Ciro's Explained

Ciro's
Location:8433 Sunset Boulevard
West Hollywood, California
United States
Type:Nightclub
Opened:1940
Closed:1957; transformed into rock and roll club in 1965 called Ciro's Le Disc; renamed The Kaleidoscope in 1967; became its Boss in 1968; became The Comedy Store in 1972

Ciro's (later known as Ciro's Le Disc) was a nightclub on Sunset Boulevard in West Hollywood, California owned by William Wilkerson.[1] Opened in 1940, Ciro's became a popular nightspot for celebrities. The nightclub closed in 1960 and was reopened as a rock club in 1965. After a few name changes, it eventually became The Comedy Store in 1972.

History

Club Seville opened New Year’s Eve 1935. It featured a "crystal dance floor with subsurface fish, fountains and colored lights in its Crystal Marine Room."[2]

The building was remodeled, and, in January 1940, Ciro's was opened by entrepreneur William Wilkerson at 8433 Sunset Boulevard.[3] In 1934, Wilkerson had also opened Cafe Trocadero, and the restaurant La Rue, both on the Strip, and would later originate The Flamingo in Las Vegas, only to have control of the resort wrested from him by mobster Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel. In November 1942, Wilkerson leased Ciro’s to his longtime right-hand man Herman Hover,[4] who would make sure Ciro’s was an important Hollywood hotspot until 1959. Hover filed for bankruptcy in 1959, and Ciro's was sold at public auction for $350,000.[5] Ciro's combined a luxe baroque interior and an unadorned exterior and became a famous hangout for movie people of the 1940s and 1950s. It was one of the places to be seen and guaranteed being written about in the gossip columns of Hedda Hopper, Louella Parsons, and Florabel Muir.[6] On April 8, 1947, Frank Sinatra slugged "one of the most abusive"[7] Hearst gossip columnists, Lee Mortimer, outside Ciro's.[8]

Among the galaxy of celebrities who frequented Ciro's were Marilyn Monroe,[9] Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall, Frank Sinatra,[10] James Dean, Ava Gardner, Sidney Poitier, Anita Ekberg, Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz, Spencer Tracy, Joan Crawford, Betty Grable, Marlene Dietrich, Clark Gable, Ginger Rogers, Ronald Reagan, Dean Martin, Jerry Lewis, Mickey Rooney, Cary Grant, George Raft, George Burns and Gracie Allen, Judy Garland, June Allyson and Dick Powell, Mamie Van Doren, Jimmy Stewart, Jack Benny, Peter Lawford, and Lana Turner (who often said Ciro's was her favorite nightspot) among many others. During his first visit to Hollywood in the late 1940s, future President John F. Kennedy dined at Ciro's.[11]

In December 1951, Herman Hover, owner of Ciro's, was involved with the Lili St. Cyrs indecent exposure case. She was defended by Jerry Geisler. She was accompanied by Armando Orsini, her husband.[12]

In 1965, Ciro's reopened as the rock club Ciro's Le Disc. Ike & Tina Turner performed at the newly opened club with Jimi Hendrix as part of their band.[13] The Byrds got their start at Ciro's Le Disc in 1965.[14] Accounts of the period (reproduced in the sleeve notes to The Preflyte Sessions box set) describe a "church-like" atmosphere, with interpretive dancing. The club also served as the host during the recording of the 1965 Dick Dale album Rock Out With Dick Dale & His Del-Tones: Live At Ciro's. Two years later, it was renamed The Kaleidoscope. In 1968, the club was called It's Boss. In 1969, it was known as Patch 2.[15] The site of Ciro's became The Comedy Store in 1972.

Ciro's club and restaurant chain

The name Ciro's comes from Italian-born Egyptian Ciro Capozzi who founded the first Ciro's bar in Monaco around 1892,[16] next to the café Riche in the newly built Galerie Charles III. According to the story of James Gordon Bennett Jr., having a difference about a table on the terrasse, he bought the café Riche and gave it to Ciro who named it the Ciro's.[17] In 1911, Ciro Capozzi sold the name to an English consortium (including William Poulett, 7th Earl Poulett as main investor,[18] and Clément Hobson[19]) who open the Deauville Ciro's (still existing as a restaurant belonging to the Groupe Lucien Barrière), the Paris Ciro's in 1912,[20] [21] and the London one in 1915. Ciro's became a European high society restaurant chain with branches in Monte Carlo,[22] Paris, London[23] (where Audrey Hepburn danced before her film career[24]), and Deauville. Bartender Harry MacElhone, famous for Harry's New York Bar, first worked at Ciro's in London after World War I.[25] [26] [27] [28] [29] [30] [31] [32] [33]

