What Hollywood, California was like in the early 1980s

Since it's been so long since I lived in California, when I do mention it, people ask me how different it was than today, and my response is that it was very crowded, very expensive, and the traffic was terrible. In other words, the same.

I moved to Los Angeles, specifically the Hollywood area, in 1983, right after I graduated from college. I got my graphic design degree at Arizona State, and decided that it would be good to move to "the big city" and see what it was like. And although I enjoyed many things about the experience, I have to admit that overall it was pretty grim.

First of all, I lived in an apartment on Argyle, at the base of the Hollywood Hills. The complex had been built in the 1920s, and was beautiful art deco, except for the part I lived in, which had been added on. So the complex had a combination of people like me, who were just glad to have a place to live, even if it was ratty and horrible, and people who lived in luxury and style, including rent control, in the original part of the complex.

But it was all I could afford, and I wanted to be able to look for a job on Wilshire Boulevard, where I'd always imagined that I would work, at an advertising agency. If you're familiar with Hollywood, I'll try to describe where the Argyle apartments were (and still are), just north of the Boulevard on Argyle at about where the Hollywood freeway curves. There's an entrance ramp there, not far from the Capitol Records building.

The sky was brown. Not just kinda hazy, but filthy brown. Don Henley described it in a song of his at the time as an "auburn sky". Decades of absolutely no pollution controls had created it, and even though attempts were being made to clean it up, it hadn't happened yet. It's so much clearer now, but people really don't believe me.

Since I was unemployed, there really wasn't much for me to do to pass the time. I sat outside on the patio quite a lot, and talked to my neighbors, and I even ventured out on foot to take a look at the businesses on Franklin. I may have bought a candy bar, but all I remember is that it was the first time I'd seen what was later explained to me were working girls (hookers, ladies of the evening, prostitutes) who would just hang around there. The underpass was a dangerous-looking place, where homeless people sheltered, so I stayed away from there.

I did walk down to the Boulevard once when I saw crowds of people streaming out of the hills, walking to watch the Hollywood Christmas parade. With a large group I felt safe, so I went along.

Madolyn Smith in Urban Cowboy, with John Travolta

The Hollywood party that I went to, where I got the autograph from Madolyn Smith (who was the "other" girl in Urban Cowboy) was a highlight. As I recall, there were mostly older people (over thirty), and I just walked in to see what the "lifestyles of the rich and famous" was like. It was pretty ordinary, people were mostly talking about their latest success, or failure, or what auditions they were going to. Madolyn's boyfriend at the time (wish I could remember his name!) had the wonderful announcement that he was going to have a part as a bad guy in "Knight Rider".

I only spent a year in Hollywood, and right after that I moved to Santa Barbara. And from that day on I became a "clean air freak". I live in Arizona now, where the skies are beautifully blue.

Let's go down to the Sunset Grill

We can watch the working girls go by

Watch the basket people walk around and mumble

Stare out at the auburn sky.

Don Henley

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