[Retired_in_Texas]

Originally Posted by Martin Pal

The above postcard image is the only glimpse of the interior of Sardi's I recall seeing posted before. Here's a couple others:

HHP

Opened at 6315 Hollywood Blvd in 1932.

LAPL

Owner Adolph “Eddie” Brandstter, center with customers.

Eddie had a bit of a noir side. I didn’t know Sardi’s was destroyed by a fire! From the linked article:

The Sunset Inn, Café Montmartre, Sardi's: Wherever Adolph "Eddie" Brandstatter's night spots were, Hollywood once gathered. [After some questionable business decisions] in 1932 he declared bankruptcy and, after he sold the Montmartre, was convicted of theft for having absconded with assorted furnishings, including drapes, china and a large statue of a nude woman (described in the Los Angeles Times as "a cherished art object").

He bounced back with the even grander Sardi's, an Art Deco palace at 6315 Hollywood Blvd. In 1936, it was destroyed by a fire. Once again he bounced back, though a little less high, with the Bohemian Grill on Vine. He had been planning more restaurants (altogether he opened about 10 in a 20-year period) when he committed suicide in 1940.

It's hard to avoid the suspicion that he was what we would now call bipolar, with his expansive periods of new projects alternating with catastrophes. This would explain his charisma, and also episodes like his cutting through the wall between the Montmartre and a jewelry shop next door … without telling the landlord. The grandiosity of a manic phase might also explain why his newspaper ads never bothered to mention the Montmartre's address (6757 Hollywood Blvd.).

On the other hand, that might have been a marketing ploy, like Ma Maison's having an unlisted telephone number in the 1980s. Or, for that matter, the exceptionally inconspicuous entrance of today's Montmartre Lounge, a bar specializing in private parties for Hollywood people in the old Montmartre location, which has no sign but the letters ML.

Adolph "Eddie" Brandstatter was somewhat of a fraud and a thief in using the name "Sardi's" as the "real" Sardi's is located in New York City at 234 West 44th Street (between Broadway and Eighth Avenue) and was established in 1927. The bit about the star caricatures began when founder/owner Vincent Sardi thought it an idea that would attract business. Obviously he was right and it appears that Brandstatter had no shame in attempting to capitalize on that idea. Given that Vincent Sardi immigrated from Italy one has to wonder if the fire at the Hollywood fake Sardi's may have been Mafia folks looking out for fellow Italians.

The "real" Sardi's as it appears today in its original and current location in New York City's theater district.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Sardis.jpg

As a side note, the lyrics of the song "This Could Be The Start of Something Big" composed by TV personality, musician, author, comedian, and actor Steve Allen in 1956 makes reference to Sardi's. Obviously not the Hollywood Sardi's which was long gone in 1956. Strangely, the next line in the song refers to lying on the sand at Malibu.

I personally like the Steve Lawrence - Eydie Gorme recording.