The Hollywood Canteen opened on October 3, 1942 at 1451 N. Cahuenga Avenue as a free entertainment center for servicemen in uniform. Co-founded primarily by Bette Davis, John Garfield and Mervyn LeRoy, it was modeled after the Stage Door Canteen in New York.

On February 7, 1942, the American Theater Wing had announced it was opening a canteen for servicemen in the unoccupied Little Club beneath the 44th Street Theater at 216 W. 44th Street in New York City. Staffed by Broadway actors, musicians and other theater workers, it opened on March 2, 1942 after a public open house on February 28 and March 1.

On March 26, 1942, AP columnist George Tucker reported that Bette Davis had appeared at the Stage Door Canteen and danced with the soldiers, sailors and marines. The column appeared in papers nationwide into early April 1942.

On June 2, 1942, LA Times arts writer Edwin Schallert returned from a visit to Broadway and reported: “I learned in New York that Bette Davis is much interested in establishing a Stage Door Canteen for the entertainment of servicemen on the Coast and that the idea is about to become a reality. In sprawling Los Angeles and Hollywood, I’d say they’d need several.” Gossip columnist Hedda Hopper also reported that Bette Davis, John Garfield and other top stars wanted to open a local Stage Door Canteen, identifying the prospective location for it as Ciro’s nightclub on Sunset Boulevard. Hopper thought a Hollywood Stage Door Canteen was unlikely to succeed, and questioned whether it was even needed since there was already the Hollywood USO and other similar facilities.

In fact, a Hollywood canteen was about to open- the Hollywood Guild Canteen, organized by Anne Lehr, wife of a former studio executive, Abraham Lehr. Anne had founded the Hollywood Guild in 1935 to air aged and indigent persons from the film industry. On May 15, 1942, she expanded her efforts to include a relaxation and entertainment facility for servicemen. It was up and running by July 1942.

Bette Davis would serve as chair of the Hollywood Guild Canteen but continued to pursue opening a Hollywood version of the Stage Door Canteen. On August 17, Davis and the Hollywood Victory Committee announced that that a Stage Door Canteen-style facility would be coming to Los Angeles. The following day Luella Parsons reported in her syndicated column: “Bette Davis finally will get her Stage Door Canteen only it will be called the Hollywood Canteen.”

A series of fundraisers were held that month to raise money for the Hollywood Canteen- the first was a premiere for the film “The Talk of the Town” at the Four Star Theater on August 29, followed by dinner and dancing to Benny Goodman’s orchestra at Ciro’s. Ticket sales for the sold-out event raised some $5000 for the Canteen. The next day, Joan Bennett staged a garden party benefit at her Holmby Hills home, located at 515 Mapleton Drive.

The Hollywood Canteen was officially organized as a nonprofit on August 24, 1942. The following day, the Los Angeles Daily News reported that the Hollywood Barn building at Sunset and Cahuenga had been leased for the Hollywood Canteen. The space was donated for the duration by the owners, brothers Frank and Walter Muller and Sarah A. Laughlin. Film industry professionals donated their services to renovate and redecorate the structure.

Originally bearing the address  6426 Sunset Boulevard, the place had opened as The Latin Quarter’s Cafe, affiliated with artist Finn H. Frolich of the Norse Studio Club, in May 1924. The club featured themed rooms, including a pirate room, a Cleopatra room, and a “room of all nations.” Not a commercial success, the Latin Quarter was sold to Ward McFadden, original builder/owner of the Ship Cafe in Venice, and his associate Charles Simpson. It reopened on Halloween night, 1924, but didn’t last long. Frolich maintained a workshop at 6426 through 1925 at least.

In May 1928, the venue was offered for lease as a store or workshop and briefly housed a woodworking studio, then a catering company.

On November 8, 1932, bandleader Buddy Fisher, “the nation’s joy boy,” who had recently completed an extended engagement at Eugene Stark’s Bohemian Club on Santa Monica Boulevard, applied for a dance hall permit at 6426 Sunset Boulevard. It opened on December 22, 1932 as the Hollywood Barn, a new nightclub with a farm theme.

Decorated by Jack Schula of the Hollywood Roosevelt’s Blossom Room, the Montmartre, Al Levy’s Tavern and others, the Barn had “old fashioned rafters, hay mows, grain bins, corn shucks, a cider press and other rural features,” including live animals- chickens and pigs. “Buxom farmers’ daughters” served as waitresses, while “pretty dairy maids” churned fresh butter nightly. Fisher modeled the club after one he reputedly ran in Chicago.

The last mention found of Fisher’s association with the Barn was May 1933. On May 26, 1933, it was raided by the LAPD vice squad for illegal sales of beer. By September 1933, police told the Hollywood Citizen News it had responded to at least 18 calls to the Barn to “quell disturbances, stop fights and arrest drunks in the vicinity.” Residents complained that it was being “conducted in a noisy manner.” On November 7, 1933, its beer license was revoked. Police asserted that it has become a hangout for bootleggers (hard liquor was still illegal) and gangsters.

