COCONUT GROVE, CIRO’S MOCAMBO AND CAFE TROCADERO

During its heyday, Hollywood boasted of having the most elegant restaurants and nightclubs in the world.  Hollywood’s most glamorous celebrities used these places as their playgrounds and were envied by their fans.

The days of dazzling gowns, studio-bred elegance, and men who looked as if they wore dinner clothes every balmy night belong to a Hollywood that no longer exists and , perhaps, never did.  The Coconut Grove, the Cafe Trocadero, Ciro’s and Mocambo were the great nightclubs that dominated Los Angeles in the 1940s, a decade that saw both the zenith and decline of what we now think of as Old Hollywood.

Yet sometimes the line between real life and the movies was as thin a s piece of celluloid.  T...

                                                                            ROMANOFF'S RESTAURANT

Romanoff'sTo an industry driven by fantasy and imaginary, Romanoff's was a perfect fit. The Beverly Hills Restaurant was the name sake and invention of a self-declared prince with a personality big enough to dazzle the town's most important movers and shakers.  Competing studio heads, Daryl Zanuck and Jack Warner were among those who put up the money fro Romanoff's in Beverly Hills, and 'Prince' Mile Romanoff became a celebrity.

Romanoff was born Hershel Geguzin in Lithuania in 1890 and immigrated to New York City at age ten and changed his name to Harry F. Gerguson sometime after 1900.  His father was...

                                                 MUSSO AND FRANK GRILL TURNS 88 YEARS OLD
Musso and Frank Grill claims to be the oldest restaurant in Hollywood, having opened in 1919. This claim is partially true, in that it is Hollywood's oldest restaurant.  However, it was not founded in 1919. Musso and Frank Grill opened its doors on July 28,1923 when Joseph Musso partnered with Frank Toulet, who owned Frank's Francois Cafe (originally known as Frank's Cafe) at 6669 Hollywood Blvd.  Frank Toulet opened Frank's Cafe on September 27th, 1919 and later changed the name to Frank's Francois Cafe.  It is this date of 1919, that Musso And Frank Grill claims to be the founding date of the restaurant.  
In 1927, Frank sold his interest to John Musso and Joseph Carissimi.  In...

DON THE BEACHCOMBER RESTAURANT

The story of Don the Beachcomber began shortly after Prohibition. A small town Minnesota schoolteacher with a big imagine named Cora Irene Sound saved enough money so that she could move to Los Angeles and secure a job as a waitress at the Tick Tock Tear Room, a family owned restaurant. Cora soon met an inventive bartender, Ernest Raymond Beaumont-Gantt, who served exotic rum drinks in his tacky tropical bar located in the Hollywood Hotel.  His moniker was 'Don The Beachcomber'. When the schoolteacher and bartender mated, Hollywood's first tropical restaurant was born.  Cora Irene (a.k.a. 'Sunny Sound' and 'Mama C.I.') borrowed money and opened Don's  Beachcomber Cafe, in 1934, at 1722 N. McCadden Pl., in Hollywood.  To give the effect of tropical...