Hollywood Portrait: The Pawn Shop Owner

Editor's note: There's no shortage of interesting people we meet each day while getting around town. Hollywood Portrait is our new regular feature to share with readers the fascinating stories we hear in our day-to-day travels. We hope you enjoy the first installation!

Elliott Salter, 67

Location: Hollywood Farmers' Market; Hollywood Boulevard and Ivar Avenue.

Original hometown: Los Angeles, California; Mid-Wilshire, “near The Original Farmers Market.”

What do you do? I own and operate West Hollywood Pawn, a pawn-shop at Fairfax Avenue and Santa Monica Boulevard (7760 Santa Monica Blvd).

What draws you to Hollywood? Well, today what draws me to Hollywood is the best produce there is. At the Hollywood Farmer’s market. Best produce, best prices, best people. There's other things that draw me to Hollywood on other days: restaurants, shops, friends. Today it's fruit.

Tell us about something about yourself. I’ve been a pawn-broker for over 40 years, since I was 8 years old. I love gold.

A guy called me up and asked if we made loans on gold bars. We hear this all the time. It was from the Spanish galleon Atocha which sunk in 1625. This bar was a real piece of history — he had all the documentation and everything. 

What’s it like for you now that there are so many TV shows about pawn shops? Well, Hardcore Pawn is closer to reality than the other one. That guy [Les Gold] on Hardcore Pawn, he’s a nut. And I know people who know him, they told me soon as you put a mike on a customer, they start to go crazy, which makes good TV I guess. Me, I don’t chisel people like he does. My mind’s always on the next sale. I want people to come back. I love the word 'pawn shop,' but not the word 'pawn,' unless you're playing chess.