Located at 5251 Hollywood Boulevard at the northwest corner of Hollywood and Harvard Boulevard, the Harvard House motel opened in 1947. The property was part of the Lander Sunnyside Tract (See my post here for more information on that).
The L-shaped, two story, stucco-clad structure initially contained 28 rooms and offices. It was designed by architect Arthur W. Hawes for owner Dushan S. Nicholich (sometimes spelled Nickolich), who operated a real estate business at this location. Nicholich applied for the permit in August, 1947. By 1951, Nicholich had departed Hollywood for Washoe County, Nevada, where he had the “Old Williams Ranch,” renaming it the 102 Ranch.
The Harvard House Motel is still extant.
Postcard view of the Harvard House Motel in the 1950s.
The Harvard House Motel today. Photo via Zillow.
Notes
The Harvard House, looking very much the same as it does today, can be seen in the dismal tv movie “Dawn: Portrait of a Teenage Runaway” (1976).
Located at 5217 Hollywood Boulevard, the Guardian Arms held a public open house on June 29, 1928 and officially opened on June 30, 1928, the same day as its neighbor, the El Adobe Market.
Plans for the 7-story structure were revealed in February 1927. An artists’ drawing of the proposed Spanish-style building, designed by architect W. Douglas Lee, appeared in the Los Angeles Times on March 13, 1927. The owner, the Guardian Holding Corporation, applied for permits to construct the foundation in May 1927, and the building itself in June 1927.
Hollywood Citizen News 2/18/1927.
LA Times 3/13/1927.
The project took more than a year to complete. The luxury residence contained 90 uniquely furnished units, with a penthouse bungalow and roof garden. Amenities included daily maid and valet service and a 55-car garage in the rear. There was a large lounge area with a dance floor and an auditorium/stage in the basement. Retail shops occupied the ground floor.
Los Angeles Times May 11, 1928.
Hollywood Citizen-News 6/29/1928.
The Guardian Arms when new. LAPL photo.
Detail of the entrance. California State Library photo.
In 1932, an investor, Anna McKinnie, brought a lawsuit against Guardian Holding Corp, charging fraudulent stock transactions, and in January 1933 was awarded a judgement of almost $250,000. The following month, creditors of Guardian Holding Corp petitioned for bankruptcy in federal court. In April 1933, four officers of Guardian Holding Corp were indicted following a grand jury investigation into the firm’s dealings: E. J. Kampschroer, Charles H. Johnson, E. E. Pratt, and Theodore Kemp. The four were charged with conspiracy and violation of the state Corporate Securities Act. The trial, which began in September 1933, ended with a hung jury. A second trial began March 7, 1934. On April 11, 1934, after over 50 hours of deliberation, the jury found Pratt and Johnson guilty. Kemp was acquitted. The jury was unable to agree on the culpability of Kampschroer, and the DA ultimately moved to dismiss his case. Pratt and Johnson were sentenced to a term at San Quentin later that month. They remained free pending appeal and in October 1934, had their sentences overturned on a habeas corpus ruling.
Los Angeles Post-Record 4/20/1934.
The Guardian Arms sailed right along as a primo, luxury residence.
In December 1938 it was revealed that the property had been sold by owner Leslie H. Danis, to an out of town buyer, Leopold Kalish, for $300,000.
LA Times 12/11/1938.
In March 1944, it was made public that Kalish had sold the building to real estate investor G.E. Kinsey for $275,000 – $25,000 less than he had reportedly paid for it a little more than 5 years earlier. Kinsey in turn flipped the property two months later, selling it to Arthur E. Gray and B. Browsky in May 1944 for the same price he had paid for it- $275,000.
Hollywood Citizen News 4/13/1946.
Hollywood Citizen News 4/27/1946.
In 1946, the basement auditorium served as an actors’ studio and theater, known as the Aladdin Theater Workshop, for the Aladdin Players. Organized by actor’s agent Nell Benedic as a showcase for her clients, the group debuted with the Noel Coward play, “The Vortex,” in April 1946.
LA Times 6/22/1958.
The Guardian Arms, renamed the Hollywood Hotel Apartments, featured a Hawaiian garden. LA Times 8/26/1958.
In June 1958, the 30 year old building was rebranded as the Hollywood Hotel Apartments. The remodeling cost a reported $300,000 – $50,000 less than it had ostensibly cost to build and the same price it had sold for twenty years earlier.
The adorable, Spanish-themed El Adobe Market opened on June 30, 1928 at 5201 Hollywood Boulevard on the northwest corner of Hollywood and Kingsley. Designed by architect Arthur Kelly, it might have been a movie set, down to the old oxcart in the courtyard and the Spanish names painted on the vending stalls (“frutas” for fruits, “verduras” for vegetables” etc).
The site, addressed as 5203 Hollywood Boulevard, had been home to pioneer resident, dentist C. V. Baldwin and his wife Alice, who came to Los Angeles in 1878. Dr. Baldwin passed away in February 1927 at the age of 92.
On March 4, 1928, plans were made public for the office and retail building that became the El Adobe Market. Los Angeles was already in love with car culture, reflected in the market’s drive-in design.
Artist’s drawing of the building that would house the El Adobe Market. LA Times 3/4/1928
Opening ad for the El Adobe Market, LA Times 6/29/1928.
The El Adobe Market c. 1937. LAPL photo.
The El Adobe Market’s courtyard and oxcart c. 1937. LAPL photo.
Interior of the El Adobe Market, 1942. LAPL photo.
El Adobe Market c. 1970. The tall building adjacent is the Guardian Arms Apartments, which opened the same day as the El Adobe Market, June 30, 1928. In June 1958, it was renamed the Hollywood Hotel Apartments.
El Adobe Market in recent times. Photo from youarehere.com
The Hollywood Guild Canteen, not to be confused with the Hollywood Canteen or the canteen of the Hollywood USO, was located at 1284 N. Crescent Heights Boulevard at Fountain. Founded in 1942 by Anne Neill Lehr, wife of retired film executive Abraham Lehr, it provided free food, entertainment and overnight accommodations in a home-like atmosphere to service members on leave.
Anne Lehr already had a long resume of civic leadership. During the first World War she had been active with the American Red Cross. She directed the tearoom of the Assistance League’s Good Samaritan Committee, located at 5604 Delongpre Avenue, where the stars served as waitresses, and in 1931 headed the Women’s Auxiliary Committee of the Motion Picture Relief Fund. In 1935, she founded the Hollywood Relief Guild, headquartered at 1305 N. Crescent Heights, to benefit aged and indigent members of the film industry who didn’t qualify for other aid programs or were reluctant to apply for them. Bette Davis was a patron. Anne raised money for the Guild with events such as daily luncheons, weekly bridge luncheons and fashion shows at the Trocadero, garden parties, recitals, premiere benefit parties, and auctions and sales personal items donated by the stars.
With the US entry into World War II, she became chair of the Los Angeles County Women’s Voluntary Service Organization (WVSO), which organized permanent and mobile canteens for soldiers and arranged entertainment for men in camps, among other activities.
Lehr realized there was a need for a space where servicemen could be entertained without being ripped off and founded the Hollywood Guild Canteen on May 15, 1942. She rented a mansion with expansive grounds at 1284 N. Crescent Heights, across the street from her Relief Guild headquarters, and recruited young women from the studio- movie extras, secretaries, clerks- to be hostesses. Stars donated furniture and other supplies- notably a bamboo bar given by Greer Garson according to some reports (others said it came from Norma Shearer). The servicemen could play ping pong, dance to records or the radio, have a home-cooked meal or just relax. There was no charge. Bette Davis was active with the project, and served as chair of the Hollywood Guild Canteen until her own Hollywood Canteen opened in October 1942.
Two decades earlier the mansion had been home to silent Western film star Dustin Farnum and his wife and frequent leading lady Winifred Kingston. The couple married at the house in August 1924. Farnum died in July 1929 and Kingston rented out the property. As of August 1929, it was a private girls’ school. From circa 1932 to 1937 it served as the home base of the Domino Club, a private theater club for film industry women. Later that decade it briefly served as the Dominican Republic consulate.
LA Times August 25, 1924.
A colorized postcard view of the house as it looked in the 1920s.
Over the 4th of July weekend, 1942, Anne announced that the canteen had entertained 2000 service members.
Later that month, Winifred Kingston sued the Hollywood Canteen Guild for non-payment of rent. She and Lehr had a verbal agreement that the group was to pay $300 a month; in June the amount was reduced to $250 a month. Lehr and Kingston worked it out and the canteen continued to operate. In fact, Lehr, seeing that many of the boys who visited had nowhere to stay, converted the clubhouse into a dorm. It housed between 80-100 service men every weekend and was open to servicemen every day and night.
It cost an estimated $6000 a month to keep the canteen going, all through private donations. Mary Pickford held a garden party at her estate, Pickfair, on August 25, 1942 to benefit both the Hollywood Relief Guild and the Hollywood Guild Canteen. Other star-studded fundraisers would be planned- a dance benefit a Mocambo, a benefit premiere of San Goldwyn’s “Up in Arms” starring Danny Kaye (Abraham Lehr had been VP of the Goldwyn Pictures corporation), Orson Wells magic shows, an ice show at the Trocadero.
Hollywood Citizen News 8/25/1942. Bette Davis was now the chair of the Guild’s canteen.
In January 1943, the Hollywood American Legion Post presented Anne with a U.S. flag in recognition of her work.
Officers elected by the Hollywood Guild Canteen Alumni Association on February 20, 1943. Seated: “Mom” Anne Lehr, president of the Hollywood Guild and Canteen and honorary president of the Alumni Association; and W. Decker Humphrey of Kansas City, Kan., president. Standing, left to right: Verlin McCall, Los Angeles, third vice-president; John Costigan, Davenport, Ia., first vice-president; Caleb Kirk Jolly, Charlotte, N. C., fourth vice-president; Dennis “Lucky” Cooper, Kalamazoo, Mich., second vice-president; William Patton, Joplin, Mo., treasurer; Jerome Parson, Johnstown, Pa., financial secretary; K. A. Parmley, Spokane, Wash., recording secretary. LAPL photo.
