Rodeo Drive

{{Short description|Shopping district in Beverly Hills, California}}

{{Infobox street

| name = Rodeo Drive

| native_name =

| marker_image =

| image = File:Rodeo Drive, Beverly Hills, LA, CA, jjron 21.03.2012.jpg

| image_size = 250px

| caption = Rodeo Drive in 2012

| map = {{Maplink-road}}

| other_name =

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| postal_code =

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| length_m =

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| length_mi =

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| location = Beverly Hills, California
Los Angeles, California, U.S.

| client =

| maint =

| coordinates = {{Coord|34|4|9.23|N|118|24|10.76|W|type:landmark|display=inline,title}}

| direction_a = South

| terminus_a = Beverwil Drive in Los Angeles

| direction_b = North

| terminus_b = Sunset Boulevard in Beverly Hills

| junction = {{plainlist|

Wilshire Boulevard
Dayton Way
Brighton Way
Santa Monica Boulevard

}}

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| north =

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| east = North Beverly Drive

| west = North Camden Drive

}}

Rodeo Drive ({{IPAc-en|r|oʊ|ˈ|d|eɪ|oʊ}}) is a {{convert|2|mi|km|adj=mid|-long|spell=in}} street in Beverly Hills, California, with its southern segment in the City of Los Angeles, known as one of the most expensive streets in the world.[https://www.cbsnews.com/losangeles/news/beverly-hills-streets-named-2nd-and-3rd-most-expensive-in-america/ CBS - Beverly Hills Streets Named 2nd And 3rd Most Expensive In America] Its southern terminus is at Beverwil Drive, and its northern terminus is at its intersection with Sunset Boulevard in Beverly Hills. The name is most commonly used metonymically to refer to the three-block stretch of the street between Wilshire Boulevard and Little Santa Monica Boulevard.

Pronunciation

The word rodeo as a term referring to the cowboy sports can be pronounced with the stress on either the first ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|r|oʊ|.|d|i|.|oʊ}}) or second ({{IPAc-en|r|oʊ|ˈ|d|eɪ|.|oʊ}}) syllable; the latter is its Spanish pronunciation.{{Cite news | author=Fitzpatrick, Kyle | title=A Local's Guide to Properly Pronouncing L.A. Places | url=https://www.lamag.com/citythinkblog/a-locals-guide-to-properly-pronouncing-l-a-places | work=Los Angeles | date=July 14, 2015 | access-date=July 27, 2020}} For the street in Beverly Hills, however, only the latter pronunciation is used; the former pronunciation is used to refer to Rodeo Road in Los Angeles, which has since been renamed Obama Boulevard.{{Cite news |last=Pollack|first=Gina | title=How To Speak LA: Your Guide To The City's Most Debated And Mispronounced Words | url=https://laist.com/projects/how-to-la/understand/pronunciation/ | work=LAist | date=July 22, 2019 | access-date=July 27, 2020}}

History

=Early history=

In 1906, Burton E. Green (1868–1965) and other investors purchased the property that would become Beverly Hills, formerly named Rancho Rodeo de las Aguas, with plans for a mixed-use subdivision with a branch of the Los Angeles and Pacific Railway running North on Rodeo Drive before turning west at Sunset Boulevard.{{cite news|work=Los Angeles Times|title=New Railroad and New City|date=November 10, 1906|page=I12}} They platted the street that very year, in 1906.{{cite journal |last=Goode |first=Terrance |title=Rodeo Drive: The History of a "Street of Dreams"|journal=Journal of Architectural and Planning Research |volume=15 |issue=1 |pages=45–60 |jstor=43030442|date=Spring 1998 }} By 1907, {{convert|75|x|160|ft|abbr=on}} parcels on Rodeo were selling for $1,100 each.{{cite news|title=Sales in Beverly Hills|work=Los Angeles Times|page=V20|date=May 19, 1907}} It became a bridle path in 1912, when the Beverly Hills Hotel was built on a former lima bean field. By November 1925, similar lots were selling for between $15,000 and $30,000, almost double what they'd been selling for in September.{{cite news|title=Realty Values Show Increase:Beverly Hills Lots Reveal Remarkable Gains|date=November 22, 1925|work=Los Angeles Times}} Pacific Electric Red Cars operated over the street to the Beverly Hills Hotel as the Coldwater Canyon Line between 1907 and 1923.{{cite web |title=Coldwater Canyon Line |url=http://www.erha.org/pewcc.htm |publisher=Electric Railway Historical Association of Southern California |access-date=3 May 2024}}

