Ciro's

Ciro's

Ciro's neon sign, 1955\
Location	8433 Sunset Boulevard West Hollywood, California United States
Coordinates	34°05′42″N 118°22′26″W / 34.094990°N 118.373806°W / 34.094990; -118.373806Coordinates: 34°05′42″N 118°22′26″W / 34.094990°N 118.373806°W / 34.094990; -118.373806
Type	Nightclub
Opened	1940
Closed	1957; transformed into rock & roll club in 1965 called Ciro's Le Disc; renamed The Kaleidoscope in 1967; in 1968 it became It's Boss; became The Comedy Store in 1972

Ciro's (later known as Ciro's Le Disc) was a nightclub in West Hollywood, California, at 8433 Sunset Boulevard,^[1] on the Sunset Strip, opened in January 1940 by entrepreneur William Wilkerson.^[2] Herman Hover took over management of Ciro's in 1942 until it closed its doors in 1957.^[3] Hover filed for bankruptcy in 1959, and Ciro's was sold at public auction for $350,000.^[4] 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.^[5][6]

Among the galaxy of celebrities who frequented Ciro's were Marilyn Monroe, Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall, Frank Sinatra, Ava Gardner, Sidney Poitier, Anita Ekberg, Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz, Joan Crawford, Betty Grable, Marlene Dietrich, Ginger Rogers, Ronald Reagan, Dean Martin, 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.^[7] In 1968, Ciro's became a Sunset Strip rock and roll club which was called "It's Boss" after being briefly renamed "Ciro's Le Disc" in 1965 and "The Kaleidoscope" two years later. The Byrds got their start there in 1964. 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: Live At Ciro's"

Co-founder Wilkerson also opened Cafe Trocadero, in 1934, and the restaurant La Rue, both on the Strip, and later originated The Flamingo in Las Vegas, only to have control of the resort wrested from his control by mobster Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel.

The site of Ciro's became The Comedy Store in 1972.^[2]

Notable performers

Ciro's Club and Restaurant Chain

The name Ciro's come from an italian born Ciro Capozzi who found the first Ciro's bar in Monaco around 1892, next to the café Riche in the newly build galerie Charles III. According to the story of James Gordon Bennett Jr., having a different about a table in terrasse, he bought the café Riche and give it to Ciro who name it the Ciro's. In 1911, Ciro Capozzi sell the name to an english consortium (including William Poulett, 7th Earl Poulett as main investor)^[8] who open the Deauville Ciro's (still existing as a restaurant belonging to the Groupe Lucien Barrière) the Paris Ciro's in 1912 and the London one in 1915. A European high society restaurant chain with branches in Monte Carlo, Paris, London and Deauville, where Harry MacElhone, famous for Harry's New York Bar began working at in London after World War I.^{[9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17]}

"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)^[18]

"Louis Adlon, grandson of the proprietor of Berlin’s Hotel Adlon opened Hollywood’s first iteration of Ciro’s in 1934^[19] (with Erich Alexander^[20] and George Sorel^[21]) 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."^[22]

References