Grade: 4.5 out of 5
Jennifer Brandt grew up in a family heavily involved in the fashion and movie industry. She embraced a culture that fostered extreme creativity, a wonderful fashion sense, and an obsession with everything Hollywood, everything vintage, and everything glamorous. Brandt knows every nook of L.A., from Echo Park to the San Fernando Valley–and everything in between. Vintage Los Angeles will be a colorful tour of this glittery town through original color photography, as well as charming vintage photos and relics.
Brandt showcases the best of vintage life, including famous Los Angeles hot spots such as:
•The Rose Bowl Flea Market–a great place to find antiques
•Sunset Hyatt House–dubbed the “Riott House” because of its sordid rock n’ roll past
•Mashti Malone’s–where else could you find Iranian rose water ice cream?
•Bob’s Big Boy–where the Beatles ate on their first US tour
•Chateau Marmont–Hollywood’s decadent vintage love nest
•and many more.
Brandt’s unique old Hollywood voice will carry the reader through these spots, revealing historical information, juicy star–studded stories, and delightful anecdotes. Vintage Los Angeles is the dreambook for any stylish, secondhand soul with a vintage aesthetic, appreciation, and absolute love of “the hunt.” Complete with interviews with famous vintage–collectors, indie bands, actors, and Hollywood connoisseurs, Vintage Los Angeles is a trip down memory lane with a modern and delightful edge.
This book isn’t a romance, it’s not a mystery but when we were offered it, I jumped on the chance to read it because it’s about my hometown of Los Angeles, California. Now, I’m not claiming to be a Vintage fan or anything because if you knew me, you’d know that for the lie that it is. I’m all modern girl and that’s okay because I still enjoyed the heck out of this book.
It’s not a fiction book where there’s a story to be told, it’s pretty much a guide of all things vintage in L.A. It’s sort of a history book on where you can find the most vintage of all things in L.A. and it starts in Burbank and makes it way through every town from Beverly Hills to Santa Monica to Venice and it lists all of the places you should check out when you’re in town. It’s got all of the little hidden hot spots where your vintage heart can go crazy.
The entire time that I was reading this book, I was thinking about how much Lizzie from Meg Cabot’s Queen of Babble series would love this book. This book tells us where the best shops in L.A. are to find those vintage tee shirts, dresses, shoes, all of that good stuff and I loved reading the little tid bits in each chapter, it educated me on the city that I live in (and grew up in) and love so very much.
This book had little tid bits like:
Did you know that The Santa Monica Pier has been used in many classic films? It’s been in films including Funny Girl (where it doubled as Coney Island), The Sting, The Shoot Horses, Don’t They? and Inside Daisy Clover. It also appears in the opening credits of Three’s Company. If you recognize the pier’s bumble bee ride (I totally do, I had my first kiss near this bumble bee ride), it may be that you’ve seen the cover of Elvis Costello’s album, When I Was Cruel.
And then cool inside scoops like this:
For film buffs, Rydell High (from the classic 1978 film Grease) was actually Venice High School. Feel free to sneak onto the bleachers and pretend that you’re Danny and Sandy belting out, “Summer Nights.”
There’s so many places listed in this book and there’s so many places that I want to see because of this book that I’m going to take this book as I tour the city of Angels, it’s a great city and this book definitely shows why. From LAX to The Beverly Hills Hotel to the valley where lots of famous actors/actresses live, there’s much to see in this beautiful city and this book makes sure you don’t miss anything. You should definitely get this book if you’re looking for some great places to see in L.A. If you’re a vintage girl at heart and you’re coming to L.A. to visit, this book will come in handy…I loved this book, it made me fall in love with my hometown all the more.
I’ve made plans to eat at Dan Tana’s in Hollywood, it’s a celebrity haunt that I didn’t know about and they say the likes of Madonna eats there and enjoys the grilled something or other but it sounds like something my friends and I would enjoy so I’ve told them we have to eat there sometime in the near future.
See? So many reasons to get this book and visit L.A.
This book is available from Harper Collins. You can buy it here.
I wish I had this book when I visited LA. This sounds SO cool!!!!
It is CJ, I’m so glad that I got a copy of it!!