Hollywood Research #3 The PIg 'n Whistle

Hollywood Research #3

The Pig 'n Whistle

6714 Hollywood Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90028

We started researching our new book GAME TOWN, in Hollywood, on Hollywood Blvd. Since this was a fact-finding "mission" we stopped at things we came across that looked interesting. After scouring the Grauman's Egyptian Theatre, we turned the corner and found the Pig 'n Whistle Restaurant and Bar. It wasn't open yet so we looked in the windows and walked around. It was fascinating, the decor and that wooden pig was eye-catching.

          The Pig 'n Whistle was originally a chain of restaurants and candy shops, founded by John Gage in 1908. 

          The Hollywood location of the Pig 'n Whistle was first opened in 1927^] next to The Egyptian Theatre. The building housing the new restaurant featured carved oak rafters, imported tiles, artistically wrought grilles and balcony and paneled fresco paintings. It was frequented by celebrities such as Spencer Tracy, Shirley Temple and  Howard Hughes. 

          The original Hollywood location closed down after World War II and its distinctive wooden furniture, decorated with hand-carved whistle-playing pigs, was sold.

          By the late 1990s, the location housed a fast-food pizza restaurant, and all that remained of the original tenant was a bas-relief pig on the front of the building. In 1999, British restaurant operator Chris Breed remodeled the building, recovering the spectacular original ceiling ornamentation, and re-opened the restaurant.

          The restaurant name originates from two Old English words, piggin, a lead mug, and wassail, a wine drunk during the yuletide.

          It still remains a staple of Hollywood serving family style food and a great bar.

AHA Moment

It would have been the perfect place for Sky and a suspect to meet for lunch as he gathered info on the case. Unfortunately, the Pig 'n Whistle was not open for business in Spring of 1957. So we decided to make mention of the place during interviews our PI has with suspects.

Hollywood Research #2 Grauman's EgyptianTheater

Research #2

Grauman's Egyptian Theatre

6712 Hollywood Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90028

          We started researching our new book GAME TOWN, in Hollywood, on Hollywood Blvd. We came across the Egyptian Theatre and decided to take a look. The theatre was getting ready for a Red Carpet affair that evening in the long walkway to the entrance. The set up for the stars and press was completed (including the red carpet) and under heavy security watch.

          The theatre was mentioned in SLIVERS OF GLASS not far from the murder scene and brought back memories of a few dates Skylar Drake had with his late wife, Claire before they were married

          The red carpet set up was perfect to include in our cover design. So we took several pictures of it.

AHA moment

Looking at the entrance to the theatre, we got the idea to begin the novel with our main character, Skylar Drake, PI, and his partner, Casey Dolan, ending a job for the studios at one of the award ceremonies ( Oscars, Emmys) and somehow connect with a few stars. Now to research where and when the awards were held in 1956 and who won.

Hollywood Research #1-The Metro Blue Line

Hollywood

Research #1

The Metro Blue Line

          We started researching our new book GAME TOWN, in Hollywood, on Hollywood Blvd. Since this was a fact-finding "mission" we needed to be mobile. So we took the Metro Blue Line, is the light rail rapid transit system Los Angles introduced in 1986 to see if reinventing rapid transit would be a good idea in L.A.

          Fortunately for us, It was the first line to go in and the only one that travels from Long Beach directly to Los Angeles. It is so much more convenient to take this line to Los Angeles than to drive and try to find a parking spot, then pay an arm and a leg for hours of parking.

          Now, the Blue Line connects to the Red Line and the Purple Line for our convenience to get to the various places we needed to research. The travel time to and from Long Beach to L.A. on the Blue Line is 45 minutes regardless of the freeways and how backed up they may be. Perfect!

          We used the metro, exclusively to get from Long Beach to LA in order to research our book, GAME TOWN...several times.

Sacramento #7

Sacramento, CA

In search of a plot for our next book

We spent seven days in Sacramento to research our next book, GAME TOWN,  for 2019 release. So we thought we would give you a peek into researching a new book.

On March 26, 2018, we had breakfast, packed, checked out and headed to our last research stop the Automotive Museum.

The place is huge, looks like an airplane hangar!  We had a tour guide who knew a lot about the history of automotive in the US. The cars on display begin in 1895 and end in current 2018 cars.

We needed to find cars for our characters (old and new) in the Skylar Drake Murder Mystery series. With suggestions from our guide, we found just the right cars to match the personality of our characters and the role they will play in the book.

-Lori Carrington (the secretary) will drive a Nash Metro,

-Marion Carrington (long time matron of Beverly Hills) a 1929 Super Six Hudson-Victoria

-Tom Stone (mob boss) and girlfriend Coco Amore, Ford Thunderbird, 1956.

It helped to actually see the cars when making the choice.

We checked out an area called Poverty Ridge. People told us about using it as a body dump. At one time it was where lower income people lived, at the bottom of the ridge. The upper part of the ridge was where the rich lived. We drove by and found lovely homes on the top of the ridge and one story homes on the bottom of the ridge. It is a lovely area now.

It as a freezing 50 degrees outside. We headed for Trader Joe’s for a To Go dinner to eat at the airport. By the time we got to the gate, we were well fed, warmed up and ready for the flight home.

Friends picked us up from Long Beach Airport right on time, walked in the house at 9:30pm exhausted!

Aha moment-While waiting for our flight we struck up conversations with several passengers from Sacramento going to Long Beach. Not only did they recommend several more places for body dumps, but they also suggested places for fight scenes. Can't wait to sink my fingers into the story.

Sacramento #6

Sacramento, CA

In search of a plot for our next book.

