Recently I visited the Palo Alto High School Flea Market and bought a bunch of old matchbooks (or actually, I think the enthusiast’s term would be “matchbook covers”) from two brothers who were liquidating their father’s collection. Usually I don’t bother looking at matchbooks because they’ll be a couple dollars each, making it kind of an investment to buy more than two or three. But these were ten cents each (maybe because most of them had their strikers cut off) and I couldn’t resist picking out over sixty that looked interesting. I know nothing about collecting matchbooks, so I just gravitated towards those that mentioned old Los Angeles and Bay Area locations, plus anything with a railway on it.
So far I’ve compiled information about the places advertised on about half of the matchbooks; see below. Direct quotes are shown in block format. Click all images for larger versions.
You will find relaxation, refreshment, entertainment and pleasant education in the Brazilian Pavilion, located in the heart of the international area on Treasure Island. Be our guests at Cafe Brazil, where you may sip real Brazilian coffee or mate amid restful tropic surroundings. Between four and seven a gay Brazilian orchestra will play for you in the Tropical Court, rich and green with South American trees, ferns and vines.
This store was located at 10861 Le Conte Avenue, Westwood, Los Angeles.1
The former 225,000-square-foot department store was designed in 1950 by Welton Becket & Associates, the trend-setting architectural firm known for the downtown Music Center and Hollywood’s Capitol Records building.
The Bullock’s was built with a modernist blend of concrete, tile and stone accented by walls of glass. Its signature feature was a trio of free-standing, glass-windowed display boxes on Le Conte Avenue across from UCLA.
— “Converting Bullock’s to Ralphs a Landmark Decision,” Los Angeles Times, October 8, 2001
In 1910, he [Fred Swanton] undertook construction of Casa del Rey Hotel across from the Casino2 which was designed to replace approximately 200 cottages that had developed from a popular “tent city” … The hotel, which in its later years served as a retirement home, survived until the 1989 earthquake, after which it was demolished.
— Economic Development of the City of Santa Cruz, 1850–1950, Suzan Lehmann, 2000.
You may fly as high as you wish and still keep one foot on the ground in the new “COCKPIT BAR”! A continental rendezvous for lunch, cocktail hour, dinner, supper. Delicious drinks at popular prices. Come out and watch the airplanes fly. The “COCKPIT BAR” is open from 12:00 noon to 2:00 A.M. daily. Bring your friends and come often to this smart and unique bar at Grand Central Air Terminal, Glendale, Calif.
— Table-tent advertising the Cockpit Bar, via Grand Central Air Terminal Rehabilitation document (page 12 at link).
Glendale was home to Los Angeles’s first commercial airport, Grand Central Air Terminal (GCAT) … Designed by architect Henry L. Gogerty and completed in 1930, GCAT combines Spanish Colonial Revival and Art Deco design.
The airport shuttered in 1959, and the property became a light industrial business park.
One of Glendale’s most historic buildings … is being restored by the Walt Disney Co.
The Grand Central Air Terminal, located on Disney’s Grand Central Creative Campus off of Flower Street, will be given a total makeover to restore its appearance from the 1929–1959 period while also serving as an events space and visitor center as well as housing media offices.
— “Glendale restoration plan takes flight,” Los Angeles Times, April 6, 2013
In 1938, Union Pacific transferred the M-10004, which had been operating as the City of San Francisco, to City of Los Angeles service, thus increasing service on that route from five to ten times a month. Before putting the train on that route, UP extensively remodeled it, calling the revised train the LA-4. The remodel converted what had been a baggage car into a lounge-observation car known as the Copper King. Like the Frontier Shack and Little Nugget cars, the interior of this car was designed by Walt Kuhn. The walls of the lounge were electroplated with copper, which must have given it a spectacular appearance.
