– Terrea Lea Program – KFI – May 4, 1952 – Gordon Skene Sound Collection –
L.A. history certainly has had no shortage of notable places throughout the years – if you are of a certain age you might possibly remember places like Coffee Dan’s or Pickwick Books on Hollywood Boulevard. Or the notable faces sometimes associated with those landmarks or just notable because they were around – Pat Collins (The “Hip” Hypnotist) – Marty & Elaine at The Dresden Room Ralph Williams or Cal Worthington, Earl “Madman” Muntz, Chef Milani, Skipper Frank and maybe a million others. Every generation has one or several they can look back on fondly; they represent places and times and usually make a lasting impression firmly embedded in our brains for eternity.
If you spent any time in West Hollywood you most likely hung out on Fairfax just north of Melrose, you probably were familiar with a small Coffee House, The Garrett, just south of Santa Monica Boulevard. It was the home of L.A. folksinger Terrea Lea, who would nightly entertain tourists and regulars with her renditions of 15th century English love songs or Appalachian coal miner’s songs. She was a veritable walking dictionary of Folk music at a time when the genre hadn’t been re-discovered and became wildly popular on College Campuses. Folk Music was relegated to a small but select crowd of people and there were a few who rose to national prominence as practitioners or keepers of the flame.
Terrea Lea was a popular figure around L.A. in the 1950s all the way to the late 1960s. She often appeared on local TV and on local radio, such as this broadcast; a weekly 15 minute program featuring Terrea Lea and what she did best; sing and talk about Folk Music. This broadcast was from May 4, 1952 by way of KFI and, sad to say, it’s not either in the best sound to begin with nor the best shape for a 71 year old tape.
But it captures the spirit and the eclectic nature of a city like Los Angeles, much the same way San Francisco or Boston or New York City; any large metropolitan area that had its enclaves of non-conformists, free-thinkers and Bohemians.
The Garrett closed in late 1971 and Terrea Lea passed away in 2017. To many she’s an anonymous figure during a forgotten time when L.A. was a lot of things to a lot of people. I don’t think anyone could have envisioned in 1960 Los Angeles in 2023.
But to get some idea, here is her program, as it was heard over KFI in Los Angeles on May 4, 1952.