This post started because I was watching a CBS Sunday morning segment last weekend about a guy who collects matchbooks and has over a quarter million of them! (Word for today, a matchbook collector is called a phillumenist, though the man in question prefers them to be called match heads.) I wanted to look up one of the matchbooks that was shown, for further information, when a different matchbook caught my attention.
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First, for 63 years there was a burger stand called Irv's Burger's in West Hollywood.
When it first opened it was called Queen's Burgers:
It's probably never been mentioned on NLA because it's not exactly a great work of design. It's just a burger shack, but it's been popular all these years. One time when I ate there in the early 80's (I learned to play Ms. Pac Man at Irv's!) the guy told me that Marilyn Monroe used to stop in there on occasion. In the photo below you can see it says "Irv's Burgers Since 1950."
What's To Eat L.A.
Linda Ronstadt's 1978 Album "Living in the U.S.A." features the location in the album's fold out cover:
In 2005 there was a concerted effort to help save the place/space from being evicted by the property owners (Standard Oil Investments!).
That even entailed giving the place a cultural status designation.
Despite that, by 2013 the property owners were raising the rent and forcing out Irv's Burger's from it's location at 8289 Santa Monica Blvd. near Sweetzer Ave. and not much could be done about it at that point. It closed in 2013.
Yelp
Happy ending? A year later a new location was found not too far away at 7998 Santa Monica Blvd. and Irv's Burgers has opened again.
But, you know, not the same...
(I don't have a specific answer as to why the original location says "Since 1950" and the historic designation and new location say "Since 1946.")
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Now, moving two doors down from the original Irv's location is a space that's had several incarnations and apparently no photographs ever taken of this block of buldings!
Not that I can locate anyway, but there's some interesting written information about it.
When I was searching for the initial matchbook cover I mentioned, this is the one that caught my attention:
"Try Later" 8279 Santa Monica Blvd.
Within the last month I had been quite interested in a 1933 William Wellman directed film called "Wild Boys of the Road."
It's a depression era story about young kids coping with the poverty of the times, riding the rails and doing their best dealing with a society that doesn't know what to do with them. I was trying to remember from the audio commentary on the dvd where they said the rail yard scenes were filmed. Imdb says it's the "Southern Pacific Taylor Yard, Glendale, CA."
The film stars a young actor named Frankie Darro.
In trying to find out about "Try Later" I happened on the following information: Who knew?
[Despite his off and on drinking problems,] Frankie operated a bar on Santa Monica Blvd. for a time. The establishment was called the
"Try Later". One article from the L.A. Daily News dated August 16, 1951, states: "The latest motion picture profile to go into the bistro business is actor Frankie Darro, who has opened up what he calls, without mincing words, 'a bar' on Santa Monica boulevard. This cocktail lounge is dubbed 'Try Later' and caters to 'the kids from pictures'. Darro explains the 'Try Later' as follows: "You know when you call Central Casting, they tell you only two things on the phone: 'No work' or 'Try later'." He adds: "This is my first venture into this business. I've always wanted to have a bar. I've spent so much money on the other side of bars that I thought I'd get behind one and get even." Darro, who is 33 years old, has been in pictures for 28 years. He just completed a couple of movies at Metro and says he isn't giving up his acting career. Associated with him in the enterprise is Lee Carroll, an ex-Hollywood agent. The "Try Later" features something called a Sunday Morning Club where hungry actors can get ham and eggs, potatoes, toast, coffee and a drink for one dollar. "But that's only if you're a member of the club," says Darro, "To be a member you've got to have a card and pay a dime. That's to keep out the riffraff."
http://www.frankiedarro.com/index.htm
Interestingly, Lee Carroll, his partner in this venture--his wife divorced him about a year later, citing neglect and infidelity and subsequently became Frankie Darro's third wife.
In researching some information about the Try Later I came across, on Martin Turnbull's Hollywood Places, that on page 63 of the book "The Shattered Silents: How the Talkies Came to Stay" by Alexander Walker, that "
Try Later is now called the Raincheck. It was one of Veronica Lake’s favorite hangouts."