Fred Harvey restaurants were once a famous chain of eateries that served railroad depots. Part of the chain’s mystique were the Harvey Girls, the proper young women who came west to work in the restaurants and, in the process, civilized rowdy towns. Harvey Girls were immortalized on the silver screen in the 1946 film The Harvey Girls starring Judy Garland. The song “On the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe,” which she sang in the film, won an Academy Award for Best Original Song.
Mary Colter, best known for designing many of the buildings at the Grand Canyon, designed the Fred Harvey restaurant at L.A.’s Union Station. … [It] opened in 1939 and closed in 1967. It was only used for filming and special events until October 2018, when it reopened as the Imperial Western Beer Company.
In the beginning there was an idea, an idea to celebrate in some fitting manner the completion of the two San Francisco Bay Bridges, one the longest single suspension span in the world, and the other the largest structure of its kind in the history of man. The idea took form in the proposal for an Exposition, a World’s Fair in keeping with the magnitude of the projects it was to celebrate.
— Treasure Island: “The Magic City” 1939–1940. Jack James and Earle Weller, Pisani Printing and Publishing Company, 1941.
Inaugurated in 1929, the Empire Builder was Great Northern’s premier Chicago-to-Seattle/Portland train. It was named after [Great Northern founder] James J. Hill, the “Empire Builder.”
Note that in 1946, Glacier National Park reopened on June 15th after being closed for the duration of World War II. Perhaps the “June 15th” on this matchbook refers specifically to this date, or maybe Glacier National Park opened around the same time for the summer season every year.
In addition to owning many acres of vacant land in the Berkeley and Oakland hills that they hoped to develop into home sites, syndicate partners Frank Havens and Francis M. Smith operated a network of intercity trains, ferries and streetcars connecting the East Bay to San Francisco. They envisioned a genteel resort for guests who could travel over from San Francisco via streetcars that came right up to the hotel’s front entrance. Gardens, verandas, fog-free days and breathtaking views were all part of the package.
Smith and Havens chose locally prominent architect Charles W. Dickey (a classmate of Julia Morgan’s) to design the sprawling half-timbered hunting lodge-looking complex. It opened in 1915 in time for tourists flocking to California to attend the Panama Pacific International Exposition.
— “Claremont Hotel is a towering East Bay landmark.” The Mercury News, November 4, 2011.
The hotel originally opened in February 1907 as the Hotel Wentworth, partially completed with a temporary roof above the fourth floor. …
Railroad tycoon and art collector Henry Huntington purchased the Hotel Wentworth in 1911, renaming it the Huntington Hotel. Huntington hired prominent Los Angeles architect Myron Hunt to redesign the main building and grounds. It reopened in 1914, transformed into a beautiful winter resort. …
The hotel continued operating until 1985 when it was forced to close because of its inability to meet earthquake structural standards. After a two and a half year major renovation,3 the hotel reopened in March 1991 as The Ritz-Carlton, Huntington Hotel. The Ritz-Carlton Company managed the property until January 2008, when Langham Hospitality Group purchased the property and it became The Langham Huntington, Pasadena.
1972: Kings Island, owned by Taft Broadcasting, officially opened on April 29, 1972 after two years of construction. Located approximately 30 miles north of Cincinnati, it replaced Cincinnati’s Coney Island … International Street was the entrance to the park and themed as a European village. It included the Eiffel Tower (observation tower provided by Intamin and Waagner-Biro)
1973: A new restaurant, International Restaurant, was added above the park entrance.
Auburn’s new Motel, at the upper end of High street, is nearing completion. It is being built by John A. Raffetto, Jr. of Placerville. We imagine, from the description, it will be similar to the Ivy Motel at Placerville.
Following is an account of the opening of the Ivy Motel, which took place September 1st, 1937. To quote the Placerville Republican:
“The new structure, consisting of fourteen bedrooms with sound-proof walls, and with a bath for each room, five of which are equipped with kitchenettes, was built and furnished in forty-three working days, following the ground-breaking.
“The building, representing an investment of more than $20,000, is on the property immediately east of the old Ivy Hotel at the junction of Main and Cedar Ravine streets and is designed as the first unit of a two-unit tourist housing establishment.