Tom Brenneman, host of a popular morning radio program, “Breakfast at Sardi’s,” used his platform to raise money to install a swimming pool for the Hollywood Guild Canteen. It was inaugurated on the 4th of July, 1944 with a swimming party and barbecue attended by former Olympic swimming champions Buster Crabbe and Johnny Weissmuller.
Hollywood Citizen News 7/4/1944.
On August 10, 1945, Anne announced that the canteen would continue to help after the war. It was already assisting recently detached servicemen to find jobs.
The Trocadero nightclub hosted a benefit for the Hollywood Guild Canteen featuring ice follies star Belita on August 12, 1945.
Japan’s unconditional surrender came two days later, on August 14, 1945.
Though less well known today than her compatriot on ice, Sonja Henie, Belita was a huge skating star in the 1940s. Hollywood Citizen News 8/13/1945.
LA Times 10/25/1945.
The Hollywood Guild Canteen not only didn’t close- it expanded, opening an annex at 1401 N. Crescent Heights Boulevard on October 24, 1945 in what had been the Service Women’s Home.
Ad from Box Office Digest 1/20/1945.
The property at 1284 N. Crescent Heights Boulevard was offered to the Guild Canteen for $60,000 in 1945, but it didn’t have the cash. It sold to actor Richard Lane and his business manager Robert Hodge.
On December 10, 1945, the Guild Canteen board voted to operate on a semi-commercial basis, since donations had dwindled. For $7-$10 a week, depending on whether he was going to school (under the GI Bill) or employed, approximately 150 veterans living at the canteen got a bed and breakfast; dinner was fifty cents. All the same, it operated at a loss of $300-$400 a month; the deficit was covered by citizens who, as Anne said, “still cared.” The Guild continued its social services mission from new offices at 802 N. Fairfax, and twice a week, disabled servicemen from nearby hospitals were invited over to 1284 N. Crescent Heights for a swim and a barbecue.
Ad from the Box Office Annual, 1945.
In February 1946, the property’s wartime variance expired; granted “for the duration of physical hostilities plus 6 months,” the variance had allowed the Guild to operate the canteen in a residential neighborhood. The canteen was given notice to cease operations by March 15. The Guild went right on feeding and caring for its discharged veteran residents and guests. Neighbors complained, calling the canteen noisy and a nuisance. In May 1946, the County Regional Planning Board ordered the canteen to close. The Guild applied to the Board for another zone variance. In addition, the property was again on the market- now for $125,000. The Board set a hearing for September 12 to hear the case. On June 10, the County Health Department inspected the facility and made a list of health and safety code violations.
Hollywood Citizen News 5/17/1946
Hollywood Citizen News 5/30/1946.
A group of residents protested against their potential eviction. Before the September hearing, the County Board of Supervisors agreed the vets living there should not be forced out of their home, but minimum safety requirements would have to be met. At the hearing, the Regional Planning Board agreed to recommend to the Board of Supervisors that another temporary zone variance be granted. The Supervisors unanimously agreed on October 1, 1946. The canteen now had until October 30, 1948 – one day before its lease expired on October 31.
LA Daily News 8/28/1946.
On October 26, 1948, the Guild held an auction of the canteen’s furnishings. The bamboo bar went for $20. The Hollywood Guild Canteen officially closed on October 27.
The new owner, W.E. Clark, had the house and other structures erected by the Guild during the canteen era, demolished almost immediately. He developed the property with a 64-unit colonial-style apartment complex known as the Greenbriar Apartments. It opened on August 29, 1949.
The Greenbriar Apartments, which replaced the Hollywood Guild Canteen buildings. LA Times 8/28/1949.
With the Korean War underway, in August 1950, Ann Lehr, who had been nicknamed “Mom” during the years of the Hollywood Guild Canteen operation, said the canteen would not be able to reopen due to lack of funds. In January 1951, she did arrange entertainment at the GI Joe Service Center at 305 Olive Street, the lower floor of the Moose Lodge. She also threw a big party for service members at the Hollywood Breakfast Club on February 4, 1951.
The LA Times Mirror 11/9/1951.
Mom Lehr died of a heart attach on November 8, 1951.
Notes
Some reporting about the closing of the Hollywood Guild Canteen stated that Bette Davis; secretary had a difference of opinion with Anne regarding the running of the operation, and therefore talked her boss into opening a “rival” Hollywood Canteen. It’s possible; however the timeline of the Hollywood Canteen suggests that Davis was interested in setting up a facility similar to Broadway’s Stage Door Canteen, even before the Hollywood Guild Canteen was established.
Hollywood had another Ann Lehr/Anna Lehr who was a silent film actress and the mother of Ann Dvorak
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.”
Hollywood Citizen News 8/17/1942.
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.
Los Angeles Daily News 8/25/1942
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.
Entrance to the Hollywood Canteen. LAPL photo.
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.
As The Latin Quarter Cafe. LA Evening Express 5/21/1924
LA Times 10/31/1924.
In May 1928, the venue was offered for lease as a store or workshop and briefly housed a woodworking studio, then a catering company.
LA Times 5/20/1928.
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.
As Buddy Fisher’s Hollywood Barn. Los Angeles Times 3/18/1933
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.
LA Post-Record 11/8/1933.
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.
As Hollywood Stables. LA Times 1/24/1934.
As the Hollywood Stable. LA Post-Record 3/24/1934,
As Hollywood Stables. LA Times 10/27/1934
Or was it the Hollywood Stable? The owners couldn’t seem to make up their mind. The address contains a typo- it was 1453 N. Cahuenga, not 1543. LA Times 11/17/1934
As the Hollywood Stables Cafe. LA Times 8/17/1935.
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.
LA Daily News 8/16/1938.
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.
As the Gay White Way. LA Times 10/21/1938.
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.
LA Daily News 9/12/1941.
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.
Elmer Plummer and the “Cowboy Heaven” mural. San Bernardino County Sun 10/14/1942.
Another part of the mural. Hollywood Citizen News 10/3/1942.
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.
Opening for the Hollywood Canteen. LAPL photo.
Opening night at the Hollywood Canteen, October 3, 1942. Like a movie premiere but in reverse- the bleacher seating held Hollywood’s elite. The stars of this show were the US service members.
Bette Davis addresses the crowd at the opening. LAPL photo.
Fan magazines covered the Hollywood Canteen’s opening. From Screenland magazine November 1942.
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.
Waiting to get in the Hollywood Canteen.
Bob Hope at the Hollywood Canteen in 1943. UCLA photo.
Service members waiting to get inside the Canteen to celebrate its 1st birthday. LA Times 10/31/1943.
Crowd inside the Hollywood Canteen with visiting French sailors. LAPL photo.
Bette Davis, Marlene Dietrich show off the Hollywood Canteen’s Wall of Honor to Bob Hope. It depicted stars who were serving in the military. LAPL photo.
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.
Opening of the Hollywood Canteen in Hollywood 12/20/1944.
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.
Postcard view of the famous Hollywood Canteen c. 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.
Auction ad. 12/23/1945.
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.
As the Moroccan. The Valley Times 12/31/1955.
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.
As Le Grand Comedy Theater. LA Times 3/1/1959.
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.
Hollywood Citizen News 12/21/1966.
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.
The United Service Organizations (USO), a non-governmental nonprofit, was founded on February 4, 1941 by Mary Ingraham, acting on President Franklin Roosevelt’s request to boost defense morale. Although the US had not yet entered World War II, war clouds were gathering, and a peacetime draft had been enacted in September 1940.
Pomona Progress-Bulletin 3/3/1941.
Succeeding the United National Welfare Committee, the USO represented the YMCA, YWCA, the National Catholic Community Service, the Jewish Welfare Board and the Salvation Army.
On January 11, 1942, the USO had an open house for its new Los Angeles club at 514 S. Grand Avenue. That day, Dr. A. H. Giannini, Chair of the Los Angeles Area board of the USO, announced that a Hollywood branch of the USO would open soon at Hollywood Boulevard and Cahuenga Avenue, on the second floor of a retail and office building (today known as the Julian Medical Building). The space was donated by the building’s owner, C.B. Bunson. A few days later, Giannini revealed that film producer/songwriter Buddy De Sylva had donated $2500 to the USO, a portion of which would go toward renovating the new Hollywood home.
The Hollywood USO originally opened in this building. USC digital photo.
The Hollywood USO held a gala to dedicate the new club on February 2, 1942, with klieg lights sweeping the sky and the street roped off so the Jeeps and Army trucks bringing servicemen to the event would have places to park (always a consideration in Hollywood). Mayor Bowron was in attendance, along with Hollywood actors Edward G. Robinson (the guest of honor), Jinx Falkenberg, Larraine Day, Donna Reed, Virginia O’Brien, Barbara Britton, and Marie McDonald. Newlyweds Ann Sheridan and George Brent also dropped by.
LA Times 2/3/1942.
Dedication party for the Hollywood USO. Hollywood Citizen News 2/3/1942.
The Hollywood USO opened for regular service the following day, February 3, 1942. Accessed from the Cahuenga side of the building, its address was 1654 N. Cahuenga. The club featured a writing room, ping pong tables, a library, and a canteen that served free coffee, sandwiches, donuts, punch, candy and cigarettes. Volunteer hostesses provided companionship and entertainment. On Saturday nights, there was a broadcast, over CBS radio, MC’d by Art Linkletter, during which one lucky serviceman would be chosen to call his mother. Local businesses donated tickets to sporting matches, radio broadcasts, theaters, ice skating, bowling, Hollywood Bowl concerts, etc. Although it had no dormitory, the Hollywood USO could help find overnight accommodations at local hotels or other facilities.
Hero bomber Captain Hewitt T. Wheeler being served donuts and coffee by USO hostess, actress Ann Nagel in May 1942. LAPL photo.
On February 15, 1942, the Beverly Hills USO opened a few miles away. Headquartered at the famous pink hotel on Sunset Boulevard, guests of the USO could use the pool, tennis and badminton courts. Motor transport service was provided to pick up guests of the Hollywood and other area USO clubs and take them to use the recreation facilities.
Beverly Hills USO. LA Times 3/1/1942.
The Beverly Hills Hotel pool c. 1935. Huntington Library photo.
