Ciro's

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

Ciro's combined an overdone baroque interior and an unadorned exterior and became a famous hangout for movie people of the 1940s, 1950s and early 1960s. It was one of "the" places to be seen and guaranteed being written about in the gossip columns of Hedda Hopper and Louella Parsons.

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.

In the 1960s, Ciro's became a Sunset Strip rock and roll club, and was the only major venue to make such a transition while keeping its original name. 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 other nightclubs on the Sunset Strip such as Cafe Trocadero and later The Flamingo in Las Vegas.

In 1977, after his second release from prison, serial killer Rodney Alcala's Los Angeles parole officer permitted him to travel back to New York City to visit relatives. NYPD cold-case investigators now believe that one week after arriving in Manhattan, Alcala killed Herman Hover's daughter, Ellen Jane Hover, 23, and buried her on the grounds of the Rockefeller Estate in Westchester County.^[2] Since his 1979 arrest for the rape and murder of a California girl, Alcala has been incarcerated in San Quentin and is now on Death Row.

The site of Ciro's became The Comedy Store in 1972.^[1]

Notable performers

• The Byrds
• Cab Calloway
• Carmen Cavallaro
• Nat King Cole
• Xavier Cugat
• Dick Dale and the Del-Tones
• Sammy Davis Jr.
• The Doors
• Katherine Dunham
• Duke Ellington
• Mitzi Green
• Merv Griffin
• Hildegarde
• Herb Jeffries
• Lisa Kirk
• Abbe Lane
• Gypsy Rose Lee
• Peggy Lee
• Joe E. Lewis
• Martin and Lewis
• Rose Marie
• Freddy Martin
• Tony Martin and Cyd Charisse
• Janis Paige
• Harry Richman
• Lili St. Cyr
• Hazel Scott
• Kay Thompson and The Williams Brothers
• Charles Trenet
• Dinah Washington
• Mae West

References

1. ^ ^{a b} Lord, Rosemary (2003). Hollywood Then and Now. San Diego, CA: Thunder Bay Press. p. 87. ISBN 1-59223-104-7. 
2. ^ Secret, Mosi (2011-01-26). "After Decades, Charges in 2 Manhattan Murders". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/27/nyregion/27unsolved.html?_r=1. Retrieved 2011-06-06.