“Erected in an “L” shape along the easterly and northerly boundaries of the property, all fourteen bedrooms have baths and are on the second deck of the structure. The first deck includes a garage for each bedroom.
“While the building is designed to provide an attractive headquarters for tourist visitors to Placerville and El Dorado County in season, quarters will be available to permanent residents, Mr. Raffetto has announced.”
— “The Auburn Motel.” The Placer Herald, April 22, 1939.
His name was Giuseppe Paolo Di Maggio and he came from the community of Isola Delle Femmine, an islet off the coast of Sicily, where the Di Maggios had been fishermen for generations. Known as Zio Pepe, he migrated to the town of Martinez, a small fishing community some 25 miles northeast of the Golden Gate. In 1915, hearing of the luckier waters of San Francisco, he packed his fishing boat with his furniture and his family and docked at Fisherman’s Wharf in San Francisco. …
Three of [his] sons went on from Fisherman’s Wharf to become the greatest baseball playing family in the history of the game, one of them being the immortal Joe Di Maggio, the Yankee Clipper.
With the baseball Di Maggios earning more money than any fisherman ever dreamed, Joe first bought a new home for his folks in the Marina District, and still comfortably near the Wharf. In 1937, the Di Maggios decided to open a restaurant on the Wharf, called “Joe Di Maggio’s Grotto,” and the huge electric sign showed Joe in his familiar baseball hitting stance. The walls of the restaurant itself were lined with pictures of Joe’s and Dom’s and Vince’s baseball buddies. Tom took over management of the restaurant and it proved an excellent opportunity for the older Di Maggio to retire gracefully from fishing.
In December of 1920, the Knott family drove their Model T Ford from central California to Buena Park for a fresh start with Walter Knott’s cousin Jim Preston, an experienced berry farmer. Together, they leased land from William H. Coughran and Walter began farming berries. … Through hard work, the Knott family was able to buy their land in 1927 and build a home the following year along with a permanent Berry Market which replaced the simple roadside stand. Along with the market there was a nursery to sell plants and even a little Tea Room where Walter’s wife, Cordelia, sold sandwiches, jams and pies made from the Farm’s berries. They called it Knott’s Berry Place. …
In 1934 Cordelia had an idea that would change everything. On a June evening, Cordelia made eight fried chicken dinners for her Tea Room guests. Served alongside salad with rhubarb, biscuits, vegetables, mashed potatoes with gravy, and berry pie on the family’s wedding china, the dinner cost 65 cents. Walter recalled the moment was “the turning point in our economic life.” It was really the turning point that would transform a farm into a theme park. … In 1947 Walter named his expanding enterprise Knott’s Berry Farm.
1938: Lawrence Frank and Walter Van de Kamp partner again to set a new standard for dining with Lawry’s The Prime Rib in Beverly Hills. Its unique single-entree menu features the standing rib-roast Sunday dinner of Lawrence’s boyhood.
Lawry’s, Inc., 150 N. La Cienega Blvd. Dinner only. A huge, succulent beef roast is wheeled to the table, and cut to individual order.
— Los Angeles: A Guide to the City and Its Environs, WPA Writers’ Program, 1941.
Soon after the Port Authority of NY & NJ acquired the Holland Tunnel in 1930, New York and New Jersey authorized the agency to proceed with its plan to build what was then called the Midtown Hudson Tunnel. Creating a 1.5-mile-long structure, even above ground, would be no small accomplishment, but to build it under a riverbed was a monumental task. Hundreds of huge iron rings, each weighing 21 tons, had to be assembled and bolstered together on-site to form the lining of the tunnel. …
The first tube of the Lincoln Tunnel—the center tube—opened to traffic two years later, on December 22, 1937. The north and south tubes opened on February 1, 1945, and May 25, 1957, respectively.
