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.