File:Rodeo drive street sign-93.jpg

The central part of Rodeo eventually became a business street with hardware stores, gas stations, beauty shops, and bookstores. The men's store Carroll & Company opened shop on Rodeo Drive in 1950.{{cite news|first=Calvin |last=Sims |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1992/10/26/business/hard-times-even-on-rodeo-drive.html |title=Hard Times, Even on Rodeo Drive |newspaper=New York Times |date=26 October 1992}} The Anderton Court Shops building at 332 N. Rodeo was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright in 1952.{{cite news|title=Rodeo Drive—It's 'a giant sundae' and some of the world's most exclusive shops|work=Los Angeles Times|date=November 25, 1977|page=J19}} In 1958, real estate developer Marvin Kratter bought {{convert|48000|sqft}} of land at the corner of Rodeo and Wilshire Boulevard from the city of Beverly Hills. The acreage is across the street from the Beverly Wilshire Hotel and Kratter paid something over $2 million for it.{{cite news|work=New York Times|title=Deal at Beverly Hills: Investor Enlarges Holdings in Coast City Realty|page=45|date=February 19, 1958}}

=Origin of a new image=

File:A012, Beverly Hills, California, USA, Vector W8 on Rodeo Drive, 1991.jpg parked in front of the Gucci store]]

In 1961 Fred Hayman, "the father of Rodeo Drive," opened Giorgio Beverly Hills, the street's first high-end boutique.{{cite news|title=Honors for Fred Hayman, the father of legendary Rodeo Drive|work=The Daily Star|author=Sandy Cohen|page=12|date=June 8, 2011|quote=But back in 1964, when Fred Hayman started building his Giorgio Beverly Hills shop, Rodeo Drive was just a regular city street, with a grocer, a gas station and a hardware store. Hayman became its ambassador. He envisioned the street as an elegant home to the finest designers and boutiques, a magnet for starlets and socialites, like an American Champs-Elysees, a sexy, fun, camera-ready intersection of Hollywood and fashion. Giorgio Beverly Hills, located at 273 Rodeo Drive, boasted its own oak bar and pool table, where gentlemen could pass the time as the ladies shopped. Hayman welcomed browsers with a glass of Champagne. He personally invited celebrity contacts he met at the Hilton to experience his latest business venture, creating an air of sophistication among the clientele.}} In 1968 Aldo Gucci opened a store on Rodeo, which catalyzed the process by which the street took on its present form.{{cite journal|title=Semiotic Neighborhoods|author=Ilpo Koskinen|journal=Design Issues |pages=13–27|volume=21|number=2|date=Spring 2005|jstor=25223990|doi=10.1162/0747936053630142|s2cid=57566733}}{{subscription required}} Van Cleef & Arpels opened in 1969, followed by a Vidal Sassoon salon in 1970. The Polo Store, the brand's first freestanding store, opened in 1971.Frank Swertlow, [https://labusinessjournal.com/news/1998/jul/20/re/ Los Angeles Business Journal], Labusinessjournal.com, 20 July 1998

According to a former co-chair of the "Rodeo Drive Committee," Richard Carroll, the transformation of Rodeo Drive into an international center of fashionable shopping was sparked in 1971 with the opening of a new wing of the Beverly Wilshire. In 1980 Carroll noted that before then "There was nothing at all of an international nature on the street. Rodeo was purely local in flavor."{{cite news|title=Complimentary Cappucino: Shoppers' Street of Dreams is Chic Showcase of Opulence|work=Los Angeles Times|page=W81|author=Barbara Baird|date=June 8, 1980}} In 1977 the Rodeo Drive Committee "launched a publicity campaign designed to make everyone around the world think of Rodeo Drive as the shopping street of the rich and famous."{{cite journal|last=Kasindorf|first=Jeanie|title=Rodeo Drive: Fear of Buying|newspaper=New York Magazine|date=19 November 1984|page=20}} The RDC wanted to make Rodeo Drive an economic engine for Beverly Hills and spread the image of a "culturally elite lifestyle."{{cite journal|last=Goode|first=T.|title=Rodeo Drive: The History of a "Street of Dreams"|journal=Journal of Architectural and Planning Research|year=1998|volume=15|issue=1|page=45}}

