LOS ANGELES — The seedy motel where a young Manny Pacquiao spent his early years in America is gone.
The two-story Vagabond Inn, where Hollywood police regularly made rounds and oftentimes arrested drug dealers and members of a prostitution ring, has been replaced by another hotel that is now being operated by a reputable name in the business.
Given its prime location, just right beside the Wild Card Boxing Club, the Vagabond Inn, believe it or not, was once Pacquiao’s official residence.
Through the years, many establishments that were around when Pacquiao first came to the United States, have either long been torn down to give way to new ones or refurbished to host new tenants.
The dollar store where Pacquiao bought a pair of inferior and thin pair China-made socks had been taken over by Dollar Tree, another general merchandise store selling products for $1. It has also closed shop.
It was there where Pacquiao purchased those socks that he wore when he fought Juan Manuel Marquez the first time in May 2004.
So how did that store figure prominently in Pacquiao’s career?
Just read on.
Pacquiao would later complain that he suffered from blisters because of its inferior quality and despite scoring three knockdowns in the first round, Pacquiao would have a hard time putting the Mexican in trouble the rest of the way.
A stone’s throw away from the Wild Card, at the corner of Santa Monica and Vine once stood a Yoshinoya branch, where Pacquiao and Gerry Peñalosa dined regularly and wound up befriending the son of the Filipino store manager.
In its place now is a Jack in the Box.
Even the Chinatown Express, a cheap fast-food joint that was the go-to-place of a small group of Manila-based scribes assigned to the Pacquiao Beat, is no longer there.
During an early-morning stroll on Monday, I could not help but drool over the orange chicken that they once served with matching Sri Racha hot sauce.
Mind you, it is much better than Panda Express’ version of the Chinese-American staple.
Another one of those Vine Street landmarks that used to be there — the auto specialty shop of German Luftwaffe mechanic and former Daimler Benz factory racing department staffer Rudolf Karl Wutherich — was torn down in the mid-2000s.
After Competition Motors’ date with the wrecking ball, a massive events center was put up on the very same storied location.
During rare occasions, James Dean fanatics would drop by and snap photos on the area where the Porsche 550 Spyder on La Mirada, with Dean behind the wheel, and Wutherich on the passenger seat, were last seen just before the duo left for Salinas, California for a racing gig.
Later, it was learned that Wutherich — and not Dean — who was driving when they crashed almost head-on with a Ford coupe in September 1955 near Paso Robles.
Dean died on the spot while Wutherich, said to be drunk, survived but would suffer the same fate when he lost control of his Honda Civic in the German town of Kupferzell 23 years after the Dean tragedy.
Like any other James Dean fan, I went out to see it again so I could get a great “Then and Now” shot that I will post on my social media account.
Then, I suddenly realized that one day, the Wild Card itself would likely meet its end the same way as the others before it.
As I made my way back to the classy Hampton Inn from the sacred grounds of the Wild Card, I took out my phone and took a few pictures of the gym from the Vine Street viewpoint.
Sad to say, someday, people would probably just walk or drive past it without realizing that, once upon a time, it was an assembly line for fighters, the most famous of them a fellow named Manny Pacquiao.