We spent seven days in Sacramento to research our next book, GAME TOWN,  for 2019 release. So we thought we would give you a peek into researching a new book.

On March 25, 2018, after breakfast, we left for Sutter’s Fort State Historical Park. It was like an outdoor Rancho. Sutter built a fort then planned his a large cattle ranch. However, word of the gold discovery on his land got out. He couldn’t control the lawless squatters on his land and his dream never came to. The first hospital in the Sacramento region was at the fort.

We ate at Claim Jumper in Downtown District then went to some sites recommended to us for body dumps. Found five good places. We stopped at each one we thought would work and took pictures. Now we are getting excited about the new book.

We drove back both of us enjoying the old “mansion” homes. We parked and walked to the old Governor's Mansion built in the 1870s. It was closed for renovation. The building is three stories with its carriage house still intact. I can see a murder there and our P.I., Sky Drake getting involved in it. I was impressed with the woodwork and the landscaping. We looked it up when we got back, the current Governor’s Mansion is in Carmichael.

As soon as we got back to our hotel, both of us opened our laptops and spent the evening, into the wee hours, researching Sacramento 1950s.

Aha Moment-Current events of the 1950 capital city were full of political scandals, swanky parties, and cool crimes. This book is going to be full of all three!!

Sacramento # 5

Sacramento, CA

In search of a plot for our next book.

We spent seven days in Sacramento to research our next book, GAME TOWN,  for 2019 release. So we thought we would give you a peek into researching a new book.

On March 24, 2018, Janet was tied up with her colleagues all day, so Bill decided to drive to the California Automobile Museum as it was only ten minutes away. The GPS put him there quickly, but when he turned the last corner traffic stopped. A police car blocked the street.  Bill had driven into the assembly point for a massive march on the State Capitol (March for Our Lives.) Since it was a Saturday, thousands of people and their cars prevented him from going to the museum.  He made his way out of the area and returned to the hotel. The streets and intersections were blocked by police. He had to drive around the Capitol grounds then north and west to get back to the hotel. 

He decided trying to get anywhere today would be a mess so parked the rental car in the hotel lot and walked to lunch at a place called Sandra Dee’s BBQ. Their fired oyster Po’boy and potato salad were great.

Back at the hotel,  he spent the rest of the afternoon writing.

At 5:00 he walked about three blocks to the Sheraton Hotel and met Janet for a tour of the beautiful hotel lobby.  We headed for dinner at Pieology Pizzeria – a custom order pizzeria on the order of Chipotle.  On the way, we stopped to read the many historical plaques. It was a cold walk there and back but the pizza was really good.

Sunset had just started, we took different streets back to the hotel enjoying the charming Victorian homes along the way. We noticed an unusual white building a few blocks away with what looked like a mini replica next to it. It was getting colder and darker by the minute. We ran into the tail end of a walk for Stephon Clark.

Aha moment-During Janet had lunch with local therapists. After telling them about our murder mysteries, Janet asked, "Where would you dump a dead body?"  Well, they gave her cross street and local landmarks- they seemed to have thought about it before!

Several highly recommend we check out Poverty Ridge and explained that before the levees have completed that area as well as others flooded yearly. However,  the ridge was where the rich built their homes and the poor living below the ridge. We checked the map and there was Poverty Ridge. So we drive by on our way to dinner.

Sacramento #4

Sacramento, CA

In search of a plot for our next book.

We spent seven days in Sacramento to research our next book, GAME TOWN,  for 2019 release. So we thought we would give you a peek into researching a new book.

On March 23, 2018, it was a freezing 42° in the morning, no rain or wind.

Janet stayed at the hotel to begin writing our new book, GameTown.

 Bill decided to try the Aerospace Museum at the former McClellan Air Force Base, about twenty minutes northeast of downtown. He followed the GPS directions until he got to a place where he was told to turn, but it didn’t match the street signs. After driving around a place called Alden Business center, he got back on track and made it to the museum. 

Located on a road that was formerly part of the base, it was a very interesting place with many historic and modern aircraft and engines, flight simulators indoors. Outdoors on display were more historic aircraft from world war two, Korean war, the cold war, Vietnam, and even from Desert Storm. The guides were all volunteers and met one man who was stationed in Turkey where Bill lived as a teen. 

He saw a C-47(53) that actually dropped paratroopers in France during the D-Day invasion. AP-80 (F-80), T-33, F-100, 101, 102. A-4 (Blue Angels), A Polish MIG 17, a Czech MIG 21, an AWACS Constellation, a Sikorsky H-3 (Jolly Green Giant) complete with battle damage from Vietnam and an A-10 Thunderbolt (Warthog) from Desert Storm that had been hit by an Iraqi SAM and repaired.

Bill's drive back to the hotel was uneventful and direct. Along the way, he saw more Victorian houses.

For dinner we thought we would head out for the Outback Steakhouse northeast of town (or so we thought) when we got to the same area of Arden business park the GPS sent us way out of our way and we ended up along the levee of the American River until we found ourselves at the Sacramento Airport. We couldn’t believe how far off course we were (almost 8 miles) Frustrated we drove back to the hotel and walked to an Asian restaurant called Bento Box only about a 5-minute freezing walk.

While we were inside the restaurant, a police motorcycle drove down the sidewalk followed by hundreds of protesters heading for the State Capitol. The protest was over the shooting of Stephon Clark. They passed quite peacefully. We finished our dinner followed by a cold, uneventful walk back.

Aha moment-As we drive along the levee we were surrounded by lush countryside that quickly turned to pasture on one side and rushing river on the other. The countryside area had amazing early 1900s mansions with large yachts. Hum, nothing spells murder more than the combination of money, mansions, yachts, and a rushing river!