There was a phone booth in the parking lot of the old Tropicana Motel on Santa Monica Blvd and this is where Tom Waits would conduct all of his business. This RARE never before published photo of Tom Waits hanging out with Tommy Ramone of The Ramones. All the cool bands adored The Tropicana.
When I was a teenager living at my parents home in Sherman Oaks back in the seventies I would borrow the family car and drive over the hill to look for the magic of the city. I would leave the valley and head over Coldwater Canyon and when I got to Sunset Blvd I would make a sharp left hand turn towards the Sunset Strip. Everything looked and felt different now. I felt like I had entered into a different civilization and I liked that feeling. I became a regular at the old Tropicana Motel hanging out with the bands like The Ramones or just having a rather large hamburger at Dukes, the coffee shop. Tom Waits lived at the Tropicana and he was always sitting on the stairs greasing the phone in the booth or just hanging out with friends. He was not amused when I took this photo, but I didn’t care. I captured a moment and that is all that mattered. I really need to make a movie about all of my memories from that magical time in my life.
