Yesterday’s post featured an Art Deco building on Highland Ave in Hollywood, so I thought I’d continue the theme with today’s post. This gorgeous building was the showroom for Frigidaire, the company whose refrigerators became the standard name for the appliance (in the same way that Hoovers became synonymous with vacuum cleaners.) And Frigidaire had a prime location for their showroom on the northeast corner of Hollywood Blvd and McCadden Place, which put it not far east of the Hollywood Hotel and Grauman’s Chinese. I don’t know when they opened the showroom, but this photo is from 1930.
It looks like the decor budget went all into the exterior because the interior wasn’t quite so intricate:
This is how that building looked in June 2024. Although it’s just a Starbucks and a souvenir store now, at least the detailing on the second floor is still around, so that’s something.
I didn’t know about this place. Pickwick Books eventually expanded into this location at some point. In the now photo you see a blade sign on the right that says Taco Bell. It’s a Taco Bell Cantina. Until this opened last year, the first in Los Angeles, I didn’t know there was such a thing. They’re more of an upscale Taco Bell that serves “beer, wine, sangria and boozy versions of its Freezes.”
Speaking of this appliance store, in Paul Lynde’s Halloween Special, which is on DVD, he has a sketch with Florence Henderson in which she plays a cool cucumber with money. Paul says, “Oh my God, she’s a frigid heiress.”