Topline:
The Marlboro Man billboard used to tower over L.A. at the entrance of the Sunset Strip in West Hollywood. It was an ad for the cigarette maker, but over the years had become a landmark for the city.
Why it matters: The sign came down in 1999 after Big Tobacco and a number of state attorneys general reached a settlement that mandated a ban on outdoor tobacco advertising.
Read on … for a history of the Marlboro Man sign in L.A. and why the Sunset Strip was its perfect home.
It was the end of an era for a sign of the times.
On a rainy March day in 1999, a 70-foot billboard perched at the doorstep of the Sunset Strip was taken down and trucked away. That spot on Sunset Boulevard and Marmont Lane had long been the home of the rough-hewn, lasso-toting Marlboro Man — so much a fixture it became part of the glitz and glam of L.A.
"It was such an iconic ad — such a tall billboard with this very handsome image up there," said John Heilman, current and then-mayor of West Hollywood. "Right there by the Chateau Marmont and near a lot of music venues that we have up on Sunset."
That's how I came to know about these larger-than-life Marlboro billboards, going to the Roxy and the Whiskey to see shows, and to the Sunset Tower Records for music in the 1990s. I didn't know it at the time, the image apparently changed every couple of years, but the vibe was so consistent it felt like one, long seamless spell.
"When you came in on Sunset, that is what you saw," said Neil Ford, head of sales for central U.S. and the West Coast at Big Happy, a digital and mobile ad agency based in Chicago. "It really captured what out-of-home [advertisement] was at that moment, what it meant."
Ford said the campaign was groundbreaking — advertising at its most effective.
"You think about that image of the Marlboro Man. It was a different size, it had presence and it captured your attention," Ford said.
It was a gamechanger for Philip Morris. Sales for Marlboro hit $5 million in 1955, a more than 3,000% increase a year after its debut.
In other words, it attracted more smokers.
"It was obvious that the image of the rugged Marlboro Man encouraged generations of men to smoke," said Paul Koretz, a former West Hollywood council member who was at the sign on that March day to celebrate its fall.
Hypermasculinity aside, Marlboro was originally marketed to women as a luxury brand peddling a mild flavor when it was introduced in the 1920s.
The pivot came three decades later, when the company was looking for a way to sell men on filtered cigarettes, long considered effeminate and less flavorful.
Enter Chicago ad man Leo Burnett, who engineered what many consider one of the greatest brand reinventions of all time by creating a new series of mascots — not just butch cowboys, but tough-as-nail sailors, hunters, businessmen, sportsmen, writers.
At the end, the cowboy won out, becoming the brand's reigning Marlboro Man.
" They brought this masculine symbol — image, visual — and really re-created what Marlboro as a brand meant," Ford said. "And it just was one image, there was very little copy. It had the logo on it. It was its own creation at the time."
The campaign propelled Marlboro to the top of the domestic industry by the 1970s, even as the toll on public health from the use of tobacco products racked up.
The Centers for Disease Control estimates that some 480,000 people in the U.S. die every year from cigarette smoking, including exposure to second-hand smoke. At least four actors who portrayed Marlboro Man died from smoking-related diseases.
In 1971, the U.S. banned cigarette advertising on television and radio. Brands then shifted to other mediums, in particular billboards.
The 1.7-mile stretch of Sunset Strip in West Hollywood has never been a stranger to grabby billboards. In fact, it was where the medium became art.
"It's always been known for very creative advertising," Heilman, West Hollywood’s mayor, said.
Its golden era was arguably the 1970s, when giant, hand-painted rock ‘n’ roll signs lined the Strip, a veritable checklist of who’s who in the music world.
The phenomenon started in 1967, with Elektra Records taking out a billboard to promote the debut album of a little-known local band called The Doors.
Two years later, The Beatles’ "Abbey Road" appeared, followed by Led Zeppelin, Joni Mitchell, Bob Dylan, The Rolling Stones and Bruce Springsteen.
The era came to a close in the 1980s with the advent of MTV, which changed the playbook of music marketing, says photographer Robert Landau in his book, Rock 'n' Roll Billboards of the Sunset Strip.
"Other types of billboards focusing on the entertainment industry were very popular," Heilman said. "A lot of the new movie releases, new album releases, new product releases."
And the Marlboro Man stood amid this hit parade in one of the most commanding spots on The Strip since at least the late 1970s.
"As I recall, at one point they actually had steam coming out of it to simulate smoke," said Heilman, who has lived in West Hollywood for more than four decades.
