Tower Records to be scratched from Strip

Artists such as Elton John made ritualistic stops at the record store when in town. Duran Duran staged a reunion concert in its 40-space parking lot, and Mariah Carey was met with pandemonium when she autographed a new CD there in the late 1990s. Former teenage heartthrob David Cassidy drew a crowd for an album-signing, and crowds flocked to Tower's parking lot to see the Quidam band of Cirque du Soleil.

Hollywood's hottest young stars routinely could be spotted shopping among Tower's record racks, which in an earlier era had been the popular site of a sales outlet for inventor Earl "Mad Man" Muntz's 4-track stereo cartridge music system.

Digital downloads and iPods put an end to Tower Records in 2006, however. Its parent company declared bankruptcy and shuttered its chain of shops. The Sunset Strip site was sold for a reported $12 million.

A Chicago developer now plans to tear down the record shop and construct a three-story, 52,000-square-foot combination office building, retail shop and health club. It would feature underground and rooftop parking for 276 cars.

Preservationists, however, hope to save the building and turn it into a long-discussed West Hollywood rock 'n' roll museum. Besides commemorating Tower Records' domineering presence on the Sunset Strip, advocates say such a museum would be an appropriate place to showcase memorabilia from the second half of the 20th century -- when Los Angeles emerged as the center of this country's recording industry.

The Sunset Strip has been a entertainment industry hot spot since the 1930s. Clubs like Ciros, Mocambo and the Trocadero were favorite hangouts for Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr., Humphrey Bogart, Bugsy Siegel and many others.

But there are few historic markers left for that era of the Strip. And some historians worry that the markers of the Strip's following era -- the music scene of the last 40 years -- are quickly fading as well.

During the Strip's music heyday, the likes of the Doors, the Byrds, Frank Zappa and later Van Halen and Motley Crue performed there. The Strip's Hyatt Hotel became infamous lodging for the stars, where musicians famously "trashed" rooms.

And Towers Records was there selling their music. Clubs such as Pandora's Box and The Trip are long gone. The record company billboards that lit up the Strip at night have been overshadowed by building-size supergraphics more likely to advertise movies or cable TV series than music.