Original Farmers Market turns 75

“Los Angeles is a very impersonal town,” says Bob Tusquellas. The Original Farmers Market “is the opposite of that,” says the merchant, who owns Bob’s Coffee and Doughnuts, Tusquellas Seafoods and Tusquellas Fish and Oyster Bar. The market is turning 75 this week, with a celebration that includes the USC marching band, dignitaries and a cake shaped like the market’s clock tower.  (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

“The Price Is Right” contestants Larry Sea, left, Ricky Sea and Mark Ballard, all of Fayetteville, Ga., eat at Magee’s Kitchen. Sea won two snowboards and an entertainment center on the show, which films at the CBS studios next door.  (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

Aimee Teegarden of Los Angeles took her dog Gizmo to the market.  (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

Kaia Heiberg, 20 months old, helps her parents shop for vegetables. In 1934, the family who owned the land at 3rd Street and Fairfax offered to let farmers drive up and sell produce. Eighteen merchants came, paying 50 cents a day in rent, and a tradition sprang up.  (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

Kids check out a replica of the 1936 Gilmore gas station. At the turn of the century, Arthur Fremont Gilmore — who owned 256 acres of dairy farm — hit oil while drilling for water. Soon his farm became the Gilmore Oil Co.  (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

Director Paul Mazursky has been meeting friends for coffee at the market for the last 26 years. “We are obsessive about coming here. We feel compelled to come here,” he says.  (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

Lisa and Erik Heiberg, take daughter Kaia shopping at Bob Tusquellas Seafoods.  (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

Bennett Sikolski sits for a spell.  (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

A tempting cappuccino from Bob’s Coffee and Doughnuts.  (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

Scottish tourists Joe and Margaret Docherty and their daughters Fiona, 12, and Jennifer, 10, have lunch at the French Crepe Co.  (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

Niki Yan of Los Angeles meditates during a sunny day at the market.  (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

Erik Heiberg walks by the Light My Fire hot sauce shop.  (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

Aside from the permanent produce vendors, Stan Savage, the 36-year-old market manager and great-great-grandson of company founder A.F. Gilmore, has brought farmers back to their produce Fridays and Saturdays.  (Spencer Weiner / Los Angeles Times)

Barbara Maxwell, right, partakes in “Taste of Farmers Market” — samplings of food from the market’s restaurants, part of the weeklong celebration.  (Spencer Weiner / Los Angeles Times)

People cheer during a scavenger hunt, part of the weeklong festivities at the market.  (Spencer Weiner / Los Angeles Times)

Nervis Brothers band members, Dan Weinstein, right, and Vince Tzizad perform as part of the market’s 75th anniversary celebration.  (Spencer Weiner / Los Angeles Times)

People participating in a scavenger hunt at the market check the old gas station display for clues.  (Spencer Weiner / Los Angeles Times)