The former Mike Lyman’s Flight Deck Building is being torn down to make way for expansion of American Airlines’ cargo terminal. The Flight Deck was built in 1946, the same year the airlines moved operations from Burbank to new facilities at International.
Conspicuously out of place in the hart of what is now the airport’s bustling Cargo City complex, the faded little two-story building once was the center of activity for arriving and departing air travelers and sightseers.
In addition to the then-famous restaurant and flower and gift shop which occupied most of the second floor, the building also housed the U.S. Weather Bureau, offices for the Los Angeles Police Department, Airport Security, and the FAA’s Flight Service Station. …
Since the Flight Deck was the only restaurant on the airport in 1946, it played host to many of the world’s best-known personalities.
One of its most popular attractions was its outside observation area which overlooked the airfield.
The restaurant closed in March 1962 after the airlines move their operations west of Sepulveda Blvd. to the new jet-age terminal.
— “Flight Deck Being Wrecked for L.A. Airport Expansion.” William J. McCance, Los Angeles Times, June 29, 1969.
Michael “Mike” Lyman was born Issac Simon in Chicago in 1887 to Fannie and Jacob Simon, who had come to the USA from Europe in 1885. … By 1916 he’d changed his name to Mike Lyman and was living in Los Angeles…
On April 23, 1935, Mike Lyman opened his first namesake cocktail lounge and grill at 751 S. Hill Street, location of the former Herbert’s Cafeteria.
The most interesting thing here is the reference to the “new Pasa. to L. A. Speedway.” This was, of course, the Arroyo Seco Parkway, whose first segment opened in 1939. The gas station’s location of “Broadway & California” is also notable, as Broadway Street was renamed Arroyo Parkway in 19414 to reflect the freeway to which it connected.5
The Mona Lisa invite their many friends and patrons to visit their new cafe—“The Rendezvous of the Epicurean.” Now open to the public: 3343 Wilshire Blvd. at Catalina (opposite Ambassador Hotel). Under same management as Musso and Frank Grill, Hollywood, and the Mona Lisa Cafe on W. 7th St. Serving luncheon, dinner and a la carte at popular prices. Special banquet and card rooms seating parties up to 300. An institution built on years of service and quality under the personal supervision of Madame Musso.
— Advertisement, Los Angeles Times, September 20, 1930.
Wally Sackin & Son: Auction—Today. By arrangement with Internal Revenue Service, Approx. $75,000.00 Evaluated. World Famous Mona Lisa Restaurant … Kitchen—Cocktail Lounge—Dining Room Eqpt.—Banquet Rooms … All to be sold piece by piece for removal in 24 hours.
— Advertisement, Los Angeles Times, February 2, 1969.
The iconic Blossom Ballroom was the site of the first Academy Awards in 1929.
[Harry] Owens was born in 1902 in Nebraska, but got his musical start as a boy in Montana, where he learned to play the cornet in a small band on an Indian reservation. At 14, he was playing vaudeville acts, but he wound up studying law—and hating it—in Los Angeles. During a break from his studies one night, he wrote a song that sold a million copies of sheet music in six months, and his career as a budding lawyer was finished. In 1934, Owens was invited to move to Hawai’i and reorganize the orchestra at the posh Royal Hawaiian. … Owens didn’t remain in the Islands after 1941, when he ended a three-year Mainland tour. Sadly, he would say: “The Islands—they weren’t beautiful to me anymore.”
— “Harry Owens.” The Honolulu Advertiser, July 2, 2006.