In 1976, Bijan Pakzad opened a showroom on Rodeo, which helped to solidify "Rodeo Drive's reputation as a luxury shopping destination."{{cite journal|last=Brown|first=Rachel|title=Bijan Pakzad, Rodeo Drive Pioneer.|journal=Women's Wear Daily|date=19 April 2011|volume=201|issue=80|page=6|url=http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CA254700173&v=2.1&it=r&p=AONE&sw=w&asid=79e67ad2e266d4ab4155ec7bdffc55c3|access-date=7 April 2014}}{{subscription required}}{{cite news |url=http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-bijan-sale-20160825-snap-story.html |title=Bijan property on Rodeo Drive sells for $19,000 a square foot |newspaper=Los Angeles Times |first=Andrew |last=Khouri |date= August 26, 2016 |access-date=28 August 2016}} Pakzad touted his Rodeo Drive store as "the most expensive in the world," but, as Women's Wear Daily notes in relation to the claim, "he was known for hyperbole." By 1978 the Beverly Hills Chamber of Commerce was boasting that Rodeo Drive was "the essence of the best of all the shopping centers of the world"{{cite news|work=New York Times|title=Glittering Stores For Sheiks, Stars: A Great Westward Migration|author=Pamela G. Hollie|date=December 14, 1978|page=D1}} and by 1980 the city of Beverly Hills estimated that the Rodeo Drive shopping district accounted for as much as 25% of its sales tax revenues.

=International fashion centre=

File:Via Rodeo, Beverly Hills.jpg

By 1981, the high-fashion strip took up only two and a half blocks, with around 65 stores.Elizabeth Bumiller, [https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1981/01/14/rodeo-drive-mink-lined-mecca-of-the-inaugural-set/4f1026df-0bf4-4851-b528-54f3d5b943a8/ Rodeo Drive: Mink-Lined Mecca of the Inaugural Set], Washingtonpost.com, 14 January 1981

The "Rodeo Collection," a 45-store, {{convert|70000|sqft|adj=on}} shopping mall opened in 1983{{cite news|last=Darling|first=Michael|title=A Rodeo Drive timeline|newspaper=Los Angeles Times|date=September 9, 2013}} at 421 N. Rodeo Drive. The building is only four stories high with the first floor below street level in order to satisfy local building codes. The retail space initially leased for as much as $120 per square foot, which, according to an executive with commercial real estate firm Julien J. Studley, was "the highest price for any kind of space in the Los Angeles Area."{{cite news|last=Ryon|first=Ruth|title=That Glitter in Beverly Hills is Growth of Rodeo Drive|newspaper=Los Angeles Times|date=May 25, 1980|page=I1}}

In the early 1990s, Rodeo Drive was ranked 4th most-visited destination in the Los Angeles area (after Disneyland, Knott's Berry Farm and Universal Studios).Dave McNary, [https://www.upi.com/Archives/1990/06/04/Japanese-make-major-Rodeo-Drive-investment/8205644472000/ Japanese make major Rodeo Drive investment], Upi.com, 4 June 1990

Two Rodeo Drive, another outdoor shopping center, was built in 1990. It initially housed, amongst other stores, Christian Dior and Valentino.{{cite news|last=Vincent|first=Roger|title=Rodeo Drive shopping center sold|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2007-sep-18-fi-rodeo18-story.html|access-date=4 April 2014|newspaper=Los Angeles Times|date=18 September 2007}}Aaron Betsky, [https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1991-12-05-we-949-story.html Two Rodeo Drive--A Collage of What Beverly Hills Is All About], Latimes.com, 5 December 1991 The original developer, Douglas Stitzel, sold the property for about $200 million immediately after its completion. Two Japanese groups, Kowa Real Estate California Inc. and USA Sogo Inc, bought 40% of Two Rodeo Drive.

The Two Rodeo Drive shopping center was hard-hit by the early 1990s recession, with occupancy rates dropping to as low as 60%. Middle-market brand boutiques such as Guess Jeans and Banana Republic opened on Rodeo Drive. Many franchised stores were bought back by the brands they represented (Polo Ralph Lauren, Gianni Versace, Hugo Boss).

The Two Rodeo Drive buyers sold it at an almost $70 million loss in 2000. By 2007 the property was financially stable again and was sold to a group of Irish investors for $275 million. It resembles a "faux-European shopping alley" and features a cobblestone street.{{cite book|title=The Rough Guide to California|year=2011|publisher=Penguin, 2011|page=109|author=Rough Guides}} Some architects have claimed that Two Rodeo Drive is similar to a "theme park in the manner of Disneyland."{{cite book|author=David Gebhard|title=An Architectural Guidebook to Los Angeles|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WWl29hn0C9gC&pg=PA158|year=2003|publisher=Gibbs Smith|isbn=978-1-58685-308-2|pages=158–9}}

=Walk of Style=

File:Model_crosses_street_in_Beverly_Hills.jpeg, 2013.]]

