It seems that the HAMB has spawned a club of boulevard desperados called Los Boulevardos. Lots of folks I like are in it. Graverobber asked me for a tale about how it was on Bellflower Blvd in the sixties. Might as well start a thread so some other folks can chime in, right? Me first. A little stream of conscience riffing. 1965. I had a '55 Buick Century, lowered to 3' off the ground. Green over cream, not particularly a nice car, but what I could afford. It had black wheels with baby moons and pin walls. I had TWO record players in the car. A Norelco Toaster type for playing 45s while driving and a B&N album player that only worked when I was parked because that ol' Buick tacoed too much to keep the needle in the groove. Took the car to Baron & Roth's shop on Slauson in Maywood and had Ed put "Wiggle Wobble" on the side windows with real long quotation marks, as was their style. I guess I was a pre Rat Rod, rat rod. I thought I was cool, though. Friday night. Get off work and wash the car. Hit Bellflower about 7 pm on a summer night. Man! The Boulevard was happening then, there were humble cars like mine, girls out in their parents 4 doors, a few hot rods, not that many though. There were lots of muscle cars, 'Cudas, GTOs, 409 Chevies, 'Vettes, E type Jags. The rich kids out stylin'. But the coolest of all were the customs and mild customs. Acres of candy painted cars rolling on Astro Supremes and wire wheels. Martinez interiors with 1" pleats. Watson panel paint jobs. '54 Bel Airs, a '57 Pontiac black with candy Indian Torquoise in the spears, a '54 Chrysler wagon, candy root beer brown on hydralics with Imperial wires, Watson' G****vine. Those cars were the ones that got the coveted front place parking spots at Harvey's Broiler, Hody's on Lakewood Blvd, the Clock on Bellflower, Oscar's at the traffic circle, A&W on the blvd. But the best part was driving between those hang outs. We'd sit low in the seats, hair styled, arm hanging out the window. Bobby "Blue" Bland or Gene Chandler on the 45 player. Seeing and being seen. I think the reason that Supremes and spinner hubcaps and wire wheels were popular was the way they flashed in the streetlights while we p***ed each other. My usual circuit went: Start at the Tip Top and check out my friends to see what was happening in the way of parties. Then the Bellflower to cruise the A&W. I had to go in the back way because the driveway was too steep for my car, most of the s****ers did too. Most times we didn't get a root beer, just bopped through to check out the cars. Then north up Bellflower to the Taco Hour. Same thing, just swing through and look cool with my arm hanging down the side. Then up to the Clock, up to Firestone Blvd to Harvey's. make a p*** through. By then it was CROWDED. I'd park on Firestone and walk through Harvey's because that's where the really *****en cars hung out. You were NOT allowed to park at Harvey's if your car wasn't show quality. Not at all on the weekends and on week nights only in the back lot. The front row was for the Sultans, Renegades and Cut Outs. And a few other clubs. Then we went back down Bellflower blvd, making p***es through all the drive ins and then to Long Beach where we'd cruise the Cinnamon Cinder. Then I'd park at Oscar's and turn on my album player with Jimmy Reed, Live at Carnegie Hall. We'd hang until friends cruised by or go hit the circuit again. To accomplish that took 2 or 2 1/2 hours. There would be thousands of cars. And the cops were busy trying to give everyone tickets. I got to know several Bellflower cops all too well. From '65 to '67 I bet I got 18 too low, too loud tickets. It was fun. I'm glad I got to do it. By '67 the paint jobs were so wild. Lace, panels, seaweed flames, flake, spider webbing, man, you name it. Then it went away. Just like that! People grew their hair long. Went to war and came back different. Or didn't come back. Car guys went racing or found new p***ions. The chopper deal started then too. And vans, Ugly vans. Now it's sort of coming back. I have seen cars that would look right at home on Bellflower Blvd, circa '65. I dig it. Keep it up, you Boulevardiers.
Great read!! I'm too young to have experienced that myself.. But reading stories like that sure as hell make you feel like you were there thanks for taking the time to put your memories to words.. Tony
I'm bumping this, not because I want more people to read my story, but because I want to hear how it was in other places. How about a Woodward Ave story? Hasen't Story Road in San Jose been a car scene for decades? Did the East Coast car guys really hang at malt shops? Really? PS, it was a different scene in different parts of Southern Califas back then too. Van Nuys Blvd was a hot bed of REALLY fast street racers. Whittier Blvd had some sweet lowrider cars then. Plus there's my well do***ented fondness for Chicana Chicas.;-) Back in the Boulevard days I used to cruise D Street in Wilmington. I wince to recall how many times that ended up in fights. (Chingasos). Colorado Blvd in Pasadena was the place for hot rods and racers also. When I was a teenager in the Antelope Valley when it was just a tiny place there was the A&W and the Bowling alley. We used to give each other hard looks on the road between. C'mon. Spill some tales.