In June 1943, the Hollywood USO moved to new, larger quarters a few doors south of its original home. Located in a former car dealership at 1531 N. Cahuenga, the new Hollywood USO had three times the space, with a stage, large dance floor, a recording booth (for broadcasts and where service personnel could record messages on records, to be mailed home to loved ones), a library, dressing and shower rooms, offices, and of course a canteen.
Hollywood Citizen News 6/5/1943.
The Hollywood USO at 1531. N. Cahuenga. California State Library photo.
The brick walls of the new quarters were decorated with murals, depicting Hollywood life, painted by Art Institute student Tessie Smith in July 1943.
Although some syndicated Hollywood gossip columnists attributed the USO murals to artist Richard Whorf, they were actually the work of an art student, Tessie Smith. Hollywood Citizen News 7/15/1943.
Tessie Smith putting the finishing touches on her murals for the Hollywood USO’s new home. Hollywood Citizen News 7/16/1943.
On November 26, 1944, the Hollywood USO debuted what was termed the first ever “Pin Up Exhibition” featuring images of Jane Russel, Toni Seven and (Liltin’) Martha Tilton. The three appeared in person, signing autographed photos for servicemen, on the closing day of the event, December 2, 1944.
LA Times 11/27/1944.
Jane Russell, Toni Seven and Martha Tilton signing autographs during the “pinup exhibition” at the Hollywood USO’s canteen on December 2, 1944. This photo is sometimes mistakenly labeled as taking place at the Hollywood Canteen, which was a separate venue, located nearby at 1451 N. Cahuenga. LAPL photo.
On July 1, 1944, a group of Hollywood artists began a cartoon-mural map of Hollywood for the Hollywood USO. Valued at over $5000, the work was unveiled at a ceremony on January 27, 1945, hosted by Bing Crosby, Frances Langford and Joe E. Brown. The occasion also marked the United Service Organizations’ national fourth anniversary.
Long Beach Independent 1/24/1945.
Unlike the earlier murals by Tessie Smith, this mural was removable; after the war, it was anticipated that it would be moved to a military hospital.
Karen Johnson, one of the artists who worked on the new Hollywood cartoon-map mural for the Hollywood USO. LA Times 1/22/1945.
The cartoon Hollywood map-mural inside the Hollywood USO at 1531 N. Cahuenga seen in Life Magazine, 2/12/1945.
On May 8, 1945, Germany unconditionally surrendered, ending the hostilities in Europe. President Truman announced Japan’s unconditional surrender on August 14, 1945, marking the end of the war. With the many military bases in the area and Los Angeles a port of disembarkation for troops returning from the Pacific Theater, however, demand for the Hollywood USO’s services remained high.
The nearby Hollywood Canteen closed its doors on November 22, 1945 (Thanksgiving Day). The following day, the Hollywood USO held a dedication celebration for its new wing, which included a 400-bed dorm, a new stage and enlarged dance floor, administrative offices, a ladies powder room, a writing room, and a canteen capable of serving 1000 patrons an hour.
The Hollywood USO at 1531 N. Cahuenga finally closed its doors on June 30. 1947.
7/1/1947 LA Times.
With the Korean War underway, a new Hollywood USO opened on February 17, 1951 at 1710 N. Ivar. Mayor Bowron again attended the dedication, which featured appearances by Bob Hope and Marilyn Maxwell.
Hollywood Citizen News 2/16/1951.
This was a small facility; dances had to be held in other venues, including the former Florentine Gardens nightclub, which had been purchased by the Hollywood Canteen Foundation. It closed in June 1952. A new, larger Hollywood USO opened at 6225 Hollywood Boulevard and Argyle (the Pantages Theater building) with a 3-day gala (Mayor Bowron was there) November 7, 8, and 9 1952. It later provided YWCA amenities for service women as well.
In increasingly high demand, the Hollywood USO club remained at this location, until September 1964. On September 11, 1964, it opened in “temporary” quarters at 6160 Hollywood Boulevard, formerly the restaurant space in the former Regent Hotel (at this time known as the Hotel Hastings).
Hollywood Citizen News 9/10/1964
In November 1965, Bob Hope offered to donate his royalties from “Bob Hope on the Road to Viet Nam,” a recording made of his Christmas tour to Southeast Asia, to the Los Angeles and Hollywood USO clubs. The Chamber of Commerce, spurred into action, voted to back the effort to provide adequate space for the club. Though the various civic groups raised funds and discussed plans to build a new home for the Hollywood USO, the club remained in the “temporary” home until May 1973 when it purchased the former California Gas Co. building at 1641 N. Ivar Street. (6160 Hollywood became Greektown restaurant). Dedicated on June 14, 1973, the new facility was called the Bob Hope USO Club aka the Bob Hope Hollywood USO Club.
Bob Hope offered to donate the royalties from this album, released in 1965, to the Los Angeles and Hollywood USO clubs.
Plans for a newly-built modern Hollywood USO never materialized. Hollywood Citizen News 12/16/1965.
The new Hollywood USO was known as the Bob Hope USO Club. Van Nuys News 6/15/1973.
In September 1988, the Bob Hope Hollywood USO announced that it would move to Long Beach in December; it remained on Ivar, however, into 1990. The Long Beach Bob Hope USO Club opened at 230 Pine Street (Masonic Temple Building) on October 22, 1990. The Ivar location continued to be used for a time by the Hollywood USO Mobile Shows program.
In 2018, the Bob Hope USO Club opened new, larger facilities in the historic LAX Theme Building. The amenities include a “Hollywood Canteen” snack bar.
The Pirate’s Den Hollywood opened at 335 N. La Brea on May 8, 1940. Fronted by Don Dickerman, the club’s backers included Rudy Vallee, Jimmie Fidler, Bob Hope, Bing Crosby, Fred MacMurray, Ken Murray, and Tony Martin.
Don Dickerman was well known at the time for his Greenwich Village club The Pirate’s Den, which, like its later Hollywood successor, was decorated in the pirate theme with servers in pirate garb. The original Pirate’s Den opened in 1916 and burned down in November 1919; it would be rebuilt by 1921. (Douglas Fairbanks’ 1921 film “The Nut” also recreated the interior of The Pirate’s Den on the studio lot).
The original Pirate’s Den. Photo via “Restauranting Through History.”
Dickerman as a pirate. LA Daily News 12/27/1925.
Dickerman created other themed clubs, such as the Heigh-Ho, where Rudy Vallee (whose catchphrase was “Heigh-ho everybody”) rose to national fame. Vallee bought a property on Kezer Lake in Maine, near Dickerman, and called the boathouse “The Pirate’s Den.”
Rudy Vallee’s boathouse, named “The Pirate’s Den,: From Radio Stars magazine, November 1935.
Dickerman declared bankruptcy in August 1932, telling the court he only had “five old suits of clothes” to his name. He left New York and headed to Miami, where in January 1934 he advertised for backers in a new venture. He decorated the Serenade restaurant, which opened in February 1934.
The Miami News, 1/5/1934.
Serenade, featuring decor by Don Dickerman. The Miami Herald 2/9/1934.
By late 1934, Dickerman had the resources he needed for a new Pirate’s Den, located at 2300 NW 14th Street. The mayor of Miami, Louis F. Snedigar, attended the grand opening on December 29, 1934. “As a kid I liked to play pirate,” Dickerman told reporters. “I am still playing.”
Advertising for decor. The Miami Pirate’s Den would feature pirates (duh), chains, anchors, nets, boats, double-barreled pistols, cutlasses and a ship’s brig. The Miami Tribune,12/23/1934
Ad for the Miami Pirate’s Den. Miami Herald 12/31/1934.
The Miami Pirate’s Den was only open seasonally. As of December 1938, Don was getting ready to open a second Pirate’s Den in Washington, DC. Although Don told his Miami fans that he intended to return to his “southern home” the following season as usual, the Miami Pirate’s Den did not reopen. Located at 3135 K St. NW, the DC Pirate’s Den opened in January 1939. Despite three decks of fun– the Main Deck, a Gun Deck, and a musical Poop Deck (for the orchestra)–it didn’t last. In December 1939, the club was closed by court order for non-payment of rent. Its equipment and fixtures would be sold to pay the back rent on February 19, 1940. By then, Don was in Hollywood.
Ad for Dickerman’s DC Pirate’s Den. The Evening Star 1/29/1939.
AHOY HOLLYWOOD
Whitney Bolton of the Philadelphia Inquirer reported in her “Hollywood Snoopshots” column of February 11, 1940, that Don Dickerman would play a pirate in Errol Flynn’s picture “The Sea Hawk,” after which he and Flynn would go into partnership at the Isthmus on Catalina Island in a West Coast Pirate’s Den. Isthmus was the South Seas-themed film set turned actual bar, from the 1935 filming of “Mutiny on the Bounty,” which had sparked a Hawaiian/South Seas themed bar craze in Hollywood. (See my previous post, here).
On February 12, 1940, Hedda Hopper reported that Dickerman was staying with Flynn at Flynn’s home while appearing in a bit part in “The Sea Hawk.”
Hugh Hough of the Miami Herald reported on March 9, 1940 that Dickerman had driven out to Hollywood determined to open a Pirate’s Den there. Peter Pell of the Miami News also noted on March 18, 1940 that Dickerman was opening a Pirate’s Den type club with Flynn. James McLean of the Miami News added on March 30, 1940 that Rudy Vallee and Jimmie Fidler would be partners in the venture.
Whitney Bolton for The Philadelphia Inquirer 2/11/1940
In August 1940, Radio and Television Mirror magazine wrote: “The real reason Rudy Vallee is promoting that new Pirate’s Den Night Club in Hollywood is to pay a debt of gratitude to Don Dickerman, who will manage it. As owner of the famous Heigh Ho Club in New York, Dickerman gave Vallee his start ten years ago. It was there Rudy climbed to fame as a band leader and crooner. It was at the Heigh Ho Club that Rudy originated the famous salutation “Heigh-ho everybody.” So you can see that it’s true that Rudy never forgets a friend. Dickerman had been playing extra parts in motion pictures, when Rudy accidentally ran into him at a night club. Rudy personally solicited such stars as Bing Crosby, Fred MacMurray, Errol Flynn, Bob Hope, Johnny Weismuller and others to lend their financial support by going into the club as partners with him. The kitty holds a nifty $75,000 to make certain it will be a success.”