File:Rodeo drive, 01.JPG

In 2003, Rodeo Drive was given an $18 million makeover which included widening the streets and the addition of crosswalks. The ficus trees lining the street were taken out and replaced with palm trees. In September of the same year, the Rodeo Drive Committee developed the Rodeo Drive Walk of Style.{{cite news|last=Nguyen|first=Daisy|title=Rodeo Drive Gets Needed Makeover|url=http://www.lexisnexis.com/hottopics/lnacademic/?verb=sr&csi=156942&sr=HLEAD(RODEO%20DRIVE%20GETS%20NEEDED%20MAKEOVER)%20and%20date%20is%202003|access-date=1 April 2014|newspaper=The Augusta Chronicle|date=24 December 2003|page=A13}}{{subscription required}} The Walk of Style features plaques set in the sidewalks along Rodeo Drive. Fashion icons are honored with the award for their work in style and fashion.{{cite news|last=Schmidt|first=Ingrid|title=Designer Catherine Martin to get Rodeo Drive Walk of Style Award|url=https://www.latimes.com/fashion/la-xpm-2014-feb-05-la-ar-catherine-martin-rodeo-drive-walk-of-style-award-20140205-story.html|access-date=1 April 2014|newspaper=Los Angeles Times|date=5 February 2014}} At the intersection of Rodeo Drive and Dayton Way is the nude sculpture entitled "Torso." This statue was created by sculptor Robert Graham and is the symbol for the Rodeo Drive Walk of Style. Recipients of the Rodeo Drive Walk of Style Award receive a "Torso" maquette also designed by artist Robert Graham.{{cite news|last=Roug|first=Louise|title=Armani is first to get star on fashion 'Walk of Style'|url=https://archive.seattletimes.com/archive/20030304/rodeowalk04/armani-is-first-to-get-star-on-fashion-walk-of-style|access-date=1 April 2014|newspaper=Los Angeles Times|date=4 March 2003}}

The French fashion firm Lanvin opened a store on Rodeo Drive in 2011.{{cite journal|last=Brown|first=Rachel|title=Lanvin Lands On Rodeo.|journal=Women's Wear Daily|date=31 January 2011|volume=201|issue=20|page=3|url=http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CA248664907&v=2.1&it=r&p=AONE&sw=w&asid=19078ed3462ec00b2f0af8fcd56f7f92|access-date=7 April 2014}}{{subscription required}}

=2020 lootings=

In May 2020, several of Rodeo Drive's businesses were damaged and looted following the murder of George Floyd. It was reported that several windows were broken and many of the looted buildings were vandalized by spray paint.{{Cite web |date=2020-05-31 |title=Protesters loot stores, cause damage at The Grove, Rodeo Drive during George Floyd unrest |url=https://abc7.com/the-grove-los-angeles-looted-stores-nordstrom/6222114/ |access-date=2024-05-28 |website=ABC7 Los Angeles |language=en}}

Events

Rodeo Drive Concours d'Elegance: occurs annually every Father's Day on Rodeo Drive to exhibit some of the world's most expensive automobiles.{{cite news|last=Garon|first=Brenton|title=Concours to Honor Event Participants On Father's Day|url=http://bhcourier.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/061810Fissue.pdf|access-date=1 April 2014|newspaper=The Beverly Hills Courier|date=18 June 2010|page=24|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140407092458/http://bhcourier.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/061810Fissue.pdf |archive-date=7 April 2014}}
Fashion’s Night Out: Created in 2009 in New York City in hopes of boosting the economy during the recession. Its goals were to "celebrate fashion, restore consumer confidence and boost the industry’s economy." In 2012, 500 cities across the United States (including Los Angeles), as well as 30 cities around the world adopted the event. It is held annually in September on the same night worldwide.{{cite news|last=Hsu|first=Tiffany|title=Fashion's Night Out, designed to boost economy, goes on hiatus|url=https://www.latimes.com/business/la-xpm-2013-feb-27-la-fi-mo-fashions-night-out-20130227-story.html|access-date=1 April 2014|newspaper=Los Angeles Times|date=27 February 2013}} The carnival features a 60-foot Ferris wheel and other attractions on the three blocks of the Rodeo Drive business district.{{cite news|last=Yvette|first=Mar|title=Fashion's Night Out LA 2011: Where To Go For The Best Deals, Steals & Meals|url=http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/09/07/fashions-night-out-los-an_n_952432.html#s351685title=Fashions_Night_Out|access-date=1 April 2014|newspaper=The Huffington Post|date=7 September 2011}}
Rodeo Drive Festival of Watches and Jewelry.Susan Denley, [https://www.latimes.com/fashion/alltherage/la-ar-rodeo-drive-festival-of-watches-gears-up-20131009-story.html Rodeo Drive Festival of Watches gears up], The Los Angeles Times, October 09, 2013'Rodeo Drive Festival of Watches and Jewelry is Sunday', The Beverly Hills Courier, September 12, 2014, p. 8 [http://bhcourier.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/091214Fissue.pdf]{{Cite web |url=http://rodeodrive-bh.com/festivalofwatches/ |title=Rodeo Drive: Festival of Watches + Jewelry |access-date=2014-09-14 |archive-date=2014-09-14 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20140914023755/http://rodeodrive-bh.com/festivalofwatches/ |url-status=dead }}