By January 1934, it was operating as the Hollywood Stable (sometimes advertised as the Hollywood Stables as well). It was one of 20 nightclubs raided by the State Board of Equalization (which regulated the new State liquor laws) over the weekend of April 21-22, 1934, which was not uncommon in the early days of legalized alcohol sales.

The Hollywood Stable/Stables faced additional suspensions of its license for violating liquor laws. By August 1935, it was known as the Hollywood Stables Cafe and was using the address 1453 N. Cahuenga rather than 6426 Sunset Boulevard. It appears that a service station was built on the prominent Sunset Boulevard corner of the parcel, prompting the address change.  The Hollywood Stable Cafe continued to operate through 1935 at least.

In August 1938, now using the address 1451 Cahuenga, it briefly served as a venue for Wayne Moore’s new Hollywood Drunkard, with a gala opening held August 11-13, 1938.

On October 21, 1938, the old barn building opened as another nightclub, the Gay White Way.  By September 1941, it was the Rancho Grande theater cafe. It was likely vacant at the time the Hollywood Canteen leased it.

The Hollywood Canteen’s volunteer workers transformed the structure, painting it white and adding a rope sign to the front entrance, in keeping with the Western theme. Inside, artists of the Screen Cartoonist Guild (many of them from Disney, including Mary Blair, Lee Blair, Marc Davis, Retta Scott and Earl Murphy) under the supervision of Elmer Plummer, created a 326-square foot mural on 4 panels, titled “Cowboy Heaven” that depicted “things cowboys dream of.” Actor-director Richard Whorf, who painted as a hobby, painted a mural for the men’s bathroom.

At the opening on October 3, Hollywood’s elite paid $50 for bleacher seats to watch service members enter the Hollywood Canteen, which could handle 3000 patrons a night. The club only admitted enlisted personnel- no officers were allowed. The only way civilians could enter, aside from the volunteer workers, was to pay $100 for the so-called “Angel’s Table” in the balcony.

There was no cost to the regular patrons. A uniform was all they needed. Inside was a large snack bar that served food, soft drinks and cigarettes- and an autograph from the screen star hostesses. There were 30-40 hostesses to dance with and a show every hour and a half. Male stars served as busboys, and everybody helped out in the kitchen.

The 1-millionth patron passed through the doors before the club was even one year old- on September 15, 1943. He was First Sgt. Carl E. W. Bell of Rising Star, Texas.

The right to use the famous name was sold to Warner Brothers for more than $500,000 (funds going to the Canteen). The film “Hollywood Canteen” opened in local theaters just before Christmas, 1944.

The hostilities in Europe ended on May 8, 1945 with Germany’s unconditional surrender. On August 14, 1945, President Truman announced that Japan had unconditionally surrendered The war was over, but Los Angeles was still inundated with visiting service members as they returned from the Pacific Theater. The Hollywood Canteen originally planned to close on its third anniversary, October 3, 1945, but due to the continued demand, it remained open through Thanksgiving Day, November 22, 1945.

It had entertained more than 3 million servicemen. More than 11,000 actors, musicians, dancers and other film industry workers had volunteered their time.

The Canteen’s fixtures were auctioned off in December 1945.

On June 13, 1946, The Hollywood Citizen News reported that the building had been leased by Thomas Lee of the Mark Twain Hotel and that Guy Francis was in charge of remodeling it as a Latin American nightclub. On July 10, Bette Davis filed a restraining order, complaining that the operators were trying to capitalize on the Hollywood Canteen’s famous name by using it in large letters on the club’s signage with “former” in tiny letters, and that with or without the “former,” it was damaging to the prestige of the wartime service organization and the cause to which it was still devoted. Bette won. In March 1947, the building became a new Armed Forces officers’ club, affiliated with the Hollywood Canteen Corporation.

On October 15, 1948, 1451 N. Cahuenga reopened as the Hollywood Auditorium. a rental hall operated by Frank E. George. In November 1949 it became a theater, known as the Carousel Theater, which lasted into 1955. In November 1955, John Howard “Johnny” Caldwell announced that the venue had been completely refurbished. It opened on December 31, 1955 as The Moroccan theater restaurant.

By March 1959 it was operating as the Le Grand Comedy Theater and continued into early 1966.

With the US involved in the Korean War, in November 1950, the Hollywood Canteen Foundation purchased the former Florentine Gardens nightclub on Hollywood Boulevard and planned to reopen it as a new Hollywood Canteen but ultimately it did not happen.

 

On December 20, 1966, the Hollywood Citizen News reported that the building, said to have significant dry rot, was torn down for a parking lot. Slabs of sidewalk survived containing the names of servicemen who celebrated the first anniversary of Pearl Harbor at the Hollywood Canteen on December 7, 1942. Janis Paige, who made her movie debut in the Hollywood Canteen film, received the pieces of sidewalk.

Notes:

There was another, unrelated, Latin Quarter nightclub in the 1960s located at 5521 Sunset Boulevard.

There was also a modern era unrelated Hollywood Canteen cafe located at 1006 Seward St.