Peer Reviewed

Title: [Research and Debate]

Journal Issue: Places, 18(3)

Author: Pinkus, Karen

Publication Date: 2006

Publication Info: Places

Permalink: http://escholarship.org/uc/item/89w497p3

Acknowledgements: This article was originally produced in Places Journal. To subscribe, visit www.places-journal.org. For reprint information, contact [email protected].

Keywords: places, placemaking, architecture, environment, , urban design, public realm, planning, design, Hollywood, panorama, research, debate, Karen Pinkus

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eScholarship provides open access, scholarly publishing services to the University of California and delivers a dynamic research platform to scholars worldwide. Hollywood Panorama

Karen Pinkus

On a rundown strip of Hollywood Open limited hours for a small its interim use as a travel agency, Boulevard, at the confluence of two suggested donation, it bore an when Velas moved in, a worn sign neighborhoods recently baptized uncanny resemblance to those (prin- with a golden crown still enticed Thai Town and Little Armenia, the cipally European) nineteenth-century passing drivers to stop for pizza and artist Sara Velas rented an abandoned structures that housed a succession ice cream. fast-food stand with a domed ceiling of proto-cinematic spectacles. The As an icon of local “exotica,” the in 2001, and painted a 360-degree rhetoric, typography and imagery Rotunda had long served as a land- panorama titled Valley of the Smokes. adapted by Velas also referred to mark for motorists. Yet, despite its For about three years, until 2004 this strangely “democratic” period visual prominence, its milieu typified when she lost her lease to a proposed of peepshows, magic lanterns, zoe- the largely bypassed nature of East redevelopment, the “Velaslavasay tropes, and other visual marvels. Hollywood. Adjacent land was par- Panorama” stood as a found object in The building that accommodated tially filled with weeds and rusted car the landscape of Hollywood. Velas’s Panorama, the former South parts. A prop rental agency—Jose’s Seas-themed Tswuun-Tswuun Art Yard—occupied another part of Rotunda, provided an unusual com- the property, displaying Aztec gods plement. Built in 1968 in the exuber- and Rococo fountains cast in plaster. Above: The former site of the Velaslavasay Panorama ant Googie style, it was roofed with Behind was a rather down-and-out at 5553 Hollywood Boulevard. Photo courtesy of the faded sky-blue shingles and capped bungalow court, of a sort common in Velaslavasay Panorama. with a glowing orange ball. Despite the area.

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Amidst this jumble, the Rotunda appeared to hover like an ultra- modern spaceship, mirroring the form of the Griffith Obser- vatory in the hills above. This was no accident, since the Googie style, in celebration of ’ euphoric car culture of the 1950s and 60s interpellated the driver rather than the pedestrian.1 In its roundness, the Tswuun- Tswuun also owed a formal debt to the drive-in restaurant. According to Alan Hess, round or octagonal shapes “…allowed carhops to glide from kitchen to car fast enough that the barbecue stayed hot.”2 “Roundness” also created a sense of panoramic, ver- tiginous openness, as customers arriv- ing by car could look in on three sides ciated with geognosy (the produc- building in which a painting referred to see their food being prepared.3 tion of knowledge about the earth), it to as a panorama is exhibited, that In its particulars, the Rotunda developed in a reciprocal relation with is to say painted on the inside wall could be seen as a more modest, surveying tools and techniques. of a rotunda, covered by a or anonymous variation on a recog- Stephan Oetermann has argued cone-shaped roof.”8 nized icon of the style, the 1953 the modern use of the word to repre- During the nineteenth century, McDonald’s in nearby Downey.4 sent a broader pattern for organizing before the advent of commercial This building was rescued from visual experience only developed, cinema, painted achieved demolition and listed by the National “…when the technical terms coined significant popularity. Yet their pro- Register of Historical Places in 1984 to denote a new type of round paint- duction provoked a certain tension, (an outcome that was, however, ing came to be applied generally to and some panoramas were criticized never seriously considered for the mean ‘circular vista, overview’ (from as pandering to the masses, in spite Rotunda).5 an elevated point) of a real landscape of—or perhaps precisely because In theory, then, the Velaslava- or cityscape; this was very soon fol- of—the great skill and artisanship say Panorama might have opened lowed by metaphorical use to mean a involved in their creation.9 itself to ironic critique based on the ‘survey’ or ‘overview’ of a particular Panoramic painting also raised a paradox of low-tech effect in the field of knowledge.”6 series of ethical questions about truth capital of hyperreality. Yet, against all From its beginnings, panoramic and vision that would become better odds, it managed to inhabit the pecu- painting was also conflated with the elaborated in early film criticism. In liar geographical space of East Holly- built container. ’s his 1807 Handbuch der Aesthetik, J.A. wood in a natural and affective—one patent application in 1787 read: Eberhardt criticized the panorama might even say, democratic—way. “There must be a circular building for evoking nausea and vertigo, and or framing erected, on which this for the lack of freedom to escape the An Artwork drawing or painting may be per- The word “panorama” is pieced formed; or the same may be done on together from the Greek roots pan (all) canvas or other materials, and fixed Above: The Panorama gardens contained such and horama (view). As a painterly form, or suspended on the same building “supplementary attractions” as a mock Avian Alcove, 7 the panorama originated in England or framing.” A late-nineteenth- a mobile camera obscura, and furniture salvaged from during the industrial revolution and century dictionary of building terms a Polynesian-themed restaurant by Armét and Davis. spread rapidly through . Asso- similarly defined panorama as “a Photo courtesy of the Velaslavasay Panorama.

