Named in 1950 as a good-natured joke. Since this street connects with Yolanda Avenue (christened back in 1916), someone – presumably landowners Max and Birdie Brown – decided to reference the popular ballroom dance team of Veloz and Yolanda. Frank Nicholas Veloz (1906-1981) and Yolanda Casazza (1908-1995) had been dancing together since they were teenagers in New York. They went professional in 1927 and soon became Broadway stars. Here in Los Angeles, Veloz and Yolanda first appeared at the Cocoanut Grove in 1934, a year after their marriage. Hollywood inevitably came calling and the couple performed in the 1942 classic Pride of the Yankees, among other movies. By the time this street was named, however, Yolanda had retired from dancing and Veloz was hosting his own TV show. Postscript from the Wiener Department: Some claim the couple established the legendary Tail O’ the Pup hot dog stand in 1946. While news articles covering the stand’s opening credited Harry Engel and Ed Striker as its proprietors, later articles from 1972 stated that Veloz and Yolanda did own it at that point. Which is odd, given that the couple had un-amicably divorced a decade earlier.
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