The billboard predates the incorporation of West Hollywood as a city in 1984. Helping to lead the cityhood efforts was Koretz, who went on to become a City Council member for West Hollywood before serving on the state Assembly and the Los Angeles City Council.
"I actually lived near the Sunset Strip, so I thought about it every time I drove by," he said of the Marlboro Man ad. "It was one of the most effective symbols of tobacco marketing."
Both his parents, Koretz said, were heavy lifelong smokers who died from the addiction. As a lawmaker, Koretz led a number of anti-smoking efforts, including a smoking ban in restaurants in West Hollywood — as well as a near total ban on tobacco advertising in the city.
That ban was passed in the final months of 1998, just before a settlement agreement between the nation's biggest tobacco companies, including Philip Morris, and dozens of state attorneys general. The $206 billion deal settled lawsuits filed by the states to recoup health care costs for smoking-related illnesses. It also banned youth marketing, as well as outdoor advertising.
As a result, Los Angeles's most famous Marlboro Man stepped down on March 10, 1999 — about a month before the official removal deadline.
That day, Koretz held a news conference to send the sign off. He said not everyone was happy to see the landmark go. But the ban, among a slew of other anti-smoking policies, have made an impact.
Last year, the American Cancer Society reported cigarette smoking among U.S. adults dropped from 42% in 1965 to 11% in 2023.
" It was always controversial. There are always people that didn't like it," Koretz said of the billboard ban. "This is largely a success story."
Shortly after, a new billboard went up in the place of the Marlboro Man on Sunset.
It was still a cowboy, looking eerily similar to its fallen predecessor, but with a limp cigarette hanging from his mouth.
Instead of Marlboro, it read, "Impotent."
Topline:
Secret stand-up shows are happening where ticket-buyers are told where to show up just hours before. It's all part of the new Don't Tell Comedy series.
Details: The sites vary from parking lots, furniture stores, wine shops and other unconventional settings for stand-up comedy.
Read on ... to find a secret comedy show.
The post appeared first on LA Local.
Go past the dog walkers and strollers up the hilly street with the massive refinery. You’ll see an aerospace company’s moon buggy mural. Head toward a classic dingbat apartment and you’ll find a surfer-themed bar in a WWII-style Quonset hut.
Shh. There’s a secret comedy show happening in there where a comic is revealing secret techniques to make babies fart.
Don’t Tell Comedy shows like this one at Boardroom Brewery in El Segundo last month are happening all around Los Angeles County. They are stand-up shows where the crowd is only given venue clues ahead of time and only told where to be just hours before. The sites vary from parking lots, furniture stores, wine shops and other unconventional settings for stand-up comedy.
Boardroom Brewery bartender Rick Mathiesen told The LA Local that the night started with folks “getting out of their Ubers with confused looks on their faces.” They were trying to figure out if they got the right place, especially when the beach town bar rolled down its see-through hangar door.
The secret comedy show organization started in 2017 with backyard and living room pop-up shows. It has expanded its clandestine comedy format to more than 200 cities, including areas across LA such as downtown, Los Feliz, Silver Lake and Pasadena.
Griffin James, the emcee of the night and a local producer for Don’t Tell Comedy, was seen putting 80 chairs away by himself — hey, legendary comic Sam Kinison got his start as The Comedy Store’s doorman.
The 26-year-old Griffin said the gigs are still as competitive as landing a stage at The Laugh Factory, where he’s performed. There’s an added benefit for the audience: There is no mandatory two-drink minimum, which makes it more affordable than a night at a traditional comedy club.
Most comics at Don’t Tell Comedy shows are up-and-coming locals, but a few big names like Ali Wong, Nikki Glaser and Michael Che have appeared.
Jenna Lewanda told The LA Local that she and her boyfriend, Manny Aguilar, decided to take a trip from their West Hollywood home to the mystery spot in El Segundo. Their usual haunts for live comedy are the Hollywood Improv and a friend’s show, Hambone Comedy.
Lewanda received a message at 9 a.m. that Saturday with the location details. She looked it up and committed the odd curved building to memory. She was happy that night’s headliner was a famous stand-up: Brad Williams.
Williams — a comedian with dwarfism who has two Showtime specials and a Netflix stand-up episode under his belt — closed out the seven-comic show that night.
He got a lot of laughs recalling a camping incident where a park ranger told him to “get big” when confronted by a bear. The 4-foot-4-inch Williams’ response: “How?”
