In December 1952, Marshall Boyar, 26-year-old son of Lakewood developer Louis Boyar, told a Long Beach Independent reporter that he personally named this street after impish comedian Buddy Hackett (born Leonard Hacker, 1924-2003), “a favorite of mine”. Here’s the thing, though: Hackett Avenue was named in February 1950 (on a tract indeed owned by the elder Boyar), and while Buddy Hackett was somewhat famous in 1952, I doubt Marshall Boyar would have known who he was two years earlier. Hackett, who launched his standup career shortly after serving in WWII, made his Los Angeles stage debut in October 1947 in the musical Call Me Mister, costarring future luminaries Carl Reiner and Bob Fosse, but he otherwise stayed on the East Coast until December 1951, when he headlined a comedy revue at a Fairfax Avenue nightclub and became a star. I know not to trust Marshall Boyar ever since he falsely claimed that Coke Avenue honored the soft drink and not an old family of landowners, yet I couldn’t find any promising Hacketts amongst his father’s huge circle of friends and colleagues, so for now let’s assume – with a healthy dose of skepticism – that he really was hip to Buddy Hackett’s comedy in 1950.
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