"Ciro's was a hip London establishment (before another popular one opened up in Los Angeles in 1940), that had as their bartender Harry McElhone (author of ABC of Cocktails), at which Jimmy took over when Harry went off to Paris. ..." (Ross Bolton)[34]

"Louis Adlon, grandson of the proprietor of Berlin’s Hotel Adlon opened Hollywood’s first iteration of Ciro’s in 1934[35] [36] (with Erich Alexander[37] and George Sorel[38]) Located on Hollywood Boulevard, the club was informally part of a chain with locations in London, Paris and Berlin. The Hollywood Ciro’s was not a success, apparently, because it soon folded."[39]

"...At one point in the late 1930s there were wildcat Ciro's operating in Philadelphia, Chicago, Miami Beach (designed by George Farkas[40] [41] [42]), Honolulu, Acapulco, Mexico City, and a host of other places..."[43]

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Photographic image. JPG. 3.bp.blogspot.com. 24 October 2018.
  2. Web site: Early Views of West Hollywood . Water and Power Associates . 31 January 2022.
  3. Book: Lord, Rosemary. Hollywood Then and Now. Thunder Bay Press. 2003. 978-1592231041. San Diego. 87.
  4. Web site: Ciros Hover . Getty Images . 21 July 2023.
  5. Web site: Photographic image. JPG. I424.photobucket.com. 24 October 2018.
  6. Web site: Early Views of West Hollywood (1920 +). Water and Power Associates. 24 October 2018.
  7. News: Wiener . Jon . Frank Sinatra: His Way . 21 July 2023 . thenation.com . 15 June 2009.
    • Jeff Leen. AKA Frank Sinatra Washington Post, March 7, 1999
    • https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/daily/march99/sinatra7.htm
    • https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/daily/march99/sinatra7b.htm
    • https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/daily/march99/sinatra7c.htm
    • https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/daily/march99/sinatra7d.htm
    • https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/daily/march99/sinatra7e.htm
    • https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/daily/march99/sinatra7f.htm
  9. Web site: Marilyn Monroe at Ciro's . alamy.com . 20 July 2023 . en.
  10. Web site: Ciros Angeles . Getty Images . 21 July 2023.
  11. Web site: Ciro's. Katie. 27 February 2013. Old Hollywood Glamour.
  12. Web site: Indecent exposure case, 5 December 1951. Lili Saint Cyr, defendant . . 3 August 2024.
  13. Book: Roby. Steven. Becoming Jimi Hendrix: From Southern Crossroads to Psychedelic London, the Untold Story of a Musical Genius. Schreiber. Brad. 2010-08-31. Hachette Books. 978-0-306-81910-0. 103. en.
  14. Book: Hjort, Christopher.. So You Want To Be A Rock 'n' Roll Star: The Byrds Day-By-Day (1965-1973). Jawbone Press. 2008. 978-1-906002-15-2. 27–30.
  15. Web site: Serrapica . Pasquale Vincent . Rocco (Pat) Photographs and Papers . oac.cdlib.org . ONE National Gay & Lesbian Archives, USC Libraries, University of Southern California . 7 August 2020.
  16. Web site: M. Ciro, Italian born Egyptian founder of Ciro's restaurant in Monte Carlo, pictured on the French Riviera in 1909. He sold the restaurant in 1911 to an English syndicate which included the Earl of Rosslyn and Clement Hobson. Other branches were opened in London, Paris and Biarritz . alamy.com . 20 July 2023 . en . 1909.
  17. Web site: Ciro, Paris 1923 Menu Art . Vintage Menu Art . 20 July 2023 . en.
  18. Web site: Journal de Monaco. Journaldemonaco.gouv.mc. 3–6.
  20. Web site: The interior of Ciro's restaurant, Rue Daunou, Paris . agefotostock . 20 July 2023 . en.
  21. Web site: The Classy Ciro's Restaurant Chain . Jazz Age Club . 20 July 2023 . 17 February 2010.
