When the Muzak Died

By Steve Lopez/Sherman Oaks

The escalators where Julie dumped Tommy in Valley Girl were nearly empty the other day. Tommy himself has probably never been back after the way Julie dumped him for Nicolas Cage: "It's like, I'm totally not in love with you anymore."

Three flights up at the Galleria mall in Sherman Oaks, Calif., where Sean Penn played a surf dude whose diet consisted entirely of junk food and dope in Fast Times at Ridgemont High, the food court was dead. You almost wished Spicoli, the crazy pothead, would show up, and scrounge a few burgers.

Of all the malls in all the land--nearly 1,700 climate-controlled bubbles of raging hormones, Gap jeans and plastic trees--the Galleria was once the most famous, and those early-'80s movies glorified a national culture. But the Galleria, like those movies, is dated now. If you haven't guessed, you are reading a mall's obituary. So don't say the media never give you any good news.

The Galleria is so ghostly quiet you're tempted to do a grave dance and let it echo to the rafters. It has the feel of a thousand downtown shopping districts sucked dry by indistinguishable beasts like this one. Foot Locker, Structure and Florsheim Shoes sit empty. Victoria's Secret is naked. Only a handful of the 120 stores are still open, Orange Julius and Howick's Fine Gifts & Jewelry among them, but they'll soon be gone, and an 18-month renovation will turn the space into an office center with a few shops and restaurants.

"I spent a lot of dollars in this mall," Barbara Morgan says while she and friend Marilyn Laslo pick over the scraps in the Hallmark shop. "We can remember when they were filming the movies in here."

So how could a mall that became a movie star and is situated at the confluence of two major freeways, in Los Angeles no less, go under? If the answer you want is that malls are done, that people are going back to Main Street because they're tired of the Muzak and have finally realized there's nothing in those bath shops they really need, you won't be happy. Retail analysts say mall business in general is grand and that Internet shopping won't make a significant dent in it for at least five years. But they also see a future with fewer malls, as stronger, bigger ones squeeze out the dinosaurs.

Among its many problems, the Galleria had no high-end anchor store, like Nordstrom or Neiman Marcus; its two largest tenants, Robinsons and May department stores, merged and got into a messy legal dispute with the mall. Then there was the mall's odd design, which made it difficult to even know how to get into the place. Maybe most important, there were three better malls within 10 miles.

Fashion Square is one of them, and Daniel Wegman, 18, is in the food court there, staking out a prospect. He has spotted her from 50 yards and gets into position for a good look, and after she passes he proclaims, "She was hot!" The Galleria didn't have any girls worth chasing, he says. It was stuck in the '80s, like those movies.

Alika King, 20, always gets Carl's Jr. French fries with ranch dressing and a large Dr Pepper at the Fashion Square mall. That stuff about those "old" movies being filmed at the Galleria doesn't impress her. "They filmed part of Clueless and Buffy the Vampire Slayer here at this mall," King points out.

There is no comeback for that. The Galleria, where Robinsons-May drew one last rush on the final day of its liquidation sale last week, is dead at 20. It is survived by the movie stars who got their start here, including Penn, Cage and Jennifer Jason Leigh. It is survived as well by Ed and Dianne Edmunds, of Edmunds Unique Gifts, who will miss the Galleria but have found a new home at Fashion Square.

Surviving with less resilience is Harry Sahelian, 73, of the Buccaneer pipe and tobacco shop. Harry was determined to sell every last cigar before closing the door for the last time and going home to his wife. He used to live in Philadelphia, where you shopped on the street and knew all the merchants by name. A better time, yes.

"I hate malls," Sahelian says. "I will never go back into another one."