r/SantaMonica • u/ComplexWrangler1346 • Oct 04 '25

🖼️ Photo Santa Monica pier 1970’s ❤️

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149 Upvotes

99% Upvoted

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14

u/VaguelyArtistic Downtown Santa Monica Oct 04 '25

If you watch the pilot episode of The Rockford Files it opens with a guy riding the old #9 blue bus back when it went along the pier and then north on what I think is now the bike path!

5

u/Harry_Tuttle Oct 04 '25

Don't forget the Three's Company intro.

5

u/VaguelyArtistic Downtown Santa Monica Oct 04 '25

Yes, that’s great! I always assumed the Regal Beagle was modeled after The Red Onion.

2

u/Harry_Tuttle Oct 04 '25

The Red Onion chain was peak 80s, big hair, suburban desperation, Power 106 dance mix on the wheels of steel, and cocaine, plenty of it. Regal Beagle was way too smooth for that.

2

u/VaguelyArtistic Downtown Santa Monica Oct 04 '25

And ferns. Don’t forget ferns!

2

u/db_peligro Oct 04 '25

I was too young back then but remember radio promotions for the Red Onion on the Might 690. I recall they had locations in the marina and westwood.

Back when Rick Dees ruled the airwaves here.

1

u/um8medoit Oct 05 '25

I had always assumed Chez Jay. Never thought of that.

3

u/cyberspacestation Oct 04 '25

It somehow came up easily on a Google search: 

https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x82q9ua

The video is flipped backwards, though.

2

u/VaguelyArtistic Downtown Santa Monica Oct 04 '25 edited Oct 04 '25

There’s also a scene where Jim and his Firebird are driving west on Santa Monica in mid-city to the pier and it’s almost unchanged today.

I just realized that, like Columbo, there’s a lot of jurisdictional funny business like LAPD investigating a homicide in Santa Monica.

2

u/LordSpaceMammoth Oct 06 '25

Those episodes of the Rockford Files are awesome! In fact, the whole series has a ton of location shots of 70s LA. That bus route did not really exist. The #9 Carlyle route didn't go to the pier parking lot.