Playland began a series of waffle stands, shooting galleries, and other concessions at San Francisco’s Ocean Beach designed to remove recreation-seekers from their nickels. … The small gathering of carnival games and refreshment stands around the train station expanded in the 1910s when Charles I. D. Looff installed a carousel (officially a “Looff Hippodrome”), and John Friedle, who operated a candy stand and a few games, began to think big. …
After the famous Big Dipper wooden roller coaster was built in 1922, and a larger Fun House in 1923, instant-photo studio operator George K. Whitney began buying up smaller leased concessions in the amusement park. In 1928, he and his brother Leo, purchased much of John Friedle’s investment (Looff had already moved on), and the Whitney Brothers renamed the park Playland at the Beach. Through the late 1920s and early 1930s, the Whitney acquired more and more of the game and restaurant operations in the park. They built new rides, renovated old ones, and added different restaurants, food stands, and transformed the old Ocean Beach Pavilion building into a restaurant and dance hall called “Topsy’s Roost.” They took over the Cliff House from the Sutro Family in 1936, and, after Leo Whitney retired, George bought the Sutro Baths complex in the 1950s.
The park was purchased by developers and closed forever on Labor Day, September 4, 1972. After a sad auction of attractions and memorabilia (the carousel was saved and still runs at Yerba Buena Gardens) the park was demolished and became the site of condominium complexes that stand at the beach today.
The larger of the two Senate dining rooms was built as part of a renovation in 1960. Gone are days of rich Southern fare — fried chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy—but the food is tasty enough, with offerings like bacon and eggs at breakfast and a crab-cake sandwich or grilled salmon salad at lunch. The service is efficient, especially for senators, who are known by name and greeted with a smile or nod before being shown to their table. …
When former Senator Christopher J. Dodd, Democrat of Connecticut, was first elected to the chamber in 1980, he recalled, he would show up in the senators-only dining room on any given afternoon to find some of the titans of the Senate—Edward M. Kennedy and Daniel Patrick Moynihan on the Democratic side, and Jesse Helms and Strom Thurmond on the Republican side, for instance—eating lunch and carrying on about topics that “ranged from the silly and ridiculous to the very substantive and important.” …
“In the last seven or so years of my service, that room became nothing more than a vacant room,” said Mr. Dodd, who retired at the end of his fifth term in 2010 and is now chairman and chief executive of the Motion Picture Association of America.
Both dining rooms now barely resemble their previous incarnations. The senators-only dining room has all but ceased to exist. Lawmakers still frequent the Senate Dining Room, but more out of convenience or to take constituents, interns or guests.
— “On Senate Menu, Bean Soup and a Serving of ‘Hyperpartisanship.’” The New York Times, August 19, 2014.
Delivered in 1937, the third generation of streamliners addressed many of the problems of the first two generations. … The trains were pulled by three-unit engines designated E2s. These were mechanically similar to the Santa Fe’s E1s, with two 900-HP Diesels for a total of 5,400-HP in all three locos. The lead locomotives featured a smooth face that was slightly bulbous, sometimes known as bulldog-style, instead of slanted like the E1s.
With these trains, the Union Pacific finally gave up on the “motorcar” numbering system and numbered one set of new locomotives LA-1, -2, and -3 (for the City of Los Angeles) and the other SF-1, -2, and -3 (for City of San Francisco).
So far, I’ve only looked up the La Cañada location.
Before Chef’s Inn, a restaurant called Mount Vernon House was at 734 Foothill Boulevard. Chef’s Inn opened in late 1953 or early 1954.6
In 1960, the La Cañada Chef’s Inn was involved with what might have been one of the most important court decisions of the twentieth century:
The constitutionality of a county ordinance prohibiting guests singing spontaneously in restaurants will be contested Wednesday in Glendale Municipal Court. Robert Hill, owner of a cafe at 734 Foothill Blvd., La Cañada, was cited Jan. 30 by deputy sheriffs for permitting guests to sing at his piano bar without having an entertainment license.
Ordinance Questioned
Carl B. Sturzenacker, Hill’s attorney and also attorney for the Tavern Owners’ Assn., said he doubts the ordinance, which includes guests as well as professional entertainers in the same category, is constitutional.
Hill, who said he was not present at his establishment the night the citation was issued, said he was unaware he was required by law to make his guests refrain from singing if they started spontaneously,
Club Groups Sing
He said service clubs and group meetings at his place frequently sing as a body and no one ever has complained about it.
