael Monks reports on Michael Monks from KFI News.
The Hollywood Center Motel was moving towards being designated a
Historic Cultural Landmark despite being vacant and in bad shape
for years, but then it burned down. The operators of Esoturic,
which offers history and culture tours around La Richard Shave
and Kim Cooper, join us now to talk about it. Richard, Kim, Hello,
(00:27):
do you both? Thanks for coming back on KFI.
Speaker 3 (00:29):
Oh, always a pleasure.
Speaker 4 (00:31):
We'll take us.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
It's always my pleasure to have you both. You're so
well informed about not just the history of Los Angeles
but also the present, and I guess how that could
inform our future. But let's get started by going to Hollywood,
the Hollywood Center Motel. This is a historic property that
seems to have your attention certainly, and it got some
(00:53):
unfortunate attention from the government recently. Let's establish what this
property is.
Speaker 3 (01:00):
Slash was Slash was something completely unique and incredible. And
I actually grew up in Hollywood. I know, not many
people can say that I was born in Hollywood. I
grew up just a sunset boulevard, and for myself and
my cadre of classmates, this was our haunted house. It
was this haunting beautiful. I mean, as a child, I
(01:23):
didn't know what a nineteen oh five Queen Anne House was,
but I knew it was a big, old, spooky, haunted
house surrounded by bungalows with a kidney sheepe pool in
the back. And when I was growing up, it was
still a functioning motel. So it had this Neon sign
the breeze block wall, and like cool people stayed there.
There were a couple of rock and roll hotels in town,
you know, and that was one of them.
Speaker 4 (01:44):
It sounds like I always remember this from my childhood.
I always thought, isn't this like the motel from Psycho?
Speaker 1 (01:54):
And it wasn't.
Speaker 4 (01:54):
But that's what I always thought, because you've got this
this Queen Anne story, Queen Anne House would frame house
surrounded by bungalows and this mid century modern breeze block
wall with this amazing can the cans for the Neon
signage in this late fifties font, and it was just
(02:19):
like what it was so cool and this is so
this is Hollywood.
Speaker 3 (02:23):
It didn't make any sense. I mean what it was was,
this is something that should have been demolished and redeveloped
in the fifties and it wasn't. Instead, they just added
to it and over time that became incredibly cool.
Speaker 1 (02:34):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (02:34):
So it sounds like this place, in spite of its
warm connection to your youth, it's been an issue for
a while. It hasn't had a lot of life inside
of it for some time. So this is something that
I ask a lot of historic preservationists, for those of
us who are just leman in that respect, why does
this property matter?
Speaker 4 (02:54):
Okay?
Speaker 3 (02:54):
So the most important thing to understand about Hollywood Center
Motel is that although it hasn't been operating as hotel
probably for nearly a decade, the owner operators were living
there and it was a house and they lived there,
and they parked cars there, and there seemed to be
some kind of stuff going on with people coming and going,
but it wasn't for the general public. People have a
(03:16):
right if they own a historic structure that is a business,
but it's also a residence. If they don't want to
be in business, they can do that. So, you know,
people would peep over the fence and I'm not the
only person who's like, hey, what's going on in there?
And they never responded, and that's fine, But what no
one realized was that they were going into debt and
they seemed to have lost the property to foreclosure. And
(03:38):
the way that people realized this were there's a process
in the city of Los Angeles. It's fairly new that
if any building over the older than forty years is
going to be demolished, a prominent sign has to be posted,
and this is to give people in the community a
chance to know about it, to object if they think
it's historic. That's what happened with the Maryland row House,
(03:59):
although that signed did go up and that was a
whole other smacgeggy, But in this case, a bunch of
little signs went up saying notice of demolition. And because
this is on sunset, it's so prominent and people stop
every day to take a picture because it's just so
iconic and moody. We started getting alerts from people in
the neighborhood. And what we discovered was that the property
(04:21):
had changed hands off market, with no property listing, no
property photographs, no opportunity for what I've come to find out,
for many people who've been asking over the years, will
you sell me this property to become a new steward
and care for it.
