Regular readers of my blog posts know that I am obsessed with old-school night clubs from back in the day. I don’t care if they were actual hot spots where the famous and infamous danced into the wee hours, or fictional Art Deco fantasy clubs that can only be found in the movies. If I were to step back in time to the era when big-band singers crooned and glamour girls donned evening gowns, I would probably end up like the Broadway Baby at the end of “Lullaby of Broadway” in Gold Diggers of 1935!!
Recently, I ran across a treasure trove of information and photos on the famous Hollywood night clubs of the Golden Age of Hollywood, which I thought I would share.
Considered the first major nightclub in the Los Angeles area, the dully named Vernon Country Club (above) was located in the tiny burg of Vernon, a few miles east of L.A. The locale was important because it was out of reach of the Blue Laws, which prohibited alcohol. Los Angeles County was dry at the time. The Vernon Country Club opened in 1912 in a beet field. The outside may have looked a bit rustic, but inside patrons could find entertainment, all-night dancing, free-flowing alcohol, and illegal gambling. Supposedly, Mack Sennett and Mabel Normand spooned at the Vernon, while Rudolph Valentino landed a job there as a taxi dancer in 1917. Tom Mix crashed one of his fancy cars into the club, prompting him to buy drinks for everyone, while Fatty Arbuckle rented the Vernon for private parties. Owner Baron Long was so politically connected that he continued to serve alcohol during Prohibition. Any vice cases brought against him were quickly dropped. The club burned to the ground in 1929.
The Cocoanut Grove (above), which opened in 1921, used a Moorish décor with palm trees to suggest the idea of an oasis. In the trees, which may have come from the set of Valentino’s The Sheik, sat stuffed monkey toys with glowing electric eyes. Hollywood legend and lore swirl around the Grove: Robert Taylor jumpstarted his career by presenting a letter of introduction to Joel McCrea while the latter was indisposed in the bathroom; Lionel Barrymore once unleashed live monkeys to join the stuffed ones in the trees; and, in 1936, Al Jolson jumped off the stage to mix it up with a group of hecklers, which left the club in shambles. The Grove was part of the Ambassador Hotel, which was the site of Robert Kennedy’s assassination in 1968, a fact which often overshadows the Grove’s glamour days.
Though it boasted a seating capacity of 1000, the Florentine Gardens (above) never became a swanky hot spot for celebrities. Instead, it was the night spot for ordinary folk. I include it because Yvonne De Carlo got her start there as a scantily clad chorus girl. And, in 1942, newly married 16-year-old Marilyn Monroe (then Norma Jean Dougherty) held her wedding reception at the Florentine Gardens.
The Montmartre Café, which opened in 1922, was housed on the second floor of a beautiful Romanesque building. It rivaled the Cocoanut Grove as the hottest spot for stars and Hollywood insiders during the 1920s. Valentino and Pola Negri tangoed regularly at the Montmartre, while newcomer Joan Crawford beat everyone at the Charleston during the Tuesday night dance contests. The Café was one of the first to hire Bing Crosby after he left the Paul Whiteman Orchestra, and Charlie Chaplin squired Marion Davies to the club in an effort to escape the watchful eye of William Randolph Hearst.
If you wanted to dance to big-band music, then the Hollywood Palladium on Sunset Blvd. was the place to go. When it opened on Halloween in 1940, Tommy Dorsey headlined and his band featured a skinny new singer named Frank Sinatra. The dance floor could hold 3700 couples, making it hard to spot the movie stars. But, the stars were there. Alice Faye met her husband Phil Silvers at the Palladium, while Betty Grable lost her heart to bandleader Harry James when he played there in the 1940s.
RUDY VALLEE (FAR RIGHT, SITTING) USES HIS OWN PERSONAL CHOPSTICKS AT DON THE BEACHCOMBER. THE CHOPSTICKS ARE KEPT IN THE SHELVED CABINET IN THE MIDDLE.
My new favorite Hollywood night club is Don the Beachcomber, which was owned and operated by Ernest Gantt. After his Tiki bar became a hit among the Hollywood crowd in the late 1930s, Gantt changed his name to “Don the Beachcomber,” including the “the.” No kidding. You could enjoy colorful drinks such as a Zombie or a Vicious Virgin in the Cannibal Room, which was a private dining area upstairs, or be satisfied with the sound effects of a tropical rainstorm in the public dining area downstairs. The restaurant served Polynesian and Chinese food, and celebrities who were regulars—the Marx Brothers, Greer Garson, Joan Crawford, Franchot Tone, Rudy Vallee—had personalized chop sticks provided for them. They were kept in a locked cabinet in the middle of the restaurant.
JUDY GARLAND AND LUCILLE BALL DANCE THE NIGHT AWAY AT THE MOCAMBO. (PHOTO FROM JUDYBLOGSPOT.COM)
Not quite as exotic as Don the Beachcomber but much classier was the Mocambo, which showcased a Latin-themed interior by stage designer Tony Duquette. The décor included glassed-in aviaries of live exotic birds, such as cockatoos, macaws, and parrots. Apparently, the ASPCA protested, fearing the birds would die of fright from the racket. But coowner Charlie Morrison—a former talent agent–convinced the ASPCA that the birds were having as much fun as the stars. The Mocambo was Marilyn Monroe’s club of choice, as well as that of Bogart and Bacall, Gable and Lombard, Ava Gardner, Judy Garland, and Errol Flynn. The Mocambo survived long enough to attract a new generation of stars, which included Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh, Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis, Natalie Wood and Robert Wagner, and Debbie Reynolds and Eddie Fisher.
JITTERBUGGING AT THE TROC
The Mocambo was on the Sunset Strip, which was the epicenter for nightclub life in the 1950s. In addition to the Mocambo, the Strip also included the Café Trocadero and Ciro’s, which was opened in 1940 by Billy Wilkerson, the publisher of the Hollywood Reporter. In a previous incarnation, Ciro’s had been the Clover Club, an illegal gambling joint where the likes of David O. Selznick and Harry Cohn lost their shirts before the vice squad closed it in 1938. One year later, it opened as the Club Saville. The Saville featured a dance floor made of glass, which was over top a pool of water filled with live carp. Unbelievably, the club flopped supposedly because patrons feared the floor might crack and break. A year after it closed, Wilkerson took possession of the building and gave it a makeover and a new name, Ciro’s. The gang that frequented the Mocambo also stopped in at Ciro’s and the Café Trocadero, since they were close together. Wilkerson also owned the Troc, which he opened in 1934. Prior to his ownership, the club had been a speakeasy called La Boheme, which was owned by a drag queen named Karyl Norman. I love Old Hollywood!
Wilkerson later bought the Flamingo in Las Vegas, but that’s a story for another time.