4/24/1940.
5/21/1940.
The new Hollywood Pirate’s Den opened on May 24, 1940.
Ad for the opening of The Pirate’s Den, 5/24/1940. Hollywood Citizen-News.
Rudy Vallee, Bob Hope, Ken Murray, Tony Martin and Jimmie Fidler at the Hollywood Pirate’s Den. Radio & Television Mirror, August 1940.
The famous Brig at the Hollywood Pirate’s Den. Photoplay August 1940.
The Bottle Gallery. Radio & Television Mirror September 1940.
The new Hollywood Pirate’s Den was located at 335 N. La Brea near the corner of Beverly. I previously posted my research on this building on the website “Noirish Los Angeles.” A person took my research and comments and posted it verbatim on his own website, without crediting the source. Readers of that site no doubt have the impression that it is his own research. I’ve since updated the information and am including it all below.
335 N. La Brea was built in 1927 as Eads Castle, operated by Ephraim Cook Jr. and Sara G. Eads formerly of Kansas City. “An attractive structure of Spanish type architecture” built at a cost, including furniture, of $100,000. “A radical departure from the orthodox type of café housing.” It was a family café, also popular with the after-theater crowd.
October 1928 ad showing the exterior of the building. “Eads for Eats” LA Times.
An earlier celebrity connection for 335 N. La Brea: in late 1929 the café was sold to Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle, Al Gilmore and Lou Anger for $25,000 and renamed Roscoe’s.
As Roscoe’s, November 1929.
Arbuckle had the café for less than six months. In February 1930 a complicated but successful lawsuit kept the sale to Arbuckle et al from becoming finalized. May 22-24, 1930 the Eads celebrated its grand re-opening as Eads Castle.
Just so we’re clear… Fatty Arbuckle is NOT associate with this café anymore. June 1930 Eads Castle ad
By late May 1932, it was operating as Casa Brea Dinners. Don’t get too attached to that name…
As Casa Brea, 5/28/1932.
On October 31, 1933, 335 N. La Brea reopened as the 3 Little Pigs cafe, named for the Disney cartoon released that year, owned by Mark M. Hansen of the Marcal Theater on Hollywood Boulevard. He was arrested in November 1933 for violation of the state liquor sales tax law and charged with failure to take out a liquor license. In June 1934, Hansen was in court again because the 3 Little Pigs was selling liquor within 1.5 miles of the Soldier’s Home and had failed to report it. (Now that liquor sales were legal, it was taxed and regulated by the State Board of Equalization and subject to local law and violations were frequent). Hansen promised the board that he intended to operate his establishment in a legal manner. The club added a cocktail bar and banquet hall in October 1935. 335 N. La Brea continued as 3 Little Pigs into May 1936.
Hollywood Citizen News 10/27/1933
LA Illustrated Daily News 10/15/1935.
On September 1, 1936 it had a grand re-opening as El Mirador Cafe.
In February 1937, El Mirador proprietor Benjamin J. Zimmer, manager H.R. Newman, and bartender Robert Rubin were arrested by Hollywood police for running a check/banking scheme. Exit El Mirador.
As El Mirador, 9/1/1936.
On October 8, 1937, 335 N. La Brea opened as the Waikiki, one of many new Hawaiian-themed clubs about town. Johnny Hall and Bob Cabaniss, operators. I covered it on my post on the Hawaiian Craze, here.
As Waikiki 10/3/1937.
335 N. La Brea as Waikiki. LAPL photo.
By June 1938, 335 N. La Brea had gone Latin (still featuring tropical drinks) as “Sebastian’s Cubanola” with Maurine and Norva, Sam Koki and Leon Durant.
As Cubanola, 1938. LA Times.
335 N. La Breas as Don Dickerman’s Pirate’s Den. Radio & Television Mirror, September 1940.
When worlds collide: Don the Beachcomber visits Don the Pirate. Los Angeles Daily News 8/9/1940.
The Sea Hawk, starring Errol Flynn, had a preview at the Hollywood Warner’s Theater on July 17, 1940. The film began its first run at Warners’ Hollywood and downtown Los Angeles theaters on August 24, 1940. The Sea Hawk was so popular with audience that it was held over for a second, then a third, week. It has its last showing at Warners’ flagship theaters on September 11 before moving to other houses. If Dickerman appears in the final cut of the film, he is not credited.
Battle scene footage from the 1924 silent film Sea Hawk filmed off Catalina were spliced into the 1940 film (same title, different plot). LA Times 8/3/1924.
Preview for The Sea Hawk (“The Robin Hood of the Seas”) held July 17, 1940 at the Hollywood Warner Brothers Theater.
The Sea Hawk began its Los Angeles run on August 24, 1940.
“Captain” Don Dickerman and “Dizzy Daisy.” Santa Marie Daily Times 9/7/1940.
10/27/1940 ad for the Pirate’s Den. LA Times.
The Hollywood Pirate’s Den got tons of free publicity thanks to its celeb owners and patrons. Dickerman’s association with the venue lasted only a few months, however. By October 1940, he had called it quits. On January 10, 1941, Miami Herald columnist Dorothy Day reported that Don was was back in Miami and planning to open a new Pirate’s Den. “Too many cooks” was later the stated reason for his Hollywood departure.
Joe Bart (formerly of La Conga) became manager of the Hollywood Pirate’s Den. The venue got some unwanted press attention in July 1941, when a Superior Court Judge complained that the establishment had charged him $6 for 3 beers and bounced him when he tried to use the telephone. As the case made national headlines, another patron came forward with a similar complaint. The Police Commission pondered the fate of the Pirate’s Den’s show license.
The Long Beach Independent wins for the most ridiculous headline for this story. 7/11/1941.
The club’s defenders asserted that a $2.00 minimum was quite usual for swank nightclubs and rube patrons were getting confused by the “No Cover” policy. Joe Bart agreed to remove the “No Cover” signage and the license was indeed renewed later that month- as if it was ever really in doubt.
7/9/1941. LA TImes.
There was more negative publicity the following month. A marine, Private Ralph Kolberg, was at the club on August 11, 1941, throwing dice in the bathroom. He and a group of people (including Lou Wertheimer, formerly of Detroit’s Purple Gang; his brother Al Wertheimer had been an investor in the Clover Club) left the Pirate’s Den and went to another club, Rhum Boogie (operated by Mickey Cohen), then went on to a private party at the home of agent Phil Berg, where a brawl ensued between Kolberg and Guy Rennie, a singer/comedian from the Pirate’s Den floor show. Treated at the San Diego Naval Hospital for a skull fracture and several broken ribs, Kolberg said he “woke up in a pool of blood and heard a couple of guys talking about dumping [his] body somewhere.” Rennie admitted punching the marine but claimed Kolberg started it. No charges were brought. Captain W.W. White of the Beverly Hills Police Department pronounced the case closed on August 19.
8/17/1941. LA Times.
This San Fernando Valley Times as for The Pirate’s Den still refers to some of the celeb owners of the club. 9/5/1941
The Pirate’s Den would continue in business for several more years to come, though between the negative publicity and the US entry into World War II, its celeb backers were seldom referenced anymore.* In October 1943, the LA Daily News referred to Vallee et al as “former owners” and asserted that Joe Bart was the sole owner. Florabel Muir, in her syndicated column that appeared in the Hollywood Citizen News on April 6, 1945, said that bickering among the former owners caused them to start avoiding the place. Muir further noted that of the original group only Fred MacMurray still had an investment in the Pirate’s Den.
The Pirate’s Den lifted the $2.00 minimum (“Just pay for what you order”) but never quite shook its reputation as a ripoff joint. San Fernando Valley Times 2/17/1942.
A wartime postcard view of the Pirate’s Den under Joe Bart. The targets in the Bottle Gallery are Hitler, Tojo and Mussolini.
A soldier added his own review in a 1943 guidebook “Sinning in Hollywood” entry for the Pirate’s Den. The 1941 incident over $6 beers cast a long shadow. Author’s collection.
On November 2, 1943, Joe Bart provided food and entertainment for an evening at the Hollywood USO. Hollywood Citizen News.
February 1945 ad for The Pirate’s Den.
Capitalizing on a recent nostalga-driven fad for Victorian-style melodrama theaters where audiences could boo and hiss at mustache-twirling villains while scarfing free pretzels and swilling beer, on April 5, 1945, the club became a venue for a Gay 90s-style review, “Adrift in New York, “and temporarily changed its name to the “Pirate’s Den Music Hall.” Adrift in New York closed after a successful almost 2-month run and on May 31, a “gorgeous girl review” opened, “Carefree Carnival” and the Pirate’s Den soon dropped the “Music Hall.”
As “The Pirate’s Den Music Hall” for the run of the melodrama “Adrift in New York.” 4/6/1945.
The Pirate’s Den remained the “Pirate’s Den Music Hall” for “Carefree Carnival” at first but soon dropped the “music hall” tag. 6/1/1945.
As the Pirate’s Den without the Music Hall. 6/15/1945.
The Pirate’s Den provided entertainment for the famed Hollywood Canteen on June 25, 1945. Hollywood Citizen News.
The Pirate’s Den “Carefree Carnival” cast performed again at the Hollywood Canteen on August 13, 1945. It was the end- the end of WWII and the end of the Pirate’s Den. Hollywood Citizen News.
On August 21, 1945 the Hollywood Citizen-News reported that Don Hankey and Leroy Hillman of Donroy Aircraft Parts, and comedian George Beatty had purchased the old Pirate’s Den from Joe Bart and were revamping it. Their Club Donroy opened on October 9, 1945.
Hollywood Citizen News 8/29/1945.
LA Evening Citizen News 9/29/1945.
Hollywood Citizen News 10/8/1945
In March 1946, 335 N. La Brea was advertised as the new home of Charlie Foy’s club. The Foy/Donroy partnership collapsed at the last minute, however, and the club continued as the Donroy.
This opening never happened. 335 N. La Brea remained Club Donroy for a bit longer.
