Double Exposure

Polaroid Portrait by Dustin Hollywood

Double Exposure / Found Photograph circa 1950

Polaroid Portrait by Polaboid

Neon Glasses Party

Double Positive

Photo by Marcus Butler

Billion Dollar Brain

Bon Voyage Ken Russell

Calling all Citizen Sleuths! D.B. Cooper Redux

On a cold November night 40 years ago, in the driving wind and rain, somewhere between southern Washington state and just north of Portland, Oregon, a man calling himself Dan Cooper parachuted out of a plane he’d just hijacked clutching a bag filled with $200,000 in stolen cash. Who was Cooper? Did he survive the jump? And what happened to the loot, only a small part of which has ever surfaced? F.B.I. Special Agent Carr needs your help.

Do you recognize any of the following items?

J.C. Penney black tie and mother of pearl tie clip, which DB Cooper removed right before jumping out of the aircraft, and remains of twenty dollar bills which were found by an 8 year old boy vacationing with his family by the Columbia River.

One of the parachutes left behind by Cooper and the canvas bag it came in. Cooper jumped with two (including one that was used for instruction and had been sewn shut). According to the FBI:

"We originally thought Cooper was an experienced jumper, perhaps even a paratrooper,” says Special Agent Carr. “We concluded after a few years this was simply not true. No experienced parachutist would have jumped in the pitch-black night, in the rain, with a 200-mile-an-hour wind in his face, wearing loafers and a trench coat. It was simply too risky. He also missed that his reserve chute was only for training and had been sewn shut—something a skilled skydiver would have checked.”

Recent developments in the case have lead other Citizen Sleuths to believe he may have been a military-trained, French-Canadian factory manager or chemical engineer, probably from outside of Quebec. Cooper appeared to have fashioned his identity and modus operandi from a 1960s-era, French-language comic book about a Royal Canadian Air Force test pilot and space traveller named Dan Cooper.

The hijacker - while popularly known as D.B. Cooper because of a news reporter's error after the crime took place - actually identified himself as "Dan Cooper" when he first boarded the passenger plane. On the cover of one issue of the Belgium-produced comic - sold in Europe and French Canada shortly before Cooper's hijacking of a Portland-to-Seattle flight - the Canadian superhero is shown parachuting.

The case remains the only unsolved airline hijacking in American aviation history. Therefore, if you think D.B. Cooper is most likely your Dad or your weird Uncle, please contact the FBI at fbise@leo.gov.


Fun Fact: According to one of the flight attendants aboard the hijacked plane, Dan Cooper was quite civilized. "He wasn't nervous," she told investigators later. "He seemed rather nice. He was never cruel or nasty. He was thoughtful and calm all the time." He ordered a second bourbon and water, paid his drink tab (and insisted she keep the change), and offered to request meals for the flight crew during the stop in Seattle.

Giant Robot Holiday Pop-Up Shop @ Hotel De Ville in Los Feliz

GIANT ROBOT returns to the Eastside with a Holiday Pop-Up shop at Hotel De Ville Vintage Eyewear in Los Feliz. Featuring books, comics, shirts, gifts and more from the land of Asian Pop Culture (plus other stuff)... here's a sneak peek!

Collectible vinyl Kaiju for Grownups and James Kochalka full color indie comic American Elf.

Cool art books by Christopher Doyle and Marcel Dzama...

Collectible Gary Baseman Hot Cha Cha Cha vinyl meets Hello Kitty...

Murakami Totes and plushies...

Open through December 30th with late night shopping hours on Fridays and Saturdays... see you soon!

Into the Light

Photo by Adam Levy

Hotel De Ville Loves: Rickey Minor and President Obama on The Tonight Show

President Obama with Hotel De Ville Eyewear patron and Bandleader Rickey Minor during his recent appearance on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. Rickey's new glasses were designed by Old Hollywood Classics Eyewear.

Rickey Minor is the Emmy-nominated music director of American Idol. His distinguished resume also includes the Grammys and the Super Bowl, and collaborations with major recording artists Whitney Houston, Christina Aguilera, Alicia Keys, Ray Charles, Beyoncé Knowles, and many more.