Speaker 2 (04:37):
This process to make something formally historic, not just calling
it that, but actually designating it formally, it is a
lengthy one and it requires a lot of documentation. I mean,
this is a process, and it does involve some maybe
city staff or somebody from a different organization going in,
taking photos, preparing a full report, doing reports on the architecture. Sure,
(05:00):
maybe the people who were connected to it and their
significance and the role that it might play even in
the streetscape. So this was something that appears to have
been underway before this tragic fire. Wish we'll get to
why should this property be going through that process of
being designated a landmark in the city of Los Angeles.
Speaker 3 (05:22):
Well, Hollywood Heritage produced this nomination, and some could argue
they wish they had done that many years ago before
it was an issue where someone wanted to tear it down.
And the new owner, by the way, doesn't have a project.
They don't want to tear it down for dense new housing.
They just want to get rid of it because it's
an attractive nuisance. And that was kind of heartbreaking, but
(05:43):
the nomination that was produced gave a lot of reasons
why the history of something a house that predates Hollywood
being absorbed into the city of Los Angeles, when Hollywood
was its own city, a city of gardens and churches,
and before the movie people got here, it was actually
a very peaceful, quiet place with a lot of interesting
(06:03):
intellectuals and retirees from the Midwest. I mean, it's a
different Los Angeles, a different southern California. And then over time,
you know that you add the commercial component, you put
the bungalows around in order to have some income property,
and then you're like, let's just have a motel. We're
in the heart of Hollywood. You put up a cool sign,
all of that, and the people who came out of
the wood were to testify. So many people are in
(06:25):
love with this, and I think this is important. Yeah,
the reason that it should be preserved is that every.
Speaker 5 (06:30):
Single unit there was housing, right, it was a motel, right,
And I think that's what needs to go at the
top of the table when people ask why do you
care about this?
Speaker 4 (06:41):
This This was rent, This is rent stabilized housing still
qualified as so we really need to be highly sensitive
to that because historic multifamily affordable housing is I believe
the only thing that's going to save Los Angeles from
its housing crisis. How US crisis right.
Speaker 3 (06:59):
And people say, oh, it's not very dense, Well, actually
it is. It was twenty two units and people double
up and triple up, and it had green space, had
a pool in the back. It was really a nice
place to live. And I'd like to have seen that happening.
Speaker 2 (07:14):
Well, were people living there recently?
Speaker 3 (07:17):
So the most recent people who were living there were,
as far as we can tell, the longtime owners. And
they seem to have lost it to a lender who
had some sort of not a bank, but they had
a relationship with them. And what happened next, and this
is so sad and so troubling and really upsetting, is that,
like so many properties that nobody really want to own,
(07:39):
they want the land, but they don't want the buildings,
this has been left wide open. I have never seen
a property go from sort of genteel decay that looked
good and worked for filming locations shoots to holy moly,
every unit is wide open. All of the stuff that
the former owners left behind is own out on the street,
(08:01):
there's tagging everywhere, fires are starting. I mean, this is
what we call demolition by neglect. The City of Los
Angeles is very bad at managing this. And by the
time the Cultural Heritage Commission heard this hearing on December fourth,
instead of hearing a bunch of people come in and
say this is a really cool place and you should
consider it a landmark, what they heard was, this is
(08:22):
a really cool place, you should consider it a landmark.
And the condition of this property is unacceptable. There will
be nothing left by the time you take a tour
if the property owner is not held account.
Speaker 2 (08:32):
Up next the fire that claimed the motel and basically
put an end to the quest. It designated a Historic
Cultural Landmark. When Michael Monks Reports continues.
Speaker 1 (08:42):
You're listening to KFI Am six forty on demand.
Speaker 2 (08:47):
This is Michael Monks Reports on Michael Monks from KFI News.
Our guests are Richard Shave and Kim Cooper of s
o Touric. They are local historic preservationist historians and they
lead these really amazing tours through Laws Angeles history all
the time. You can search for Sooturic online and find
all of their social media and their website. It's e
(09:07):
SOO t U r C SOO touric. Something really terrible
happened to this property. Forget about these years of neglect
and the questions about its future. All of that seemed
to come to an abrupt end earlier this month when
a massive fire broke out at the Hollywood Center Motel.