Places 18.3 59 painterly illusion.10 Thus, viewers of used artificial devices such as an into a calm sky. It was quite moving in seascape panoramas sometimes com- “Alberti’s veil,” a square frame with its sparseness, and it made no effort at plained of seasickness, and the pan- string stretched across it, or even a glitz or glamour. oramic experience was said to provoke camera obscura. The invention of Velas’s painting was decidedly hysterical reactions in female viewers.11 daguerreotype allowed naturalism unironic. When viewed in context Before setting out to produce her to be achieved at considerably less of a work like Mike Davis’s City of own work, Velas, a one-time intern expense. But for her part, Velas worked Quartz, one might wonder what it at the Museum of Jurassic Technol- from preliminary charcoal drawings did not say about the lived reality of ogy in Venice, California, studied that she stretched over the rounded early Los Angeles as a space of labor the great painted panoramas still in wall as she developed her ideas. struggle, racism, and genocide toward existence: Alpine in Austria The visitor to Velas’s Panorama the indigenous population. But, fun- and Switzerland, sweeping battle first navigated a semi-dark corridor. damentally, Valley of the Smokes was scenes in Scandinavia, and so on.12 Inside, her low-key, earthy Valley of about the land, about Los Angeles as a To achieve the proper perspectival the Smokes offered a fantasized, natu- collection of sparsely inhabited micro- illusion, early panoramists frequently ralist view of the Los Angeles basin climates or ecologies. in the nineteenth century. The work An interesting sidelight to many Above: Installation view of the panoramic painting depicted a series of hillsides, with of the early panoramas was that they Valley of the Smokes. Photo courtesy of the Velaslavasay native plants and small brush fires offered adjunct spectacles for the Panorama. emitting curls of smoke that faded price of admission: gardens, statuary,