In April 1947, the club was referred to as “Club Stanley,” (a reference to Stanley Page, Farmer Page’s former jockey brother?). It was raided by the LAPD vice squad on April 17 for selling liquor after curfew. On July 5, it reopened as The Track.
As The Track 7/5/1946.
On October 14, 1947, 335 La Brea again became a venue for a Gay 90s themed theater as the new home of Frank Fortier’s melodrama “Gaslights.”
The Southwest Wave 11/9/1947.
10/14/1947
In January 1951, the Motion Picture Relief Fund purchased the 8000 square foot building for use as its executive offices.
DON DICKSON Post-HOLLYWOOD PIRATE’S DEN
Don Dickerson may have left the Pirate’s Den but he was not done with Hollywood or California. In 1943 he became a partner in the Wooden Shoe at 7290 Sunset Boulevard.
The Wooden Shoe had been built in 1939 for Harry Zody, as a replica of the old Rembrandt House in Amsterdam. Dickerman added a “merry mermaid” cocktail bar and a buccaneer quarterdeck. He sued his partners Harry K. Curtis and Wendela Drury, on January 25, 1944, asserting that the venue had been sold on January 10 and he had not received his third of the sale price. The Wooden Shoe became Moon Mullins’ Cafe in December 1945, then the Club Tabu as of November 1946.
6/12/1943
12/29/1945
On September 19, 1946, Dickerman opened the Castaway Club at Newport Beach, built in the shell of the old Irvine golf club clubhouse. In 1949, his investor, Huntington Hartford, sued Dickerman for non-payment of a loan. The Castaways burned down in the wee hours of November 16-17, 1956. It was then owned by Broadway entertainer Frank H. Coburn. Dickerman died in 1981.
Don Dickerman c. 1946 at The Castaway Club, Newport. UC Irvine Library photo, Gerhardt Photograph Collection.
*
Ken Murray would open his own review, Blackouts, at the El Capitan Theater on Vine Street, in June 1942.
Rudy Vallee joined the Coast Guard in August 1942, serving as bandmaster at the Los Angeles post’s Long Beach base.
Errol Flynn became a US citizen in August 1942. He tried to join the service but was turned down due to health issues. That Fall, two young women ages 16 and 17 separately accused Flynn of statutory rape. The cases went to court in January and February 1943. Flynn was acquitted.
Tony Martin was accused and cleared of draft dodging in late 1941 and joined the Navy on January 2, 1942. Dismissed by the end of the year following a bribery scandal, Martin was subsequently drafted into the Army and assigned to the Army Air Force.
Fred MacMurray tried to join the service and was likewise turned down die to health issues. He was an active member of the Hollywood Victory Committee and civilian defense efforts.
Johnny Weissmuller, former Olympic swimming champion and Tarzan of the movies, also had health issues that rendered him unable to serve.
Bing Crosby entertained the troops in camps and on Red Cross trips overseas in addition to making recordings for service use.
Bob Hope toured extensively with his own show here and overseas, performing for the troops as well as making radio shows and recordings for service use.
La Conga was a Hollywood nightclub that capitalized on the Latin music craze of the 1930s and early 1940s, which overlapped with the Hawaiian craze; in fact, the Hawaiian-themed Tropics nightclub was located just a few doors down.
The 2-story building that housed La Conga, at the southwest corner of Vine and Selma, was built in 1925 by architects Dodd & Richards in the Italian Renaissance style. It included the addresses 1449 to 1559 North Vine.
Architectural drawing of the Vine and Selma building, LA Times, 1/25/1925.
The completed building. LAPL photo.
Completed by the fall of 1925, the upper floor housed a ballroom, The Hollywood Roof, addressed as 1549 N. Vine, from 1925 to 1930.
Ad for the Hollywood Roof 12/8/1926. LA Daily News.
1549 N. Vine then became the Hollywood Gardena as of January 1931, then on October 6, 1932 it opened as the Bal Taborin.
Gala opening of the Bal Tabarin 10/5/1932. LA Times.
The Bal Taborin soon gave way to the Victorian-themed The Nineties nightclub and dance hall in 1933. The club was raided by Detective Lt. Charles Hoy of the Hollywood vice squad in July 1934; Hoy claimed the bartender, Joseph Stevens, had served him whiskey in violation of new State liquor laws. In September 1934, two young women, Margaret Thorpe and Peggy Page, were arrested for performing a fan dance at the club.
Ad for 1549 N. Vine as The Nineties 5/12/1934.
It soon thereafter ceased to be a nightclub and on November 16, 1935 the space opened as The Hollywood Associated Studios.
Ad for the Hollywood Associated Studios 2/14/1937.
Back to 1551.
In August 1925, Tony Merlo, “Hollywood character and restaurant man” leased space on the first floor of the yet-to-be-completed building’s first floor, addressed as 1551 N. Vine, for a cafe serving Italian fare. Tony Merlo’s Italian Restaurant opened by December of 1925. Capitalizing on his Hollywood connections as well as the location, across the street from the Lasky/Famous Players studio, Tony promised that “all the movie people eat here.”
Unfortunately for the restaurant business, Lasky/Famous Players moved in 1926 to a new home on Marathon Street near Melrose (see my previous post about that property, here).
Ad for Tony Merlo’s 1/2/1926.
By 1930, 1551 N. Vine was Bernie’s Cafe, operated by Nathan Bernstein. It was raided by federal dry agents on September 17, 1930 after receiving complaints that the place was selling bitters, consisting of 48% alcohol, to minors. Bernstein was sentenced to 6 months in jail and received a $500 fine. (The old Jim Jeffries bar, associated with Zeke Caress, Farmer Page, Tutor Scherer and others, was also caught up in the same raid). Bernie’s nevertheless continued here into early 1932.
Dry raid at 1551 N. Vine. 9/18/1930. LA Times.
1551 next briefly operated as the “1551 Club,” reportedly affiliated with Fred Whalen, father of Jack Whalen, aka “the Enforcer,” On New Years’ Even 1933, the 1551 Club’s fixtures and equipment were sold at auction.
On May 30, 1935, 1551 N. Vine opened as Le Trianon. Again, it was operated by an actor, Eugene Borden and featured the decor and cuisine of Borden’s native France.
Ad for the opening of Le Trianon 5/30/1935.
Le Trianon didn’t last too long. By April 1937, 1559 N. Vine was known as the Dominic Tavern, operated by Dominick Ferrera, when it made unfortunate publicity- an employee, Frank Damiano, was brutally murdered with a meat cleaver during his early morning shift, ostensibly by bandits. The case went unsolved. In June 1937, Ferrera pleaded guilty to adulterating and mislabeling liquors (LA Daily News 6/10/1937).
Shortly thereafter, 1551 changed hands again. Louis Prima headlined at the unnamed club, “Hollywood’s newest,” on July 2, 1937.
So new, it didn’t even have a name. Louis Prima debuts at “Hollywood’s newest” nightclub, 1551 N. Vine, 7/2/1937.
Finally, La Conga
In January 1938, H. Goldstein, the owner of record, applied for a permit for architect James H. Garrott to design a false front inside the cafe “to represent the exterior of a Cuban plaza” and add a hardwood dance floor. Hollywood gossip columnist Read Kendall of the LA Times reported on February 3, 1938 that Johnny Meyers (a friend of Errol Flynn’s) was opening the La Conga cafe on Vine Street on February 17.
As was typical for Hollywood Clubs, there was already a La Conga in New York, which had opened in December 1937. Cuban musician Desi Arnaz, who had come to the USA with his family, fleeing the Cuban Revolution of 1933, was a performer at the NYC La Conga. Conga fever spread west to Hollywood.
Ad for “Monte Prosser’s La Conga” from National Box Office Digest 12/20/1938. Via The Lantern.
Monte Prosser was the professed owner of the Hollywood La Conga. Louis Sobol mentioned him as its operator in his syndicated “The Voice of New York” column in August 1938, and Prosser’s name appears in the advertising that year as well.
In October 1938, owners of the building that housed La Conga enlisted architects Walker & Eisen to give the structure a streamline moderne makeover, in keeping with the Hollywood Recreation Center next door, which had opened in December 1937, the Hollywood Tropics building on the other side of it, and the new West Coast home of NBC radio across the street, built on a portion of the old Lasky/Famous Players lot.
The new facade had smooth white stucco and “modernistic chrome trimmings” on black and maroon colored Vitrolite tile, and indirect neon lighting. The anchor tenant, Thrify Drugstore, opened here in December 1939.
La Conga and the future home of Thrifty Drug at Vine and Selma, 1939. LAPL photo.
The following screen shots are from the 1939 MGM short, “Rhumba Rhythm at the Hollywood La Conga” which appears to have been filmed on location. House band leader Eduardo Chavez appears as himself.
Two tourists contemplate the exterior of La Conga. Note the doorman.
A glimpse of the bar and beyond it the dance floor and stage.
The film shows a number of celebs living it up at La Conga, including Chester Morris and not yet a huge star Lana Turner.
Murals and a waitress in a sombrero.
The stage and dance floor.
Patrons do La Conga on the postage stamp-sized dance floor.
The film in its entirety can be seen on youtube, thanks to user “ShortFilm.
“
Spanish language ad for La Conga in the LA Opinión 8/25/1940.
In mid-1941, La Conga changed its name to the Copacabana, though it continued to feature rhumba/Cuban music. However, Monte Prosser (who would later front the New York Copacabana club) apparently did not follow procedure in the matter of updating the club’s license to reflect the new name, because on December 19, 1941, William G. Bonelli of the State Board of Equalization, which regulated compliance with the state alcoholic beverage control act, revoked La Conga’s liquor license on the basis that the owner, Monte Prosser, had abandoned it four months earlier.
LA Times 12/20/1941
La Conga reopened days later, on Christmas Eve 1941, with a new theme and a new name: Sugar Hill.
Ad for the opening of Sugar Hill at 1551 N. Vine, 12/24/1941.
By early 1945, 1551 N. Vine had become the Club Morocco. The Morocco filed for involuntary bankruptcy in January 1948 and its fixtures and equipment were sold at auction the following month.
Ad for 1551 N. Vine as the Morocco, 3/24/1945, describes it as “Hollywood’s newest.”