There were people trapped inside. You were talking moments ago, Kim,
(09:31):
about people basically having access to it rather than this
genteel decay as you described it, to this wide open
chaos happening on the property and then it erupts into flames.
Take us to that day and what happened there.
Speaker 4 (09:44):
So around four am on Sunday, January fourth, LAPD put
out a call to Los Angeles Fire that there was
a fire at this Queen An the nineteen oh five
two story wood frame residents, which is distinc from a
fire about a month earlier at the southern southwest west
(10:06):
most bungalow on this compound, which took out that bungalow
January four, four am. Eleven engine crews were dispatched it.
It was a big fire, and around six thirty or
seven am a call went out to the heavy Equipment Division.
(10:27):
The Heavy Equipment Division is the name for the division
that has the giant back home And Kim, I think
you understand this narrative better because we've been getting we've
been parsing, perusing the calls out in this between four
am and eight am on the pop.
Speaker 3 (10:45):
Yeah, I mean, just to jump in, I'll remind you
that it was it was a Sunday, and as soon
as this property was taken under landmark consideration, the flag
went into the city system and anyone that's called that
this address knows this has historic preservation review. There can
be no demolition, no work at all can be done
until the second hearing is held and they determine if
(11:07):
they're going to send it on to full city Council
as a potential landmark or they're going to say, eh,
you know, we toured it, it isn't worth it. And
that's a process and a lot of people are invested
in that process. But this fire broke out and the
call that went out to the fire department said this
isn't a building that is burned. Previously that wasn't true.
But when they arrived, what they found was people were yelling,
(11:27):
they were inside and there was a fire in this
two story Queen Anne house. Fire departments seemed to be
a little scared of what they might find inside, and
they chose to simply put a ladder up, and they
yelled for someone to get themselves out, and a man
broke a window and he came down the ladder and
he was I think badly injured, because there was By
the time we got there, just around noon, there was
(11:49):
blood and a T shirt on the sidewalk and there
was clear that someone had gotten hurt there, but the
fire department had not gone inside. This man was taken
away in an ambulance. The fire was out. I've seen
video footage a stringer named ax Sam News was on
the scene shooting the whole thing, and they're just standing
around and there's smoke, and I'm like, oh, well, at
least the house survived. And then suddenly two huge blasts
(12:12):
of flame come from the second story and this burns
hot and it burns long, and it takes several minutes
for the firefighters to realize what's going on, because it
looked as if they thought they had put this fire out,
but there was something else happening while this fire burned,
and it burned for gosh, almost twenty minutes uniform police
officers showed up to watch. They're in the shot as well.
(12:34):
I mean, there's just a lot going on. And ultimately
they put the fire out and the house is still standing.
And we've seen this again and again with these good
old houses built of redwood. Redwood is dense, it's strong,
and a house can burn and still hold its shape
and be restored.
Speaker 4 (12:54):
But that happened because wood has inherently different properties than
steal when heated. Yeah, so Kim, what happens. Richard Gee
is head of the heavy Equipment division. He gets called
about six thirty am and they roll on to site
about eight am with the bulldozer and.
Speaker 3 (13:10):
So well with this backoe, and we've talkened to him before,
you know, I mean, he's he's a really dedicated firefighter
and he knows his stuff. But when he gets called out,
I mean, it's because they've determined something is dangerous. So
I'm just wondering why. Because the house was standing, it
was step back from the street, it was protected under
the landmark designation. The Cultural Heritage Commissioners, well, they were
(13:34):
about to tour it, except Karen Bass just removed the
commissioner who was most interested in the problem.
Speaker 2 (13:38):
I know you're you're pretty upset. I know this is
kind of getting into the weeds for folks, but there
is no no, no, no, no, no no. That's okay. That's
exactly what I'm asking you for. And that's why your
guest here is because you're so knowledgeable, not just about
the properties in question, but a lot of the inner
workings at city Hall. In fact, as we're recording this,
I know that you've been documenting the councilman current price case.
