August 30th, 2021 … Summer of Fun continues! Day 34 Route 66 Caravan – Santa Monica, CA

Our last full day on our Route 66 caravan includes a bus tour of LA, lunch at the Farmers Market and a stop at the Santa Monica Pier. All of the literature tells you while you are visiting the City of Angels, be sure and visit the Griffith Observatory, the world-famous Hollywood Sign, Hollywood’s Chinese Theatre and the Historic Broadway Theater. Our tour will cover all of these and more! Diehard old-road fans will be pleasantly surprised to know that Route 66 across Los Angeles still exists, almost completely intact. West from Pasadena into downtown LA, you can hop onto the Arroyo Seco Parkway (Hwy-110) for a trip back to freeways past. Opened in 1939, this was California’s first freeway and featured such novel concepts as 15-mph exit ramps and stop signs at the entrances. What we all noticed was the amount of graffiti on all of the expressways.

We saw this awesome structure along the side of the 101. At this same exit there is the Broad Museum and the Walt Disney Concert Hall. We were thinking that was what this unique architecture was part of. Wrong. It is Ramón C. Cortines School of Visual and Performing Arts, known unofficially as Grand Arts High School. It is a performing arts public high school in the Los Angeles Unified School District. It a dual-mission high school dedicated to providing aspiring artists and scholars with an academically rigorous pre-college curriculum and a comprehensive, four-year pre-conservatory arts program.

We caught our first glimpses of the Hollywood sign. It’s fitting that the Hollywood Sign, the worldwide symbol of the entertainment industry, was conceived as an outdoor ad campaign for a suburban housing development called “Hollywoodland.” After all, despite the high profile of the film biz, real estate has always been Hollywood’s primary economic driver. Although the Sign’s appearance and purpose have evolved over the years, its basic aspirational message remains the same: This is a place where magic is possible, where dreams can come true. Back then, the dream was a beautiful home and lifestyle. Today, the Sign’s promise is more subtle – and can only be described as the parade of images, desires and ideas conjured by the word “Hollywood.”

Even the Hollywood American Legion Post is glitzy! The Egyptian Revival style building for Hollywood Post 43 of the American Legion opened in 1929. It's on the west side of the street just down a bit from the Hollywood Bowl. This post had been chartered in 1919 by veterans in the movie business and also enjoyed support from non-veterans including Cecil B. DeMille, Adolph Menjou and Mary Pickford. Among the members were Clark Gable, Gene Autry, Mickey Rooney, Ronald Reagan, Charlton Heston and Stan Lee. The auditorium was known as the Liberty Theatre for a run of plays in the 1980s. The theatre got a full renovation in 2018. The Post's plan is to open what had largely been a private facility to a wider audience by offering classic film screenings, premieres and other events.

On our way to where we would pick up our tour guide, we passed the Chinese Theater. It was opened in 1927 by Sid Grauman as his second Hollywood theatre. His first was the Egyptian in 1922. It was a design-build Meyer & Holler project with Raymond M. Kennedy as the principal architect. The firm had earlier done the Egyptian for Grauman and had previous experience with a Chinese-themed interior at the West Coast Theatre in Long Beach which had opened in 1925. The 150' x 250' lot size for the Chinese allowed for one of the largest stages in town, all seating on one level and room left over for a forecourt designed for huge crowds of adoring fans during premieres. In some promotional materials at the time of the opening the cost was given as $1.2 million, probably a seriously inflated figure. The theatre has remained a major first run venue since its opening. Over the decades the Chinese Theater has hosted premiere engagements of major films as varied as "Hell's Angel's” (1930), "Grand Hotel" (1932), "King Kong" (1933), "Wizard of Oz" (1939), "Shane" (1953),  "Auntie Mame" (1958), "West Side Story (1961), "Goldfinger" (1964), "Hello, Dolly" (1969) and "Star Wars" (1977). The list goes on and on.

The stars on the world-famous Hollywood Walk of Fame are located on both sides of Hollywood Boulevard and Vine Street. It is an internationally-recognized Hollywood icon. The Hollywood Walk of Fame is undoubtedly one of the most successful marketing ideas ever produced. The man credited with the idea for creating a Walk of Fame, was EM Stuart, who served in 1953 as the volunteer president of the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce. In that year, according to a Chamber press release he proposed the Walk as a means to “maintain the glory of a community whose name means glamour and excitement in the four corners of the world.”

He appointed a committee to begin fleshing out the idea and to develop some specific proposals. Where the original idea came from is not certain; however, the ceiling of the dining room of the historic Hollywood Hotel once had stars painted on the ceiling with the names of celebrities and that may have been a precursor of the idea to place stars in the sidewalks. It was not until 1955 that the basic tenets of the proposal were agreed upon. In 1956, a proposed rendering of a star was unveiled that included a caricature of the honoree, with a proposal for brown and blue sidewalks. It was later determined that caricatures would be too difficult to develop and the colors of the sidewalk were changed to black and coral.

