E.L.A. & WeHo Memorial Bandstand

Rosie & The Originals' lead singer & songwriter Rosie Hamlin died last month.   A million plays? Art LaBoe probably wasn't kidding. The ultimate expression of Pachuco appropriation of doo-wop. John Lennon dug it too.

"This here is one of my all-time favorite songs," Lennon says in the intro to his "Angel Baby" recording. "Send my love to Rosie, wherever she may be." Artists like Roky Erickson, Linda Ronstadt and even System of a Down would also cover Hamlin's oldies staple.

In 1995, Rosie and the Originals were featured as part of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame's exhibit on One-Hit Wonders; Hamlin proclaimed herself the first Latina woman ever enshrined in the Rock Hall.

Also recently moved off the board of life, WeHo club entrepreneur Mario Maglieri, the "King of The Sunset Strip". (Not to be confused w/ Rodney Bingenheimer, the mere "Mayor of The Sunset Strip".)

Maglieri moved to Los Angeles from Chicago in 1964 to help manage the Whisky with friend Elmer Valentine.

Elmer had been a Chicago police officer, & is the "Elmer" immortalized here:You don't suppose Mario & Elmer had anything to do w/ the Mob, do you?

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