West Hollywood Past and Present

The following video i put together is of West Hollywood past and present...from the days in the 1920s when it was named Sherman to Present day West Hollywood which became an official city on November 1984... 1.9 square miles of creativity =) enjoy!!

[@jgilc2691]

Little did I know when sitting in the bars between April and May of 1982 that they too would become a You Tube video on how fabulous they once were. And how much they are missed! Ahhhh...West Hollywood!

[@DearlyDepartedTours]

Great fun. Thank you.

[@johndelavina3335]

This is great. Any photos or video footage, no matter how complete or incomplete, is great to see. I visited Weho in 1978 and moved here in 1982. So many things came and went - for better or worse. But I had and continue to have great times.

[@fob1xxl]

Lived in WE HO from 1964-1978. The changes that took place are startling. Gay friendly NOT gay friendly ! The rent on my first apt. on Laurel Ave was $140.00 mo. SAME APT. SOLD as a condo for over & $1million. My other apts. On Rugby Dr, and Westmount Dr. In the '74 and '78 era rented for around $240.00 mo. and sold as Condos in the $800,00-$900,00 range. I loved my life there. It was my safe haven. Now that my life is coming to an end, I will always be thankful for having made friends there and for finding out who I was. Too many friends gone. Too many tears .

[@martinflores9322]

Laurel & what?

[@fob1xxl]

@@martinflores9322 on Laurel below Sunset and above Fountain.

[@fob1xxl]

@@TruthBeTold121212 Thanks for your thoughts. It's called life.

[@davidkrausell1741]

@@fob1xxl What city do you live now?

[@patr70]

@@fob1xxl Keep your head up. We're [all] in the same boat.. you're not alone 💖💖

[@davidkrausell1741]

So many people who used to visit all these places along Santa Monica blvd are now gone. Nothing is the same anymore. People or places everything changes and not for better sadly. I left LA after living there for fifteen years. I have no regrets. It's a new generation of people now.

[@patr70]

It's the same in San Diego.. everything has changed especially the people.

[@mrxman581]

Very true. I'm sure there are many less gay owned and operated businesses today compared to the 80s-90s. It seems to be gentrifying into a wealthier straight neighborhood.

[@randalljansta3469]

In the late 70s and early 80s I worked at Sidestreet, Koontz Hardware, Hamburger Habit. I loved going to the Blue Parrot, and other bars in the area. It was a great time in West Hollywood. Thanks for the memories.

[@patr70]

I find it interesting that all throughout the 1980s, the Sunset Strip, just up the hill from Santa Monica Blvd., was the "Heavy Metal" hangout for many young people. Two different scenes that were Worlds apart.. yet practically side-by-side.

[@mrxman581]

And there was a huge new wave and punk scene as well in the 80s.

[@mmccartney6579]

I can't believe you left out Schwab's Pharmacy. I practically lived there in 1965, and parking cars at Whisky a Go Go while waiting for my "big break!" :)

[@patr70]

Wow. So many memories. 🙄

[@nataleefonsec4846]

I remember the abbey club 1998. Amazing memories. Not to mention the iconic RAGE club.

[@patr70]

Yes.. all of the [awful] hot mess queens at the Rage. So many hot messes passed thru that place over the last 20 years.. although It might have been normal in the 80s and 90s.

[@ronniebishop2496]

That’s so nostalgic, makes me sad and happy too. Isn’t that strange? Thank you for posting this.

[@gizzykatkat9687]

I love West Hollywood!

[@incognitoyo8606]

Revolver reopened in its original location after this video was posted.

[@colt45peacemaker]

Remember Astro Burger, All American Burger. Gold coast closed some years ago and Circus Books closed this year.

[@gilbertmiller390]

Great production Michael

[@victoriamayo5774]

Loved it thankyou

[@YourfriendChrisEspinoza]

When I went to WeHo for the first time the day before pride, I wanted to feel how it's like being in WeHo as well as to preview pride. Also, I needed to get familiar with the streets of WeHo all thanks to Google maps as well as the official LA Pride Website. At least I wasn't lost during LA Pride.

[@MeMeDaVinci]

Enjoy the then and now photos....people forget quickly how things used to look.

[@Pureimagination200]

Born and raised in West Hollywood!

[@barryobrien7935]

The Four Star (circa 1965) was a very comfortable bar, safe from LA Police as this was unincorporated LA County controlled by sheriff’s dept. but you still couldn’t touch each other. LA city bars were subject to raids-YES-my how times have changed. I moved to Bay Area in 1977 and remember WeHo with fondness but could never deal with it now in my mid-eighties. I also lived in Los Feliz/Silverlake area (which I miss greatly)

[@lukas01986]

The stories you must have having lived through this wonderful time. 👍🏼

[@fakerating]

Around the 1890's, it was called the town of Sherman, named after Moses Sherman of the Railcars... then in 1925 it was a part of L.A. loosely informally called west Hollywood, but not a city. It was part of the County of L.A. until cityhood in 1984, when it became "The City of West Hollywood".

[@mmccartney6579]

It was called Hollywoodland before it was Hollywood. Cheers! :)

[@mrxman581]

​@@mmccartney6579That was a different area further East.

