RondoHatton
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Dan Dees shoe repair shop was a time machine.
Had a pre-war or immediately post-war looking storefront. Neon sign and lots of stainless steel. Cat's paw soles and heels. A great, old, animated window display of a shoemaker hammering a heel on a last. As a child I had shoes resoled there, and I'm too old. Was part of a building on the N. W. corner of Hollywood & Vine. I believe the corner bldg. proper was an old dance hall, a Hodies restaurant (with scary neon sign of a clown) in my youth, even a Jack's Sugar Shack blues club in the early nineties. Last evolution was a short pose as a swanky restaurant/nightclub. I guess it was a friction fire - the insurance papers rubbing against the plans for a new development. More of L. A.'s famous urban renewal by arson? As I rode by several weeks ago, I shouted to the investigating arson firemen outside: "Developer arson!", and several turned to me, nodded and smiled and gave me the thumbs up. How else to get a tear down permit (I think the bldg had some minor historical status "protection"), other than to torch it? Just like the Ontra cafeteria next door, an old Hollywood institution, which "burnt" years ago, and is now a "hip, trendy" (gag, puke) development under construction. My bet is that few can afford the lofty prices for "artistes" lofts and it will be mostly empty and unsold for a long time. Rode past yesterday, the entire corner was being razed. Sad.
Had a pre-war or immediately post-war looking storefront. Neon sign and lots of stainless steel. Cat's paw soles and heels. A great, old, animated window display of a shoemaker hammering a heel on a last. As a child I had shoes resoled there, and I'm too old. Was part of a building on the N. W. corner of Hollywood & Vine. I believe the corner bldg. proper was an old dance hall, a Hodies restaurant (with scary neon sign of a clown) in my youth, even a Jack's Sugar Shack blues club in the early nineties. Last evolution was a short pose as a swanky restaurant/nightclub. I guess it was a friction fire - the insurance papers rubbing against the plans for a new development. More of L. A.'s famous urban renewal by arson? As I rode by several weeks ago, I shouted to the investigating arson firemen outside: "Developer arson!", and several turned to me, nodded and smiled and gave me the thumbs up. How else to get a tear down permit (I think the bldg had some minor historical status "protection"), other than to torch it? Just like the Ontra cafeteria next door, an old Hollywood institution, which "burnt" years ago, and is now a "hip, trendy" (gag, puke) development under construction. My bet is that few can afford the lofty prices for "artistes" lofts and it will be mostly empty and unsold for a long time. Rode past yesterday, the entire corner was being razed. Sad.
