Schwab's Pharmacy, a long-lamented icon of Hollywood's golden era, will make a comeback next year in a high-profile real estate development at the corner of Sunset and Vine.
Although the popular legend that actress Lana Turner was discovered at Schwab's probably isn't true, the pharmacy and soda fountain founded in 1932 were a popular entertainment industry hangout for decades. It was immortalized in director Billy Wilder's tour de force 1950 movie "Sunset Boulevard," serving as headquarters for the main character, Joe Gillis, played by William Holden.
The pharmacy at Sunset and Crescent Heights boulevards closed in 1983 and was razed to make room for a shopping center. But tourists from around the world still come looking for the storied lunch counter, said Larry Bond, chairman of Bond Cos., whose Santa Monica company bought the rights to the Schwab's name.
A 21st century version of Schwab's will be the centerpiece of a shopping center and apartment project called Sunset + Vine. Bond is developing the $125-million project with Canyon-Johnson Urban Fund, a partnership of Beverly Hills-based Canyon Capital Realty Advisors and former Los Angeles Laker star Earvin "Magic" Johnson's Johnson Development Corp.
The new Schwab's will be on the first floor of the complex, behind the preserved 1938 art deco facade of the former TAV Studios, which once housed ABC Radio and later the Merv Griffin Theater.
In "Sunset Boulevard," Holden's Gillis called Schwab's a "combination office, kaffeeklatsch and waiting room." The new, 21,000-square-foot version will aspire to similar roles, in part by offering amenities undreamed of by former regulars Marilyn Monroe, James Dean, Judy Garland, Lucille Ball and Orson Welles.
In addition to a lunch counter, the Schwab's scheduled to open next year will include a boutique department store, yoga and Pilates studio, hair salon, sushi bar and restaurant, flower shop, cafe and teahouse.
Bond came up with the idea of buying a great name from the past to draw attention to his project and the neighborhood. "I was looking for something that would bring back the excitement and glamour of yesteryear," said Bond. "I couldn't think of anything better than the Brown Derby or Schwab's Pharmacy."
After settling on Schwab's, he tracked down two descendants of the four Schwab brothers who operated the original. Through a relative at Alan Schwab Pharmacy in Beverly Hills he found Laura Schwab Abrams of Point Ludlow, Wash., the daughter of one of the founders; she owned rights to the Schwab's Pharmacy name with her sister, Linda. Bond declined to say what he paid for the famous name and logo.
