@Witchhammer Hello, When this popular TV show called 77 Sunset Strip was on our TV, our dad already knew where the famed restaurant was located. He had gone to that place with friends and now, took our mom to dinner there. It was for our mom, an experience to be in a place that is only seen on TV. Weekly prime time TV shows, such as 77 Sunset Strip was popular among families. It ran for 6 years, but the series started to lose viewers as we got older. When my brother and I were building a modified plastic model version of the “Kookie” T-Bucket, our mom said that was the nicest build we did, out of all our models. We knew where she was getting the idea, while watching the TV show, she liked Edd “Kookie” Byrnes. We liked the roadster and while my brother built one from a kit, we still needed the swoopy header pipes. We had some wax rods that were used by jewelers to custom make rings, bracelets and broaches. They were called the Lost Wax Casting Rods. Blue flexible wax rods in all sizes and with a little heat, could bend in different shapes. We made almost the exact 4 down pipes, out the back headers and painted them silver. As long as the house was cold, the headers stood up to the long bends and length going out of the back. As our mom turned up the house heater, then the warm environment played havoc with the rods and the nice looking even headers started to droop. A T-Bucket with custom headers was the action for the finished project. Note: Eventually, my brother and I figured out to put in thin needles into the inside of the long pipes, (melted) then attached the 4 pipes per side to the needle area. That gave it more support in those “warmer times.” Jnaki The restaurant called Dino’s on the Sunset Blvd. location where the show was supposed to be filmed was part of the Hollywood cruising scene for the people (teenagers) we took up there on our long road trips. How funny, in her trips with our dad, our mom was happy to be cruising by the location and was totally impressed when dining inside. Note 2: “The 1950s show was filmed entirely on the Warner Brothers lot, but the opening 30-second sequence was filmed in front of Dino's Lodge, located at 8524 Sunset Boulevard. In the summer of 1958, Dean Martin and his business partner, Maury Samuels, bought a former restaurant called the Alpine Lodge. They hired Dean’s brother, Bill, to manage the place, and immediately renamed it Dino’s Lodge. Out front they placed an enormous neon sign featuring Dean Martin’s handsome face and it became one of Hollywood's campiest novelties.” “The “suit and tie” jazz joint was instantly hip, serving home-style Italian cuisine, steaks, and breakfast until 4 a.m. The interior included dark wood paneling and comfortable leather booths meant to replicate Martin’s personal den. Continuous entertainment was provided in a separate cocktail lounge that promoted female singers—perhaps Ole Dino didn’t want any male competition—but by 1960, he had flown the coop for The Sands in Las Vegas and sold the restaurant to new owners who kept the name and neon sign for 27 additional years. Visitors flocked to the restaurant in hopes of getting a glimpse of Dino, but his neon face is as close as they got.”
The Jalopy Journal
