The record store in Kubrick’s “A Clockwork Orange”

I remember an Ian MacDonald piece about Nick D where he questions the obscurity thing - when he was at univeosrity in the early 70s, everyone had the albums, he reckoned.

Dolphin's Of Hollywood, circa 1948

https://scpr.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/05fb2f8/2147483647/strip/true/crop/1800x1109+0+46/resize/880x542!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fa.scpr.org%2F103606_e1441670831d0144cd918d7eaa7c60d9_original.jpg

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/71fl5js4eRL._UF894,1000_QL80_.jpg

https://scpr.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/69e87dd/2147483647/strip/true/crop/1800x1109+0+46/resize/880x542!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fa.scpr.org%2F103605_5a7c53e60ad9be75fc07241f645ff3a5_original.jpg

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/PWTBvePj3QI/maxresdefault.jpg

https://media.gettyimages.com/id/74273036/photo/an-interior-view-of-people-shopping-at-producer-john-dolphins-dolphins-of-hollywood-record.jpg?s=612x612&w=gi&k=20&c=RMQhDGRedNlHQPaYtauB4TMBS79gXjVuIRktRAdRdMs=

You were right, these photos are incredibly good. Just reading a bit about the history of the shop - it was open 24 hours?!?!

I missed that, the place must have been really hopping back in the day!

It was the toast of the coast!

It had a radio station in the store! I think i remember hearing about this in an episode on Andrew Hickey's podcast.

what a life

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Dolphin_(music_producer)

with Billie Holiday

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/ca/John_Dolphin_%26_Billie_Holiday_%28cropped%29.JPG/800px-John_Dolphin_%26_Billie_Holiday_%28cropped%29.JPG

(he's also the guy standing right under the big portrait of him on the wall in the pic before the Billie one)

https://i.imgur.com/a8faQPa_d.webp?maxwidth=640&shape=thumb&fidelity=medium https://i.imgur.io/oPRodEs_d.webp?maxwidth=640&shape=thumb&fidelity=medium

Haha, same guy, right?

OMG, you’re right!

Now I need to watch Morgan Stewart’s Coming Home, in which he also placed the dad, to see if there’s a “disapproving stereo” scene…

The former location of an auto parts store near me is being dressed up for a production. Can we guess the year it is set?

https://i.imgur.com/zmzdNin_d.webp?maxwidth=1520&fidelity=grand

https://i.imgur.com/AVdARmU_d.webp?maxwidth=1520&fidelity=grand

late 1979

Is this anywhere near the filming sites for the alleged PTA Pynchon adaptation?

Huh, I don't know...

(Looks like that book is set in 1984, tho?)

Yeah, good point. Was just curious.

I'm curious too!

Would a 1979 record store have massive poster/murals like that? I don't recall anything that big. Also, those choices are very received wisdom. Blues Brothers, Eagles, The Knack.

Maybe this is remake of Record City!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z832IqZLXKs

a film that terrified a zoomer in my household more than Hereditary!

Vineland begins in 1984, but there are flashbacks galore - we're talking non-linear Pynchon time obv. So there could be scenes set in 1979, especially if this is a 'loose adaptation'.

xps That was my thought but the wikipedia page for Tower Records has a photo of their Sunset Strip location that looks just like this (though from a much later date).

Blurry pic from '78

Fake location def. has "cooler" murals (...not that I can identify most of the ones in that pic!)

Nice pics here as well: http://martinostimemachine.blogspot.com/2017/10/the-legendary-past-and-celluloid-future.html?m=1

For all these shows and movies that recreate Tower Records, maybe it would have been easier for them to just keep some open! Surprised at how much I even miss having a chain like that around.

Particularly now that the only national chain carrying a barely respectable amount of music is *Barnes & Noble*.

Fake location def. has "cooler" murals (...not that I can identify most of the ones in that pic!)

That blog post has a better scan of that '78 pic. There's a roof display for the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack! Admittedly, that yellow Firebird >>> the albums in the window (Rainbow: You Can't Kill Rock'n'Roll; two guitar guys are England Dan & John Ford Coley; not sure About the others...fuel nozzle might be Robin Trower?).

Record City is on Prime rn, BTW.

Yeah all those cars parked out front are f'in fire-emoji

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BM2FlZTQ1NTktY2Y1NS00ZjVhLWE5ODEtZWE0ZTcyYmUyNDZhXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyOTc5MDI5NjE@._V1_.jpg

Still from the film FM (1978)

nice!

I keep seeing them referred to as "paintings", but I always just assumed they were large format vinyl printings or whatever mounted on plywood.

The album cover repros that the Peaches chain used on their facades were hand painted, I'm almost certain.

That's really cool, I didn't know that! Sorry if this is one of those common knowledge things I should have known, but I missed that era and the chains I grew up with were all in malls and had just carboard cut-out things.

I figured hand-painting would be way too labor intensive for anyone to do that! Was it a chain thing? Or did the labels source then?

Someone on Pinterest has a post saying that the Peaches artwork was commissioned to a group from California. They also say, interestingly, that after six months of being displayed on the exterior of the building, the paintings would be displayed inside the store until they sold. That I did not remember.

Cool home movie footage from another point in '78. Starts @ 4:09

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KbNvv0KNTpk

LIVE GRAPE! SGT. PEPPER SOUNDTRACK!

Inside the store in 1971:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AWRnXhhRwtc

Interesting to see how many displays are simply records stacked up on their shopping boxes, warehouse-club style.

how it was supposed to be

I keep seeing them referred to as "paintings", but I always just assumed they were large format vinyl printings or whatever mounted on plywood.

― Maxmillion D. Boosted (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Thursday, February 15, 2024 4:33 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

The album cover repros that the Peaches chain used on their facades were hand painted, I'm almost certain.

― Josefa, Thursday, February 15, 2024 5:06 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

The main character in Xanadu (1980) was an album cover reproduction painter. And that's fictional, of course, but it feels like a pretty '70s thing to do.

It's not quite the same but the coffee table book Rock 'n' Roll Billboards of the Sunset Strip discusses the folks who painted those huge billboards and what went into that (though most people who designed and painted them were never credited).

could there be a more stereotypically 80s job? I don't think so xp

now I want to know when the profession died out, guessing it was the late-79 record industry recession/crash

The Tower Records podcast interviewed someone who was a store art director
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ep-58-tim-wessman-art-department-sf-nyc/id1624366888?i=1000622239312

A friend took an updated picture… looks like they added Barry and moved Bob:

https://i.imgur.com/aKh642e_d.webp?maxwidth=760&fidelity=grand