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Old Posted Jan 28, 2021, 6:08 AM
Martin Pal Martin Pal is offline
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Originally Posted by Martin Pal View Post
Moving on down the block... (to be continued)

Moving east from The Galaxy and Galaxy Overflow, we come to the location that in 1955 opened as The Unicorn Book Loft/Coffee House at 8907 Sunset Blvd. It's said to be one of the first coffee houses in LA.

Here's a beatnik style poster of The Unicorn. Something tells me it's probably a recreation or artist's rendering of the original place.



CLICK ON THE POSTER FOR A LARGER, MORE READABLE, BUT LESS COLORFUL VERSION.

The following has been attributed to Domenic Priore, author of "Riot on Sunset Strip: Rock 'n' Roll's Last Stand in the 60's":
Unicorn was opened by Herb Cohen and Victor Maymudes in 1955. It was the first beatnik coffee house in Los Angeles. It was a place where the young rebels of the day congregated to drink coffee, listen to live music, conduct poetry readings and play chess. The walls inside of the Unicorn were painted dark with paintings of nude women (hung upside down) and photos of beatnik heroes covering the walls. The waitresses were hip, beautiful, blunt and mean!
It was ground zero of the emerging counter-culture in the late '50s and early '60s and advertised itself with slogans such as "Where casual craznicks climb circular charcoal curbs for cool calculated confabulations". The young kids would come together to discuss poetry, politics and religion, all while sipping their brandy flavored latte's.


They also sold books in the upstairs loft. I know there was a bookstore in West Hollywood at 8920 Santa Monica Blvd. called The Unicorn. I don't know when it opened but it was there in the late 70's. I wonder if when the coffee house closed they opened a bookstore with the loft bookshop? See HERE.

Warner Bros. album from 1958. The cover photo was taken inside The Unicorn. If you look at the upper right of this photo, behind the chandelier, you can see the "Unicorn" sign on the back wall.

Discogs

CLICK THE ALBUM COVER FOR A LARGER SIZE VERSION.

Here is a rare 1959 photo taken at The Unicorn's entrance: (The Unicorn looks more like a bull to me.)




I discovered this small Unicorn photo (for sale or already sold?) on WorthPoint today! Another RARE photo!
And thanks to the kindness of HossC, , I can post it here now!


WorthPoint and HossC

The writing on the back says "Side view of The Unicorn, a coffee house on Sunset Strip. 1-11-59" (!)
The photo is taken from the opposite direction to the one above.
On the photo itself is the writing "Hamburger Heaven" and an arrow to a spot in the distance on the photo. (I'm guessing they meant Hamburger Hamlet.)




Priore: In 1963, Lenny Bruce was booked to play a show at the Unicorn and was arrested after the performance for violating California's obscenity law and put on trial for that performance.

The ad at top for the Unicorn announces Bruce's upcoming performance:


In 1966, the Paul Butterfield Blues Band recorded a live album at the Unicorn.



The Unicorn closed in 1966 and it became Sneeky Pete's.

1966: You can see the striped awning for it below, behind the telephone pole. (Apparently Pete's moved the entrance to the left side of the premises, whereas The Unicorn used the right side as an entrance.)

............................



You can see the striped awning for it in the distance from this 1967 photo looking through the Whiskee á-Go Go's awning. And notice, yes, it is spelled "Sneeky."

VintageLos Angeles

As for the spelling of Whiskee, someone writes: "The City pressured them into changing the spelling to Whiskee to avoid the liquor connotation of the original and present Whisky spelling to the younger crowd (under 21) that they were trying to keep out of the clubs. This was around the time of the Sunset Strip Riots."

I have to say, changing the spelling of Whisky or Whiskey to Whiskee isn't going to fool any reasonably intelligent teenager, is it? Advertisers have been doing those cute spellings for their products as far back as I can remember.



A color photo I hadn't seen before of the 1966 Sunset Strip protests around these times:


An original Sneeky Pete's Menu:



Several sources say that, apparently, Pete's was a mob hangout.

Allison Martino writes: Sneeky Pete’s was popular with wise-guys (there was even a photo of Al Capone in the men’s rest room). It was also popular for show biz entertainers like Miles Davis and Johnny Carson. In fact Johnny used to sit in on the drums. | VLA/Facebook


Sneeky Pete's was around until the late 1970's. A 1973 photo:


By 1973 it looks like all the places on that block to the west that I've been covering so far are now gone!

Moving on down the block...(to be continued)

Last edited by Martin Pal; Jan 28, 2021 at 8:28 PM. Reason: inserted new photos
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