Notable people

William Boyd and Elinor Fair, film actors, married to each other{{cite news|title=Lubitsch Directs Barrymore|author=Grace Kingsley|work=Los Angeles Times|page=A9|date=January 12, 1928}}
Nicole Brown and O. J. Simpson first met at Jack Hanson's Rodeo Drive nightclub, The Daisy, when Brown worked there as a waitress{{cite web|website=CNN: The O.J. Simpson Pages|title=The Victims: Nicole Simpson and Ron Goldman|url=http://www.cnn.com/US/OJ/victims/index.html}}
Tod Browning, film actor, director, and screenwriter (corner of Rodeo Drive and Cañon Drive){{cite news|title=Director Buys Beverly Hills Dwelling Site|work=Los Angeles Times|date=September 19, 1926|page=E4}}
Ralph Forbes, film actor (606 Rodeo Drive){{cite news|title=Actress's Auto to Be Sold: Ruth Chatterton's Coupe Attached for Lien of $121.50.|work=New York Times|date=May 29, 1928|page=11}}

In popular culture

In the 1990 movie Pretty Woman, the young sex worker Vivian Ward (Julia Roberts) steps in a Rodeo Drive boutique where she gets snubbed by the sales clerks.
The song "Down Rodeo" by Rage Against the Machine is titled after the street and refers to "Rolling down Rodeo with a shotgun"
In the 2011 movie Just Go with It, plastic surgeon Dr. Danny Maccabee (Adam Sandler) takes his assistant Katherine (Jennifer Aniston) on a shopping spree down Rodeo Drive, after agreeing to pretend to be his wife, who will soon be divorced.
In the 1994 movie D2: The Mighty Ducks, four of the members of the team visit Rodeo Drive. After playing pranks along the street they gain access to one of the boutiques before getting kicked out.{{Citation |title=D2: The Mighty Ducks (1994) - IMDb |url=http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0109520/locations |access-date=2023-01-24}}
Billy Ray Cyrus references driving down Rodeo Drive in the 2019 remix of Little Nas X’s single "Old Town Road", which topped the Billboard Hot 100 for a record 19 consecutive weeks.
In the 2004 video game, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, a parodied version of the street is present in the fictional city of Los Santos.
In the 2013 video game, Grand Theft Auto V, a redesigned parody of Rodeo Drive is present, called Portola Drive, in the fictional neighborhood of Rockford Hills, in Los Santos.
In the 2019 mobile game Mario Kart Tour, Rodeo Drive is briefly driven through in the "Los Angeles Laps" race course.
In the track "Hot Girl (Bodies Bodies Bodies)" from the soundtrack for the 2022 film Bodies Bodies Bodies, Charli XCX names Rodeo Drive as a preferred shopping location.{{Cite web |title=Charli xcx — Hot Girl (Bodies Bodies Bodies) Lyrics |url=https://genius.com/Charli-xcx-hot-girl-bodies-bodies-bodies-lyrics |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241223184227/https://genius.com/Charli-xcx-hot-girl-bodies-bodies-bodies-lyrics |archive-date=2024-12-23 |access-date=2024-12-23 |website=Genius}}
In "The New Workout Plan" on Kanye West’s debut album The College Dropout, one of the woman snippets includes a mention of Rodeo Drive, saying she’s now able to shop there.
In "Unholy" by Sam Smith and Kim Petras the line "You gonna need to bag it up because I'm spending on Rodeo"
In the chorus of "Whatever She Wants" by Bryson Tiller, he says "I'ma take her bougie ass to Rodeo and then let her pick up whatever she wants" in reference to Rodeo Drive.