|
|
|
Got a chip in the mail today from captbanjo. Did some research on the joint through Google last night and was really surprised by what I found. Could be the start of a longer research project and serves up some mysteries about degrees of seperation and how long do you have to live before everything starts relating to everything else you've ever done? 
Takin' the way-back-machine to Hollywood CA. and a vacation visit to a friend of mine who was living there at the time trying to break into "the biz" is some manner or other. He lived in an old apartment building on Wilcox (the guy who bought an orange orchard and made it Hollywood) right off Hollywood Blvd. You could get weed from the young bloods down on the street and hookers did their duds at the laundromat across the street. He took me on a tour of that part of L.A. and all the Hollywood stuff. One place we really had a good time at was The Comedy Store on Sunset Blvd. Some guy we'd never laid eyes on before scared the whee out of us during his time on the stage, a guy named Sam Kinison. Turns out, I'd sure like to get back to that place today for the laughs but also because that building saw some pretty remarkable times during it's history.
I'd run across a reference of some stars in Hollywood going to "Bugsy Seigle's Clover Club" when I ran across this chip, a $10 Clover Club, Hollywood CA., on eBay which I subsequently acquired.
I've got a matchbook from Reno's Riverside Hotel sitting next to my computer that states, "Mert Wertheimer, Your Host". Turns out his brothers, Al and Lew, started the Clover Club in the late '30's. Bugsy arrived in Hollywood with instructions to take over the unions in the film industry and syphon off some of that cash back to the boys in Chicago. Bugsy ended up with a major ownership role in the Clover Club which featured illegal gaming. Busted eventually by the vice squad which ended the gambling. I'll bet THAT'S a story: Big Hollywood names, mobsters, gambling and the vice squad! Click here
http://www.hollywoodphotographs.com/detail.asp?im=%2D1&cat=98&offset=40&ID=4397 to see a pile of chips and a couple of dicks. Having a tough time reconciling all the dates I've found on this part of the Clover Club history, oh well... Point to ponder: Bugsy and the Wertheimers, wonder what was going on there? The Clover Club was replaced by the unfortunately wierd Club Seville.
Now things start to perk up for the building on Sunset Blvd. Bugsy isn't on location but his future Flamingo associate turns up. Fresh from running speakeasies for NY Mayor Jimmie Walker, Billy Wilkerson shows in L.A. An idea dynamo, he spins off the Hollywood Reporter and opens the Clover Club/Club Seville as Ciro's resturant. Selznick and Cohen used to lose their money there, now stars like Spencer Tracy can flatten reporters or get into scandals all to be written up in Wilkerson's own Reporter while insuring that the publicity never quits.
Going to have to read the book on Wilkerson, The Man Who Invented Las Vegas, because as we all should know, Billy started The Flamingo and Bugsy took the credit... and the bullet for it. Time for another look at that nifty chip!
Ciro's run ended in '57. The joint that occupies the place now is ta-da! The Comedy Store! Sure would be fun to return someday soon and just reflect on the ghosts and shadows that lurk there. Maybe check out a dusty corner and find an old chip or two. Kind of a wander I know, but dang it, everytime I hold a chip, I wonder what stories are in that chip just below the table grit...
Scroll down on this page to find more info on 8433 Sunset Blvd. http://www.filmsofthegoldenage.com/foga/1996/winter/hollywoodhotspots.shtml
|
|