On to the Next One : RIP James Van Doren, Co-Founder of VANS

HDV Spotlight : Old Hollywood Classics

Bergerac in Cognac

Atticus in Tiger Eye

DeWinter in Onyx

Old Hollywood Classics Eyewear is an homage to the classical style of the eternal stars from the Golden Age of American Cinema. Designed in adoration of the passionate life expressed artfully in flickering celluloid, and in nostalgic reverence of dramatic characters that forever live in the hidden dream history of Hollywood.

Designed in Los Angeles, hand-crafted in France.

To view the full collection click HERE

Laurent in Onyx

Back to the Grind

Optician neutralizing a lens on the lensometer, 1920.

Medieval optics chart: Demonstration of adjusting vertex distance and diopter power for hyperopic and myopic vision correction.

Lens grinders leaving the American Optical Factory, 1946.

Lensometer ad, 1977.

Early progressive lens design

Images courtesy of the Optical Heritage Museum

Red and Blue Make?

Photo by AUDE

Introducing Snake and Mongoose Eyewear

Hotel De Ville Presents : SNAKE AND MONGOOSE EYEWEAR

Don "the Snake" Prudhomme vs. Tom "the Mongoose" McEwen made racing headlines throughout the 1970s for their gritty racing feud and nitro-burning ambition, a dragstrip drama which played out at the infamous Lions Drag Strip in the industrial backwaters of Long Beach, CA. There in the pits of gravel and asphalt, these top fuel dragsters redefined the sport of racing through their friendship born of smoke and noise, and tested by fire and speed.


Each pair of sunglasses was custom designed as a tribute to this epic era of American motosports history. Inspired by the custom cars, the speedways, the chrome, the chassis, the crowd and the drivers themselves, this collection energetically captures the bold colors and innovative competitive spirit that fueled the dragster lifestyle.

The ARMY Sunglasses : The 1975 Winston World Finals has passed into legend as the greatest drag race of all time. With the Funny Car World Champion title already under his belt, Don "The Snake" Prudhomme, hailing from Granada Hills, California, set a historic drag racing record at 5.98 seconds for the first-ever 240mph Funny Car blast in his 1975 Army Monza.


There on the Ontario Motor Speedway, Snake won six of eight events, and the following year the Army Car would dominate the Winston World Finals and drive Don Prudhomme to his 21st career NHRA Victory. The ARMY Sunglasses pay tribute to his record-breaking ambition and commitment to the sport of racing.

Prudhomme and McEwen burst onto the drag racing scene in the mid-1960s and developed one of the most publicized rivalries in the sport's rich history. Their mutual sponsorship with Hot Wheels® in 1970 paved the way for motorsports marketing partnerships. Prior to that, corporate sponsorship in drag racing was essentially nonexistent and limited to the auto industry. But when Mattel Toys backed Mongoose's new Funny Car and that of rival Don “The Snake” Prudhomme, doors began to open. “The Snake” and “The Mongoose” became household names, and other big companies soon followed.

The ENGLISH LEATHER CORVETTE Sunglasses : In the 1978 U.S. Nationals, Tom "Mongoose" McEwen drove the English Leather "Silver Anniversary" Corvette at 235 mph to a final-round triumph over longtime archrival and racing teammate Don "the Snake" Prudhomme.

Just days before, McEwen lost his 14 year old son, Jamie, to a three year battle with leukemia. Jamie's dying wish was for his father to beat Prudhomme and win the nationals.The NHRA has voted this "Mongoose bites Snake" drag strip duel as the most memorable moment in the history of the sport of auto racing.


Filming began in 2011 for the "Snake vs. Mongoose" indie biopic produced by Stephen Nemeth of RHINO Films (Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Dogtown and Z-Boys) and Robin Broidy of Storywise Productions. To be released in 2012, the film will include archival footage from the NHRA. The Snake and Mongoose Sunglasses will be featured in the film.

To view the full collection, visit:
SNAKEANDMONGOOSEEYEWEAR.COM