What was LA like in the early 1980s?

Good film from 1985 (and a great soundtrack by Wang Chung of all people)

Well, there was the Olympics in '84.

“I long for an era I miss!”

Long and miss mean the same thing in that sentence.

Mellow

Melrose Avenue was cool, affordable, and hip.

Silver Lake was actually cheap.

Santa Monica had rent control. You'd have to bribe an owner or property manager, but you could have a nice apartment within walking distance of the beach.

Westwood was hopping with shops, movie theaters, record stores, and lots of young people.

West Hollywood was already full of boring clones and uninspiring restaurants. Regular guys went to the "1" bar on Melrose where there was an unspoken rule: no attitude.

The Beverly Center was new and quite polarizing.

Hollywood Boulevard was really raunchy and not quite as corporate. Some fun dive bars on side streets.

All the cool kids listened to KROQ, which became an incredibly influential station for others across the country.

Also:

Koreatown was really small, not the city unto itself it is today.

Thai Town wasn't a thing.

Culver City was a place you drove through to get somewhere else.

Palms wasn't a desirable neighborhood, but there was plenty of apartments relatively cheap.

There was very little reason to go to downtown L.A. unless you were Barrie Youngfellow and Ann Jillian reporting for work.

Hella smoggy. Full of water thieves.

My playground!

Like this

Can’t you watch American Gigolo?

Loved it!

Tracks with what I remember, r5.

Everyone was tan because who cared about skin cancer? SPF4? You won't even get a tan with SPF4!

Seriously - you couldn't even buy higher than SPF6. SPF8 was extremely rare.

My favorite Friedkin movie, r1. Willem Dafoe was sexy back then.

Sigh - California in the 70s and 80s sounded so great - sans serial killers, smog and AIDS.

r15-- The whole place was more affordable and accessible. You could listen to Linda Ronstadt at a local club with backup by the Eagles. The entertainment and defense industries were very present. El Segundo was a huge aviation hub. LA was a manufacturing hub.

Runaways became throwaways in Hollywood, a whole other group called push-outs were kids who were thrown out of their homes by parents that tired of them. They had it together better than the runaways.

Coke-dusted, I imagine.

1977 $125 Bachelor unit (but with kitchen!) in Palms - less than 6 months

1978-‘83 $150-$245 - One bedroom cottage in Culver City - 5 years

1983-‘91 $450-$745 - Two bedroom townhouse in Venice/Marina del Rey - 8 years

1991 Bought a house in Northeast LA, and been there ever since. No desire to return to the Westside anymore

A two bedroom apt near my CC cottage above is now renting for $3,050!

[quote]The whole place was more affordable and accessible.

As r18 points out, rent was cheap in many areas. You could be in your late teens or early 20s, working a menial job in a bookstore, clothing store, or restaurant, and be able to go out on your nights off. Maybe a concert or two once a month at a small club, and still have enough money for gas and weed or beer or whatever.

I do feel sorry for Gen Z for not even having the slightest taste of that carefree lifestyle.

That Go-Go's video is very evocative. I would see them all the time in punk clubs before they got famous. Two or three were butch or semi-butch lesbians. Belinda was enormous and would wear plastic trash bag dresses. They got new management, disappeared for a while, came back with a new member, and were turned into pop princess girly girls by their record company.

R18 - 2 bedrooms for $3k is cheap nowadays. Believe it or not. I'm paying more for my 1 bedroom.

R3, I read the OP and said to myself, "A tard says what?"

Lived there in mid to late eighties...it was all about Melrose Ave and The Beverly Center

It was also more Republican back then.

The bathhouses were hoppin'!

Pablo Picasso

This,,,

LAPD were antigay, hence West Hollywood. Long Beach was a dream of big hotties.

R21 if you can't play "nice" you will be given a " time out " dear.

I was an extra in Repo Man, r25.

Two Words:

RUTHLESS PEOPLE

I remember this store on Melrose that was all vintage mid-century dishware. The shelves were organized by maker - Russel Wright, Fiesta, Harlequin, Bauer, etc.

Also...

Though it's from 1972, the film [italic]The Outside Man[/italic] (alias [italic]Un Homme Est Mort[/italic]) would give you an excellent idea of what L.A. was like then. (It's also a great movie!)

There was very little reason to go to downtown L.A. unless you were Barrie Youngfellow and Ann Jillian reporting for work.…

^^Wrong. A building boom on Bunker Hill was in full swing. Downtown LA hit one of its peaks in the mid-late 80s.

It was fun. It was smoggy. The cars all sucked: were ugly and had no pick-up thanks to regulations. The fashions and music scene were great. It was not a good time to be a runner in LA. I was. My knees and asthma don't thank me now. The fashions were not forgiving, nor were the hairstyles. You had to be fit and somewhat decent looking to get away with anything. Otherwise, Uggos R Us. There was no Big and Tall or Hefty Hideaway for young people. SHAME made us all diet and exercise. Makeup was full of Blooming Colors. Hair was TEASED and big. Clothes had shoulder pads. Waists were not elastic. Belts were a thing. People were tan, very tan.

