What is/was H.E.L.P.??

[Mahalo]

Was it a restaurant, a health food store, was it all made up??? I would like to know about the place the BB's plug in so many of their great songs...

[MBE]

It was a Health Food Store/Restaurant/New Age Center. I am not sure how it was set up, but I know Mike liked going there. Desper posted on this a while ago. Elvis Presley's friend Larry Geller was involved with it. 

[Mahalo]

Thanx dude......anyone know what the acronym stood for??

[MBE]

Health through Education provides Love and Peace

[Wilsonista]

Which you can hear the BB recite in the song, BTW.

[SloopJohnB]

It was located on the Fairfax & 3rd intersection (you can hear that in the lyrics as well). Nowadays, there's a farmers market there.

[Malc]

and whilst we're on this subject - does anyone know the exact location where 'The Radiant Radish' stood in West LA ?

[SloopJohnB]

It was located at the San Vicente & Melrose intersection! 

It's actually mentioned in the lyrics as well, though it took me a long time before figuring it out. Most websites that have lyrics for this song misheard "San Vicente" as "Sansasanth" 

[Pretty Funky]

Not much help but found this which may narrow it down. Found it interesting as I had reason to stay at the Sofitel Hotel across the street from the Beverly Center several times 4-5 years ago.


http://www.city-data.com/forum/california/54438-nostalgia-3.html

Beverly Kiddie Park and the adjacent pony rides, a part of countless West Side LA childhoods, on a site now occupied by the Beverly Center (which may be demolished in the next few years, but I certainly won't miss it).

Although I wasn't aware of it at the time, Brian Wilson's health food store, The Radiant Radish, was across the street.

Looking at Google earth puts the site a few blocks North-West of the Beverly Center though so still unsure.

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?hl=en&um=1&ie=UTF-8&q=Beverly+Center&fb=1&cid=0,0,13588648286311854315&near=Los+Angeles,+CA&oi=manybox&ct=10&cd=1&resnum=1

[endofposts]

It was located on the Fairfax & 3rd intersection (you can hear that in the lyrics as well). Nowadays, there's a farmers market there.

Wasn't it actually located in the Farmer's Market?  That place has been an LA institution for years.  They sell produce, flowers, gifts, and it has a number of prepared food vendors (you take your food to open-air tables, sort of like a mall food court).  I assume H.E.L.P. was one of the food stands in the market at that time. 

[MBE]

No H.E.L.P. was not a food stand. It was a real restaurant with a health food section and new age book store.

[endofposts]

No H.E.L.P. was not a food stand. It was a real restaurant with a health food section and new age book store.

Hmm, well there are also enclosed shops in the Farmer's Market.  I read somewhere that it was in Farmer's Market, but that may have been incorrect.  That's an entire intersection, and there are now luxury apartments across the street.   Maybe kitty-korner from the Farmer's Market, or nearby.

[Andrew G. Doe]

It was located at the San Vicente & Melrose intersection! 

Nope - that was where The Radiant Radish was. 

[Malc]

Thanks Sloop ! (sorry AGD - but my question was re: the RR, but kinda got mixed up in the thread !) .. 
Any further clues as to exactly where ?! No sign of 'San Vicente' on Google Earth, at least not in the same locale as Melrose Ave ... 

[SloopJohnB]

It was located at the San Vicente & Melrose intersection! 

Nope - that was where The Radiant Radish was. 

And that's precisely the question I was answering to!


Malc - here's the link to this location in Google Maps! Click here

[Malc]

Cool ! Yep, found it ... just didn't do a great job of spelling when typing in my location search. D'oh !

[MBE]

No H.E.L.P. was not a food stand. It was a real restaurant with a health food section and new age book store.

Hmm, well there are also enclosed shops in the Farmer's Market.  I read somewhere that it was in Farmer's Market, but that may have been incorrect.  That's an entire intersection, and there are now luxury apartments across the street.   Maybe kitty-korner from the Farmer's Market, or nearby.

I can only go by what I have read too, but from what I can tell it was it's own building. It's been described in different ways by different people hence the confusion. Was the Farmer's Market there in 1969-70?

[endofposts]

The Farmer's Market has been there since 1934, according to their Web site.  It looks old.  It's now surrounded by the Grove shopping complex.  CBS television studio is across the way from it.  There's a lot of real estate around that intersection, so it could have been anywhere back in the day if it weren't actually in the Farmer's Market.  The location of the Radiant Radish is now the Design District on Melrose, with lots of large, upscale wholesale furniture stores patronized by interior decorators.  I'm sure that area, too, looked very different back in the '60s and '70s.