The Dudley Do-Right Emporium was a small, eccentric gift shop named after that fearless

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

Mountie Dudley Do-Right, located on the

Sunset Strip The Sunset Strip is the stretch of Sunset Boulevard that passes through the city of West Hollywood, California. It extends from West Hollywood's eastern border with the city of Los Angeles near Marmont Lane to its western border with Beverl ...

West Hollywood West Hollywood is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. Incorporated in 1984, it is home to the Sunset Strip. As of the 2020 U.S. Census, its population was 35,757. It is considered one of the most prominent gay villages ...

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

History

The emporium was founded and run by Jay Ward, creator of ''

The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show ''The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle and Friends'' (commonly referred to as simply ''Rocky and Bullwinkle'') is an American animated television series that originally aired from November 19, 1959, to June 27, 1964, on the ABC and NBC te ...

'' (1959–73). The gift shop was located at 8200

Sunset Boulevard Sunset Boulevard is a boulevard in the central and western part of Los Angeles, California, that stretches from the Pacific Coast Highway in Pacific Palisades east to Figueroa Street in Downtown Los Angeles. It is a major thoroughfare in ...

, a few yards from the former Jay Ward Productions (8218 Sunset Blvd.), the tiny studio building where the cartoons were produced, and across the street from the Chateau Marmont. The Dudley Do-Right Emporium opened in 1971 and closed its doors in April 2005. The shop was filled with toys, stuffed animals, trinkets, hats, t-shirts, wristwatches, original animation cels, cartoon scripts, recordings of TV themes, and assorted souvenirs, all bearing the likenesses of Dudley Do-Right,

Rocky & Bullwinkle ''The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle and Friends'' (commonly referred to as simply ''Rocky and Bullwinkle'') is an American animated television series that originally aired from November 19, 1959, to June 27, 1964, on the ABC and NBC tele ...

, Peabody and Sherman, Hoppity Hooper,

George of the Jungle ''George of the Jungle'' is an American animated television series produced and created by Jay Ward and Bill Scott, who also created '' The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show''. The character George was inspired by the story of Tarzan and a cartoon ch ...

, Tom Slick, Super Chicken, Boris & Natasha,

Snidely Whiplash Snidely Whiplash is a fictional character who originally appeared as the main antagonist in the ''Dudley Do-Right of the Mounties'' segments of the animated television series ''The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show''. He is the archenemy of Dudley Do-Ri ...

and the other famous, wacky creations of Jay Ward Studios. In front of Jay Ward Productions was a statue of Bullwinkle J. Moose holding Rocky the Flying Squirrel. The statue was unveiled to the public at a kick-off party to commemorate "The Bullwinkle Show" joining NBC on September 20, 1961. Following Jay Ward's departure, the statue gradually fell into a state of disrepair and, in July 2013, was taken to

DreamWorks Animation DreamWorks Animation LLC (DWA, also known as DreamWorks Animation Studios and simply known as DreamWorks) is an American animation studio that produces animated films and television programs and is a subsidiary of Universal Pictures, a divisio ...

to be restored. When the restoration was completed, it was briefly displayed at the

Paley Center The Paley Center for Media, formerly the Museum of Television & Radio (MT&R) and the Museum of Broadcasting, founded in 1975 by William S. Paley, is an American cultural institution in New York with a branch office in Los Angeles, dedicated to t ...

in Beverly Hills. In January 2015, it was put on display at the West Hollywood City Hall. In August 2019 the West Hollywood city council decided to permanently place the statue on a traffic island at Sunset and Holloway. The rotating statue of Bullwinkle holding Rocky was made to mimic the rotating statue of a

Las Vegas Las Vegas (; Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of Nevada, and the county seat of Clark County. The city anchors the Las Veg ...

showgirl A showgirl is a female dancer or performer in a stage entertainment show intended to showcase the performer's physical attributes, typically by way of revealing clothing, toplessness, or nudity. History Showgirls date back to the late 180 ...

on top of a giant billboard for the Sahara Hotel across Sunset Boulevard at the eastern end of the Sunset Strip. A picture of this showgirl statue can also be found as the cover of

Gore Vidal Eugene Luther Gore Vidal (; born Eugene Louis Vidal, October 3, 1925 – July 31, 2012) was an American writer and public intellectual known for his epigrammatic wit, erudition, and patrician manner. Vidal was bisexual, and in his novels and e ...

's ''

Myra Breckinridge ''Myra Breckinridge'' is a 1968 satirical novel by Gore Vidal written in the form of a diary. Described by the critic Dennis Altman as "part of a major cultural assault on the assumed norms of gender and sexuality which swept the western worl ...

''.

References

{{The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle and Friends The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle and Friends Landmarks in Los Angeles West Hollywood, California