WHAT'S NEW, PUSSYCAT?

This theater marquee that has seen better days represents the last gasps of what started in 1940 as the Monica Theater at 7734 Santa Monica Blvd in West Hollywood (before it became West Hollywood, of course). A neighborhood theater showing 2nd run major motion pictures, it was briefly an arthouse, showing foreign films before, in 1968, it changed its name to the Left Bank Theater and went into the nudies game.

In 1970 it became the flagship theater of the adult film Pussycat Theater chain and remained so until the '90s when it became a gay adult theater and changed its name (appropriately enough) to the Tom Kat. 2006 saw Mr. Tom Kat make way for STUDS, and after that, it just seemed a slow but inexorable slide to obsolescence. The above photo, post-COVID, reflects the theater's 2022 fate.

Whatever lies in store for the empty space now, I hope someone holds on to the "celebrity" footprints of the deceased legends of the "porno chic" '70s that grace the front courtyard. 

John Holmes / nee John Curtis Estes (1944 -1988)

Linda Lovelace / nee Linda Susan Boreman (1949 - 2002)

Harry Reems / nee Herbert John Streicher ( 1947 - 2013)

Marilyn Chambers / nee Marilyn Ann Taylor (1952 - 2009)

HOLLYWOOD BABYLON

The Hollywood and Highland Shopping Center (mall) with its design inspired by the Gates of Babylon set from D.W. Griffith's 1916 film "Intolerance." Built in 2001, the elephants, pillars and archway - towering minimally some three stories high - are identical in scale to the sets of the original classic silent film.

The "Intolerance" Babylon set. Built in the Silverlake area of Los Angeles (today, the site of the Vista Theater).

WHO NEEDS OSCAR?

The Four Ladies of Hollywood statues creating the Hollywood Gateway on the corner of Hollywood Blvd. and La Brea. A stainless steel gazebo structure was created by Catherine Hardwicke, and unveiled in 1993. Atop the structure of these female forms reminiscent of the Academy Award Oscar, is a weathervane Marilyn Monroe.

Mae West

Dorothy Dandridge

Anna May Wong

Dolores Del Rio

I GET A KICK OUT OF YOU

A giant, Converse-clad foot kicks through the roof of a Fairfax Avenue retail clothing store 

GIMME SHELTER

 In the summer of 2017, select West Hollywood citizens were treated to the company of animatronic vultures and bobcats perched atop bus shelters throughout the city. They were eye-catching promotion displays for the Netflix series "Ozark."

Orange You Glad?

The Wonderful Halos Citrus Storage building in Delano, CA.

Along California's Highway 99, the packing plant for Wonderful Halos mandarin oranges converted its building into the world's largest Halos orange carton. It's said to be 80 feet high and 11, 00 square feet.

  

SAY CHEESE

Bravo Farms in Traver, California. 

Off Highway 99, Bravo Farms is part rest stop, restaurant, Old-West tourist attraction, petting zoo, gift shop, and cheese-lovers paradise.

CRUISING ON SUNSET BLVD

Crossroads of the World - Hollywood's first Shopping Mall
Located at 6671 Sunset Blvd and extending north to Selma, the Disney-esque outdoor shopping mall, Crossroads of the World, is an collection of buildings (retail stores and studios) recreating the architecture of various parts of the world, all surrounding the center structure/building, which resembles an ocean liner.
In May of 2015, plans were announced for an extensive redevelopment of Crossroads and the surrounding area.

FOUNTAIN OF KOO KOO

This enormous fountain, depicting a globe with a broadcast antennae holding an eternal flame, is located outside of the Faith Center in Glendale California.

REDD FOXX WALK OF FAME

933 La Brea Avenue in Hollywood, Ca. is the former site of Redd Foxx Productions. The black and white striped building housed the production offices of the iconic African-American comedian from the mid-70s (the heyday of his hit sitcom, Sanford & Son) through to the late 80s.
Back in 1978 I used to attend Columbia College, a film & television school, which then was located next door (behind the trees in the photo above) and would pass by the glittering offices every day. If memory serves, the facade of the Redd Foxx Building was red where the tiles are currently white, and the side (shown yellow, above) was painted completely red with an caricatured drawing of a fox, which served as the comedian's logo.

In the cement forecourt of the building was the "Redd Foxx Walk of Fame" where Foxx and many of his friends and associates placed their footprints in cement, a la Grauman's Chinese Theater.
Although the building stands empty today, the footprints remain.

The late, great LaWanda Page, who portrayed "Aunt Esther" on Sanford & Son, is given support by Foxx himself as she places her footprints in the cement in the forecourt of  Redd Foxx Production. Image is from Jet Magazine, dated October 19, 1987

A few samples of the footprints. Alas, many of the people who signed these are unknown to me and Google hasn't been much help. 

Tony (Anthony) Major helped run Redd Foxx Productions and a producer on Sanford & Sons 

Leroy & Skillet (Leroy Daniels and Ernest Mayhand) were a comedy team. They made several "party records" with LaWanda Page