Here's a memory from my childhood…though what I remember is somewhat different from the various reminiscers in this video…
My folks and I didn't live in Beverly Hills but we were not far from it and we often patronized businesses in the vicinity of Uncle Bernie's Toy Menagerie on Rodeo Drive. There was a great Ontra Cafeteria about a block away.
The folks in the video recall it as a magical place full of wonderful things they wanted…and it had this amazing Lemonade Tree and another which grew lollipops. I recall it as, first of all, a store full of off-brand, generic toys that I didn't particularly crave. They didn't have the stuff advertised on my favorite cartoon shows. They had very little made by Mattel or Hasbro or Wham-O or Remco or even Milton Bradley. It was a lot of dolls and toy soldiers from overseas but nothing with Huckleberry Hound or Bugs Bunny or Popeye.
So we stopped in once in a while because it was supposed to be this enchanted place that thrilled little children…especially little children from very wealthy families because things were not cheap at Uncle Bernie's. How could they be? Rodeo Drive then wasn't what it is today but it was still damned expensive real estate, and that Lemonade Tree must have cost a few bucks to build and maintain.
As I recall, the lemonade was not self-serve. A salesperson would dispense a tiny cup of it to each child while asking them what kind of wonderful toy they'd love to have their parents buy for them today. I'd, of course, name something from TV that was not on their shelves. I think I once said I wanted a Kenner Give-a-Show Projector with Yogi Bear and the saleslady tried to tout me on a teddy bear more suitable for a kid half my age. We got out of there so fast I didn't even finish my thimble of lemonade.
So I didn't think it was The Best Toy Store in the World as this video claims. I didn't even think it was The Best Toy Store in a Three-Block Radius. Over on Beverly, a few doors south of where Nate 'n Al's Delicatessen still is, there was a larger toy shop that stocked merchandise with Hanna-Barbera and Warner Brothers characters, and toys seen on television and my father could buy them for me without taking out a second mortgage on our house. Still, I'm glad Uncle Bernie's is a precious memory for some folks around my age. We need all we can get.