You've been sitting in court all day like proper journalists, frankly,
(14:00):
and we appreciate you for that, but I did want
to give you a moment to expand upon that thought. Actually,
because we mentioned the long arduous process of getting a
property named as a historic cultural landmark. This was in
that process. One of the pieces of that is going
before the city's Cultural Heritage Commission and this board basically,
(14:20):
which is the step before it goes to city Council
for final approval. These are people who are appointed to
those seats, and you've been upset that somebody was not
reappointed who had a particular interest in this Hollywood Center
motel case.
Speaker 3 (14:35):
So I was very surprised that right after making the
motion to take this under consideration, Gail Cannard, who has
sat on this commission for sixteen years. As long as
we've been involved in this, we have seen her very
thoughtfully take properties under advisement. She doesn't always think they
deserve landmarking, but she always has something thoughtful to say.
(14:56):
Her father was an architect, she grew up in the industry.
She cares about Los Angeles, and she, hearing people testify
on December four about how this was housing, said I
think it's really important that this property is housing. And
I know this property very well. I'm from Hollywood, and
I was like, oh, I'm so glad that she's going
to be one of the two commissioners who goes and
(15:17):
does the walkthrough, because you have to be kind of
sensitive to be able to look at a place that
is at this point kind of trash because waters have
been going in and out and see what its potential is.
But Karen Bass, who is the mayor and has the
authority to take people on and off this commission, she
nominated a new commissioner and without even giving Gail Cannard
(15:37):
an opportunity to say goodbye to her colleagues and the community.
After sixteen years, She's off and that was kind of
a surprise. I don't know if there's any connection.
Speaker 2 (15:46):
So what does the future hold for the site of
the Hollywood Center Motel Now that it's burned and suffered,
demolition will continue With Richard Shave and Kim Cooper from
ESO Touric.
Speaker 1 (15:55):
You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand.
Speaker 2 (16:00):
This is Michael Monks reports on Michael Monks from KFI News.
The Hollywood Center Motel was a typical mid century building
used in numerous movies and TV shows, and though it
had fallen into disrepair over the course of many years,
preservationists were working to designate it as a historic Cultural
landmark and then it burned. Him Cooper and Richard Shave
(16:21):
from Esoturic, which offers history and culture tours around Los Angeles,
are with us. So what happens now for this property?
It was already in the midst of this process. It's
very curious that this fire. Obviously I'm not suggesting any conspiracy,
but it's just very unfortunate timing that this fire happens
as it's in the midst of this, it's getting all
this attention. And then there's a fire and I guess
(16:43):
a little bit of post fire demolition taking place on
a site where none of this stuff is supposed to
be happening. What's the state of this property now?
Speaker 4 (16:51):
Right? So, just to backtrack just a few hours in
this narrative, Claul goes at about four am, LAFD arrives,
a of engines, Heavy Equipment Division arrives, Someone above Heavy
Equipment Division makes the decision that this structure is unsound
and cannot stand, and it is demolished by the Heavy
(17:14):
Laft Heavy Equipment Division by eleven am, which is about
when we arrive, and it's left in rubble. And the
Cultural Heritage Commission arrives two days later for their site visit,
expecting as the new year is rung in, they're expecting
an extant nineteen oh five structure and there's rubble, and
(17:37):
so what happens from there camp well.
Speaker 3 (17:39):
I mean, and then so there's these incredible signs that
are on the breeze block wall, and you know, one
of them is quite tall, but most of them are
simply bolted to the wall. They've been there since the
mid nineteen fifties and after the fire, which got a
lot of news coverage, and you know, some bloggers and
tour guides who not asked, who said, oh, Hollywood Center
(18:00):
Motel has been destroyed, which it wasn't. I mean, it's
a large compound. One portion of it was torn down.
I think that people who just thought the signs were
on their way to the dump decided to sort of
rescue them, and so bits have been disappearing, and it's
very troubling because as of today, there's almost nothing left
of the character defining signage because there's no one there
(18:24):
to stop them, and people feel entitled to do it,
and so day by day folks are sending us photographs
and it's worse every photo we get.
Speaker 2 (18:33):
Does that end the quest for historic cultural landmark status?
Speaker 1 (18:37):
Yes?
Speaker 4 (18:38):
So when Kim says all the character defining features, almost
all of them are gone, what she means is the
nineteen oh five house has been demolished by heavy equipment
et a city. The character defining features of the of
the mid century breeze block wall with the signage for
the location.
