A New "White Spot"?

LA NOIR, by Jim Buntin, describes the “white spot” as a place where “native, white born Protestants could enjoy the magic of the outdoor inviting always…trees in blossom throughout the year, flowers in bloom as well as mystery, romance, charm, and splendor all safe among others of their kind.” Almost a century later, it seems that many parts of Los Angeles have tried to redefine the “white spot” and uphold some of its main tenants. Where the white spot used to denote a sort of Utopian feel by keeping the land and people beautified, many exclusive Los Angeles bars try to keep a similar aesthetic sense of perfection, perhaps a more modernized version of what the original white spot represented.

This weekend, I ventured out to Bardot in Hollywood for a friend’s going away party and quickly discovered that getting in is about as stressful as going through customs to get into Europe. You have to either know some kind of code that is a word too big and pretentious for most of the people there to even pronounce or know someone that can get you in the door, and they still spend about 20 minutes making you feel like you are not going to fit, even though there are really only 30 people inside. They pride themselves on only letting in the beautiful people, and by beautiful I mean the heavily made up ones, not the ones that have perfect Kate Winslet bone structure. Once you get inside, it looks a lot like a hipster that read half of Siddhartha decorated the place in gaudy old-world cloths and antique lamps. A group of mediocre looking girls in five hundred dollar dresses scowl at my date and I as they catch us pouring cheap booze out of a flask into the Cokes that we ordered, and it seems like everyone is holding a $20 drink just to remind others of their place in society and how easy for them it is to drop that ‘chump change’ on a fancy little drink. A girl to the right tells me that she spent $20 on each drink like it was a complaint, then gives me a little wink and tells me that she believes the drink will make her look better in the morning. The same woman proceeds to light her cigarette in a nearby candle.

These bars are great places to hang out with Hollywood's elite and the people that know them through three degrees of separation. The people inside are the ones creating this fake exclusivity, wanting to be at a place that is difficult to get into. It is all part of an elaborate game, but at the end of the day, the patrons inside of these places are desperate to get in and stay in: the dive bars of today with their three dollar beers are similar to the areas outside of the original white spot, taking over and seeping in, and these clean little pockets of bars with ninety pound shot girls, expensive drinks, and gaudy décor seem to serve as a larger metaphor for those early ideals of the Hollywood white spot….But, ironically, of course.

--Thea Green

(photo credit: Thea Green)