LA has a long history of underworld stories, weirdo culture, secrets and scandals. Here are nine of our favorite weird attractions in a town some affectionately, and appropriately, call “Hollyweird.”
LaBrea Tar Pits
LA’s original odd destination has been attracting visitors for over 38,000 years in the form of tar lakes that bubble up in the mid-Wilshire area, claiming the lives of countless prehistoric mammoths, dire wolves, short-faced bears, giant ground sloths, saber toothed cats and one human, the La Brea Woman, who would be about 10,000 years old now. Visit the pits for free, and its nearby Page Museum for a small fee.
The Old LA Zoo at Griffith Park
LA has a habit of tearing down old places, but the original site of the Griffith Park Zoo (opened in 1912, closed in 1965) still looms in the park’s forested trails and remains a popular hiking destination. The abandoned zoo is a hidden gem, and can be found just north of the Merry Go Round on the east side of Griffith Park. For added spooky thrills, roam it with a friend at dusk.
Westwood Village Memorial Park
The final resting place of 20th Century LA Celebrities and entertainment icons: Marilyn Monroe, Farrah Fawcett, Merv Griffin, Rodney Dangerfield, Truman Capote, Fanny Brice, Mel Torme, Minnie Riperton, Jack Lemmon, Carroll O Connor—to name a few—is a peaceful, immaculately gardened, little slice of green hidden behind Westwood’s corridor of Wilshire highrises. Free, and open all day – it’s a must for entertainment history buffs.
Necromance
Tucked between Melrose’s Italian cafes, and beauty salons, is a gift shop the Addams Family would have adored. Specializing in the selling of natural history curios, dead things and unusual novelties/antiques, Necromance is one stop shopping for fans of taxidermy animals, skeletons, arsenic shot glasses, coffin-shaped wallets, black parasols, antique science equipment and rusty vintage keys.
Farmacia y Botanica Million Dollar
Technically categorized as a drugstore, this downtown Botanica (near Angel’s Flight) is part drugstore, part folklore remedy/potion-making shop – fun for the witch doctor in us all. With herbs, oils, and ingredients to cure a wide variety of ailments including your fear of public speaking or to quell gossip. There’s also medallions to protect children, incense to battle jealousy, soap for legal troubles, and ritual objects.
Los Angeles Coroner’s Office Gift Shop
The city’s coroner office (near downtown LA) has had its own gift shop since 1993. According to their web site, this store’s purpose is to “promote how fragile life is and create awareness and responsibility toward one’s actions.” It’s a small shop, but worth the trip if you’re looking for a skull business card holder, or chalk outline mousepad that says “we’re dying for your business.”
Bunny Museum
Dubbed “The Hoppiest Place in the World,” the Bunny Museum houses nearly 30,000 different bunny rabbit collectibles. Located in the home of Candace Frazee, Steve Lubanski, the museum has a $5 entry fee and is open every day by appointment. Visitors are encouraged to bring veggies or fruit to feed the seven live rabbits.
Museum of Death
In 1995, JD Healy and Cathee Shultz created The Museum of Death in Hollywood (in the former music studio where Pink Floyd recorded The Wall). Intense, startling, and macabre, the 45 minute self-guided tour covers grisly Charles Manson and Black Dahlia crime photos, Bleu Beard’s guillotined severed head, serial-killer John Wayne Gacy’s colorful clown portraits, Liberace’s stuffed cat and Jayne Mansfield’s four stuffed Chihuahuas (who perished in the infamous car accident with her), Heaven’s Gate recruitment videos and footage of real autopsies. Admission is $15, parking is free.
Museum of Jurassic Technology
Perhaps the hardest to describe of all of L.A.’s strange museums, exploring the rooms and galleries at the Museum of Jurassic Technology is akin to walking through a surreal dream. A quote greets visitors: “…guided along as it were
a chain of flowers into
the mysteries of life.” Mysteries indeed: exhibits that document the degradation of dice to masterpieces in the pinholes of needles to microscopes where you examine different amoebas, to a room completely dark with glowing glass balls.
Find more things to do in LA on the LosAngeles.com Attractions page.
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