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Originally Posted by MartinTurnbull
Has anybody heard about this place before? I've just come across these photos in a article about the restaurant - Walt's - that Disney opened on Hollywood Blvd in 1935.
To paraphrase this article
http://www.harrymccracken.com/stuffby/eats/eats1.htm
Walt’s, the restaurant he opened in 1935 on Hollywood Boulevard (next door to Graubstein’s Peruvian Theater) was, as far as anyone knows, the first eating establishment to be operated by an animation studio. A projector played Mickey Mouse cartoons in a continuous loop, with a two-cent earphone charge. Disney himself manned the counter while artists, waylaid from other projects, did the cooking. The fare was simple but hearty: grilled cheese sandwiches, fresh fruit, omelets, poached eggs, pancakes prepared with maple-syrup batter, steak, and fruitcake. It was an immediate smash. Success quickly led to expansion. A ninth stool was added in January, 1936, and a tenth in April. In June, the original restaurant was razed and replaced by a vastly more elaborate three-story establishment that sat almost 725 and offered live entertainment, a billiard room, and a rooftop biergarden that became an institution in its own right. Closed in 1951.
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Although evidence suggests that Disney had originally expected his clientele to consist mainly of workingmen who required a quick lunch or an early dinner, Walt’s quickly became a fashionable watering hole for Hollywood’s top stars. Mary Pickford was so smitten with Walt’s that she ate every meal there for weeks at a time and became combative at closing time. W.C. Fields, Janet Gaynor, Pola Negri, and a young Bob Hope were all regulars, as was Shirley Temple, who often tap-danced down the counter to provide entertainment. And it was at Walt’s that Cary Grant and Edward Everett Horton became engaged in an altercation over Hedy Lamarr that remains one of Tinseltown’s most legendary fistfights.
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Seating for 725?
Have to wonder about "Walt's" exterior depicted above. Could the image be an artist's rendering rather than the real thing? Not that Disney wasn't forward thinking but restaurant pictured and its angularity smacks of a era later than '35 or possibly even later than '45. Googies before Googies? (Of course that doesn't mean Googies or McDs or Burger King couldn't have adapted a good idea.)
Could "Walt's" have been known by another name? A cursory look through a few directories has not been productive. One might imagine there are photographs and souvenirs from this three-story establishment on popular Hollywood Blvd. I can't recall seeing any unless it was in the Mueller Bros.' customer waiting room.
Graubstein’s Peruvian Theater is another unknown. (Not clear that Graubstein has a listing either.
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Maybe it was more than just the food and ambiance that kept "Walt's" popular. There was another novelty. One source claims Walt's had the distinction of being the "first" establishment to install a pay toilet in the U.S. (1936)
http://www.todayifoundout.com/index....ay-as-you-use/
http://also.kottke.org/misc/images/o...ds-menu-02.jpg
http://www.rockying.com/art/Picture/...ger%20king.jpg
http://static5.businessinsider.com/i...zen-yogurt.jpg