ShareThisBy DALE KASLER
Thursday, November 09, 2006
Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys showed up once, in a bathrobe.
Bruce Willis spent $15,000 in one glorious shopping spree. Elton John was practically a regular. Mick Jagger, Ella Fitzgerald and Jack Nicholson were known to drop by.
There's never been anything quite like the Tower Records on Sunset Boulevard here. It's been an elemental part of the L.A. music scene, a place where rock stars and record company executives have come to shop, mingle and check on how their records are selling.
This is where Tower became a global icon.
"Probably the most famous of all the record stores," said music executive Miles Copeland, who has overseen the careers of such bands as R.E.M. and the Police.
Now Tower Sunset is going out of business, along with its video and classical-music annexes across the street. All are casualties of the bankruptcy liquidation that's consuming the West Sacramento, Calif.-based chain, with the shutdown likely coming sometime in December.
The main Sunset store was sold at the bankruptcy auction for an eye-popping $12 million to a Chicago real estate developer. There's talk the site will give way to an office tower; the developer couldn't be reached for comment.
In the meantime, the jumbo video screen above the main entrance says the inventory will be sold "down to the bare walls," an ominous message for L.A. music executives who are trying to come to grips with the industry's many problems.
"It's like Disneyland closing, for a music lover," said Mark Friedman, a vice president with Chrysalis Music Group, as he browsed the store the other day. "We're circling the drain; I see this as the demise."
Tower Sunset's problems mirror the rest of the chain's. Both lost customers to retailers such as Virgin and Best Buy, not to mention the Internet. The Amoeba Music store, four times as big as Tower Sunset and three miles down the street, has eclipsed Tower as the place to buy records in Los Angeles, said Ritch Esra, a former record-company executive who publishes a series of entertainment industry directories.
"There was a time when you could go (to Tower) on a Friday or Saturday night, and you'd have to wait a long time for a parking space," Esra said. "That's no longer the case."
When it opened on the site of a former car-stereo business in October 1970, Tower was still in its infancy. There were two stores in Sacramento and one, opened two years earlier, in San Francisco.
"This was just another hill to climb, another something to conquer," Tower founder Russ Solomon said in an interview with Billboard magazine six years ago.
The store was enormous for its day _ some 7,000 square feet _ and followed the pattern that established Tower's reputation around the world. It stocked just about everything, making it a magnet for fans and musicians alike. The industry was exploding in Los Angeles, and Tower's location _ two blocks from the Whisky a Go Go and other famous nightclubs, and a short drive from the big record companies _ was ideal.
The in-store promotions at Tower Sunset _ autograph sessions and short concerts by artists such as Lou Reed and Prince _ became part of the Strip's landscape. An appearance by rock singer David Lee Roth in the late '80s clogged the street with thousands of fans.
But employees say their favorite memories are of the celebrities who dropped by just to shop: Bobby Darin, Bob Dylan, Paul McCartney and countless others. Goman said Brian Wilson, known for his battles with emotional demons, came in a bathrobe. Actor George Hamilton once wrote a personal check to pay for his purchase and was a bit miffed when the clerk made him produce a photo ID, Goman said.
A disheveled-looking Waylon Jennings showed up early one morning, hours before the store opened. "He was still recovering from his night's activities," said former manager Charlie Shaw.
When another former manager, Bob Feterl, transferred to Sunset from suburban West Covina in 1989, he got a hint of the store's significance in his first week. "I see Ella Fitzgerald walking straight toward me, and I was totally blown away," Feterl said. "I was not accustomed to celebrities shopping Tower West Covina."
Another time, he said, a stubble-faced Bruce Willis spent hours in the store, crawling on the floor to pore over the CDs that wouldn't fit into the main stacks. By the time he was done, he'd spent $15,000.
Elton John was probably Tower Sunset's most loyal fan. The store would open an hour early so he could shop in peace, often accompanied by a chauffeur or assistant who would stack the records in a basket.
"Elton would come in and he had an account," said Howard Krumholtz, who recently was laid off after 34 years at Tower Sunset. "He would charge $5,000 worth of stuff. He had three houses so he'd buy three of everything."
In recent years the celebrity sightings have become less frequent. But the stars haven't completely forsaken Tower Sunset. On the outside of the building is a white billboard that says, "Shop the legend." In the past few weeks, fans and industry types have been scribbling farewell messages on the board.
"37 years of music," reads one of the messages. "This is so sad! Elton John." Though the math was off _ the store actually opened 36 years ago _ store employees say the message is authentic.