Screen capture of 1940s film footage showing 1551 N. Vine as the Morocco c. 1947. Note the maroon Vitrolite tile.
As “Art Martin’s” Club Morocco, 1946. LA Daily News.
Postcard view of Vine Street at Selma c. 1948 showing the Thrifty Drug building and the maroon Vitrolite exterior of 1551 N. Vine.
Ad for the Morocco’s auction, 2/22/1948.
1551 N. Vine Street’s days (and nights) as a club came to an end. In December 1949, it reopened as the new Hollywood ticket office of the Santa Fe Railroad.
Dorothy Lamour added glamour to the gala opening of Santa Fe’s new Hollywood ticket office, 12/16/1949. LA Times.
Postcard view of Vine Street c. 1952 with Santa Fe’s signage at 1551 N. Vine.
Notes
Whalen was identified as the former operator of the 1551 Club in December 1935, when he was arrested, along with “James Ray” and “Paul Parker” in San Francisco for robbing a Hollywood dress shop, Lillian Herts, 9268 Sunset Boulevard, of $4000 worth of gowns and furs. See LA Daily News 12/6/1935.
Prosser, a “publicity agent” would lend his name to the talent booking agency, Monte Prosser Productions, run by Johnny Roselli, the Chicago Outfit’s man in Hollywood. Prosser would open a “Beachcomber” restaurant in New York in the late 1930s that seems to have been a ripoff of Don the Beachcomber’s, and where the Zombie is said to have originated. He also operated Monte Prosser’s Zombie Bar at the 1939 World’s Fair. He ostensibly bought the New York Copacabana Club in 1947. In July 1950, Virgil Peterson of the Chicago Crime Commission, testifying before the US Congress Special Committee Investigation of Organized Crime in Interstate Commerce (aka the Kefauver Committee) said that Thomas Cassera, “an individual closely identified with the gangster element” had operated the Chanticleer club at 8572 Sunset Boulevard with Prosser.
In November 1939, Bonelli had been accused of graft in a pay to play liquor license scandal. Bonelli denied the accusations. It is worth noting that the LA mob made similar charges against citizen vice investigators led by Clifford Clinton. The bribe trial was unsuccessful and Bonelli continued on the SBE, eventually becoming its chair, until he was finally defeated in November 1954. At that time, Bonelli was implicated in another liquor license graft probe, in San Diego. He was indicted by the San Diego County grand jury in February 1955 and ended up fleeing to Mexico , where he died in 1970.
Los Angeles has long has a fondness for Hawaiian music and style and Hollywood films did much to romanticize the islands as a tropical paradise prior to World War II.
Pan-American’s Martin M-130, “China Clipper” conjured up images of romantic eastern ports and swaying palms under balmy tropical skies, which the airline capitalized on in its advertising. On April 28 1937 the China Clipper made history by completing the first transpacific flight by a commercial passenger airliner, landing at Hong Kong after having departed San Francisco on April 21st carrying 7 ticketed passengers. Honolulu was it first stop.
The China Clipper in Hawaii, April 1937. National Air and Space Museum photo.
China Clipper float in the 1936 Pasadena Tournament of Roses Parade. UCLA digital photo.
Before the China Clipper, the main way of getting to the islands was by ship. Matson introduced its newer, faster, luxury steamship, the Malolo, in 1927, the same year that Matson’s deluxe hotel on Honolulu’s Waikiki Beach, The Royal Hawaiian opened.
The Royal Hawaiian Hotel
Between 1930 and 1932, Matson added three more luxury liners: the Monterey, the Mariposa, and the Lurline. The famed “white ships” made made the trip from Los Angeles to Honolulu in less than 5 days. Photos of Hollywood celebrities aboard the liners or frolicking on the beach in front of the Royal Hawaiian did much to boost tourism to the islands.
Matson ad in the LA Times, 3/1/1937
Matson’s S. S. Monterey in Los Angeles, c. 1937. LAPL photo.
A Matson menu cover, 1937
The non rich and famous could visit Hawaii vicariously via music from their own living room radios, or a movie ticket to one of the many Hollywood films with a real or fake tropical setting.
Honolulu native Sol Hoopii, virtuoso of the lap steel guitar, made Los Angeles his adopted home and was performing live with his trio at local venues and radio station KHJ by 1924. In 1938, he joined Aimee Semple McPherson’s ministry and devoted his career to writing and performing songs for her tours.
Sol Hoopii in the 1920s.
Ad for Sol Hoopii’s Columbia recording of “Song of the Islands, available at LA’s Platt’s Records. He was appearing in person at the Pantages Theater. LA Times 9/27/1927.
In 1934, local bandleader Harry Owens began an engagement at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel in Honolulu. Mainlanders could hear the performances on Saturday nights via the Hawaii Calls radio show, which gave listeners the feeling of being there next to the surf at Waikiki. Owens was well-known to Los Angelinos. Since 1926 he had performed as a musician with house bands at the Ambassador Hotel’s Coconut Grove and Café Montmartre in Hollywood, and with his own dance orchestra at venues such as Miller’s Café Lafayette in Westlake Park, the Hotel Mayfair, the Piccadilly nightclub in Culver City, and the Beverly Hills Hotel.
Harry Owens at the LaFayette in 1926.
Owens met Bing Crosby when both were performing at the Lafayette in 1926. Two of the songs crooned by Crosby in the 1937 film Waikiki Wedding, “Blue Hawaii” and “Sweet Leilani,” became standards. The latter won an Academy Award for best song that year and became Bing’s first gold record. Harry Owens, who wrote “Sweet Leilani” for his young daughter in 1934, would perform the song with his band in the 1938 film Coconut Grove.
Hollywood loved a Hawaiian/Pacific Island settings; if nothing else it was a way to get the leading lady into a grass skirt. With the talkie era, they could also capitalize on the popularity of Hawaiian music and dance.
Dolores del Rio in Bird of Paradise (1932)
Joan Crawford in Rain (1932) based on the Somerset Maugham short story “Sadie Thompson” and set in the South Seas.
The 1935 production of Mutiny on the Bounty, based on the 1932 novel by Charles Nordhoff and James Norman Hall, itself based on real events, sparked a flurry of South Pacific themed films, peaking in 1937.
The 1935 Mutiny on the Bounty was largely filmed in California. A real life South Seas cafe opened on Catalina Island, the Isthumus.
Lotus Long in MGM’s Last of the Pagens (1936). Based on Herman Melville’s 1846 novel, Typee, it was filmed on location in Tahiti. LAPL photo.
Wings over Honolulu (1937), with a naval aviator theme, starred Wendy Barrie and Ray Milland.
Monogram’s Paradise Isle had some location shooting in American Samoa. Movita, who also appeared in Mutiny on the Bounty, was actually of Mexican heritage.
The aforementioned Waikiki Wedding was filmed at Paramount’s Hollywood studio, with on-location shots made in Hawaii added post-production. bingcrosby.com photo.
Elvis was 2 when Bing sang “Blue Hawaii” in Waikiki Wedding.
The Hurricane was peak prewar Hawaiian film mania. Directed by John Ford, it featured Dorothy Lamour in a sarong and a mostly shirtless John Hall. The film debuted at the Carthay Circle Theater on November 5, 1937.
Filmed in late 1937 and released in 1938, Hawaii Calls borrows the name of the popular radio show and features songs by Harry Owens. The plot, of a boy stowing away on a Hawaii-bound ocean liner, seems at least partly influenced by Sol Hoopii’s life story.
Honolulu (1939) with Eleanor Powell and Robert Young, was filmed at MGM’s studio with stock footage of prewar Waikiki Beach.
Those who craved even more escapist tropical fun could drink a rum cocktail out of a coconut in a room full of bamboo and fake palm trees. Georgia Stiffer noted in “Hawaiians at Hollywood,” published in the Honolulu Star-Bulletin on September 25, 1937, that due to the popularity of Hawaiian music and dancing in Hollywood in the 1930s “any cafe with Hawaiian atmosphere or Hawaiian music and dancers will lure the crowds. Consequently the last three years have seen the opening of many nightspots carrying the South Seas motif…”
The Cocoanut Grove
Hollywood had long known the charms of swaying palms under the stars- though the palm-filled Cocoanut Grove nightclub, located in the Ambassador Hotel, was thinking more sheik-desert-sand-palms than Hawaiian palms when it opened in 1922. The palms are supposed to have been left over from the film sets for Rudolph Valentino’s The Sheik. Well, maybe. I have a separate post on the Ambassador and the Cocoanut Grove here.
Though sheik-mania was soon passé, the Grove’s swaying palms held their lure for decades to come.
A fashion show at the Cocoanut Grove c. 1937. LAPL photo.
The 1938 film Cocoanut Grove featured the song “Dreamy Hawaiian Moon” written by Harry Owens.
Kings Tropical Inn
Located on Washington Boulevard near West Adams in Culver City, Kings Tropical Inn was opened by John G. King in late 1925. The specialty of the house may have been southern-style chicken but the lush landscaping and interior decor were worthy of the name.
The restaurant burned down on February 17, 1930 and was rebuilt at the same site two months later in a Spanish/Moorish style with even more tropical foliage.
The first King’s Tropical Inn building c. 1927. Note the address: 5741 W. Washington Boulevard. Building along W. Washington Boulevard were re-addressed over time.
Architect Frank Dunkan designed a new Spanish/Moorish style Tropical Inn on the same site as the first one, with even lusher tropical gardens. LA Times 4/13/1930.
Sol Hoopii and his trio performed at the opening of the rebuilt Kings Tropical Inn on April 26, 1930.
Looking very tropical indeed in a postcard view: the rebuilt Kings Tropical Inn.
Don the Beachcomber
The original Don’s Beachcomber bar, founded by Ernest Raymond Gantt, opened at 1722 N. McCadden Place, on the ground floor of a small hotel, the McCadden Hotel (address: 1720 N. McCadden), not long after Prohibition ended. In the 1920s it had been The Green Hat millinery shop.
