Leon Schwab; Helped Make Pharmacy a Landmark
Leon Schwab, who helped make his family’s fabled drugstore on Sunset Boulevard a haven for movie stars and the preferred site of an apocryphal anecdote about the discovery of actress Lana Turner, has died. He was 85.
Schwab, who often phoned Hollywood executives to tout would-be actors, died Thursday at Harbor South Medical Center after surgery for a broken hip.
As a child, Schwab moved to Los Angeles with his family. To support her four sons and two daughters, the widowed Lena Schwab started a pharmacy in the early 1920s. The six children, including Leon, worked at Schwab’s, which eventually expanded to seven stores in the Hollywood and Beverly Hills area.
A copy of the legendary lunch counter at 8024 Sunset Blvd. has recently been seen on both coasts as a set in the musical “Sunset Boulevard.” It also has been recreated more permanently at Universal Studios Florida, complete with a plaque dedicated to founder Lena Schwab. The original Sunset Schwab’s closed in 1983 after more than 50 years in business.
In its heyday, Gloria Swanson, star of the original film “Sunset Boulevard”--which featured scenes at Schwab’s--bought her makeup at the Sunset landmark. Charlie Chaplin and Paulette Goddard made their own milkshakes at the counter, and Hugh O’Brian worked there as a soda jerk.
Among the regulars were Clark Gable, Judy Garland, Humphrey Bogart, Marilyn Monroe, Ronald Reagan, Cesar Romero and even Lana Turner, although historians have generally decided she was not discovered there by a movie producer.
Many future stars did get their break by frequenting the drugstore, however, thanks to Leon Schwab.
“All those movie stars weren’t discovered at Schwab’s because they were seen there, but because Leon picked up the telephone,” customer and Hollywood publicist Joe Seide told The Times in 1988 when the Sunset location fell to the wrecking ball. “All the studio heads got their prescriptions filled there and their checks cashed, and their milkshakes made. So when Leon saw someone of star material, they heard about it.”
Leon Schwab joined his brothers and sisters in the family business after earning a pharmacy degree from USC. After his brother Jack’s death, he concentrated on the Sunset store.
Realizing it was nestled among studios--Republic, RKO, Columbia--he catered to the show business community.
“We started charge accounts,” he told The Times in 1983, “and cashing checks.”
He also ran tabs for out-of-work actors, loaned them money and gave them food when they needed it. In 1953, he added a pager and a special phone for incoming calls to movie people.
“They were tying up the pay phone all the time,” he said.
Among Schwab’s survivors are one brother, Bernard; two sons, Norman and Kent; a daughter, Lynne, and six grandchildren.
Funeral services are scheduled for Sunday at Mount Sinai Mortuary in Los Angeles.
