Customer Reviews

Bullocks Wilshire

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Bullocks Wilshire represented Los Angeles during the heyday of Hollywood. Ms. Davis presents a well-researched homage to this architectural wonder and social icon, which came to be the place to see and be seen by the movers and shakers, gods and godesses of the day. What could have been a great book ends on a dubious note. Ms. Davis, an Alumna of Southwestern School of Law, sounds the praises of her alma mater, which took over the building after the store's demise in 1993, turning it into a library.

This book can only hint however the magnificince of this Truly great department store. Very nicly done descriptions and captions of each room in the store. Gives a very vivid idea of the grandeur of each department in Bullocks. An elagantly presented book at no time is the reader board or not facinated with the history or the photographs and the variouse architectural drawings.

Ms. Davis does an amazing expository on the details of perhaps the most beautiful department store ever to exist in America-Bullocks Wilshire (BW).In the golden age of retailing, three stores stood out for their architectural beauty: Wanamaker's in Philadelphia; Field's in Chicago and BW in Los Angeles. The latter store, being more of a museum than store. As she so rightly points out, this was a palace, a monument to the growing upper social class emerging from the motion picture industry. In the times I had the pleasure of visiting this store while in LA, it would leave one speechless. The only other store that had this museum quality to it was the branch store of Bergdorf Goodman in White Plains. It lasted only a few years and was taken over by its sister Neiman Marcus, who converted the store, more to that of a store, than a museum. Ms. Davis has done her homework. She has uneathered interesting facts and details about this beloved store not only during its golden era, but while being built and what happened up to its final days. Much, perhaps way too much, time is spent on the architecture of the store and its place in Los Angels retail history, than that of it being what it was...a store.

Little is mentioned of the merchandising aspects or the "retail point of view" and direction. No attention is paid to the buying process (except one small paragraph), the changes in tastes over the years and how the store through the 60's and 70's had to modify itself to be more of a store and less of a museum...meaning merchandise had to be featured on "racks" or "fixtures" instead of being showcased one article at a time. She also makes the Federated take over in 1964 seem as the worse possible thing which could have happened. When in reality, it was the deep pockets of Federated which enabled the chain to grow and expand and become a real cash cow for Federated. Federated at the time had three cash cows: Bullock's, Burdine's and Bloomingdale's, but Bullock's was the key figure in that equation. Also, as a merchant, John Bullock understood the power of the bottom line. She states the one store had a staff of 700....it would have been interesting to understand how they turned a profit. Even by the standards of the day, that was excessive. Also, as one reviewer pointed out, she heaps praise on her Alma Mater for "saving" this building.

My final comment is simple. The book is beautifully illustrated and well researched from an architectural point of view. Should you want to know more about the store from a retail standpoint (and after all, when all is said and done, it was a store), this book falls very short in the last category.

Architecture: 5 stars
Retail Knowledge: 1 star
(I was a retail Buyer for 20 years for two national specialty/department stores)
Hence: 3 stars

While combing through "Bullock's Wilshire", a great tome of space and imagination, I immedately felt as though I had been transformed back into history.

This building reflects what's GOOD about Los Angeles and what's missing with the current batch of misappropriated, misaligned, and malcontented "plastic chic" we Angelinos replace great buildings with now.

Ms. Davis gives an incredible insight into the era of the true department store. A true "good buy" for any architecture officianado.