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The street is named for cattle and water. In 1769 Gaspar de Portolà's expedition found waters gathering here and called the place El Rodeo de las Aguas, the gathering of the waters; the Tongva had held it sacred long before. Rodeo is Spanish for a round-up. Say it the cowboy way and you are naming a different street across town, now called Obama Boulevard.
What people mean by Rodeo Drive is three blocks, between Wilshire Boulevard and Santa Monica Boulevard. It was a bridle path in 1912, then an ordinary shopping street of hardware stores, beauty shops and bookstores. The luxury was built on purpose: retailers founded the Rodeo Drive Committee in 1977 to make these blocks America's answer to Via Condotti, New Bond Street and Faubourg St-Honoré.
Frank Lloyd Wright designed Anderton Court in 1952, before any of that, his last in Los Angeles County: an inverted V front among flat neighbours, and inside no stairs at all, only a ramp.
The corner unit at 479 North Rodeo Drive was Boulmiche, where the clerks look Vivian over and ask her to leave, and where she comes back. The shopping scenes were shot on Sundays. Boulmiche has since moved to Beverly Drive, and the storefront was photographed empty in 2020.
In 2003 the street was widened, crossings added, and the ficus trees along it pulled out and replaced with palms. The palms are younger than the film.