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costumed ushers, simulated meteoro- A Building down from the logical conditions, sonorous effects, Viewing Valley of the Smokes— mountains and set ordinary clients, or appropriate odors diffused into the which appeared rather squat, espe- ordinary people free.”16 Like the air. A “visit to the panorama” might cially compared with its apparently “” homes scattered around have included a variety of different infinite width—one couldn’t help Hollywood, it was meant to be widely sensory experiences not limited to think of the various technologies accessible: inexpensive, a bit ludicrous, contemplation of the painting itself.13 of wide-screen cinema. In fact, the an exciting antidote to the boredom In a sweetly parodic register, the Velaslavasay Panorama explicitly of the postwar office inhabited by the Velaslavasay Panorama paid homage referenced the Cinerama Dome man in the gray flannel suit. to such supplementary attractions. on in its public- Googie represented a freedom to It boasted an Avian Alcove, where ity materials. Even more resonant, consume joyfully, and pluralistically. “exotic birds,” some painted on a however, were the associations pro- And in the case of Southern Califor- backdrop, some sculpted or stuffed, duced by its execution inside a promi- nia, traces of such freedom can still be emitted calls recorded on a lo-fi nent Googie building. found—as can a few extant remnants soundtrack.14 Pet rabbits could be Googie, also known as Coffee Shop of the style—in overlooked areas, seen hopping around the yard. And Modern, was a style often character- small corners of underdeveloped space Velas and her friends often sat outside ized by “Mesozoic” (“Flintstone”), such as that once occupied by the on wrought-iron furniture, where space-age or atomic details, vibrant Tswuun-Tswuun Rotunda. the landscaping included elements colors, and tropical vegetation set off salvaged from a Polynesian-themed with floodlights. Although Googie A Neighborhood building by Armét and Davis, the was related to organic forms, it was Shortly after I completed a first supreme masters of Southern Califor- deliberately not supposed to look draft of this essay, Velas announced nia kitsch. natural. Indeed, at its best, it appeared that her Panorama would be forced Velas also added a mobile camera to defy gravity. to close. The land it occupied (along obscura to the Panorama grounds. It In contrast to mid-century mini- with the adjacent prop yard) had allowed spectators to view the build- malism, Googie buildings shunned been purchased by the developer ing and its contents from various “high” modernist glass and steel, and of a large mall at Sunset and Vine angles, projected with crystalline (one made use of plastics or any available (as well as a smaller one at Sunset could almost say, digital) clarity on materials. For this reason, the term an interior screen, but upside down. “googie” soon evolved into a pejora- The effect was extremely disorient- tive that critics associated with sloppy Above and following pages: The panoramic painting 15 ing, since even with the naked eye, workmanship and cheesy materials. Valley of the Smokes was on view at the Velaslavasay the Panorama seemed to waver, its But Googie style has also been Panorama from 2001 to 2004. It was approximately edges slightly blurred, almost as if sur- hailed as genuinely American and 6o feet in circumference (18.3 meters). Photo by rounded by a haze of gasoline. democratic, something that “brought Lawrence Underhill.

Places 18.3 61 and Western—where a Walgreen’s a Whole Foods Market there. Like features the Downtowner, a low- had replaced the former Pussy Cat Starbucks, Whole Foods styles itself budget with a Flintstone facade, Theater). The announcement forced as ecologically considerate, youth flashing neon sign, and of me to shift from present to past tense, oriented, and politically conscious.19 exotic plants lit by green-filtered flood and to consider the importance of But its New Age, organic aura veils an lamps.22 There is also the St. Francis Velaslavasay Panorama as a phenom- aggressive corporate growth strategy hostel and SRO; the Saint Gabriel enon of limited duration. based on demographic research, con- retirement home—a down-and-out When Velas moved in, the servative labor policies, and strategic hall with a halo for a logo; Le Sex neighborhood, while still rather real estate investment. Discount Shoppe; and the Thai Town downtrodden, seemed to be on the By contrast, the Panorama was a Hot Dog stand (the current owners of upswing. Yet, in contrast to other art- unique landmark, not because it was this establishment made the unusually developers, she did not seek to turn architecturally or historically signifi- felicitous decision to keep an existing it around.17 Likewise, there are few cant, and not simply because it was large hot dog atop their Asian takeout, signs of the type of gentrification that atavistic. Rather, in the play between which is located catty-corner from the usually follows when artists move in. its interior and exterior, its high-art Red Line subway station). While a few cafes dot the landscape, concept and pop-culture form, its Several blocks away Thai Elvis the area around the intersection historical and futuristic referents, it performs. On Western Avenue, a of Hollywood and Western has no improved its environment without rather dubious-looking, windowless art galleries, studios, mid-century- displacing residents, destroying char- bar called The Study has apparently modern furniture stores, or hip bars.18 acteristic structures, or imposing new managed to stay in business next door And it is still common to see homeless levels of consumption. to a Thai beauty parlor and a casino- wheeling shopping carts and elderly Velas does not feel her Panorama dealing school. A Korean church has residents buying wilted produce from helped pave the way for designer purchased an arid plot of land filled the back of trucks. produce and juice bars. And, truth- with enormous candelabra cactuses Nevertheless, the City of Los fully, while Whole Foods may be part on a block that also includes the neo- Angeles is undergoing a crisis of of a larger process of “revitalization,” Federal-style Coral Sands Motel, a conscience and planning, as regional it will probably not displace the small halfway house, a prosthetic limb shop, population growth brings a radical Armenian and Thai vendors nearby.20 and an employment agency with a realignment of its semi-urban, semi- The area near the intersection of scrolling red neon sign. suburban space. The Panorama stood Hollywood and Western has also In terms of neighborhood resi- at the vortex of transformation, more never had a history, in the words of dents, Armenian families generally as a witness than a catalyst. Paul Goldberger, of being a “grand populate the extant stucco-box apart- As part of this urban restructuring, civic environment.”21 A shopping ment complexes between Hollywood the developer of the Rotunda site, mall was recently built there, but this and Franklin Avenues. Developers of the Bond Company, plans to build stretch of Hollywood Boulevard also the mall just within view of the former

