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." The building was remodeled, and, in January 1940, Ciro's was opened by entrepreneur William Wilkerson at 8433 Sunset Boulevard. 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, who would make sure Ciro's was an important Hollywood hotspot until 1959. 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. Among the galaxy of
celebrities who frequented Ciro's were
Marilyn Monroe,
Humphrey Bogart and
Lauren Bacall,
Frank Sinatra,
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. 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. Herman Hover filed for bankruptcy in 1959, and Ciro's was sold at public auction for $350,000. 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.
The Byrds got their start at Ciro's Le Disc on March21, 1965. 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. The site of Ciro's became
The Comedy Store in 1972. ==Notable performers==