  22. Web site: Sem on the Riviera - the famous caricaturist's very latest impressions. A page of caricatures by Sem (Georges Goursat) taken on the French Riviera. Clockwise from top left, Lord Howard de Walden, Mr Gordon Bennett, the millionaire newspaper proprietor at Ciro's, Monte Carlo, Lord Wandsworth, Lord Savile, Lord Westbury, all at the Hotel de Paris, Monte Carlo, M. Santos Dumont, M. Henri Rochefort and the Duc de Dino all at the Hotel Metropole, Monte Carlo and the Grand Duke Michael of Russia . alamy.com . 20 July 2023 . en . 1913.
  24. https://variety.com/2020/film/news/audrey-hepburn-roman-holiday-dancer-1234803174/ "Audrey Hepburn: 'Roman Holiday' Star Started as Nightclub Dancer,"
  25. Web site: Andrew MacElhone Dies. New York Daily News. 20 September 1996.
  26. Web site: Ciro's Club. British. Pathé. Britishpathe.com.
  27. Web site: Ciro's (1953). https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211221/lS_eUUe6TQw . 2021-12-21 . live. British Pathé. 13 April 2014. YouTube.
  28. Web site: A Night At Ciro's (1932). Aaron1912. 20 September 2010. YouTube.
  29. Book: Williams. Olivia. Gin Glorious Gin:How Mother's Ruin Became the Spirit of London. 2014. Headline Publishing Group. London. 978-1-4722-1534-5.
  30. Book: Hindson, Catherine. London's West End Actresses and the Origins of Celebrity Charity, 1880-1920. 1 June 2016. University of Iowa Press. 198. 9781609384258. Google Books .
  31. Web site: Ciro's Club Coon Orchestra . Redhotjazz.com.
  32. Web site: Audrey Hepburn exhibition staged at National Portrait Gallery. 3 December 2014. Independent.co.uk.
  33. Web site: The Coming of Ciro's to London - THE INTERACTIVE WAR NEWS. Illustratedfirstworldwar.com.
  34. Book: "JIMMY" LATE OF CIRO'S LONDON . Cocktails . 1930 . David McKay . Philadelphia . 7 August 2020.
  35. Web site: Hollywood Filmograph . 1934 . Hollywood Filmograph . Feb. 17, 1934 ... Ciro's (formerly the Club New Yorker) threw its doors open Wednesday night to the public. It was one of the swellest turn-outs we have seen in some time. Harold Lloyd dropped in with his wife, Mildred, and ... Mrs. Buckley's party. Mario Alverez's orchestra furnished the music. The place is being operated by Erich Alexander, George Sorel and Louis Adlon, Jr. .
  36. Web site: VM-175B . Historic Films . en . HOLLYWOOD 1935 - 03:11:50 - Montage, Hollywood Landmarks: Ciro's, Earl Carrol Theater, Cocoanut Grove..
  37. Web site: Erich-Alexander Winds. IMDb.com. 24 October 2018.
  38. Web site: George Sorel. IMDb.com. 24 October 2018.
  39. Web site: 1940: Ciro's Opens. Playgroundtothestars.com.
  40. Web site: 'Miami Swank—and Its Opposite' By Thomas Hine . Interior designer George Farkas ... designed Miami Beach's Ciro's nightclub . 2014-05-01 . https://web.archive.org/web/20171210225545/https://www.neh.gov/humanities/2007/novemberdecember/feature/miami-swank%E2%80%94and-its-opposite . 2017-12-10 . dead.
  41. Web site: Ciro's. Meditations on a Widening Circle: Miami Beach .
  42. Web site: Nightclubs: Long Ago On Miami Beach, "Ciro's: At Alton Road and Dade Boulevard". https://web.archive.org/web/20140502013545/http://snbauthor.blogspot.com/2012/05/nightclub-ads-long-ago-on-miami-beach.html. dead. May 2, 2014.
  43. Book: Wondrich . David . Rothbaum . Noah . The Oxford Companion to Spirits and Cocktails . 21 October 2021 . . 978-0-19-931113-2 . en . Ciro’s . was a chain of restaurants that from the 1890s through the 1950s...With outposts in Monte Carlo, Paris, London, the French resorts of Deauville and Bagnères de Luchon, and eventually Berlin, Hollywood, and New York...in the late 1930s there were wildcat Ciro’s operating in Philadelphia, Chicago, Miami Beach, Honolulu, Acapulco, Mexico City, and a host of other places..

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