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Arts & Entertainment

Landmark Hermosa: Greeko's Sandals

If you guessed the plaques on the cobblestone sidewalk outside of Greeko's Sandals for our morning trivia, you were right.

It was the year of Timothy Leary, psychedelics and Vietnam.

John Warren opened the doors to his Hermosa Beach store, Greeko's Sandals in 1966. Warren made Greek style sandals in the same fashion as those worn by the first Olympic runners in Athens, thus naming the store Greeko's.

The store's first location was on the corner of Hermosa and Pier Avenue next to John's Barber Shop. Warren moved to the store's present location three years later at 1120 Hermosa Ave.

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Warren marked his 4,000-square-foot territory with two plaques cemented on the cobblestone sidewalk outside of the shop — one honoring the United States' bicentennial anniversary, and the other representing the Greeko's establishment.

From bongs to bell-bottoms, Greeko's was a house for hippies until 1982 when a bill introduce in the Legislature by state Sen. Newton Russell (R-Glendale) passed, banning the sale of materials intended for drug use in California.

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Warren introduced Hermosa Avenue to drug paraphernalia in 1969 when there was no ordinance on such merchandise. Drug paraphernalia is "a small part of our display but a big part of our business," Warren told the Los Angeles Times in 1982.

For 25 years, Warren, also known as "Johnny Greekos," ran his clothing, incense and smoke shop until Steve Yerkes took over in 1991.

In efforts to make the store more "family friendly," Yerkes moved the smoke shop, which made up two-thirds of Greeko's, into an enclosed area in the back of the store. Yerkes closed the store in 2008 after noticing a plummet in sales.

Factors such as the changing demographics in Hermosa from ultra-casual to upscale, "replaced Hermosa's casual daytime shopper with the more upscale nighttime reveler," Yerkes told the Easy Reader.

But employees that worked under Yerkes were determined to keep the store open. So, in February 2009, ex-employees turned co-owners worked to reopen the counterculture haven.

Greeko's still maintains the offbeat essence as when it first opened in 1966. The repaved sidewalk has not been modified and still includes the famous Johnny Greeko's plaques.

Congratulations to Joe Galliani for winning today's Landmark Hermosa. We'll have a new landmark to guess next Friday.

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