On Thursday afternoon May 20, 2021 I hosted this SOMEWHERE OVER THE RAINBOW Downtown Culver City walking tour which I curated for the Southern California Tour Guide Association (I am on its board of directors as vice-president of programming) for its first official group event since the pandemic which was followed by an enjoyable happy hour mixer at the Ugo Italian Cafe restaurant, below are a few photo highlights and other interesting historical information about Culver City which long ago designated itself as the “Heart Of Screenland.” Below is an original still photo of Judy Garland with her dog Toto from the 1939 movie the “Wizard Of Oz” and to its right is a more recent photo of famous rainbow structure by acclaimed artist Tony Tasset near the entrance of the Sony Columbia Studios (formerly home of the famous MGM movie studios) lot that pays tribute to that film classic. This $1.6 million dollar and nearly 100 foot high, painted multi-color solid steel sculpture, which the city strongly wanted to commemorate the city’s film production history, almost didn’t come into existence. But back in 2010 the Sony/Columbia Pictures Studios urgently needed the city’s approval to build a new multi-story employee parking structure, so this giant art sculpture thankfully got piggy-backed into that project’s negotiations (which the studio would have likely never paid for it on its own) and since its 2012 unveiling has become its own modern day city landmark.

Association members gathered in front of the Ugo Italian Cafe restaurant at 3865 Cardiff Avenue–the corner of Cardiff Avenue & Culver Blvd.–from where we took a leisurely, 30 minute guided walking tour throughout downtown Culver City which I hosted.

Culver City has a lot of lesser known, but fascinating history. In the 1920’s during the Prohibition-era there were two extremely popular jazz nightclubs near the western border of the city (not in downtown so were not part of the walking tour, but worth honorable mention)–one was Fatty Arbuckle’s Plantation Club that opened in 1928 at 11700 Washington Blvd. But there was the even more popular Sebastian’s Cotton Club opened in 1926 at the corner of Washington & National and was one of the first to feature exclusively black musicians (sadly both buildings were demolished by the 1950’s and no longer exist today).

One of the most famous performers to play this West Coast Cotton Club was Louis Armstrong who got arrested by police in 1930 for smoking marijuana in this Culver City club’s parking lot with his then drummer Vic Benton.

We visited the historic Culver Hotel–site of the infamous “Munchkin Orgies”–where during filming of the “Wizard Of Oz,” nearby MGM studios decided to house the “little people” actors who portrayed the Munchkins. As the legend goes the mid-sized hotel did not have enough rooms and individual beds for each performer, so they had to place them three to a bed. And when reputed alcohol consumption and the newfound excitement of starring in a major movie were factored in–it’s been said that many of these guests got so raucous and out of control that the police were summoned repeated times during the duration of filming. Judy Garland, MGM producer Mervin LeRoy and others gave colorful recounts about their transgressions that can be found on the internet for more interesting details. These incidents also inspired the production of the 1981 film comedy “Under The Rainbow” with Chevy Chase and Carrie Fisher.

After the tour we congregated at the outdoor sidewalk cafe area of the delightful Ugo Italian Cafe to network and mingle at our no-host happy hour mixer. We were able to catch up with some of our local tour industry cohorts and celebrated both Culver City’s renaissance and the post-pandemic revival of the Southern California tourism industry!