If you love the warm, dry, and sunny days all year long, if you love the beach; shopping, TV show, movies, and celebrities, then Los Angeles is the place for you.
I have been out to Los Angeles three times and it has become my very favorite vacation spot. My first visit there in September, 1978 to celebrate my 21st birthday with my father and brother. We stayed at the Holiday Inn in Santa Monica, and the location was just simply fabulous! Just imagine: staying right across the street from the world-famous Santa Monica pier; Palisades Park, where the palm trees stick up so high, and the excellent ocean views, you will think that you're on the Promenade de Anglais in Nice.
The room that I stayed at was right above the exit of the Santa Monica Freeway and had an excellent view of the city, especially a partial view of the Pacific Ocean.
Just a few feet down from the pier is the world-famous Santa Monica Beach. I just love lying on this world-famous stretch of beach, as well as walking the streets, listening to the oldies that I have taped off the radio stations here in Philadelphia. Can you imagine: being on vacation in another city and you're listening to something that you taped off the radio in Philadelphia? It's just a wonderful feeling.
Also within walking distance of the hotel are the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium, where the Academy Awards were held during the 60's, as well as numerous rock concerts (my brother went to see Al Stewart of Year of the Cat fame there)and award shows; the Santa Monica Courthouse, where celebrity trials and divorces have taken place, the world-famous Third Street Shopping Promenade, Sears, Robinson's, and a supermarket. A MC Donald's and an IHop were located right across the street from the hotel.
Who says that you need a car to get around Los Angeles? That is not true! There is public transportation in Los Angeles. In fact, there are bus routes in Santa Monica that will take you into Beverly Hills, Westwood, West Los Angeles, the Mid-Wilshire district, to UCLA, down to Venice, and into downtown Los Angeles. In fact, the Holiday Inn where I stayed at is located on a bus route that takes you along Wilshire Boulevard into downtown Los Angeles. For example: my brother and I went to see a taping of “The Price is Right” at the CBS studios.
We got off at Fairfax Avenue and took another bus to Beverly Blvd., where CBS is located. They separated everybody who was eligible to be a contestant. My brother was picked, and I wasn't. That's because they wanted you to have a drivers' license and a Social Security card. The song Disco Inferno by The Trammps and the late announcer, Johnny Olsen, warmed us up before the show started. After the show, my brother stayed to see a taping of The Mike Douglas Show, which had just moved to Los Angeles from Philadelphia, while I went across the street to see the 1974 film, The Lords of Flatbush; which featured a then-unknown Sylvester Stallone.
I also used this same bus route that continued up Fairfax Avenue to Sunset Blvd. continue on into Hollywood to connect to another bus that took me to Burbank, where I took a tour of the NBC Studios. On this particular tour, they were taping the short-lived Dick Clark's Live Wednesday, and there were also a few Elvis Presley imitators there as well.
My next visit to Los Angeles was in May of 1981, but this time, I went on my own. I did not stay in Santa Monica, but at the Holiday Inn (now the Hollywood Renaissance) in Hollywood. I flew down from San Francisco, and then took a shuttle bus from LAX to the hotel, but when I got there, my room wasn't quite ready yet.
I once again spent some time down in Santa Monica. I noticed a huge shopping mall, Santa Monica Place, right across the street from the Holiday Inn, which was not there during my previous visit. I went inside of this beauty supply shop, and asked the clerk when this opened up. She told me that it had opened up the previous November (1980) . It was something like the Gallery, a huge indoor shopping mall in downtown Philadelphia. But as usual, I went to lie on the beach listening to the oldies that I taped off of the radio in Philadelphia. I also took tours of both the movie stars' homes and Universal Studios, which I took on my previous visit, and I even took a bus tour Palm Springs. Once you're an hour east of Los Angeles, it is nothing but desert country, but saw a taping of The Tonight Show at NBC, and we were all was standing in line for practically three hours before we got in. The only guest that I can remember being on there that day was Joan Rivers.