With less than three weeks until Election Day, outside groups are pouring millions of dollars into two types of state legislative races: purple districts featuring a Democrat and a Republican, and safely Democratic districts featuring Democrats of different ideological stripes.
The backstory: Since they came on the scene in January, two new tech-backed groups have dominated spending in legislative races. Grow California, funded by cryptocurrency investor Chris Larsen and venture capitalist Tim Draper as a “counterforce” to union spending, has spent more than $20 million this cycle. California Leads, funded by Meta and Google, has spent close to $14 million this year to support candidates who are focused on “real-world solutions rather than ideological fights.”
With less than three weeks until Election Day, outside groups are pouring millions of dollars into two types of state legislative races: purple districts featuring a Democrat and a Republican, and safely Democratic districts featuring Democrats of different ideological stripes.
Political action committees backed by politically powerful groups such as unions and business have spent over $100 million on California legislative races so far this election cycle, eclipsing 2024 spending. Groups can spend unlimited amounts on “independent expenditures” to boost or oppose a candidate, providing they don’t coordinate with the campaign.
Since they came on the scene in January, two new tech-backed groups have dominated spending in legislative races. Grow California, funded by cryptocurrency investor Chris Larsen and venture capitalist Tim Draper as a “counterforce” to union spending, has spent more than $20 million this cycle. California Leads, funded by Meta and Google, has spent close to $14 million this year to support candidates who are focused on “real-world solutions rather than ideological fights.”
Legislative Action PAC, which Republican strategists founded in 2025 at the request of Republican lawmakers amid frustration with the official state Republican Party, is also spending for the first time this cycle. It aims to help Republicans hold seats they flipped in 2024, and its major funders include Google, AT&T and oil and gas companies. The PAC and its offshoots, Legislative Action Victory PAC and Legislative Bipartisan Action PAC, have spent at least $6 million to support Republican candidates since April.
A CalMatters analysis of spending since the June 2 primary found that these are the nine most expensive competitive general election contests in the Legislature. Total spending in each race includes campaign spending from the primary through Sept. 19, the most recent reporting period, and independent expenditures from the primary through Oct. 13.
The priciest race so far is between two millennial Democrats who both serve on the Santa Ana City Council in Orange County. Lopez is the more progressive of the two: She helped pass a rent control ordinance in 2021 and faced a recall attempt by the local police union after she voted to create a police oversight commission in 2022. Tech money is flowing to help her opponent: In recent weeks, California Leads has spent $1.4 million and Grow California has spent $1.3 million on ads supporting Penaloza.
Several powerful unions, including those representing public employees, nurses and California State University faculty, have spent a combined $1.4 million on ads supporting Lopez and attacking Penaloza.
In the battle to succeed Sen. Ben Allen, Brian Goldsmith, an entrepreneur and former senior adviser for the pro-Israel advocacy group Democratic Majority for Israel, faces John Erickson, a West Hollywood city councilmember. The coastal Los Angeles district includes Malibu and Santa Monica. The two candidates are sharply divided on renter protections. Erickson supports repealing both the Costa-Hawkins Rental Housing Act and the Ellis Act, which limit local rent control and allow landlords to evict tenants to leave the rental business. That’s likely driving the influx of money supporting Goldsmith from the California Apartment Association, which has spent $450,000 on independent ads attacking Erickson. The California Realtors Association is the main funder of a PAC that’s spent over $600,000 backing Goldsmith.
Criminal justice reform advocates and organized labor, including the carpenters and school employees association, have bankrolled ads supporting Erickson.
Republican Assemblymember Greg Wallis is again fighting hard to retain his seat representing a purple district that includes both deep-blue Palm Springs and Cathedral City as well as conservative suburbs around Redlands and Yucaipa. Wallis has a significant fundraising advantage over his opponent, Democrat Leila Namvar, a former local labor leader and city planner. His campaign has outspent hers 6-to-1 and independent expenditures supporting him are more than 5-to-1. A moderate with a pro-business record, Wallis has been a favorite of California Leads, which has spent $1.1 million supporting him. A PAC funded by oil and gas companies has spent about $450,000. Legislative Bipartisan Action PAC spent about the same.
Amid the flood of outside spending, the Democratic Party has backed Namvar. Since mid-September, the party and its county committees have given her committee about $1.8 million.