Hey, I was there. Driving my 56 f-100 big window at the time. Low as I could get it, Black with chrome smoothies, wide whites, TJ tuck and roll and 60 corvette tail lights in the rear fenders. Still have my 45 record player in my 53 chevy now. Everyone went to the blacksmith on Bellflower Blvd to have their springs heated and coils cut. We used to cruise the Oscars on Woodruff at Carson and then to Oscars on the circle in Long Beach. Used to swing through Grissingers on Bellflower at Spring across the street from the Los Altos Drive In. We used to cruise to Harveys. Years later, after it had become Johnnies, I met the original Harvey there at a cruise one night in the mid 80's. Art Laboe was broadcasting live on KRLA from Scriverners drive in up in Hollywood going from car to car taking requests. Back in those days, Ed Roth had his shop in Maywood Bell. Watson was with Martinez there on Artesia just off Bellflower Blvd across from Chris & Pitts if I remember right. Each school had a "Clock" drive in. We used to make Hodies up where Anaheim Blvd ran into PCH and then to the Hodies over at Lakewood Center. Some good times back in the early 60's.
great read chili.you mentioned story rd in san jo.thats where i grew up, lived just down the road on capital and center.i remember when i was around 6 or 7 and saw a 62 impala throw SPARKS all the way across the intersection, it was all over from there. thanks chili. -jimmy-
Phil you forgot all about the Rosecranz Drive in and setting in Barris' Lot to watch the movie with out sound. Gumpa
Hi Ragtop35. I think I remember your truck with 'Vette tail lights. It had the chrome steelies with flat caps from Collins Muffler on Alondra, right? Ford centers with Pontiac outers? Collins is still in business. We call it Boyd's of Bellflower. ha ha Remember the widened Model A coupe on a '58 Chevy frame that Walt Collins had? Strange. I should have mentioned Grissingers. I have the LAST set of Bellflower tips from Gene's Muffler on my '49 Olds. I made Keith take them out of the trailer he had packed up to leave. Do you remember the pinstriper who was in the Gene's muffler complex? Jules the Nightstriper? Stranger than fiction, that one. Oh, and WHERE was the secret sauce on an Oscar's hamburger?
Yeah, I should have mentioned Barris's place too. That was when Bill Hines was in Barris's old place under the water tower in Lynwood. I had my '54 Bel Air metalflaked there.
Hey, that was my truck. I had a 1950 ford convertable. Drove it forever with no top. At one time I went up to Cherry Auto Wrecking on Signal Hill, and cut a hard top off of a 51 ford victoria and it fit right on my 50 convertable, windows rolled up and everything. One day I was bombing down Clark Ave. before the golf course was put in, near LB Vets staduim and the wind caught the top and blew it off. I probably paid 25 bucks for the top. Anyway, I went to Collins and traded him that convertable for the chrome on my 56. He put a dropped axle on it, chromed the bumper, gave me the chrome wheels and chrome stacks that I ran for awhile. Wish I had the convertable now. Anyway, I built another 56 back in the early 80's and I went back and Collins was still there. Bought a set of wide wheels with the stock centers from him. He was on Alondra off Lakewood or somewhere over there. Yeah, cool. Our favorite cruise was down Woodruff to Los Coyotes diagonal and down to the circle. Cinnamon Cinder was there then. I remember cruising into Harveys in 62. The new cars had just come out, it was like in October. Sitting in the spot light at Harveys was the most beautiful Buick Riveria, on the ground, candy gold, bellflowers. It was amazing, I hadn't even seen one on the street stock it was so new. What was that big record store across from Hodies at the lakewood center. They had all these little booths and you could go in and pick out albums and go into the booth and listen to the music. We used to buy our records at Conleys Record Rack on PCH in long beach. And of course, make the Pike. Good times for sure.
I love to read these threads. I'm on only 26, but I grew in up the San Fernando Valley. I always get the older dudes stop me and check out the ride and talk to me about they're old cruising strips. Whether its Brand blvd (San Fernando Mission)in the 60,70's. The Canyon 80,90's (Laurel Canyon). Last but not least Hollywood Blvd and all the other places named by Chili Phil. I miss those days. God bring em back.
I usually skip the TOO long reads but this one was great! It reminds me of the movie Boulevard Nights in a way. Thanks!
The place with the listening booths was Wallach's Music City. Conley's has changed hands. It's now VIP records and is the place for hip hop. How the mighty have fallen, huh? I remember that Rivi! What a trip! I hadn't even seen one in the showroom at Blvd Buick. And there it was at Harvey's! Long Beach has named a shopping center: The Pike. Sacrilege!! I still miss the old Cyclone Racer rolly coaster. The Buick I mentioned in the top. It was so damned low that I got high centered on the old pontoon bridge to Terminal Island at low tide. There I was, all four wheels off the ground and a ship bearing down on me!! The guys from the control tower ran down and we got it pushed off and the bridge open just before the boat would have creamed us. Last time I went over the pontoon ever. My hands are shaking to think of it. The bow of that ship must have been 3 stories high!!