1722 N. McCadden as The Green Hat. Hollywood Citizen-News 8/14/1926
Beer and wine sales were legalized in March 1933; liquor and spirits were allowed after full Repeal in December 1933 (see my post “The Return of Beer.”). The period right after federal Prohibition ended through 1934, however, was confusing, with State liquor laws up in the air as regulations were sorted out. Don’s Beachcomber Cafe may have been operating as a “bottle club,” establishments that skirted the law by acting as a private club- they technically didn’t sell alcohol but could be served liquor from their own stash.
Captain Charles Hoy of the LAPD’s Hollywood Division vice squad raided Don’t place on September 1, 1934, for violation of State liquor regulations. Gantt would plead not guilty to the charges a few days later. (More on Hoy below in the entry on the 7 Seas).
Raid on the “Beachcombers’ club, 1722 N. McCadden, 9/1/1934. LA Evening Post-Record
Don appears to have tried to lease the cafe space in January 1935.
Ad leasing the hotel cafe at 1922 N. McCadden. It appears to be a misspelling of Don’s last name. 1/15/1935. Hollywood Citizen-News.
Around the same time, Gantt’s future wife, Cora Irene Sund, initiated a breach of promise (aka “heart balm”) lawsuit in Los Angeles against Michael Paul, a wealthy man who she asserted had reneged on a proposal of marriage. Paul in turn charged that Sund had “entertained a man” in her apartment while wearing a negligee. Was it Don? In any case, Sund lost her suit on April 19, 1935; she and Gantt would become partners in (briefly) marriage and (more successfully) in business. In November 1935, Sund applied for a permit to make alterations to 1722 N. McCadden Place.
The club temporarily lost its liquor license in January 1936, branded by the State Board of Equalization as an “undesirable liquor establishment” for violation of liquor ordinances.
In May 1937, Don the Beachcomber opened in a new spot across the street from the old one, at 1727 N. McCadden. Once a second location of the popular Tick Tock Tearoom at 1716 N. Cahuenga, the new location also had an expanded restaurant that served exotic Cantonese fare.
Postcard view of Don the Beachcomber at 1727 N.McCadden c. 1949. Huntington Library photo.
The long bar at Don the Beachcomber’s.
Interior of Don the Beachcomber.
Ad for Don the Beachcomber 9/26/1938. LA Times.
The Tropics
Harry M. “Sugie” Sugarman opened The Tropics on November 28, 1935. The Tropics’ bamboo décor and “rain on the roof” effects were said to have been inspired by the 1932 Joan Crawford film Rain.
Located at 421 N. Rodeo Drive not far from other celebrity handouts like the Beverly Hills Brown Derby, “tailor-to-the-stars” Eddie Schmidt and the Beverly-Wilshire Hotel, it was billed as “the informal cocktail lounge and dining room of the motion picture industry” and did attract a rare mix of both movie star and Society clientele.
Sugie’s Tropics. “Mingle with the Stars ‘neath bamboo and palm.” 12/31/1935
“So, really- are you two married or not?” Charlie Chaplin and Paulette Goddard yucking it up with Anita Loos John Emerson at The Tropics, 1936. LAPL photo.
Mignon Woidemann and Jackson Moffett at the Tropics, June 1937. LAPL photo.
Exterior of The Hollywood Tropics as Tom Breneman’s c. 1945
When not being used for broadcasts, Tom Breneman’s was open for dinner and dancing.
As Tom Breneman’s at night with the neon going, c. 1947. LAPL photo.
As Ah Fong’s c. 1948-1949. Tom Breneman had moved next door into the Hollywood Recreation Center building. LAPL photo.
Sugie’s original Tropics in Bev Hills remained as popular as ever throughout the 1940s. In 1953 new owner Bob Crane (the ex- Mr. Lana Turner) renamed it The Luau and kept the tropical atmosphere until the building was demolished in 1979.
The 7 Seas
Located at 6904 Hollywood Boulevard across the street from the Chinese Theater, the 7 Seas featured rain on the roof effects and a hula dancer floor show. It was originally run by Ray Haller. Haller applied for a permit to make alterations to the building, formerly used as a store/office space, on November 7, 1935 and it was serving up the tropical atmosphere starting c. December 1935/January 1936. Georgia Stiffler’s “Hawaiians at Hollywood” piece for the Honolulu Star-Bulletin on September 25, 1937 credits Haller with originating the tropical storm behind the bar effect, later much copied. She also notes that Haller’s decor was more Tahitian than Hawaiian and included “an abundance of velvet paintings of undraped Polynesian maidens, painted with some vivid and mysterious Tahitian dye that makes them very beautiful and fascinating.”
Matchbook for Ray Haller’s 7 Seas, 6904 Hollywood Blvd.
Charlie Chaplin and Paulette Goddard must have been fans of LA’s tropical cocktail spots. Photographed at Sugie’s Tropics (see above), in January 1936, gossip columnist Read Kendall reported that they had been spotted at the 7 Seas. 1/29/1936. LA Times.
In May 1937, the 7 Seas was raided by the LAPD Hollywood vice squad, led by Charles Hoy (who had raided Don the Beachcomber in 1934), and cited for violating the liquor closing laws. The Shaw administration and LAPD’s connection to protected vice was under fire at the time, the result of citizen committees for reform, led by Clifford Clinton and others.That Hoy, now promoted to the rank of Detective Lt., raided the 7 Seas means they were either making a big show of enforcing the liquor laws or Haller hadn’t greased Hoy’s palm sufficiently.
The “World Famous” 7 Seas featured floor shows and dancing to the house band, led by Eddie Bush and his Hawaiians. 1/27/1939. LA Times.
Now it’s Bob Brooks’ 7 Seas 1/28/1942. LA Times.
Bob Brooks had taken over the Seven Seas by January 1942. Though Brooks is generally said to have added the velvet paintings, as noted above, Haller had them before Brooks. Brooks may have added to the collection. An admirer of artist Edgar Leeteg, he reportedly visited Leeteg in Tahiti to personally select the paintings.
In 1942, Brooks also operated the new Nevada Biltmore in Las Vegas at 614 N. Main Street, with the tropical-themed 7 Seas Room, which like its Hollywood counterpart featured Leeteg paintings.
The 7 Seas Room at Bob Brooks’ Nevada Biltmore, downtown Las Vegas c. 1942.
The 7 Seas neon sign c. 1937. LAPL photo.
The 7 Seas c. 1950. LAPL photo.
Postcard of the 7 Seas under Bob Brooks’ management.
The Bamboo Room of the Hollywood Brown Derby
The Bamboo Room cocktail lounge debuted to the public on February 7, 1936, located at 1628 N. Vine Street inside the Hollywood Brown Derby (second of the chain’s restaurants, which had opened in 1929). Carole Lombard hosted a private party at the venue on February 5, a few nights before it opened to the public. A press preview was held on February 6. Gossip columnist Jimmy Fidler called the new space “the most ultra of the Hollywood cocktail bars.” Replete with bamboo (duh) and zebra-print upholstery, it had its own entrance just south of the main one, with access to the dining room. In April 1940, the bar added a television set! The Bamboo Room was remodeled as the Record Room in 1954.
Photographed at night for Life, 1937
The Bamboo Room. From Picturegoer magazine, 1/8/1938. Via the Lantern.
Hawaiian Paradise
Hawaiian Paradise opened at 7566 Melrose Avenue on April 7, 1937. The owners were Bill Calhaun, George Mason and Lorena “Rena” Rogers. Rogers was an ex-actress and, from 1916 to 1941, wife of actor-turned-director Frank Borzage. After giving up acting, Rena took many trips to Hawaii, and back in Hollywood would throw huge Polynesian-themed parties with signers and hula dancers to entertain.
Opening ad for Hawaiian Paradise 4/7/1937.
Ad for Hawaiian Paradise 4/6/1937
Hostess and club owner Rena Rogers, wearing a tropical lei, with husband Frank, right, directors Ernest Lubitch (far left) and William Wellman (in the polka-dot tie) and actor Richard Dix.
Hawaiian Paradise celebrated its 1-year anniversary on April 7, 1938. Later that year, Mason was out; Rena and Bill Calhoun remained owners. By 1939 Calhoun alone was the face of Hawaiian Paradise, now known as “Hawaiian Paradise Isle.” In February 1940, it became the Hawaiian Paradise Ballroom, a last gasp of the tropical theme.
Later that year, 7566 Melrose became the latest outlet of “Club 41” fronted by George Distel, and was closed by the courts for multiple violations of State liquor laws. In 1947 the building was remodeled as the Horton Dance Theater.
Hawaiian Paradise turns 1. 4/7/1938. LA Times.
Recognizing the competing popularity of Latin music in the latter part of the 1930s, the club alternated Cuban and Hawaiian rhythms on different nights. Rena Borzage and Bill Calhoun were now sole owners. 8/18/1938. LA Times.
As Hawaiian Paradise Isle. 11/22/1939. LA Times.
As Hawaiian Paradise Ballroom. 2/9/1940. LA Times.
The Hula Hut
Built as a dining pavilion in 1927, in 1932 8204 Beverly Boulevard had housed the Ye Bull Pen restaurant after it moved from downtown Los Angeles.
8204 Beverly Blvd as the new Ye Bull Pen Inn, August 1932
In January 1936, it was operating as the Frolic Inn, and was cited by the State Board of Equalization (which regulated State liquor laws after Prohibition) as an “undesirable liquor establishment” along with the Clover Club and Don the Beachcomber.
The Hula Hut, operated by Art Roy, opened on October 30, 1936, with “Nuda the Beach Girl” and Dick McIntire. It had no Polynesian style decor- just the name, Hawaiian music, and hula dancing.
Hula Hut opening night ad 10/30/1936.
Hawaiian-born steel guitarist Dick McIntire, a Navy veteran, moved to Southern California after World War I. He performed in many Hawaiian-themed films made in the 1930s. He died in 1951.
“Go native tonight!” at the Hula Hut, 10/15/1937.
The Hula Hut exterior c. December 1937 when Andy Iona and Sam Koni were appearing. The neon roof sign appears to be a redesign of the Ye Bull Pen’s sign, which had moved with the restaurant from a previous location at 633 S Hope St. LAPL photo.
Ken Young took over the Hula Hut circa 1940. As “Ken’s Hula Hut,” it lasted for about two years. The building was demolished in December 1965.