While the City worked on creation of the assessment district, the Improvement Association moved forward between May 1956 and the fall of 1957 in selecting the honorees to be initially placed in the Walk. Four committees were established to represent the four different aspects of the entertainment industry at that time – motion picture, television, recording and radio. The committees included some of the most prominent names in entertainment. Once the effort began, suggestions began pouring in to the Chamber offices, as many as 150 names a week were submitted. Meanwhile, the City was finalizing plans for the assessment district. The cost to build the Walk, including new street lighting and street trees, was determined to be $1.25-million. This worked out to $85 per front foot to be paid by the adjacent property owners.

Walk of Fame Groundbreaking was on August 15, 1958, the Chamber and City unveiled eight stars on Hollywood Blvd. at Highland Avenue to create excitement and to demonstrate what the Walk would look like. The eight honorees included: Olive Borden, Ronald Colman, Louise Fazenda, Preston Foster, Burt Lancaster, Edward Sedgwick, Ernest Torrence, and Joanne Woodward. On February 8, 1960, construction actually began on the long-planned Walk. The first star to be laid in the new Walk was that of Stanley Kramer on March 28, 1960, near the intersection of Hollywood and Gower. By that fall, work had progressed far enough that it was decided to dedicate the Walk on November 23, 1960, in conjunction with the Hollywood Christmas Parade. The job was not actually completed until spring 1961, when it was finally accepted by the Board of Public Works, with the first 1,558 stars.

The Chamber faced three tasks in moving forward: (1) to establish a set of rules to determine the qualifications of personalities to be eligible for addition to the Walk of Fame, (2) to work out a procedure to process candidates, and (3) to develop a plan for the financing of the costs of the addition of approved names. The task took several years, and it was not until the end of 1968, that another star was added. Actor/comedian Danny Thomas hosted the momentous star unveiling for producer/studio executive Richard D. Zanuck in front of the world-famous Grauman’s Chinese Theatre. From this time forward, star ceremonies were held on a fairly regular basis. In 1972, Charlie Chaplin was awarded a star on the Walk of Fame. It was not until May of 1975, when Carol Burnett received her honors, a total of 99 stars had been added to the original Walk.

In 1980, the Chamber presented a star to entertainer Johnny Grant. Johnny became enthused about the honor and involved himself in creating a very memorable star ceremony. The Chamber was so impressed with his efforts, that they approached him about chairing the Walk of Fame Committee, which he accepted. From then, until his death in January 2008, Johnny’s name became synonymous with the Walk of Fame. His strong leadership built the Walk into an international icon. Under his leadership, a fifth category of “Live Theatre” was added in 1984 to allow persons who excelled in all types of live performance to be considered for stars. He also solved the problem of running out of space to add stars. When constructed, the Walk was designed to accommodate 2,518 stars. By the 1990s, space in the most popular areas was becoming difficult to find. To solve the problem, Johnny approved the creation of a second row of stars on the sidewalk, which would alternate with the existing stars.

In 1994 the Walk of Fame was extended one block to the west from Sycamore to LaBrea on Hollywood Blvd and thirty stars were added to the block to create an instant attraction. At this time, Sophia Loren was honored with the 2,000th star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Today, an average of two stars are added to the Walk on a monthly basis. The Walk is a tribute to all of those who worked so hard to develop the concept and to maintain this world-class tourist attraction. The most recent are Terry Crews, category of television, was the 2,699^th star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and Don McLean, category of recording, was the 2,700^th star.

Located just north of the famed intersection of Hollywood and Vine, the landmark Capitol Records Building was designed by Welton Becket, the architect who also designed the Music Center, Cinerama Dome, Santa Monica Civic Auditorium, and the department store that now houses the Petersen Automotive Museum. The 13-story tower, which resembles a stack of records, was the world’s first circular office building when it was completed in April 1956. The Capitol Records Building is the site of the historic Capitol Studios, where Frank Sinatra, The Beach Boys, Nat “King” Cole, Sir Paul McCartney, and many more music legends recorded some of the most treasured music in history.

The bus took us to the Griffith Observatory. Located on the south slope of Mount Hollywood in Griffith Park, the Observatory is literally in the center of metropolitan Los Angeles, just above the Los Feliz neighborhood. It is 1,134 feet above sea level and is visible from many parts of the Los Angeles basin. The Observatory is the best vantage point for observing the world-famous Hollywood Sign. Since opening in 1935, the Observatory has welcomed over 85 million visitors. 

