'Eating Where the Celebrities Ate: The Famous Hot Dog Stand'

These Out-of-towners in LA for a visit stop at a world famous hot dog

stand to partake of a world famous (but not expensive) hot dog beneath

photos of celebrities who purportedly have eaten there. Your ratings

and critiques are invited and most welcome. If you rate harshly or very

critically, please submit a helpful and constructive comment; please

share your superior photographic knowledge to help improve my

photography. Thanks! Enjoy! John

Pink's? I didn't know you could eat inside there, the lines are always so long for takeout. The guy just to the right of the man looks an awful lot like Lee Harvey Oswald.

 

B+W works well, it wouldn't be the same in color. A little more brightness in the faces would improve it though

Very intresting and good B/W image .

Of course, it's Pinks, but I don't give free

advertising. Their hot dogs are OK, but a Nathan's with a crunchy skin from NYC and Coney Island has them beat 20 ways from Sunday, in my opinion.

 

They are extraordinarily customer friendly, however, and famous.

 

They often are the groaner consolation prize: "And Chuck, you and Cheryl have won a dream date at Pink's Hog Dog Stand' a dating show may announce to failed contestants' -- simply great publicity, and that's what causes the crowds to gather outside on La Brea across from the Oil Lube Center where I shot 'Carl' the tall guy against a background of graffiti (I hadn't then seen Pink's).

 

Pink's lines are fast, and a great place to meet and schmooze with people.

 

The tables are in back and there even is parking, some of it valet parking and care is taken to keep from disturbing the neighbors. It stretches to the alley in behind and it's pretty spotless.

 

Photos of people who wanted publicity are posted on one wall, which is where 'Harry and Louise' (pseudonyms) were captured, wanting to commune with the celebrity 'Gods'

 

"That's Bruce Willis' just in front of the guy, I believe, in his earlier years, not Lee Harvey Oswald. Let me know if I'm wrong. It's a great, cheap place for a date, and wedding parties sometimes stop there.

 

(There is no place to eat outside except under picnic tables in the far back, but mostly the drinks are of the soda category and not terribly overpriced.)

 

Mark this cheap an interesting date and good place to meet people -- maybe occasionally someone famous (though I don't photograph famous people, at least on purpose.)

 

This was meant to be a B&W only; it surely would fail or be diminished as a color photo, as I wanted this couple to be somewhat similar to those glamorized above and around them, making them somewhat similar, though it's evident this couple does not belong on stage, but rather in the 'audience.'

 

I will consider more brightness in the faces. I wanted to post it as unmanipulated, but the faces could stand out a little more. They look like they could be Seinfeld's real parents, don't they?

 

;~))

 

Thanks for the comment.

 

John (Crosley

 

 

 

Thanks for the compliment.

 

John (Crosley)

I've only been there at night when the sidewalks are mobbed so never got near any inside tables. Yes, as you said, there are dozens of varieties but a Nathan's stands up on its own.

That guy to the right of the seated gentlemen is none other than Bruce "Lee Harvey" Willis. I've had better NYC street vendor dogs, so thanks John for withholding the plug for Rosa's. Perhaps you should let me do your headshot John, sign it and we'll send it to them. In fact how about lot's of us sending in our own pictures with autographs, gushing exuberantly about their lovely and wonderful meat products stuffed in animal intestines with all the fixins'.

Everything else aside, you have still managed to capture a quintessential look of an often star-struck American public at home in their iconic world of America at-large. Superb imagery as always. Perhaps we should start soliciting celebrity comments on our imagery too!

I enjoyed your comment, even though I must profess a like for Nathan's meat products stuffed in intestines, and far more than Pink's here.

 

The idea of this photo, to catch middle Americana supping on the cheap where the stars supposedly 'hang out' or at least are allowed to hang their head shots, was the whole purpose of the shot; in short, another Crosley 'ironic juxtaposition': the ordinary versus the celebrated, all lined up in black and white, but with differences in physiognomy that are quite obvious in spite of mostly white skin tones.

 

It is a somewhat subtle photo, and I wondered if many would 'get it' or 'like it' but I'm not so interested in being 'liked' as carrying out one of my genres -- the ironic juxtaposition, which has dogged me since I first picked up a camera - capturing people in their environment and comparing that environment to what people expect based on what is televised or otherwise glamorized. It's a fertile area, and one I intend to continue to mine.

 

It probably makes my work unsalable commercially, but from a gallery level (if I should ever turn pro) I am informed it may make a complete body of work in and of itself -- one theme or genre within many genres which I take whenever I can.

 

I'd love to see my photo up there, not for the glamor but for the confusion or having people say 'who's that' anyway -- photographer? I must have heard of him, and he's here so he must be big time.

 

By the way, they like me at Pink's very much and are always very, very polite to me and bend over backward to accommodate -- part of their way to attain stardom as a 'mere hot dog stand'.

 

Notice that they serve their sodas (soda pop) cold from a refrigerator with a straw in the can (see woman's drink). No pretenses here.

 

It really is a piece of Americana, just updated slightly to keep up with the times -- and very successful, even if the food is just above average. The key is every customer is a king, and that's pretty good in these days of poor service.

 

John (Crosley)

 

p.s. Oh, and the intrepid customers shown were very accommodating as I took a fair number of photos to 'get it right.' I wonder if they will find this and comment.

 

It took a bit of courage to place this, even temporarily, in my highest regarded folder.

 

jc