Speaker 3 (18:57):
We're all still there.
Speaker 4 (18:59):
So what we're trying to say is that they are
all these awful things that have happened, and this conspiracy
of coincidences and the confederacy of dunces that exist in
the city have conspired. And if you ask us for
a very high level, simple answer to the question whose
(19:21):
fault is this, Hugo Soto Martinez.
Speaker 2 (19:25):
Now this is the councilman who represents Halloween representative.
Speaker 1 (19:29):
You go, call, you go.
Speaker 4 (19:32):
Hugo's office has been getting outreach from preservationists for at
least nine months about this, if not earlier. This has
been on the table affordable housing RSO units. It's RSO units,
not affordable. There are a RSO units landmark status in
the queue before the landmark application. Serious issues with vake
(19:53):
with with vagrancy trespassing. The trespass order was only put
up days ago.
Speaker 3 (20:00):
It's really easy to say, oh, you know, there's so
many homeless people with nowhere to go and we can't
keep them out, But that's just not true. You know,
the LAEDBS is completely capable of showing up and securing
a property if a property owner won't do it themselves,
and there could be policies by which there are well.
City of Santa Monica just initiated a vacant Building ordinance
(20:23):
that just starts this year, and they have very strict rules.
You can't use plywood to board up a building. You
need to put you know, glass that you can see
into that you can't break, so people can check and
see that no one's inside. And if you don't do that,
there are cascading consequences and fines and properties can even
be taken away if you're serious about not having your
(20:44):
entire city be blighted. And let's not even get started
with what was in that building that burned that everyone breathed.
It's just not right. I mean, it doesn't have to
be this way. These are good buildings, these are good places.
Folks care about them. The hearing is still happening on
February fifth, will be at City Hall along with our
preservation Palace from Hollywood Heritage. And I think a lot
(21:05):
of people who care. And I know what the Cultural
Heritage Commission's going to say, there's not enough there to
save and our answer, our answer to that is, of
course there is. We're hearing all the time about houses
being moved to Alta Dina. Let's move a house to
where El Nido the nest was a beautiful big house,
and let's turn this place back into what visionary Angelinos
(21:29):
who want to buy this place see it as, which
is a really cool rock and roll in where Jannis
Joplin and cap'n Beefhart and the Buffalo Springfield hung out,
which appears in the Rockford Files, and Perry Mason, and
all that signage that was stolen can be recreated, and
the bungalows, which are all screwed up, can be cleaned up.
It's really kind of heaven on earth in the heart
(21:51):
of Hollywood. And I don't want all this talk about
how screwed up and blighted it is to get in
the way from you know, the fire is the greatest
thing that ever happened. I finally got to walk the
parcel and it's the most beautiful thing I've seen in
Hollywood in a.
Speaker 4 (22:04):
Long long time. So, Michael, I don't want people to
think this is an isolated incident. You can go literally
every block in Hollywood has this exact problem. We just
twenty twenty five. Was one of the salient problems of
twenty twenty five for us was situations like this in
(22:24):
East Hollywood on Taft and Wilton and Streets just a
few blocks to the east and west of those two streets.
This is going on everywhere in Hollywood and in the city.
And again it's the council district where whatever council district
atten it is in, it is the council district member's
fault that these things fall through the cracks. People have
(22:47):
to be more proactive and the council office has to
be do a better job of doing outreach to their
constituents and protecting the assets which are historically significant multifamily
affordable housing.
Speaker 3 (23:01):
And beyond that, I mean, we're in the tourism business.
People come from all over the world and this is
what they want to see. They want to see things
that they've seen in the movies and on TV. They
want to see things that aren't like what's at home.
And a Victorian or early in Edwardian house in the
middle of a nineteen twenties bungalow court with a grooving
(23:21):
neon sign that's been in La confidential, I mean, people
want to look at it, they want to take a picture.
If they could stay there overnight, they certainly would. It's
so cool and it's so much cooler than a vacant
lot or anything they could propose there.
Speaker 2 (23:35):
Esoturic has a slew of cool tours coming up, sure
to catch your fancy exploring the history and culture of
Los Angeles. We will hit the highlights when Michael Monks
Reports continues.
