Yes the food at Pitts was so so, odd meat cuts and very greasy.
This reminds me of LOVE's BBQ. The food was good there but the servings were microscopic. One had to order 2 meals to manage to get enough actual food on a single plate. That may be part of the reason they disappeared.

Nudie was good for NoHo and all the country music stars seemed to buy his stuff. Everybody in NoHo liked Nudie. They always waved and honked when his big flashy car with the horns on the hood drove by. It helped that his store was near the country/western temple the Palamino. I think Elvis wore some of his flashy duds also, and I think John "Duke" Wayne did also. Nudie was a big deal in NoHo.

https://cdn0.wideopencountry.com/wp-...15/09/Gram.png
nudie

Nudie was the tailor for Western Music.

Hi Doug. I think the BBQ at Coldwater and Riverside you are thinking of was SMOKEY JOE'S. not Chris n' Pitts. I remember two Smokey Joe's from the 1970's. One was on Riverside Drive the other was outside of "Kiddyland" near La Cienega. There was a pump jack pumping oil outside the La Cienega location. I remember Case Swayne foods marketed "Smokey Joe's" beans in the area supermarkets. Same cowboy character as the restaurants. Chris n' Pitts had a valley location at Fulton and Victory. That closed some years ago. Your feelings about C + P, Smokey Joe's, Loves and maybe Bob's Big Boy were shared by my mom who hated all 4. My sister and I had to BEG to go to any of them.

https://hosting.photobucket.com/imag...080&fit=bounds

This guy wearing any pants? [/QUOTE]

^^^
Is that Nudie? :koko:

The original Rhinestone Cowboy, "Nudie" Cohen was born in Kiev to Jewish parents. He loved the American westerns that somehow got past the commie censors.

Besides Nudie, there was another eccentric I remember from my youth called Gypsy Boots. He was a pre Hippie Hippie, with long hair and a vegetarian health food fanatic. He hung around Santa Monica and Venice with a bunch of followers. Kind of a harmless Manson. He was on T.V. quite a bit, a resident oddball surrounded by squares.

Another interesting oddball from the 1950s and early '60s was the Laguna Beach "greeter". He was an older guy who would stand on PCH in LB and wave to passing cars as they entered town. Today he'd be just another homeless guy, but back then he was kind of the unofficial mascot for the town, and could eat free in many of the restaurants. Like Gypsy Boots, he had long hair and a beard. I remember seeing him during a vacation my family took to LB in 1963.

The one at Fulton and Victory is the one I remember from my larval stage. I think it was gone by the late '70s, maybe before. Chris & Pitts BbQ sauce went away about the same time from the markets.

Bob's Big Boy was not that bad, especially the drive in one in Burbank near the NBC studios. Bob Hope and other stars used to drop in quite frequently. Ate there once with Johnny Carson a couple of booths away. The place is still there I believe, and J. Leno sometimes dropped in with one of his collector cars on Friday or Sat. night. It might be closed now because of the pandemic--anybody know? Haven't been there in over 20 years.

HI CaliNative. The Victory / Fulton C+P persisted into the 2000's and had a loyal local following to the end. C+P sauces are still around. I've seen them at Stater Bros. and Northgate / Gonzalez markets in Orange County.

The BBQ sauces hit the big time in the 1960's or 1970's when DURKEE / FRENCH FOODS purchased the distribution rights to them. Durkee was owned by Glidden Paints who in turn was purchased by office equipment manufacturer SCM (Smith Corona). C+P sauce has been through several owners since and now is marketed by the Flagship Foods Group https://www.flagshipfoodgroup.com/brands

I still have my Nudie fringed leather Davy Crockett jacket.

I have to agree with you Doug, at least for the Whittier C+P's. I wasn't that impressed and it reminded me of the let down i felt at Love's on Pico (it made Beverlywood/Beverly Hills/ Cheviot Hills smell great! but that was it).

I loved when my parents would shop at Alpha Beta, the smell of Loves would hit you as soon as you got out of the car.

Gypsy Boots used to give us blood oranges.

