On the Road: Central Avenue, Los Angeles, California

Click on Thumbnail for MapNote: First published on Blogger on May 4, 2007

Unfolding the Map

Though Jack doesn't say where he is on Central Avenue, I've taken the liberty to mark his visit to the area at 42nd and Central, the site of the Dunbar Hotel and the home of the modern day Central Avenue Jazz Festival. Central Avenue was the heart of the jazz scene in LA in the 1940s and 50s, and Jack was a jazz lover, so this makes sense. If you want to see where we are, click the map.

Book Quote

"Terry came out and led me by the hand to Central Avenue, which is the colored main drag of LA. And what a wild place it is, with chickenshacks barely big enough to house a jukebox, and the jukebox blowing nothing but blues, bop, and jump. We went up dirty tenement stairs and came to the room of Terry's friend Margarina, who owed Terry a skirt and a pair of shoes. Margarina was a lovely mulatto; her husband was black as spades and kindly....The wild humming night of Central Avenue -- the night of Hamp's 'Central Avenue Breakdown' -- howled and boomed along outside. They were singing in the halls, singing from their windows, just hell be damned and look out."

On the Road, Chapter 13

Central Avenue, Los Angeles, California

Of all the stops that Kerouac makes on his trip, I think this area must have been one of the most interesting places to be. This area has long been associated with the African-American population of Los Angeles, and has been the focal point for a couple of infamous news stories in the 20th century. It was in this general area, a little farther south, that the Watts riots took place in 1965. It was also in this general area, South Florence and Normandie, that the Rodney King riots happened in 1992.

However, in the 1940s, Central Avenue was the home of some of the most electrifying jazz and R&B in the country. Many of the biggest names in jazz music established themselves and helped create a Central Avenue sound that was unmatched. A night on Central Avenue must have been a night to remember. Jack describes the sounds Sal hears as he waits at Terry's friend's apartment. He describes hearing Lionel Hampton, "Hamp," an amazing jazz musician who established the vibraphone as a bona fide jazz instrument, in the "humming night." I'm sure that any modern jazz aficionado would have killed to be at that moment in time on Central Avenue.

I became aware of the Central Avenue sound when I purchased for my wife a four CD set called "Jazz on Central Avenue." Highlighting jazz from the 1920s through the 1950s, the set covers jazz luminaries from Jellyroll Morton to Miles Davis to Charlie Parker to Charles Mingus. All of these performers were either frequent visitors to Central Avenue, or residents of the area who most certainly performed there. It is a great CD set, and one that I've enjoyed in the years since we've had it.

In this day and age, when jazz has largely been confined to aficionados due to the overwhelming presence of pop and rock, it is easy to forget that jazz in the 40s was the pre-emininent American musical artform, and influenced the pop sounds of the day. People were as passionate about Miles Davis or John Coltrane then as they are about Britney and Justin, the Shins and 50 Cent, today. I know that I'm showing a lot of my ignorance of pop music by highlighting people who are not the flavor of the day, but I think you'll get my point. For Jack, who is in the middle of this scene at the right time, smoking "tea" and listening to the sounds of the Central Avenue night, it must have seemed like heaven.

If you want to know more about Central Avenue and its music scene

Central Avenue Jazz Festival
Central Avenue Sounds
Robert Gordon's Blog on West Coast Jazz
Wikipedia: Central Avenue

Some musicians of Central Avenue

Big Jay McNeely
Buddy Collette
Charles Mingus
Dexter Gordon
Lionel Hamption: Life and Legacy
Wikipedia: Lionel Hampton

Next up: Arcadia, California

On the Road: Sunset & Vine, Los Angeles, California

Click on Thumbnail for MapNote: First published on Blogger on April 20, 2007

Unfolding the Map

Into the midst of the teeming city Sal finds himself with his new girlfriend Terry. Today, Hollywood. Sal tries to get a job at Schwab's drugstore (which he locates at Sunset and Vine but which is actually a block away at Selma and Vine). What can be interpolated and extrapolated from Sal's words? Read on and find out, Littourati! Click the map for the latest update.

Book Quote

"We went to Hollywood to try to work in the drugstore at Sunset and Vine. Now there was a corner! Great families off jalopies from the hinterlands stood around the sidewalk gaping for sight of some movie star, and the movie star never showed up. When a limousine passed they rushed eagerly to the curb and ducked to look: some character in dark glasses sat inside with a bejeweled blonde. 'Don Ameche! Don Ameche!' 'No, George Murphy! George Murphy!' They milled around, looking at one another. Handsome queer boys who had come to Hollywood to be cowboys walked around, wetting their eyebrows with hincty fingertip. The most beautiful little gone gals in the world cut by in slacks; they came to be starlets; they ended up in drive-ins."

On the Road: Chapter 13

Sunset and Vine, Hollywood, California

Hollywood! Movie capital of the world (if you don't count Bollywood in India, which actually has made more films than Hollywood for years). Is it any wonder that Sal and Terri try to find a job here?

Hollywood enters our collective fantasies. Who hasn't wanted to be a star, or be close to the stars -- at least on a first name basis with one so that we can be invited to the parties. Nowadays we long for a glimpse of Paris Hilton, Lindsay Lohan, Leo, Bennifer, even though we publicly announce our lack of interest, or disapproval of their work, their ways and their life. If Paris Hilton were to walk into a coffee shop or restaurant that I happened to be in, I would probably be secretly thrilled for a moment, even as later I would be dismissing the effect to people I know. As Sal shows, the same desires were present in the 1940s, substituting the names of the day. Don Ameche! Was he a big star before that movie he made in the 80s about the old people and the alien cocoons? (Yes, he was!)