Municipal Judge Kenneth White said he will hear arguments on the constitutionality of the ordinance at 9:30 a.m. Wednesday. Arguing will be Hill’s attorney and Dep. Dist. Atty. Owen Boon, representing the prosecution.
The constitutionality of a county ordinance prohibiting guests singing in restaurants not having an entertainment license will be ruled on by Municipal Judge Kenneth White at 9:45 a.m. Wednesday in Glendale Municipal Court.
The constitutionality of the law was challenged by Robert Hill, owner of a restaurant at 734 Foothill Blvd., La Cañada, after he was cited Jan. 30 by deputy sheriffs for permitting guests to sing at his piano bar without having an entertainment license.
Carl B. Sturzenacker, Hill’s attorney and also attorney for the Tavern Owners’ Assn., argued the constitutionality of the law with Dep. Dist. Atty. Owen Boon before Judge White Wednesday in Glendale Municipal Court.
Burden Cited
Sturzenacker said he felt the law placed too large a burden on the restaurant owner. He said an owner, in order to keep from violating the law, must ask any guest who might sing spontaneously to music being played to refrain or leave.
Boon said the law doesn’t prohibit singing but requires a restaurant owner to have an entertainment license, which regulates the activity in establishments.
Boon said Hill is being charged with operating without a license and not for allowing singing in his establishment.
Robert Hill, owner of the Chef’s Inn Restaurant at 734 Foothill Blvd., La Cañada, was found innocent in Glendale Municipal Court Wednesday of permitting his guests to sing without an entertainment license. Judge Kenneth A. White explained that Hill had never been notified of the requirement and the verdict of innocent made a ruling on the constitutionality of the law unnecessary.
Things quieted down after that.
Another place where little, deep fat fried, Detroit-style frog legs are available is the Chef’s Inn, on Foothill Blvd. in La Cañada. They are prepared by Jerry Schroeder, chef there for many years, who recently bought the popular restaurant from longtime owner Bob Hill.
— “Roundabout with Art Ryon.” Los Angeles Times, January 27, 1964.
Between 1974 and 1980, the La Cañada Chef’s Inn closed.7 After cycling through a few more restaurants (Reflections,7 Cou Cou Grill8), the location settled on Dish in 2002.9 As of 2023, Dish remains open.
The man who was probably the most wonderful liar of the 20th-Century U.S., and certainly its most successful impostor, turned respectable almost aginst his will in 1940. In that year, “Price Michael Alexandrovitch Dmitry Obelensky Romanoff,” who was born Harry F. Gerguson 55 years ago, possibly in Brooklyn, opened a Beverly Hills restaurant with $7,500 borrowed from a host of incredulous friends, among them Robert Benchley, Cary Grant, Darryl Zanuck and John Hay Whitney. Today his eating establishment caters to Hollywood’s great, grosses close to $700,000 a year and nets Mike Romanoff an honest $75,000.
But Mike’s disintegration into an honest businesmann has amazed and saddened his friends. In a long and arrogant career of phony splendor Mike has passed himself off, invariably with initial success, as the son of the late Prime Minister William Gladstone; as the man who killed Rasputin; and less exotically, as William Rockefeller and William K. Vanderbilt. His greatest impersonation was Prince Romanoff, cousin of the late czar. Under one alias or another, Mike has cheated the tradesmen of two continents out of choice food, rare wines and luxurious lodging. He has been royally entertained by the wealthy of New York City, Hollywood and intermediate points, once sold a priceless old master for $1,500 while it still hung on the wall of a municipal museum and once stole a suitcase from the son of the late Andrew Mellon. Mike made a fine art of passing worthless checks and wound up in countless jails, one of his longest stays being five months in New York City’s Tombs. In 1921 he was tossed out of England for “impersonating and marauding,” hotfooted it for France where a rash of bad checks forced him to migrate to America. Mike always thrived on being discovered and exposed. The people he duped became very fond of the dauntless impostor and began to consider it almost a privilege to be bilked by him.
