What was Rodeo Drive selling before it sold luxury? According to the Rodeo Drive Committee's own history, it had a hardware store, a beauty shop and the occasional gas station. It was a shaded, unhurried street serving a prosperous town and was "unknown to the world."
The street's fame was organized on purpose, and the group that organized it is heading into its 50th anniversary, which its own history dates to 2027. Their tools are still marketing and staging. What's different now is where the staging happens: on the public sidewalk, mostly at no charge, in a run of events that stretches from a Nov. 9 sculpture installation to a mid-December weekend at Greystone. If you live a few blocks from the Golden Triangle, the rest of this year gives you an unusually direct look at how the street presents itself.
Three Blocks That Were Marketed Into Existence
The luxury stores came first. Fred Hayman opened Giorgio Beverly Hills, the street's first high-end boutique, in 1961. Aldo Gucci followed in 1968, Van Cleef & Arpels in 1969, a Vidal Sassoon salon in 1970 and The Polo Store in 1971. Bijan Pakzad's showroom arrived in 1976.
The organization came next. The Committee began forming in 1976 and was founded in 1977, with Hayman as its driving force and first chairman. One of the founders was Donald Tronstein, a property owner and developer on the 400 block who served as Committee president from 1984 to 1987. Colleagues called him the "Mayor of Rodeo Drive." The founders stated their goal plainly. They wanted Rodeo Drive to be America's answer to Rome's Via Condotti, London's New Bond Street and Paris's Faubourg St-Honoré, even though the street had barely a decade of luxury retail behind it.
It worked fast. The Committee ran a publicity campaign built to make the world see Rodeo as the shopping street of the rich and famous. By 1978 the Beverly Hills Chamber of Commerce was calling it "the essence of the best of all the shopping centers of the world." By 1980 the City estimated that the Rodeo Drive shopping district produced as much as 25 percent of its sales tax revenue. Three blocks between Wilshire Boulevard and Little Santa Monica had become a major source of money for the whole city in about three years of coordinated promotion.
How the Program Grew From Sales to Spectacle
The Committee is a 501(c)(6) nonprofit made up of retailers, hoteliers and landowners. Its work gradually moved from advertising stores to programming the street itself:
- 2003: The Committee created the Rodeo Drive Walk of Style, a set of sidewalk plaques honoring fashion figures. Its symbol is Robert Graham's sculpture Torso at Rodeo Drive and Dayton Way.
- Each Father's Day weekend: The Concours d'Elegance, now in its third decade, which the Committee describes as North America's largest single-day automotive concours.
- Recurring through the year: Fashion Night Out, the holiday lighting and the annual Rodeo Drive Celebrates program. The Committee says these turn the street into "something closer to a living stage than a shopping district."
The architecture helped too. Frank Lloyd Wright's Anderton Court Shops were finished in 1952, years before the luxury era began. Today the street holds more than 100 luxury brands.
Committee President Kathy Gohari credits the founders with something beyond retail, writing on the Committee's anniversary page:
"What the founders built wasn't just a luxury destination. They built a community — retailers, hoteliers, property owners, all pulling in the same direction."
The anniversary programming puts that same coordination into public spaces, starting with the sidewalk.
Ten Figures in Stillness, Set Out Through 2027
On Nov. 9, the City scheduled a public unveiling at 11 a.m. at 332 N. Rodeo Drive for "Carole Feuerman: Monuments of Stillness." The exhibition is ten large sculptures by the American superrealist artist. Beverly Press reported that it is her first major outdoor public exhibition on the West Coast and that it will stay up through 2027. The City of Beverly Hills and Melissa Morgan Fine Art present the show, with support from the Rodeo Drive Committee. It features Feuerman's swimmers and other contemplative figures shown in quiet moments, eyes closed and poses at rest.
The work has appeared on large public stages before. Feuerman has shown public installations on Park Avenue, at the Seaport in New York City and along Chicago's Magnificent Mile, and her sculpture has been exhibited at the Venice Biennale. Beverly Press also reported that the exhibition is part of Mayor Craig Corman's effort to bring temporary art and cultural programming into public spaces during his term. Corman told the paper the show gives "residents and visitors an extraordinary opportunity to experience internationally acclaimed contemporary art in one of our city's most iconic public spaces."
The length of the run is what changes daily life on the street. The sculptures will be there after the holiday decorations come down and through the next Concours. For anyone who walks Rodeo on an ordinary weekday, the anniversary is now a permanent fixture of the walk for more than a year.
