Schwab’s Pharmacy – An American Icon

Not all icons last forever!  I wish they did, but they don’t.  One of Hollywood establishments, that is as close to an American icon was Schwab’s Pharmacy.  Started in Hollywood in 1932, Schwab’s became an immediate success with, not only, movie stars , but also local residents.  Located at the corner of Sunset Blvd. & Crescent Heights Ave., Schwab’s most popular attractions was its lunch counter.  It was not unusual to see several celebrities having lunch or dinner at the stool lined counter.  One of the largest collections of Schwab’s Pharmacy photographs is hollywoodphotographs.com.  

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The very best collection of Schwab’s Pharmacy photos can be found on the hollywoodphotographs.com web site.  The collection was started, by Bruce Torrence in 1970, and today there are over 12,000 photographs of which there are more than 7,000 images on the web site.  Many of these wonderful photos of Schwab’s Pharmacy show popular celebrities eating at the lunch counter, chatting with other people, or columnist Sidney Skolsky interviewing people.  Celebrities in these photos include such stars as ...

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Photographs of the Famous Schwab’s Pharmacy are quite rare but you can see scores of them at hollywoodphotographs.com.

Schwab's Pharmacy opened at 8024 Sunset Boulevard in 1932, and was run by brothers Bernard, Leon, Jack and Martin Schwab. It was a typical drugstore of its time--goods and sundries available for purchase, prescriptions filled, and a soda fountain with counter service

What made Schwab's unlike other drug stores was the fact that it became a gathering place for actors. Not just celebrities, mind you--although they were among the clientele but mostly working, or hoping-to-be-working, actors, who called the place “home” and who spent hours at the counter chatting with each other and perusing the trade rags. ...