Speaker 1 (23:47):
You're listening to KFI Am six forty on demand.
Speaker 2 (23:52):
This is Michael Monks Reports on Michael Monks from KFI News.
Our guest are Richard Shave and Kim Cooper of Esoturic
Tours into the Secret Heart of Los Angeles. So so
TOURK is spelled e s O t O your ic.
You can search online for their website and their social media.
Not only are they a wealth of information for current
events in general in the city of Los Angeles, but
(24:12):
very specifically those related to history, historic preservation, architecture, and
neighborhood character. And not only are they great at talking
about it on the radio with me when they're so
kind to give me some of their time, they're great
at doing it out on the street. That is the
main purpose of their businesses so TOURK, and they have
some really interesting tours coming up. I've been on one
(24:32):
of their tours and I can't recommend them enough. I'm
looking forward to a lot of these things. I hope
I can get to on your list. But let's start
with some of the stuff that's coming up. You're taking
folks to Alvarado Terrace and South Bonnie Bray tracked time
travel trip walking towards a mouthful.
Speaker 4 (24:51):
What is it?
Speaker 3 (24:53):
It is kind of a mouthful, isn't it? But I
felt like it is time travel. You know, there are
neighborhoods south of the Arthur Park in the West Lake
slash Pico Union District. They're on the National Register and
they're off the main drag. But if you've driven around
that neighborhood, you've taken Pico, You've taken Olympic. If you've
never turned off those main drags, you don't realize that
(25:16):
there are Victorian Edwardian time capsules, incredible, sweet little blocks
that will blow your mind and if you walk through them,
you can really experiencing experience some the way that Old
Angelina's did.
Speaker 2 (25:30):
And so that's coming up on January thirty first, Richard,
you're taking folks into the Hollywood Noir Walking tour. On
February seventh and.
Speaker 4 (25:40):
Kim's birthday, were giving our second run of our new
tour out of the Hollywood Western Neighborhood, East Hollywood, that's
the seventh of February, and it's a tour about film noir.
We really use Double Indemnity as the the backbone for
(26:00):
this tour, the storyline of the film and the making
of the film, and the forces that acted on the
novel and the film, like Clifford Clinton, the Cafeteria Kid,
one of the great early reformers. And we just end
up in Los Fela's on Franklin and Franklin Boulevard, Los
(26:22):
Fela's Boulevard down to Hollywood Boulevard, and the last third
of this tour is just just this wonderful slosh through
Hollywood Boulevard in East Hollywood with the Residency, with the hotel,
the Hollywood Downtown are.
Speaker 5 (26:39):
There.
Speaker 3 (26:39):
There are locations associated with the Black Dolia Murder down there.
There's a black Magic coven down there. There's there yes,
Schidro Slasher k what really?
Speaker 4 (26:55):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (26:57):
Oh yeah, that's right. I mean, we keep putting we
keep putting stuff together, and then you know, you've got locations.
I forgot you out. You've got There used to be
a miniature golf course in what's now one of these
really great tigh Town mini malls. That Jumbo's Clown Room.
It's a layered history, but I think the key to
the whole thing is that you know everybody, everybody who's
(27:17):
keeping an eye on city Hall. They complain about the corruption.
They're like, what do you do? And I think the
only way that you can have any sense that we're
going to get through this in la is going to
be okay again is to look through the past. And
Clifford Clinton, who ran this cafeteria downtown, Clifton's Cafeteria, he
and his friends read a story in the Reader's Digest.
(27:39):
Because they were busy people, they weren't reading books, you know,
and the Reader's Digest there was a story and it said, Hey,
I'm an old circus hand named Riley Cooper, and I
know everything there is to know about how cities work.
And if you see these things in your city, you
can be sure that your city is corrupt you should
do something about. And so all these like business people
(28:01):
got together and they're like, well, we see all that stuff,
like you can't walk down the street without a taxi
driver saying do you want a woman? You can't buy
a newspaper at a news stand in Hollywood without the
guy saying, hey, do you want to play some bet
on a pony? So they knew that there must be
something dirty in city Hall and they decided to do
something about it.