His current affluence has not noticeably dimmed the arrogance which has always been a big part of Mike’s charm. He snubs most of his customers, is particularly contemptuous of phonies, almost always lunches in lone splendor with his two dogs and is chagrined to find that honest toil is so rewarding.
— LIFE Goes to Mike Romanoff’s Restaurant, LIFE Magazine, October 29, 1945
Today, we’re excited to share a vintage matchbook from the early 1940s. During that time, Catalina Island’s brochures and matchbooks boasted “Everything for Your Enjoyment” and it was true!
The artist that designed this matchbook is Otis Shepard. The Shepards (Otis and his wife Dorothy) are the unsung giants of early 20th Century North American visual culture. … For the island, they created more than just advertisements and matchbooks. They were instrumental in branding the whole island experience from the moment you boarded the steamer to signage around Avalon to the uniforms of workers running tours and much more!⠀
— Catalina Museum for Art & History on Facebook (post 1, post 2)
The Coast Daylight was a passenger train run by the Southern Pacific Railroad between Los Angeles and San Francisco, California. … The streamlined Daylight began running on March 21, 1937. Initially 12 Pullman passenger cars were hauled by GS-2 steam locomotives. …
Within a few years the Coast Daylight had the highest ridership numbers in the country. … SP placed an order for more streamlined cars and when they received the new equipment in 1940 they turned the Coast Daylight into the Morning Daylight which ran with 14 cars. The older 1937 cars from the Coast Daylight became the mid-day train called the Noon Daylight. Also streamlined was the Sunbeam (Texas Daylight), the San Joaquin Daylight which ran through California’s Central Valley between Oakland and Los Angeles, and the Lark which ran between San Francisco and Los Angeles at night.
With ridership still booming, by May 1940 SP found it necessary to order 51 more cars, 22 for the Morning Daylight and the rest for the Lark, Noon, and San Joaquin Daylights. Like the Morning and Noon Daylights, the Shasta Daylight became a popular passenger train in northern California. Starting in 1949, the Shasta Daylight began operating between Oakland California and Portland Oregon with beautiful country and mountain scenery.
Page 407 of the 1952 Santa Monica city directory lists “Tahiti South Seas” as a beer bar at 327 Broadway, owned by George and Ann Gibrace.
I couldn’t find any specific references to “Herman’s Club Cafe” when briefly searching old city directories. But the 3329 Washington Boulevard address turned up a couple times in old newspapers. In 1946, it was “Curt’s Tropic Isle”10 and in 1961, still as the “Tropic Isle,” its fixtures were put up for sale,11 possibly marking the restaurant going out of business.
Based on this, Tahiti and Herman’s Club Cafe existed together sometime before 1946. Some investigation into the phone numbers printed on the matchbook (which, notably, don’t have exchange names) could narrow this down further.
We are very proud to announce the opening of Trader Vic’s in San Francisco.12 It is something I have wanted to do for a good many years. During that time I have collected many ideas and materials to create a pleasant background for comfortable dining. I hope you will visit us.
— Trader Vic’s advertisement, San Francisco Examiner, November 12, 1951.
Tuesday night was the end of an era. An era beginning with the opening of a hole in the wall named Hinky Dinks in 1934 and [ending with] the closing of the now plush original Trader Vic’s at 65th Street and San Pablo Avenue. …
A new Trader Vic’s located at Watergate in Emeryville will open Dec. 6. … The Trader, Victor J. Bergeron, didn’t attend the closing of the “mother church,” because, he said, “I’m a very emotional man. I didn’t want to get a lump in my throat the size of a roadapple.” …
The original small building included a bar, two booths, two pinball machines and two restrooms. Vic acted as bartender and cook. In 1938 the name was changed to Trader Vic’s after a visit to Don the Beachcomber’s in Los Angeles. “I looked over his place for a week, and decided I could build a better mousetrap,” says the Trader. … “We changed the name from Hinky Dinks because it wasn’t a name we could build on. Trader Vic’s is a name that can earn a reputation.”