A good snapshot of this was Fast Times at Ridgemont High.

I lived in this old Pabst Blue Ribbon brewery for a few months in 1983. They were just starting to turn it into artist lofts.

I didn't get here till 1992. I'll have to wait for the 90s thread.

I worked at The Chateau Marmont in the 80's, before the Bar...

Wow, I'm just learning that MAC stood for Men's Action Center. I just always called it Mac's. Very strange to see it again. I lived in Los Feliz at the time.

How were the bath houses back then?

MAC's was my favorite, r40.

All seemed to breathe freedom and peace, etc.

[quote]How were the bath houses back then?

There was the Roman Holiday chain with outposts in Mar Vista (of all places) and the Valley. Very low-budget kitsch "Roman" theme inside.

Melrose Baths were in the middle of Melrose and really scuzzy.

There was a snooty body-conscious one in Hollywood; I forget the name because I never went there. Another was in an industrial area of downtown L.A. that catered to Hispanics and black men.

My favorite (and it was more a sex club than a bathhouse) was King of Hearts on Hyperion in Silver Lake. It was opened when people got tired of Basic Plumbing on La Brea, which was VERY snobbish about looks and turned away anyone who wasn't porn-star perfect. The outdoor area looked a lot like Mortville, the town in Desperate LIving.

But the raunchiest was at the corner of Santa Monica and Vermont, a big building in the corner of the parking lot of the Mayfair Market — I want to say it was The Tool Shed but that's not right. Again, not a bathhouse but ANYTHING went there, including piss and shit.

I lived for some months in the Hollywoodland motel in Studio City. It was sometimes sketchy: at 2 a.m. amred robbers kicked in my neighbor's door and robbed her and her boyfriend. Since my unit was closer to Ventura Blvd, they probably would have hit me but I fell asleep with the light and tv on. When my car was brokedn I used to walk to downtown Hollywood over the pass. There was no sidewalk, but there were always people making the hike at any time of day or night.

1980s?

Tons of blow and new wave music.

It was fun AF.

I'm an artist in Northern CA and spent a lot of time in LA from the late 70s - 1990s. Did a lot of art shows and fairs, sold to stores, and had some family connections in the area.

Some things I remember:

Frequently seeing celebrities, including selling some art to a few. Did a custom job for an eccentric entertainment lawyer who asked for an inscription on the piece, "With love to "IFORGETHISNAME" even though I didn't know him except for the commission. I happily obliged, he was fun crazy.

I went to galleries all the time. Loved the wild art and creative scene. Would hang out at some big night clubs, loved the shopping on Wilshire and scene in West Hollywood. One friend lived in one of those quirky Hollywood courtyard apartments from the 1920s. His landlord would corner you and talk your ear off. Would not shut up. Being polite, I listened in utter boredom.

Loved breakfast at Jewish delis in Burbank. One of my best friends grew up in the Valley. We'd go Eastern European folk dancing there in old second floor dance halls with fabulous wood floors. Great ethnic food everywhere, all kinds of niche ethnic neighborhoods.

Dated a future Emmy winner and a future multiple Academy Awards nominated film editor. Had la great time with him. Went to all the hot spots, La Brea Tarpits, museums, Getty etc. He lived in the Hollywood Hills. I sold to some chic shops back in the day. Loved the vintage stores on Melrose and elsewhere. In and out of some really cool homes. Sometimes stayed in the home of a friend in Pacific Palisades. One night Robin Williams dropped by with a friend of my friend. Just before Mork and Mindy fame. Robin was everywhere in those days, both SF and LA. He was always dropping by, unannounced, at comedy clubs late at night. Once, in SF, a friend and I and a couple other people were the only people in a small club, we got an exclusive show for 1.5 hours.

Venice was wild, around 1970 a college friend lived there in a quirky apartment building filled with crazed, high hippies. One woman dropped in and out with a cigar-sized joint and a jug of wine. Always high. Would sleep out at the Renaissance Faire in Malibu, frequented the oceanside steak houses as well as sprout diners on Sunset Blvd. Met pretty girls, friends of friends, who lived in anger while having affairs with rich and powerful men. I remember one young thing who was driven to climbing fences to see a married lover who was fazing her out.

Sex, fashion, fun, coke, and more sex. Beautiful people everywhere. I was young, good-looking, talented, but painfully shy. My art took me places places I would not have otherwise gone. People who do best in those scenes are those who are outgoing and socially confident. I managed to weasel my way into many hearts, not boldly but with subtlety and allure.