Gypsy knew all the Hollywood Sunday farmer's market vendors-- he got plenty freebies every time he prowled the lanes there---- The Jack Paar Show among others had him on as a guest too ----

Manuel Cuevas was a long time tailor and designer at Nudies and later set up his own business. It took a guy from Mexico and one from Russia to dress American C&W singers. Only in LA.

That building at La Tijera and Airport looks like it was formerly a Home Savings branch.

As to BBQs, anyone recall Harry's Open Pit at Sunset and Crescent Heights?

https://ca-times.brightspotcdn.com/d...w76-snap-photoArt Rogers/L.A. Times


From the Archives:
The Hareport Chronicles
Nov. 19, 1946: Early morning view of scores of jackrabbits watching activities at Los Angeles Municipal Airport, slated to open to major airlines on December 9, 1946.(Art Rogers / Los Angeles Times)

While taking this image, former Los Angeles Times staff photographer Art Rogers remembers “someone was using a jackhammer and suddenly stopped and all the rabbit ears went up.”

This photo ran the width of the page across the top of the daily L.A. Times picture page. It was well-received by editors and readers everywhere — except at City Hall.

Los Angeles Times columnist Gene Sherman explained Los Angeles Mayor Fletcher Bowron’s reaction in 1948:

About two years ago you may recall the startling picture taken by Times Photographer Art Rogers. It showed Los Angeles Airport framed above a row of bunnies alert along the east end, ears aloft. For some peculiar reason the picture created quite a stir…

… Setting some kind of precedent, Mayor Bowron categorically denied the photograph. When the picture later appeared in a national magazine, the mayor again challenged the integrity of photographic plate and flash bulb and informed the world that the idea of jackrabbits on the airport was pure poppycock…

.… From time to time passengers in giant air liners are amused when giant jacks race the plane on take-off. Until now, none of the rabbits has left the ground. … A week later Mayor Bowron capitulated and visited Sherman at The Times office. Bowron presented Sherman with a real airport bunny. Sherman named the rabbit “Poppycock.”

The rabbits were such a feature of the early days that they became nationally famous through the prize-winning picture made by Times photographer Art Rogers, who crept up on the airfield one day at dawn and caught hundred of them flocking around a couple of DC-3s.

Much to the consternation of former Mayor Bowron, the place thereafter was referred to as International Hareport.
The jackrabbit photo by Art Rogers was published as a double-page spread in the Dec. 2, 1946, edition of Life magazine.
[Which you can see HERE, pages 36-37.]

According to this Facebook post:

HARRY'S OPEN PIT BAR-B-Q RIBS was founded by Alan Phillips and located on Crescent Heights just south of Sunset Blvd, near Schwab's Pharmacy. Around 1983, the business moved across the street to the NW corner of Sunset & Crescent Heights. The venue began to showcase local bands on weekends, which also served liquor. By 1987, Harry's had turned into a full fledged club, so the BBQ business was moved to the recently vacant Famous Amos Cookies location at Sunset & Formosa. The club was renamed 'Coconut Teazser' after one of the house drinks. The club closed in 2004. Harry's went out of business in 1990.

https://scontent-lax3-1.xx.fbcdn.net...8b&oe=5FDA8A7CFacebook post

Other info here: Old LA Restaurants

Hello Neal. The Chris &Pitts BBQ I am talking about is located at 9839 Artesia, Bellflower. Its been there for many decades.

Welcome to NLA. I look forward to your cool comments and your photos.

Bob Wyan the Founder/owner of Bob's Big Boy Inc. used to waltz into my father's Law Office in the 1950s and try to get him to do unethical illegal things. My father said ''NO'' and that was the last time we went to Bob's restaurant.

.
mystery street

I just happened upon this street scene on eBay

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/1...924/SURpoC.jpg
eBay

Does this intersection look familiar to any of you noirishers?




There's an additional clue a bit further down the street.

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/1...922/PAbM3i.jpg
detail

Hotel or motel blade sign.

Sweet elderly lady. ...(or maybe she's mean. .I don't know)

.

The old westerns often featured crooked bankers, greedy cattle barons and arrogant railroad bosses, all congenial figures to the old CP censors. There were plenty of lefty screenwriters in Hollywood, though they were not the sinister subversives alleged by the HUAC.