Location Sleuth -- ‘Starsky and Hutch’

Look! They had a two-for-one sale on Volkswagen Beetles!

I’m a respectful researcher. So when someone writes to The Times and asks about the location of a sleazy hotel featured in the “Bounty Hunter” episode of “Starsky and Hutch,” I assume there’s a good reason. Why people at The Times know to pass a question like this to me is an issue that I’m just going to ignore.

Young persons: “Starsky and Hutch” was one of those popular cop shows of the 1970s that your parents probably watched. The program moved between Wednesday nights at 10 and Tuesday nights at 9 and starred David Soul (yes, that’s his name) as Det. Kenneth Hutchinson and Paul Michael Glaser as Det. David Starsky

Here are screen grabs from Hulu of the sequence in question. Notice that the top of City Hall is barely visible in the opening frames.

The entire episode is on Hulu. The hotel sequence begins at the 36:26 time mark.

Exterior, Day: Starsky and Hutch’s Ford Gran Torino slams to a stop outside a sleazy hotel.

SFX: Tires screech!

Interior, Day: Starsky and Hutch burst into the office of the sleazy hotel.

Cont’d. Hm.

He’s dead, Jim.

OK, give me “dead.” More dead…. Really dead. Good. Cut!

Exterior, Day: A black and white, and a hearse outside the sleazy hotel.

Uh, the coroner’s office is using a hearse?

Isn't that uniformed officer's hair too long, even for the '70s?

Ha! A clue! A sign on a building says Robotyping Co. A quick trip to the online city directories from the Los Angeles Public Library shows that Robotyping was located at 1061 Ingraham St. A 1942 city directory shows that the hotel was once known as the Palm Crest, 1109 Ingraham.