Sam Koni appearing at Ken’s Hula Hut, October 31, 1940. LA Daily News.
The Hawaiian Hut
The Hawaiian Hut opened down the street from the Hula Hut at 7210 Beverly Boulevard in late 1936/early 1937, originally operated by Tony Guerrero with Bill Ornellas, whose nickname was “Whistling/Whislyn/Whislin’.” Built in 1928, the building had previously housed a series of short-lived cafes and clubs before the Hawaiian Hut came along.
Hawaiian-born Tony appeared in a few films and was married to former child actor Charlotte “Peaches” Jackson. He sold his interest in the Hawaiian Hut by 1940 and the couple moved to Honolulu where they operated a restaurant, The Tropics at Waikiki.
Ornellas’ Hawaiian Hut featured not just mere rain on the roof but an entire tropical storm effect. On July 13, 1942, the hut was damaged by an arson-set fire; it reopened September 2, 1942 and continued here through 1945.
Matchbook cover depiction of the Hawaiian Hut c. 1942.
Ad for the Hawaiian Hut promoting its rain storm on the roof effect and Dan Stewart’s Tahitian Entertainers, tropical atmosphere, tropical cocktails, and a monthly luau feast. 6/9/1942. LA Times.
The re-opening of the Hawaiian Hut following the arson fire. 9/1/1942. LA Times.
Ornellas also gave hula lessons at the Hawaiian Hut. 6/24/1944. LA Times
Whisling Ornellas would go on to run another Hawaiian-themed club, Whisling’s Hawaii, at 6507 Sunset Boulevard, a building constructed in 1922 for the Holly-Sunset Market. It operated through 1956, often hosting jazz acts.
Ad for Whisling’s Hawaii 4/14/1951. LA Times
Gene’s Hawaiian Village
Located at 10637 S. Vermont Avenue, Gene’s Hawaiian Village opened as a dance pavilion about 1932. Run by Harry Eugene Long, the venue notably featured native performers. Both Dick McIntire and Sal Hopi performed here with extended engagements.
The “village,” located to the north of the cafe itself, consisted of Samoan huts, canoes, beachcomber shacks, and “everything authentic enough to transport you in imagination to another world,” according to columnist Win Morrow. Gene’s operated into 1948.
Ad for Gene’s Hawaiian Village featuring dancing to Dick McIntire and his Harmony Hawaiians, 5/14/1936. LA Daily News
Ad for Gene’s Hawaiian Village with Sol Hoopii, not to mention “Mexican Pete” 8/17/1936. LA Daily News.
This short-lived Hawaiian-themed club opened on October 8, 1937 at 335 N. La Brea near Beverly Boulevard. The building was constructed in 1927 as Ead’s Castle restaurant.
Billed as “Honolulu transplanted to Hollywood,” the opening of Waikiki featured the Noe-Noe room cocktail lounge, Hawaiian songbird Lena Machado, and a floorshow featuring Prince Lei Laini and Sol Hooppi’s Hawaiian orchestra. Blink and you missed it- the club folded before the year was out, owners Johnny Hall and Bob Cabaniss citing “financial difficulties.”
Waikiki opening ad 10/3/1937.
Actor John Craig and actress Vicky Lester at the Waikiki club, November 1937. 11/21/1937
335 N. La Brea during the brief time it was known as Waikiki. LAPL photo.
The venue went on to become the nautical/piraate themed Don Dickerman’s Pirate’s Den, which has its own post, here.
Zamboanga
The Zamboanga South Seas nightclub, “Home of the Tailless Monkeys” was the creation of Minnesota transplant Joe Chastek. Chastek discovered the South Seas as a young man; he was living in Honolulu as of 1930 per US Census records, and in Manilla in 1935.
Originally called “Joe’s Zamboanga” South Sea Cafe and Cocktail Lounge, the venue opened at 3828 Slauson Avenue in late 1938 and featured performers such as Bob Nichols as well as an annual luau. By early 1940 it was just “Zamboanga” and the “tailess monkeys” had made their appearance. In June 1941, Chastek expanded the cafe and added a 17 foot neon-lit monkey sign to the roof.
Ad for Joe’s Zamboanga, 9.30/1938. The Southwest Wave.
Ad for Joe’s Zamboanga. “Dance in an atmosphere of Polynesian paradise.” 10/7/1938. The Southwest Wave.
Joe’s Zamboanga. “Only the finest liquors.” 12/2/1938.
Now just “Zamboanga” and featuring the “tailess monkeys.” 3/19/1940. The Southwest Wave.
Slauson Avenue in April 1940, photographed by Dick Whittington. The Zamboaga is seen in the middle right, before its 1941 expansion. USC photo.
Postcard view of Zamboanga before its 1941 expansion.
Postcard view of Zamboanga after its 1941 expansion and addition of the giant neon monkey sign.
Celebrate the 4th with Joe Chastek (and the Tailless Monkeys). Specializing in Tropical Drinks and Chinese Food. Yes, Please. LA Daily News 7/3/1942.
During the war, in December 1944, “Trader Joe” Chastek opened a second club, the Trade Winds, at 334 S. Market Street in Inglewood, again with a monkey theme.
Joe Chastek’s Vagabond House opened in 1947.
After the war, in late 1947, Chastek would open a third South Seas-themed club, the Vagabond House, at 2505 Wilshire Boulevard, in the Masque Theater building.
Coral Isle
Niel [sic] Murphy opened the Coral Isle at 9349 Washington Boulevard, across from the RKO/Selznick International studios in Culver City on April 12, 1939. It featured murals by Frank Bowers, decorative matting and bamboo everything. The house specialty was chicken dinners.
Ad for the opening of Coral Isle. Venice Evening Vanguard 4/12/1939.
Harold La Van took over Coral Isle in July 1941. La Van had operated a previous cafe in Venice, the Bambu Hut (discussed below) as well as the Rhumba Cabana in Santa Monica. La Van expanded the Coral Isle in 1944. It was soon taken over by brothers Phil and Lou Stein and their partner Bob Sassner, then Bob Axelrod in September 1946. In 1956 it became the sophisticated Culver House.
By early 1941, the glamorous Coral Isle was serving Chinese food, and, of course, tropical rum cocktails. 3/28/1941. Venice Evening Vanguard.
Venice Evening Vanguard 12 /4/1941.
Venice Evening Vanguard 10/14/1946.
The Bambu Hut
Harold La Van had operated a club at 25 Windward Avenue in Venice since the mid 1930s. On February 2, 1940 he reopened it as the Bambu Hut with a new, tropical theme. La Van soon moved on to other ventures, including the Coral Isle, but the Bamboo Hut continued under various managers into the 1950s.
Ad for the Bamboo Hut. West Los Angeles Independent 2/22/1946
Writing of the tropical saloon craze in his syndicated column of July 1940, Lucius Beebe noted that while most nightclub trends started in New York and spread West, “the rash of Beachcombers, Tropics, Bars, Hurricanes, South Seas Saloons, and Zombie Palaces which is currently sweeping the land probably had its origin in Los Angeles, where Beachcomber Don has for years held forth in a gloomy grotto of strong waters, specializing in rum toddies of paralyzing dimensions… Just now there is hardly a self-respecting community in North America that hasn’t some sort of a beachcomber boozerie….”
Other crazes would come and go but Hollywood never really lost its fondness for things tropical. On December 7, 1941, all eyes turned to Honolulu, in horror, with the sneak attack on Pearl Harbor. Following the US entry into World War II, Los Angeles became a port of embarkation for service personnel heading to the Pacific Theater. The China Clippers were painted olive drab, the Matson “Big White Ships” became grey and these romantic modes of transportation were drafted into military service. Waikiki Beach was closed off with barbed wire and The Royal Hawaiian became an R&R facility for the military. E.R. Gantt (Don the Beachcomber) joined the military and would go on to earn a Purple Heart and a Bronze Star for his service.
On January 18, 1942, Hawaiian and Tahitian performers from 12 nightclubs, including Bob Brooks’ 7 Seas, Zamboanga, the Hula Hut and Gene’s Hawaiian Village, lent their talent at a rally for defense savings stamps and bonds at the Defense House in Pershing Square and drew the largest crowd to date.
Tropical-themed bars and restaurants became more popular than ever during and after the war and, of course, Don the Beachcomber’s, the Seven Seas, The Cocoanut Grove and King’s Tropical Inn remained fixtures for decades.
Notes
Bios of Gantt typically state that he changed his name to Donn Beach in the 1930s after the success of don the Beachcomber. However, on official documents of the 1940s and 50s such as his WWII draft registration and ship passenger lists, he was still using his birth name.
1722 McCadden became another tropical-themed club in 1937 after Don moved out, The Tahiti.
Tom Breneman died of a sudden heart attack in April 1948, leaving behind a wife, two young children, and thousands of devastated fans. Breneman’s restaurant continued to operate for a time, following his passing, but the contents were finally sold at auction in January 1950. The space became the new home of ABC radio.
This was not the first cafe in Los Angeles to be called the Hawaiian Hut. Ex-boxer/dentist Leach Cross had opened a Hawaiian Hut at 12745 Ventura Boulevard, across from the Hollywood Country Club, on December 10, 1925, but quickly tired of the venture and sold it in 1927 and his Hawaiian Hut became The Romany Shack.
Mayor Shaw was ousted in a recall election in September 1938. Hoy would be among the officers purged from the LAPD in March 1939 by Shaw’s replacement, former Superior Judge Fletcher Bowron, who campaigned on a reform platform.
The Masque Theater opened in 1926 as a legitimate state theater. In 1950 it was converted into a movie theater and renamed The Vagabond, probably because of Chastek’s popular restaurant, which became the La Fonda in 1969.
The high turnover of 335 N. La Brea smacks of mob.
There was also a postwar club called the Bambu Hut, located in Ontario at 522 W. A Street.
Almerdell Forrester, using the name Ann Forst, first made headlines in Los Angeles in April 1940 for her involvement in a large prostitution syndicate. LA County sheriff George Contreras seems to have given her the nickname “The Black Widow” apropos of nothing. The press ran with it and the name stuck.
J. H. Graham 