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Of course, curious locals did, on occasion, come to visit. And Velas did distribute brochures in various lan- guages (including Armenian and Thai; but also Korean, Italian, Japanese, and Esperanto). A number of articles also appeared on the Panorama; and Huell Howser, host of a PBS show on Cali- fornia oddities and landmarks, filmed an episode there.25 But while public art groups— notably the LA-based Power of Place—have worked with defined communities to retrieve repressed cul- tural memories, the Panorama seemed more intent on imposing a fictional American memory on a noncommu- nity of various ethnicities.26 Rotunda constructed affordable tion being perhaps as valued as drawing housing above the stores in accor- skill.” It “reflects a critical realism Epilogue dance with LA’s inclusionary zoning derived from Marxism, feminism and In the late spring of 2004, friends regulations.23 And a complex of ecology which implies that artists and neighbors were invited to a wake senior-citizen apartment units set off act for and with others in reclaiming for the Panorama. The ritual was by Mondrianesque primary-colored responsibility for their futures.”24 attended by a heterogeneous group, rectangles has cropped up above the Far from developing such a critical including “Modcom hipsters,” punks, Western/Hollywood subway stop, realism, the Velaslavasay Panorama and elderly residents of East Holly- complementing the bare, functional appeared to inhabit the landscape pas- wood. Even Huell Howser, himself, townhouses to the immediate south. sively, waiting to be discovered, exist- attended briefly. Velas gave out cut- As a work of art, the Panorama did ing not as an intellectual monument tings from plants that had graced the not strive to empower these people so much as a quasi-organic growth. yard. Mourners sipped champagne or even create new public space for It was neither a commissioned, nor the neighborhood. Malcolm Miles a site-specific work. Indeed, Velas’s has written about how a new genre of plans to display a painted panorama Above: Thai Town Express takeout occupies a former public art “acts as a catalyst for other predated her felicitous location of the hotdog stand near the corner of Hollywood Boulevard people’s creativity, political imagina- Rotunda building. and Western Avenue. Photos by Bernard Yenelouis.

