I don't need to tell you that Los Angeles is not a real city.

It's just a whole bunch of neighborhoods sharing the same name.

One of our neighborhoods was called Central Avenue, and I know the avenue is still there, but what's central is missing.

[Ballroom music playing] People stayed up late, but they also got up early because their community was the entertainment center of town, certainly thriving if not prosperous.

Everybody knew everybody else.

[Ballroom music playing] Mildred: That was the place to go to see your friends.

You walked up and down Central to see your friends and to see what other people were doing.

And you wanted to be with them, and you wanted to celebrate with them.

And there they were.

[Big-band music playing] Buddy: It was like the people from the avenue had their own world going.

It was wonderful.

Nobody seemed to mention it much outside of the area.

And now it was probably better than we all knew.

[Big-band music playing] Roy: Down in the middle of the block was the Club Alabam.

It had Johnny Otis' big band in there with a stage show, chorus girls and everything, T-Bone Walker, blues singer, as the star.

Across the street was The Last Word.

I think you've got the pictures of them with jam sessions going on.

All the jam sessions at that time were bebop-oriented.

And what made bebop so important, they would have after-hours jam sessions.

When you'd leave The Downbeat or the Alabam or one of them clubs there, you could go down to Jack's Basket Room on 33rd and Central, where you'd have Dexter Gordon, Miles Davis, Wardell Gray, all these people that would be down there.

Everybody would be jamming.

Mildred: Central was the place that we went to to take care of business.

We could shop.

We could get hardware.

Newspapers were put out on Central.

Central was almost like the main street in a small village.

You could do anything there.

During the time when Joe Louis was in his heyday, when he would have a fight, Central was quiet as... You couldn't find anybody.

Everybody is in their house, listening to the fight.

Radio announcer: A left to the head, a left to the jaw, a right to the head, and Donovan is watching carefully.

Louis measures him.

Right to the body, a left hook to the jaw.

And Schmeling is down.

Mildred: And whenever he would win, Central came alive.

People would rush, walk, drive, get to Central to talk about, to celebrate and drive up and down Central blowing horns and yelling at each other.

"Ooh, he won," and "Oh, wow."

That was a big deal.

[Horns honking] Ralph: So, there you have it.

Some things on Central Avenue are gone, but the music and the memories live on.

[Lively music playing]