West Hollywood historians: Was there ever really number 77 on Sunset Strip?

The early 1960s TV show 77 Sunset Strip dealt with detectives working out of an office at that address. But, as I just amended the Wikipedia article yesterday, there is no such actual address, since all addresses on the Strip have four digits.

But I was careful in my wording not to exclude the possibility that there used to be 2-digit addresses on the Strip. After all, it was once an unincorporated area of L.A. County and perhaps the addresses there have not always been in alignment with those of the L.A. City as they are now.

Was that ever the case?

It was not number 77, but there was an actual building, next door to Dino’s Lodge, on the Sunset Strip before the series started. However, Dino’s was at 8524 Sunset, on the even numbered side of the street.

Tris

The main highway through Harlingen, Texas (US 77) is called 77 Sunshine Strip.

I know that has nothing to do with the OP, but I always thought it was funny.

Tris got it in one. I have driven past that building many times. When the show was on, every out of town visitor wanted to see that building.

Unlikely. The easternmost stretch of Sunset Boulevard near downtown came into existence around 1910. Prior to that, that right-of-way was named Bellevue. So the low-digit addresses of Sunset have been in the L.A. city limits from the beginning.

However … there used to be addresses on Sunset lower than 1000. Sunset used to extend a little farther east than it currently does. That stretch of road has since been renamed Cesar Chavez Blvd.

But I don’t think you ever would have found a 77. Street numbers in L.A. are counted from Main Street downtown and as you can see from this map from 1917 Sunset didn’t quite make it to Main. If a number 77 did exist it would have been right at the very end of the street, just a few blocks from the L.A. City Hall.

And miles and miles away from the stretch of Sunset that would eventually exist run through Hollywood and be called the Strip.

But remember that the Strip was in unincorporated territory until the establishment of the City of West Hollywood; my thought was that the numbering scheme might have once been different. And even in the City of L.A. I don’t think addresses were standardized until sometime after 1900, perhaps as late as the 1920s. For instance, the Avila Adobe order of condemnation from that era, which is often shown in historical materials relating to the city, gives a 2-digit address for the house, when it should have had three by today’s standard numbering scheme.

I remember driving through LA in 1959 (actually my step-dad was driving) when the show was on the air. It was, as I recall our favorite teevee show of the time. We were touring from New Mexico, and the absolutely number one thing we, my 11 year old sister and I (9 at the time) wanted to see was 77 Sunset Strip. We were thrilled that the restaurant (Dino’s) and the building next door that that Efrem Zimbalist, Roger Smith and Ed Burns were always seen coming out of were exactly as shown on TV. But there was clearly no “77” on the door. All made up :(.