[@dougwest4440]

Marquis theater at Melrose and Doheny, Scout group cabin on Robertson,Red car Doheny and Santa Monica,parents moved to Rangely Ave in 1922 ,great neighborhood to grow up

[@mineralt]

WeHo is in my top 5 places in the US and I am straight as an arrow ❤

[@cyndykated358]

I went to GirlBar in its heyday...you know I’m old..if I’m saying heyday! It was so easy to drive 20 miles on the weekends to these clubs...now I’m content to stay close to home...actually in my home...lol

[@michaelterence1662]

Thanks for the video. I lived in and around WeHo from 1977 to 2000, and enjoyed seeing the long-gone sights -- especially the Blue Parrot (my first gay bar), which became Revolver, which became East/West, which became Revolver again. Will it become the Blue Parrot again next?

[@colt45peacemaker]

I remember Mother Load, Bullet, Trunks.

[@bobbenson6838]

THANKS SO MUCH

[@GeorgeVreelandHill]

WEHO was better in the 1980s.

[@patr70]

Waaay Better. But.. so were the Men! It started to get messy in the early 90s.. and you can thank Madonna for that one and all the new influx of messy queens. 🤓

[@toddstewart1962]

Awesome

[@daveaaron8209]

What I learned from this is weho was once cool and now....... well, sucks! And, yeah, that’s about it.

[@GUAMANIANable]

The Bekins storage building looks like a Mormon temple.

[@Westby100]

Bravo!

[@mac2phin]

You didn't show the Log Cabin on Robertson and Melrose.

[@2Brian]

Cool video, Micheal!

[@ronniebishop2496]

Wouldn’t it make anyone sad to just watch your country go away and your world, disappear from sight and almost everyone and everything you know and love gone. That’s how I feel watching this.

[@robertbazan4194]

Woah!!! Something VERY wrong here. The guy who did this must be very young and, if he is going back all the way to the 20s 40s..then, jumps to the 80s 90s and today......THERE IS ONE VERY IMPORTANT PIECE OF THE PUZZLE MISSING! Where is the legendary ..celebrity filled STUDIO ONE? One of the world's most famous DISCOS...it reigned supreme for 19 years...in the former Factory building. ....which is now the factory again...STUDIO ONE and its equally famous BACKLOT was an experience above and beyond. This present generation is letting our Gay History fall between the cracks and they are oblivious. He shows The FACTORY in the 1980s and the present. It was NOT the Factory in the 1980s. It was in the early 1970s....but from 1974 until the early 1990s it was STUDIO ONE DISCOTEQUE ..... Odyssey and Rage, too were overlooked

[@fob1xxl]

I know what you mean. I spent nearly 20 years going to Studio One, "'The Factory" is what it was called before it became "Studio One". Why he omitted that is anyone's guess.

[@ricklosangeles5043]

This video should be edited to include "Studio One" and "The Backlot"

[@harryfishback8173]

Is that where The rose Tatoo was? And the club was upstairs I think I remember 18 and over night back in the 80s used to see Will Wheaton there all the time.

[@impumagirl]

Yup they also hosted other clubs that would rent it mostly after hours like "Sanitarium" in like 1990 up til around mid 90's

[@MirageCA818]

Maybe the editor had a hard time finding pictures of the clubs during certain periods and the right info of the years they were open. I have yet to see a website that has all of this info. One would think they would have Gay History Of West Hollywood website by now its 2019.

[@davidlarson9125]

At 2:06 Palm is actually Hancock Avenue, it's correct in the photo that follows. Like many areas inhabited by gay men, the area of LA County known as West Hollywood, and then in 1984 the City of West Hollywood changed greatly. Incorporation brought local tax dollars, street improvements and the usual gayed-upness and then outright gentrification. Today WeHo retains it center of gayness albeit in an internet connected world that made bars and clubs less necessary. Unfortunately, some of these properties are very difficult to find suitable long-term tenants and portions of the streetscape suffer.

[@garyt5582]

the odyssey was the place to be!

[@harryfishback8173]

Right I was There from 83 till it closed.....

[@TheSeanm102]

1:29 is not the 1920s those cars are from the 1950s and 1:34 is not the 1940s the cars in the photo are from the 1920s

[@jbarnhart2653]

40's and 50's cars look about the same...I think he got the order wrong in the video. should have been obvious but I don't think he cares about that as much as the photo comparisons like with a lot of these vids,,,this ones kind of lazy and confusing in the first place.

[@IMeMineWho]

Um fine. But it Who is not just a gay area; it was also the Sunset Strip and Marilyn Monroe, the Rainbow and home to The Hollywood Vampires (Keith Moon, Alice Cooper, Ringo), the Whisky, the R oxy..first place NR played, home to the first HOB, etc.

[@bhanubhalla]

What's the background music?

[@MeMeDaVinci]

Bhanu Bhalla The music is "Legend of Babel" according to the video notes.

[@jillragaway7001]

He missed a huge 20+ year history of West Hollywood from the 60s and 70s, when 90069 was still just Los Angeles. He missed the lone train that rolled down the track/now median of Santa Monica Blvd, the 5 and dime, the Daisy, La Cienega Bowling Lanes, Propinquity, the Starwood, etc. I appreciate the work that went into it, but it's not a good representation of West Hollywood.

[@robbjmc2]

The original (non-Disco) version of this is from the Giorgio Moroder-conducted soundtrack to the 1984 re-release of Metropolis. This song was contributed by Moroder himself, but he also produced/included several great songs by Pat Benatar, Freddie Mercury, Bonnie Tyler, Adam Ant, Loverboy, Jon Anderson (of Yes) and more. I love the album -- worth a listen (it's here on youtube).

[@robbjmc2]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/op3Kn2x8adN9pq8

[@clevelandphil]

West Hollywood was nicer before they put holes In bathroom walls.

[@colt45peacemaker]

😱

[@PoleVault44]

Uh...all the gay bars in West Hollywood ? 🤔