Well, the Ciro's/Kay Thompson pic seems to have caused something of a firestorm. I posted it as I thought it gave us a good look inside a legendary nightspot. Inherently with any photo like that spot-the-star becomes part of the process, and as others have said the forum has done this in the past. I'm aware it's primarily an architectural forum, but the conceit is "noirish" L.A., and the notion of the noir city is largely based on the films of the period....created by the industry types seated in Ciro's that night. Let me respectfully suggest that if we are going to be rigid about all this there's a lot that does not fit, i.e. photos of the city in the 1800's, not exactly what most would consider germane to "noirish" Los Angeles.
And I must second the comments of JeffDiego regarding Kay Thompson, she was far more than a novelty act. Truly a significant figure in mid-century popular entertainment.
Anyway, let's move on, still on the Strip but a little bit east. This is the property across Sunset from the place that's been The Player's, Imperial Gardens etc, and across Harper Ave. from The Body Shop...we are at 8240 Sunset Bl., when it was the Marquis restaurant, 1953:
photo: George Mann
photo: George Mann
Our restaurateur is Paul Verlengia. He owned the Marquis until 1960, when he opened a new place further east at 7800 Sunset:
Verlengia turned the Marquis over to George Dolenz (yup, you guessed it, the father of Monkee Mickey)
Martin Turnbull tells us this about Dolenz:
"George Dolenz, a rather dashing sort of chap, was a maitre d’ at Ciro’s night club some years ago when he caught the eye of Howard Hughes and made him a movie star in the swashbuckling type roles. Then when the recession hit Hollywood, Dolenz reverted to his former calling. “Even actors have to eat,” he said. He took over a well-known Hollywood restaurant, the Marquis, and could be seen nightly at the door greeting movie profiles and producers including, at times, even Howard Hughes."
George ran the place until he met an untimely demise there, as described by blogger Kim on the onbunkerhill.org site:
"The Marquis sailed on sans Verlengia, and into a tragedy. On February 8, 1963, the restaurant’s corporation president George Dolenz (dad of future Monkee Mickey and himself star of TV’s Count of Monte Christo), climbed onto the roof of the Marquis to inspect recent construction. He suffered a heart attack, was brought down by firemen, and was declared dead on arrival at Citizens Emergency Hospital. Since 1951, Dolenz’ main focus had been the restaurant. He was just 55."
Flash forward to the late '70's and 1980's, most on this board probably remember the building as this place, Carlos 'n Charlies:
As a (somewhat) young man-about-town in those years I was in Carlos 'n Charlies often. They had an active bar/disco room upstairs (I recall at one time they called the room El Privado) and later on they booked the Chippendales male dancers act into the space. When Carlos 'n Charlies closed sometime in the 90's the building housed Dublin's Irish Pub, who maintained the character of the original structure:
The building has now had a comprehensive facelift: