More from Hal Linker’s epic note, this section about music:
I was kind of a Beatle / hippie kid and really dug music, so I remember Rudy Pock’s in Ontario. An old-school music store — meaning that it sold musical instruments, stereos, transistor radios, sheet music and records.
I bought my first few Beatles and Stones records there. Bought my first Dave Clark Five record at Fedway in the Pomona Mall — saw “A Hard Day’s Night” movie at United Artists Theater in Pomona just up the street from The Fox.
David Platt Music was also on Euclid. And Ontario Music, where I got my initial guitar and drum lessons, still stands on G Street! It blows me away that they have survived all these years!
And who could forget White Front, which was located on Mountain in Ontario just past the cemetery a bit. Back in the 1960s you could buy three albums with 10 bucks and still have change — most LPs were $1.97 unless they were doubles. And even some of the doubles were $1.97 when specially priced.
As a record buying enthusiast, White Front was tough to beat — a lot of my collection of vinyl was bought there. And just up the road was a House Of Pies for munchies afterwards. (For those interested, there is still a House Of Pies in the Los Feliz area of L.A. near the Greek Theater.)
Pacific Stereo on Indian Hill near Holt (across from Boys Market). They opened in the early 1970s. And I spent a great part of my youth and money putting together different stereo systems. They even had a record department in Pacific Stereo for a short while — it was managed by the same guy who had worked the White Front record department, and also worked at the Wherehouse in Pomona — was his name Mike Parra? Not sure.
In the same strip complex was The Wherehouse which opened circa 1970 — I think it might be a karate studio now. I actually bought bootlegs in the back room there when this dope-smoking Dutch draft dodger named Jan (Yawn) was managing the place. Jan later had a short-lived record store on Foothill called Atlantis Records in the late 1970s.
More soon.
