Jon Ponder is a writer who has been researching the history of Sunset Strip since 2007. He is a creator of the audio series “Hollywood & Crime,” for Wondery, and was a writer, producer and director for the series first season, “The Black Dahlia Serial Killers.”

Ponder was editor and producer of Gore Vidal’s official website until the author’s death in 2012. In the early nineties, he spent a year working at the Playboy Mansion as a research assistant on the autobiography of Playboy founder Hugh Hefner. He has worked as a advertising copywriter, including a five year stint at the New York publishing house John Wiley & Sons, and has written magazine articles and book reviews and edited newsletters.

In the 1990s, he was a partner in Big Film Shorts, a Burbank-based pioneering worldwide distributor of award-winning short films that represented films like “Gowanus, Brooklyn,” starring then-unknown Ryan Gosling, that was expanded into the feature “Half Nelson,” and Sundance Film Festival winners, such as “Nonnie and Alex” and “Harvie Krumpet.” Under the company’s Nano TV brand, he produced packages shorts for Time-Warner On-Demand. Earlier, he served as a development rep in New York and in Los Angeles for a North Carolina-based film production company. Very early in his career, he was a coordinator for movie-star press junkets in the Carolinas for Columbia Pictures, United Artists, Disney and other studios.

An experienced website producer, Ponder served as VP Creative for Hollywood-based Shoom Inc. Since 2008, he has worked as an independent web producer for Miami-based NewmanPR.

In 2013, he co-founded the Alla Nazimova Society. He is also a member of the board of directors of the West Hollywood Preservation Alliance.

Articles

• WEHOville.com: Hacienda Park and the Origins of the Sunset Strip:
  • 1. Rivera in the Foothills
  • 2. An All American Tragedy
  • 3. The ‘Strange Men’ Murder
  • 4. Out of the Ashes
  • 5. Coronet Apartments: Villa of Vice?
• WEHOville.com: Vanished Venues, the Forgotten History of West Hollywood’s Old Theatre District
  • Introduction
  • 1947: The Coronet Theatre
  • 1949: Century Theatre, Civic Playhouse, Warner Playhouse
  • 1949: Players Ring
  • 1952: Gallery Stage, Players Ring Gallery I
  • 1957: The Carmel
  • 1960: Cameo Playhouse
  • 1961: Players Ring Gallery II, The Gary, Pan-Andreas Playhouse, Coast Playhouse
  • 1973: Globe Playhouse, Macha Theatre, The 11:11
• WEHOville.com: The Sunset Strip Was Once a Gamblers’ Playground. Could Its Future Be a Return to the Past?
• WEHOville.com: WeHo’s Bing Crosby Building Nominated for National Historic Register
• WEHOville.com: Review: An Entertaining Trip Far Down the Sunset Strip’s Memory Lane
• WEHOville.com:Lena Horne, 2018 Black Heritage Honoree, Got Her Big Break in West Hollywood

Cited

• West Hollywood Magazine: The Place Where Hollywood Was Born
• West Hollywood Magazine: Parks & Pockets
• WEHOville.com: Where WeHo’s Streets Got Their Names
• Bay Area Reporter: Laverne, Surely
• City of West Hollywood: Historic Context & Associated Property Types [PDF]