These L.A. Artifacts Need To Be In The Food Museum
Los Angeles is not a city lacking when it comes to museums. There are classic offerings like the Natural History Museum and LACMA, niche museums like the LAPD Museum and the Museum of Death, and even a museum in a Culver City storefront devoted to something called Jurassic Technology. (Which, if you haven't yet experienced it, you owe it to yourself to check it out.) But one thing there isn't is a museum devoted to food. And that's because there aren't any museums like that in the entire country.
A group of investors in New York is hoping to change that with the creation of the National Food and Drink Museum, a depository for the most historically important innovations in the world of, you guessed it, food and drink. The plan is to fill the space with objects like early TV dinners and an ancient Puffin Gun, a mechanical monstrosity that helped create Cheerios in the early 20th century.
The idea, obviously, is one that I heartily approve of. But if they do end up getting funding, they need to keep in mind the food history that's taken place on the opposite coast by shipping these items across the country.
In no specific order:
Bob's Big Boy statue
If the burger is the ultimate California food -- and despite the results of certain surveys, there is plenty of evidence that it should at least be considered in the running -- then Bob's Big Boy has a place in the Hall of Fame. Started in 1936 as a small burger stand in Glendale, owner Bob Wian traded up the next year to an actual diner establishment in Burbank. That site was not only home of the world's first double decker hamburger (according to the company's version of history at least), but also the dining place for such Hollywood luminaries as Bob Hope and Mickey Rooney. The Beatles even had a burger there while on their famous 1965 U.S. tour.
Part of what gives the burger chain its iconic look is the statue of the chubby boy with coiffed hair and red-and-white checkered overalls. One of these should be relatively easy to come by now, seeing as many are just currently creepily hanging around statue graveyards.
Menus from Philippe's/Cole's
We understand that certain questions won't be answered in our lifetimes. Is there extraterrestrial life? What's the deal with Stonehenge? How is it that Michael Bay became obsessed with making an unending stream of movies about cars that are really alien robots in disguise? Another question we may have to give up on answering is who truly was the originator of the French Dip sandwich: Philippe's or Cole's?
Both sandwich shops opened in 1908 in downtown L.A., less than two miles from each another. And both claim to be the first place to come up with putting roast beef on bread with some juice. (Albeit, in slightly different ways.) A good entry point to a discussion of who actually created the sandwich would be putting on display the oldest menus that both places have on file.
Deck of Cards from the Hat & Hare Club
The Magic Castle on Franklin Avenue is simultaneously one of the best and most ridiculous places in Hollywood. For those not in the know, it's a "nightclub for magicians and magic enthusiasts" housed in a chateau-like mansion that was built in 1909. It's "exclusive," which once meant that only members could get in. But now just about anyone can actually get in. If you go, you have to abide by their strict dress code and pay for a dinner, which is how the experience turns into an expensive night out.
But there is a lot of magic! And magic is awesome. So in honor of the historic nightclub -- and really, there's no place quite like it in the world -- the museum should get their hands on a deck of cards used in the Hat & Hare Club in the mansion's cellar.
Signed Photo of Guns N' Roses Playing in the Kibitz Room
No doubt you know Canter's, the famous deli on Fairfax that has held down the Jewish-style delicatessen scene on the West Coast since 1931. But instead of celebrating their longevity by showcasing something like, say, an ancient pastrami sandwich -- which, you know, would be gross -- it's worth highlighting another chapter from the joint's history: It was one of the first places Guns N' Roses played.
The Kibitz Room, the adjoining bar that opened in 1961, has held performances by The Doors, Frank Zappa, Joni Mitchell, and many others. But it's Axl and friends who made the biggest impact there, not least of which is due to the band being close friends with the owner.
The Pay Phone from Musso & Frank's
Musso & Frank's has been in their same digs at 6667 Hollywood Boulevard since 1919, meaning they were in the heart of Hollywood back when it was Hollywood. You can basically trace the history of cinema by those who dined in one of their booths: Mary Pickford, Charlie Chaplin, Gary Cooper, Humphrey Bogart, Elizabeth Taylor, Marilyn Monroe, Frank Sinatra, Jimmy Stewart, and so on and on forth.
But instead of a sacred booth, the museum should obtain the pay phone, the first pay phone to be installed in Hollywood, according to their site. Whether or not that's the truth is besides the point. With that high-profile of a clientele eating inside for nearly a century, can you imagine the movie deals made on that thing? Or the profanities?