Allee Willis’ Kitsch O’ The Day – My Early Morning Drive Through Hollywood

Submitted by Allee Willis June 26th, 2011
Certifikitsch Winner

Bleary eyed from chasing a friend’s cat through the hills above the Hollywood Bowl all night last night – finally captured I’m happy to say! – I had to get up bone-breakingly early this morning to pick up a keyboard in Hollywood. My eyes were still practically glued shut but there’s so much kitsch along the roadways in this city, I can always deal with a situation as long as I remember to bring my camera. In addition to the above mural painted underneath the 101 on Argyle, here are but a few of the gems that crossed my car and eyeballs as I made my tired trek this morning.

There’s nothing better to me than when someone takes a plain building and slaps some cement art up on it.

Well, maybe this is a little better… taking a plain box of a house and attempting to make it look like the Parthenon with the MGM lions greeting you at the door:

I wonder if that person knows that plants can actually be planted in the ground? The only thing missing is a blue tree…

…and maybe this hedge as an entrance:

Thank God this bus wasn’t parked in front or passersby wouldn’t be able to see any of the architectural or fauna beauty:

Despite so many insanely wonderful vintage structures falling victim to the wrecking ball, Hollywood still has some incredible period architecture like this church hugging the entrance to the 101 On Hollywood Blvd.:

You can’t really tell how gorgeous this is from a distance but in addition to those incredible fins and peculiar arrangement of windows, the entire building is made up of 1 inch lavender mosaic tiles. Unfortunately, that wall was slapped up a few years ago depriving drivers of the building’s full beauty. Luckily, the full finned magnificence of the Peterson Automotive Museum on Wilshire and Fairfax is not hidden by a stupid wall.

I know that this is a hideous photo but I  took a short cut through a muddy construction site and barely had time to fumble for my camera as I passed this window:

Perhaps a close-up will reveal more of its beauty:

I swung by one of my favorite papusa places hoping to grab a little breakfast before I sped home to throw myself back in bed but it was closed. The mural still woke me up.

I hope everyone reading this has as jam-packed full and colorful a Sunday as this overly-enthusiastic balloon/cotton candy/inflatable toy man walking around Echo Park Lake this morning. Open your eyes. Beauty is all around you!

4 Responses to “Allee Willis’ Kitsch O’ The Day – My Early Morning Drive Through Hollywood”

  1. Mark Milligan

    Great pictures! I love the one of the Peterson Auto Museum. Those fins are so cool. Was that Bullock’s Department Store before it was a museum?

    • Allee Willis

      It was definitely a department store but I can’t remember which one. I just tried to Google it but I’m on such insane deadlines that I knew I needed to stop after the second search or all pay a price for it long after my eyelids want to shut for the night. But it’s certainly possible that it was Bullocks.

  2. Mark Milligan

    Wikipedia says “In 1962, Seibu opened a branch at the corner of Wilshire and Fairfax in Los Angeles.[1] It was the first Japanese department store in the United States. Despite much publicity, the store attracted little more than curiosity and closed after only two years. The building was later occupied by Ohrbach’s and is currently home to the Petersen Automotive Museum.”

    I did not know that.