Press

In the relatively brief time between completing the manuscript for L.A. Bizarro and the day it hit the press somewhere in China, one business (the upscale new age sex shop Freddy & Eddy) had closed its doors and Forrest Ackerman had departed for that great sci-fi convention in the sky. Considering the rate at which things change in Los Angeles, we actually considered ourselves lucky that only two of our entries were no longer with us.

Tom Runyon Tom Runyon, owner of the Old Place in Cornell, had a way of making impressions on people.

At Runyon’s memorial on Aug. 14, hundreds of friends and family members gathered in the rural Cornell community of Agoura to pay respect to a man who by all accounts was a rugged, crabby individualist—part cowboy, part sophisticate and 100 percent genuine. Runyon died at his Malibu home on July 17 at the age of 89.

I've been hearing about The Old Place ever since I was a little kid. Located on Mulholland Highway in a part of the mountains known as Cornell, it's as much myth as destination. My dad used to tell stories about going diving off the Malibu coast, then selling the lobsters he caught to customers there. Maybe true, maybe not, but that's the kind of place The Old Place is, a roadhouse so authentic, you want weave yourself right into its history.