Rusty Pelican with Dad and Marilyn for a Sunday Brunch on Belmont Shores, 1985.

Was just thinking of the restaurants I dined at with Dad and Marilyn.  They both liked the old Rusty Pelican with one restaurant just off Holly in Glendale and then other one in Seal Beach, maybe closer to Belmont Shores, since the restaurant sat on the rim of a marina. 

The Rusty Pelican, a popular upscale seafood chain that opened a major location in Glendale, CA on Brand Boulevard in 1985 and featured a prominent swordfish as part of its vintage logo and branding.

The Glendale Connection: The Glendale location opened during the peak of the chain's expansion in 1985, bringing an upscale beach-town dining atmosphere inland to the valleys of Los Angeles.

The Logo: While the name refers to a pelican, the restaurant's signage, merchandise, and menus heavily showcased a stylized, dynamic swordfish/marlin leaping through the air to emphasize its premium fresh-fish offerings. 

Wilshire Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA, 1933

 

1933, Wilshire Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA.  Thank you to Anibal Martinez.

Copeland Building, 8th & Spring Streets, 1930

1930, Looking west on 8th Street toward Main Street. But look closely in the distance. That castle-like building was the Copeland Building, also known as the Armory Building, at 8th and Spring Streets.

Built in 1898 as a National Guard armory, its corner turret was even designed to accommodate a Gatling gun.  More on the Copeland Building @ Water & Power.  Thanks to Jack Feldman.

1920s, View of the northwest corner of 8th and Spring Streets showing the Copeland Building, also known as the Armory Building. The Sun Drug Co. occupies the ground floor. Other signs advertise West Coast Stationery & Printing Co. and Rose Room Dancing. A streetcar, automobiles, pedestrians and a traffic policeman share the intersection.

corner at the intersection Fountain Avenue and Virgil Avenue in East Hollywood, 1975

 Love this pic because it's a good capture of lifestyles of the 1970s.

1975, View looking south of a chair, lamp, and antiques outside of a second hand shop on the corner at the intersection Fountain Avenue and Virgil Avenue in East Hollywood. The addresses of the bungalows across the street are 4434 and 4438 Fountain Avenue. (Inna Ray Collection).  Thank you to LAPL.

Pictures from Hawaii during the V-J Day Celebrations after the news was announced of the surrender of Japan, August 14, 1945

V-J Day in Los Angeles / Hollywood, California when news is announced of the surrender of Japan, August 14, 1945

Pictures from V-J Day in Los Angeles / Hollywood, California when news is announced of the surrender of Japan - August 14, 1945

Note the intent to surrender was announced by Japan on August 15, 1945, but due to time zone differences it was still August 14th in the US.

Walter Sanders Photographer

LIFE Magazine Archives / WWP-PD

1945, August 14, Pictured are several couples sitting on a military jeep celebrating V-J Day. On the hood of the jeep a woman is saluting and her companion is waving while the other couples are kissing. Some of the men are wearing military uniforms. The car is in front of Roos Bros. clothing store at 6320 Hollywood Boulevard. (Herald Examiner Collection).  Thank you to LAPL.

Wikipedia explains,

Victory over Japan Day (also known as V-J Day, Victory in the Pacific Day, or V-P Day) is the day on which Imperial Japan surrendered in World War II, in effect bringing the war to an end. The term has been applied to both of the days on which the initial announcement of Japan's surrender was made – 15 August 1945, in Japan, and because of time zone differences, 14 August 1945 (when it was announced in the United States and the rest of the Americas and Eastern Pacific Islands) – as well as to 2 September 1945, when the surrender document was signed, officially ending World War II.

Dad's Friends

Yeah, there aren't a lot of, ahem, edifying songs about the town.  Too bad.  Because my memory of LA is essentially Dad, LA Police Academy, Dodgers Stadium, Clifton's Cafeteria, Olvera Street, Stanley Mosk Courthouse, Grand Avenue, Tom Donovan's Texaco station at Figueroa and Sunset, Elysian Park, Courtyard Foot Bridge connecting us from Broadway to Spring, the Plaza Mission, the Coliseum with tailgating parties with Chuck Pullman wolfing down burritos and Pepsi from Pedro's midst the smell of cigar smoke and distant mumblings punctuated by guttural laughter, Union Station [with Dad, that was more just to visit the interior], Lincoln Park, the San Antonio Winery, Barbara Ann's Day Old Bakery, the Grand Star Chinese restaurant where he held his retirement party, Barrigan's, of course, Little Joe's in which I'd never set foot but Charlen and Chuck Pullman did.  Dad really was the bridge between multiple generations, giving life, love, and fun and beautiful memories to anyone who would accept it.   

1908, Eastlake Park boathouse, aka Lincoln Park, the counter to Westlake west of Downtown LA. Thanks to Tom Anderson @ Los Angeles.