Two Democrats are vying to replace departing progressive Sen. María Elena Durazo in this deep blue Los Angeles-based district. Sara Hernandez, a community college trustee, faces Sarah Rascón, a planning commissioner for East Los Angeles. Grow California and California Leads are backing Hernandez to the tune of about $3 million, even though her campaign website says she will “fight for strict rules with real enforcement” on Big Tech profits. Cardrooms near this district, including Hawaiian Gardens Casino and Commerce Casino, which are in a perennial battle with tribal casinos over gaming rights, have spent about $500,000 on independent ads supporting Hernandez.
Rascón, whose top priorities include advancing environmental and social justice, has rejected corporate money. Her campaign had spent about $34,000 as of mid-September, and the Working Families Party and California Environmental Voters have spent over $100,000 on ads supporting her.
This seat, which encompasses all of Marin County and some of Sonoma County, is another target of Grow California. The group has spent about $1.8 million on ads supporting Marin County Supervisor Eric Lucan. Lucan’s positions are more moderate than those of progressive Rohnert Park Councilmember Jackie Elward, who said in a KQED questionnaire that she supports moratoriums on “all things AI,” including data centers, and that “protecting workers is the priority.”
Elward’s support comes chiefly from the California Labor Federation, AFL-CIO, Consumer Attorneys of California and SEIU California State Council, which have spent over $1 million to support her race.
Outside groups have spent $2.7 million to back Republican Assemblymember Jeff Gonzalez. Photo by Fred Greaves for CalMattersTraditionally Democratic, this Latino-majority district along the California-Mexico border voted for Trump by 1.3 percentage points in 2024. The same year, Republican Jeff Gonzalez flipped it. Democrat Ida Obeso-Martinez, a nurse practitioner and Imperial County councilmember, is now challenging him to take it back. Oil and gas companies, a California Chamber of Commerce PAC and Legislative Bipartisan Action PAC are among the outside groups that have spent $2.7 million on mailers, polling, and TV and digital ads supporting Gonzalez and attacking Obeso-Martinez.
No outside groups have spent on behalf of Obeso-Martinez, but the California Democratic Party and its central committees recently gave Obeso-Martinez over $1.5 million for the final weeks of the race.
Incumbent Republican Josh Hoover faces Democrat Amy Slavensky, a retired teacher and superintendent, in this competitive Sacramento-area district, which shifted rightward after redistricting in 2022. Hoover’s allies, including business groups, cardrooms, and the Legislative Action PAC, have spent at least $2.3 million, chiefly on digital ads and mailers supporting him and opposing Slavensky.
No independent groups have spent to support Slavensky, but Democrats have contributed close to $1 million to Slavensky since mid-September.
Assemblymember Leticia Castillo at her desk during a floor session at the state Capitol in Sacramento on Jan. 23, 2025. Photo by Fred Greaves for CalMattersRepublican Assemblymember Leticia Castillo flipped this Latino-majority seat in Riverside County in 2024, defeating Democrat challenger Clarissa Cervantes by 596 votes. This year is a close rematch. Cervantes, a Riverside city councilmember whose sister is Sen. Sabrina Cervantes, received 54.5% of the vote compared to Castillo’s 45.5% in the June primary. In a rare move, Cervantes has outspent the incumbent Castillo in the general election. Much of her spending — close to $1 million — has been from her campaign account, compared to Castillo’s $80,000.
Legislative Action Victory PAC has spent about $650,000 on ads attacking Cervantes, and a coalition of unions spent about $530,000 supporting her. Both parties have been pouring in money to their respective candidates in the last few weeks.
Incumbent Democratic Sen. Melissa Hurtado won this district by 13 votes in 2022 even as Gov. Gavin Newsom lost it by more than 10 percentage points, making her the only Democrat to represent a state Senate district that President Donald Trump won in 2024. She faces a challenge from Republican Guillermo Gonzalez, a small business owner and former aide to Rep. David Valadao. Legislative Action PAC has spent over $1.7 million supporting Gonzalez and opposing Hurtado.
The Democratic Party and various county central committees have donated $4.8 million to Hurtado’s campaign war chest this election cycle, allowing her to spend close to $1 million between the primary and mid-September’s filing deadline.
For the record: This story was corrected to reflect that Clarissa Cervantes received 54.5% of the vote in her June primary contest against Leticia Castillo.
This article was originally published on CalMatters and was republished under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives license.
Topline:
Tucked away between a massage parlor and pet wash on Fair Oaks Avenue is South Pasadena’s only new and used independent bookstore.
Why now? Outpost Books opened in September. And the name sets the tone for the just under 1,000-square-foot space.