Speaker 2 (28:19):
Well, there has been for a long time. And I
know that you've got all of those stories. But you know,
here at KFI, I talk a lot about city Hall
and what's going on at LA City Hall. And as
I was learning about Los Angeles City government, I'm a transplant,
but I've been here three years now, and I did
a bunch of research on the history of the city
government and the building itself and the people who serve there.
Speaker 1 (28:39):
Y'all.
Speaker 2 (28:40):
It's like there hasn't been a single decade since I
guess nineteen twenty five when this form of government started,
that people weren't hauled out of there in handcuffs.
Speaker 3 (28:49):
And you have to remember that because it's the only
thing that gives us hope when they're being so nasty
to you.
Speaker 4 (28:54):
No, there's one more thing that gives you hope. And
we bring this up on the Hollywood No Wors Tour
in our film Noir, our Downtown La Film no Tour
at least captains in the Los Angeles Police Department don't
plant bombs. That's five citizens' homes to let them know
that they're barking up the wrong.
Speaker 2 (29:11):
That's fair. Well, I hope that's covered on tour. I'll
tell you before we get off of here. You've got
a Valentine's Day tour wish. I'm going to have to
join because this is a neighborhood that I'm fascinated by.
I've seen an occasional listing on Zillo and I had
to look up what this place is and I've got
to join you all for all of the history Angelino
Heights and Carol Avenue time travel walking tour. These are
(29:35):
the Victorian homes that you really don't expect to see
in Los Angeles. What can we expect on that one?
Speaker 3 (29:42):
Right?
Speaker 4 (29:42):
And again Victorian? We sometimes call them Queen Anne, like
I've been calling Elnito in Hollywood. This tour is really
important because the Los Angeles is about to host the Olympics,
and the narrative of this architectural historical walk on this
beautifully preserved nineteenth centuryighborhood is all about This neighborhood is
(30:02):
still here because of the elected officials and appointed officials
responsible for the nineteen eighty four Olympics making some very
good decisions. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (30:12):
I mean the incredible thing when you walk down Carol Avenue,
you're like, oh wow, this is like Bunker Hill. It's
a perfect Victorian neighborhood. Well, if you walk down that
street in nineteen seventy, you wouldn't see what you see now.
There were a lot of empty spaces, there were things
that have been demolished, there were parcels that were quite decayed,
there were you know, it was not what it is now.
(30:33):
And as the Olympics were coming up, policymakers in the
city and you know, we had a redevelopment agency back then,
and also the council president was the council member John Ferraros,
so they had a lot of juice. They said, you know,
we're going to come up with a few things, maybe
ten things that'll make people come to Los Angeles for
the Olympics and go, wow, the city has really got
(30:54):
it together. And one of those things was we're going
to create a historic preservation overlay zone. We're going to
create tax incentives for people to move houses to the
empty spaces on this lot. We're going to underground the
electricity and put up old fashioned street lights and gollies.
Secondary benefit. Now suddenly we have a filming location. If
(31:14):
you've seen the thriller video, you've seen Carol Avenue.
Speaker 2 (31:17):
Well, let's end this on that happy note. How about that.
We've got plenty of pain to talk about in Los Angeles,
that's for sure. But that was a good one. Lots
more tours coming up. If you're not familiar with SOO tour,
get familiar with them. They are deeply knowledgeable about La past, present,
and probably future. S O touric is e s O
t o u ric. You can go to sootur dot
(31:40):
com or just search foresoturk online and you're sure to
find their website, their blog, and all of their social
media a wealth of knowledge. Richard Shave Kim Cooper, thanks
to both of you for the generosity of your time.
Yet again, I hope that if I hope to see
you on February fourteenth for the Angelino Heightstore. If not,
I hope we get together again to talk about other
issues facing the city of La.
Speaker 4 (32:00):
Michael will see you soon. Thank you, Thank you.
Speaker 3 (32:03):
We're definitely going to see you on Carol Avenue. You're
gonna love it.
Speaker 2 (32:06):
And we'll catch you next Saturday at eight pm for
another edition of Michael Monks Reports on Michael Monks on
KFI AM six forty
Speaker 1 (32:15):
KFI AM six forty on demand
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