He liked to drive past Lincoln Park on Valley east, then left and north onto Soto to get to Huntington Drive.  He'd often point to a hospital on the south side of Valley [maybe the buildings were just the public health buildings and not a hospital, I could not tell] then reminisce how he was an orderly in a hospital as a young man.  Whether true or fiction, the story worked.  I never forgot his commitment to service.  And as we drove through that area, we'd hear a cryptic word about Maimi, as if he were driving through the memories of his youth more than on a boulevard.  On only a couple of occasions did we stop at Lincoln Park there with the lagoon and paddle boats.  It's just terrible to have all of these wonderful memories of a place, more of a playground than a metropolis, and not able to have him in our physical presence to thank him for unique experiences that we took for "this is just how things are; doesn't everybody do this?"  

Then there's all the visiting folks in hospitals, where he graded the hospital based on the quality of their chili in the basement cafeteria, oh, and oyster crackers.  If they didn't have oyster crackers, he'd almost curse the hospital.  It was the chili at the Dept. of Water & Power that he praised most and caused me to assess that modern building with extra beauty.

What stuns me is that you guys were much closer to Dad when you started working with him in DTLA.  And yet no stories from ya'll.  Would be nice to have gotten a few stories between Dad and Conroy since they worked together.  

This conversation started on March 27, 2026 

"None of Dad's friends were from the Marine Corps."

Okay, thanks.  That helps.

"The only person that I knew of that Dad mentioned being in the Marine Corps was Jim Stockham (Mom's brother)."

I thought Cruz was in the Marines with Dad.  He doesn't have to be, it's just that's one of many unconfirmed stories I carried in my head.

"I think Dad knew Dan O'Donnell from Cathedral HS.  This is a guess on my part.  The reason I say that is because there is a picture of Dad and Dan O'Donnell (1933) at Uncle Charlie and Aunt May's farm in Colorado.  I don't know how they got there, possibly rode with Ma n Pa to visit relatives back there.  And, yes, Dan O'Donnell also drew cartoons, too, I believe."

Okay, I do recall now that Dad knew O'Donnell from Cathedral.  Is that photo of them in that set of pics on that memory stick you sent out?  Doesn't have to be.  You'd done a lot of work on all of those family pics.  I said that Dad liked O'Donnell's art because Mom told me that one time in the years after Dad's passing.

"Yes, the Colorado Lagoon did have a platform to jump off of or dive from, I believe."  

Corroboration is always a good thing.  Thanks for that.

"I don't remember going to any other cafeteria at a place of business in DTLA other than the DWP.  I think we did it maybe twice in the six years from when I started working in DTLA in 1968 til 1976 when Dad retired."  

Okay.

"Funny thing, too, I remember Dad referring to Barragan's so many times, how much he liked, but I never went there with him.  It wasn't til many, many years later a bunch were invited to celebrate Marilyn D's birthday there one time.  And, I wasn't impressed."

He loved it because he had several lunches there with work friends.  Plus, I think Dad's appetite was easy to please at Mexican restaurants--2 cheese enchiladas, rice and beans, and a Coors.  I went there a few times with friends, and I liked their shrimp and rice with beans and a Coors.  Oh, yeah.  It's good.  It's in the heart of Echo Park, so old LA.  Had charm.

"O'Donnell, Penny, Sullivan, Conroy, Cruz none were in the Marine Corps."

That is good to know.  Thanks, Dan.

"I remember "running into" Dan O'Donnell at the Sears Roebuck on Soto St in LA in the late 70's or early 80's.  I recognized him, I told him who I was, and we talked for a few minutes.  He was working there as a Security Guard.  He and his wife had divorced, and he had some difficult issues he was dealing with for several years.  I meant to get a contact info. for him, but forget."

That's interesting.  I presume he had kids.  Do you know whereabouts in LA he lived?

You guys remember Cecil, the neighbor in San Gabriel who used to make Dad's glasses?  I think he moved to Duarte, and he ran into Mom one time at the Bank of America there across the street from Steamboat where I worked as short order cook and manager.  I think he may even made a brief stop to Duarte to have coffee with Mom for a few minutes to review the days.  Once we were in Duarte, Dad used to have his glasses made by the father of a classmate, John Shandley.  So John Shandley's dad who lived just 2 to 3 blocks south of us off of Greenbank designed Dad's glasses.  I think he did Mary's glasses too when she first started needing them. 

"We used to shop at that Sears when we lived in LA on Virgil Ave.."  

 

Which Sears?  Not the Mail Order building where Mom worked?

"I never heard Dad talk about Dan O'Donnell's artwork/cartoons, and I don't know if anything was ever published."  

Yeah, for me, it was Mom who remembers Dad's admiration for his O'Donnell's skills.

"And, as far as Penny, I don't know how Dad knew him.  Maybe, Charlen remembers overhearing what was their connection."

I see.  Maybe Chuck can ask Charlen.  

"I have a vague memory of a connection through writing or drawing, but this is purely speculative on my part."

That's a start.  Thanks Dan for your great efforts here.  I definitely got a sharper picture of relationships and histories.  Thank you.