All Night L.A.
by John Pashdag and Jim Woller

The cover was the first thing that caught our eye. A disco-dolly dressed all in white, in an all-white convertible, calmly chowing down on not just one, but two fully loaded double Tommy-burgers. "In Los Angeles life is a 24-hour affair...." With a tagline like that and a publish date of 1978, we snatched this book off the shelf. It's like they read our minds!

"Today, thousands of Los Angeles residents find themselves members, for one reason or another, of that new species, Homo sapiens nocturnus, more familiar with the moon and the stars than with the sun and the smog."

Even in this tear-it-down town, some of their listings are still in business, from Canter's and Tommy's to Roscoe's and the Pantry.

And then there's some that bring back fond memories, but bring a tear to your eye. Good old Vickman's, which sugared me up at least once a week with pie and coffee back in the early 80s, has gone to that big coffee shop in the sky. And Osko's disco, which hosted more than just a few underage, fake-id carrying teens in its day.

Ideas on how to spend a sleepless night, from on-the-cheap to a big spender's budget. Where to find an all night driving school. Who will fix your fish tank at 3am with a single phone call. This book was to print what Nocturne aims to be on the web! Of course, it's almost useless as a guidebook these days, but for those of us who lived here back when, it brings back a lot of memories. (1978)

reviewed by Karen