Places 18.3 63 cocktails and ate slices of homemade accompanied by a timed light show project (ironically also containing a Whole Foods purple bundt cake. Someone climbed and soundtrack. It is not specifically market) that one commentator described as “Spanish to the peak of the rotunda and pulled related to Los Angeles. But, as she colonial by way of ,” and that (like similar down the orange ball that had glowed explained, it is exotic “without being complexes such as The Palazzo at Park Labrea) would there for so many years. It seemed a exotic in a bad way.” create a kind of fortress selling a gated lifestyle. See truly democratic moment. The new work will not fit organi- http://ggpnc.org/gg-4500lfrenderings.html. In early September 2005 the cally inside the new building. It will 4. This oldest-extant drive-in McDonald’s is discussed Rotunda was finally torn down. Plans instead be installed on rounded walls extensively by Alan Hess in Googie, pp. 96-107. for the site currently call for 42,000 built inside a square room. Never- Although it is not round in form, the golden arches sq.ft. of retail space on the ground theless, like Valley of The Smokes, it that were part of the original design bought from floor, with the second floor and promises to engage its environment in the McDonald brothers by Ray Kroc (founder of rooftop levels used for parking. Draw- interesting ways. Too small and pecu- the McDonald’s Corporation) proved a much more ings show how the two sides of the liar to transform an entire landscape, enduring means of expressing the same design spirit. building will meet in a rounded series its very localness promises to help 5. Admittedly, the Rotunda was probably not worth of glass bands resembling both the define and delimit the idea of a neigh- saving, although there was much discussion on the Capital building at Yucca and Vine, borhood in the megacity. ModCom message board (http://www.lottaliving. 27 and the Staples Center downtown. com) about ways to move it or convince developers Some members of the local neigh- Notes to include it in their plans for the site. In some ways, borhood council have embraced the 1. Among relevant works on building in relation to the though, the point of this article is that while the project, while others have expressed automobile, see Jonathan Bell, Carchitecture: When the structure was not historically significant, its very concerns about parking, congestion, Car and the City Collide (: August Press, 2001); unassuming typicality made it important in the context and other impacts. But at the time of Richard Longstreth, City Center to Regional Mall: of the neighborhood. this writing it is almost certain Whole Architecture, the Automobile, and Retailing in Los Angeles, 6. Stephan Oetermann, The Panorama: History of a Mass Foods will eventually move in. 1920-1950 (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1997); and Medium, trans. Deborah Lucas Schneider (New York: Meanwhile, Velas has located Peter Wollen and Joe Kerr, eds., Autopia (London: Zone Books, 1997), p. 7. another venue, the abandoned Union Reaktion Books, 2001). 7. Cited in Hans Buddemeier, Panorama, , movie theater on 24th Street in the 2. Alan Hess, Googie (San Francisco: Chronicle Books, Photographie: Entstehung und Wirkung neuer Medien im West Adams neighborhood near the 1985), p. 39. 19. Jahrhundert (Munich: W. Fink, 1970), p. 163. University of .28 3. Another round building that bears mention is 8. Cited in Bernard Comment, The Painted Panorama Here the salvaged orange ball from the Hollywood’s famous Brown Derby. Most of LA’s (Le XIXeme siècle des Panoramas), trans. Anne-Marie Rotunda tops the marquee, lit at night original hat-shaped Brown Derby Restaurants (a chain Glasheen (New York: Abrams, 1999), p. 7. courtesy of a grant from the Community partly owned by Cecil B. DeMille) were demolished 9. “The artistic elite felt threatened by the panorama: Redevelopment Agency of Los Angeles. without fanfare, but the LA Conservancy pushed hard they feared that their artistic activities would be She expects to unveil a new paint- to save the one at 4500 Los Feliz Boulevard. Its site snatched away from them, especially as panoramists ing in the near future—an arctic scene had been proposed as part of a luxury redevelopment were about to venture into territory close guarded by