But, like Sal suggests, for every star Hollywood has many wanna-be stars working crappy jobs and trying to make it. It's not all a happy ending out there where American Idol finalists with some talent get movie and recording contracts. The entertainment industry is a cold mistress. Two of my high school companions went to L.A. in search of careers, one in stage and one in music. They tried it for years, struggling to find work even while getting a chance to hobnob with the big names once in a while. One is back in my hometown, and has become a local celebrity of sorts as a singer-songwriter, but certainly does not have the fame that he probably originally traveled to L.A. to find.

The other works at a financial advising company, moved away from L.A. in search of more affordable housing, and seems to have left the theater behind. I find this a bit sad, as he was such a good performer and he loved the theater. He probably could have made it in a different place where he didn't face so much competition. But L.A. is the gold standard, and if you can't make it there...

If you want to know more about Sunset and Vine, Schwab's drugstore, Don Ameche, George Murphy or Hollywood in general

Sunset Boulevard (Classic movie line: I'm ready for my close-up, Mr. DeMille.)
The Sunset Strip
Hollywood and Vicinity (in yesterdayla.com)
IMDB: Don Ameche
IMDB: George Murphy
Lana Turner, allegedly discovered at Schwab's
New York Time: Closing of Schwab's
Wikipedia: Don Ameche
Wikipedia: George Murphy
Wikipedia: Sunset Boulevard

Next up: Hollywood Boulevard, Hollywood, California

On the Road: South Main, Los Angeles, California

Click on Thumbnail for MapNote: First published on Blogger on April 29, 2007

Unfolding the Map

We've hit L.A., and will be moving in and around this large city for the next few posts. It is the city of lights and dreams for some, but does Sal get fame and fortune? Read on and see. Click on the map to see where we are presently.

Book Quote

"We got off the bus at Main Street, which was no different from where you get off a bus in Kansas City or Chicago or Boston -- red brick, dirty, characters drifting by, trolleys grating in the hopeless dawn, the whorey smell of a city....

"South Main Street, where Terry and I took strolls with hot dogs, was a fantastic carnival of lights and wildness. Booted cops frisked people on practically every corner. The beatest characters of the country swarmed on the sidewalks -- all of it under those soft Southern California stars that are lost in the brown halo of the huge desert encampment LA really is. You could smell tea, weed, I mean marijuana, floating in the air, together with the chili beans and beer. That grand wild sound of bop floated from beer parlors; it mixed medleys with every kind of cowboy and boogie-woogie in the American night. Everybody looked like Hassel. Wild Negroes with bop caps and goatees came laughing by; then long-haired broken down hipsters straight off Route 66 from New York; then old desert rats, carrying packs and heading for a park bench at the Plaza; then Methodist ministers with raveled sleeves, and an occasional Nature Boy saint in beard and sandals. I wanted to meet them all, talk to everybody, but Terry and I were too busy trying to get a buck together."

On the Road, Chapter 13

South Main Street, Los Angeles, California

Boy, is this a description of L.A. from the past! Nowadays we all have an image of Los Angeles. I bet you can think of a few of them from the top of your heads. Let's see: smog, traffic jams, movie and television stars, glamour, sunshine, beaches, parties, Academy Awards.

I have a confession to make. As I've said before, I'm a native Californian. I grew up in the northern half of the state, and as I've also said before in a previous post, the northern half of California has little love for the southern half of the state. So, in that spirit, I didn't truly visit Los Angeles until I was about 40 years old, and that was only because I went to a wedding.

Yet to fully understand all of California, you have to understand all of its parts. I'm still learning. I've now been in the L.A. area twice, and only for a short time. I wish that I had seen the L.A. that Sal describes. This L.A. sounds vibrant, interesting and condensed, like a city should be.

I suppose I should describe a little of what he saw, this carnival he writes of. Bop, of course, is the popular jazz of the day, the sounds of which permeates the the city. In the late 40s and early 50s, bop was the music that the most cutting edge people listened to. Hassel was the name Kerouac used as a pseudonym in On the Road for Herbert Huncke, who impressed Kerouac with his free-will choice to live off the streets by a life of petty crime. Hipsters were the counter-cultural crowd of the time, Jack's spiritual and ideological contemporaries, who loved jazz, experimented with drugs and had their own slang. They are somewhat distinct from what we now refer to as "hipsters." Desert rats were people who lived in rural (deserty) areas of the southwest U.S. Nature Boys were followers of the lifestyle espoused by Robert "Gypsy Boots" Bootzin, who was one of the earliest proponents of an organic lifestyle, including veganism, yoga, organics, and may have opened the first health food store in the world.

This melange of characters seem to be all located in one centralized location, which does not fit the images that most people, or at least I, have of L.A. Los Angeles seems to be very spread out and to not encourage this centralization. Perhaps back in the 40s, L.A. had a more big city feel to it, perhaps more of a grittiness and melting pot feel than today. I wonder if South Main Street is still like he describes, or if the character of it has changed or moved somewhere else in the city? Regardless, L.A. has become a destination that I would travel to again, based on my limited experience, because in places it is beautiful, there are still interesting people to watch and meet, and there are attractions that fit my definition of interesting.

If you want to learn more about South Main Street, Los Angeles, Nature Boys, Herbert Huncke and hipsters. Don't worry, we'll get to jazz and bop soon.

Beat Museum: Herbert Huncke
Gypsy Boots' Homepage
Herbert Huncke interview
Making a Life in South Los Angeles
The Morning News: Do You have Hipsters
Wikipedia: Herbert Huncke
Wikipedia: Hipsters in the 1940s
Wikipedia: Hipsters (contemporary)
Wikipedia: Robert "Gypsy Boots" Bootzin
Wikipedia: South Los Angeles

Next up: Sunset and Vine, Los Angeles, California