Retro Row, Long Beach

As reported elsewhere on this blog, we are big fans of Charles Phoenix and have seen most of his wonderful slide shows. On Saturday, he premiered a new one about Long Beach—L.A. county's second largest city and a place that both of us briefly called home long before we met each other. Like many towns in the L.A. area, Long Beach is enjoying something of a renaissance as young hipster families are moving in and renovating the city's many mid-century neighborhoods.

The show was held at the Art Theatre, a small moviehouse built in 1924, located on 4th Street's now trendy Retro Row. As usual, Charles was a laugh riot, as long-time residents screamed in glee at photos of obscure as well as beloved Long Beach landmarks. Lots of images of restaurants, both here and gone—so many, in fact, that we were starving by the end of the show. But first, a quick jog down Retro Row, home to several excellent vintage clothing and furniture stores. Our favorites: Inretrospect, where I snagged a collectible, but reasonably priced, Disneyland ashtray, and Songbird, which had a Box of Cheese photo booth, where we took these terrific (if I may say so, myself!) pix. A very fun day. By the way, we ended up eating at Social List, almost adjacent to the theater. Great food.