1960-1969: Lifestyles

Paul M. Anderson

GLENDALE -- While running her father’s movie theater in the 1960s,

Louise Peebles recalls a controversial film prompted picket signs and a

rooster.

Peebles can’t remember the significance of the rooster. But the

Glendale women who picketed the Sands Theater put one on a leash and

paraded up and down Brand Boulevard with picket signs to protest her

father’s decision to screen a Scandanavian film called “I Am Curious

Yellow.”

The ‘60s may have been a tumultuous decade elsewhere, but the rooster

was about as weird as it got in conservative Glendale. It was about as

political as it got, as well.

“The enormous changes happening in the rest of the country and certain

parts of California were not really occurring in Glendale,” Peebles said.

Spotting a hippie was rare, she said.

“In the late ‘60s, you still could not have dancing or liquor together

unless it was say ballroom dancing or less,” Peebles said. “I was

thinking of opening a disco about 1967 or ’68 but I couldn’t get a

license like that at the time. If you wanted to go to a disco you went to

Sunset Boulevard.”

The city had a handful of movie theaters in town, so film provided the

bulk of the entertainment, Peebles said. Many big premieres brought

spotlights to The Alex Theater, she added.

The Glendale Galleria hadn’t opened yet so shoppers flocked to Webb’s

Department Store and kept other Brand Boulevard shops bustling, Peebles

said.

Louise Peebles’ husband, Byron, remembers going to Chadney’s in

Burbank for live music.The Pikes Verdugo restaurant also featured live

music, the retired Los Angeles Philharmonic trombonist said.

“I also played in the Glendale Symphony when it gave its concerts up

at Glendale Community College,” Byron Peebles said.

The Glendale Symphony was also a popular entertainment outlet, the

Peebles said.