Hey Chili, I hit the "boulevard", Bellflower 'bout '72. The custom thing was about dead or dying , with the musle car and van craze in full swing. Once in a great wile you'd see an old impala with the remains of a Watson-style job, for the paint, but those were few. It was kinda like hittin' town the day after the circus left, you knew something really cool had gone down, but there was no mistakin' that it was over. Whitter blvd. was only slighty better for cruisers, what with all us street racers swarmmin' about. Whitter P.D. didn't have any since of humor 'bout smokie burnouts, street racin, or my Long Beach address. Most of the real kustoms could only be seen at the last of Roths shows at the old Long beach Arena Auditorum. A sad end to a very cool era! S****ey Devils C.C.
I was in the Army in 67 (the last time I was in Bellflower) My brother lived right behind the Ski and Dive on Rosecrans just a block from the Barris shop. I spent a whole lot of hours just watching the guys and the work they were doing. I had a stock 57 Ford Ranch Wagon that I had to sell when I got transfered to Fort Meade MD and my brother was being an *** and told me I couldn't leave it there. Sure wish I still had it. It was a real nice car. Had a Police Interseptor 312 in it with a four on the floor. Pea Green and White. Gumpa
Ha ha. That remeinds me of another story. One night of Whittier blvd there were a couple of ricky racers messing with each other and choosing each other off to a race on a side street. The Boulevard was crowded with the usual ***ortment of lowriders and cute lil Chicana girls in their mom's car. It was a g***erized '55 chevy and a '65 Plymouth Max Wedge car. The racer dudes would let traffic get about 100' ahead of them and drop the hammer, big tire screeching burn out and them slam on the brakes. Then yell at each other that that car wasn't **** and was it your Mommas car? You know the drill. Well it got about time for this car load of teenybopper chicks to get Mom's car back and they started to turn off the blvd just as the Plymouth lit 'em up. He saw them at the last second, locked the brakes up and slid into a mailbox. I saw this little Chicana looking out the back window with eyes as big as dinner plates. The mailbox went flying into the Bob's Big Boy parking lot and landed in front of a surprised Montebello cop. The Plymouth followed the little chickies around the corner. He p***ed them and they paniced, and cut the cop off. I think the Plymouth got clean away. Had it been Whittier cops I think they'd have shot the girls and went after the racer. This was around '71 or '72.
Great story i felt like i was riding shotgun with ya. Man summer better get here soon i cant wait to hit up the local spots
Thanks Chilli....My pops ran Van Nuys and would go down to "the other side of town" to cruise his Galaxie....
Man that brings back memories....We in the NY area just outside the city had a similar experience. I remember going to Shoppers Paradise( dept store ) in Spring Vally NY and seeing loads of cars. everybody was showing off and it awas only a matter of time till the races. Ran from the Garden state Pkyway end to the NY state thruway. cars would line the highway. It was surreal, till the troopers showed. The racers would actually stop traffic on ther NY State Thruway !!! to let the drags begin. The city guys would trailer race cars in to race. After it was off to " Jake in the BOx " for5 some burgers @ 3 am.............kidd
This post gave me chills as well. I'm also a young'n (35) and up until recently shared the sentiment that I was born too late. But recently I realized that with the exception of high gas prices, this is a pretty awesome time to be a car guy. There's an incredible history of so many automotive genres to draw inspiration from, and stories like those found here are priceless in helping the hobby evolve. In some ways I even feel sorta lucky that I wasn't around back then 'cause I have the luxury of being able to research different eras and interpret them in my own way... try to maintain an essence of history but not forget that its still 2006. Thanks for sharing your memories as they're instrumental in creating the future. PS- I'm one of the few that isn't ashamed to admit that I dig '70s custom vans.
good read, I went into the Navy feb 60. got back from guam apr 62 and used to commute from San Diego (to TJ all week) to Pasadena on weekends. I'm proud to say that the only ticket's I got involved speeding (even with lowered cars) before the Navy I had cars that ran as bad as they looked haha! till 59 when I got a brand new Triumph Bonneville (1st year for the dual carbed 650) 62 I bought a 56 ford business coupe off a car lot with a 283 chev hooked to the ford 3 speed on the floor. great daily driver and ticket getter. DMV said I had 36 first time they suspended my license, 5 more on a suspened, they revoked me, the *******s. then with a new name and drivers license I dropped a 360 horse 327 and a 4 speed, I must have gained a little knowledge also only got one ticket after that, 40 in a school zone
I have to add my $.02 here on the gas prices. "Back in the day" 1967 or so gas was in the $.30 range. Milk was $.35 cents a gallon, Cigarettes were $2.50 a carton, and minimum wage was $2.10 an hour. I am not condoneing the gas prices. The Good Lord know I ***** about it and I am one of the ones that said I would never Pay $1.00 a gallon for gas or $1.00 a pack for Cigarettes. Real famous words from all of us who could never fathom living to be 30 let alone making it to 50 plus. Gas is higher than the ratio should be by about $.75 cents in retrospect of inflation but all in all it is all running the same gammit of the rich get richer and the poor keep *****ing about it. Gumpa
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