Page 73 - FAST 2024 Calendar Yearbook

Hollywood's Sunset Boulevard has been described as the Street of Dreams for aspiring movie stars and starlets, and the legendary commercial av- enue between Los Angeles and Beverly Hills has always offered cool locations for Movies and TV shows like "77 Sunset Strip" in the '60s to "Lucifer" more recently. At one point it was even the center of the American Culture for Hot Rods, Motorcycles, Beautiful Girls, and legendary Rock and Roll club venues. Peterson Publications with its many motorsport magazine tiles like Hot Rod, Motorcyclist, and Sport Rider magazine had its corporate headquarters in the highrise Peterson building here, just a block down the street from the Playboy Building, home of Playboy Magazine, The Playboy Club, and Playboy Models. When I moved to
Los Angeles in the early 1980s to open my motorsports marketing and photo agency I spent a lot of time at Peterson working with the Editors, and at Playboy booking their beautiful centerfold models for my clients’ advertising campaigns and my own FastDates Calendar photo shoots.
In 1990 a cool new motorcycle-themed business venture named Thunder Roadhouse for the restaurant and clothing store, and Thunder Road Classic Mo- torcycles for the motorcycle shop, together opened up at 8367 Sunset Boulevard, across from the beautiful Gothic architecture Argyle Hotel which I sometimes rented as a location for some of FastDates.com Calendar model shoots. Thunder Road was probably the first combination biker bar and restaurant in America, built in a western town motif and named Thunder Road. The motorcycle shop portion of the business was in two smaller buildings across a driveway on the property, next to the larger restaurant.
The Thunder Road bike shop run by partner Max Hushahn specialized in cus- tom Harleys and catered to celebrity Hollywood biker aficionados including Bruce Springsteen, Axle Rose, and Harrison Ford. The restaurant also had many cool old Harleys on display inside the bar and its souvenir shop. Thunder Roadhouse quickly became my favorite go-to place for lunch and dinner when I was visiting
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