The vibe: “I wanted it to feel obviously cozy [like] a bookstore,” said owner Nicole Novembrino. But also “like a trading post, where you just stop along the road and there's stuff everywhere.”
Tucked away between a massage spa and pet wash on Fair Oaks Avenue is South Pasadena’s only new and used independent bookstore.
Outpost Books opened in September. And the name sets the tone for the just-under-1,000-square-foot space.
“I wanted it to feel obviously cozy [like] a bookstore,” said owner Nicole Novembrino. But also “like a trading post, where you just stop along the road, and there's stuff everywhere.”
Inside, custom corral doors open to a mural of a desert sunset. Hand-drawn signs guide you to each genre. Novembrino selects the books herself, from bestsellers to history books, including those that honor Route 66 — which Fair Oaks is part of. Some of the used books come from a local retirement home. The stickers for sale are for causes she supports such as keeping national parks public. A donation box to keep wild horses and burros free sits by the cash register.
Novembrino signed the lease in August and spent weekends road-tripping across Arizona gathering art to fill out the space. The western vibe is inspired by her childhood road trips from Southern California to New Mexico, where her mom grew up.
Novembrino picked South Pasadena because the city didn’t have a bookstore, but she’s aware of how difficult it is to run a small business. Nearby, longtime children's toy store Dinosaur Farm said in a September social media post a rent hike could lead to the shop shutting down.
“That's the one thing when you own a business is making rent. I hope not to feel that fear, but it's a very real thing,” Novembrino said.
So far, so good. On opening day, she was shocked to see a long line out the door, having done little outreach and promotion beforehand. Turns out, a South Pasadena social media influencer caught wind of the shop and posted about its grand opening date.
“I've gotten thank-yous for opening,” Novembrino, who lives in El Sereno, said. “They're just excited to have a bookstore. I wasn't expecting that.”
Outpost Books is planning for its first events later this season, including kids' corral storytimes and book clubs. Novembrino is still settling into the dream of finally running a bookshop.
As for her second dream, that’s opening up a donkey rescue.
Conditions at the Adelanto ICE Processing Center have improved but serious concerns remain, according to Rep. Robert Garcia, who represents Long Beach, and other members of Congress who visited the facility Friday.
Remaining issues: At a news conference immediately following the visit, the representatives described unsanitary conditions in the showers and kitchen areas, food that looked inedible and inadequate access to medical care.
The visit was unannounced: Garcia, the highest-ranking Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, said officials at the facility kept the delegation waiting in the lobby for half an hour before starting the tour, despite a recent court order requiring the Trump administration to grant elected officials access to immigration detention facilities. “We should have been allowed to visit immediately,” Garcia said. “That is the law.”
Conditions at the Adelanto ICE Processing Center have improved, but serious concerns remain, according to Rep. Robert Garcia, who represents Long Beach, and other members of Congress who visited the facility Friday.
At a news conference immediately following the visit, the representatives described unsanitary conditions in the showers and kitchen areas, food that looked inedible and inadequate access to medical care.
Rep. Norma Torres of Pomona, who has visited Adelanto 25 times in an oversight capacity, said the only improvement she saw this time was that the facility installed water filtration systems in response to a July court order requiring ICE to ensure people held there have access to clean drinking water 24 hours a day.
Garcia told LAist he would leave it up to the independent monitors appointed by the court to determine if the facility was fully complying with the order. The monitor overseeing overall conditions at the facility released its first report, containing 12 recommendations for improvement, earlier this month. The federal government recently purchased the facility from the GEO Group Inc. for $950 million. GEO Group is still under contract to run day-to-day operations there.
Garcia, the highest-ranking Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, said officials at the facility kept the delegation waiting in the lobby for half an hour before starting the tour, despite a recent court order requiring the Trump administration to grant elected officials access to immigration detention facilities.
“We should have been allowed to visit immediately,” Garcia said. “That is the law.”
Garcia and other representatives said it appeared the facility had been cleaned just before the tour started. The representatives also said they were not allowed to speak with people detained at the facility because ICE officials said they were conducting a point-in-time count and people were confined to their cells.
The representatives said they will take recommendations back to the oversight committee and plan to continue unannounced visits to immigration detention centers, including Adelanto. Should Democrats take control of the House of Representatives in November, Garcia and other representatives said they will increase oversight of the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement. Attorneys representing people held at Adelanto in a class-action lawsuit have asked the court to enforce the July order requiring improvements to the facility based on the independent monitor’s first report and reports from people detained there.
