For 36 years, Tower Records was among the many music landmarks along the Sunset Strip. But did you know, 8801 Sunset Boulevard has a long, and storied history before Tower Records, including the site of where Earl “Madman” Muntz sold the very first car stereos?
The site also was once home to a drive-in restaurant and showcase apartment for Shoreham Towers.
In the next few pages, take a look at photos spanning much of the site’s history.
Click below to see the site as Dolores Restaurant.
My dad worked at the Muntz store on Sunset. We were a Chicago car family (Chrysler Plymouth on Ogden Avenue) until we moved to L.A. in 1950. Earl Muntz was a good guy to work for, because he was seldom in the store.The cars were . . . unusual. Maybe that’s why they didn’t sell well. My family ultimately became Chevrolet dealers in Culver City.
Your photo of the Madman Muntz store is not the one that was at the location at 8801 Sunset. I worked at Tower in 1987. Here’s my post on our FB group with Ed Ruscha’s photos of the Muntz building https://www.facebook.com/groups/10164619257/permalink/10159174145049258/ You can find pics of every single building on the entire strip from 1966-2007 online detailing Ed Rusha’s 12 Sunsets project. https://12sunsets.getty.edu/map/1985?d=0.42256 The Muntz building was originally built as a free standing model of one apt unit in the Shorehman Apt being built a half block up on Horn Ave. Muntz took over that building and used the original… Read more »
It was THE place for the music scene in Los Angeles.
George Vreeland Hill
When I was there, 60s…it was Wallack’s Music City(Sunset and Vine) that was the center of the music world in LA
The presence of a 2000s-era Lexus in the Muntz shot makes it obvious that’s not the site in the 1960s. Your photo is of the Muntz facility in Ventura, CA (at 2834 E Main St).
The photo caption does not say that it was taken in the 1960s.
As permanent as anything else in L.A.
Wow…I remember standing in line for hours to meet Oingo Boingo at their final meet-n-greet there. Drove all the way from Bakersfield.