The Observatory was closed the day we were there, but it is a free-admission, public facility owned and operated by the City of Los Angeles Department of Recreation and Parks in the middle of an urban metropolis of ten million people. The 67,000 square-foot building is one of the most popular informal education facilities in the US and the most-visited public observatory in the world. Griffith Observatory is a unique hybrid of public observatory, planetarium, and exhibition space. It was constructed with funds from the bequest of Griffith J. Griffith (who donated the land for Griffith Park in 1896), who specified the purpose, features, and location of the building in his 1919 will. Upon completion of construction in 1935, the Observatory was given to the City of Los Angeles with the provision that it be operated for the public with no admission charge. When it opened in 1935, it was one of the first institutions in the US dedicated to public science.

The closest we will get to the Hollywood sign without a two mile hike! Someday, I might like to do that, but not today!

James Dean has a history in Griffith Park. But for movie fans, the Observatory may be best remembered as the signature location for 1955’s Rebel Without a Cause. In the movie, James Dean’s new-kid-in-town character tries to impress his classmates inside the planetarium, only to get caught up in a knife fight in the parking lot. In an interesting real-life plot twist, Dean commissioned a bust of himself shortly before his death at age 24. That bust is now on prominent display near the front lawn of the Observatory. A lot of fan photos still get taken by that statue, since the backdrop is also the Hollywood sign.

We enjoyed lunch at the Farmers Market. How did a Farmers Market end up in the middle of LA? In 1880, AF Gilmore and a partner bought two dairy farms in the Los Angeles area. The partners elected to split their holdings ten years later and Mr. Gilmore took control of the large 256-acre ranch, its dairy herd and farmhands at what is now the world famous corner of 3rd & Fairfax.  The city, which would eventually surround the property, was still far to the east.

When AF Gilmore wanted to expand his dairy herd, he started drilling new wells for water. He discovered oil. Quickly, the dairy herd was replaced by a field of oil derricks which remained in place until Los Angeles boundaries expanded to surround the Gilmore property. Although the rich oil field continued to generate crude, the derricks were no longer permitted on a large scale. The Gilmore property remained largely vacant into the 1930s, when at the height of the Depression, two entrepreneurs, Fred Beck and Roger Dahlhjelm, approached AF's son, Earl Bell Gilmore, with "an idea."

Fred Beck & Roger Dahlhjelm wanted to build a "Village" at the corner of 3rd & Fairfax where local farmers could sell their fresh fare. EB Gilmore agreed to give it a go. In July 1934, a dozen farmers and a few other merchants parked their trucks at the corner of 3rd & Fairfax and sold their fresh produce from the back of the trucks. By October 1934, mere months after it opened, farmers and merchants, including restaurants, grocers and service providers, were moving into permanent stalls and the new Farmers Market was so popular that its founders staged a celebration, the first Fall Festival at Farmers Market.

While it grew to be a must-see destination for travelers from around the world, Farmers Market was always the favorite place for LA families to shop for groceries. Over time, Farmers Market continued to grow. The structures, like this marvelous general store, were a part of modern Los Angeles and the Market always retained its own unique and quaint style. The Clock Tower became an icon of the Farmers Market in 1948. Over the decades, it has become a worldwide symbol of food and fun.

Now marked by prominent beige road signs reading “Historic Route 66 1935-1964,” in Hollywood itself. Old Route 66 follows Santa Monica Boulevard through the heart of West Hollywood and Beverly Hills, where “Mr. Route 66” himself, the Oklahoma-born comedian Will Rogers, once was honorary mayor. Old Route 66 had its western terminus at the edge of the Pacific Ocean in Santa Monica, on a palm-lined bluff a few blocks north of the city’s landmark pier.

Santa Monica Pier it's the westernmost point on Route 66. Santa Monica is literally the end of the road, where the route meets the Pacific Ocean. The pier at Santa Monica features an “End of the Trail” sign designating its status as the westernmost point of Route 66. The popular East-to-West migration path brought people out west during the Dust Bowl era, supported economies all along its twists and turns when rough times were upon us.

When the pier was recognized as journey’s end for Route 66, it only made sense for a replica of the long-missing sign to be erected looking out over the Pacific in a symbolic display of what was the destination of so many travelers over the last century. Both sides are labeled “End” so that visitors ask “If it ends here, where does it go?” After all, 66 today is about the journey as much as the destination. Though it isn’t an official highway sign — you don’t want to run highway traffic into the ocean — the End of the Trail sign serves as an inspiration to thousands of visitors each year that 66 is more than a relic of what used to be; it’s a journey through the heart of the country where the meals are homemade and the neon still glows that still kicks 35 years after being officially decommissioned. What a fitting way to end the 35-day caravan! We began in Chicago, where it starts and we end it in Santa Monica, at the end of the road!