Schwab's Pharmacy (Former Location)

Schwab's Pharmacy was a drugstore located at 8024 Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood, California, and was a popular hangout for movie actors and movie industry dealmakers from the 1930s through the 1950s.

Like many drug stores in the United States during the mid-twentieth century, Schwab's sold medicines and had a counter serving ice cream dishes and light meals. In the 1930's, Schwab's was the inspiration for songwriter Harold Arlen to write the music for the song Over the Rainbow for the 1939 film, The Wizard of Oz.

A persistent Hollywood legend has it that actress Lana Turner was "discovered" by director Mervyn LeRoy while at the soda counter at Schwab's. While the 16-year-old Turner was discovered at a soda counter, the location was not Schwab's but another establishment, the Top Hat Cafe, farther east on Sunset Boulevard at McCadden Place, directly across the street from Hollywood High School, where she was still a student. The person who discovered her was not LeRoy but Hollywood Reporter publisher William Wilkerson.

Schwab's closed in 1983. The original structure was demolished in 1988 and the current structure built.