Thursday, Nov. 19: The Lighting
The Rodeo Drive Holiday Lighting Celebration takes place next Thursday, Nov. 19, from 5 to 8 p.m. It is free and open to the public. The City first posted the date on Oct. 22. According to the official event listing, this year's theme, "50 Years of Brilliance," marks the Committee's 50th anniversary, opening a celebration that its history page carries into 2027. The lineup:
| Role | Performer |
|---|---|
| Host | Ali Ward, vocalist, performer and entertainment reporter |
| Featured vocalist | Dani Armstrong |
| Featured set | Daniel Ho, six-time GRAMMY winner, presenting "Island Holidays" |
| DJ | DJ Lady Sha |
| Talent search winners | Ortal Edri and Marianna Kriuchenkova |
| Finale | Fireworks |
The last row of performers is the new part. The Beverly Hills Courier reported in September that a talent search had been announced for the event. The open call produced the first "Rodeo Drive Has Talent" winners. Ortal Edri is a Los Angeles singer, songwriter and recording artist. Marianna Kriuchenkova is an eight-year-old vocalist who counts Whitney Houston and Jennifer Hudson as her heroes.
Parking Within Walking Distance
Three City garages near the street offer two free hours, but only on your first entry each day.
| Garage | Free period | After that |
|---|---|---|
| 9510 Brighton / Rodeo | First two hours, first entry of the day | $3 per half hour, $5 for entry after 6 p.m., $22 daily max |
| 242 N. Beverly Drive / 241 N. Cañon Drive | First two hours, first entry of the day | $3 per half hour, $5 for entry after 6 p.m., $22 daily max; open 24 hours |
| 345 N. Beverly Drive | First two hours, first entry of the day | Standard City rates |
For the full 5-to-8 p.m. program, the Brighton/Rodeo rates work out as follows. If you enter at 5, the first two hours are free and the third hour adds two half-hour charges at $3 each. The City lists a $5 rate for entry after 6 p.m. If you have already used a garage that day for an errand, the free window is gone.
If you're arriving from the Beverly Drive side, expect work zones. Beverly Press reported on Oct. 8 that crews building the D Line's Beverly Drive station were working behind K-rail on both sides of Wilshire Boulevard. Two lanes stayed open in each direction between Beverly and Crescent drives, sidewalks on the north side of Wilshire could close, and Beverly Drive could be cut to one lane each way.
The Last Lighting Without a Subway Stop
The same Beverly Press report said the second D Line segment, which includes the Beverly Drive and Century City stations, is expected to open next spring. The third segment, to Westwood/UCLA and Westwood/VA Hospital, is scheduled for fall 2027. For now, the line runs between Union Station and Wilshire/La Cienega.
That timing puts the Committee's anniversary across a real change in how people get to the street. When the Committee began forming in 1976 and was founded in 1977, getting to Rodeo meant driving and parking. If the spring opening holds, the 2027 lighting, which falls in the year the Committee's own history names as its 50th, will have a subway station on Wilshire at Beverly Drive, a short walk from Rodeo. The Feuerman figures will still be on the street when it opens.
December Moves Up the Hill to Greystone
The City carries the season up to Greystone Mansion & Gardens at 905 Loma Vista Drive for two weekends: Dec. 5 and 6, and Dec. 12 and 13. The City's recreation catalog describes the program as decorations with multicultural themes, live caroling, crafts and storytelling in the courtyard, and 20-minute Bob Baker Marionettes shows.
- Choose one 90-minute slot: 9:15 to 10:45 a.m., 11:15 a.m. to 12:45 p.m., 1:15 to 2:45 p.m., or 3:15 to 4:45 p.m.
- Plan on the marionette show that starts 15 minutes into your slot, at 9:30, 11:30, 1:30 or 3:30.
- Book only one slot per account. The City refunds duplicates.
- Bring a new, unwrapped toy for the Beverly Hills Fire Department's Spark of Love toy drive.
The catalog lists admission at $12. On Rodeo, the season is a big three-hour show for anyone who shows up. At Greystone, it's capped at four timed entries a day with a craft table. Together, the lighting, the sculptures and Greystone add up to a season that people living in Beverly Hills can attend without buying anything on Rodeo.
For dinner after the fireworks, the Courier's fall dining roundup lists Vicky on Rodeo, a Parisian brasserie at Two Rodeo Drive, as open daily from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.
Rodeo Drive has been carefully staged for half a century, with each block's look and presentation working toward one image. That is how Marc Robinson prepares a Beverly Hills home for market. If you're considering a sale in the new year and want to talk about how your home should look when buyers first see it, schedule a confidential consultation.