— “New Home, New Era for Trader Vic’s.” Oakland Tribune, November 23, 1972.
In April 1933, newcomer Billy Wilkerson leased the property [6666 Sunset Boulevard, Los Angeles] and began converting it into a deli/restaurant. Wilkerson was publisher of the new trade journal Hollywood Reporter, with offices across the street at 6717 Sunset just west of Las Palmas. The deli/cafe, to be called Vendome, would offer dining service as well as gourmet grocery items imported primarily from Fortnum & Mason (“F&M”) in London. …
In November 1938, Wilkerson sold both Vendome and Cafe Trocadero and went on to open Ciro’s on the Strip at 8433 Sunset. Vendome’s fixtures and equipment were offered for sale at auction.
The Yosemite Park and Curry Company (YP&CC) was organized in 1925 when Yosemite National Park’s two largest concessionaires, the Yosemite National Park Co. (previously the D.J. Desmond Co.) which operated the Yosemite Lodge and other smaller enterprises at Yosemite, and the Curry Camping Co. which operated Camp Curry, merged. … After several ownership changes, MCA, Inc. took control of YP&CC in 1973, operating the concession until the NPS awarded a new contract to Delaware North Company in 1993.
During its sixty-eight years of operation, YP&CC interactions with the NPS set many precedents for concessionaire operations in the national park system, and played an influential role in the development of tourism in California. Among the Company’s most significant activities was the development of a strong winter sports infrastructure and tradition at Yosemite including construction and operation of Badger Pass, California’s first down-hill ski area; establishment of the Yosemite Winter Club; and creation of the Bracebridge Dinner. Among other accomplishments, the company also expanded the High Sierra Camps and created the Yosemite Mountaineering School.
A Los Angeles bowling alley that opened in 1939. The only interior photo I’ve found is at this link.
Announcement of the opening date of the Southwest’s newest bowling palace was made this week by Harold Gelber and A.L. Myers, proprietors of Twentieth Century Recreation, 5721 South Western Avenue. The [newer bowling alley] is set to open its doors November 15, just one year since the partners started their Western Avenue alleys.
— “Opening of New Bowling Alleys Set.” The Los Angeles Southwest Wave, September 17, 1940.
This was the Casino building at the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk, which is visible on the right side of the matchbook picture and still exists today. ↩
More accurately, the original main building of the Huntington Hotel was completely demolished, with a modern replica built in its place. ↩
“New Street Name Now ‘Official.’” The Pasadena Post, June 19, 1941. ↩
The official position might have actually been that Broadway Street itself was now part of the Arroyo Seco Parkway; I’m not really sure. ↩
Last found mention of Mount Vernon House: advertisement. South Pasadena Review, August 27, 1953, page 8. First found mention of La Cañada Chef’s Inn: “Employment Offered (Men)” classified ad column. Pasadena Independent, August 2, 1954, page 28. ↩
Last found mention of La Cañada Chef’s Inn: “Background Bared in Way You Eat,” Nancy Batald. Los Angeles Times, April 28, 1974. First found mention of a different restaurant (Reflections) at the same location: advertisement, Los Angeles Times, November 2, 1980, page 76. ↩ ↩2
“Bright Lights, Big Menu at Cou Cou,” Michelle Huneven. Los Angeles Times, March 18, 1994. ↩
Dish received the 2003 “News-Press Reader’s Choice: Best New Restaurant” award, as reported in an advertising supplement in the Los Angeles Times, March 28, 2003. ↩
“I’m Seein’ Spots.” Venice Evening Vanguard, March 18, 1946. ↩
“Office Furnish’gs, Equip.” classified ad column. Los Angeles Times, February 12, 1961, page 47. ↩
For far more information about the San Francisco Trader Vic’s location, see this Tiki Central forum thread. ↩
And for much, much more information, see the National Park Service’s Camp Curry Historic District Cultural Landscape Report. ↩
