How much something costs is not a good measure of how long it's going to last.

Another missing Los Angeles landmark was very proud of its high prices and its high quality and its high service.

Of course, I'm talking about Bullocks Wilshire.

[Ballroom music playing] Barbara: You walked in to buy a dress or something, and a very elegant, dignified saleswoman would come out to greet you.

And you might see one or two things hanging on a model.

But you told the lady what you wanted and what you were looking for, and you sat down on a couch, a beautiful beige affair with a coffee table in front, and the saleslady went out to find what you wanted.

She would go out and bring two or three things for your approval.

A model would be sent out to show you how it looked when it was worn on.

And so, that's the way you bought your clothes.

Mary: Bullocks Wilshire was the most gracious.

You didn't even park your own car.

You drove your car in, and it was parked by a valet, and you got out to look on the ceiling and see a magnificent mural, and you would go in, and you would do all your shopping.

And when you were done, you would go out, and your packages would be loaded in the car, and you would drive away.

[Music playing] The store was magnificent... and it is still magnificent.

It was built in 1929, and it has a very unique history.

It was the second store in the Bullocks chain.

The man who conceived the store was P.G.

Winnett, the vice-president of Bullocks, and he went to the Paris Exposition of 1925, and the style that grew out of that exposition was art deco.

And he saw all these art deco designs, and he decided, "That's what I want for the new store."

So, the exterior, with its magnificent 10 stories of copper and terra cotta and its art deco style, and the interior was unlike any department store in Los Angeles.

Ralph: It's where anybody who was anybody could buy anything, as everybody remembers.

Barbara: One day, my mother and I were having lunch.

The world stood still.

What's happening?

Our eyes were directed to the entrance, and there stood Marlene Dietrich.

She was just at the height of her publicity career and good looks.

She was wearing a man's black gaberdine double-breasted suit, unbuttoned, a white silk shirt unbuttoned about except to here.

Remember, these are the days that ladies did not go out without hat, without gloves, the proper clothes.

And there she stood in all her glory in this entrance.

She had on a pair of high-heeled satin opera slippers.

No hat, no gloves, nothing.

She just stood there like a goddess.

Everybody just...

The world just stopped.

Unheard of.

Women did not wear pants.

Things like slacks were never seen.

Everybody began to buzz, and it was like a herd of locusts, you know.

They were just, you know...

The chatter just didn't stop.

I think that whole town was thrust into a state.

Anyway, getting back to Bullocks Wilshire, ladies went to lunch there.

Mary: The tea room was kind of blue-blood American cuisine.

You would go and have coconut cream pie or a Bombay salad with crab and shrimp, and their employee handbook said they had to use a certain vocabulary.

They had to say "we" and not "I," and they had to say "approve" and not "OK," and they never said "customer;" they always said "patron."

Ralph: Bullocks Wilshire opened one month before the stock market crashed in 1929, as old money began moving west from downtown along Wilshire Boulevard, and they shopped for more than 60 years.

Bullocks Wilshire closed its doors in 1992, but the real reason it isn't here anymore is because the old movie stars all died, and the old money kept right on moving west.