This bit of info led me to the book: "Warren Oates: A Wild Life by Susan Campo." Starting on page 85 of the chapter with the actual bar name in it's title, "Meanwhile, Back at the Raincheck" there's this information about The Raincheck:
Warren Oates [...] had an enormous number of pals, a handful of whom were close and a far greater number who were passing--or passing out--acquaintances. And the sectors sometimes collided in an unassuming bar in the heart of what would become Boystown in the not yet designated city of West Hollywood. The Raincheck Room, located at 8279 Santa Monica Boulevard, near the corner of Crescent Heights, opened in the early 1960s and was owned by Zell Davis and Phil Pearl. [...] In its lifespan, which ran a few years past the legal drinking age, it served as a kind of rumpus room for actors and show people. Taking its name from the little tickets the bartender would give to those receiving but then not wanting a drink, the Raincheck endeared itself to many who would find stubs more quickly than they found their car keys as they attempted to make their way to the door.
The Raincheck had a bulletin board where people in town from New York could sign in (or sign out). The drinks were cheap, the food was good, the service was fast, and the place was small enough that it was always bustling, an "in" place to go. Dennis Hopper played darts; Harry Dean Stanton sat back one night while Oates got into a fight.
[...]
As a bartender, Alex Rocco saw it all. [...] "I used to have to hide Warren behind the darts room when his wife came in." [...] "We had everybody. Rock Hudson would come in and comb his hair the other way, wear sunglasses, trying to hide out. I would spot the celebrities, who was cruising, who was picking up, the whole nine yards.
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In 2013,
Blaster posted a reminiscence on NLA of the Raincheck, the only mention of it (and Irv's) beforehand:
Farther east on Santa Monica Boulevard, past the Coast Theatre and Irv's Burger's was a fantastic old-fashioned bar called the Raincheck Room. A lot of actors hung out there. In reaction to Barney's Beanery and its "Fagots Stay Out" sign, the Raincheck put up a sign that read "Farraguts Stay Out." Not sure what that meant, the bar was straight (one of the few in the neighborhood) but it was an accomodating place and I had many a great night there. I think the Raincheck closed in the mid to late 80's and is the present site of O Bar. I wish I could find a picture of it.
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Here's another article/story/post called The Raincheck Room, in which a man has a conversation there with a friend of his about the possibility the holocaust never occurred. (It's certainly on the noir side of things.)
http://codohfounder.com/stories/the-raincheck-room/
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So, 8279 Santa Monica Blvd. -- as
Blaster said, "I wish I could find a picture of it." In any of it's incarnations that we know about.
Before 1951: ?
TRY LATER - (1951 - possibly early 60's)
Article indicates it opened in 1951. Closed at least by the early 60's.
THE RAINCHECK ROOM - (c. early 1960's - c. 1986)
Opened in the early 1960's per the Warren Oates book. Closed: "its lifespan, which ran a few years past the legal drinking age" which was either 18 or 21 depending, and Blaster thinks it closed in the mid-to late 80's, so c. 1985-86 sounds approximate.
[See
riichkay's post with three screengrab photos of The Raincheck Room from the Russ Meyer film "The Immoral Mr. Teas" at this link:
http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...stcount=38460]
CHEERS - (?)
In between Raincheck and O Bar there was at least one other iteration, Cheers, though perhaps because it was called "Cheers," I can only find vague references to it and no specific information. I can find a lot of information about the Cheers television show, though.
O BAR - (2003 - 2011)
L.A. Eater had a post in 2011 announcing O Bar was closing after eight years, which means it opened in 2003.
I found these two exterior shots:
Jason in Hollywood
NightLife
(Irv's Burgers is just past the green awning at the left.)
DON'T TELL MAMA - (2013 - 2014)
An iteration of the Don't Tell Mama in NYC, but a combination of city licensing problems and revenue was the stated reasons it closed.
[See a photo of Don't Tell Mama in
HossC's post (#35559) below.]
NORAH (2016 - ?)
Restaurant that
Variety calls "gone way glam" and "rustic and elegant."
http://thecarriesource.com/norahs-night-out/
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Thanks again Hoss!
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