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the academies—that of war and battles—that could building. The lobby still boasts a few mod, curvy Rashid Angeles architecture, see John Chase’s comments on be incorporated from near or far away into historic chairs, although they are starting to appear faded. Flintstone detailing in Glitter Stucco & Dumpster Diving painting.” Ibid., p. 87. But over the course of the last few years, Jakob was (New York and London: Verso, 2000). 10. Ibid. pp. 97-103. forced to sell his properties to condo developers. See 23. For the effect of inclusionary zoning regulation 11. I am grateful to Natania Meeker for pointing me Ed Liebowitz “From Bleak to Boutique,” Los Angeles in Los Angeles, see Robert Greene, “Welcome to to the above sources regarding panoramic vertigo. Magazine, vol. 46, issue 11 (Nov. 2001), pp. 60-65. Planning 101,” LA Weekly (Nov. 19-25, 2004), p. 33. Another is Adolf von Hildebrand, Das Problem der 18. In “Tall Drinks, Short Hops,” L.A. Weekly (Sept. 24. Malcolm Miles, Art, Space and the City (London and Form in der bildenden Kunst (Strassburg: Heitz, 1901). 30-Oct. 6, 2005), p. 58, Caroline Ryder claims, “This New York: Routledge, 1997), p. 12. 12. More recently she has been invited by the intersection is known more for its crack dealers, 25. “Visiting with Huell Howser,” program 911. International Panorama Council to speak about cheap Thai barbecues and adult bookstores than its 26. About the Power of Place group’s work in Little her work. Last year she attended a conference and hot bar scene.” Tokyo, Malcolm Miles noted: “whilst this project fits workshop in China, where panoramic painting is still a 19. See Jon Gertner, “The Virtue in $6 Heirloom many of the requirements of alternative public art, in highly-valued form of public art. Tomatoes,” The New York Times (June 6, 2004), Section collaborating with a defined community to embody 13. Comment, The Painted Panorama, p. 87. 6, p. 44. memories of place, in dealing with local rather than 14. I want to suggest a conceptual or thematic link 20. Most of the new market’s affluent customers will global history, and in its low-key intervention in the between this Avian Alcove and another “exotic” likely come down from the hills above, as they have physical environment arising out of a lengthy link to Southern California landmark of the Googie era, since at least the 1920s and 30s to shop on the “flats.” the social environment, it also raises the question: Disneyland’s Enchanted Tiki Room. Opened in 1963, See Longstreth, City Center to Regional Mall, p. 83. once a community is empowered to the extent of it featured animatronic parrots who led the audience 21. Goldberger was referring to the transformation regaining its cultural identity, what do they do with in a chorus of “Let’s All Sing Like the Birdies Do.” See of the area around New York’s Union Square. that empowerment to become co-designers of their Francesco Adinolfi, Mondo Exotica (Turin: Einaudi, Cited in Rosalyn Deutsche, Evictions: Art and Spatial city, to occupy that place where the form of the city is 2000), pp. 8, 99. Politics (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1996), p. 3. Deutsch determined?” Art, Space and the City, p. 178. 15. Hess, Googie, p. 62. The term was actually describes how the change in Union Square from 27. For the upcoming plans for construction, including introduced in an essay titled “Googie Architecture,” “a deteriorated yet active precinct” to a “luxury conceptual images, see http://www.cajaeir.com/ House and Home, 1 (February, 1952), pp. 86-88. Also see ‘mixed-used’ neighborhood” is an example of the portfolio/wholefoods.html. Ed Leibowitz, “Out from Under the Wrecking Ball,” recent “unprecedented degree of change in the class 28. During this transition period, a view of Valley of the Smithsonian 31, n. 9 (December 2000), pp. 112-22. composition of New York neighborhoods” (p. 12). Smokes, now dismantled, can be viewed at the history 16. Cited in Hess, Googie, p. 62. There are certain similarities with the area of East section of www.panoramaonview.org. 17. When the Panorama was relatively new, an Hollywood formerly occupied by the panorama. article in Los Angeles Magazine recounted plans by Yet in LA, residents do not have the same sense of developer Urs Jakob and artist/designer Karim neighborhood history, development tends not to be Rashid to transform the neighborhood, starting with so immediately politicized, corporate interests are a hip, upscale hostel in the single-room-occupancy smaller, and class changes occur more slowly and with St. Francis Hotel. Since this time, the St. Francis has less visible impact. continued to operate as a mixed-use (SRO and hostel) 22. As an element of vernacular, “democratic,” Los

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