Adam-12 Studio City Bunny Hop on Ventura Blvd

Adam-12 do the Bunny Hop on Ventura Blvd in Studio City in "The Ferret,"  Season 4, Episode 6.

The best location in this episode, for me, is the street of much older homes which are (most likely) gone now. Also, I'm guessing the industrial park scenes are El Segundo. If anyone knows for sure, please share! There are a couple shots downtown showing City Hall in the background too. It's not a standard "patrol North Hollywood" episode. This will be "The Ferret Part One" and cover the easy part -- Ventura Boulevard in Studio City, with our officers checking out a "temple" between Rhodes and Laurelgrove, and later going forward, jumping back, going forward again, west on Ventura Blvd from Vantage to Laurelgrove. The attempt to disguise Laurelgrove as a non-existent street is pretty funny! [Keep reading-- I get to it.]

In the top photo, Malloy and Reed (although MeTV always says "Reed and Malloy" -- don't they know Tod gets top billing? Check his contract!) are driving east on Ventura, just past Rhodes, and Spechts Lamps is on their right. Spechts has since become a place called Dwell. The two buildings east of Spechts' 1940 building were demolished and replaced with a 1974 structure that was home to a Radio Shack in 1976.

I always find it amusing how news reports and financial "notices" will say North Hollywood, whereas the business seeking prestige puts Studio City! I always wonder if I'm looking at the same trees. They were so much shorter in Adam-12 days! I presume they are the same trees, but maybe not. Some have probably been replaced. The boulevard median (making it a boulevard!) wasn't there in 1971, so those trees are new anyway.

The "temple" that Malloy and Reed enter in search of the man providing the "mojo" clay had previously been the Artistic Yarn Shop, but it closed up in 1966. Prior to that it had been a cafe in 1963, and apparently a new business called Restaurant Aquarius, serving Dutch Indonesian food. What happened between 1966 and 1971, I don't know, but in 1972 it was used as the headquarters for Democrats for Nixon. I suspect it was vacant when Adam-12 shot there. Just to the west, next to Spechts Lamps, at 12346 Ventura Blvd, was a restaurant serving Italian food in 1963. In 1972, it was hiring people to serve sandwiches. The bulldozer took both buildings out and replaced them with one big building in 1974. Most of this stretch of Ventura Blvd still has its original buildings, many from the late 30s and early 40s.

As soon as you saw the "Reverend" Sabeth, did you also burst out "the Good Bomb Made Us All"? It's him from Beneath the Planet of the Apes, Don Pedro Colley! I found this 2013 interview with him on Youtube. Sadly, he passed in 2017.

Speaking of Beneath the Planet of the Apes and James Franciscus, good place to mention my fledgling Naked City blog 😎

Later in the episode they return to Ventura Blvd in Studio City and pursue driver Alma Platt. Alma Platt did four Adam-12 episodes, three Dragnet in color, and had a Twilight Zone (The Trade-Ins, season 3, episode 31). She passed in 1976. 

Studio City Chamber of Commerce time:

Hey, wait a minute! They had passed the Toys and were almost to Studio City Camera Exchange, and then they jumped back a good half a block! Adam-12 doing the Bunny Hop here! 

Hey!!! We already reached Studio City Camera Exchange, and then we backed up a half a block and did it over. Then we got to Sinclair Paints and BOOM. We're BACK east of Vantage again (see photo below; the Sinclair Paints sign is to the right of the red traffic light). When they edit TV shows, they hope you don't notice things like this. I will include a full list of 1971 businesses on the south [right in the screen capture] side of the street down below.

Then we get a view looking east which shows a rare site: possibly Lido Manor at 12229 Ventura.

Notice the big jump in numbers from Sinclair Paints to Crocker Citizens Bank. 12229 had been Studio City Bowling in the 1950s. From 1970-1971 it was Lido Manor, a ballroom and oddly, a boxing arena. Is that what we're seeing here? I sure want to see that sign more clearly! (Perhaps in another Adam-12, as they seem to like this stretch.) That section is missing a lot of numbers because so many establishments had been in there over the years. In 1939, Harry's Supreme Steaks was at 12227. 12227 then became Whitey's Little Bohemia steak restaurant in the 1940s. In 1951, Studio City Bowling at 12229 included the Emerald Cove dancing area.

The INVALUABLE Water & Power website gives us this photo of the area, from the other direction:

Link to the above photo.

Unintentional comedy: Whoever was in charge of such things made the decision to block out the true street sign and instead create a fake one. This is too funny. 😂

As Adam-12 is a police drama, let's talk crime! Here are some news accounts of many 211s at a few of the businesses Malloy and Reed have just driven past:

Back to businesses:

Studio City Camera Exchange was in a large building from 1939. It is now occupied by Paper Source. Champion's boys' and young men's clothing had been Boy's Inc. in the 50s. In the 70s it became Scoreboard -- Everything for the Sports Fan. The southeast corner of Vantage and Ventura has a big Starbucks now, but it had been Nissell's Exclusive Men's Store from 1949 until the end of 1964. In 1968 it was Hunter's Appliance and Carpets -- because the Valley needed more carpet stores (?) You can't see that corner in this episode, but maybe that's where the Tropical Fish sign was (??) Hunter's Appliance, Carpets, and Tropical Fish? 

Sadly, the stretch of Ventura east (and west...) of Vantage has had a LOT of damage. Some interesting architecture was demolished to make way for boxes. 

Here is a list of the businesses that ran along the north side of this stretch in 1971, going east to west (because that's the direction they're driving in this scene):

12153 Studio City Chamber of Commerce 

12155 Security Pacific Bank

12159 Original Coffee Grinder [was B&P temp agency & Lavender & Lace wigs!]

12161 Peter Pan hair salon (yellow sign) [Kitchen Kupboard in 1972]

12163 Helga Van Dyke complete figure correction beauty & body treatments

12169 Coast Hardware

12175 Bank of America

12179 1/2 Blue Angel West jazz club

12181 Clark Dennis Book Shop

12183 1/2 Pronto Camera

12183 Studio City Lock & Key

12191 Glendale Federal Savings

12199 Discount Record Center 

12203 Sinclair Paints

12205 Valley Lighting and Lamps

12215 Sambo's

12223 Prima Motor Co.

12229 Lido Manor ballroom & boxing arena [1973 new Avco Savings & Loan]

12251 Crocker Citizen's Bank [now a Wells Fargo]

12265 Chevron [now a California Pizza Kitchen and a dozen other smaller businesses]

This was a great Adam-12 episode for Studio City business history in that forgotten (or dismissed) period. Most "Valley memories" sites tend to focus on the 40s and 50s. With luck I find some 60s material. The San Fernando Valley in 1971 doesn't have much of a presence online, probably because at the time it didn't seem special and nobody foresaw the total destruction to come. Adam-12 episodes really are an important historical resource for San Fernando Valley history. Time travel with Malloy and Reed -- I just wish they didn't drive by so quickly. 

My unresolved "obsessions" from this episode are these: